‘Nice shirt you got there.’ ‘Thanks.’ ‘Expensive?’ ‘No. I was
he paused, pen hovering over the page, uncertain whether
paid. It’s one of those advert shirts.’ ‘Oh yeah? What’s it
to answer the advert. He re-read the personal requirements
advertising?’ ‘Some car.’ ‘Right. Um… not very obvious is it?’
the person advertising was after: ‘Aged between 25-40?’ At 32, he Read the rest of this entry »
There’s me, there’s Mark and there’s the gorgeous girl
it began as an English Language exercise; a piece of homework
with the long brown hair and strangely alluring eyelashes,
devised by Mr Kenjins to teach the pupils a little something
all three of us sitting at the bottom of a hill – a small,
about journalistic methods. He suggested they all write Read the rest of this entry »
Henry’s landlady is a small Japanese woman who has made
he reminds me of a freshly planted sapling standing in the
a living out of selling counterfeit teabags. Her popular market
centre of a group of well-established trees. The only conclusion you
stall offers fourteen types of exotic brews, all of which have
can come to is that he won’t last the winter. The world of the Read the rest of this entry »
We lost a rabbit in the flood, but I wasn’t allowed to mourn
Shirley doesn’t own a diary. She remembers the date by painting her
for him at first. Keiko came and told me that I wasn’t to ask for
nails instead. One finger deals with the days, another the months,
another one either. She said it was an unwritten rule. When a
the third the years and the rest for whims alone. Tuesday is a light Read the rest of this entry »
As Perkofsen has noted, the indefatigable advance of
It all started the day I noticed a particularly unusual
Italian culture in British middle class life at the
specimen of graffiti down by the disused canal
turn of the millennium can be glimpsed through the
on my way back from work. It wasn’t the style of the Read the rest of this entry »
In the heart of the city, half-way up the old town hall, below
amongst others, I met a man who collects droppings: an Excrement
the novelty clock, there’s an electronic counter. I don’t know
Cataloguer to give his full title (which I know he’d prefer) ‘An
what it is there for, but still it stays. The number it displays
animal’s droppings are unique to that animal’ he told me. ‘There Read the rest of this entry »
She lost her first child in a train accident, from which she
I got stung on the tongue once, which wasn’t too pretty. I was
barely recovered herself. Though she gave birth to two children
talking with a lisp for at least three weeks. And yet it could
afterwards, she gave the impression that she did not enjoy
have been worse. I once knew this girl who got a hornet Read the rest of this entry »
Thursday I meet this girl. I like meeting girls on Thursdays, for
Mr. Square lives on a roundabout; a miniature castle surrounded
various reasons. ‘Where d’you work?’ I ask her. ‘At the canine
by a mount of road and beyond that, in the distance, a Mecca
beauticians’ she replies. I think about this. ‘Could you make me look
of service stations, fast-food restaurants and vehicle graveyards. Read the rest of this entry »
The name Matt Shepherd was, for a few weeks, synonymous
‘slow still like the river she / cried a sea of tears / bring
with lewd and distasteful perversion. The man’s face was
me to the water baby / let me drink your tears / oh bring me
splashed across the tabloids and the broadsheets, each side
to the water baby / I will drink your tears’ – inspiring stuff Read the rest of this entry »
The King of Wansay finally closed yesterday, having served
her mother used the time to write a book; a work of non-
food for only three months. I saw its owner, his wife and their
fiction entitled ‘Famous Parties’ which did exactly what it
son in the park, but I was unable to gauge their mood. Possibly
said on the tin. Rich in anecdote, it served well as a bedside Read the rest of this entry »
