Saturday

(bear with me here - I've left my glasses at work, all 3 pairs)

I'm at home today but I'll be at work tomorrow - I needed a day off, it's full on at the moment and all the work I'm doing is very difficult. One big project, if it comes off properly - will be plastered all over the London underground and is associated with a very big 'brand'. I really need to get it right. Work has actually been OK, still managing to work at a decent pace and churn stuff out that I'm not ashamed of.

I cleaned the house today, and cleared the garden in anticipation of a change in the weather. I even cut a few trees back and made some space - I also cut back a very large tree at the bottom of the garden that actually belongs to my neighbour - it's cutting off a lot of light and I just cleared part of what was overhanging. They should thank me. I did it properly. I've done as much as I can in the house without getting tools out.

I still have a rubbish short-term memory - so basically anything that isn't urgent or written down just vanishes - it's not affecting the way I work - but despite the fact a lot has happened this week - I can't remember enough to write it down here. I should carry a note book around. I'll give it some real thought.

Amused that Farage has declared that UKIP is actually dead - despite leading it - and is really just about leaving Europe - which we all knew, rather raining on the parade of everyone who has tried to claim it's a proper political party. It never was.

Pig-gate

Seriously - only in England. It's been a fun week for satire. I never knew there were so many jokes about pigs. I'm a vegetarian so I can, for once, take the moral high-ground from almost every angle here. Despite the fact that many of the allegations in the Ashford book were far more damaging than the story about Cameron's penis in the mouth of a dead pig - it's all people talk about... and that makes me think of the 'good day to bury bad news' episode.  A close friend is a well know and respected academic and vegan activist who has repeatedly tried to point out the grimmer, more complex issues here that relate to expensive research on animal cruelty and feminism - after all, pigs are highly intelligent, sentient animals who are so similar to us in many ways we can use their skin and organs in medical transplants, and no animal deserved to have it's head cut off and then the indignity of that idiot's penis shoved in it's mouth. I enjoy a joke as much as anyone else, and I admit - I've quite enjoyed this one, until today when someone posted a joke on Facebook that would have been funny if only the photograph they used hadn't been taken at the Cameron's child's funeral (nothing intentional - people just don't bother scrutinising things). I loathe Cameron, but it seems that he's going to shrug this one off - people like him always do.

Hipsification

My neighbour at the back has moved - she's one of my old students, her and her husband have bought the house directly opposite - at least twice the size and with a giant garden, a big, posh Victorian Villa on the last street in Hastings before the country park. I expect they will be there for the rest of their lives, they are like that. I have a feeling they did really well with the money side too. They have lived behind me for about 4 years, they have now sold their house for quite a decent profit and moved up the ladder. Progress. I - on the other hand, seem to be slipping down. The new owner appears to be a single man in his early 30's. Beard, horn rims, tattoo on his calf. Total hipster uniform. We get a lot of that in Ore now. I should rejoice but my house in facing the wrong way on the wrong road, so I'll never feel the benefit.

In other local news, when I moved here there was a parade of seriously crap shops, half empty and a pub you would never go into. Over the years we've changed and now have top of the range Aldi, Tesco and COOP, additionally a posh fish and chip shop, a pizza hut, a KFC, a Chinese restaurant and an Indian. We are the fast food and convenience capital of East Sussex. Now we are getting another. Domino's Pizza is opening directly across from me.

I helped someone write an arts council funding application this week, I really enjoyed it. I like writing, in a work context - earlier this month I seriously considered joining a writing course that takes 2 years and counts as part of a degree qualification - one day a week. It was about £900 per year. I'd like to do a lot more writing at work. But in the end I decided that at some point I have to replace the roof, rebuild the bay window, have new heating and redecorate the house. I've also noticed that all the double glazing needs to be replaced - every unit is going cloudy. There is no end to this, everything is a constant cash drain. I'm feeling very 'stuck' at the moment.