Shame

Woke up to the city blanketed in snow. Snow in the countryside, fine. Snow in the city... me no like. It’s the potential to slip and slide all over the pavements that loses my vote.

It would be all right if I had spent the day inside at the computer but typically I had to go out. The location meant that rather than take a train into Kings Cross and then head back out on the tube, it was easier to skirt around North London on the bus. Two buses, as it turned out.

If I had bothered to check I probably would have discovered that the trains were fouled up by the change in the weather. Even so, travelling on buses in the city at the best of times is fine for people who don’t care when they get to where they have to be, but an irritant for everyone else.

The time I had to get there meant climbing on board with kids going to the schools lined up along the top of the hill. I don’t what to come across as a grump but most of these unruly, undisciplined little fuckers should be ground up and used as fertiliser. At least then they’d be doing something useful.

Waiting for the connecting bus meant standing immobile as my extremities gradually went numb. At least with owners having to clean up after their dogs there isn’t the unexpected treat of stepping in a pile of dog shit hidden under the snow. By late morning it had the common courtesy to melt away.

Started watching Shameless last night having missed the first couple of episodes of the new series. Before the hour was up I had switched over to the CSI rerun on Five, and it wasn’t a very good repeated episode either.

I loved Shameless when it first appeared in early 2004. The series was funny as hell, but, based in part on Paul Abbott’s unconventional upbringing, there was humanity amongst all the anarchy. Now that Abbott has moved on, along with a good portion of the original cast, the show has simply become more and more extreme with the characters turning into caricatures in a live-action Tex Avery cartoon. Which is a great shame.

Almost two episodes in, I’m trying to figure out the point of the new BBC drama Five Days. I suppose I’ll find out next week. At least it has Janet McTeer in the cast. Still, it’s better than Dracula. Initially broadcast over the Christmas period, I haven’t yet managed to reach the sixty-minute mark. Every time I try to watch a little bit more I burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole enterprise. It's a long slog but I'm going to persist, even though I don't expect for one minute I'll be rewarded at the end.