Misfits Mid-Life Crisis Adventures in South, East London (The NEXT Chapter).

Week 106 Saturday 25^th June until Friday 1^st July 2016.

The internet died last weekend, this was due to a large storm with some spectacular thunder and lightning directly overhead at one point. But it will never be as awesome as storms I witnessed in Mozziebeak or South Africa, but for the UK and during the day this was a good one.  As a result of this natural free show the internet decide to give in and stop working for pretty much the whole weekend.  Why, is still a mystery it could have been a flood or an electrical fault. But I like to think that it was because of a squirrel that hid in a hole to keep out of the rain and was scared of the thunder. I have this image of the squirrel being terrified of the thunder so it chewed through a cable, the cable that brings the internet to where I live.

 Picture from the IT Crowd, Jen holding “The Internet”.

There is a wonderful moment in the British comedy series “IT Crowd” when Jen is introduced to a small black box with a little red light on the top and told “This is the Internet”.  Of course it was a joke.  But in reality the internet too many of us is a small black box with various flickering lights on it, it certainly is where I live.  To see that box sitting in the corner of the room completely dark was a strange experience, I really wanted to pick it up and shake it holding it to my ear just to make sure that there wasn’t a sign of life.  Being a first aider it did cross my mind that maybe I could jump start the dead LEDs by pumping the metal casing with my clenched fists.

 Fighting for my space on the tube.

That little black box really is the gateway to all human knowledge, how they squeeze all that knowledge down a tiny cable is beyond me.  Maybe the internet would lose its magic if I did know how it worked.  Everything you want to know can be access through that small piece of hardware.  For example if you want to know what the small sheaf around the end of a shoelace “an aiglet” is, or how the interaction of subatomic particles effect your daily life. All this and much, much more can be answered because of that small black box happily blinking away to itself in the corner of the room.

 I really was not impressed with this man.

Not having the internet all weekend meant I had to do other things, like talk to people. Yes I had a number of conversations not about anything in particular it was just to give myself something to do.  I even thought about looking for a board game or a pack of cards, but I didn’t.  Maybe every house should have a box with a glass cover that you break in an emergency to access a bored game or cards just in case the internet goes down again, which it will at some time in the future.

  Fuel of the Future exhibition in Stratford, loving the eco cars.

For the whole weekend I kept looking at various devices just in case the internet had returned.  I realised that I was looking every few minutes at one point, hoping that the little bars at the top of the screen had reappeared.  There was always disappointment when I saw that I didn’t have contact with the world.

 All excited about her first school uniform.   

I realise I have become a slave to the internet; I check Facebook regularly only reading a few of the random posts that my eyes see.  There are a number of other sites I visit once or twice a day, which if I think about it only get updated a couple of times a week.  So being cut off from the net was actually a good thing, it meant I had times to do other things more meaningful things.

Part of the Somme Commemoration project, young men like this appeared all over the UK.

I’m not going to lie I was very relived early Monday morning after I have got up to get ready to work. And I discovered the internet had returned, the little black box was flashing and blinking happily to its self, first thought “what have I missed on Facebook”, I hadn’t missed much…..

 Cards handed out by voluntary participants dressed as soldiers, remembering those who died 100 years ago.

In other news…..

I normally use the stairs 5 flights up and down at work, only using the lift when I’m in a hurry. The time I decided to use it the damn thing because I was in a hurry it stopped at every floor. Saw a baby bird that had been flattened, squashed on the pavement, I couldn’t leave it there I managed to pick it up and put it in bushes on the green across the road, very sad. Came across a group of young men dressed in WWI outfits who were part of a national Somme commemoration project. It really brought it home how young the men who died were when I saw these young lads.

The Mid Life Crisis Conts……

This week I have been watching: “A Midsummers Nights Dream”, (BBC 30/05/16). “Game of Thrones”, (Seasomn 6, eps 1 to 2). “Glastonbury 2016”, (BBC). “I.T Crowd”, (Season 1, eps 6 & Season 2, eps 1 to 6 & Season 3, eps 1 to 4). “Inside Porton Down: Britain Secret Weapons Research Facility”. “Magnifica 70”, (Season 1, eps 3). “Murder In Successville”, (Season 2, eps 3). “New Blood: Case 2”, (part 2). “Power Monkeys”, (Season 1, eps 5).  “Reggie Yates in a Texan Jail”.  “The last leg In, Last leg Out”, (Season 8, eps 3). ”The Graham Norton Show”, (Season 19, eps15). “The Living and the Dead”, (Season 1,eps 1 to 3).  

This week I have mainly been listening to: ”LBC Podcast: Nick Abbot (Whole Show)”, (25 & 26/06/16 & 01/07/16). “LBC Podcast: Nick Abbot (Mid-Week)”, (2806/16). “Iain Lee: TalkRADIO (Highlights)”, (24, 27 to 30/06/16). “Morrissey”, “The Doors”, “Fat Boy Slim”, “Ladyhawke”, “Manson”, “Arcade Fire”, “The Libertines”, “Florence and the Machine”.