Meanwhile, In The Attic

Westminster is full of nice little deli/cafés.
This is one of the closest to my office, yet somehow I've never felt tempted …

Yeah, sure, I know what it means in French, but over here in Blighty, mange is a skin disease which dogs get.
Mmmm … Taste that yummy, flaky, salty goodness …

Meanwhile, in the attic …

It's dark up here; just a single bulb on an extension cable.
I set it swinging … shadows swoop and loom through the rafters.
Nina Nastasia's latest CD plopped onto my doormat earlier. It's now on my stereo. I can hear her voice, muffled, coming up the stairs and twisting its way through the attic trapdoor. It sounds right.

How come there's never any spiders up here?
There's always plenty of the buggers in the house. I suppose there's not much to eat in an attic. Either that or something else lives up here that hunts them down. I stop and listen for any tell-tale crunching noises … Nothing big and hairy lurking in the swirling shadows. I wish I hadn't set the light swinging.

I don't come up here much. Just to periodically dump junk, then periodically clear it all out again. There's way too many boxes of books; some unidentifiable wreckage that might have been musical instruments; the fossilised remains of old Apple Macs; pipes that either gurgle or go clunk; and somewhere in the shadows, the thing that eats spiders …
… and, in a dusty box, where it has lurked since the mid nineteen-seventies, an old Russian camera I had as a teenager.
Inside it is an undeveloped reel of film.
Curiosity kills me …

Ghosts … These places are all long gone. The jetty was replaced by waterside apartments too expensive for locals to ever afford. I think the ships' chandlers is now some kind of heritage centre.
There are other ghosts on the film. Dead places. I may well post some more, but not today. Right now, I'm headed back up the ladder into the warm, musty dark to see what I can find.
I don't wear my Spidey suit. Best not take any chances …

While I'm up here, here's your homework:

Today's phrase you must use in your next telephone conversation: Glacial moraine.

Today's track to track down: Ghostly Girl by Jolie Holland. A good song to listen to in a dark attic.

Today's reading assignment: Anything by James Ellroy. I'm in that kind of mood.

Today's fact: The number four (4) cannot be added to, subtracted from, multiplied by or divided by, any other number.