Everything Wrong is Right Again

Finally as the dust clears I stand back and survey the estate... yeah we're still living in a bungalow in Frome. It's a really nice place and as the weeks go by I'm increasingly amazed at how nice it is. The nasty taste of the old place has finally started to fade. Okay, so it's only a temp rental but it's about 1000 times better than where we were. And yes it's going to be knocked down next year to make way for millions of starter homes, like I give a rats ass. :D

Recently I've been thinking about presents. It's just a time of life thing, I s'pose, but an old friend of mine was talking about being given a Partridge Family DVD. It's nice to be given presents, but I suspect that was just something old, a 70s gift for a 70s person. It got me thinking. How hard is it to buy things for someone like me?

Yeah, also I wish every once in a while someone would get me something I really wanted. Like I have lots of packs of cards, I kind of collect them. I have sunglasses in every drawer. I own about 10 watches that work. I have about 10 nice pens I love. I own a lot of things with skulls on them. I own a lot of things with Hula dancers on them (I even have a wobbling one on my car dashboard)... I wear predominantly black clothes these days, after years of wearing the same brown and blue combos... I like cheesy British horror movies. I like odd ethnic music, especially new pop/rock takes on ethnic styles. So if you know me you know that I like those things. What is so hard about buying me a pack of cards, sunglasses, a watch, a pen, a skull, a hula dancer or a piece of black clothing?

It seems that no matter how individual you are, how particular your tastes, people who know you really well often still misread you or pay no attention to what you really like. But I suppose when they do get it right it feels all the more special.

Anyway, for the record:

How to buy things for Phil
(a users guide)
Buying for Phil is easy, as the man has so many regular obsessions you can hook into any of these and find the perfect gift, and in the process go as expensive and as cheap as you like. It's easy!

Phil likes the following things in no particular order:

Batman (esp. The Joker and Batman Begins)
James Bond (esp. the new Casino Royale and the original books)
Hula dancers
Sunglasses (new style narrow ones or wrap arounds esp.)
Cocktail accessories
Playing cards
Poker chips
Dice (esp. more than 6 sides or interesting materials)
Pens (black ink and either fibre or nib)
Skulls; all kinds
Black clothing, esp. shirts and jackets
Doctor Who (esp. Cybermen)
Yucatan cuisine, esp. puerco pibil and achiote paste
DiVX players
iPod accessories (I have a first gen iPod Nano)
Ethnic music, odder the better
Foreign movies, esp. French, Finnish or Swedish
Watches, esp. replicas but anything stylish or unusual

Oh, and before I go I just got two things for myself recently that I really like. A Casino Royale poker set, which I got for a fraction of the normal price, and a Japanese/Polish movie called AVALON (2001) on DVD for £4 on Amazon.co.uk.

Lots of people leaving work at the moment, and all my favourite students of the last three years... going to miss everyone. Makes it harder to stay here and do this job when you're not surrounded by friends. And saying goodbye to lots of people you really love is hard on the soul. Ow. Gonna take a lot of absinthe to make this poor old heart grow fond again.

Peace out.

(Apologies to Sheree for reusing a lot of this from an email to her. She'll understand...)