Thank you to Iain Duncan Smith and all his staff for the kind Christmas present of £10. I intend to buy a grammar book. No doubt the DWP will be impressed with my desire to increase my marketable skills.
I seem to be spending a lot of time feeling frustrated by technology.
I went to Starbucks today to access the wi-fi to download iBooks (I have the app, now I want the actual books). While I have no desire to read books on my iPod Touch, I think I should be able to as it says you can on the tin, so to speak. Unfortunately I was unable to log into the wi-fi as my stupid sausage fingers aren’t delicate enough to key in the log in details on my iPod Touch. It’s the reason I didn’t buy an iPhone when I had the chance, instead opting for the easier to use Blackberry. Similarly I bought a sturdy laptop instead of an iPad.
Now I’m at home and have given up on the iBook store. Instead I’m downloading videos from iTunes University to my iMac. I have just watched one on Jack Kerouac’s One The Road. However I can’t get them to transfer to the iPod Touch. Very frustrating.
The depression has eased. I think this has a lot to do with the weather and the fact that I’m out and about.
Today found me in Regents Street, which, as you can see, is a riot of patriotic colour. I have sold out and have decided to go to the royal wedding. My plans are to go down to The Mall the night before and take photos of the people camping out and then go down the day of the wedding and take photos of the back of peoples heads. That’s about all I’ll see.
Odd thing happened today. I saw Michael Winner the film director and TV ad maker (“calm down dear”) near to The Ritz. He was getting into a Rolls Royce convertible. He appeared very unsteady on his feet. The thing is I then saw him again in Kensington High Street gliding past in his convertible. Guessing by the clothes he and his lady friend were wearing I’d say they had been to a wedding. Uncanny to see him twice in the same day. As I’m relatively well at the moment I just see this as a coincidence, but if I were unwell my mind would be racing with conspiracy theories.
Lets hope the sun lasts.
I spent last Wednesday to Friday visiting my sister in Wales. She lives in a town called Machynlleth which is in the middle of nowhere and is best known for being the location of the Centre for Alternative Technology.
I enjoy the Welsh rural experience. The air smells so fresh and the only sound you can hear apart from Jackdaws and the occasional sheep is the deafening silence.
We went to Blaenau Ffestiniog, famous as the capital of the Welsh slate mining industry. Unfortunately it’s now a bit of a dump with high unemployment, large numbers of people on incapacity benefit etc.
The town’s big attraction is the steam railway. I like all things to do with steam engines, as did my dad. It’s a big part of our heritage and our link back to the industrial working class. With my support worker I have taken several trips to the Science Museum in London to look at the steam engines.
So I took a lot of photos of the steam engines and the station and I’ll send these to my mother.
While I was in Wales the depression seemed to lift a bit. I think the variety of new sights and sounds helped. Back in London the depression is returning. I can feel myself being dragged down. I can feel the weight returning to my body.
This weekend I have felt so depressed it was painful to blink. Amidst this I have heard the sound of birdsong and saw a couple of Jays sat in the tree my desk overlooks. I think I need to win the lottery and buy a house in the country.
Yesterday found me in Paddington rail station. I was visiting a company who work for the charity I volunteer with. I presume everyone knows there story of Paddington Bear? As soon as I saw this Paddington Bear shop I went into a buying frenzy, stocking up on cuddly toys, fridge magnets and books. I’ll send this stuff to my mom. She has a ton of tourist stuff like this from me. She has a special cupboard where she throws it. I never tire of buying this junk, I’m like a tourist in my own city.
Heard the sound of parakeets in the street today. This really cheered me up, I hope they nest here. I have seen them a lot in a local tree-lined square. They are very beautiful, though my social worker tells me they are very noisy at 4am in the morning.
Still labouring under heavy depression but managed to get some stuff done. With my social worker’s help I managed to complete the paper-based version of the census and put it in the post: put my religion down as Jedi.
I then went to Argos to buy more pointless tat. I have managed to get on fine for many years without owning a desktop lamp, but since I bought a laptop suddenly a lamp is essential. You see, the more you buy the more you need – the bastards have us by the balls.
On the radio earlier there was some clown representing retailers saying people organising demos should pay for any damage caused to shops. That’s fair enough, we’ll give up centuries of tradition and democratic rights so that Top Shop etc can peddle their nasty shit on Oxford Street. I’m with the protesters and generally agree with everything Laurie Penny says.
But I’m a fool for capitalism. I bought my lamp from Argos along with a scart lead for the DVD player. But the DVD player doesn’t work. Of course it doesn’t work. It was never going to work. Its only purpose is to torment me and see how much of my time I’ll spend wrestling with Argos’s returns policy. I’ll probably just give up a buy another one.
