A Stream!

Believe it or not, I used to walk across that pipe almost every Sunday when I lived here.

OwOwOwOwOwOwOwOwOw

We have officially reached the point in my travels where I need to spend five minutes taping my feet up before I can go out in the morning.

We went to Pittsboro last night to see Margee, who regaled us with tales from her holiday in Mexico and Guatemala, and I was mocked once again for my "it's quite nice" response when asked how dinner was. I can't help it! I go for brevity!

I'm amused that one of the things I stuck up in town back in July is still up on a lamppost outside VisArt.

The weather here is bizarre. It's still rather warm during the day, and there aren't any clouds in the sky at all. It does get rather cold at night, mainly because there's no cloud cover. This is nice, obviously, but it does have at least one bad side-effect: the Triangle is beginning to run out of water. And seeing as how the 10-day forecast seems to be showing more of the same, its going to get drier…

currently playing: KLF – 3am Eternal

The Way We Were

Look how optimistic I was this time last year, eh, readers?

This is me the next day, turning into the cynical beast I am today.

Meanwhile, look! The CIA is running secret prisons all over the world! Just another example of how Mr. Bush is Doing A Good Job, Dammit.

currently playing: Girls Aloud — The Show

And this time STAY out

Hurrah, hurrah!

And…

While I’m watching Gillian try and hide herself in the background of the World In Motion video, a round of applause to Senator Harry Reid, who seems to have kicked the Republicans’s collective asses, and fired a warning shot in the upcoming Supreme Court Nomination. Hurrah for a spine. Now, remember, it turns to jelly unless it’s used frequently…

currently playing: New Order — World In Motion

Also, I now have THIS

Woohoo!

Franklin Street 2005

Just me and 70,000 other people.

The Bush Cheerleading Squad!

From left to right! Laura, Condi, and Dick!

Hallowe'en Redux

It’s Hallowe’en! So the only thing to do is pack up in a car, drive off to a remote farm, and get chased around a corn field by people wielding chainsaws!

Aha. Well, okay, it was a corn maze, and the chainsaw motors had no blades attached, but you get the general idea. Sadly, as we've watched far too many horror films, the haunted corn maze didn't generate too many scares for us; the day was saved by a group of teenage girls who screamed their way around the maze. Hurrah!

Following on from that little adventure, Laura and Collin had a 'pot luck' alternative to Franklin Street back at their house. A quiet, relaxed getaway from the rustle and bustle. We even made cookies with spooky decorations (Batman sprinkles, admittedly, so perhaps only scary to an infant).

(Incidentally, the question 'so, Ian, what type of music do you like?' seems to be a signal to my brain to forget every single song I've ever heard, so my answers last night were broken and incomplete. And my namedropping of "oh, yes, when I interviewed The Go! Team a few months ago…" was shameless indeed. But! I did find out that Christa was at the Godspeed You! Black Emperor concert back in 2003. Always odd to discover that you were in the same room with somebody several years before you knew them)

The highlight of the evening had to be the arrival of the Bush Cheerleading Squad. Yes! Laura! Condi! And Dick! Complete with cheers (I don't think any of us will get "HEY DICK! SHAKE YOUR THANG! out of our heads soon. Even if we stick knitting needles in our ears). We were treated to a quick rehearsal before they went out into the night.

And soon, it was time for me to head off with Joe and Leigh for a walk down Franklin Street. A walk which was slightly tarnished by seeing a man being punched by another before we got to the police security cordon. It coloured the evening somewhat; for some reason, it seemed that the student population, although present in mass numbers, was down somewhat, and there was a considerable amount of people not in fancy dress (okay, so I can't cast aspersions on that, seeing as how my first Hallowe'en in Chapel Hill saw me going as 'an Englishman in contemporary dress'). But, lots of creativity: sets of dominoes, a toolbox (with individual people playing different tools), somebody all-blacked out and pretending to be a person from an iPod advert, plus a plentiful amount of bumblebees, french maids, angels, fallen angels, and at the end of the scale, people going around in their knickers.

We didn't stay too long; Joe had to get up early in the morning, and, well, there's only so many times you can walk up and down a street (foolishly, I had left my passport back at Laura's, so we couldn't go into a bar). Back and to bed, then, for another fun Hallowe'en in Chapel Hill.

Hallowe'en In Short: Or To The Many Girls of Chapel Hill

Now, not wishing to come across as a stuffed waistcoat, but how can you go out in a bra, tiny garter and infinitesimal g-string when it’s close to freezing? And not even look cold? Seriously, next year, bring a sweater.

currently playing: Girls Aloud — The Show