Given that it's 1am and I have an article to complete before I leave the house for most of the month, now is probably not the time to be writing a blog entry, but sod it. Stuff's been happening.

Thursday
Went to London after work - spoke to a woman on a train about stuff. She worked for the police. We spoke at length and I tried to make the conversation about her, rather than about me. Okay, so some Ashley facts crept in, but I was concentrating on being a good conversation partner, so I referred them back to what we were discussing about her. It all makes a sort of sense.

Friday
Left my job for good. Felt a bit weird. Felt a bit like nothing was happening. Did a leaving speech. It was okay. Went to the pub at lunchtime, but other people were in a meeting, so it was four of us. We had a nice lunch. I ate unhealthily.

In the evening I went to Brighton and did a gig. It was ok. Something wasn't quite working.

I chatted to a nice lady after the gig about her work with homelessness - she said "Hey, Mr Comedian, make a joke out of that." I declined. It started a conversation about her work. I was fascinated.

Later in the evening, I chatted to a lovely young lady on the subject of musicals - yay - and her boyfriend - woo. She out musicaled me, so I had to promise to research the show she recommended that I'd never even heard of.

Even later I had a girly sleep-over, which was really just eating pizza at stupid-o'clock with a friend. Then we went to our respective beds.

Saturday
Got up early enough to rescue my car from almost certain ticketage. Got some milk - yay - and some chocolate - not yay (well, it was yay at the time). Had coffee and tea back at my friend's place and then headed back home.

I decided to go to Argos and buy some items I needed - a CD rack and a tripod for my camera. These were bought cheaply, though I couldn't resist the lure of MacDonalds -just a chocolate muffin and chocolate milkshake. Perhaps not the wisest of choices, but they were my choices.

I went home and assembled my shelf and then filled it with digital discs.

I decided I couldn't do anything further that was useful at home, so I went, instead, to collect the remainder of my outstanding stuff from my ex-girlfriend's place. This means that everything I own now resides in a house I own (well, one of them). That's a good thing. Probably.

We decided to go and see the Simpsons movie - yay - after a meal in which we had desserts - sort of yay, but mainly overeatingy. Especially when we also had popcorn and maltesers in the cinema... and a sugary drink.

Can you spot a recurrent problem? Fatty and sugary foods. Bad for you.

Sunday
Following the lateness of the night of the Simpsons movie, and following the late night with earlyish get up that had started my weekend, I slept in on Sunday. I awoke and got on with my day's mission. I had to get a birthday card and birthday cake for a friend. I succeeded.

I also wrote a bit of the article that I needed to write.

I am responsible for booking a comedy night in London, and so I started to "fill the grid" this is easier said than done, and involves a lot of contacting random people. It's hard bloody work. Anyone who organises a comedy night is trying to juggle lots of random factors and deal with lots of earnest young hopefuls. It's depressing.

The comedy night, though, will be bloomin' marvellous.

In the evening I went to watch a friend perform at a gig in Portsmouth. This didn't really work out as planned. In the end, I was out the room lighting a birthday cake for her while she was on. Also we didn't to spend any time together, since she had loads of her friends to look after, and I was quite busy discussing musicals and other things like that, with someone.

I had so wanted to buy a watermelon from the shop next door to the venue, just so that I could carry it boldly into the venue and declare myself a mawkish watermelon carrier. However, things didn't work out like that. The shop didn't sell them, and my mawkishness was not as evident to me as it had been.

Some of the comedy that night proved excellent. Some of it proved unfunny enough to cause my sometime musicals-discussing companion to give up and leave. I padded along, not wanting to miss a final moment of discussion about musicals. This is not, entirely, an honest account of the evening.

Monday
Monday was rubble day. I hired a van. I drove it to my house and filled it with rubble and other stuff from my garage. I drove it to the tip. I waited in a massive queue at the tip and then got to off load. I discovered that the tip requires you to "file" all your rubbish in some detail. This involved some unpacking of the bags that contained a miscellany of crap. It was very time consuming.

I got a call partway through with an offer of help. I considered my male pride for a moment and then I considered the matter in hand. I had a load of stuff to move and I couldn't do it all alone. I accepted help.

Two further trips to the tip and my garage was empty. There was still rubble outside the house, but all the sacks had been cleared and the van could be returned. Plus, I had a gig to do in Oxford.

I rushed a shower and rushed to Oxford.

The gig was pulled as nobody came.

I returned home and got some sleep.

Tuesday
A late wake-up and then more of the admin, which had carried through into Monday, and which I didn't bother to mention above, relating to the gig. Must fill the grid. That's what it's all about.

I decided to move two car-loads of rubble to the tip in my car. At first, I was putting bricks in the boot and rubble sacks in the back. This worked ok, but I was running out of rubble sacks and they were leaking crap into the car anyway.

On the second load, I stuck my wheelie bin in the boot and threw the rubble into its open mouth. Oh yeah. That worked a treat. I got to unload the loosest rubble in one tipping out sort of a motion, though getting a wheelie bin half full (or half empty: in this case I'm not sure which is a more optimistic viewpoint) of rubble to come out of your car is not an easy lift.

Getting home, I set about vaccuuming the car out - I removed a lot of rubble and assorted bogeys and other crap from countless car journeys over the last year and a half (since it was last valeted).

No rest for me. I went to collect my clean washing, then to Tesco and Staples for some supplies. Then home for the ironing - many many many shirts. I packed my stuff and then it was very late.

Now it's even later.

I watched disc one of Rock Profile - it was very good. I did it while ironing and packing, so it's sort of multitasking.

I had so many admin-type jobs to do before I could get to my article, that I didn't get to do the article. I shall have to wake up tomorrow and do it now. It's so very late.

Sigh.

Still, off up North tomorrow after going to see a musical and doing a gig. Hopefully, I'll get some time in a cafe with wireless internet. It seems like the best way.