alsoperson

They are in paradise

I am not a born Londoner. I had lived in Luton, Royston, Brightlingsea and Cambridge by the time I was 28. I had started working at Newham Sixth Form College in December 1992 (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/922 ). I had anticipated a couple of years there and I would be able to find something closer to home. CommutingContinue reading “They are in paradise”

And our love become a funeral pyre

We left Ranthambore (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1749 ) by train with Dad and I both ill (as well as around twelve others out of our group of 27). They even overcharged us on the bar bills, I had managed to down several lagers while confined to my room with a terrible stomach. There was space on the trainsContinue reading “And our love become a funeral pyre”

On This Fantastic Day

Day 5 in Egypt was our one late alarm call – 8am, other days were 6am or even earlier (to beat the worst of the heat of or to travel). The boat was already moving away from Luxor when we woke up and, because there were no mosquitos, the windows were wide open and IContinue reading “On This Fantastic Day”

It’s 8.15 and that’s the time it’s always been

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark were (or are) a synth band from Liverpool. Mike was always a much bigger fan than me. I have to admit that I think that their output was much less good after their third album Architecture and Morality. Even on that album half the tracks were touched by genius andContinue reading “It’s 8.15 and that’s the time it’s always been”

Young People Speaking Their Minds

Everyone should know the mantra – if it is too good to be true, then it is not true. Somehow plenty of people, including many smart people just forget this a lot of the time. The first time I remember seeing films with characters inserted into old scenes was Forrest Gump. Forrest is seen withContinue reading “Young People Speaking Their Minds”

You Should Learn To Walk Before You Crawl

The end of a night out drinking usually means that you want food. Not just food but crap food as the alcohol puts the brain into starvation mode. In Brightlingsea back in the 80s the usual option was Chinese, though there was an Indian restaurant on and off (more often a sit down after aContinue reading “You Should Learn To Walk Before You Crawl”

I Still Hear the Songs

I have never been a fan of Disney. Mum took us to the cinema to see the films when we were children but not a fan. I smiled at Disney’s hubris at building in Paris, rather than the warmer climes of southern Europe and the years of losses there. At the same time Disney wasContinue reading “I Still Hear the Songs”

Fuck them and their law

Is there anywhere in the UK that gets the bad rep that Essex does? We are stupid; have no taste; we all have spray tans, holiday in Marbella, shop at Lakeside and are obsessed with money. This started with the “Essex girl” jokes in the early 1990s, which were based on the erroneous assumption thatContinue reading “Fuck them and their law”

We Can’t Rewind We’ve Gone Too Far

Doctor Who has form with audio stories – back in the 70s there were some vinyl LPs, like an abridged Genesis of the Daleks. Then there are the missing stories (https://fivemilesout.home.blog/2020/08/29/like-the-deserts-miss-the-rain/ ) that the BBC released on cassette (sometimes with bizarre linking commentary) and then on CD. The weirdest bit was in The Daleks MasterContinue reading “We Can’t Rewind We’ve Gone Too Far”

The thunder of guns

AC/DC are an Australian band that started in the 1970s. I had no idea who they were as, like a lot of heavy metal bands, they did not have hit singles in the UK. Clive Hook lent me a load of their albums on tape in the early summer of 1981. Their early albums areContinue reading “The thunder of guns”