I decide I want to expand my reading material as I have exhausted my want to collect Borges’ works; it is unlikely now that there is much translated material that I have neither read nor am aware of.

I go in search of a new author. Umberto Eco catches my eye whilst browsing through the shelves. All of his books sound excellent, so I buy one at random. Several months later I discover that the book was based on a Borges story, and that the book I would have chosen second features a blind monk called Jorge de Burgos. Yesterday, I chose my holiday destination. Later on I discover that it is the same island as the one in the latest Eco book I am reading.

The central theme of the first book that I purchased concerns the futility of searching for meaning where there is none. When does a coincidence become relevent?

Borges once wrote a piece called Borges and I in which he ponders who is writing the story. Now I wonder: was everyone Borges?

…is the best capital city on earth (having been to 4).

Best holiday I’ve ever had. Then I got back, brought a car, drove to Thorpe Park and spent two days riding rollercoasters. This has been the best birthday 3 weeks ever. Yes, that’s 3 best’s.

I’m moving up to Hitchin so I’m a bit closer to work for a few months. The primary reason for this is that I’ll save an extra £400 / month and I want a car (which means about 5/6 months to pay for a semi-decent one and the insurance).

Things I’ll miss: Scala, Fabric, Angel, getting home late at night easily. Things I’ll gain: A car, an extra hour (or two) in bed every morning, the ability to watch neighbours, nicer supermarkets.

Minute for minute I’m still only an extra 10-15 minutes from Kings Cross which is pretty ace. Maybe I’ll actually go to Scala more often!

The little things make us happy. Here’s part of my walk to work the other day. The snowballers were out, so I didn’t stop to snap the geese that were by the churchyard river.

The Oscar nominations have come out again, and as I screamed “save us” last year, so I shall this one.

It seems that every year a category I’m look forward to disappoints me. This year I call shenannigans on the animated feature: it’s barren. Has the animation of the last year really been so unavoidably drab? I’ve checked, and this it the first time since 2001 that I haven’t been rooting for a film to win, and before that I’m not sure the category existed for feature length animations. Of the films up for nomination Cars looks to be the best on offer. After Finding Nemo and The Incredibles it seemed inevitable that Pixar would give up their ghost, and whilst Cars was a competent film it was certainly not outstanding.

It makes me sad, because it’s been the animated film that always promised at least one enjoyable (if not the best) film of the year: Monsters Inc, Shrek, Spirited Away, Finding Nemo, The Triplets of Belleville, The Incredibles, Howl’s Moving Castle, Wallace & Gromit, to name the ones in the last few years. Has it become the case that animators have run out of steam so quickly?

In the course of time there was one day that closed the last eyes that had looked on Christ; the battle of Junín and the love of Helen died with the death of one man. What will die with me the day I die? What pathetic or frail image will be lost to the world? The voice of Macedonio Fenández, the image of a bay horse in a vacant lot on the corner of Sarrano and Charcas, a bar of sulfur in the drawer of a mahogany desk?

Borges — The Witness

Walked past a house on my way to work, and thought to myself: “what would be more fun than a house slide that lets you slide to work in the morning?” Not only would it make commuting more fun, you could just roll out of bed and slide into work. Maybe you could play ten-pin bowling with work colleagues. “Watch out, it’s that house slide guy!” they’d scream in mock horror before you bowled them over and laughed all day.

Then it occurred to me: “why stop at a house slide to work. wouldn’t a slide to the pub across the road be even more fun”. The reasons are clear - you decide you’ve had enough for the night, come home, see a giant house slide… oh yes, with that much alcohol flowing through your vein’s you can’t help but slide down such a magnificent slide. What joy, what excitement, and then what better opportunity to have another. You can repeat this.

What not to do: have a slide from the pub to your house. Drunks will slide into your house and might wee down it for fun. You would wake up and not be happy : (

Molly has  asked people for thier memorable airline quotes. They’re all pretty funny, but this one made me laugh out loud.

We were returning back to the states from Roatan Honduras and the flight was exceptionally bumpy. While we were landing the crew gave their usual spiel, but then added “and please be careful when opening the overhead compartments. Remember — shift happens.” A comment made all the more funny when one of the passengers opened a bin and a bag fell on him. He paused half a second and then grumbled “Shift.”

Russell Davies puts forth some very interesting ideas about how to be interesting. It’s not so much that part that I’m curious about, but there are a few ideas that actually sounds like they could be fun to do, so I’m tempted to try them. Or at the very least I’ll pretend to myself that I’m going to do them.

• Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr.
• Write at least one sentence every week.
• Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can.

I’ll start tomorrow.

One reformat later and I suddenly realise that I forgot back up my email account. Oh shi…

I have replaced the gay umbrella with a normal one. It’s black and has already saved me from the rain 3 times.

I think I just brought the most gay umbrella known to man. I’ve needed an umbrella for ages, so today when I saw a stand of them at Woolworth’s I grabbed one from the shelf, and only opened it up when I got back. Oh dear God. It is adorned by a giant iron-on kitten in a pink tiara - there is no way I can walk down the street with this and not garner ridicule. What a waste, because I’ve already walked miles today and I’m too worn out to go back and ask to exchange it for one that doesn’t belittle my manhood quite so much.

Barring a whole stack of paperwork in plastic bags my room is unpacked, and I’ve already managed to clutter it with empty twix wrappers and random wires. The plus side is I’ve still got room in the centre for another double bed, which is awesome.

I’ve finally made the move to north London. Transport links aren’t as fantastic as I’d have liked - plenty of buses let down by the 25 minute walk to the tubes/trains - but the room is huge (pics once I’ve unpacked, perhaps). My room is currently a bomb site. In order to get to my coat I’d currently have to leapfrog 4 rows of boxes, bags and random things I swear I’ve never seen before. Is it me or does junk seem to multiply when you don’t tidy it away?

I had my first ever trip to Ikea today, and I was foolish enough to make the trip alone. The promised Ikea shuttle from Tottenham Hale station appears to be non-existant for one: catch the 192 if you decide to go to the Edmonton one from the station. Other than that I was fine right up until you have to go downstairs to collect the furniture yourself, when it all went horribly wrong (30 minutes of horror). It took a while to catch on that actually I didn’t need a normal trolley as these are for the people who go to buy the bits and bobs that you’ll never use. Things like the lemon pip remover which seems so vital when you see it in-store. Then the aisle I needed was closed off with big forbidding ‘no entry’ signs, so I swear I must have walked about 5 miles round the store before I found the info guys to ask where they’d moved it to.

The pizza shop nearby does quite nice pizzas (thinnest base I’ve ever seen, but tasty nonetheless and the pub is a nice one to have as a local. All-in-all I’m pretty pleased! The real test will be on Friday when I make the journey to work. I’m really hoping it works out shorter than the one from Dunstable.