MY DEALER'S CAR BROKE DOWN today. So rather than go to someone whose deals were weak, tiny or otherwise compromised, Pascal and I made the trek to his neck of the woods. Man! It was an excursion and a half! We took the bus right into town. Into the "inner city" as Margaret Thatcher used to say... It got darker and darker (mostly because it was night)... huge arrays of council flats glittered through the bus windows (of course we were riding the top deck of a red bus - very London). He phoned us about six times over the hour it took to arrange this voyage. Repeatedly I checked... yes we were on the right bus number. Then I told him we were sailing past a very famous monument and he went WHAT?!? where are you?? And I told him. Turned out he had NOT told us the correct bus number after all. Which necessitated us getting out and walking through some of the roughest neighbourhoods full of high rises long shadows. Eventually we met him next to a McDonalds - even that took nearly five minutes trying to figure which entrance he was standing at.... And finally, after Pascal had departed to HIS bus, Dealer led me through echoey-pavement inner city housing "projects" (as they call them in America), past various car workshops and run-down tennaments to where my CORRECT bus took me directly home... Phew! I am getting too old for all this!Then I had a hit and a Lea and Perrins chicken-peppers-mayo sandwich (gotta real thing about Lea-n-Perrins these days...) and laughed because all three of my tubby gremlins were trotting the wheel at once...
... and how was YOUR day?!?
ps I wasn't intending to post this non-post really. I actually have quite a long diatribe against ... well you can read it tomorrow!
Videos of the day~~
1. Goldie: Innercity Life
2. Fridge: Paradise (how ironic!)
14 comments:
There are some pretty rough projects in Toronto, however, nothing compares to what I have seen in cities like Detroit etc. I think (and I don't think I am alone) there is no excuse for countries as rich and prosperous as ours to allow people to live in environments such as they have created. I know the old adage "poverty breeds poverty etc" but as far as I am concerned that is a pile of horseshit. The bottom line is that marginalization is imposed by forcing invisibilty. Maybe it's a different case for people like your drug dealer since they profit from being able to disappear into ghettos but nobody comes out of the womb thinking "hey i would really like to live in that tall shithole in the sky". I am sorry that you are in a situation that draws you to places like that, but I am more sorry for the people that call it their reality day in day out. I don't know what this all has to do with your post, but I am at work and felt the need to rant...so TAG..your IT.
Gleds, there've been two drug-related deaths in Swansea this week. One was only 16 and had been an addict for years. Please keep trying to give up! We don't want to lose you.
I liked all of the videos.
I hope you keep trying too.
Check THIS out Gleds!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1dc_1180779395&p=1
Meanwhile, back in Australia. We drove to find some drawer rails, to a shop-warehouse called Gaganis Borothers to buy some spices and to pick up our modem. I am happy to report that we are finally online from our own computers again, with our own connection. You are my first blog comment on the new line!
Eileen: That is a good point. Nothing HAS to be depressing or downtrodden or horrible. A few gardens and amenities shouldn't cost much... The worst "projects" I know of in Europe are in the Paris "banlieu"/however you spell it... suburbs thing... huge towers of literally 40 storeys going on and on and on full of African immigrants (of course France has an Africa thing going on from their colonial days: our immigrants here tend to come more from Asia though there are lots of Africans too)... and I've seen some grotty buildings in New York City on TV... maybe 10 or 15 storeys high but long, stretching across like curtains on and on no wonder people take drugs there it just says "despair"!
Liz: 16 and an addict for years?!? what is the world coming to..?
Nessa: did you like Paradise? Not much to see... but the tune...
Jacob: that pus was glorious!
Nicole: connected at last~::~ hurrah!
EILEEN: I have to say that you are VERY wrong and must have had a VERY sheltered life in white suburbia. There are MANY tall buildings that are beautiful. The people that INHABIT these "projects" are the ones that destroy and make a muck of them. It is fiscally irresponsible for the government to replace something that has been broken on purpose 3+ times. If these people cared they would get involved in 'community policing' because the majority will always win.
EILEEN (part II):
"as rich and prosperous as ours".... so that means that we should be giving women that are severely irresponsible and have 6 kids with 6 men; 3 of whom she does not know WHO the "baby daddy" is to live for free? And to continue to procreate? I think that after a certain amount of error in judgement which we are ALL guilty of the benifits should DECREASE or a PENALTY should be imposed, lets say, groceries delivered to the house instead of food stamps (which they sell for ciggies) and eliminate cash benefits and have 'distribution centers' and the kids can wear 'hand-me-downs' just like most kids in my generation 80's in larger families instead of buying each child thier own closet full of expensive name brand clothes. MANY PEOPLE CHOOSE THIS LIFESTYLE. It will be up to the government to make it LESS APPEALING to future generations. PS. I AM IN FULL SUPPORT OF COLLEGE SCHOLORSHIPS if they live in a dorm environment (to help them excell) for children who grew up in these types of environments. Even 2-year "trade schools" would be great, especially with on-campus housing! It will save us TONS of money for the future and save a genneration.
That is what a Heroin abscess can look like Jacob #2 ;) After many years your veins collapse and you 'miss'. When you miss the impurities in the shot can cause cellulitis and/or and abscess (usually just an abscess). The people that contine to shoot into a missed spot have a higher chance of cellulitis and an abscess. When all the peripheral (veins you can see) are gone, people go for the groin, neck, and under the collar bone. I knew a guy from when I worked in A&E (the ER) who used to shoot about 5cm (2 inches)into his neck in the same place we use to put long lasting IV's in for people in ICU and where the morticians use to inbalm. The problem with this is that you can get DVT (deep vein thrombosis), especially shooting in the groin. Like Gledders said, it is a loose/loose situation. I am all for the government making 'inter-nasal' (heroin nasil spray) for harm reduction treatment and then hight dose methadone 1/2 in the AM and 1/2 in the PM.
Wow even I don't walk throught projects alone.... do y'all call them council flats?
Flash: you made a strong point ... there's nothing I can add!
Jacob: I've had cellulitis twice, phlebitis once and abscesses a few times... I heard "tar" is the worst for abscesses/cellulitis because it still has some of the stickiness of opium in it... our powdered brown (not like tar: if you touch it, it comes off easy on the finger like if you've ever touched an eyeshadow pallette a v fine powder like that) ... our brown also isn't meant for injecting and with repeated skinpopping causes something looking like massive cellulite I know one guy whose arse is meant to be disintegrating bc he insists on going back and back in the same place... how weird you posted that only the day b4 I found out my painful "scab" which is all red & swollen around IS an abscess... caused mostly by my own stupidity for going in there again when it was already swollen.... he used to go 5cm in his neck... what with a BLUE NEEDLE? that's ukky. my ankles are swollen already from constant leg injecting. i've never done groin or neck they are the only places i've not gone. have done chest, feet hands thighs waist everywhere (veins) as well as skinpopping all over the place too... what else can i say...
PATTI: yeah council flats are public housing for the "poor" you have to be disadvantaged to get one (nowadays)... most tower blocks (except premium ones like Ontario tower which has a giant blue light on top and 5-star hotel roomservice to all apartments) are council flats (flat = apartment, but an apartment can be a personal area in a palace or large house, which you would not call a flat so the words aren't strictly interchangeable...) they are called council flats as the local council is the landlord...
GLED , Ive been reading you for a year or so . The only question I have is how do you get by . I mean how do you make ends meet , are you on social aide ? I never read that you work ? How bout a blog entry on how you survive ?
Hi Anon
I get by on boring old state benefits and methadone... don't do no "grafting" no more... very boring life!
;->...
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