Breakage and Police Drama

More blogging by phone today. I managed to get my computer working yesterday enough to do a backup, so I haven’t lost any data, which is a blessing. (I back things up every few months anyway, but my last one was in October, so I was overdue and fortunate I made it work.)

Today, I’m off to get a new computer, I suppose.

The photo above shows my bedside table, which will give you an indication of how desperate I was for a photo to blog. Here’s another tale of woe: The painters broke my green glass bedside lamp, which I’d had ever since we moved to London. (I picked it up free from a room full of cast-off household goods being left behind by other teachers!)  So for now I’m using that red desk lamp, which was in the closet of our flat when we moved in. I’ve turned it toward the wall for less direct light.

I’ve already ordered a replacement for my green lamp, which was an IKEA product (“Lykta”). They’re no longer being sold but I found one on eBay for not much money. It should be here soon.

What did we ever do without the internet?

Well, we were nicer to each other, for one thing.

Speaking of which, as I walked to work yesterday morning I passed this scene on the next street over. The cops had not only the roadway closed but the sidewalks too. This is a street where I walked Olga almost every morning when she was younger and I think of it very much as our neighborhood, so I was curious what happened. (Once a reporter, always a reporter.)

I asked one of the officers on the scene. He would say only that there had been “an incident.”

It wasn’t until I got to work that I read someone had been stabbed! Yikes! The story, as is often true here, is maddeningly short on details. But it happened at 4:30 pm the previous day, and I do remember seeing a helicopter fly overhead just as I was coming up my front steps after work. That was the air ambulance, arriving to take the victim to the hospital. Apparently his injuries are life-threatening.

I don’t ever remember anything this dramatic happening in our little ‘hood so I’m eager to hear the rest of the story. Hopefully we will.

Remember how I just posted about “decline porn” and the safety of London? Hmmmm.

I thought this was amusing. I happened to enter my first name into a Google search the other day (can’t remember why) and these are all the prompts that came up. It sucks that Stephen Miller is now one of the top standard bearers among the Stephens of the world! I had not heard of Stephen Hough or Stephen Bernard Libby, and “Stephen traitors” perplexed me until I learned he’s a participant on a TV show (called “Traitors,” obviously, which I have never watched).

Anyway, this might be fun to try with your own name. I have a feeling the lineup would be different if I were Googling from the USA. That list seems heavy on the Brits.