You can take the boy out of Glasgow...

Good to see that the financial bale out of the UK's banks was hammered out by some Scots over a curry....

Thought For The (National Poetry) Day

"Every song needs to be anatomically correct: You need weather, you need the name of the town, something to eat - every song needs certain ingredients to be balanced."
Tom Waits

They hung a sign up in our town
"If you live it up, you won't live it down"
So she left Monte Rio, son
Just like a bullet leaves a gun
With her charcoal eyes and Monroe hips
She went and took that California trip
Oh, the moon was gold, her hair like wind
Said, 'Don't look back, just come on, Jim'

Oh, you got to hold on, hold on
You gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You gotta hold on

Well, he gave her a dimestore watch
And a ring made from a spoon
Everyone's looking for someone to blame

When you share my bed, you share my name
Well, go ahead and call the cops
You don't meet nice girls in coffee shops
She said, 'Baby, I still love you'
Sometimes there's nothin' left to do

Oh, but you got to hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
And take my hand, I'm standing right here
You gotta hold on

Well, God bless your crooked little heart
St. Louis got the best of me
I miss your broken China voice
How I wish you were still here with me
Oh, you build it up, you wreck it down
Then you burn your mansion to the ground
Oh, there's nothing left to keep you here
But when you're falling behind in this big blue world

Oh, you've got to hold on, hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You gotta hold on

Down by the Riverside motel
It's 10 below and falling
By a 99 cent store
She closed her eyes and started swaying
But it's so hard to dance that way
When it's cold and there's no music
Oh, your old hometown's so far away
But inside your head there's a record that's playing

A song called 'Hold On', hold on
Babe, you gotta hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right there
You gotta hold on

And a link to a wonderful library of Tom Waits' lyrics, which I found while googling for this one.

A day of minor frustrations

Kind of like little stuff going wrong, but some nice things in there somewhere.
Like finding the Tom Waits site I linked to earlier, and realising I couldn't listen to any of his songs.
Like clearing up some sloppy thinking at work, and having it bouncing back at me from a second source.
Like realising that Jim is coming this weekend, and I've got so much on.
Like realising that I haven't spent anything like enough time with unblinkered  this week.
Like still being estranged from my dad.

Ach.

And strange times on the motorway. This morning I passed about five miles of tailback on the Westbound M8. At lunchtime when I was heading into Glasgow there was an accident at Steppes, and 50 minutes of tailback on the other side of it. Tonight, when I wanted to get back into Glasgow for fencing, there was an hour's delay on a journey which should take 10 minutes - I gave up on getting to fencing and doubled back to the gym instead. When I left the gym, the journey home was back down to 7 minutes, but I passed another accident at the self same point. No emergency vehicles there yet, so I called it in on 999. Unsettling, greasy weather.

A day of bad karma.

People are saying nice things about my work, but the project feels holed beneath the waterline. Eddi Reader is singing "Bell, Book and Candle" on my stereo, and I'm haunted by many ghosts today. Some of them are welcome - Ruth, who I haven't seen in 5 or 6 years, Jim, who's back from the States and very welcome indeed. Some of them, I don't know. Old friends become, what? Absent, I guess. A couple of things unresolved. Ghosts have to be laid, don't they?

Still, some good stuff. It's nice to be reminded that I can be very good at what I do. It's nice to be chased by recruitment folk. It's nice to come home to first class leftovers, and a happy cat and dog, and a girlfriend who's out having fun. I guess letting Mr Waits back into my life is a double edged sword.

Old ghosts.

I wouldn't be me without them.