Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Dunk!]

Meeting up with people you've not seen in 20yrs = good.

Drinking on this occasion like you did 20yrs ago = not so good.

Returning home and emailing an editor what you think is wrong with the script you were offered = erm...

Bathing in the warm after glow of a burnt bridge.

[TordelBack]

The Boy is finally back at school after an Actual Summer^TM, meaning this is the last (scheduled) morning alone for me and the Girl before she starts Montessori on Monday.  After this their holidays will be synched and it'll be all three of us or none.  Had many grand plans involving ice-creams and playgrounds to mark the occasion, but we seem to be settled into a morning of tea parties, TV and Lego, which I suppose is okay too.  I'll miss our time together, not least because it allowed me imagine some sort of useful role for myself, but I know I've been unbelievably lucky to have had it at all.

It also means my deadline to find or create 'proper' work (i.e. something in my area of expertise that I could make a decent living from) for myself is well and truly up.  As of Monday I'm going to go out and try to get whatever minimum wage job I can find, since now both kids have effectively free child care in the mornings, I can probably just about afford to cover the afternoons, which I definitely couldn't before.  On the positive side, if I succeed I'll no longer have to listen to the keyboard warriors and phone-in experts who know that 'my kind' spend our days drinking Dutch Gold in the park in between our three holidays a year in Magaluf, all at the taxpayers' expense. 

As I'm presently being sued in the High Court for unimaginable sums of money re: my former company's ever-increasing debts and still trying to chart the least-worst course into personal bankruptcy (i.e. the one that saves our house) through new insolvency legislation, as well as still being under escalating pressure to finish working through archiving the backlog we left behind, I think the idea of getting a new business going is now officially dead, although realistically it was probably never alive.

Roger said it best:

I ran a company where I dug stuff up for money but then I dug all the stuff up and there wasn't stuff to dig up anymore and I had to do another thing now

Anyhow.  Back to the empty teacups.  I'll miss them.

[Simon Beigh]

That's a story full of melancholy. I just wish you all the best, mate. For whatever life has in store for you next. I'm pretty sure it was one of your posts that gave me the idea of reading comics to my son. He is alive with enthusiasm for the whole venture. We finished Harry 20 last night and he gave me a big hug and said "Thank you for reading me your comics, Daddy, they are brilliant."

So thanks for giving me the idea, Tordelback, you're brilliant 



...and if it wasn't you, take the credit anyway

[Frank]

I abandoned the idea of fulfilment through my job a long time ago, TB. I do boring physical work during the day, which means I'll never have to spend money on gym membership and I have a lot of free mental time to think about the crap which actually interests me. You're a very knowledgeable and perceptive fella and you write well; I don't think it would be impossible to find a way of using those talents to do something more fulfilling with your free time, after you get home from a McJob, and maybe earn a bob or two to pay for little extras while you're at it.

Best of luck.

[Zarjazzer]

Slightly hungover. Failed miserably to impress this lovely lady last night. Probably because I was slobbering. Ow! Oh well.

[radiator]

Away on holiday at the moment, so have been a bit out of the loop. Checked my Twitter this morning to find I had a direct message from a certain famous movie type dated two days ago.

Putting two and two together, I think I know what it related to, but think I may have missed the boat now!

So, finally got some follow-up on this today, two months on, so that's that little mystery solved (tbh since I never heard anything else I had convinced myself the DM must have been some sort of spam thing and I was a gullible twat).

It turns out it's..... pretty exciting, but not as exciting as the possibilities of what my overactive imagination had built it up to be... A bit of a damp squib really. Ah well!

[Rog69]

Packing to go on a 2 week trip for work and it appears that I don't own enough pairs of underpants to cover the duration.

[Tombo]

Packing to go on a 2 week trip for work and it appears that I don't own enough pairs of underpants to cover the duration.

Don't be silly, just take seven pairs and turn them inside out

[Hawkmumbler]

Packing to go on a 2 week trip for work and it appears that I don't own enough pairs of underpants to cover the duration.

Don't be silly, just take seven pairs and turn them inside out

Or better still, 4 pairs and turn them back to front and inside out AND back to front.

[Dandontdare]

I bought myself a lovely hunk of braising steak for my dinner, set it simmering with onions, mushrooms and a splosh of red wine, then nodded off and incinerated it. Bollox. Had a cheese'n'pickle sandwich instead.

[Ancient Otter]

I bought myself a lovely hunk of braising steak for my dinner, set it simmering with onions, mushrooms and a splosh of red wine, then nodded off and incinerated it. Bollox. Had a cheese'n'pickle sandwich instead.

Is the pan you were cooking the steak in crocked as well? Lucky you didn't have a kitchen fire though.

[Dandontdare]

I bought myself a lovely hunk of braising steak for my dinner, set it simmering with onions, mushrooms and a splosh of red wine, then nodded off and incinerated it. Bollox. Had a cheese'n'pickle sandwich instead.

Is the pan you were cooking the steak in crocked as well? Lucky you didn't have a kitchen fire though.

The pan was soaked overnight and is amazingly fine. We're protected by smoke alarms wired into the mains, but it was the smell of burning onions that woke me before they had gone off - which is just as well, cos when they do go off, you can't stop the bastards except by dispersing the smoke!

[Hawkmumbler]

For those who don't know, I've been suffering with anxiety and depression for the last 5 years and have pretty much led a recluses life as a result. Ive been able to help myself a bit by going to college and forming a social circle, but I still had intense aggressive rages for no reason. In march this culminated in a moment of loud noise and I lashed out at the 5 year old sibling. It was en I finally decided to go and see a therapist. After a 6 month wait (!) I finally saw someone of Tuesday. Two days later and I'm starting the course. Madness! Im a little bit anxious about this as its a group session and I'm not very keen on sharing my life story with someone who isn't a professional psychologist or doctor.

[TordelBack]

Good on you, Hawkmonger, you're a braver man than me: I reckon this probably belongs in the '...sometimes sort of okay' thread!

[Dark Jimbo]

...Im a little bit anxious about this as its a group session and I'm not very keen on sharing my life story with someone who isn't a professional psychologist or doctor.

Good stuff fella! You've not only admitted to having a problem but made the first steps in doing something about it, so that's the most difficult bridge already crossed. A fair few of the folks from this parish have had similar problems at one stage or another*, so you're among sympathetic friends.

*An oddly high proportion, actually, including myself. Must be something to do with introverted/creative types.