I'm going to enjoy writing today's entry. I've been thinking about it for days, saving up for this one day.

Today is the 29th day of October, a day I could call "Things Keep Happening To Me In Life Connected To October 29th Day", but "October 29th" will do.

Today is, you may not know, Winona Ryder's birthday. I've always liked Winona Ryder; something about dark hair, that elfin face and eyes with character. This has nothing to do with my tale for today... just thought I'd mention Winona Ryder. Mmmmmm...(!)

Sorry. On with the blog entry.

The first time the date entered into my personal life was in 1990. I was working in London and had a relationship (short, but sweet) with an Australian called Mary. She told me her birthday: it's on October 29th. It hardly constitutes a major event, because we all have to have a birthday, but it will all come together once you get into the "embittered first marriage" section of today's log entry.

This is the embittered first marriage bit. A year later, I lost contact with Mary (for reasons that will be explained later) and met Heidi. In the great scheme of things, her birthday was also on October 29th. She became Mrs. Seabrook #1, a marriage that ended a few years later after it became apparent that she was still dating. Oh, and those little giveaway things she would say in her sleep that made me suspicious (like "ugh, get your hands off me, you're not like J**** was last night"). Life's like that if you spend it with a woman that won't let her marriage stand in the way of screwing her boyfriend, but I digress. Heidi and I separated in 1996 prior to our 1997 divorce.

During the separation in the autumn of 1996, Mary came back on the scene after six years of living her life in Western Australia and she called me. I was at work at the time and it was a moment I'll never forget... or go into detail. We met, went to a nightclub in South London and we had a very good time indeed for the next few months. Her 27th birthday in 1996, you know the date, passed for her in rainy old London before the prospect of December in the sun called her back to her homeland. I had totally forgotten about her birthdate first time around (when I met Heidi in 1991), which means I had two relationships with people that share a birthday but never made that connection until after the second relationship was over. Obviously, you can work out the chances of that happening are one in 365. More if you count February the 29th.

We went our separate ways, Mary and I, but that relationship was a good one and it made me wonder what it would be like to travel a bit further afield. I'd been to a few places in Europe, but I'd never braved the hassle of really seeing the world. That changed, obviously. After all, if you had a fun time with someone that liked you enough to track you down after six years, YOU'D want to see what their part of the world looked like too.

The old marital home was sold and money was split 50-50. I booked myself a little trip with my share of the profit. Hong Kong/Kowloon/a little bit of China for just under a week, Sydney to track down my two uncles (I managed to find one, and he's a genuine bloke is my Uncle Brian), Western Australia with a hire car (Mary once sent me a postcard with six scenes from the state... I'm pleased to say that I saw five of them first hand), Harare in Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border. It just so happened that the time period I was to spend in Western Australia (and Fremantle in particular) included October 29th. OK, it didn't "just happen". It was an obvious gesture.

I also posted a few bits about myself on a penpal web site, hoping that someone in the places I was visiting would offer to be a tourist guide for the price of a few beers. Nobody did, but this will become integral to the story soon enough.

I'm going off on a tangent for a little while, and returning to the idea of hoping to 'accidentally' bump into Mary, because I know what some of you are thinking. "Hey, she came over to Britain for you after six years... you went over there for her, right? Knight in shining armour?" Well; I'm not the possesive type, but it would be a lie if I hadn't thought of the possibility of the two of us holding hands as the sun set over the clear blue Indian Ocean on a hot October evening (and the chance that she wasn't seeing anyone did make me think). As it turns out, I never saw her again. I met her parents and delivered her a birthday card, care of their address on her 29th birthday, but I never caught up with her. I was told she had a boyfriend and she was nuts about him, so I'd like to take the opportunity that cyberspace allows to wish her the best of luck: best of luck. Mary Seman, wherever you may be and whatever you're doing. Oh, and happy 33rd for today.

Some of you may have noticed the African places on my itinerary. So what happened on the safari and the waterfall rafting expeditions and all that stuff? I never got to them. Four days after October 29th, the hire car I was driving (a rather nice Holden Commodore) skidded off the road between Wave Rock and Perth. I suffered compression of the vertebrae, bruising on my back that ached for three months and minor glass lacerations on my right arm and leg that look like I was scratched by a cat and these little scars still show. I remember going around a corner on a dusty Outback road but don't even recall heading for the ditch. Either the impact erased my short-term memory (it can do that, you know, because short-term memories are stored electrically in the brain) or I fell asleep at the wheel for a moment. I guess I'll never know.

So I flew back via Singapore on a mixture of 10mg Valium and Bailey's Irish Cream. I was off work for nearly two months, but mine was a union job so I got full pay for watching "Aliens: The Director's Cut" on video and playing computer games on the PC.

Oh yeah, the PC. I'd posted my details on that penpal web site. Well, I checked and I got a lot of answers. Quite a lot were from companies that wanted to take money from my credit card so that women would ask me how big my pee-pee was (didn't answer those). There were a few from genuinely interesting people but those emails eventually died a typical email death... long email, short email, forwarded jokes, nothing. You know what I mean.

There was also one from Beth in the USA.

We started talking. Infrequent emails became frequent emails. She called me, I called her, we stared calling each other with increased frequency until we were speaking verbally twice a day and sending emails every day that grew and grew and grew into seperate 150 Kilobytes monster emails with lines of chevrons. I still have the bulk of those emails on a CD-R. Eventually, we decided to meet. A friend and I had planned to visit Florida for two weeks, and I took a third week off work to meet her. JFK Airport in New York was chosen as the meeting place. The Yankees had just beaten the Atlanta Braves 4-0 in the best of seven game World Series (baseball, non-Americans) and The City That Never Sleeps was in a party mood.

The day: Friday. The year: 1999. The date: oh, you probably guessed already. October 29th.

It's now the third anniversary of that meeting. Beth and I have been married for fifteen months, which meant I sold up everything I couldn't bring with me to be with her in the States. It seems October the 29th is the same wherever I may be. It's the day when things keep happening to me, and I'm pretty glad they did.

Listen: Fool's Gold (Grooverider's Mix)- The Stone Roses.

I am a genius. I just wish it's noticed before I shuffle off this mortal coil.

It's all to do with the last blog I posted (where I mentioned updating the Mac to OS9.2). Since that time, I downloaded a great little number of programs, like the one from a company called Kaleidoscope. Don't bother clicking on this link if:

a- you have a PC. OK, not strictly true... you can find a PC equivelent if you click here, or

b- if you like your computer just the way it is, thank you very much.

For those of you that just want to know what it is I did, I made my computer's operating system look like it was running the new Mac OS X (Aqua).

If you have no idea what that means, that's fine. Most people don't, and I enjoy being the sort that's a year or two ahead of the crowd when it comes to all the latest trends. After all kids, I was listening to rave music that included the word "ecstacy" over ten years ago and the kids of NEPA only now seem to be catching on. If this is you, and you like to rave (and stumbled on this page by searching the 'net for ecstacy) may I direct your attention to Techno Heaven (and please note that these are genuine ravers that know the scene. You don't have to take anything to have a good time, it all comes from inside. Trust me on this one).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. OS X. If you want to see what it looks like, quite why you'd want to look at it I have no idea, take a look here. Hardly the most exciting thing in the world, but when you see it move, it's a beautiful thing to behold. If you ever used a computer fifteen to twenty years ago, you'll remember how laborious and irritatingly slow it seemed. Trust me on this: using something that works like Mac OS X makes Windows seem shamefully lacking in comparison. Quite why Bill Gates III is the richest man in the world, when everything his company has released for the general public seems to invite hackers to infect your computer, is beyond me.

There's a connected story here, and I'll be brief. Our little Honda Civic is over five years old and, even though drunken drivers have hit it twice as we slept, the worst thing that has happened to it after the fix-ups are an exhaust part needed attaching and one of the lights starting shining a bit high. One of Beth's friends at work has always driven GM (Vauxhall if you're British, Opel if European, Holden if Australian) vehicles and they've always gone wrong on her. Her latest one is four years old and she was talking about her alternator problem as if it's NORMAL for a car to show the strain of old age after four years. Yes, her car is newer than ours, driven a comparible distance, and it's falling apart. Some people will keep themselves in abusive consumer relationships all their lives, I guess.

Anyhow, back to genius. I made our computer look like it was running the new $130 operating system from Apple. Unfortunately, it costs $20 to register this facsimile so I decided to remove it.

That got me thinking at work (because I often do that there... it's better than working) that I'd like to see just how far I can push this little PowerPC G3 Mac computer on the desk. I shopped around a bit online and found 256MB of memory for less than US$40, including the shipping. It's currently running on 64MB, so I've multiplied my brain size 400%. I'm a genius!

OK, I increased the computer's short term memory 400%. But I'm the one that's going to install it, so I'm still a genius.

Listen: Roll It Up - The Crystal Method.

I was planning to post as soon as we got back from Baltimore. Life is what happens when you're making other plans. I had so much to say but I kept adding more to the spiel in my head. I'll try to be brief.

Baltimore itself is a great little city. The aquarium (see previous post for a link to their website) was exceptional. We didn't expect the dolphin show included with the entrance price, so that was a bonus. One piece of advice: the queues are always long, so book your tickets ahead if at all possible. That way, you get to use the e-ticket machine and jump the crowds at the ticket windows.

The whole Inner Harbor area is quite close to Camden Yards and the birthplace of 'Babe' Ruth. If you don't know anything about baseball (and I didn't know a thing before I was 28 years old because I'm such a Limey), you won't know that Camden Yards is the home to the Baltimore Orieles and 'The Babe' was one of the greatest athletes. Ever. He's up there with Péle when it comes to names you know even if you know nothing about the sport he took part in. There's a statue outside the stadium, which I was proud to have a picture taken next to.

Sunday, and another footy game at Sherwood Park. Weather was awful and I scored one of the best goals I've ever managed to bang into the back of the onion bag.

Househunting: I haven't mentioned it in the blog before because not a lot of progress has been reported. We're looking for a nice three-bedroom house in the town, something in a good neighbourhood. Which means we haven't found the right house yet. It also means I'm still spelling things like 'neighbourhood' the un-American way!

Listen: Sale Of The Century - Sleeper.

I'll make this short because I have stuff to do.

We've just upgraded the computer's operating system from Mac OS8.1 to OS9.2 ...for those of you with PCs (most of you), that's like going from Windows 95 to Windows ME. Not the newest system on the block, but a lot newer.

We're impressed. Beth likes Sherlock 2, I like the fact that the Bugbear virus can lay the computer world to waste and this one will still be standing because not a lot of hackers write viruses for Mac computers.

We're getting ready to go to Baltimore tomorrow. I know, tomorrow's a Friday. Hey, I didn't work like a mad bastard today for nothing, you know! We've got a room booked, and tickets for the Aquarium. So; next posting will be next week sometime.

Listen: God Put A Smile Upon Your Face - Coldplay.

I ache. I have only myself to blame.

I play in a local footie Sunday League team. Seeing as this is the States, I should really call it a soccer team. I'm not going to, because most of the people that play in our squad are not natives. There's me, Mick (a Welshman that has lived in London for a few decades), Sami the Greek, Niko the Greek (both big Olympiakos fans), and a multitude of Spanish speaking players such as Javier, Orlando etc. All the teams in the league are equally out of shape. Average age of players: 35. Average rate of fitness: what's fitness? Anyway; thanks to it being an American league, we play in the spring and summer (mainly because we can get a few feet of snow here in the winter) so we're currently making the best of a warm spell at the moment and having 'friendlies'. I alternated between goalie, defender and central midfield and we won 9-6.

I'm seriously out of shape, though. My knees feel like they're going to lock and some idiot stood on my foot (we have shinguards and ankle protectors and nobody has thought to build protection into the boots yet?), but apart from that I feel fine.

I've also been messing around with ASCII art (click on the link to read about ASCII from Maija Haavisto's web page if you don't know what it is). I would post some of my fine creations here, but I can't because the layout of the page won't let me (awww, shame). If you have newsgroups access, you can find me occasionally posting some of my more 'insipid' works on alt.fan.starwars ...it gets them mad when I have a pic of C3PO saying he's Uncle Owen's toyboy.

I should get out more.

Listen: Higher State Of Consciousness - Josh Wink.

Before I go on about music, I need to find out how to alter all the hypertext links in this weblog. I may have done it already. Depends on when you're reading this.

Anyway, on to music. On Monday evening, we went to see some bands downtown. By we I mean: my good self, Beth my good wife and Karen our good friend. Off we toddled for the RedRoom Concert series featuring three bands.

I would tell you the name of the first band, but for two very good reasons:

I can't remember it because of the beer and noise.

It wasn't printed on the stub, and that's how I can recall the other names now.

This first band were OK in a "we've practiced for hours" way, which was fine. Their bass player had on a spangly jacket and the keyboard player was wearing a hillbilly mask (making his Moog squeal like a piggy) .

The second band was Bent Blue. Singer sounded like Bono from U2, he kept moving his head around in a very odd fashion. Think Mick Jagger, Jarvis Cocker or Tweak from South Park (erk, the underpants gnomes!). It was an obvious 'look at me' ploy because the band had two microphones set up (the second one was by the guitarist who never used it) and the singer 'accidentally' knocked his one onto the floor so he had to use the mute's one instead. The music wasn't bad in itself, the singer had one hell of a voice, it's just that he'd obviously thought that they needed a gimmick and chicken-head antics were just what was needed.

The final act was Mighty Fine Wine, and that's when I remembered the first rule of local band performances. The headlining band isn't necessarily better than any of the other acts... it's just that they can get more family members to the venue. Nobody was dancing during the first band's performance... heads were bobbing enthusiastically for Bent Blue, and the place looked like a Baptist convention for Mighty Fine Wine. I've never been a fan of that type of music (white hicks sing the blues, my baby done left me and done me wrong, etc.) but they did a good job of it.

Beth and I got around to talking about music, and all the bands we've seen. She beats me if anyone's counting: during my late teens and early twenties I was seriously into the underground rave fraternity in England. The only concerts I went to that weren't a selection of DJs spinning their remixes were either Radio One sponsored concerts (The Happy Mondays, 808State and Beats International event was a good one at the Wembley Arena in London) or bands that had a techno leaning. Raves until 6am at the Brixton Academy were good. Depeche Mode were excellent. I don't just listen to electronica, though... anything that rocks or soothes is given a fair hearing.

That's when Beth pulled out her box of concert tickets. Her first concert was Pink Floyd. She's seen Pavement, Manic Street Preachers, Beck, Stone Roses, Tori Amos, X, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Arrested Development, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Aerosmith, this list could make this day's log twice as long as it already is. Her concert exploits in the states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania make my love of music seem like a schoolboy crush.

I love that woman. Rock on.

Listen: Elvis Presley - A Little Less Conversation