So what’s be going on here then? Well, most unusually for us a lot of work around the house. We spent most of the weekend and last night painting our kitchen, It’s quite a satisfying thing to do once in a while but it’s not like real life, is it.

Talking of which, tomorrow evening we are off to see the splendid M. Ward at St Bonn’s. His latest album “Transistor Radio” has been a firm favourite round here over the past couple of months. It’s great that he is playing at St Bonn’s as it’s only a 10 minute walk from our house, how civilised!

Other than that, well not too much really. I’ve been enjoying singles by The Rakes, Yeti, Boca 45 and The Magic Numbers. Just had an unsuccessful trip to Boarders in an attempt to buy the new albums from The Coral and The Eels.

I do miss working in town, the only chance I get to go to any interesting shops is on weekends but I don’t want to spend the weekends just shopping. I miss the wandering around a record shop, seeing what other people are buying and talking about. A 30 second blast of something on iTunes just ain’t the same. Sure things are cheap to download, but I want to pour over the sleeve notes - who’s playing 3rd recorder on track 3? Oh it’s..... Where was the album recorded? Who’s doing backing vocals? Who produced it? ITunes gives you none of this, which is pretty poor.

I suppose I really miss the good old days of working 4 days a week, it gave me so much more time to do all sorts of things. Cooking for instance, I do enjoy cooking but I like to take my time. Cooking in the middle of the afternoon is a thing of joy, especially when you bought the ingredients that day.

It’s quite strange to think that at the start of next week I will have been doing my current jobs for 6 months. It has gone really quickly and we have enjoyed having the extra money, so I can’t complain. Sometimes though I do feel like a bit of an oddity there. It’s rather disappointing to be back in a world where the likes of Big Brother matter to people, indeed with a few notable exceptions, I feel like some sort of towering cultural genius. Yes I read books, go to interesting places and would rather go to see a band in a small room, than have the “30, 000 other people are here - so it must be good” mentality. I guess that’s the problem. Most of the people around me need to be told in big bold letters that something is good, so I never get the benefit of other peoples influence which Mark, RLF, Jay, Chris and Gaz gave me in Imperial. Whilst I was at Oxfam I was lucky enough to work alongside lot’s of fascinating people of all ages,so why is it not the case here?

I guess it’s just systematic of office work and office workers, as I’m lacking the creative gene, that’s where most of my working life has been spent, so what does it say about me?

Luckily Orynthia and my non work friends keep pushing things my way. Long may that continue.