Crazy old bat upstairs has made her alarm go off. The security alarm. She refuses to open the door, silly sod. Until the security people come, after more than half an hour (which is VERY alarming, pun intended), and start threatening her about forcing the door open. She must be deaf by now.

Some lady in a watch shop downtown talked about me today: "...and give it to the woman over there." I was thinking "woman? Where?" I've just not got used to the fact that some people, especially children and those in posh watch shops, call me a woman, not a girl. Oh, well. Guess the anti-wrinkle daycream doesn't work. *winks*

I was fixing my watch, that's why I was there. I've been without a working watch for two years now, and most people, including myself, don't understand how I can manage without. So finally I went to the shop and bought a black leather strap (not an original brand strap, because I don't like wearing the metal kind) and got them to change batteries. And voilà! I know what time it is wherever I go, without having to rely on my mobile or the VCR. I am free at last!

On the tube back home two teenage girls were talking about what courses they're going to take next year (school's out as of today), of which one was "older history". Clearly they're going to the same kind of sixth form as I did. Older history is a subject covering "everything" up to 1850. Newer history is covered the following year. Anyway, one of the girls said, apparently being serious, "not a damn thing happened before 1850 anyway!" I couldn't help but laugh. Being teenagers, they didn't even notice as they were too busy in their own little world. Which reminds me. You know when "grown-ups" (i.e. those who've been through hell and back, AKA "their teens") complain about teenagers and how incredibly annoying they are and "at least we behaved when I was a teenager." Bull. I'm sorry to say this, but it seems like we all forget all the bad times when we grow up (like, wasn't summer always sunny when you were a child?) I bet if you speak to your parents/uncles/friends from when you were a teenager yourself, you'd be told that you weren't as sensible and well-behaved as you'd like to believe. I know I wasn't. I think I wasn't as bad as the teens of today (puh-leeze, we're talking ten years ago), but I'm wrong. I threw lots of tantrums. I called my parents names. I was awfully self-absorbed, as were all of my friends. We like to think we made more sense than today's teens, that we were actually discussing "deeper issues", but most of them weren't as deep as we'd like them to have been. Also, I distinctly remember talking about these things privately, not on the bus or in class, meaning there's a strong possibility that the brats youngsters you hear chatting about clothes, parties and the opposite sex (yes, most gay teenagers are too scared to come out, it's a confusing enough time as it is, and so they too discuss the opposite sex) actually are able to discuss more serious matters. Remember that you're the uncoolest of the uncool and there's no way you could possibly understand what they're going through. You disagree with me, don't you? Well, if you've been there, done that, don't you think that means you've actually gone through the exact same thing? I know I have, so I desperately try to shrug it off when a bunch of them enter the train and start shouting and laughing and pretending they own the place and think that the rest of us are useless adults who don't know anything because we're so lame. I find watching documentaries about teenagers help understanding them. And understanding me, when I was at that age. I just wish they'd listen to us when we tell them "don't do that. You will regret it, believe me." But hey, most of us found out by ourselves and got through it all right, didn't we? The funny thing is, you'll go through this all your life, or at least until you're so old there are hardly anyone left that's older than you and who can say "I remember when I was your age; if I knew then what I know now..."

When I got off the train, we were about twenty people there, but this girl approached me (Bob knows why) and begged me to buy her a pack of fags. I said I was sorry, even though I wasn't, but I just couldn't help her. I was actually thinking I would be helping her more if I didn't buy her the smokes, but I was carrying a bag which obviously contained a couple of bottles of booze and so I thought I shouldn't give her a lecture after all. *smiles* It was just one more of those "I wish you'd actually listen to me" moments. I know she'll regret having even started smoking in a few years' time, but saying "I told you so" doesn't help at all. Reading The Runaway Jury made me realise Grisham has a very good point: No one starts smoking when they're grown-up. The whole peer pressure thing is very scary. Personally, I was even more stupid, because there was no one pressuring me into smoking, I was just bored and wanted to try something else, so I started smoking all on my own; none of my friends smoked regularly and I was the only one who after a while smoked out of parties. Silly git. In about eight and a half years my lungs and general health will be at the same point they would have been if I'd never lit that first cigarette. It actually takes ten years. Everyone tells us it's dangerous to smoke, yet since we apparently start during our teens, we think we're invincible and that cancer is something that happens to old people, other people. Good thing there's no law against sheer stupidity; about one third of this country would be in prison because of that, in addition to those stupid enough to already be imprisoned, of course. *gnashes her teeth*

Current track: Erasure - Voulez-vous (Brain Stem Death Test Mix)

Labels: history, humour, literature, personal, tube