Saturday 6 December 2014

Peaks and troughs

A long and difficult week. Work was rubbish - lots of client conflict, dealing with incompetent suppliers and generally just losing money. I've taken 2 days off from paid work to complete a fixed fee project that's gone way over budget, thanks to poor management and a very bad contractor - and no end in sight. Next week is looking the same.

In other news. my dental hygienist took £40 off me in return for the usual ritual humiliation and condescension. I spent an hour in a meeting with a man who is also one of the stars of 'The Mighty Boosh' TV show - which I've never seen, so there was no common ground whatsoever - just the odd stilted silence. Apparently he's a gorilla. Another one of the wealthy London media types snapping up property down here. Actually - quite a nice bloke - distracted by his phone, as his girlfriend was apparently about to give birth.

In other news, I spent last night at the De La Warr at a 'performance' and session with the artist 'David Shrigley - who is a bit of a hero - it was great, we all got a free copy of his book - which he wrote in for us, showed some films, and was generally a gentleman. Everyone in the book signing queue ahead of me gave him a business card and asked him for a job. He was really gracious to them. More than I would have been. The event was organised by City Books in Hove, who are just 100 yards from my old house.

talking Brighton (Shrigley has just bought a house there ) - I saw in the paper a house for sale I recognised - it's a one up-one down cottage in a back street that is usually full of urinating drunks, with a gable end wall that is a canvas for all the local graffiti artists. No garden - so tiny you literally couldn't swing a cat in either room, but handy for Wagamama if you like that sort of thing. n the market for £250,000.

In other news. The Aldi opened on Thursday to much fanfare. It's fantastic. Huge choice of fresh fruit and vegetables at roughly half the price of Tesco or the COOP.  I couldn't contain my excitement. It's going to make a significant difference to my budget.

I'm going to an event organised by a load of local illustrators at about 2pm, then home to clean the house and clear my head - I'm working tomorrow (Sunday) and have a load of brown envelopes staring at me from the dining room table.

I'm seeing one of my mates later - he's just finishing the post production on the latest Hot Chip video. My life is considerably less interesting.


2 comments:

Steerforth said...

Apart from the customers, Aldi is wonderful. I was pathetically happy when my trolley's contents came to under £40 for a week's worth of meals. I've even mastered the Aldi art of high-speed bag packing at the checkout.

Grey Area said...

You're right about the bagging - I'll have to get into a training program to sharpen my reflexes. I've just eaten a fresh mango that cost me 40p - unthinkable a week ago. I was back there again today and came home with 3 carrier bags of assorted vegetables, all at less than half the price I usually pay - I almost feel as if life has finally turned a corner for me. A packet of vegetable stock cubes for less than 50p was all the proof I needed.

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