Travels to the pub and back

Monday, January 30, 2006

The week: an emotional rollercoaster.


Joy! I've bought a car: a '92 Saab 900 Turbo. It drives like new, looks like new (if one could still buy cars patterned after the classic "mid-'80s lumpen Scandinavian hatchback" school) and yet has travelled far enough to be most of the way to the moon. Incredible.

And it shifts. Road trip 2: Nürburgring folly is go!

Bafflement! I was in the Herald the other day. My abortive attempts last year to buy a flat and subsequent decision to give up in disgust was apparently worthy of a mention in an article about how difficult it is for first-time buyers in Scotland, and specifically Edinburgh. Katie came round to the flat (my rented flat! Woe is me) and posed me like a sullen, homeless Ken doll - looking about as animated - in an attempt to capture the authentic despair felt by us hard-done-by middle class professional types.

It's a hard life. Did I mention I've just bought a car?

Predictably, despite being reminded to buy a copy of the paper multiple times, I forgot. Hopefully my parents will remember what I look like without it.

Rock! (Yes, rock is an emotion.) Finally, like the first relieved breath of a drowning man plucked from the raging sea, the Monkey has returned to form. We've recruited a fledgling backing singer (hello, Kerstin!) and created a monstrous cyborg Davis equipped with a Boss multi-effects pedal. And the gig plans for mid-March continue apace. Christmas lull be damned! We're back.

Remorse! We finally got rid of the Christmas tree. (What's that, only twenty-four days late?) Too big to throw out of our third floor window without denting the pavement or crushing the skull of an innocent bystander, Dave and I took hacksaws to it until we'd dismembered its stout form into a heap of forlorn branches.

I felt like I was sawing up a corpse. I'm sorry, tree. And next year I'll do it all again.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was trying to find your Herald appearance in their archive, but it would seem you have to purchase the article - closest I found is this:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/977769081.html?did=977769081&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Jan+28%2C+2006&author=&pub=The+Herald&desc=Flat+rate+shocks+potential+buyer

Anonymous said...

Or just try this. Doh!

Keith Houston said...

You mean everyone doesn't normally?

Anonymous said...
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Keith Houston said...
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Keith Houston said...

It is ludicrous, isn't it? Admittedly most of the quotes are paraphrased, but the "certain level of disposable income" one is truly eye-rolling :)

Keith Houston said...

My original intention was to convey the sentiments: "Look, I go boozing practically every night and when I'm not down the pub drinking mind-buggering Czech lager, I'm playing one of a number of expensive, redundant basses or searching for a retro-cool '80s GTI in which to careen to a fiery death. So I needs my readies, yah?" which is pretty much the same, really.

Keith Houston said...

Sorry folks, I've removed a couple of comments for the sake of anonymity. It was getting uncomfortably close to the point where a Google search for my name was accurate :)