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January, sick and tired...

22:44 / 17.01.03

My title reminds me that one of the band "Pilot" who sang that lovely and deeply resonant tune *January" way back in the pleistocene era, was a porter at my old hospital before I left. & Fish from Marillion had a sister who was domestic in the ward upstairs, but I digress (and apologies for straying, being very pissed).

Anyway, my real purpose in posting was to to say January is a shit month and people could do more to relieve the essential shitness. My parents fuck off to Tenerife every year, for the whole month, retired bastards. Had we the money, we also would go sample a more clement climate, go to India and chill, so to speak.

But we don't, so I was impressed to discover that my new employer traditionally hosts a big post-Christmas bash each year, in the middle of January, where the booze is free, the food is free, and lots of lovely men turn up in leather trousers to do dad dancing to seventies tunes. And I get to huggle the lovely woman (in a splendid and enviably spangly top) who gave me the London job to begin with. The drunken debauch was tonight obviously...

That is all. What gets you through January? TS Eliot was misinformed, January is the cruellest month...

22:50 / 17.01.03

And Smith's Night at Duckie looks like then thing that will get me through the rest of this January weekend, mmmmm...

The Apple-Picker

22:51 / 17.01.03

January is the cruelest month--in tandem with its friend February. I despise these two months. I can deal with the after-festivities fall-out, but I cannot deal with the bitterness of cold and wind. My face almost went necrotic today. I had to keep my mouth closed at all times or my teeth would sting with the cold.

The Apple-Picker

22:53 / 17.01.03

Oh, I forgot what gets me through: lots of wine. That's how I did it last year. Tonight it's liebfraumilch. I have no idea how fashionable or tacky it is. I just saw it in the store; it was cheap; it sounded sweet, and so I bought it.

23:03 / 17.01.03

Ah, Liebfraumilch! Reputedly Judy Garland's favourite (along with the non-prescription drugs) and thus a big favourite in the Edinburgh gay community during my coming of age of in the 70's. They have recently "rebranded" in an attempt to capture the youth market, I hear. Lemonade with a minimal alcoholic content, what more could you ask for?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:12 / 18.01.03

A new season of Buffy'll do it every time. That and the vain hope that we might get more snow.

00:22 / 18.01.03

Yes, January is a fucker where I am at, joined by its eeeeeeevil brothers, December and February.

We have been lucky this time around, the sun shone four times this past month.

I purposefully think ahead, in order to make it through, imagining all the pleasantries I can do when spring kicks in. Also, I have the love of my friends, and they amuse me to no end. A sexual conquest always boosts the morale.

I just think if I were to whine, I would be unbearable, so I look for relief from any corner.

Constitution Hill

00:42 / 18.01.03

I'm with you on the Buffy, Chairman, though i'm cheating tonight by downloading the first few episodes [to get me through a dissertation motivation crisis]. But it's the knowledge that there'll be less chance of snow for another 12 months that gets me through January. This has been my first ever hangover-free january though, which has maybe made it easier. That and the fact that apart from weather-related illness i don't find the calendar has all that much effect on me. Apart from May. My family has 6 birthdays in May, including mine, and the combination of wallet-pain and family gatherings can be grisly.

The Return Of Rothkoid

03:23 / 18.01.03

Hmm. At this point, I don't feel like I even am getting through the month. It's hot and everything is shit. The wind outside is like it's come straight from hell, and I am stuck in a whole stack of awfulness.

Sigh. So much fer meds.

pointless and uncalled for

14:43 / 18.01.03

Despite it's cruelty, January is a month with it's own brand of beauty and one that I would sorely miss were it edited from the calendar. The bleakness is an amazing counterpoint to the fullness of the summer months and a complete nessecity in the balance of things. A clear sky to complement the naked trees and the busied faces is both a compelling and comforting sight. A pass of snow and the unhindered force of natures laws a reminder that it is not we that own this planet but that it owns us.

Tree-hugging hippy crap? Quite possible but the good points of the month are what keep me going through it. To dwell is akin to sitting on a hedgehog, uncomfortable, unproductive and self-damaging.

14:59 / 18.01.03

I like the tree-hugging hippy that lurks within, potus. You should show that face to the world more often. But what I do with consenting adult hedghogs is entirely my own business, thank you.

I can see your point about the bleakness thing, the barren beauty, but I yearn now for spring, all the same. If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Glorious spring, where the hedghogs frolic unfettered in the sunlit swamplands of South London and Xoc hugs trees in bud...

The Apple-Picker

16:07 / 18.01.03

Yes--It's not the barrenness or the bleakness that is so cruel. I like the barrenness and bleakness of the last bit of fall and the beginning of winter. Snow is lovely. Cold isn't so bad. It's the bitterest cold that I hate. It's just so nasty.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:08 / 18.01.03

New shows on Sky do help. January used to suck more because where I used to work you got paid on the last Thursday of the month, except December, when they pay you a week before Christmas. The upshot of this is the marker between pay days then becomes around six weeks, in some of the most unpleasant and cold weather you get all year.

I'm managing to keep myself just enough busy to not notice, watching all those old videos of stuff that I haven't watched, I've still got 'But I'm a Cheerleader', 'If...' and 'Last Night' if they're needed this weekend. Reading more too. I just need to start writing again and then that'll be fine. Barbemeets every other weekend have helped too.

The Apple-Picker

16:08 / 18.01.03

Windswept and raw are fine for the landscape but not me.

16:10 / 18.01.03

P'shaw, bleakness be damned! If I could afford it, I'd spend every miserable, post-climactic January sunning myself in India, Mexico, Barbados, Thailand - anywhere other than Ol' (Col') Blighty...

17:15 / 18.01.03

I think you have a point, Izzardy tv in camo. This is my first cable-less January for many a year and may therefore be the crueller for it. One less, though significant, essential for the cocooning lifestyle that befits this season. Could have wept with jealousy when hana_bi bragged to me about having watched the new Buffy t'other night.

But my hangover persists and consequently all is gloom and despondulism. Rrrrrgh. Think I'll seek asylum in Australia and go be miserable in the warm glow of a bush fire with Rothkoid. Anyone know a good method for removing hedghog spines from one's nether regions?

18:37 / 18.01.03

What gets me through January? My birthday. But now that's been in its box for a week and is long forgotten. Pay day has been and gone, the January Sales were shit, and it's raining.

Other than that... whoop-de-do.

18:46 / 18.01.03

And you're at home and online on a Saturday night, too.

I dunno, January has never seemed so bad since I left Scotland. London might be a bit dull and grotty but at least you know it'll pick up by the start of April. It's not so bad - the days are getting longer already, the sales will soon be over and the shops will have some decent clothes for sale. And next month just happens to include my birthday. Perfect! So January's not so bad.

(apologies - I've just spent three days on a training course being filled full of visions and values and rah-rah talk and so I may have been slightly brainwashed. Cynicism will resume as soon as possible).

18:50 / 18.01.03

"It's January! Motivate the slackers in your office! Come into work wearing a sombrero and a Hawaiian shirt! Drink soda instead of coffee! Take your colleagues out for a picnic!"

Yeah, I think I went on that course.

And I'm at home and online on a Saturday night because I'm suffering from the kind of stomach bug you really dont't want details about.

18:57 / 18.01.03

"Lead the band from where you stand".

I even have a teeny pink plastic recorder to remind me of this. Well, I would have if I didn't chuck it in my hotel room bin. What good is a recorder with three holes? "Drive the band mad, you've been had".

My excuse for being at home is that I just got back to the UK at 8am today. And so I'm likely to slump onto my keyboard any minute - especially if I keep drinking this yummy red wine.

19:24 / 18.01.03

Me too, except replace "yummy red wine" with Andrew's Liver Salts. I think I'm going to go and watch Armageddon to take my mind off the Extinction Level Event occurring in my intestines.

19:25 / 18.01.03

And you're at home and online on a Saturday night, too.

Some of us are at work right now, sigh. Under the influence of nothing stronger than two cigarettes and a bottle of cola. See? There's always someone worse of than yourself.

But I think you should all stop whining and bloody well adapt.

pointless and uncalled for

10:29 / 19.01.03

It's not like it gets that cold.

OK, I admit that I speak from the position of an Ex-Ontarian, but seriously, I don't see how you can refer to anything less than three months of sub-zero temeratures as cold.

Xoc - minus the hedgehoggy desires, can you not enjoy the anticipation of spring when romance and fun fill the heart of young men like ourselves?

Did I say too much there.

14:46 / 19.01.03

I was just enjoying the lovely fresh winter weather and thinking this isn't so bad after all. Crisp and clear. Gorgeous weekend here.

15:31 / 19.01.03

January is the cruellest month, Xoc! Most of our friends have left the country (for India or Australia) or are miles away (in London). There's also the "no money" left after Xmas thing about January. However, it does help that I don't have to work for the next 6 months and can enjoy the delights of day-time TV!! Sorry to gloat.

15:54 / 19.01.03

January is great - the days are getting longer, the air is clear and fresh, and my best friend's birthday is at the end of the month. Daffodils are popping their heads up around here, too, so all seems hopeful.

I'm always at home on a Saturday night. Is that bad?

18:46 / 19.01.03

Bracing pre-spring day today and enjoyed it greatly. Glorious sunshiney London!

I have discovered a cure for January (not involving potus's surging hormones, nor hedghog abuse). Spent the entire weekend in an alcoholic blur, yattering with some cuddly friends, listening to barbeloids doing four part harmony to Dusty Springfield songs (well, two of the four were in harmony) or slumped in front of the computer, hungover. Whenever I feel the January slump powering up again, I shall just repeat the treatments.

& 6 months of daytime tv sounds fab, Cantankor, but not if I have to have sex with hana_bi first.

19:05 / 19.01.03

Well I feel like curling up and hibernating but that is because it is Sunday evening after a heavy weekend, not because it is January. I think I agree with Xoc's method of coping, but employ it most of the year round already.

Actually I'm enjoying this winter, my first awake for ages. I got a light box in September and *it works*. I'm so surprised! Right now I have novelty factor to get me through.

16:48 / 20.01.03

Jars of sunshine, folks.

Jars of sunshine.

14:33 / 21.01.03

Yeah, it's been damn freezing here. Fortunately I get to go to San Diego for a week at the end of the month. Unfortunately, I get to spend most of that time sitting at a booth in a convention center...

Tryphena Absent

15:22 / 21.01.03

Twenty people have looked at my house today, I had three hours sleep because the landlord turned up at 10am and I had insomnia and a late bedtime last night, Barbelith appears to be mildly chaotic and killing my remaining brain cells and I still have to cook dinner which should take about two hours. I've been to the supermarket, I've run out of cigarettes, I'm in the bloody library - Buffy isn't on til Thursday and the end of Farscape is getting closer and closer. I've run out of good Harry Potter slash to read and there have been five violent attacks on women in Cardiff in the last month.

January - pah.

That's it-- I'm renting the Mandy Moore film.