Hot Fuzz

Fabulous. The team behind the brilliant Shaun of the Dead have only gone and made a cop movie.

I see my career flashing before my eyes - quite literally. I like to think I'd be more like Simon Pegg's character (the blonde one), however I worry I'll end up more like Nick Frosts' (the dark-haired one).

Spam

I use Hotmail pretty much most of the time these days. I've gotten fed up changing E-Mail addresses over time, and besides it gets a little tricky for friends & family to keep up after a while. However, I do have one old E-Mail address (I used for a while) that's still ticking over, and I keep checking it periodically to make sure that nothing important has somehow arrived in the Inbox there. All it really seems to do though is catch spam/junkmail like some great big electronic fly-paper.

Have you ever actually stopped, before you've hit [delete], and glanced at the contents of some of these random emails? Most offer loans, porn, degrees and diamonds, and I realise everything down to the content and the email address are randomly generated by computers, but some are like such surreal little works.

This was my favourite today:

"Sent: Mon 27/11/2006 11:29
From: Cody Holliday [CodyHolliday@greatintltravel.com]
To: ing
Subject: one-night stand oil tanker

agreed in wishing, for the sake of their sister's feelings and consequence, that she should be noticed on and even before two words have been exchanged, nothing can be said in her defence, except that she"

Worth reprinting for the title alone.

Come and rest your bones with me

Had a real tiredness attack last night for no apparent reason and turned in at 22:00. Indeed, quite the Saturday night. With the clocks going back this meant a good 11-hours of uninterrupted sleep, straight through. And dreams. Deep and exceedingly strange ones. Interpret this, anyone - At one point I was aboard the International Space Station. Floating away, just enjoying being weightless. A woman was there too, the inevitable had happened. *ahem*, anyway... The view out the window was of course the Earth, but at an altitude of only several hundred meters. Serene and perfectly silent and still. Huh?

Really must rave on about Bent's new album at the moment. Had moments in Berlin where I was strolling around with it on my MP3 player; the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and the whole city at once seemed transformed. Ah, the power of music. Screw the charts, way down the numbers is where you find the best stuff.

With that in the background, I read for a while. Currently reading 'Carrie' by Stephen King. Was relating to a friend of mine the other day that I find if difficult to read anything 'deep' at the moment, what with the Police info-dump drowning my poor little brain. I just need a good absorbing page-turner. Plus, it reads well now with the seasonal shift.

Spent all morning doing housework (yes ladies I am fully house-trained), shredding old documents and watching the end of Syriana (I had to give up last night - I was falling asleep, not because it wasn't good, but because of said tiredness attack).

Shock-horror it's actually a nice mild autumn day and the washing is almost dry. Wow.

Bombs

'Bombs' by Faithless

Great new track & provocative video from their forthcoming new album. People think that 'intelligent dance music' is an oxymoron, but I beg to differ.

Faith in the system

I realise this is a real powder-keg of a topic, but I felt quite shocked upon reading the article this evening. Should the awful experience of some cases, and some victims, blur the view of others so completely? I realise to that as a male, and a police officer, I cannot really view this topic objectively. However, god forbid should such a terrifying and humiliating experience ever happen to said author in the future, I wonder if she really would reconsider her position? I find her views in the final paragraph deeply disturbing indeed.

Picture this

Phew, took long enough uploading, tweaking and annotating... But the Berlin pics are now online at my Yahoo! photos site.

I'm ready... Ready for what's next...

Until later this week/next when I get the best of the pics uploaded & captioned on my Yahoo! site, here's another for your perusal. I love the way the globe on the TV tower reflects the sun in the shape of a cross. Now there's symmetry for you.

Subtle reference to...

Berlin Dispatch #2

More random exerpts from my travel journal:

"Remember; leave journal and Lonely Planet highly visible on table to advertise that I am merely a hungry traveller and not that sad that I make a habit out of lone dining..."

"Spent a while contemplating the stark reliefs of the Holocaust Monument and some visitors' complete and staggering lack of decorum. It's a memorial to over six million dead - not a playground."

"Would have had a bite to eat there, but the prices seemed almost double anywhere else, and besides the opportunity to grab a Bison burger from this Canadian Deli I'd seen earlier seemed too good to miss. I mean, hey, when in Berlin..."

"Finally figured out Berlin's transit system. Forget anything you know from London. Virtually ignore colours and numbers for that matter, all you need to know is the terminus and all importantly whether it's an 'S' or a 'U'. Really, it's that simple it took me days to grasp."

"Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche. Try saying that after a few drinks."

"I thought, to be honest, that she was meeting up with me for dinner meerly to be polite. However, this clearly wasn't the case. The body language, the sparkling eyes and the fact that she actually seemed to be listening to me, and not just hearing, made for a wonderful evening. See, this is my problem though, I meet women hundreds, even thousands of miles away from home when I'm relaxed and actually at ease with myself. Never at home, when I'm probably too tightly coiled to notice anyone who dares notice me."

"Potsdam, like Berlin, was somewhat underwhelming on first impressions. However, at the end of a gorgeous clear blue day, having explored the old town and the stunning Schloss and gardens, the spell had indeed been cast."

"...Felt that was plenty of time, but of course Sod's Law meant that anything that could slow the journey to the airport down, probably would. So 3 U-Bahn changes, a bus transfer and several unnervingly stationary trains later I made it to check in with some 15 minutes to spare."

"Clouds freckle the landscape below and a haze threatens to blanket the gorgeous checkwork-pattern that is Western Europe from 37,000ft."

[This was uploaded at home. Back now. Bugger... Anyway, more pics to follow later in the week...]

Berlin Dispatch

Quick few exerpts from my travel journal scribbled thus far...

"Sometimes I'm embarrassed to be British... Like observing how we queue so enthusiasticlally for almost anything. We'd queue in an orderly fashion for Armageddon if someone asked politely. But then I see sights like this - flying out over the Thames Estuary on a clear bright day; England just slipped away into the sea like some glittering jewel. Simply stunning."

"This may or may not be a German Starbucks, I'm not quite sure. It's bang in the centre of Potsdamer Platz and the faux-ambiance is tuned to the right level of cheesy, so chance are..."

"To be honest it was less of a firework display and more of a laser-light show. This being Berlin they started blasting dance music out over the PA to the massed crowds, turning it essentially into one big rave-up. I mean, all we needed were some glowsticks and a little more room to start throwing shapes..."

"I may or may-not have a date for Friday. Sort-of. Problem is, it's been so long I've kind forgotten what they are."

"Didn't get going until late and in my infinite wisdom bought a travel pass for the U-Bahn. Daft idea and a waste of money really - seeing that when I travel solo I more-often-than-not end up walking the ass off any city I find myself in."

"Great to be met by someone at Arrivals for a change [old family freind] - it sometimes gets a little depressing wading through the sea of smiling faces when you know you're arriving somewhere alone."

From Luton To Berlin...

...In every disco I get in....

*ahem*

Right, I'm off for a week.

And not a moment too soon.

Be good.