ello babies This first one is me on my own, a saturday morning exactly one week before i got married, three and a bit years ago, it's grey and overcast and I look much the same. Inexplicably the small bowlie boy b&s badge I'm wearing is upside down, but it is bright and shiny having been purchased only a few weeks earlier. The other badge next to it says "lost the plot". I'm sat on a wall by a large blue building in sussex wondering what i am doing here with five people i've never met before or since. This one is from twelve hours later and I'm surrounded by smiling laughing drunkards, several of whom also have badges on upside down. A large devonian is having an indepth conversation about country music, and an older man is being mistaken for john peel. i am also smiling and laughing (and drunk). In the background there is tarting and smut. The last one in this set is very blurry. It's a dreary Monday morning and the picture shows me in the back of a car, heading towards leicester, of all places. I look very much the worse for wear. I'm looking at my arm wondering whether having chest pains and pins and needles in my arm is a sign of good health, but despite looking a bit green, i'm also looking quite smug, because I've found a whole new world of people, people who like (some of) the same stuff as me, people i don't have to explain the working of strange modern interweb mailling lists to, people who understand. On my coat next to the other badges is one that, eventually, we worked out was for a six by seven single, it says "two and a half days in love with you". There are piles more here, let me pick out a few more. Several of them are similar, in that they show a varying group of people, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, sitting on some grass. The pictures are from quite a distance away, in order to get everyone in, but they all seem to have too many tubes of pringles and lots of empty cans and bottles in. The biggest pile though, just show me sat at my desk at work, staring at the screen. In some of them I'm trying to stifle a laugh, in some of them i just look a bit confused, and in some I look concerned, but they're all as important as the other pictures. In this one I'm being rained on, so are the 4 or 5 people with me. I look very tired, but then it is about three o'clock in the morning, and several hours after I made a goshdarned fool of myself by being sick in the middle of the pub. Despite all this, I am still, just about, happy to be here, in a strange town several hundred miles from home. at the edge of the still upside down badge you can just make out a little brown patch developing where the driving glaswegian rain has started to make it rusty. This one is different to all the others. It's from almost a year ago and it's of my bedroom in Oxford and I'm sat at my computer. The television has been pulled through from the lounge and is showing a repeating set of images from the day's terrible events. I'm staring intently at the computer screen where you can just make out the window of a chat programme. On the right hand side where there is usually seven or eight names, there is a screen full. Fortunately all the usual names from new york are there. One of the people in the UK has just phoned one of the american's parents who are on holiday in Ireland to tell them he is ok, because the phone lines (amongst other things) aren't working in new york. I've just got this last one back from snappy snaps, who do a very good deal on ink polaroids, better than boots anyway. It shows about 35 people in a room over a pub in London. In the corner there is a delicious looking chocolate cake with "happy 5th birthday sinister" iced on it, in expert fashion. everyone in the room is singing "happy birthday" and a small boy who looks a bit handy with a bowling ball is about to blow the candles out. Strangely most of the other pics from the evening, especially those featuring a certain birmingham-based poster, seem to have been mislaid by the good folks at snappy snaps, I wonder what the vice squad van was doing next to the shop... I think that's enough for now, but massive !P!R!O!P!S! to stevie t for organising sunday nite and to all those who turned up also. here's to another five years. I love you all, but especially you, over there in the corner, watching us all. xoxo CarsmileSteve **************************************************************************** For the latest City Lit news & information, please visit our website www.citylit.ac.uk **************************************************************************** The City Literary Institute Registered Office: 16 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5LJ Registered in England no: 2471686 Registered Charity no: 803007 *************************************************** PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE. *************************************************** This e-mail may contain privileged or confidential information. The message and any files transmitted with it are intended only for the use of the recipient or organisation to whom it is addressed. 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