Skip to main content

The war on poo

A friend from San Francisco, who lived in Seattle for ten years, said to me that the city was all about "coffee, music, books and alcohol." After spending a few days here, I would have to agree with her. I've mainly spent my time in coffeeshops, pubs and watching bands. No wonder everyone drinks so much coffee here, the weather is so bad that it's dryer and warmer to stay indoors. The coffee is pretty great too though.

I'm staying in this sweet apartment smack bang in the middle of downtown Seattle. The deal is that I'm rabbit sitting. It's a long story... involving Morrissey...

There are two house rabbits I'm looking after. One is small bouncy and seems to like me. She follows me around the apartment. She is also the one that shits everywhere, so maybe its her way of apologising. The other one is very fat and ambles around the place viewing me suspiciously, but I don't really mind. At least she doesn't shit everywhere.

The first morning, I spent about twenty minutes diligently cleaning the place up. I did all the food, changed the water, cleaned out the litter tray and vacuumed the floor. Right on cue, just as I'd finished tidying up, one of the rabbits came bouncing up to near where I was. Without hesitation, she turned, looked me in the eye, cocked her leg and pissed all over the carpet. It was a statement of intent. The opening salvo in the toiletry war that we've been waging all week. It's a war I cannot win. Now I know how Bush and Blair feel. I've considered having a piss in their sleeping area as a retaliatory measure, to see how they like it. But I don't want things to escalate. Instead I'm pursuing peaceful methods.

I've been informed that these particular rabbits really like pears, so I bought a few from Pike Place Market earlier and we'll eat them together later. I'm sure it will be a beautiful moment.

Monday night I went to see These Arms Are Snakes do a midnight gig to launch their new album at a cool store called Easy Street Records. It was a pretty good show, considering that these in-store concerts are usually awkward affairs. The new album doesn't seem as instant as some of their older stuff, but I still think they are an intriguing band. However, I feel I must comment on the facial hair of the singer, some of the most ill-judged I've seen since Ian McShane appeared in the TV series Deadwood. Have a shave man! And stop spitting everywhere. Where do you think you are? 1976?

Tuesday night saw me go and see Deerhoof, who I enjoyed, but they are just a little too arty for my liking. I'd definitely recommend you go see them, but at times, I just wanted then to throw off their art-rock hipster shackles and rock out a little, without the unorthodox time signatures and stop start nature of some of their songs. They were supported by the excellently named two-piece Experimental Dental School, who I enjoyed greatly and I recommend you check out on MySpace forthwith.

I'm here for a while longer. The weather is a little hard to adjust to after six weeks of sunshine, but I'm doing my best, despite a cold. I've been living off huge plates of dirt cheap Vietnamese food, as well as reliving my youth by eating pop tarts.

Seattle feels very European, which is also difficult to adjust to. I've even heard rumours I might be able to get a good cup of tea in this town. This is so far unsubstantiated.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Life in Tokyo: Days 1 and 2

For no apparent reason, I'm spending a month in Tokyo. I feel really lucky to be able to take a random trip like this to somewhere I have never been before and thought I may never get the chance to go to. I got a great deal on a flight from Birmingham to Tokyo via Amsterdam and everything goes well. I get my vegan meal on the plane (trust me, go vegan when you fly, you always get extra salad and fruit, plus you always get your meal first which is my favourite thing ever!). I get to Watch The Social Network again and it is just as good second time around. Arriving sleepy in Tokyo, I have the friendliest bag search of my entire life, with the customs guy laughing at everything I say and my four guidebooks, as he inspects my bag thoroughly. He is highly amused by the six Dairy Milk chocolate bars that I have brought along to give to people I meet or stay with. When I arrive in the US I am always tired and scared of saying the wrong thing and being turned away or getting back roomed, b

Casa de Scaffolding

Portugal is one of my favourite travel and poker destinations, but I have a terrible record of booking accommodation there. During the first time I had played beach volleyball, I received a recommendation of somewhere to stay in Lisbon. Firstly let me say, don't play beach volleyball. It really hurts your hands and you get sand in your face a lot. On my ill adjudged foray into this sandy and painful game, I got talking to my team mate and mentioned I was about to go to Lisbon. "I know a great place to stay" she assured me. We chatted further between points and as I had no writing device to hand, I made a mental note of the B&B she strongly urged me to stay in Lisbon - Casa de Hospedes . It sounded great and just up my street. A couple of days later, with the trip approaching, I still hadn't booked anything. I remembered the beach volleyball tip. A quick google and it popped up straight away. I had a personal recommendation and it was very reasonably priced so

Click Clack

To me the sound is unmistakable.  The repeated click clack echoing around the room as hundreds of people sit around those green felted tables. Mostly in reverent silence but punctuated by the occasional groan or roar of celebration and shout from a dealer or floorperson. Thousands of clay poker chips hitting each other repeatedly as players riffle them with their hands as they play cards. The Art of the Riffle For the uninitiated – a chip riffle is when you have two stacks of poker chips, perhaps four or five in each stack if you are a skilled ‘riffler’. Then you line them up side by side beneath your hand on the poker table. Using your fingers and thumb you create a little bit of air in between each chip and in one seamless motion merge them into one stack. Then separate and repeat. Is it for concentration? A habit? Something to do in the monotony of folding? Every riffler undoubtedly has their own reasons. A good set of clay poker chips has some weight to them, so gravity assi