I write this entry sat at my laptop in a coffee shop. When I read Richard Herring's blog, this is often how he portrays his working day. It's a nice idea. I'm not sure whether it would suit me though. However, assuming that it's money for old rope to the right person, let me describe this "office environment". Maybe I'm describing my ideal job, or maybe I'm describing something in which I'd start failing and getting very lazy.

I've travelled to the East End of London where, in about 90 minutes, I'll be walking over to the venue where I've got a gig tonight. In the meantime I have time to catch up on some writing. I'm sitting at a small table in an air conditioned and airy café. There are some businessmen in here. There are some pretty girls. There's a smell of coffee in the air and I've already succumbed to the lure of an almond croissant. Theoretically, almonds are good for you, so it must be a healthy item, the almond croissant.

This is, of course, total dingo's kidneys.

I have a large cappucino by the side of the laptop and, plugged into my ears, are some ear phones sporadically playing some MP3 tunes into my ears. I can't work out the reason for the sporadic playing, though my current guess is dodgy earphones. I hope so. A dodgy MP3 player would be more expensive to replace.

I have a window open on the screen with the brief for the writing exercise in it. I have another window with the plan for the complete written item and I've started the process of filling this in. Some of this writing has been done on the train. Trains are good places for writing.

I'm in my own little world in this café and it's sort of like a workplace. I might even be able to get free internet access here. I'm not going to check. I just need to flesh out this piece of writing.

Note: despite having been here for nearly 15 minutes already, all I've managed to do is the displacement exercise of blogging about it. See... it's not necessarily ideal except in the "this is easy" sense. It's not necessarily going to motivate me to get much stuff done. I think I work best under pressure. This probably explains my choice of job - I'll be working in a fairly high-pressure and motivated environment. I'm looking forward to it...

...in as much as, at least, I can't possibly look back on it at this stage.

I've also ordered a book that I think will help me get into the right mindset for the new job. So I must be looking forward to the new challenge. Hell, there may still be the chance to do some work like this in the cleverly (not really cleverly - it's a horrendous pun) named works café.

Whatever "the life" is, whether it's this, that, some other thing, or a bizarre combination of things hitherto unexperienced, I shall have to make the most of it. You don't get to have a second go.