A Long Way Down

I am currently reading a fan-FUCKING-tastic book.

It's by Nick Hornby, and its called "A Long Way Down", its about a group of four people who met on the roof of a high rise building (well, I think it was 14 storeys) called Toppers' House.

The four lead characters are :

Martin - A shamed breakfast TV presenter who slept with a fifteen year old, it wasn't his fault, she was in a nightclub and claimed to be of legal concent.

Maureen - The poor woman, a devout catholic, single to a mother to a severely disabled boy of nineteen years called Matty, he can't speak or walk, and who knows if he can hear, see, or understand the world around him, Matty is just a vegetable, and has crippled Maureens life leaving her stuck in the house to look after him 24/7, and bless her, she bought posters and thinks a teenager would love for him.

Jess - A nineteen year old girl, personal problems such as her sister dissapearing a few years ago, parents she constantly argues with, and an ex boyfriend who won't give her a reason why he dumped her and avoids her at all costs.

JJ - An american pizza boy, working illegally in England after his girlfriend dumped him after his band split up. He believes she dumped him because he wasn't going to be a rock star, and after his band split up he feels he has no destination in life, other than flipping burgers till he was 61. (Although in this day and age, the retiring age could be about 80/90... so don't hold your hopes to high JJ)

The reason these four strangers met up there, was because they we're all going to commit suicide. Until one thing leads to another, they decide Jess is far too young to throw her life away, she claims that she wouldn't commit suicide if they found her ex, Chas, and got an explanation from him, so they come down from the roof, and the story follows their journeys in their life.

They start meeting regulary at Starbucks Coffee (Only because a decent coffee house had changed into Captain Coffee, with the coffe shop owner dressed in WWII clothes, saluting and such irritable nonsense) And they almost form a group of people to at least get them to St Valentines Day, where they would go over things and see where they were.

Anyways, I won't divulge much more on the book, other than the two things it has brought to my attention... Suicide, and names.

Suicide ::

Ok then, so, in Layton in Blackpool, there are about 5 high rise council flats, once all in a lovely shade of, yeah, you guessed it... grey.

But recently, one of the flats turned beige... then it got some orange stripes on it, then the one next to it turned beige, and got blue stripes on it, and now another one turned beige, and they are currently adding burgundy stripes onto it.

This brings me to my question :: Is this a desperate attempt from a local council, to make suicide rates drop?

I ask this, because, I imagine, spending at least one DAY of your life, 30 meters above ground, staring out at chavs in hoodies with ASBOS' doing happy slappings and the like, living in a grey cuboid, I'm certain it would drive anyone to suicide. So what I have guesstimated, that rather than doing the hard jobs first, of slaughtering every kid they see with daft as fuck "tramlines" (which are daft lines in the side of your head) or anyone wearing an Ecko hoodie, or a tracksuit, or perfectly white trainers wearing paint staned tracksuit bottoms and a sweatshirt, or anyone wearing a peaked cap. Then they can move on to slaughtering all football hooligans. After that, they can move onto those bastard goths who insist on being miserable, because, I know a few goths who live on council estate areas, and surely that can't be too good for the wellbeing of all the local folk's sanity can it now?

So what I am praying, is that this feable measure to reduce suicide attempts (although from the top of these 30 odd story high buildings, once you have jumped off, I highly doubt its going to be an attempt, as an attempt would insinuate, you tried and failed, and I wil pay good money to someone who jumps off with no protection, lands head first, gets up and says, ow!)

And now my second point ::

Names ::

In the book there is a character called... well, thats the whole point, even though only a minor character, he still doesn't have a name, well, rather, he does have a name, he just chooses not to use it. Instead he lets people use their imagination to give him temporary names, and can have about 300 different names in a day, yes, I suppose he is a bit of a hippy character, but you have to love hippies, or at least give them some 'spect, for sticking in their ways.

In the course of about two pages he gets called :

Dog - Coz he had a dog with him.
NoDog - Coz he didn't have his dog with him.
Flower - Coz he picked Jess a flower.
Ashtray - Coz thats how he tasted when Jess snogged his face off.

And it made me think of an interesting social challenge, I intend to go to a friends party and not use my name, and let people call me whatever they feel like, as long as it is descriptive and imaginative, not cunt, or fuckface, or such purile naughty words (says me haha)

Anywho, that brings me to the end of this blog and Doctor Who will be on in 30mins, so I don't wanna miss that.

Love from Kristoff