oh dear, barely a week in and I'm running out of things to put in the title box!

still feeling good although my tummy is playing up but I know what has caused it today.I overran in a meeting and ducked out to get something to eat.got a pasty from a bake shop. asked for mushroom, thought I got mushroom but got halfway through eating it and realised it was in fact CHICKEN and mushroom...Urghhh! Stopped eating it but the damage was already done.just in case anyone is wondering what happens when you - albeit inadvertently - eat meat after being veggie for nearly fourteen years, this is it...your body gets out of the habit of digesting meat and can't do it. The result is kinda not nice... - I'll leave you to fill in the blanks... *g*to swing from the sublime to the ridiculous, make that downright outrageous. was surfing ebay earlier and happened to browse onto 'tickets' Whoa! I brought a ticket for a now sold out gig about two weeks ago, the minute I knew they were on sale there I was credit card and mouse in hand.now I am seeing them being offered for sale at up tp DOUBLE the face value. Fine I suppose if you really *really* want to go and didn't make it through in time but what guarentee do you have that they aren't forgeries?some people really will capitalise on anything.I suppose it was only a matter of time before the touts went the way of the rest of us and hopped online. *sighs*Third subject change...Here is the next part (19) of 'Stay'...see what you think...Disclaimed as ever. Disclaimer in my user profile.Its all fiction people.Nineteen Burning… Christmas followed hotly on the tail on their trip back to Brisbane - quite literally. The temperature shot up to its usual summer high and Darren, never one for the heat, spent the majority of the two days holiday bemoaning the lack of air-conditioning in their tiny flat and the lack of breeze in the air outside.'Can't you magic up some rain or something?' he asked, flopping onto the couch and raising a dramatic hand to try and fan his face.'It doesn't work like that and you know it.' Daniel laughed.'Well it should.' Darren moved around listlessly trying to find a position that would at least afford him some semblance of comfort. 'Can't you just 'phone home' and get whoever is in control of the weather to send a little cloud to Sydney. Just a teeny weeny fluffy little white one…pleeeeeeease.' He turned and smiled pleadingly at Daniel who was no longer laughing but rather looking out of the window sadly.'I don't have any contact with anyone…' he gazed upwards, '…you know.''None at all.''Nope. It was one of the conditions of me being here. If I wanted to live amongst mortals then as far as possible I was to be a mortal.''Apart form the mind manipulation and healing powers then.'Daniel shrugged. 'Somethings are still me even though I now have a corporeal body.''But no… 'phone home'…?''No, Doze, no 'phone home'Darren appeared to consider this for a while whilst Daniel just continued to stare out of the window at the, not surprisingly given the date, pretty much deserted streets below.He hadn't given much thought to it apart from during the odd moment of homesickness and longing, when he felt too burdened by the restrictions of flesh and bone and longed for the freedom that his spiritual form gave him.It wasn't as if he ever wished to be back there, there was so much here to hold his attention and fascinate him and he had Darren to fill the hole in his soul where love and devotion resided. Why would he want to be there when he could be here…stuck in a stuffy, over hot flat with a whining, childish man. Why indeed?Gradually his smile returned.Darren peeled himself off of the sofa and came to stand beside him.'That makes you a pearl.' He proclaimed out of nowhere.Daniel quirked his head at him, knowing there had to be more behind that comment then that one statement but temporarily failing to see it.'A pearl?''Something we did at uni…hang on.'He disappeared into the bedroom and Daniel could see him knelt on the floor rummaging about under the bed, no doubt for one of the many boxes that lived there. Boxes which were nearly all full of Darren's possessions and had never quite made it as far as being unpacked. Mainly because of the lack of space in their residence and because of the sheer volume of stuff that he had deemed 'essential' when they moved down here.When he emerged, cursing as he hit his head on the underside of the frame, he had in his hand a book which he then brought through and, flicking over a couple of pages, found what he was looking for.'See…?'Daniel took the book from him and sat down crossed legged on the floor. What Darren was showing him was a triptych painting by a 15th Century Dutch Surrealist painter well known for his obsession with creatures of fantasy, half human, half animal or demon.Sitting behind him and leaning his chin on his shoulder Darren pointed to the bottom left corner of the main panel. Being a reprint in a book meant that the definition wasn't brilliant and Daniel had to really look and still he didn't see what Darren was getting at.'See the pomegranate there?''Yes.' Daniel saw a pinkish sphere but wouldn't have known that it was meant to be a fruit if he hadn't been told.'And see what is spilling out of it?'Daniel smiled. Darren was obviously very excited about whatever it was he was trying to explain.'Seeds?' he hazarded.Darren's hands left the book and wound themselves around Daniel's body. 'No. They are pearls.''Pearls?' Daniel let the book drop into his lap and leant back into the embrace. 'Enlighten me Oh Great One.'Darren dropped a light kiss on the side of Daniel's neck.'Pearls represent the fallen souls of angels who remain trapped within the mud of the material world. Imprisoned by their bodies and their flesh, they somehow manage to remain spiritually alive. The religion that Bosch was interested in referred to those souls as The Living Ones.''And that's how you see me?''Uh-huh.''Ah. Well I'm hardly a Fallen One. I left voluntarily not because I got kicked out.''But you did fall didn't you?'Daniel remembered his unceremonious entry into this world and nodded. 'Flat on my arse.'Darren giggled. 'Ouch!''That's one way of putting it.''So do angels get kicked out then?'As always when Darren asked questions of this nature Daniel hesitated. He wanted to be open and honest with him but there were some things that just went beyond the grasp of even the most open of human minds.Finally he settled on replying. 'It has been known. After all the being you know as Lucifer was an angel before he grew too…power hungry…and had to be banished.'Darren rubbed his nose in Daniel's hair. 'Hard to think of you and him being cut from the same cloth so to speak.''Well I'm only a junior angel, a member of the order of Shemhamphorae. He was one of the Archangels, the highest order you can have. Right up there with Gabe and Mike.'Darren chortled and Daniel felt it as hot breath on his skin. 'Sorry.''It caused great sadness especially when others decided to follow him. The terror he has reeked since…' Daniel paused. Just the memory alone of all the suffering and horror one fallen angel had managed to create through the minds and actions of men was enough to bring an unbidden tear to his eye. Scenes of helpless children being wrenched from their parents, columns of smoke rising above the silver birched Tatra Mountains, a young girl running down a dirt track the skin on her back falling away in burning strips…A fingertip brushed gently over his cheek, collecting the shed tear. His body was hugged tightly.'Sssh now, can't have tears from my pearl.'Daniel took the hands that were around him and held them in his own. 'I'm ok. Its just sometimes the sorrow gets too overwhelming to comprehend - even for an angel.''But its Christmas, a time for rejoicing, goodwill to all men an' all that.'Daniel shook his head. 'That was the theory. Christmas was meant to sort everything out, to put things back the way they had been but the evil in men's hearts was just too deeply rooted. It didn't change a thing except to get a good man killed.'From the silence that descended Daniel knew he had gone too far. Darren was right. Christmas was a time for rejoicing, for happiness.'Come.' He stood up.'Wha???''Let's go see if an ice-cream won't cool you down.'