July 16, 2005
Buying Harry
So we did the midnight Harry Potter thing last night with several hundred others in the Books Etc. shop just down the road from where we are staying here in North London.
Funny thing is, Noah was by far the youngest person there and it seemed many more of the adult-cover versions (shrewd marketing) were being sold.
A woman about thirty in the line behind us caught sight of some friends in the line ahead of us and said, "Oh, I'm so relieved I'm not here alone. I felt like such a loser!"
Anyway, it was a fun thing to do and I suspect the 600 pages will be well and truly devoured by the time we get to Australia.
PS: I've reopened comments without moderation in the (probably vain) hope that the spam attack of the last week or so has eased off. We'll see.
Posted by Tim Dunlop at 05:32 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
July 10, 2005
Moved
Apologies for the lack of posting. Apart from finalising our move from Washington DC--and a million thanks to the people who helped with that--we've had a sickness in the family. Consequently, we haven't managed to do half the last minute things we wanted to do, but that's the way it goes. Suffice to say, it has been a busy week.
We are currently in NY saying goodbye to family here, and go to London later today. We got some cheap tickets a while back, figuring this would be the last chance for a discount visit before heading home to Australia.
Yeah, London.
First thing to say is a big fuck you to those responsible for the attacks there last week. I hope the God in whose name you perpetrated this act actually exists and is the loving, just figure of legend, because you guys are going straight to fucking hell. I'd like to be there and see the look on your faces as judgement is passed.
I've got nothing much to say about the politics of all this at this stage. Is the action in Iraq helping curb this sort of terrorism? No. Would this attack have happened anyway? Yes. Is there any possible excuse for this sort of terrorism. No.
Anyway, despite seriously considering altering our travel plans, we have decided not to. Partly this is our contribution to the worthwhile calls to not let these murderers intimidate us. On a global scale, such a decision is miniscule, though on a personal level it is bascially gambling with everything I hold precious in the world. But what else do you do?
As ordinary, individual citizens, our obligation is to defend our way of life by living it as we would normally. Beyond that, I think we need to stay engaged and use the freedoms we have--participation, dissent, deliberation--to make sure that our political leaders are responding appropriately.
But as I say, more on all that later.
A week away from blogging and there are plenty of other things I'd like to talk about too, not least our move back home. Leaving America hasn't been easy, though we're incredibly excited about being back home in around about a week. I guess I'll have more to say about all that as the opportunity presents itself.
At this stage, just this brief check-in, and a reminder that all my other emails addresses are now inoperative. The only one that will get me is tim.dunlop-at-gmail.com
UPDATE: Sorry to have to turn on the comment moderation (TypeKey) but I was getting flooded with spam and the only time I've been getting online has been spent deleting it. Creeps. It takes literally hours to delete using the dodgy connections I've had. Back to normal soon. And hopefully an actual post today or tomorrow.
And a big thanks to all those who have left their good wishes in comments and via emails.
Posted by Tim Dunlop at 12:11 PM | Comments (42) | TrackBack (0)