Reenigne blog

There is a town near Venice called Mestre. Whenever I saw the name of this town I thought to myself "what a great word - if the Italian word for 'mice' isn't mestre, it should be". (It isn't - it's 'sorci', but I still say it should be).

Talking of mice, I was in a pet shop the other week buying bedding material for Greg and Esme and I saw some hilarious white mice. These guys looked like they were having so much fun with a little game they were playing. They had exercise wheels large enough for two mice to get on at once, and they would race each other on the exercise wheels. Then one of the mice would stop while the other kept running, causing the stopped mouse to fly backwards up towards the top of the wheel while the running mouse would fly forwards up towards the top of the wheel due to the increased resistance of the wheel. Then they would start again. Sometimes they got up so much momentum that they would fly to the top and back down the other side - kind of like they had invented makeshift rollercoasters!

I want some white mice now.

I think the main reason that I don't like telephones is that phoning somebody is a very intrusive way to contact them - you're interrupting whatever they are doing to effectively say "talk to me now - I am more important than whatever you are doing". Similarly, I dislike being phoned in general because it interrupts whatever I'm doing.

When I do have to phone someone I always try to make sure I have all the information I need in front of me and have answers to any questions they might ask, so as not to waste their time any more than is necessary.

Email is so much better because people can check it when they like and answer when it is convenient for them to do so. I also prefer replying to emails because it gives me a chance to think about what I want to say. I prefer not to do business with companies which will only communicate over the phone, when I get the choice (which doesn't seem to be very often).

Another reason is that I sometimes find it difficult to understand what people are saying on the phone, especially if I am unfamiliar with their accent. Not only can you not lip read to give you that bit of extra disambiguation data, but you also don't get to see the body language which tells you so much about what a person really means.

I was a little disappointed that at the last few weddings I've been to, they didn't do the whole "if anyone knows of any reason why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace" bit. Maybe I'm a horrible person, but I always enjoy that moment of suspense where everyone is thinking "please God please don't let anyone walk in now and cause a scene", and there is always a small part of me that wants to see the real-life movie drama that would unfold if someone does stand up and shout "Yes - he is already married, to me!" or "Yes - I'm in love with her!". Though, of course, I am very glad that nothing like that happened at my wedding, and I'm sure it won't at Jo and Kody's wedding next week.

I realised the other week that I am a stimulation junkie. I always have to be doing two things (at least) at once or I get bored and frustrated. The two things have to be things which use different parts of my brain (or one thing which requires me to use my hands and one thing which doesn't). Some examples:

• I always eat meals while surfing the web or watching TV (or both) or having a conversation.
• When I'm watching TV I'm always either eating or using my laptop.
• When I am at work I always listen to the radio at my desk.
• When I walk to work I listen to music.
• When I'm on the bus I listen to music or read a book as well as looking out of the window.
• When I'm driving a route I know well I listen to the radio (but I often turn it down or off when simultaneously navigating unfamiliar territory).
• When I'm cycling it's dangerous to do anything else but navigating, avoiding traffic and enjoying the scenery are enough to keep me stimulated.
• When I'm in a social situation I am always much more comfortable if I am eating or if I have a drink in my hand (doesn't have to be alcoholic).
• I often get frustrated in meetings at work because I don't have a work laptop and my personal laptop is too noisy to take into meetings. My mind ends up wandering from the topic at hand and other participants in the meeting wonder why I am staring blankly into space and seem to be in another world. Usually it's because I'm thinking about some completely unrelated thing in the second part of my brain.
• I got frustrated recently when trying to watch a movie with subtitles because I couldn't make sense of the movie and work on my laptop at the same time.
• I get bored going to the cinema unless the movie has a plot which keeps me guessing, or unless the visuals are sufficiently spectacular that I can marvel at them while I'm following the story.
• Even when I'm going to sleep I like to listen to the radio at the same time.

Do other people experience this phenomenon to the same extent?

Derren Brown has some seriously cool Jedi mind control techniques. I saw his show "Mind Control" on TV in the UK back in 2000, but never remembered who he was. So I was delighted to see that he has a more recent show and there are some video clips online. Be sure to watch the first few if you have the bandwidth.

When I was getting my hair cut recently the guy sitting opposite me in the barbers' had this huge long black and silver beard. As I watched, the barber cut the whole thing off and left the man completely clean shaven. It was really quite surreal - when he left he looked nothing like he had when he started.