cybermule | Attention framlingem

I've updated my user pic with an animation, so if you think it's OK, mail me those bits that you want made into an icon.

Went to the "enchanted garden" part of Westonbirt, and despite being a bit crowded, it was nonetheless very neat. Dinner was successful (i.e. I managed not to burn anything :)).

Oh - and there was something I wanted to type up that had been inspired by a recent post by

amiga500. For a short while, on my many travels around the country, I lived in a rather dilapidated part of Manchester with a boyfriend. It wasn't one of the parts of the city that was derelict or subject to open gang warfare, but it was dilapidated. Populated mainly by prostitutes, ex-institution residents and guys that would accost you on the streets and ask for/offer prescription drugs. I used to work as a psychiatric nurse in a nearby district, which entailed catching the bus to work from the corner of my road.

Having set the scene, at one point in my meanderings to the bus-stop I noticed a small pile of grain on the corner of the junction between my street and the main road. Over the course of about ten days, wheat was slowly added to this pile and a small dent was made in the middle to create a cup shaped nest. It was kind of in the middle of the pavement, so I always avoided treading on it. After the nest had been perfected, as single large and pure white egg was placed in the middle of it. It looked like a goose egg, and remained there undamaged for about a week before the whole mess suddenly disappeared. I guess everyone just avoided it.

That all sounds small, I know, but it stuck in my mind for 5 years or more. It was in explicable, and even my fervid imagination could only come up with two explanations: some sort of gang totem, or a complicated ritual that only made sense to the denizens of Whalley Range.