Welcome to Banal London

Hello and welcome to my new blog, Banal London.

It's a bit of a shit name, I know, but I couldn't think of anything better, and it seemed to encapsulate quite nicely the steady creep of banality in our lives. Take the internet, for example. Why do people insist on providing a step-by-step account of their abysmally boring, irrelevant lives on Facebook? Do they really think people actually care that they've finished wrapping all their Christmas presents and adorned the house with a load of fake pine, and are now going to get an early night because they're a bit tired? Or that they've drunk themselves stupid at the office Christmas party (again) and have a resulting mother of all hangovers, combined with a nasty cold that's left them unable to breathe through their right nostril?

And then there's Facebook stalking. I mean, really?? Has our society finally sunk to the undignified depths of stalking not only ex-boyfriends (at least that's vaguely forgiveable), but also complete strangers on the internet? I actually know people who spend not insignificant chunks of their day looking at photos and status updates of friends of friends of friends, noting all manner of banal details like the colour and length of the dress they wore to Kev and Sarah's wedding, how fat or ugly (or both) their baby was when it was born and how fucking wonderful their lives are because they've got so many amazing friends. Three words: Get. A. Life.

You might ask why I'm so bitter. The answer is that my mother died recently after a short but very courageous fight with lung cancer. She was one of the ridiculously unfortunate 10% of lung cancer sufferers who never smoked (apart from the odd social smoke when she was in her early twenties). She was totally and amazingly wonderful, and I feel utterly lost without her. She died during the night of 4th - 5th October 2011. And then, 4 weeks later, I got made redundant.

Hence the creation of this blog, which shall be used as a vehicle to show up the banality, cruelty and sheer fucked-upness of the world we live in, and also as a tribute to my irreplaceable mother, Claudia, whose wicked sense of humour, fiercely proud Germanity and gentle kindness deserve to be immortalised and shared with all.

Hopefully it'll bring a smile to your face every now and then. And I promise not to make it too banal.

Goodnight, sweet dreams.