Well I feel like I should write something mainly because I haven't done for a few days, and I won't be able to until Tuesday after this afternoon.
My job situation has sorted itself out; the dust settled on several interviews, a few voicemail messages, and the odd rambling conversation/monologue with/to various friends, and I decided to take the job at Borders in Islington rather than the one at 6am every morning down at Waterloo. Convenience won out over some romanticised notion that wearing a fluorescent jacket and brandishing a walkie-talkie would be, like, totally real, man - an idea that probably would not have lasted beyond the first week of 5am alaram calls. So...... Borders it is. Books! People have told me that working in a bookshop is great, great fun. These people have, to a man, never worked in any such establishment, and on what evidence they base such deductions I have no idea. I am guessing that it's along the lines of "all you do is sit around and read books". Well, bollocks to that idea. This is Borders. The Starbucks of the book world. Do people working at Starbucks sit around and drink coffee all day? Do they bollocks.
I am consoling myself with the fact that previous experiences on the shop floor have been relatively enjoyable, until I remember said experiences and realise that, in fact, they haven't been; Gap was one of the more depressing three months of my life, and Party Bizniz led to helium-induced headaches and far too many 'dust the stock-room' shifts, probably to stop me dressing up as Gladiator and talking to customers via an awful Russell Crowe impression. (Well, not that awful. But pretty bad.) (No, who am I kidding, it was shit.) (Really, really shit.)
So...... that job starts on Tuesday. That freed up the rest of my week and my bank holiday weekend. I decided that my spiritual batteries have been empty for too long and that, to continue the metaphor, they need recharging. Luckily, Christian/liberal/spiritual types (I do not tick every box) are recharging en masse this weekend at Greenbelt festival in Cheltenham. Ah, Greenbelt. Unheard of music acts (often with one or two 'names', of the Polyphonic Spree or Lambchop variety) along with seminar upon seminar of either a Christian or non-denominational but decidedly left-wing theme, and all the usual festival stalls and eateries and tiny tea tents. Always a great weekend, and although it will not be the same this year as it was when I was a teenager and there were 25 of us camping together every year from the church youth group, it will still be an excellent place to relax and do very little, while occasionally getting all deep and meaningful. I am going with only one mate, but my mum will be around somewhere doing her volunteering thing, and I think other old friends will be around somewhere, a text message away...
So, I have been in Worcester for a few days, desperately avoiding spending any money. I have been watching a lot of Sky TV, as is my wont on such journeys home. Quantum Leap has been of a high quality this week on ITV3. First of all there was the Lee Harvey Oswald two-parter; then the one where he's on the island with the heiress; and then yesterday the one with Jennifer Aniston in, where he is the Vietnam vet stuck in hospital having had his legs amputated. Around these episodes I have been watching the ever-endearing That 70's Show, which seems to be on about seven different Sky channels at various points of the day. For those of you with a passing interest in both Premiership strikers and That 70's Show/high-profile Hollywood relationships, here is a lookalike somewhat hindered by the lack of decent photos on googleimage; rest assured that they look alike. This has been bugging me for a while as no one agrees with me whenever I bring it up (possibly because I'm never with someone who knows who both of them are)
Yeah? Alright, no. Anyway.
And on top of QL and T70'sS, I've been watching old episodes of The Wonder Years. Yes, surrounded by all my old books and clothes and whatever, I've been immersed in three shows almost wholly predicated on nostalgia. With Quantum Leap and The Wonder Years it's effectively been nostalgia squared, since I've been nostalgising about watching the shows back in the early-90s, when I was first caught up in their misty-eyed nostalgia for simpler times... I see QL has recently made the leap to DVD and hope The Wonder Years follows suit sooner rather than later.
Yesterday I went to see Snakes On A Plane. There has been so much written about this film all over t'internet that it is literally impossible for me to add anything new. It was pretty good. The best bit was, er, when the snakes first got on the plane and it's chaos for about ten minutes. Lots of snakes. Everywhere. Also saw a trailer for the new Jason Statham film, Clunk (or is it Clank? I can't remeber. It may be Crank actually) - I wish they'd drop the 'Jason' from his ads and just go with 'Statham'. Like 'Schwarzenegger' or 'Stallone', he just doesn't need a first name.
Ok, when I start talking about Jason Statham it's time to go. I don't feel I've really done much here so I am going to paste in a link - http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329561464-103390,00.html - which is really quite funny, if you didn't happen to read the back of G2 this morning.
Hope everyone enjoys the last bank holiday of the year. (Except for Boxing Day and Christmas but they don't count, do they? I don't think so.)