At long last
27/1/2008
Something interesting is happening ;-) I did fail my driving test on Friday, which I suppose is vaguely noteworthy, but the exciting thing starts tomorrow. Flying out of Stanstead on a small North-European carier. Going to the youngest land in the world, which has the oldest still-active Parliament. a country where the phone book is arranged by first name. (You getting it yet?) It's the home of Sigur Rós. It's a nation with which I've been obsessed for years. Iceland.
I'm quite sure that 3 and a half days will only leave me wanting to return even more earnestly than I want to go now, but the prospect of getting a little hint of the country is quite exciting enough. If I dont post again on this site, it's because I've refused to leave the good North...
Heaven in ordinary
12/1/2008
Was of course the title of last year's greenbelt. Today I saw a wonderful example of it, in a place where I'd never really expected it. The whole idea is that there should be nowhere we dont expect to see that heaven, but of course everyone thinks their own situation is particularly dire, and when I was giving serious thought to heaven in ordinary, back at the time of the festival, my ordinary was rather different.
It'd be difficult to tell this story without giving details that're less than helpful for various people, so forgive me if I'm a bit scanty with the finer points. In essence there was a particularly difficult customer in the shop (and I dont mean difficult in it's euphamistic sense, unhelpful, but simply that it was hard for us to help him) and it was humbling to watch how some of the regular smiths folk responded to him. It would have been so easy to shun him, and I have to say my first reaction was just that. But they went that extra mile </cliche>. And most were on first-name terms with him - they've gone that far regularly before.
And yes, there were the smiles over his shoulder - "yeah, I know, but you still try... this is what you do" - except it isn't just what you do. Whatever else, that chap is going to go home knowing he wasn't just ignored, as I guess he may often be. And that is the most incredible of differences that my colleagues have made. I was so arrogant as to think that you dont make a difference working for Smiths... clearly that's only if you don't try to...
P.S.: I should say that I wrote this a few days ago, but haven't made it to a computer for long enough til now (in case you were wondering what I was doing at work on a saturday)...
Have you ever noticed
5/1/2008
quite how hugely 50s the neighbourhood watch logo looks?:
It's the sort of thing that you never really look at - it's just there - so when I thought about paying attention yesterday I found it very difficult to accept that they weren't about to start advertising some American soft drink.