New Years Day

Woke up and felt weird. Cooked bacon sandwiches for the revellers and then we all went for a walk around Poole.We saw the sea and some motorsport in a car park(which was dud) and then went to a cafe for hot hot coffee. Got back to my friends housde and watched The Goonies ("You mean Boobie Traps?" "That's what I said, Boobie traps") and followed the football scores - get in Deano- before getting the train back to London.

Invited people round to go walk round Kew Gdns only to find it's shut on two days in the year (Xmas and New Year). d'oh. of course. went for long thames-side walk, stopped in pub "to warm up".

Slept all day.

woke up, headache, water. finished reading lord of the rings, felt unutterably sad for a bit. watched boyfwiend sleeping like a dormouse. bezzled around talking to the ppl who stayed over on our floor, watched Pavement bootleg video, was amazed at the amt of bouze left over from the party, sent guests away clutching 10 cans of lager each and was STILL left with untold amounts of vodka, Archers, beer and Smirnoff Ice. tidied up a bit. washed some pans. washed the kitchen floor. watched Michael Palin's Pole to Pole videoed from earlier. ate some crisps, drank some beer, cooked some curry, drank some wine. went to sleep. Happy Nu-Year!

Slept late, then up and out for a wander through Crystal Palace Park. Watched the radio-controlled car racing on the big track next to the sports centre with Pam for 10 minutes, walked back home for garlic-heavy soupy nourishment.

Out in the evening - walked from London Bridge tube to The Hole In The Wall pub (next to [a closed] Borough tube), where I sat with Tim H, far too close to a big screen, watching 'fat, useless, lazy' Mark Viduka take West Ham to bits. Back home via Brixton and the #2 bus... some rapid tuna/pasta dinner-makings and then bed, where I dreamt that Tim H was planning to break into every building society in London, but not to steal anything - "just take photos - to show it can be done". We were both absolutely convinced that this wasn't breaking the law.

That Viduka's a bit tasty, make no mistake. First time the Hammers have been outclassed in months.

I slept on the very crowded floor of someone's house, except I couldn't sleep cos some fat git SNORRED all sodding nite!
So after about four hours of feighning sleep I got up and had 53 cups of coffee, had some brekkie. Drove back to my mates house, played Grand Theft Auto III for a few hours (gotta get me a PS2) then went home. Watched 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', had a kip, had some nosh watched 'Small Soldiers' and fell asleep halfway through. Went down to the Co-Op for a few things, came home watched a bit of 'Highlander: Endgame' on a DVD that my freind lent me (rubbiche), more grub, watched 'I Love the 100 Best Top 10 Lists of The Fast Show Ever!' then flipped over to 'Shakespeare in Love', went on the InterWeb SurfWay for a bit, watched 'Suspiria' up till the bit where the girl falls into the razor-wire then went to bed and listened to 'Quiet is the New Loud' till I fell asleep.

Woke up, about 11ish. Crave breakfast. Realise that the breakfast food situation in flat is BAD so decide a visit to WIMPY is URGENT and KEY! Pick up Lixi and fetch SHOES and other remnants left from her room including WHY GOSH whot is this Jeeves??? CHAMPERS FROM LARST NITE! Pick up the bottle of CHAMPERS and off we hie to WIMPY, slugging on the CHAMPERS as we walk through THE STREETS of BriXtOn. We feel odd. At Wimpy I eat a QUARTER POUNDER BURGxOr and CHIPS and drink a strawberry milkshake.

THEN we get on the CHOOB and go to Oxford Circus. I buy a satchel type bag from TopShop. We feel even more peculiar and DIVE DIVE DIVE into SuperDROOOOGS to get some Irn Bru. We spend SEVENTY FIVE POINT TWO hours in HMV (possibly an exaggeration) and I buy FATS WALLER, some DUB, an Alternative TV CD which is possibly one of the best things I haf heard in my LIFE (s' about as wonderful as a DOLE QUEUE - ha ha it is a song by ATV yay!) and gosh, I'm sure there is something else but I can't quite remember it. Then we walk to Berwick St and find everything closed. Lixi and I stand in Somerfield, wondering where we are and why we are standing in a daze in front of the wine chillers. We go to Regents St and Lixi and I get bus and I wave fond farewell to RickyT who stumbles on his merry way home.

We then go to Tesco, buy some soup. Eat sosage sammiche. And then watch THE WEAKEST DRAG LINK and are glad that DAVE did not win but disappointed that Lola Lasagne got voted off so early. Somewhere in Walford TREVOR disappears after being DEADED (or has he???) by Little Mo. My Chunky Vegetable Soup was very nice. I went to bed.

Woke up in the front room of two well-respected members of this parish, ate most of a pain au chocolat, then played GTA3 for, ooh, 3 hours. Finally dragged ourselves out of the house and tootled over to the dwelling of yet another ILxer, who cooked us supreme vegetarian food while I spilt more wine than exists. I shouted quite a lot at the telly, especially Kate Thornton. I then missed my last train home, and had to endure two... buses (gasp), which were very prompt and quick, depositing me directly outside my flat where I pproceeded to go to sleep for 11 (eleven) hours straight. I feel refreshed-ish.

I woke up with no recollection of ringing in the new year. Ate pancakes and bacon, then realized during the Tournament of Roses parade that I felt like the lowest circle of hell. I slept until 4:30, then watched "Alias" until 10:00. Then we went home. (!)

Watched "Andrew" Cole conspicuously fail to score. Life's not all bad.

Attempt to be terribly wholesome and healthy scuppered by 7pm viz: got up at 8am, into Dales for long walk through bright crunchy snow under blue blue skies. Home to finish _The LEft Hand of DArkness_, bake bread, phone long lost pals etc. By 7pm: bread has not gone well. Discover there is nothing nice for dinner. End up with horrible takeaway curry and v cheap and nasty wine in front of telly in expectation of the Shackleton thing being on; find I have miscalculated and am doomed to watch tedious Fast show clip programme for aaaaaaalllll eteeeeeeeernity.

Had a shitty start to the New Year, literally. Woke up next to my significant suffering from a nasty stomach bug that meant she, erm.... I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Not really the nicest way to begin 2002

In between nursing her and cleaning up, I popped out to the chemists, withdrew my first € notes, changed some Belgian francs, went for a walk, listened to Gas 'Konigsfort', and read a lot. She's feeling a bit better today poor thing.

I rather liked the fast show clip thing. The revelation that Jesse (of Fashion Tips) is in fact a queer American called Jesse Botticello was genius.

read..'my significant other'

Hmm, woke up around 11, went to breakfast, came home, watched Maternity Ward on TLC, finished preparing blackeyed peas, ate blackeyed peas (Southern US tradition on new years), spent rest of day on couch with Hank watching tv. yay.

Awoke, quite disorientated, on the couch of my friend's Josh's swish Clerkenwell apartment. Popped an Aleve pill, before noticing the 'may cause stomach bleeding if you have consumed more than three units of alcohol' note on the bottle. Down to Ruby in the Dust for vegetarian breakfast and the most bizarre restaurant playlist I have ever heard (an Ace of Base style version of 'Take me Home Country Road' "This is how all music would sound if the Nazis had won", I remark to no one in particular). Thence to Starbucks for capuccino and white praline chocolate - global capitalism sure is yummy. And then on to the flicks for Lord of the Rings (oddly tedious despite startling visuals). Back home to recuperate on the couch and watch a shoddy Fast Show compilation.

"Take me Home Country Road": surely this is in the charts as we speak edna?

mad old irishwoman on bus yesterday was singing it loudly, except at the point where "west virginia" is traditionally invoked, she aggressively inserted "dalston junction"

Hermes House Band ROOLZ.

I recorded the song off that sky 1 ad for angel. the ad that says "the best from the us, first". who the fuck is the song by, someone help.

That was after I got up at 3 and ate popcorn for breakfast. nothing else eventful really.

it sounds a bit like royksopp only a bit cheesier maybe.

I went to the park and down the hill to teh Grand Union Canal. It was completely frozen. A beautiful sight! But what about the animals? Poor mites!

Well, I had spent New Year's Eve itself playing Tetris, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit (all of which I won); so New Year's Day I got drunk as hell with some friends and fucked shit up on Grand Theft Auto all day while listening to a recording of some really raunchy stand-up comedian. I liked New Years Day better.

Had breakfast all by myself in South Pasadena, surrounded by post-Tournament of Roses parade freaks. Met my friend John in West Hollywood to see Gosford Park. And it was excellent! The best Altman movie in years and years. Maggie Smith's performance was hysterical, total Oscar bait. Interesting to see Emily Watson play a tart-tongued, vaguely conniving girl. Then I went home and watched the DVD of Before Night Falls. Javier Bardem, what a guy.

woke up v. late, made tea, called three different places to confirm that I'd lost different things there, got directions to Maya's house in East Flatbush (aka East New York if you're nasty) which is where my glasses were. by glasses i mean my spectacles and my whiskey glass that I'd somehow carried over there in a taxi. i was given very bad directions and ended up walking 25 blocks through one of the worst parts of Brooklyn, but it was so cold that no one bugged me. and maybe i looked just a little haggard and dangerous myself. when i arrived it was already getting dark, so i was invited for dinner which i accepted. it was delish, but maya was very tired so mike and i finished our jameson's and i took off back home where i promptly fell asleep.

Woke up dehydrated at Caesar's Palace, showered, dressed, ate lunch, walked through the "Art of the Motorcycle" exhibit at the Guggenheim Las Vegas, won $20 at blackjack, returned my rental car, flew home, ran into my friend's sister and her family in the taxi line, shared a taxi with same, opened X-mas cards from 2 "long game" playaz, made a bank deposit, ate Indian food, went bowling (broke 100 twice), came home, slept. Happy New MMII, ILE.

Hung about in EasyInterweb all night until the first train home, was scared shitless by the people I encountered on Charing Cross Road (=overenthusiastic, overawake and/or drug dealers "Happy New Year! White or Bwannn?"), fell asleep on the train, stood about in freezing Hastings station for ages, came home to discover no one home, flat mobile battery and no change for the phonebox, fell asleep on freezing back doorstep for an hour in the sun, was finally let in, drifted in and out of sleep for the next 24 hours.

What New Year's Day?

What does one do after an anti-climax? I woke up early (on two hours' sleep), and read a hundred pages or so of "The Man Without Qualities" (a gift from my brother). After a few hours I drove over to the 365d/24h laundromat next to Greenwood Cemetery, where I washed a month's worth of filth off my clothes. Then I drove at dusk down into Bay Ridge, with no particular purpose in mind except to look at all the green traffic lights running miles down Fourth Avenue towards the Verrazano Narrows Bridge while listening to the Pagans. I have to say, there's nothing like looking at green lights as far as the eye can see to fill you with a sense of the potency of life. When I got to Fort Hamilton I turned around and came home to make blackeyed peas and greens, per my southernhood, for luck and money, though I eat them every year and I never seem to have either.

i stayed in bed til about 3pm. then i got up. i felt pretty stink. i broke my new years resolutions. (but i'm gonna keep trying).

later in the day i changed my bedroom around and now its much better - people can actually see my television while sitting on my couch. then i composed (but most likely ripped off) a kick-ass garage rock riff on my guitar.

then i felt much better and went to menelaus' house and we watched the worst movie ever: Leprechaun.

For Ronan's attention - I saw a trailer for Sky yesterday (the best from the US, first) and the music they were playing was the new chemical brothers track. I don't know if this is the same one that you saw though.

Yeah thats the one. starguitar or whatever. thanks.