A BOWL OF...
I was given a bowl of soup that after a week had changed the way it looked.

RAINBOW AND WHITE CAR

HEALTH AND DEATH

‘Have you seen Thebus recently,’ he said as we sat in the pub watching football on a big screen.
‘I’m going there after this,’ I said.
‘How is he?’
‘The last few times I’ve been there,’ I said, ‘all the conversations have ended up about health and death.’
‘Does he know about me?’
‘I think that’s part of it,’ I said, ‘that and his blood pressure.’
‘High is it?’
‘Apparently.’

Couple of days later she said she’d seen him.
‘How was he?’ I said.
‘Seemed okay,' she said, 'though he did mention something about his blood pressure.’

IN A SPIN
a few rounds of the tops of buildings near Temple Meads

SKY’S THE LIMIT

It was nine o'clock in the evening when I answered the knock and opened my front door to a man standing opposite me who introduced himself, ‘hello, I’m from Sky.’
‘I’ve not got a television,’ I said, ‘and I’m not interested.’
It was abrupt of me and I hoped I hadn’t hurt his feelings because I wouldn't like to be doing a job like his, knocking, at this time of night, on doors behind which unknown people lived.
‘If you’ve not got a television you won’t be interested in what we’re selling,’ he said.
‘That’s right.’
‘Well, I won’t try to sell you anything then,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’
‘I wouldn’t want to waste your time trying,’ he said.
‘Or your time,’ I said.
The woman was with him when I answered the door and had walked off up the corridor when I’d said I wasn’t interested came back and put her hand on the arm of the man was talking to me.
‘Looks like I’ve got to go,’ he said.
‘It does, doesn’t it,’ I said.

GREETINGS

I went down the stairs to the front entrance because I had letters to post and this was the way to the letterbox. Nearing the last flight before the bottom I stood to one side to let two men pass going up.
The first one said, ‘alright?’
‘Alright,’ I said.
The second one said, ‘cheers.’
I said, ‘ok.’

WHEN MACHINES DON’T WORK

‘When the lift’s not working you have to call the repairs number,’ she said, ‘because if you press the alarm button they’ll only come out if you’re stuck.’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘I phoned repairs but the message box was full so I thought I’d try pressing the button.’
We got in the lift and I said, ‘it’s breaking down a lot at the moment, isn’t it?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘It’s a hassle carrying stuff down the stairs,’ I said. ‘I feel for the people with pushchairs or the older women struggling up and down, you know?’
‘I know,’ she said, ‘and those people with weak hearts.’
‘True.’
‘My husband was stuck in the flat the weekend when it broke down the last time,’ she said. ‘Happened to be a time he couldn’t walk.’
‘Bye,’ I said as I got out the lift and she said, ‘bye,’ as she stayed in there to go one more floor down.
Later, when I phoned him and said, ‘can you pick me up the car won’t start and I’ve got a flat battery trying to get it going?’ he said, ‘I had trouble with my computer today and couldn’t do any work.’
‘You just start to rely on them,' I said, 'and they let you down.’
‘That’s machines for you,’ he said.

WATER RUNNING DOWN KING SQ AVE
2:17PM MONDAY 20TH NOVEMBER 2006

RIGHT COLOUR, WRONG PRICE

‘Who’s next?’ said the woman stood behind the counter in Bonapartes, the cafe on platform three at Temple Meads.
‘Guiness and Blackcurrant,’ said the man next to me, ‘a pint.’
‘Tell me how much blackcurrant?’ she said.
‘That’s enough,’ he said.
She poured from the tap onto the cordial then let the glass stand half full as the liquid settled.
‘That’s three forty-nine,’ said the woman and repeated it when the man said incredulous, ‘how much?’
‘That’s for the blackcurrant,’ I said, didn’t understand what he said next but laughed anyway.
‘Is it the wrong colour?’ she said.
‘No, no,’ he said, ‘it’s the right colour, it’s just not the right price.’

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS OF BROADMEAD

MAN DANCING

CAUGHT LOOKING

There were two ambulances outside the top entrance to the flats when when I got home this evening.
‘I see more ambulances here than I do at the hospital,’ I chuckled discreetly to myself hoping no one had heard me.
One of them had its lights on and I saw the glow of an on-board computer screen and there was no one sitting inside, ‘you shouldn’t leave that unattended,’ I thought, ‘someone could have a look.’
To prove my point I walked up to the closed driver’s window but only managed to read, “male in need of spinal tap,” before being disturbed and faintly embarrassed, being seen, by a man walking along the pavement who then followed me into the flats.

ACCIDENT REPORT

Just about home when it tipped it down so I got little wet. The man from upstairs held the lift for me, ‘thanks,’ I said, ‘lovely job,’ confirming my credentials.
His eldest daughter said, ‘look Dad, I won this at school.’
‘What is it?’ he said.
‘You save stuff on it from one computer then plug it in to another one and load it on there,’ she said.
‘Dad?’ said his younger daughter standing at the back of the lift, ‘I didn’t forget your orange, I accidentally ate it.’

TWO OLDER WOMEN

As I sat down on the sofa was there for people waiting for friends or family to come out the toilets on the top floor of Debenhams an older woman sat on its right arm said, ‘that’s why I didn’t sit there. I thought if I did I’d never get up again.’
‘I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go,’ I said.
‘That’s the thing about getting old,’ she said, ‘it’s harder to get up when you’re down.’
‘Is that right?’
‘Yes,’ she said, ‘don’t get old.’
‘I don’t want to die young,’ I said. ‘Anyway this time of year you start creaking and feeling the aches.’
‘Oh dear,’ she said.
An older woman came round the corner where the toilets were and said to the woman talking to me, ‘got yourself a man, then?’
‘He’s not very well.’
‘You not very well, then?’
‘I’ve got the flu seems to be going around,’ I said.
‘Oh well,’ she said, ‘you won’t mind if we leave alone will you?’

BOLLOCKS

‘Bollocks,’ said the woman.
‘But you’d pay a lot more...’ said the man.
The woman looked me in the eye as I got out the lift on my floor and walked round her.
‘Bollocks,’ she said.
‘You know you’d pay more for a...’ I heard the man say as the lift door was closing.
‘Bollocks.’

JOHANNESBURG CALLING

He called me on the landline.
‘Hello,’ he said, ‘my computer let me call you at last. You got the number now?’
I read out my mobile number and gave him the information he asked for punctuating my words with coughing.
‘You better get a doctor to look at that,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’
‘Just before you go,’ he said, as we approached the end of our conversation, ‘you know where I’m calling from?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘but I guess it’s not the UK, right?’
‘You know South Africa?’
‘I’ve heard of it.’
‘Well, I’m in Johannesburg,’ he said, ‘so if you start saving now we might see you here in two thousand and ten for the World Cup.’
‘Actually,’ I said, ‘a friend of mine’s brother lives there so we’ve talked about the possibility...’
‘Well, let’s hope the exchange rate with the rand is in your favour by then,’ he said.
‘Thanks.’
‘Ok, Sir, I hope you get well soon and I’ll wish you goodnight.’
‘Thank you very much for your help,’ I said. ‘Bye now.’

BUSKER IN A SUBWAY
a busker, in one of the subways leading out of the James Barton roundabout pedestrian pit, earns some money...

STILL HERE

Eleven was in the lift with her laundry bag when I got in with my bike. I noticed the button to floor five had been pressed and pressed for six.
‘Hello, you still here then?’ she said. ‘haven’t seen you for a while, I thought you’d moved.’
‘No, I’m still here,’ I said, gesturing with my arm in the direction of my flat.
There was a slight pause during which she looked down at her feet and I was about to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention when she said, ‘cold, isn’t it?’
‘Tell me about it,’ I said.
‘You warm up when you ride,’ she said pointing at me and making a pedalling motion with her arms and hands.
I got out the lift and said, ‘bye then.’
‘Bye,’ she said, ‘nice to see you.’

UNEXPECTED

‘Yes, I saw them,’ I said. ‘Three of them when I got back from work.’
‘There were two there when I got back and another one coming with its lights and siren going,’ she said. ‘Any idea who they came for?’
‘No. I thought it might be on my floor but there was nothing going on when I got out the lift.’
‘You know her dog died?’
‘No? Mind you it looked like it was getting on a bit. Was that recent?’
‘At the weekend. Anyway I wondered if it might be her. She’s getting on a bit and it was probably a shock losing the dog all of a sudden.’
‘Sudden, was it?’ I said.
‘Unexpected.’

THE EXPERIENCE

It sounded good to me, he’d got the levels right and they seemed happy but when they started playing the man himself was complaining.
‘Mouth doesn’t know what he’s talking about,’ I said to DDD.
‘They’ve got something,' he said, ‘but not as much to be that arrogant about.’

THREE AMBULANCES

There were three ambulances parked outside the top entrance of the flats when I got back from work this evening.
As I went up in the lift I half expected to see paramedics and associated paraphenalia when I got out but when the door opened there was no sign of such things.
I don’t know what or who they were attending led them to being parked outside but when I saw them I thought, ‘they should have a permanent station here or even a ward,’ and added, ‘it would save a lot of time.’

GIRL FIGHT ON WINE STREET

The cheque from the insurance compensating me for my injuries and bike damage sustained in the accident with the taxi on February 17th earlier in the year arrived this morning so I went to the bank and put it in.
On my way from Baldwin Street to the stationers on Wine Street a sudden movement of people away from the cash point near there was because two young women, maybe late teens early twenties, had started fighting.
They wore tee-shirts and jeans and were pulling each others hair, one had blond the other dark, and were scratching faces, kicking, gouging at eyes, it was very lively and they threw themselves about falling against the wall and then on to the pavement.
‘Stop, stop it,’ screamed a woman nearby who seemed to be dancing, ‘or I’ll call the police.’
Two young men ran over one turned to the other and said, ‘a fight, girls fighting, man,’ then they both laughed as they shouted encouragement.
I watched the women fight. They parted, one of them said something and they threw themselves back at each other.
‘Anyone filming this?’ someone said.
Two tall broad men pushed through the small crowd had gathered, got between the fighting women and pulled them apart.
The blond woman struggled against the man her arms flailing in the direction of the dark haired one.
They calmed down then the dark haired woman said, ‘where’s my phone?’
‘I don’t know,’ said the man holding her.
‘I bet that ginger cunt has got it,’ she shouted, pointing at the other woman who looked blond to me but, whatever, they made another lunge at each other the men held them back.
Later, I saw the blond woman walking across the top of Union Street, a spring in her step, she was on her own.

TWO VIEWS
contrasting weather conditions in town

DOING MY HEAD IN

‘Stop it, jesus man, you’re really doing my head in,’ said the man. ‘You’re really doing my head in.’
In one hand a small bottle of White Ice in the other a white plastic bag.
‘Jesus, what you trying to do?’ he said. ‘You’re really doing my head in, you are.’

TUMBLE DRYER

THE BABBLES ARE COMING

‘I was on the bus and thought I saw you sitting on some steps,’ he said. ‘Was it you?’
‘I was doing my laundry and was there waiting while it washed.’
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I got the bus all the way up to the end and then a group of youths with skateboards had a go at the driver because they thought he was going to take them further than he did so they got angry and then he got all authoritarian, over reacted if you ask me...’
‘Did he over react?’ I said.
‘Yes. Anyway, at some point the police were called and the driver said, “you’d better go, or you get arrested,” and one of the youths said, “the babbles are coming, let’s go.”’

WHO CARES?

‘Come on,’ shouted the man pushing the shopping trolley, ‘what the fuck are you doing?’
‘It’s ‘im,’ said the man riding the bike back towards the way they’d come, ‘he’s a bastard.’
‘What?’ said the trolley pusher.
‘It’s ‘im,’ said the bike rider turned round and now riding on the pavement, ‘he’s a fucking bastard.’
‘So what?’ said trolley man. ‘Who cares?’

THE PHONE RANG

The phone rang.
‘Oh hi,’ she said, ‘I was just wondering if you had sometime now for a coffee?’
‘I’ve just run a bath,’ I said.
‘Oh, you’ve, “just run a bath,” have you?’ she said, ‘well you’d better do that then.’
‘I’ve got to I’m dirty and I want to be clean,’ I said, ‘and I’ve really got to do my hair.’
‘And your make-up.’
‘Ok, ok, that’s quite enough,’ I said. ‘I’ll see you at Kino’s in half an hour.’
‘Ok.’
‘Oh, hang on it’s not open,’ I said, ‘well not until eleven, how about that other place?’
‘The one on the corner?’ she said.
‘Yeh, I’ll see you there in a half hour, ok?’
‘Ok, see you then.’

APPRECIATION

The mice were in the bottom drawer.
‘I’m not your mother,’ I said when I saw them there.
They moved as a group from the the drawer to the floor over to the bed and out of the window I’d left open for my own escape.
I sat on a chair in the middle of the room and watched as one of my feet turned into a rat that, when the change was complete, I hit, with the hammer my left hand had become, until where my foot had once been there was a bloody mess.
She came in through the door was opposite where I sat and said, ‘what have you done?’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘last night you said my toenails were scratching your leg so I was doing something about it.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘I appreciate the effort.’

THE MORNING AFTER HALLOWEEN

‘I’m surprised he didn’t find those,’ I said when she held the bag open in my direction so I could see the two bottles of beer and a candle inside.
‘Who brought them, you know?’ she said.
‘I think it was one of the twins,’ I said, ‘don’t you remember he brought a mask for her later?’
‘Don’t bother with that,’ she said, when I started running the water for the washing up from the party last night.
‘I could make a start,’ I said.
‘No, it’s alright, you’ve got work, I’ll do it when you’ve gone.’
I arrived at the station on time and made my way to the bridge end of the platform guiding my bike through the pieces of broken glass on the ground and the people already waiting for the train.
At Clifton Down I had a coffee in Gusto’s, the one overlooks the entrance to the shopping centre, before riding the rest of the way to work.