It was just after 6:00 when Nat came downstairs and asked me if I’d like to accompany him on his paper round and once again I said yes. The upside of doing this is that at least I get the chance to listen to a podcast whilst we’re out and given that they are accumulating faster than I can listen to them this isn’t a bad thing. The weather continues to be icy and every car we passed was frosted up. The hardest part of the round is getting to the newsagents because this is situated at the highest point on the Kingsway, after that it’s literally all down hill from there. We managed to complete the round in about 45 minutes and were home for 7:15, we left at 6:30. When I think back to my paper round, which I did on foot, if I’d done that at the same speed it would have taken me about four and a half hours to complete.
I spent most of the day, as usual, doing sod all on the PC; it’s astonishing how the time whizzes by when you’re engrossed on line doing nothing really.
Just before everyone was due home I started watching the BBC News technology programme Click which featured and article on on-line advertising aimed at children. When Deborah got home, she was first, I mentioned what I was watching and said that she might find this interesting especially considering how Hannah and Nat are always saying what they’ve seen on line and can they buy such and such. I mentioned that it was astonishing that the under nineteen’s spent over twelve billion pounds per annum on line and even more if you took into account family purchases that they had an input into. The point I was actually trying to make was that when you divided these totals by the population as a whole I kept being astonished that there was that much money in the economy, despite the effects of fifty years of inflation during just my lifetime. Of course I never managed to get that far before she jumped in to disagree with what she thought I was going to say. After the weekend just gone this was the straw that broke this camels back and I decided there and then that from now on my response to most things would be monosyllabic and that in future I wouldn’t instigate any further conversations. I’d had enough and since that time we’ve hardly spoken and when she’s spoken to me I’ve responded with the minimum necessary grunt, it’s just so much easier that way I just don’t want the hassle any longer.
So the pattern was set for another day of uncomfortable tension and in the end I just curled up on the sofa and went to sleep. Eventually I woke and decided to say “fuck it” to family finances, got her cash card and went to ASDA to buy some beers.
Hannah was supposed to go to Cubs that evening but claimed that she wasn’t feeling very well so didn’t. I just wish that all the overtime that was available last month was available now because if it was I’d spend the majority of my time at work just for the peace and quiet. Finally, everyone else went to bed and I stayed downstairs where once again I fell asleep on the sofa! If we ever win the lottery, which is now highly unlikely as we no longer have a syndicate at work and I rarely ever buy a ticket off of my own bat unless there’s a huge Euro Lottery Rollover, the first thing I’ll do is make sure I buy a place of my own as a retreat or a big house with a room for me with a lock on the door. It’s OK for the kids they’ve got their own rooms whereas there’s nowhere for either Deborah or I to go when we want some peace and quite. We’re forced to live on top of one another whether we want to be or not. Given the money situation it’s not even possible to escape to the pub for an hour or two. If things continue this way, finances or not, I can’t see us making it to our 30th anniversary!
I can’t really think of anything much else that happened on this day but as I’ve over two hundred words to go before I reach that magical thousand figure I’m going to have to think of something. I do recall now that I try that I didn’t discover any new software for my new phone or any new function on it. In point of fact from a “discovering new things your phone can do” point of view it was a distinctly negative day, much like the rest of the day in point of fact. Similarly, I didn’t experience any revelations that convinced me that there was a first cause to the Universe and that this first cause is indeed god as so many people profess to believe. On a related note it seems that every time I go to work there seem to be more and more men adopting Islamic dress which, it has to be said, in this climate looks ridiculous. I mean if they suddenly decided to convert to whatever faith it is that is held by Eskimos would they feel obliged to wear furs even if they happened to live in Africa? I hate to sound really Daily Mail about this but if their faith is of such importance to them why don’t they go and live in a country in the Islamic world or would they miss the comforts of western life too much? It doesn’t matter how long I live I don’t think I’ll ever understand how the religious can stay religious in the modern world. They reject science out of hand but forget that it’s modern science that feeds and clothes them. Cognitive dissonance it’s (1000) a wonderful thing allowing us all to be practicing unthinking and unknowing hypocrites!
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