| :o( |
[Nov. 19th, 2002|04:07 am] |
Don't you just hate insomnia? |
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[Nov. 19th, 2002|01:11 pm] |
| [ | Feeling |
| | working | ] |
| [ | Reading |
| | Idoru, William Gibson | ] |
As we left for Norfolk on Friday we drove past our local fire station, with a picketline of striking firefighters in front of it. They were sitting in uniform, looking relaxed. We hooted and gave them a thumbs up and they waved back cheerily. The atmosphere was the sort you see on the bench of a sports team that's in the lead and is confident of winning. Not at all what you'd expect at the beginning of what might be a long and nasty dispute.
Now I hear there's an ICM poll (I think it was ICM) that shows public support for the strike is rising, even after the first two strike days and despite the best efforts of the Mail and Sun to paint them as evil supporters of Saddam.
It's got to be down to the way so many firefighters left their picket lines to respond to emergencies where lives were at risk. It made it impossible to portray them as heartless, money-grubbing rats. I thought support would collapse when the first person died - now I begin to wonder.
Best of luck to them. |
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| Chocolate emergency |
[Nov. 19th, 2002|04:55 pm] |
Just conducted an experiment down at the vending machine. I had a bag of crisps and a cup of hot chocolate and sat near it to eat and drink... and wait. Because I'd paid for a bar of chocolate too, and deliberately left it in the machine to see what would happen when the next person came along. I wondered whether they'd take it, leave it, or ask me if it was mine.
The first person along was a woman in, maybe, her late 30s. She gave no sign of even seeing the chocolate (or me) and just took her snack and walked off, leaving the bar where it was.
Next was a flash-looking bloke in his 20s - the sort that wears purple ties with purple shirts. Didn't say a word. Just paid for his crisps and walked off... with the chocolate peeking out from his hand where he'd silently stashed it behind the crisps as he walked off with it. Didn't even glance in my direction, but looked a lot more self-conscious walking away from the machine than he had walking up to it. Git - hope he gets stomach ache. |
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