summertime!
I don’t write much about work here. Not because it’s so incredibly dull or (conversely) incredibly exciting, but because like most people I spend enough of my time doing my job for it not to be a terribly interesting prospect to spend any part of the remaining time thinking about it, and that includes things to write about it. Adults know what shagging is, and for those that don’t it’s not as if there’s a shortage of places online to find out. And for free!
Having already whinged relatively recently about the cult of bad timekeeping I certainly have no desire to do so again; I’m extremely well paid for putting up with the irritating but unavoidable entitled crap that’s part and parcel of anything which involves dealing with the public, and by and large my job is just like most people’s – sometimes great, sometimes horrendous and the vast, vast majority of the time completely unremarkable which frankly is just the way I want it. What it also means is that I can be easily distracted and waylaid by new and exciting things and forget to do my blog for ages. Sorry!
This last month has included my first ever visit to an IKEA shop, which left me exhausted, stuffed to bursting point with meatballs and apple cake (plus a free hot dog that I won on the way out) and a couple of hundred quid lighter to boot despite only intending to buy a shoe rack, two picture frames and some anti-slip rug mesh – the little KEX alphabet biscuits shown above didn’t stand a chance. Anybody who has ever wondered what Disneyland for adults would be like need search no further, although I guarantee a great deal of searching once you’ve finished deciding which of the pleasingly utilitarian and cheery-looking little 50p bowls and cups to take home and have to find the flat packs you ordered.
I’ve recently signed up for our huge and shiny new sports centre too after going along for a nose at what Scarborough’s new football ground is like (and see below), which will be taking up a fair bit of my time not least with splashing about in the new pool – 1km swum this very lunchtime! There may be a shuffling of hours, but nothing is cast in stone yet and the only current effect on work is likely to be a bit of whinginess and ouching the day after the kettlebells class. I still haven’t set foot in the gym yet, but can report (based on information received) that apparently the treadmills have TV.
There has also been some industrious planning of my upcoming schedule to make good use of the ample free time that self employment in a sector without fixed hours affords me, and the start of Summer always seems to be the time the rest of the year begins falling into place. So far we have FrightFest in August as ever (programme announced this Friday!), a possible trip to Scotland (with a bit of time for punters too) and a definite return to Brixton for Sleaford Mods in September, as well as embryonic plans to catch Nick Cave in Berlin in October. Gosh.
More pertinently I’ve almost (almost!) finished the current stage of the DIY at home and even managed a handful of new photos which will be up directly – yay! There will be more while the light days continue and now I’ve figured out both the phone camera settings so I promise to keep them coming at least until the wintertime. Plus it’s now almost a month since the last mad dash to London and I’m trying in vain to get the next one organised, only to be thwarted time after time by the £400+ per night hotel prices at any civilised venue with functioning aircon. Fuck you, Wimbledon.
Warm weather makes for laziness which I should be at least a little contrite and apologetic about, in terms of lack of short notice availability on days when it really was too hot to go out (for no reason other than that I was lying on the couch in my pants watching Netflix and eating homemade ice lollies – thank you again IKEA). But for practical purposes, those ringing who want a booking in the next hour, say so when I pick up the phone! Asking me in an uncertain tone whether I’m ‘working today’ when what you really mean is ‘how quickly can you be ready because I want to book asap?’ just wastes time that I could have spent putting on my flipflops and heading into town so that you can do exactly that. Everybody gets what they want!
Song of the week ought maybe to be song of the month, but after an exercise in nostalgia earlier in the week when I found another pile of vinyl records in a box we have a summertime classic from the mighty Guns N’ Roses – I still have the Appetite For Destruction LP with the original cover art and it’s not in bad shape for a thirty year old record. I thankfully no longer have the bandanna, studded wristband and bullet belt* I was (probably) wearing when I bought it on another hot day but in 1987. The shame.
More soon. Definitely.
* the truth is that if I had them, I’d likely be wearing them right now
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