Thursday evening

Don't ask me why - but I'm in a really good mood today.

I managed to sell enough stuff on eBay today to pay my mortgage for a month - and so far, all communications have been good. My cold is almost gone, I had a really friendly chat with one of my neighbours and probably managed to help a couple of people out, one way or another. I even took a bag of clothes to the Salvation Army shop.

I walked around all the charity shops at lunchtime, the sun was shining - I didn't buy anything (I have hundreds of Savile Row shirts already - it's embarrassing). In the Hospice Shop - which has gone rubbish again, there was a fracas brewing - someone had put a bowl of water out for passing dogs (It's by the Morrisons - Pitbull central) and it had been stolen in less that 10 mins. I didn't get involved. Over at the Oxfam shop the elderly transexual who works there (think Margaret Rutherford meets Baby Jane) was probably a bit drunk - I've never seen her so animated - and shouty. There is a Gieves and Hawkes suit in there for a fiver - it's beautiful - but just that tiny little bit too small - and I've made that mistake too many times before. For some reason, everything at the moment is either slightly too small - or a 50inch chest, a lot of hand-tailored shirts out there at the moment - all for a morbidly obese and presumably dead - city boy.

In the late afternoon, I went over to the Aldi to buy vegetables and cheese. I made the mistake of going there at the same time as all the parents who have just picked their kids up from school - it was packed, mostly with idiots. The kind of people who part their trolley at 90 degrees across the aisle while they talk on the phone, pay for half their stuff in an express till then wander off while they look for something else or who have children they neither like nor tolerate, who just cause violent chaos. One woman with 3 children - she had a particularly hard face and hair scraped back from her brow and help in place by what looked like staples - barged in front of me - as she stormed past - she said something to one of the children, a small girl - who turned and gave me a really filthy look, the kind of glare that takes years to perfect (she was about 8) - the mother realised she was looking at me and shouted 'DON'T EVEN FUCKING LOOK AT HIM'. I'd love to know what she said.

I bought a packet of nut roast style burgers for my dinner - after I'd grilled them - I turned my back just long enough to allow small dog to jump onto the counter and steal them. I bet she was disappointed.