Physical Violence

I hit someone yesterday morning. It's the first time in about ten years - maybe more - that I've thumped anyone, and I'm not proud of myself. I was angry at him.

Moonface & I were cycling into town, using the cycle lane inside the main traffic flow. She was slightly behind me, so I missed what happened. A van pulled partly left into the cycle lane, and a passenger within the van opened a door into Moonface's path, nearly knocking her over. A few years ago she was hospitalised by a similar accident, so she was very upset by yesterday's occurrence, yet when she shouted at him, the driver only laughed at her and he then drove off. I saw that Moonface was behind me, so I waited. When she caught me up, she explained what had happened, then burst into tears.

I lost my temper and cycled after the van. When I caught up with him at the next lights, I explained his error, politely. He pretended not to understand, so I explained in more detail, but not politely. Then he smirked, so I hit him on his nose through the open van window. Only once, not too hard. Then I cycled back to join Moonface. It spoiled our day.

A new Banksy

This week a new Banksy mural has appeared at the bottom of Park Street, on the blank wall of an office building. The City Council want to clean it off. I think it's a funny piece of art, very well executed. There was a crowd looking at it this afternoon, the first weekend it's been there.

Banksy's a local. He's probably Bristol's best-known artist, and his graffiti in London regularly make news. Thanks, Banks.

The friend

A woman has a close male friend.
This means that he is probably interested in her, which is why he hangs around so much.
She sees him strictly as a friend. She starts by saying, "Yyou're a great guy, but I don't like you in that way."
This is roughly the equivalent for the guy of going to a job interview and the company saying,
"You have a great resume, you have all the qualifications we are looking for, but we're not going to hire you. We will, however, use your resume as the basis for comparison for all other applicants. But instead we're going to hire somebody who is far less qualified and is probably an alcoholic. And if he doesn't work out, we'll hire somebody else, but still not you. In fact, we will never hire you. But we will call you from time to time to complain about the person that we hired."

(Not my personal opinion)

The Satyr

I glimpsed it or him from the train as a brief confusing vision, whilst I was rolling rapidly eastwards in a train towards London late one morning.

He, man or Pan, was leaning against the frame of the doorway at the entrance of a lineside railway hut. He was tanned bronze, with short curly fair hair. His upper body was naked, muscular and paunchy, with his dull brown railway overalls folded down below his navel over his thighs and buttocks, giving his legs the appearance of goaty haunches. A single dangling sleeve looked like a horse's tail hanging down behind him.

The train passed by, and I lost sight of him after just a few seconds, but the half-human image lingered on.

The lake

There is a disused quarry in Henleaze, a northern suburb of Bristol, that has been used as a swimming pool for eighty years. This weekend I made my first visits there this summer, and it was wonderful. The water was cool and green, the sun was warm on my back, and I swam for the first time since October. Friday afternoon was especially relaxing, as I drove there straight after a 200km drive in the heat and sun. Getting my skin cool and wet was a rare luxury, so after leaving there the rest of my day's work was almost tolerable.