I am not lost- I am merely emulating the great explorers

Interestingly, it turns out that this wasn't all a bad dream: Big brother IS definitely back on our screens. Like a child returning to the scene of an unsuccesful attempt to steal cookies from the kitchen and staring at the broken cutlery and overall mess when he knows that he must instead run for dear life, I keep returning. I catch a few minutes of it everyday to assure myself that this is the worst show on television. It is with great pleasure that I realize I was right all along. This isn't even a guilty pleasure- its just a collection of freaks and idiots and cry-babies most of whom should have their membership card for the human race reviewed as soon as possible.
And then the thing is Channel 4 actually have a discussion show afterwards. They have this thing with a panel of 'experts' and a host and random jobless people and they sit around and discuss the show. They analyse it and try and predict what will happen and say things like 'The dynamic of the set-up right now means that X is being frozen out and if things continue the way they are, Y and Z have a good chance of forming a good team to make sure that P and Q get evicted' or some rubbish like that. As if the show isnt stupid enough, you actually need a separate show to explain it? Is there someone watching 'Big Brother' and thinking- "whats going on? Whats this show about? I need a few people to lead me through it." Bloody hell! They also read out text messages from viewers and some woman wrote in tonight and said "Bonnie has taken all this with more grace than Nelson mandela" Who the hell wrote this and is she actually allowed to reproduce? Since when do you compare a 27 year jail term for fighting apartheid to a couple of idiots sitting around on their ass all day and moaning because they can only get tap water? I did get a suprise once though- I switched on and this woman who was one of the contestants was calmly explaining that everyone needed to calm down and work together and cut out the drama. My mouth was literally hanging open- an outbreak of common sense! On Big brother! I didnt see that coming, not in a million years.
I should rant more often- I feel so much better already! Ciro once told me "Do you ever get angry?"
I asked him why.
He said "Because you are always too calm. I think when you go back to your room you break some stuff or something! You can't possibly be like this all day"
Anyway the sun was out today and it definitely feels like summer. The effect it has on people can be a bit suprising. I was walking with John and Quena heading towards campus and Quena stopped and snatched a purple pretty-looking flower.
"Look at this!" She said "Isnt it beautiful? And it smells so good!" her eyes were shinning with delight. Yep, there are flowers everywhere and it's been a while. You can be forgiven for treating the appearance of flowers with so much enthusiasm.
And much as I like flowers and gardens-more on gardens later if I can squeeze that in- I cant see how the BBC think this is a fit way to occupy a prime time TV slot. yes between 8 and 9 everyday this week we get 'The Chelsea flower show' which is...well, a flower show as you might have cleverly guessed. This means endless shots of beautiful gardens and flowers and talk and more talk which approaches the whole thing with the kind of seriousness most of us attach to things like National security. Only the English could pull this off.
As for staying in bed all day watching TV and reading, this has proven to be a very easy promise to keep. I did go out last night after 'German Ben' stopped by and said he was in town for only a few days so we should party like it was 1969 minus the dodgy costumes and the psychedelic drugs. It was as always an interesting night but I wont get into it right now. In the morning my head was aching accusingly as if to say YOU BASTARD, WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY? WELL I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY NOW! Mez and Nash might come down this weekend which would be great. I haven't seen Mez in nearly a year now but I did see Nash before he went to South America and got involved in all sorts of shenanigans including accidentally getting involved in a riot and taking part in a very dodgy bungee jumping experiment. You meet the most interesting people at University. Mez for instance was a larger-than-life character who like Tommy.B was very bright but almost allergic to things like assignments. We were very similar in the sense that both of us looked at the world with the childish wonder of an eight-year old kid. I remember last year when summer had just started and she was telling me with astonishment about listening to the birds sing outside her window which she hadn't noticed throughout the year and how happy that made her. I thought- I completely understand that. A man who often sleeps after 4.am knows the sound of the birds outside.
Unfortunately Chris will probably not make it so we won't be able to have a full reunion. Quena told me something that made me laugh the other day.
"Chris thinks we are a fraternity" She said "He sends me emails that finish with 'I miss you and the rest of the members!'" That thought gave me a serious bout of laughter. We all miss Chris, fraternity or not.
Meanwhile shit is still hitting the fan down at the Home Office- as if foreign criminals not being deported is not enough of a mess-up, turns out that they actually had illegal immigrants cleaning the home office! What a splendidly comical turn of events. Some things you just can't make up- better to stand aside and wait for real life to step in. It rarely dissappoints. Still there is a lot of hysteria about foreigners right now thanks to this '1000 criminals not deported after release' affair and I sometimes wish I had a shirt with the words 'I am not one of the 1,023' just to put everybody's mind at ease when they meet me.
Terry Pratchett- absolute genius.