coshipi

Sometimes the entire world flows through me and I drown in car honks and crying children Movies are played fast forward and it feels as if I am in everyone at the same time living thousand lives overstimulated by the sensations the smells the scenes the noises the pain the nausea ...

I was riding home from the station on my folding bicycle - a Raleigh Shopper. Just as I was coming around the corner by the Angel Pub (no longer a pub), a car overtook me much too close. I was leaning over quite a bit, taking the corner quite fast, and he caught my right heel. I was put badly off balance, and tried to steer to correct. I'm quite good at recovering in this kind of situation, but was obviously going to hit the kerb in the attempt, so I stepped through the bike and ended up running across the pavement half carrying the bike. Shaken, but unhurt, and nothing obviously wrong with my bike, either.Unsurprisingly, I caught up with ...

When Sea Level Rises Or possibly falls.You push a boulder up a small rise Out of a little dip It may roll away Far down the other side of the hill Into a valley you couldn’t see. The climate could be like that.Or not. Quite likely it’s up hill all the way.There are nuclear power stations All around the coast. If sea level rises They’ll get swamped.A half metre rise doesn’t sound much Coastal erosion Has made wide flat areas Just offshore Shallow waters That absorb storm energy Half a metre of extra depth Will mean they absorb Very much less And every storm will batter Anything on the coast.British reactors Are better than Soviet ones So th...

I remember someone reproaching me for not saying anything to a friend about his awful driving; my rejoinder was that I thought it would cause aggravation without having any beneficial effect at all. I think I was right; I hope it wasn’t just rationalization of my disinclination to argue with my friend. I also hope that this article isn’t just going to cause aggravation: I hope it will actually make someone think; at least one person somewhere.Once, when I was a young and inexperienced driver, I skidded. I was lucky: I didn’t hit anything, and nobody hit me. But my reaction wasn’t, ‘Phew! That was lucky! But it wouldn’t have been my fault i...

The house has a million rats (and mice). Majali was chasing a rat with a stick (I’d never seen a rat with a stick before) and it ran right by me, so I stamped on it. Stamping on a rat is a bit like stamping on a small pile of banana skins. I lost my balance, and fell over backwards – luckily onto a bundle of clothes, so I wasn’t hurt. I got up. The rat was still alive, but badly injured. It was trying to run, but it was very slow (by ratty standards), so I caught up with it and stamped on it again – a bit less impulsively and more carefully: I didn’t fall over again. A bit of squelching about killed the rat, but not before it had managed t...