I have been reading sinister with interest of late. I admit, similar to most of you out there I am sure, my interest in the list varies based on a number of factors, the chief factor being how much spare time I actually have to devote to reading emails from complete strangers. Having a job in an office again, that is once again rather a lot. One thought that has crept into my head recently is does anybody here consider their relationship to be romantic in any way? That's romantic, not sexual for the smuttees out there. I ask this after Andrew Churchman's post. Had he been ending a romantic relationship it would be decent of him to let his partner know that he no longer wished involvement with him or her. And also to point out the ways in which said person had changed as a reason for his change of heart would also be fair and relevant. But things, by nature, change. With the possible exception of Ken's underwear, Everything. Why should a mailing list be any different? Whether that change is for better or for worse is surely a matter of perspective. Many of the "old guard" will inevitably say for the worse, but this is just the same as a pensioner saying how much better things were during the war. Our rose-tinted spectacles have such intense power when we reminisce. But I refuse to wear mine coz they make me look like a ponce. Sinister is soon to be 5. How many 5 year olds do you know that havent changed since they were born? It would be a pretty scary 5 year old had they not. I wish I had changed since I was 5 though. Proust may well disagree with my ideas of always looking back in a favourable light, but then I am not talking about the perspective of a formula 1 veteran. It's my great sense of humour and remarkable wit you love me for, isn't it? I even look back at what happened on Wednesday with a bit of a smile now. I can laugh about it now but at the time it was terrible. On Wednesday afternoon we had an enormous storm here in London there was a torrential downpour! It's very rare to see rain so heavy in England. Anyway, I left work & went to get the tube, but the district line wasn't running at all because the track was flooded. So, Bugger. I went to get the bus to Earls court, but a lot of people had the same idea and there was no way I was going to be able to get on a bus for ages, so I walked up to another station, and as I was walking the bus I would have got sped past me & through a huge puddle - soaking me from head to toe, and I mean head to toe. I got to the other station, managed to make my way home and everything, though it took me 2.5 hours. When I got home I discovered that because of the bloody builders next door being disgusting, messy bastards, the debris they had left had all been swilled in the rain to the drain at the entrance to my house. So the drain was blooked and there was a knee-hight puddle of filthy water I had to wade through to get inside. I then got changed into old clothes & had to go out and kneel in the filthy water & pull all of this crap out of the drain. Yuk! So yeah, by the time I had done this and let me takeaway food etc. get cold, it was late-ish anyway and I was in too foul a mood. I belive New Yorker's Brian and Matthew went to Cape Cod, which is a strange hobby but props to the diversity of sinister interests. It also brought to mind jen owl as she had a bit of a cape obsession. I think 5th birthday celebrations should involve certain older regular posters coming out of their shells, including...well, I don't know who's still here, but you know who you are. Maybe even Calumn could come up with a competition to mark the event? For those of you who remember French elena, she's just called me - apparently we can't have a picnic tomorrow because it's raining in Paris. Hmm. We bashed the pegg last night. I think. Did we? Or did we just knock him slightly sideways? Also, if its red knicker day soon, is there going to be else to be on the 5th birthday? Red gloves, with a finger for each year? Red leather knickers? The sad news, as far as I am concerned at least, is that I won't be at a sinister event as I have to attend a friends stag night. I think! Therefore I am off. See some of you tomorrow! Bye! Paul xx __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ 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! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+