In The Wake

In the immediate wake of finishing 'The Goodies', or at least all the episodes that are available, there's a bit of a letdown. As a series, it ended on a very weird note, but that will be something to write about more copiously in its own post. For now, it's all over, until a miracle happens and every episode comes out on DVD. It might happen one day, somehow, mightn't it? Please? Some of the episodes that we do have were absolutely and wonderfully funny and remarkable.

Moving on, this was supposed to be the next episode of 'Wordspace', but awful time management and a general lack of inspiration is keeping that story on the slowest of slow burns. Hopefully, with all good intentions, there will be another part before the next brief trip kicks off on Friday, and the blog is converted to pre-written reviews for a few days. Oh, there's nothing wrong with 'reviews', although here they tend to degenerate into the usual ramblings but on a more focussed topic, but they are rather easy to write. There's not a lot of challenge to it. Writing extemporaneously is harder, and writing the stories is harder still. However, they can be very nice to compose, in a trivial way. It's odd, but it feels strange to push one person's opinion upon the world. Why should anyone care in one way or another about what Person X thinks about this, that or frozen yogurt? Is it egocentric just to throw your opinions out into the world, or is it okay if you know no-one's going to read them anyway, have no intention of forcing anything upon anyone, and do it solely as a writing exercise? It's all in the intention, isn't it?

Yes, another trip looms, to go off an a tangent to a previous comment, and with it the usual challenges of staying with people. The usual battles to escape itineraries, dig tunnels out of the bathroom, remove the radioactive shower curtains before turning into a mutant carrot, and of course the imperative to find the nearest ferry port, in order to indulge in a slow and steady escape to the Netherlands or Ireland. You have to be prepared for all contingencies. For example, on visiting people, you must emulate Batman and take shark-repellent spray and a portable rope ladder. They are both essential. You may also need a jetpack, a copy of 'The Voyage of the Beagle' by Darwin, and some playing cards. Oh, okay, you may not need the jetpack, but directions to the nearest supermarket and a pogo stick are compulsory preparations. Some of this, of course, is not strictly true, but let's not criticise the Netherlands without reason.

A cumulative twenty hours of travelling await, which means there will be enough time to probably furnish a whole new edition of 'The Literary Reflection' with thoughts on the books read in that time. Twenty hours can see a whole lot of reading get done...

O.