Found...

It is astonishing the friends you find on LiveJournal, and how many of them are still listening to the same music as when you last saw them, 15 or 20 years ago(!). It's even more astonishing how time flies - are we having fun yet?

Some random things I found whilst sorting a box of mostly old papers, late last week: a certificate of achievement from a cake decorating course I took in 1978; Westminster High School presents "Fiddler on the Roof", 1981 ("The daughter, the daughter! Tradition!"); a photo Christmas card from around 1984, the photo including madbodger in a rainbow wig and merde as well as several people who I'm no longer even sure who they are; and postcards. A postcard from my once-best friend Nancy when she spent a summer in Norway (no year on it, I'm guessing around 1979). Various postcards and letters from my parents, from old lovers (THAT is what we did before the Internet, children; we set pen to paper, or occasionally coerced our dot-matrix printers into cooperation, and walked to the mailbox; how quaint!), and even a set of 3 postcards from this bloke Kent that merde and I were writing to for a while. I even remember that "E.T.A." stood for Envelope Thieves Anonymous. Also found a birthday card with the punchline "We're not getting older, we're getting sillier".

I think the real reason people usually only live for about 70 or 80 years is that their brains get full and explode. Who's with me on this one?

update: I may yet scan in that Christmas card just for sheer humour value.

Things I am going to miss when we leave the UK...

Sainsbury's diet sodas - ginger beer, cloudy lemonade, and (recently introduced to) dandelion and burdock. Yes, they make sodas out of weeds you can find in your yard; no, I don't know how they do it, so I'm NOT going to try and make my own. (-:

Haggis.

Cadbury's chocolate, even though I haven't had any in months due to being off sugar in general.

Rocket salad.

Jonathan Ross.

British TV in general: British Big Brother with full nudity after 10PM (and the occasional failure to bleep the one known word that they even bleep here!); quiz shows: They Think It's All Over, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI, and Have I Got News For You, among others; and anything documentary-ish involving Adam Hart-Davis. TV where you actually get to think about it a bit.

The language. (At least I'll be far more amused by Buffy and Angel re-runs now that I know what Spike's going on about.)

I won't miss all the bloody French cars (and their drivers) though.

Help! I read somewhere that getting nostalgic for the present moment is ALWAYS a bad sign.

Away for a bit...

Today is our last day in the office in Dundee for a while... tomorrow we pack (and panic), Wednesday we go to LA. This is the short trip, for a few weeks on the current contract, not the big long trip over the water after which the Dundonians may never see us again (and the Angelenos will be cursed with us for good) - that's still set for early October. Still, it's enough to make me a bit twitchy - I don't mind being in other places, it's just the getting there that's often a pain in the asterisks. Hopefully this time I won't forget anything too important - I always forget something, I'm resigned to that, I just hope it isn't something I'll have a hard time either replacing or living without. (Last trip, it was a couple of pounds of cheese. Luckily Dave was still in town and disposed of it for us... or so he says, we'll find out in a couple of days' time!!)

The evil free messenging service and the evil free email server have also chosen this moment to fall over, which only adds to the claustrophobic sense of impending doom. Who knew the wages of sin would turn out to be downed servers...