RANDOM ECHOES - 22/9/05

Last night: a TV programme on the reasons America lost the Vietnam war despite their overwhelming technological superiority. Primarily because the Vietcong used the land itself to assist them (e.g. the Ho Chi Minh Trail was a web of roads, tracks, and arterial connections using the geography of the land, it constantly changed as required and was never a single, direct route). On the radio this morning an MOD bod talks about Iraq 'exit strategy' - that corporate expression. Is there a difference between 'exit strategy' and 'retreat' (he never used that word, but I suspect that is what it means)? Is the US (and thereby UK, being the 51st state) now mired in minutae and semantics as a way of plastering over the hell wound of Iraq and trying to camouflage this Vietnam repeat? Did the US not learn anything about indiginous responses to invasion 30 years ago? As a final thought I wonder if G.W.B. is afraid of water (water and oil don't mix, remember)? Is that why it took him so long to visit New Orleans?

A variety of things spotted on a five minute walk in SW9:
- a perambulator with the lid removed containing: a small brown teddy bear tied to one end (seemingly under duress), 12 plastic bags folded neatly in the bottom, and one green leather briefcase;
- 'Flow Fume' - a graffiti tag repeated on rail trackside wall;
- S Car Monitor 'Watching For Your Safety'.

Conservation success: 300 pairs of Stone Curlews (Burhinus oedicnemus) now breeding in England.

Further items disposed of in run up to moving:
- a 20 year old airbrush - I sprayed my first model aeroplane with it when I was 15
- 2 sets of photographic development tongs - alchemical tools
- a small brass pepper mill from Morocco - one unground peppercorn within
- a black and white photo from Machu Picchu - three stone columns at the entranceway to a temple
(Concern: this is beginning to sound like a section from The Generation Game - apologies! Read the list back and you'll see what I mean. Frightening.)

The spider has moved again. It is now closer to its original position in front of the kitchen window. I study it up close. With the daylight coming from behind it, portions of its legs and mandibles are virtually transparent, like pearl. Beautiful and deadly. I believe the markings are to confuse potential enemies and prey (though the web it has spun is already enough) - they might think they see it, but then it becomes partly invisible, difficult to spot, hard to ascertain its next move. Then it strikes! Clever. By extension, I realise this item relates to today's first item.

8 different mobile phone ring tones in one office all going off consecutively. Random evidence of sunspot activity?

Keeping your eyes and ears open is a full time job.