Expect Nothing by Alice Walker for #NationalPoetryDay

I love this poem. I try to live it. Not always succeeding, but hey!

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Expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.
become a stranger
To need of pity
Or, if compassion be freely
Given out
Take only enough
Stop short of urge to plead
Then purge away the need.

Wish for nothing larger
Than your own small heart
Or greater than a star;
Tame wild disappointment
With caress unmoved and cold
Make of it a parka
For your soul.

Discover the reason why
So tiny human midget
Exists at all
So scared unwise
But expect nothing. Live frugally
On surprise.

Said a tiny Ant by Spike Milligan for #NationalPoetryDay

Said a tiny Ant

To the Elephant

“Mind how you tread in this clearing!”

But alas! Cruel fate!

She was crushed by the weight.

Of an Elephant, hard of hearing.

Spike Milligan

Hello. I am Alan Stoob, Britain’s Premier Nazi Hunter

Alan is married to Edame. They’re due to retire to Bournemouth. They love a Bergerac box set and an afternoon session on the port. They’ve had their troubles, past indiscretions that occasionally return to bother them, troubled offspring with complex families of their own.

But it’s a loving relationship – fun and fruity. Well as fruity as Alan can manage. Broadly all is calm in Dunstable, Beds, until the original Nazi Hunter and fax-lover Simon Weisenthal recruits Alan out of retirement to take over his mission.

And so the thriller begins.

How distractable are you?

I know how psychopath I am. Northern I am? London? Posh? Millennial? And how down with the kids. Bring it on Facebook, this is cheaper than a therapist. Maybe we’ll eventually get down to how I can get on with doing what I’m avoiding with all this displacement activity.

Awake at 3.45 again

Two hours later, I’m writing a post. I need to find a good book if this keeps happening, otherwise I’ll just get lost in Internet wormholes like this one:

For those who post about waking up at 3 AM http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2258016/pg1

An idle Google search reveals, that amongst the exhausted parents awake at this time are a bunch of folks convinced this is the devil’s hour.

i think I’m more prosaically worrying about surviving a work day that started three hours too soon.

Don’t look for happiness, fulfil your micro ambitions passionately

Tim Minchin addressing UWA.

Celebrate the things you support he says. Don’t just organise around the things you oppose. A fair point amongst many.

Life is meaningless, fill it and enjoy.

What’s happening with the old Water Company Buildings in Hampton?

We were invited to take a look around the old Vauxhall and Southwark Water Company buildings which are just up the road a bit from us. Having walked past those magnificent buildings every day for the last eight years, we were keen.

The Riverdale and Morelands buildings were auctioned off by Thames Water a couple of years ago (I think). And I’ve been wondering what was going to happen with them since. The new owners Blackbottle had an open day yesterday. It turns out that if all goes according to plan, the buildings will become a bio-tech research hub. And if the information we received yesterday is all above board, I think it’s going to be great.

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I think some of the residents that will overlook the works and eventual access route to the buildings have understandable concerns about security, noise, light, and general inconvenience. And this is not a neck of the woods that could really handle much more in the way of traffic. But the plans for the renovations look amazing. And the mission of the hub – to look for new cures, researching the DNA of diseases apparently – is a sound one.

I hope it works out well, with residents’ concerns satisfied well. It’s not easy to find out much about Blackbottle or its plans – at least not in a cursory Google search. There’s not much on the website. I haven’t felt the need to dig through the planning application – yet!

There is a contingent in my family that loves the past. My sister resides in a living museum, firmly rooted in the steam era. My other half is a history graduate and will be a history teacher. It seems to have rubbed off a bit on me. I loved looking around the buildings, feeling a bit anorak-y. And I’m pleased that the prospect for the development seems so positive.