Thursday

Couldn't sleep so got up at 4am. This would not normally be a problem, except this would be the ONE DAY in recorded history, when I don't have any coffee.  The first shop opens at 8am - still have 2.5 hours to wait.

Worked hard yesterday - very fragmented day with a couple of random bit's of client contact. The sun came out, sort of.

I've had a letter to introduce the new supermarket that will be built a few hundred yards from my house - it's a smaller, more modern building than the local DIY superstore it replaces, so will improve the view from my house - and a vast improvement, I'll be annoyed to lose the B&Q - but as a non driver - it will really improve the quality of my life - probably bump up my property value, improve the area - and might open earlier that 8am so no more coffee crisis moments. Won't open for a year, but I can wait.

We had 'the funeral' on yesterday at work - sound down. George Osbourne's tears were greeted with delight and disbelief. I'd been contacted by a journalist I know who wanted to interview people who were in some way wounded by the Thatcher legacy - no me, but did I know anyone - for an online piece and podcast during the event - I actually found it quite difficult - most people admitted they had moved on. She eventually spent quite a lot of time on the receiving end of the personal politics of an author friend - he seemed to feel much better after he got it all off his chest. Another friend reminisced that during the miners strike - he had been on a march with a number of other students - and had come across a solo miner in a pub in London - taking a break from the demonstration. After a few exchanged platitudes and expressions of support - the miner told them that he did not want his children down a filthy, dangerous mine for 10 hours at a time - and hoped that it was a dead industry anyway. That's interesting - not so long ago - the children of miners would have been encouraged to go to college and become mining engineers rather than coal face workers - now, they are being told that they should be grateful for a job in retail. Ian Duncan Smith's scoffing, arrogant mockery of the Geology graduate who wanted more from life than working in a supermarket for free belies the difference in conservatism now and then.

One of the guys at work needed some assistance with his main computer - it was just out of warranty - he rang Apple and they were kind enough to extend his warranty for 30 days, for free - little things like that matter.

I found a jar of decaffeinated coffee in a cupboard ( scrambling through the kitchen like a drunk looking for the last dregs of lighter fuel ) - it's vile and quite sickly - but will suffice as a kind of placebo.

There was another person rambling around tow, ranting at the sky, yesterday - I think it's called 'local colour'