2005-09-11: Nothing but parks and old buildings

Today was a drizzly day. Yesterday was a damp, warm, fog enclosed day. Some dark foul miasma is rising from the lands like the tracks of an evil beast crawling across the ground, its' belly polluting and corrupting all that it touches. I am forced to wither away from it, to find any ward I can to protect myself. There are few. Soon I hope to have the control of the power I need to counter this dark magic. Till then I must endure.

To pass the time we went to Lydiard House, another old building on a big park. This was around Swindon, out in the "suburbs", or blocks of identical houses with no front yards all clustering about the road, and neglected back yards (though not the inner city neglect, more the neglect that comes from not being bold enough to do anything with them). The good thing is the house was free to enter because it is national heritage week.

Last weekend we sort out Bristol. It is a town, much like Bath only much bigger. The buildings are often a lot newer too, though you can thank the Germans for that ("don't mention the war"). We jumped on a bus heading to somewhere Edyta wanted to go but along a path neither of us new (and I hate buses for that very reason). We wanted the City Centre and missed that, so we got the next stop which was out the front of a museum. The museum was free so we went in. There were old stuffed animals and lots of Roman nick-nacks (you think these Romans would have cleaned up after themselves but they've lift England littered with all of their junk, walls, roads, buildings, that sort of rubbish).

For a minor part of the day we saw a big suspension bridge and the part that excited me the most, we paid ?1 each to walk through a mine to stand on a balcony mid-way up a cliff looking at the suspension bridge. The rest of the day was spent in a crowded free organic food festival on the water front. I was stuffed full of food (mostly the ice-creams) after this. Then it was getting late but there was stuff I actually wanted to see still so we wandered off to look at the ruins of the old castle. On the way there Edyta and I stood at a junction looking at a map deciding which spot to go to first and two people asked us if we are lost. The English are very helpful, or were just planning on getting closer so they could pick our pockets (lets not forget folks, these people are the actual criminals they sent to Australia in the first place).

Caves of Bristol

Our photos together, first overseas

The ledge the cave leads to

Good news for Bristol. At the end of the day we stumbled across a Games Workshop.

The rest of the week has been spent in idle mode. I wake up early with Edyta, but now I go back to sleep when she goes to work. I get up and out of the house by 9:30. I go to the library to look for work on the net and discover the network is down for the morning. Then I do a spot of grocery shopping or buy whatever it is Edyta requested for the day. Then I return home, have a packet of noodles for lunch, fill in the midday programming (I've built a kick-arse fencing website now, but I can't upload it yet) or reading (I've discovered Bernard Cornwell and his Arthur series of books, well worth finding). Then I go back to the library to look for work (the computers are always back by the afternoon). Then I return, play Icewind Dale, read or program and then make tea. Edyta arrives home, eats, baths and goes to bed. I return to reading, gaming or programming and then follow off to bed. Then I repeat. Such is my life now.

I hear nothing from the jobs I apply for. Occasionally a person will call up and ask if they can submit my resume which I agree to but then I hear nothing further. The people are on and off the phone so quick it is hard for me to remember where they were from and I've sent out so many applications I don't even know what jobs they would be for. This leaves me unable to call them back and pester them. I do have another interview tomorrow (the third) for a job with a start-up that I am pretty much a shoe-in for, but they have been talking 7 day a week work for 2 years and I doubt Edyta will like our holiday plans being me working all day during the week and most of each weekend.

There is a phone number in the house now. It is the old tenants phone number. I know this by the number of Germans that call up ("don't mention the war"). I asked for the number to be unlisted however it wasn't previously, which means I also get to deal with tele-marketers. But they can be someone to talk to during the day, even if it is just to take frustrations out on. They get paid for that anyway. If you call don't forget we are 8.5 hours earlier in the day than you are, please don't call in your morning.

Well it is late now. This has gone on longer than anyone will care to read. Edyta is in bed asleep preparing for her work tomorrow. So I am left here to program or play games (I finished the last book and I'm waiting for the next one to come through). I stare out the window at the city lights, all of them like eyes from a pack of evil rats reflecting in the pale light the emanates from my soul. I can only hope to summon up the strength to burn bright and banish the darkness...