5.1.2010
Breakfast at 9. Got into my usual cycling gear [heading to the Shiatsu Centre for 10]. Walking into the shared dining area felt awful. Just miserably embarrassing. I also *hate* eating with company. It’s one of the things I never ever do by choice. I don’t have many choices right now. So…
Resisting the urge to sit alone, I took a seat beside a couple of scruffy looking men, one young and one old. The old man attempted to be a comedian, and his efforts were genuinely comedic. I liked him.
The younger guy was quiet, but we got talking. He’s from South Wales, came to Edinburgh for the festival. He met a girl here and moved in with her. Two weeks ago she kicked him out. He has no idea why. That’s pretty frickin harsh. We shook hands, and he asked if I’d like him to help me find a job. I said yes. Which is nice. Breakfast was a sausage, some beans and lots of scrambled egg. I left the egg.
There are no bad feelings here, no bitterness or suspicion. Everyone knows there’s no point. We’re all having a hard time and there’s no point in making it worse.
Amazed [and profoundly grateful] to find my bike still in one piece, I made my way to Bread Street, opened up the shop. Today there’s a plumber coming to sort the boiler, which is refusing to behave so the heating is buggered. i offer to have a go at it. I’m given a couple of unhelpful guide sheets and somewhat suspicious instructions. It takes me 45 minutes to figure out how to get the water pressure back up [one very small screw has to be turned 1/4, then turned back]. That discovered I spend a while running around bleeding radiators and resetting pressure. Hugely satisfying, and saved some £80 of plumber time.
The PC dies, though, and I spend much of the rest of the day failing to fix it.
On to HomeBase for doorjam draft excluders, and also to prod them about my job application. Called a couple of people to offer Shiatsu practice sessions. No takers. Bugger.
Fitted the excluders, then finished up at the Shiatsu Centre
Went to buy some food at Scotmid. It cost £7.80. A year ago I would have barely noticed spending that much money. It now seems thoroughly ludicrous that food for one day even can cost that much. Time to find cheaper shops
Then down to Daughters house [having decided I'm not allowed Kung Fu until I have a paying job] in pouring rain. We had a lovely ceremonial tea party, using the Chinese set I bought after my first date with Hannah. Daughter’s cat had given birth to another kitten earlier in the day, and was clearly heaving away, had been for 7 hours. She did eventually give birth again, which I had the profound honour of witnessing and assisting. My first cat birth in 17 years. I took pics of the kitten, posted one on Twitter. Picked up antivirus thing for work PC
Cycled home in relative dry. Ate, read, did Soc. Net. stuff then went to bed at 12:10.
That was a god day.