new carpet!!!

old carpet:




new carpet: (with gratuitous laser eye dog)



it's not patterned. it's soft and squishy. it's positively dreamy. to paraphrase jan and dean, i'm in love with the new rug in school.

when we came to the oast to pick up the keys all those years ago, we were met with the startling sight of a man on his hands and knees carefully cutting out a burn mark (old tenants apparently did not believe in ironing boards). he was filling this in with a piece of carpet that our new landlord proudly informed us he had kept from his original fit out. you know, back in 1970 something. we didn't say anything because frankly we just wanted the keys and the moving van was coming the next day but as we walked back to the train station we were both like WTF??? this was without a doubt the ugliest carpet we had seen in a house ever. and this guy kept a piece for repairs?

turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg but we love our oast. the landlord, john, died several years ago, and his wife is much more pragmatic. we have been extraordinarily lucky with our housing and with our landlords. and best of all, the hated carpet is now consigned to someone's allotment.

seen on train last night

i first saw this guy on the tube - it was packed and this man had tons of luggage and this giant stuffed bear. then he ended up sitting in the seats across from me on my train home to kent. just before i got off i asked him if i could take a picture of his bear and he smiled and said "of course".

it's crazy busy at the moment - big projects at work, tough move this weekend with some serious crap going down (literally - building manager wouldn't allow me to use the lifts so my poor, but very strong and tough removal men had to take everything down the stairs, and then the plans were wrong and i was short 25 metres of filing. arggghhh).

classes started last week too - my class this year is fantastic - i'm so excited about it.

but now, tired. i need to go to bed, but i've only been home for 2 hours and i want to stay up! i feel like a five-year-old. if i were a dog, i'd be on the second turn just before i flop over and fall asleep half way across my bed.

thump.

???

from yesterday's Guardian:

Three pensioners were today jailed for up to nine years for their part in a £60m cannabis smuggling operation. Derek Mercer, 70, of south Norwood, south-east London, was sentenced to eight years; John Rowe, also 70, of Bethnal Green, east London, got seven years; and Wattie Soutter, 68, of Rotherhithe, south-east London, received nine-and-a-half years. The cannabis, disguised as frozen chickens, was imported from the Netherlands to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. Police recovered two tonnes of the drug, and the court heard there had been 12 previous shipments. Two accomplices were also jailed.

emphases mine, of course.

happy october

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