The Programmers Lamment (by sarah)

I want feed back on this poem - I'm not sure how to set it out for a start - I was supposed to be writing in two line stanzers - free verse but I dont really under stand what that means so I gave up with the formal structure and wrote what came into my head - warning it does sort of contain a swear - not my fult blame the programmers.

Would lovew feed back - be harsh

Tap, tap, tapping away, Fingers flying, strange graceful dance

Notice not as light fades, consume all energies, forking demons, spawned zombi child

Dance logic, time

Tap tap tapping away, polish finger tips over letters worn

Hunger burns, Sandwitch forgotten, cat licked, stale,

Animalistic, persuing prey, Python here, Chicken there

tap tap tapping, wrist support frayed, mundane treasures, Ruby, Perl

Water sits, bubble strewn, littering your domain

Intently stare, bugs annialated, or so you prey

tap tap tapping, spinning ball, shift to corner, back again

3 am, time for sleep, red eye raw

cup of coffee, jar of beans

headaching, back stooped, so much to sort, so much to do

tap tap tapping. between the sheets, misty bruised dawn, comes and creeps

Power low, reserves giving out, drowsy talk, lisp, dialected, scheme

thought process hard, more tests more

Leached knowledge, sleep, dream, Brainfuck, But still keen

CRB trial and identity cards (by alaric)

Last night, I had a funny feeling there was something special about today... sure, it's our third wedding anniversary, but something else...

Oh yes. I'd agreed to go to Bristol about three months ago.

Quickly I checked the time I needed to be there - 1:20pm to 3:20pm - phew; I'd neither need to be up specially early, or be back too late to take Sarah to her writer's circle or stop off at the district scouting supplies shop to pick up some badges my Cubs had earned.

So what was I in Bristol for? The Criminal Records Bureau trial of their planned new identity checking procedures...

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Happy Anniversary! (by sarah)

Wow - we've been married for three whole years today which seems absolutely amazing!

Alarics still asleep but as he came to bed after midnight I've already wished him Happy Anniversary - time is just flying!

This also means we've had this blog for three years aswell which seems incredible - of course it took me awhile before I realised how to use the blog but I think I'm getting there 🙂

Of course due to health issues and a few finacial ones our life plans have been a bit up and down but we are slowely getting there! We still don't have ducks and bees and I for one do not currently have the energy for them as I'm not coping with doing household stuff anyway - hernia, back problems etc.... but Als still keen and hopefully we will eventually be more financially stable.

Of course in the original plan I should be in the middle of a PhD but haven't even gone back to the MRes yet, what I didn't expect was to suddenly become a web designer and most recently an illistrator (maybe) but these are the jobs I am getting and this is what I am currently doing along with setting myself down the path of writer - I got my first rejection slip this month so things are going good - no seriously it was a nice regection slip for the first thing I ever submitted and it was to a high profile scifi mag.

Living with Al has certianly had me on a steep learning curve what with industrial scale chutney making for him and working out whats edible in the garden and whats not!

I find myself emersed into a world of computers - so much so that I've started writing poetry about it :/ But thats another story - I do however miss my rocks, especially me little slivers of meteorite and I know that Alaric feels guilty that its my career on hold and this tells me that when I do get to go back he's going to support me.

He's lovely he is - I'm still always startled to see that so many marages don;t survive the first two years - we struggeled to realise that much time had passed.

Still this year it is leather themed so I have a scared Alaric on my hands (of course he's getting a nice leather tool roll but he thinks he's getting a loin cloth!).

Australia and Wales Collide (by sarah)

At the weekend I meet a cousin I had never before met and her husband who are on a visit from Australia! We met up with Shelia in Wales with my mum and dad.

It was interesting as I have dim memories of my aunts visiting when I was little - making mud pies and pretending to be a witch on a broom stick are about the only things I remember.

The only other one of the 9(?) cousins on my dads side that I've met was again when I was very small and I think pre-David so I had to be under 4 yrs old - he was called Glen and slept in the awning of our caravan on a family holiday in Wales and thats about it.

So this was all quiet exciting!

She makes websites which I'll link too in the side bar when I get a chance.

I also found out that the strange knecklace I have with a picture made of bits and pieces is one of my aunts bark pictures - which is nice though I think its probably still supposed to be in Essex and got packed up accidently from my bedroom when I moved in with Al.

We were hoping to go and see some of our Welsh relatives whilst in Wales - again dads side but unfortunatly the car decided to spring a quiet server leak which wasn't fun - reckon mine and dads bad luck fields are sinked and therefore amplyfy the bad luck - oh well never mind I can go and annoy those relatives at some other point!

A new arrival (by alaric)

The lightbulb in the bathroom died.

So we placed an order with Lightbulbs Direct, and a few days later, a parcel arrived:

We took the new bulb - still safe inside its egg - and set it up in a little hatchery until it was ready to emerge:

Before long, the egg came open, and our new bulb peeked out:

After all that effort, it was hungry, so quickly tucked into the pile of batteries we'd left out for it:

After a while it had built up its strength and started trying to find a nest:

So we took it to the bathroom and set it free:

It quickly settled in the nest in the ceiling:

And began to roost: