Up on the roof

I've been clearing out the loft. Do Americans use the word "loft". I mean the roof space in our house. We're turning it into a bedroom for the boy. There was a lot of crap up there. Actually, not as much as I thought there was, but a lot. The majority of it seems to be junk. I went to the recycling centre and threw most of that away yesterday. There is some left however, and we don't have a lot of space to put it. I have a lot of books and no shelf space. I suppose I am going to have to build shelves, but I'm not sure where. I hate to throw books away.

Talk here in the office today is all centred on Usain Bolt breaking the world 100m record. Everyone here thinks he's using drugs. He seems to be running 0.1 secs faster than anyone else on the planet. There are parallels with the Florence Griffith-Joyner story. I looked up her history. It seems her 100m record still stands at 10.49 seconds, set in 1988. She of course died at the age of 38 in fairly mysterious circumstances. She retired at the age of 28, just after she secured 100m and 200m records, and just before random drug testing was implemented. She still holds the 200m record which was also set in 1988 (21.34 sec). She never tested positive for drugs throughout her career.

By the way, Usain Bolt ran 100m in 9.58 sec, that's an average of just under 24 mph.

My bloody boss is talking loudly in German on the phone next to me and has been for at least the last hour. It's getting up my bloody nose. He's going to Zurich or somewhere tomorrow I think.

I notice that Ronnie Biggs has made a miraculous recovery after being released from prison on compassionate grounds. Funny that this report seems to suggest that Biggs said he intended to carry on living "to spite those who want me dead". Quite remarkable since he was apparently unable to speak two weeks ago, and just days from death.

Oh, we have maggots in our dustbin. I so hate maggots. This is bloody Tony Blair's fault. We only get rubbish collected once every two weeks now. I wrapped everything up in two bags and put it in the wheelie bin when I discovered them. The little bastards can't get out of there, but they did manage to escape from my double wrapping. The wheelie bin gets emptied today however and I'm going to bleach it when it's empty. It was super full this week due to loft clearing exercise.

The Dragon bought the boy Cars on DVD on Friday. I think it's been played about 15 times since then. I can almost do the script. It is a good film. I have seen it rather too many times however. I found hundreds of old video tapes in the loft yesterday. The ones I've recorded myself I have thrown out. The rest I will give to the charity shop, apart from a few that I've put aside to keep. I found Picnic at Hanging rock, Paris Texas, and the Derek Jarman version of The Tempest. Now they are three great films. I'm going to show the Dragon Picnic at Hanging Rock. I reckon she will like that one. If that goes OK we might progress to Paris Texas. I'm not sure the Tempest is really her type of thing, though it is possibly the greatest film ever made.