27 October 2009 (Tuesday) - A Day Off

I was called in to work (again) last night. By the time I’d collected the projector (for Wednesday), finished at work and checked my emails, the evening had gone. Mind you, one of the emails told me my telly had sold. For the princely sum of 99p. I was hoping for a tad more profit, but such is life. Having said that, the lucky winner is yet to contact me, so perhaps I won’t even get that 99p.

I thought I’d take today off work. I deserve it. I cracked on with my PowerPoint presentation on the planet Saturn. I say “my presentation” – it’s based on (i.e. blagged from) something done by Cornell University. But I’ve emailed them and got their permission to use it. To be honest, once I’ve taken out the big words and thrown in some knob jokes, no one would be any the wiser. As they said themselves, if they didn’t want it used by the likes of me, they would never have put it on the Internet in the first place. It’s a good thing that Saturn looks pretty. There are absolutely no comic-book aliens I can illustrate the talk with, and the planet doesn’t sound the slightest bit rude either. Mind you, it does have the Death Star from “Star Wars” in orbit around it, so all is not lost. (It really does – look up “Mimas” on Wikipedia)

And then I had a look at my accounts. Sometimes I wonder if that’s a good idea – I only scare myself. I see that sometime in August I spent £16.10 on assorted groceries in Tesco that still hasn’t appeared on my credit card bill. I shall keep quiet about that. It wouldn’t be the first time Tesco have forgotten to bill me.

I then wasted an hour trying to find my keys. I used them last night to unlock the front door when I came home from work for the second time. But this morning they weren’t with my car key (where they should be). I’ve so much more I could be doing than looking for keys. And then the keys just appeared back on their hook some time during the afternoon. What was that all about?

A letter arrived from the chokey today, and “Norman Stanley” phoned just as I was about to open the letter. He seems a lot more positive than he has been – the basketball team is getting coaching – or, that is those members of the team that can be bothered to show up are getting coaching. He scored a basket in their most recent match – and they have improved their scoring by 500%, nor only losing 78-10. He can last the whole twenty minutes without being sick from the exertion. And he’s been to the dentist, who said to come back in a year’s time. That was helpful. I then spent a bit of time working on the next crossword I’m going to send him. “A comical, drunken attempt at combat. (10)” Any ideas?

The afternoon was spent alternately in NeverWinter and asleep. Some might say a waste of a day, but I find that my weekends are (usually) so busy that I don’t mind having an occasional day slobbing about...