one red paperclip

some of you may have heard about the guy who made a million dollars on the internet just by selling advertising space on a blank website well this is the next one of those 'i wish i thought that' websites. i read about this guy in the guardian the other day. basically this kyle macdonald wants to swap a red paperclip for a house. obciously no one in his right mind would make that trade so he's trading his way up. he swapped the paperclip for a pen, the pen for a doorknob, the doorknob for an old barbucue and so on. today he has just swapped a van for professional recording sessions. i think jnow he is getting more famous he will definately get his house soon. i quite like the idea of trading for stuff. as i said last week i managed to knacker my fridge. one of the places i tried to get a replacement was freecycle. if you haven't heard of the idea freecycle have local groups where you can give away stuff you no longer need or ask to see if anyone else has certain items. nice ideas i think.

a little more positive!

the third entry for the day, looks like we have nothing better to do! but i guess blog entrys seem like a therapy or something at the minute. yeah a mad week, but all of a sudden things are looking up.

as mentioned earlier, our landlady put our flat on the housing list for next term without even letting us know. as we hadnt actually made the decision of what we would be doing come the summer and september (a thought and conversation that has being filling us with dread), it felt like the decision had been taken out our hands a little, but guess thats maybe for the best as decision making is not mine or steves strong point. the only sensible decision for us now is to return to manc, so no more sea and pier and ice cream, but friends and family and better job prospects will be a bonus. so thats all ok then.

so then we were having a morning of showing people around on saturday, wasn't looking forward to this, especially as katie is making a flying visit so wouldnt have been too much fun for her, but then two really nice girls just came round to see the 'boys upstairs', and had a sneaky look around and they love it and theyre taking it. so thats nice. its such an awesome house and not just anyone can live here i dont think, but we were so excited when we moved in a couple of years ago, so now they can be plus now we can just hang a sign on the door and not have to show a single spoilt student aroud. so thats cool.

and yes did just have a hideous time with a breakdown, slap bang centre of swansea at a set of roadwork traffic lights on a friday afternoon, but on the plus side i broke down outside of the 'swansea transport club' a place ive always driven past and questioned because it just looks like a living room with a bar in it. so as i had a 90 minute wait for the AA some guy with black teeth and a burberry cap invited me in, turned out my initially suspicions were right and it was just a living room with a bar. but it was nice all the same, and the dude told me all about his awful ex and his son and how 'she' was all to blame. the story of every single swansea man. then he told me he felt like he had known me for years. not quite sure how to take that. but then my knight in a yellow and black van turned up and all was well. so looks like i have a new friend for life and i got home safely, so thats all ok too.

so with the weekend in sight it suddenly all seems rosey again.

league table of breakages (updated)

ok so following lisa's comment reminding me of the rest and with regards to todays events here's an updated list:

steve: 1 plate, 1 wine glass, 2 pint glasses, 1 coffee jug, 1 cafetiere, 2 mugs, 1 fridge
roxy brian: 1 internet cable, 1 phone cable, 1 pint glass, 1 bowl
lisa: 1 wine glass and the clutch on the car


the clutch is not technically lisa's fault but she was driving and it makes me look better. i obviously write this in a sympathetic way as lisa has had a crap day being marooned in swansea waiting for the AA for most of the day. on top of that we were meant to pick the fridge up today and lisa was on hte way to take the carpet cleaner back to homebase. what a week.

a week of shenanigans

i think the title might be an understatement really. this week has been madness. first of all i started my second school placement. most people reading this aren't going to realize the full annoyance of this but my uni tutors decided to place me in Maesteg. to put it into context we live in mumbles, a small place to the west of swansea, kind of round the bay. maesteg on the other hand is way east of swansea then up a big valley and impossible to reach by public transport in anything less the 2 and 1/2 hours and 3 buses oh and i don't drive oh and it's a split site school where it's too far to walk between the lower school and the upper school.

also this week i managed to kill the fridge. i was helpfully trying to free up a bit freezer space with a tapping hammer, yes just a tapping hammer when i started to hear a hissing sound. yes i had punctured a hole in the freezer compartment. from there it was a slow but steady decline for the the fridge till it flatlined sometime the next day. we tried all manner of intervention but done of it took. glue, cork, gaffer tape- all to no avail.

then today i went managed to to flip the self that holds all our plates and mugs in the kitchen. now the jury's still out as to quite what happened but i think the fact that the shelf apparently was never nailed down in the first place shows that it's not really my fault. anyway that puts me way ahead in the breakages league table. which looks a little like this:

steve: 1 plate, 1 wine glass, 2 pint glasses, 1 coffee jug, 1 fridge
roxy brian: 1 internet cable, 1 phone cable, 1 pint glass
lisa: 1 wine glass

slow burning flags

who would have thought that the Danish flag would have been in such demand this year. it's quite a shame actually because i have been to denmark but didnt manage to buy a flag and now hundreds are being burnt. as some of you will no doubt know i am an avid collector of flags. well i have about 20-odd but thats casue i try to buy them from the countries i visit and i only started after my first inter-railing trip so i missed some out. but i do plan to get every flag in the world. so actually i'm probably a good person to know if you are planning to start a protest against the basque country or sicily for instance.

actually many of you will aso be aware of the plans i had to set up a flag business in the trouble spots of the world, selling slow burning flags of a variety of countries, maybe even double sided ones - say the U.S. flag on one side and the Israeli flag on the other. Most importantly the slow burning flags would be accurate. obviously a lot of the danish flags that have been burnt these last few weeks have been homemade- quite a simple flag you would think. but many muslims seem to want to pick a fight with Switzerland or even the french province of Savoy.
Protesters with the savoy flag

I'll finish this post with a warning from the premier spokeperson on flag matters Charles Ashburner of flagwire.

"Charles Ashburner warns Muslim protesters they risk horrific burns if they torch his Danish flags at a mass rally in London today.

"If the bits of burning material land on anyone's skin or eye, they will stick and cause serious injury or blindness."

nazarenes in the news

i came across this cartoon in the independent the other day in an article about where political cartoonists should draw the the line in the light of the danish cartoon thing thats going on. this one is by one of my favourite cartoonists- steve bell of the guardian. interesting his was about one he had done about brian souter and the clause 28 referendum he funded. i found the reference about the 'Nazarene Sect' really interesting where they talk about whether mr souter 'is a bigot' something they couldnt prove and the Nazarene's who you also 'can't prove anything against'. while i was looking on the internet to see if the cartoon was there so i didnt have to scan it i came across lots of other articles on brian souter and the Nazarene's. most of them explained the church as an evangelical fundamentalist church based in kansas city. nice to ahave such a positive portrayal in the press. oh yes the other comment was that he came from a church that sort to 'cure homosexuals'. not sure it's quite the church i recognise.