quick, quack update from our gateshead offices...

this is a multiple entry and it goes from longest ago to nearest to today....


today it's the 19th july, today being the day that i'm writing this not the day in which you are reading this that is. although it may be the 19th of july, if it is the 19th of july then you're reading this exactly X year(s) after i wrote it.

to work out X:
X=(year - 2005)

i'm writing this from my mother's house in england rather than the usual places of;
the living room floor, apartamento #4, via lorenzago 15, or my (ex)office in the international school of venice, both mestre, italy. so that's a first then.

if you are reading this than it means that i've managed to sort out some sort of internet connection and am in the middle of clearing a hundred thousand junk mails from the fluxlist (www.fluxlist.com), or i didn't and i'm back in italy somethime after the 28th august and am clearing a squillion junk mails from fluxlist (www.fluxlist.com)

i shall never write here from via lorenzago again...

...we moved.

yep me moved to a nice new place, all we have to do now is convince telecom italia, the gas and the electric company that we have done so. hey appear to apply some random selection process, at the discretion of the individual employee, as to what documents you need to provide to actually use their services and pay them heavily for the privelage(sp?) of doing so! and that's not even mentioning the problems created by changing your place of residence. the residence permit...
'we've moved house and would like to change our residency details.'
'yes, driving license please.'
'pardon?'
'i don't have an italian driving license'
'eh!?'
'i don't have an italian driving license, i have a UK license which i have not changed as i do not drive here in italy.'
'eh!?'
'i don't have a driving license.'
'i need your driving license.'
'i don't have a driving license!'
'oh...but i need your driving license!'
'what the £@#§ does my license matter? i'm moving house not hiring a caravan...(another story).'
'i need a document with your address on.'
'what about my current residence permit which you issued when i moved into my current place, my permesso di soggiorno (documents which allow me to live in italy), my identity card which you also issued, my insurance details, utilities bills, water and waste tax bills, also issued you, the existing contract for the apartment, these documents relating to the new apartment and my meddical records?'
'hmm, i need the national insurance numbers for your children.'
'my 10 month old babies?'
'yes'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'
'£@#§!'



20/07/05

just spoke to sol nte this evening.
i have been communicating with sol via fluxlist and on a personal level, on and of since 1997 (or even '96...nope, probably 1997).
it was so lovely to actually speak to him at last. all these years of emails..
i thought "i'll give him a quick ring sort out arrangements for sunday", (for we are going to meet up at Baltic to see the Franklin Furnace and Keinholz shows there.
an intended 5 minutes turned into a very enjoyable hour long chat. just what i needed i guess, don't think i was terribly eloquent in my grunts but i am very tired and have just realised that i have forgotten my medication again. anyway, we chatted for a goodly while. another good thing comes out of coming from venice to gateshead for me holidays!!
it was strange talking to sol as i had no idea what he would sound like.
he sonds uncannily like tony blair in his pre-staccato-super-sincere-and-concerned-but-not-really-going-to-do-all-that-much-about-it phase, when tony was a good lad an aal that like.
strangely unlike how i'd imagined.

looking forward to sunday ....


sunday 24 july
met sol today. i've known sol nte via email since about 1997-8 but we'd never met.
i had a very pleasant day out indeed, it felt like i'd known sol for years, i'm not going to go on in case he reads this and gets a big head! ;-)
we went to gateshead to the baltic and saw the keinholz show which was pretty groovy and the franklin furnace one which wasn't, then we walked across the millenium bridge and along the newcastle quayside to one of it's most historic landmarks; the cooperage, a mediaeval barrel maker's building in an excellent state of repair and famous for its punk and metal discos in the 1980s and early 90s! all the real ale was off so we had to settle for lager and a nice chat. sol was then treated to a whistle stop tour of newcastle upon tyne, which was closed and then dinner at me mam's!

friday 29 july
this is difficult, being away from home but at home at the same time. all very familiar but i have no stuff here, just clothes and a laptop, and a distinct lack of free time in which i can do anything. strange how you can go through the day without ever having time to sit down and still actually do nothing. (except washing up and tidying and stopping babies from puling the telly over)

but pissed off, seem to be in one of those 'dull' periods where my brain just doesn't seem to work and my sense of humour is in a coma.

trying to redesign the school website (www.isvenice.com), which appears to have been done on the cheap by italy's most unimaginative web designers. but i can't get into it - which is annoying as it's something i like doing...i might be crap at it, but i enjoy it.


29VII05

deese sehentahnce ees reetahn ooeeve hahn heetaliahn hacksent



16th august 2005

the boys were 1 on saturday 13th. the grown ups had a party!

too many distractions to 'blog', converstations, tv etc + going down a little which is a bit scary. i started a poem last night, VERY unusual for me as i don't really do poetry. so far the main characters are Arachnide Spongefinger and her oddball brother Keith, others such as Lumpfish Wartsnorker, Drip Balalclava and Trouteye Scissorjump should join in soonish - if the medication really does run out, probably really soonish. I forgot to renew my prescription before we came to the UK and i'm now on 1/2 every 2 days or so...just enough to keep me from falling over.

hopefully any decent chiropractor will know that when you go click it's a bit scary in chester-le-street. i think i'm going to have to do something he really scared me today he was briliant.

hopefully i'll get to writing up about me day oot with sol when i get home.

toooo maaannnnyyy dddiiissttraacttttiiioonnnsss..............

:-|