Quite a lot of fucking swearing

I'm just going to post once to get it over with so I don't think about it while trying at last to write my essay.

You know, I don't mind when people my age look at me blankly at the mention of Led Zeppelin or the Doors (or on one memorable occasion when my friend asked about John McCartney and Paul Lennon). But when a man of fifty-seven who was around in the sixties and seventies asks me the following (in a car driving through Hammersmith, listening to Led Zeppelin on the CD player):

Are Led Zeppelin still going as a band, then Clare?

I find myself wanting to stab myself in the ears with a pitchfork or something less subtle. And my dad is a rock and roll geek! He likes Elvis and Buddy Holly and could tell you right now who did 'Alley-Oop' or any other random novelty single from the 50/60s. My dad is a beautiful man with a great big heart, but man was he ever a square! The Zeppelin is just too rock for him, too loud and too brash. I ended up asking my mum to skip White Summer because neither of them could handle the madness of Jimmy Page's vision/pretentious crap/delete as applicable.

This would be less depressing if it hadn't come half an hour after my godfather (the same age as me mam and dad) had genuinely no idea who the Doors or Jim Morrison was. Even when my mum talked about the famous cruciform pic of Jim. I swear, I nearly died. These people were THERE AT THE TIME! Were they not paying attention? I realised in Wembley on Thursday that I would've given anything to see Jim Morrison live and in the flesh, and these guys IGNORED HIM WHEN THEY HAD THE CHANCE!

That said, my godfather did call me Christina Rossetti and a Tintoretto maiden cos of the red in my hair, so I'm not entirely of an annoyed disposition towards him.

Not that today was much better. I was meant to get into Newcastle Central station at 16.10. I got there at 20.15. Do not ask. Suffice to say that the railways are still fucked, no matter who fucking runs them and now my plans for essay writing are totally up the fucking spout, I've got a fucking headache, I'm freezing and still have 2700 words to fucking write for tomorrow.

To top that off, it's my brother's 19th birthday and his phoneline at uni is always busy (silly tart probably knocked the receiver off or something) so I can't wish him a happy birthday. I sent him a text message about it and just got one back saying 'Who is this? I don't know the number'. Gitfaced little rat. I tried to wish him happy birthday, it is not my fault he doesn't know his own sodding sister.

Quite a lot of fucking swearing

I'm just going to post once to get it over with so I don't think about it while trying at last to write my essay.

You know, I don't mind when people my age look at me blankly at the mention of Led Zeppelin or the Doors (or on one memorable occasion when my friend asked about John McCartney and Paul Lennon). But when a man of fifty-seven who was around in the sixties and seventies asks me the following (in a car driving through Hammersmith, listening to Led Zeppelin on the CD player):

Are Led Zeppelin still going as a band, then Clare?

I find myself wanting to stab myself in the ears with a pitchfork or something less subtle. And my dad is a rock and roll geek! He likes Elvis and Buddy Holly and could tell you right now who did 'Alley-Oop' or any other random novelty single from the 50/60s. My dad is a beautiful man with a great big heart, but man was he ever a square! The Zeppelin is just too rock for him, too loud and too brash. I ended up asking my mum to skip White Summer because neither of them could handle the madness of Jimmy Page's vision/pretentious crap/delete as applicable.

This would be less depressing if it hadn't come half an hour after my godfather (the same age as me mam and dad) had genuinely no idea who the Doors or Jim Morrison was. Even when my mum talked about the famous cruciform pic of Jim. I swear, I nearly died. These people were THERE AT THE TIME! Were they not paying attention? I realised in Wembley on Thursday that I would've given anything to see Jim Morrison live and in the flesh, and these guys IGNORED HIM WHEN THEY HAD THE CHANCE!

That said, my godfather did call me Christina Rossetti and a Tintoretto maiden cos of the red in my hair, so I'm not entirely of an annoyed disposition towards him.

Not that today was much better. I was meant to get into Newcastle Central station at 16.10. I got there at 20.15. Do not ask. Suffice to say that the railways are still fucked, no matter who fucking runs them and now my plans for essay writing are totally up the fucking spout, I've got a fucking headache, I'm freezing and still have 2700 words to fucking write for tomorrow.

To top that off, it's my brother's 19th birthday and his phoneline at uni is always busy (silly tart probably knocked the receiver off or something) so I can't wish him a happy birthday. I sent him a text message about it and just got one back saying 'Who is this? I don't know the number'. Gitfaced little rat. I tried to wish him happy birthday, it is not my fault he doesn't know his own sodding sister.

L'histoire

I should warn you before I go any further that I am feeling very ill indeed from sitting on freezing train platforms/freezing trains for hours yesterday. This was compounded from having to write an essay about defamation. I ended up only writing 1000 words before going to sleep last night at 3 because I noticed I'd started seeing glittery blue spots and figured this wasn't good. Head feels seriously fuzzy and horrible. I feel slow and crap and it's ALL GNER's fault. I am not in class right now because of this shite-ness feeling.

That said, I feel I must say something about what happened yesterday. No, not the gas leak on the train line yesterday, the other thing.

It really fucks me off that, because some people opposed the war, it is automatically assumed that they liked Saddam Hussein or they in some way did not oppose his regime.

Let me put my opinion straight to you right now: Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator who should've been deposed years ago. Saddam is responsible for keeping an entire country paralysed with fear and so on. We know all this.

What I didn't like and could not get behind about the war was nothing to do with Saddam Hussein. It was the way in which the other side went about it. I have absolutely no problem with locking Saddam Hussein away and throwing away the key. I do have a problem with two of the most powerful men in the world ignoring the will of their own people (although as George W Bush isn't really president, why should he?) and lying to their own people. Frankly, I think the whole thing stinks and could've all been avoided if George W Bush's father hadn't chickened out a decade ago. Even then, as a small child watching the news and asking my dad questions I didn't understand why that war ended the way it did.

Oil. It's all about oil. That's why they didn't go after him last time and it's exactly why they did before. Please don't lets dress it up as some wonderful humanitarian effort to liberate the people of Iraq, because George and Tony don't give a rat's fucking arse about the people of Iraq. They care about money and oil is liquid money. Let's at least be honest about this.

If this war leads to true freedom for the people of Iraq, then yes, the price may well have been worth it. It is not the downfall of Saddam I ever minded- it was the lying to us, the blatant disregard for the feelings of the people who elected them (well, not George, but you know what I mean) and the international community. Right or wrong in the end, we were lied to and that is my problem.

That said, I'm only a rock and roll socialist, so what the fuck do I know?

One last thing, totally off-topic: It seems that the fabulous University of Sunderland is rejigging its internet system so that we can't use MSN and Y!M!!!!!!!!!! The fuckers! It is the only way I have of communicating with the vast majority of my friends, international or here in Britain. Don't they realise what a fuck-up that is? Take away the ability to use programs like Kazaa and WinMX, fine, but this is just NOT ON. At least I've only got a week before going home for Crimbo, but what about after that? I have to find a way around this.

L'histoire

I should warn you before I go any further that I am feeling very ill indeed from sitting on freezing train platforms/freezing trains for hours yesterday. This was compounded from having to write an essay about defamation. I ended up only writing 1000 words before going to sleep last night at 3 because I noticed I'd started seeing glittery blue spots and figured this wasn't good. Head feels seriously fuzzy and horrible. I feel slow and crap and it's ALL GNER's fault. I am not in class right now because of this shite-ness feeling.

That said, I feel I must say something about what happened yesterday. No, not the gas leak on the train line yesterday, the other thing.

It really fucks me off that, because some people opposed the war, it is automatically assumed that they liked Saddam Hussein or they in some way did not oppose his regime.

Let me put my opinion straight to you right now: Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator who should've been deposed years ago. Saddam is responsible for keeping an entire country paralysed with fear and so on. We know all this.

What I didn't like and could not get behind about the war was nothing to do with Saddam Hussein. It was the way in which the other side went about it. I have absolutely no problem with locking Saddam Hussein away and throwing away the key. I do have a problem with two of the most powerful men in the world ignoring the will of their own people (although as George W Bush isn't really president, why should he?) and lying to their own people. Frankly, I think the whole thing stinks and could've all been avoided if George W Bush's father hadn't chickened out a decade ago. Even then, as a small child watching the news and asking my dad questions I didn't understand why that war ended the way it did.

Oil. It's all about oil. That's why they didn't go after him last time and it's exactly why they did before. Please don't lets dress it up as some wonderful humanitarian effort to liberate the people of Iraq, because George and Tony don't give a rat's fucking arse about the people of Iraq. They care about money and oil is liquid money. Let's at least be honest about this.

If this war leads to true freedom for the people of Iraq, then yes, the price may well have been worth it. It is not the downfall of Saddam I ever minded- it was the lying to us, the blatant disregard for the feelings of the people who elected them (well, not George, but you know what I mean) and the international community. Right or wrong in the end, we were lied to and that is my problem.

That said, I'm only a rock and roll socialist, so what the fuck do I know?

One last thing, totally off-topic: It seems that the fabulous University of Sunderland is rejigging its internet system so that we can't use MSN and Y!M!!!!!!!!!! The fuckers! It is the only way I have of communicating with the vast majority of my friends, international or here in Britain. Don't they realise what a fuck-up that is? Take away the ability to use programs like Kazaa and WinMX, fine, but this is just NOT ON. At least I've only got a week before going home for Crimbo, but what about after that? I have to find a way around this.