Dear Sinister, My bus journey isn't what it used to be. The Mick Cooke lookalike who used to sit at the back has disappeared. The girl who looks like Stuart Murdoch has moved away, and the one who looks like Jarvis Cocker catches a different bus instead. Even Johnny Cash, the bus driver, is around less often, and I think he's cottoned on to me. Instead of appraising me with a warm but solemn eye, he just shakes his head like he knows I could never handle a gun. Not anymore. My friend got on and sat just across from me. He spoke to me, but never stopped looking straight ahead. After a while, I did the same. It must have looked very strange, like we were in a Northern sitcom. This thought, when it happened, gave some good vibrations, as New Year's Resolution Number One was to pretend that life was a sitcom. It seems that life takes care of this itself. The boy sat next to me texted: "I AM ON THE..." The bus stopped opposite the old Royal Infirmary. For the last few months this has been playing the part of the Albion Hospital, where Doctor Who has been vanquishing aliens. It's a terrifying building and I suspect it was built by ghosts, long ago. The sound of Harry Belafonte warmed up the January chill. While I walked up the hill, I thought of Delia Derbyshire. I'd just been reading an interview with her in which she talks about crying into the washing up. Then she says, "Those were the days when I used to do washing-up. I've perfected my minimalist living technique so it is no longer necessary." I gave this some thought. No washing up! That's quite an extraordinary claim! In fact, it's my dream of a modern future. But impossible, surely? I haven't stopped thinking about this ever since I read it. If there was ever a tale of suburban enlightenment, that would be it: No washing up! Domestic nirvana! Robin x +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+