Where I work there's a policy which allows you to double park your car in the car park. I parked mine in a double-parking stylee this morning, as I'd managed to fail to get moving for about 20 minutes this morning when I woke up at my girlfriend's place some 90 minutes' drive from work, thus causing me to arrive at the office after the point where all the spaces are full. I left my car in a double parking location and left my key with reception as is the policy.

A bit of back story. A couple of things have happened recently. Firstly, I have started to go through the big batch of stuff I collected from Newcastle last month. Going through it means to face up to the past in ways I'm still not sure I'm comfortable about. However, it also brings me back in touch with my CD collection, which I'm now dutifuly ripping to MP3 so I can have it in digital form and not worry too much about the multitude of discs in boxes in my house somewhere. So, on the seat of the car this morning I left the box from the Corrs unplugged album.

A bit more backstory. The other day, as part of the "let's go to the sales and buy out these bankrupt companies" approach that's part cost-saving, part retail-silliness, and almost a form of community service, I bought an album. At first I couldn't find the album, looking as I would normally do in the Rock and Pop section. Then it occurred to me - this band might actually be classed as Metal. They were. I bought a Metal album. Cor lumme and stone the crows.

Having listened to this album a couple of times, including on the way to work this morning, I can confirm that it's very much on the pop end of metal. Green Day - fairly mainstream in my view, with some reasonably good pop-sized-songs alongside the growling multi-movement-WRAWKKK.

As I walked away from my car this morning, knowing that it would be moved by someone else before I next got to it, and knowing that that person would get an earful of the CD I was listening to, it amused me to think that they may go "Hmmm - what's this music" and then see the Corrs CD case on the passenger seat and go "Hmmm - the Corrs have changed a lot since their fiddley daidley days".

I chuckled to myself.

Then the day didn't really hold much joy for me. I managed to pass muster at the dentist, but it was no grand victory.

I even managed to buy a toothbrush head just like the one I borrowed this morning when I discovered that my electric toothbrush head had broken. Still no joy.

Then I wrote a miserable "I need to kick myself up the arse" blog entry and got ready to come home.

The advantage of writing this blog is that it makes me think about my life from the outside somewhat. As a result, I actually did do some things to perk myself up. They were two simple tasks, but they had the desired effect.

Firstly, somewhat frustrated at the huge amount of stuff that I have no home for in my house, I went to Homebase, bought some shelves, took them home and put them up. I now have three shows for DVDs and books. I even got them to be a sensible distance apart. And level. Even though the walls are made of sponge.

Secondly, annoyed that my health and fitness isn't improving in any way, I got on my bike, literally, and cycled to Tesco. The shopping was necessary for other reasons, but the cycling made it into a healthy trip. This may have proved harder than expected on the way out, and the cause of a case of hiccups on the way back, but I'm glad I did it.

I haven't done the tax return tonight, or the writing, or any other of the stuff I might have done, but I'm pleased nonetheless. I have a plan.