A Livejournal miscellany...
Disjointed Images
Yesterday's friends list was full of commenorative posts about the events of last year. Had I been on LJ to update I would have done the same, but I only had time to read so mine's a day late.
Whenever I think of 7/7/05, four key things come to mind:
- the pit of the stomach fear of bad news every time I hit F5 on livejournal followed by the flood of relief as another friend posted with news;
- gratitude to cookwitch and silenttex for letting me come home with them. To have people to lean on, and more specifically that I felt comfortable leaning on as I'm aware I have many friends I can turn to but I never like to impose or cause an undue fuss, stiff upper lip and all that, is a rarity for me. It was great to feel like I belonged somewhere;
- the memory of the journey back to Harold Hill with Cookwitch and Silenttex, in particular the sight of the closed Tube stations. That more than anything is my defining image of that day. London was so empty. London should never be empty;
- and a song, adapted from the original by jfs at the time of the attempted second attack, that I reproduce here with no permission whatsoever, I hope he doesn't mind.
Streets of London by Ralph Bin Tell.
Have you seen the young man, in the jihad jumper,
playing with his bombs, that fail to go off?
He'll just keep on trying, the Prophet wasn't lying;
Virgins in heaven his reward soon enough.
And how can you tell me you're lonely?
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me drive you from the tube and force you through the Streets of London;
I'll show you something that will make you change your mind.
Finally, in the words on many of my friends: Still alive.
Two new words
chthonian adj of or relating to the underworld. Good one for Scabble players I bet.
billingsgate noun Foul, abusive language. From the fish market at Billingsgate, also the origin of 'fishwife' as a description of a coarse and abusive woman.
The revelation
I don't like guns.
This is a bit of an odd revelation to have. I like fictional guns, guns in films are not a problem and historical guns in museums are equally fine. Guns carried by soldiers and armed police are scary, but I figured that's because a) they're fecking huge and b) armed police and solidiers are scary, full stop. But yesterday I was happily watching Criminal Minds and I spotted Cookwitch's new gun on the living room table. It's not a full-on proper gun, it's a pistol that shoots pellets (a BB-gun? *shrugs* don't know what they're called); d_floorlandmine bought it for her for her birthday. Something about seeing that gun shape just sitting there on the table made me really nervous. Completely irrational as it's not like anyone was about to leap up and start firing the thing but I got really tense and on edge with it there and had to ask Cookwitch to move it. Very strange.
The new icon
Do you like it? After recent weekends spent lounging about with the Champagne Set, I thought I needed an indolent Pimms drinking icon and this fits the bill perfectly. It's from one of the Bunny Suicides books so the whole picture isn't quite as cheerful, but I loved this little bit. Since I've stolen the picture, I shall do my bit for the artist's finances by saying that if you'd like to know how a bunny lounging around with a book and a highball can contribute to a suicide, you'll just have to buy the book and find out!
Yesterday's friends list was full of commenorative posts about the events of last year. Had I been on LJ to update I would have done the same, but I only had time to read so mine's a day late.
Whenever I think of 7/7/05, four key things come to mind:
- the pit of the stomach fear of bad news every time I hit F5 on livejournal followed by the flood of relief as another friend posted with news;
- gratitude to cookwitch and silenttex for letting me come home with them. To have people to lean on, and more specifically that I felt comfortable leaning on as I'm aware I have many friends I can turn to but I never like to impose or cause an undue fuss, stiff upper lip and all that, is a rarity for me. It was great to feel like I belonged somewhere;
- the memory of the journey back to Harold Hill with Cookwitch and Silenttex, in particular the sight of the closed Tube stations. That more than anything is my defining image of that day. London was so empty. London should never be empty;
- and a song, adapted from the original by jfs at the time of the attempted second attack, that I reproduce here with no permission whatsoever, I hope he doesn't mind.
Streets of London by Ralph Bin Tell.
Have you seen the young man, in the jihad jumper,
playing with his bombs, that fail to go off?
He'll just keep on trying, the Prophet wasn't lying;
Virgins in heaven his reward soon enough.
And how can you tell me you're lonely?
And say for you that the sun don't shine?
Let me drive you from the tube and force you through the Streets of London;
I'll show you something that will make you change your mind.
Finally, in the words on many of my friends: Still alive.
Two new words
chthonian adj of or relating to the underworld. Good one for Scabble players I bet.
billingsgate noun Foul, abusive language. From the fish market at Billingsgate, also the origin of 'fishwife' as a description of a coarse and abusive woman.
The revelation
I don't like guns.
This is a bit of an odd revelation to have. I like fictional guns, guns in films are not a problem and historical guns in museums are equally fine. Guns carried by soldiers and armed police are scary, but I figured that's because a) they're fecking huge and b) armed police and solidiers are scary, full stop. But yesterday I was happily watching Criminal Minds and I spotted Cookwitch's new gun on the living room table. It's not a full-on proper gun, it's a pistol that shoots pellets (a BB-gun? *shrugs* don't know what they're called); d_floorlandmine bought it for her for her birthday. Something about seeing that gun shape just sitting there on the table made me really nervous. Completely irrational as it's not like anyone was about to leap up and start firing the thing but I got really tense and on edge with it there and had to ask Cookwitch to move it. Very strange.
The new icon
Do you like it? After recent weekends spent lounging about with the Champagne Set, I thought I needed an indolent Pimms drinking icon and this fits the bill perfectly. It's from one of the Bunny Suicides books so the whole picture isn't quite as cheerful, but I loved this little bit. Since I've stolen the picture, I shall do my bit for the artist's finances by saying that if you'd like to know how a bunny lounging around with a book and a highball can contribute to a suicide, you'll just have to buy the book and find out!