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Tumbling Less Than Gracefully Into Middle Age

  • LOST Is back, I have some feelings

    Netflix, in their absolute unquestionable wisdom, have bought LOST. This is the show that is now regarded as the ‘Golden Age of Television’ in some circles. It’s not, that title will forever be owned by The WIre, and I am sorry, I will not be taking notes. LOST was the defining show of network TV,…

  • Matterhorn

    The cafeteria is little more than a small concession up on the first floor, sitting in the atrium between treatment areas. I’m aware that I’m sitting with a slump, my left arm covered in a half-dozen gauze pads. I look absolutely defeated, and crack a half smile at the pathetic figure I must be cutting.…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 9

    Big things have small beginnings Life was going well. I wasn’t piss poor for the first time in my adult life, my job was fulfilling, but there was something missing. I’d been in Southampton since late July 1997 and it was now 2009. I would move on from my flat on Queen’s Terrace, the owner…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 8

    Up and up January 2007 would kick off another period of big changes. It would see me back in another relationship, a change of occupation to the profession I am still in now, and start the final chapters of my time in Southampton. I would leave the country within five years, but I didn’t know…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 7

    THIS IS THE WAY On the third of January 2006, I came home from work to find SG in what would be the finale in a long line of sulks. On pressing what was wrong, she told me she thought we should split up. We’d been together seven years. We’d shared this house in Calmore…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 6

    Big Things Have Small Beginnings – David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, 1962. Cranbury Place had started out too damn small, and only got worse. My girlfriend of the time (herein referred to as SG) was already fussing about it and had one day announced she wanted to look at a flat in Portswood. I explained…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 5

    ctrl-alt-delete 2001 would be a big year for history and something like a reset for me. There would be a change of tempo, and stability at last, but all that was ahead of me. I had arrived in Southampton just under four years prior. I had been through eight job moves and six home address…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 4

    Disaster And Defeat “Success teaches us nothing; only failure teaches.” Hyman G. Rickover The time had come. The band was breaking up. P was heading back North, to begin a new adventure in Leeds, Kevin would stay in Southampton with his fiancé, Rob would eventually wind up back in his beloved Wales, and I was…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 3

    FAIR SEAS, BUT A Storm warning The millennium had arrived. 2000 was upon us, all the computers kept working, the apocalypse would have to wait for now. My auditing job at the College was coming to a close. They were trying their best to keep us on, but the urgency for the work was no…

  • Odyssey, Pt. 2

    Endless Shit Jobs I’d moved to Southampton. I had a place to live, I did not have a job, but I was confident that was just a matter of days from being resolved. I turned up at Manpower Southampton and reminded them of their commitment to get me set up at BT. There was (surprised…