While You Were Sleeping

Sorry I’ve been away.

A combination of a short working month, the arrival of our auditors and the fact that one member of my department left last week meant that last week’s routine was pretty much: get up at six, go to work, have no lunch-break, get home at half-eight, eat dinner, go to bed. Get up at six…

So I haven’t even turned my computer on for nearly a week (sorry, SaS, your comment about my age sat in the pending box all this time). The worst part is more or less over, though, so next week should be less crammed.

I have had occasional thoughts and happenings over the past week, though, and here is a brief summary:

• The above routine was slightly different on Tuesday night, when I went to see Placebo. I love them, and really enjoyed the show, though I did feel that they played too much of their most recent album and not enough of their older stuff (there you go – Tinman’s done his first ever review).
• During the week UK football club Middlesbrough were playing on the telly, and I had two thoughts: (a) is Middlesbrough the capital of Middle-Earth?, and if so (b) what does that say about Middlesex?
• On Thursday morning they were handing out Knorr Quick Lunches outside Tara Street Station. The Knorr Quick Lunch is the upmarket version of the Pot Noodle. I ate mine and now feel that I have had three-quarters of the Pot Noodle experience, in that I have eaten something devoid of taste, goodness and nutrition, but without feeling like a loser while I did so.
• Why isn’t Infantasia called Jo Blogs ?
• We put up our tree on Monday, the day after my birthday, in accordance with the Tinhouse rule that Christmas cannot be mentioned until the November/December birthdays of Tinson1, Tingirl and I are over, but didn’t finish putting all the lights, etc on it till Friday (wow, that’s a lot of lights, Tinman, I hear you say, but that’s not what I mean).  We just couldn’t be arsed. And even as I write this, at one p.m. on a Sunday with all five of us in the house, no-one has bothered turning on the lights yet today. I mentioned how long it took us to finish putting up the tree at work and two other people said the same thing had happened in their homes, that the tree was put up in reluctant stages. Christmas begins earlier every year in the shops. Have they finally killed it?

That’s it from me for today. Normal service will resume next week.