Monday

What a shit day. Cold, damp, drizzle and fog. Nobody with anything good to say. Zsa Zsa Gabor and Rabbi Lionel Blue - bookending a grim day - with just the Russian Ambassador to Turkey dropping in along to make me ready for a very early night

Had a meeting with someone to potentially do digital work with me - lets see how that one pans out. Client in Brighton who wants to book me Jan/February contacted me to say they still can't confirm - that's fine, at least they have the manners to tell me.

I bought a sandwich in Tesco at lunch time. It was busy, and as I only had the one cheese sandwich I went self-service. In front of me was a woman with a child, the mother had decided that now was the time to do all her shopping, and teach the small child how to use the self service till - one item at a time. It took about 10 mins. The child really wasn't that interested but the mother really enjoyed keeping the whole store waiting and entertained us with a running commentary. "that's right darling, scan it now, no dear, scan first, put it in the bag later". I'm surprised my teeth didn't bleed from all the gritting. There are a hard-core of mothers in Hastings that do this - make everything about them and their children. One woman in particular talks to her children really loudly in a posh accent - a stream of yummy mummy conciousness, the children just tune her out and run amok - it's clearly designed to impress, but fails.

I'm lining up some really grim jobs for the rest of this week. Emails I don't want to have to send, checks I have to make - bills I have to open and plans I have to start thinking. I actually have quite a bit of promised work and am owed money - but I'm pretty worn out with the endless bloody grind of it all. At least I haven't had to worry about heating so far this year.

I made a Mexican bean casserole in the slow cooker - it was pretty good. Later in the week I'm going to follow a risotto recipe.