Lardarn again.

Back to the big city.

On my way to the station I passed the small council estate - the ground floor flats have fairly large gardens - one of them had a quite obvious, freshly dug grave in the front - complete with large wooden cross - about the size of a large dog ( they had a Bull Terrier ) or a smallish child / adult dwarf. The man that lives there is about 60 and has every inch of his body tattoo'd - including his scalp. I didn't say anything.

I popped into college to make sure all was well. A student ran up to me and said 'it's snowing in Maidstone' and ran off. This was not the student who emailed me earlier in the week to ask to be reminded what she had done that day, as she had forgotten.

The cost of a ticket to London has now hit exactly £20. Three years ago it was £15.

On the station, a fat arsed girl of about 15 in a grey tracksuit was pushing a buggy, two boys were with her - same age, either ( or both ) could have been the father. The child appeared to be called 'Toerag'. I bought a paper, coffee and a bar of chocolate  for the  journey, adding another fiver.

The conductor came into my carriage to talk to a man who was probably an under cover policeman or something similar and asked him to 'keep his eyes open and watch out for anything unusual' - there was a complete drink and drug casualty at the back - about 60, shouting into a mobile phone 'are you there, are you there'.


I had a good look at The Shard, which seemed to be exactly the same as last December - but still exciting. My meeting went realy well, despite the print crisis - and my clients gave me a sample laptop bag ( handy ) and asked me to brand up some Golf Umbrellas over the weekend.

I saw a smug looking man on Piccadilly smoking the worlds biggest cigar - he appeared to be fellating it. He looked like a complete prick. ( see what I did there )

I met Grindrod for a drink in the Retro - I gave him his birthday present ( from October ) and his Xmas present ( oops... sorry... ). They had a special offer. A pint of lager - £1.95. A small bottle of coke £2.00.

All in all, a lovely day - except for one unexpected event. The Retro was packed to heaving - as I was trying to talk to Grindrod in the throng - I realised that there was someone standing next to me that looked vaguely familiar. Well.... I did go out with them for 6 years and lived together for some time. It was an awkward moment for both of us. In truth... I didn't actually feel anything. Reminded me of a story I read in The Spectator a few years ago. Taki, the twattish playboy columnist - recounted tale of being at a party and meeting a very attractive woman who he proceeded to flirt with - she gave him a hard stare and slapped his face. He wasn't too fussed about that - I expect it happens all the time - then someone pointed out that he had once been engaged to her.