Dreaming of Freedom

London is a tough place to live. It’s nice to have all the culture and diversity but most people spend most of their time being exploited at work and commuting to and from that exploitation!! It’s not all bad! Work can be fun! I’m busy looking for a new job at the moment - so I need to hype up the enthusiasm! Ahhh I miss Norwich and the quiet life of cycling and seeing close friends.

I had a pretty nice time on Saturday going to the Anarchist Bookfair where I heard Dorothy Rowe talk about sibling relationships. She seems to be a pretty interesting psychologist - I must read up on her work. I also caught up with lots of friends and went for dinner at Indian Veg - a must for the budget conscious vegetarian.

I busy trying to swot up on some English grammar at the moment. It’s really quite amazing that we learn to use grammatical structures and yet know none of the rules and are unable to explain how or why we do anything. I really should read up on what Chomsky says about the whole thing.

I reading War and Peace at the moment and keep looking up Tolstoy on the internet. I can’t believe he was so interesting and influenced so many people. What a man! A Christian pacifist anarchist novelist with pioneering ideas about a wealth of things from serfdom to education. I’m going to get back to reading the epic prose!

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I spent most of the weekend lying down trying to block out the horrible back pain but I’m feeling much better this week and have been back at work teaching my enthusiastic students. I took the psychology exam on Monday and it was less scary than imagined! There were moments in the hall when I was actually loving it which was nice! Now my course is over I feel kind of empty and have had too much time on my hands today.

London continues to be interesting but very dirty and crowded. I spent the evening in a pub in Covent Garden/Holborn last night and really noticed the crowds. Commuting is an interesting experience. Every day we uncomplaining cram ourselves into crowded carriages and read the trashy news that comes in the free papers. It’s hot and tiring but with some earphones in and a good book it can be bearable. It does make me wonder why we put up with it. I’m in constant amazement at how much rubbish we accept. Over crowding, big queues, inefficient systems just seem to be normal. Has no-one thought it might be a good idea just to get things done efficiently. Who’s in charge? I think moving has made me very angry. I have spent hours on the phone trying to cancel, move and set up accounts. I have to say that Npower where very efficient but most of the other companies I’ve had dealings with have been really bad. BT was by far the worst. Virgin wasn’t too good either. My other gripe is with the doctors surgeries. Every surgery wants something different - one a bill, another a passport. Why don’t they just give me an appointment to see the doctor and stop messing about with forms when they could simply ring up my old doctor and get all the information sent to them.

Ok that’s all my complaining out of the way! I’m going to get back to housework/shopping/reading activities and let you all get on with your lives!

Big hello to everyone in Norwich! I miss you all!

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The world’s been ticking on by and I’ve spent all day in bed resting my weary bones! I’ve decided to read War and Peace - I guess the only way it was going to happen was if I had something urgent to do and it seemed like a good alternative! There are now 3 days until the psychology exam and they are tick ticking by at a rate of knots quite extraordinary.

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Burma - what a nightmare. I can’t bear to think of the suffering that must be happening there as the military attack people. A grisly picture of a monk horrifically bruised and beaten floating face down in a river was to be found in the free papers of London today along with claims that thousands have been killed. I wouldn’t be surprised - the regime in Burma has been brutal and oppressive since the last uprising in the 80s.

On another note - don’t forget the anti war demo on the 8th. Unfortunately I’ll be sitting in an exam hall but I’ll be there in spirit. The Lancet estimate that 655 000 have died but I should imagine it’s much much higher than that - the ORB have estimated that 1 million have died. It’s disturbing that this bloody situation has been going on for six years, two countries have been devastated, untold suffering and death has been wreaked and yet we allow it to continue.

Umm yeah - that would be me! I’ve busy moving to London and working and haven’t done anything except pay the taxes that help to bankroll the war. It is good to work though and I do love my job and I guess the taxes help pay for the NHS until it’s privatised.

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