When the cat's away...

�the mice get de-motivated, listless and generally end up feeling sorry for themselves.

Alison is away all this week, which (as has been documented before) I always find a bit difficult. Being on my own is always a bit strange, even more so when it's in an unfamiliar environment. We�ve been in the house two weeks now, but it's still not wholly familiar. Would it be strange to say that without her around the bedroom seems too small? Thought so.

At work the cats are also away. My line manager is off sick (weird infection in his elbow), and his line manager, my "boss", is on a training course. It can be irritating having someone watching over you all the time, but without them there what little motivation I'm able to muster just disappears. My job stinks.

E's return from a weekend away to find that in her absence I'd booked Pink tickets ellicited an interesting reaction, something along the lines of "I can�t believe your perving over her has got the stage of you going to one of her gigs". Strangely, Anne and I had a similar conversation about the whole thing on Monday night. Purchase of Pink singles and tickets, and Holly Valance singles, were all put down to general perviness (the fact that the singles had CDROM extras including the videos being a big factor in the decision to buy) although I guess musical taste must've played some part in it, because while both of us are shallow, we're not that shallow.

I had an argument with a fat old bloke in Sainsburys last night. He kinda pushed in front of me just as I was getting to the queue for the basket only checkout. He had a trolley, but he only had 5 items, which was fair enough. However, once he'd emptied said trolley onto the conveyor, he left it exactly where it was, jack-knifed across the queue, in mine and everyone else's way.

The exchange went as follows:
Me: Are you going to move that?
FOB: (says nothing)
Me (louder): Excuse me! Are you going to move that?
FOB: No. (then moves the trolley a bit so it's not quite blocking the queue but is still in the way, then turns his back)
FOB (sounding flustered): (turns back to face me and points at one of the dividers on the conveyor) Look, it says 10 items or less there, that's why I'm here, okay? (turns back again)
Me: I wasn't disputing you being here, I was disputing you leaving your trolley in everyone's way.
FOB: (says nothing and doesn't turn back to face me, but waggles his shoulders a bit in a disrespectful shrugging it off kind of way)
Me: (fume quietly, shaking my head)

That's pretty much it. Not exactly earth-shattering, but while I try to be assertive and speak my mind as much as possible, I'm not really one for making a scene. Still, it gave me something to talk about, didn't it?