A few people have suggested that I have appeared a little fragile recently, at least as far as my blog. This couldn’t be less true. In fact, as a chronic nail biter, my nails are starting to grow back to such a luscious length that I’ll not be surprised the first time I’m stopped on the street having been confused for Eartha Kitt.

So what have I been up to? I’m still working on my abundant casual rate. I’m thinking I might start hiring an assistant to follow me around as I bark orders like “I’ll have two of those… four of those, one in mauve…” My brother commented that the delivery guys know our address by memory. eBay has been kind to me, and I’m well on my way to having the entire series of Seinfeld on DVD. This was sort of sparked by my Joan-esque attack on my DVD collection throwing out everything that wasn’t… um… “purchased”. It was quite a display, hunched over my pile of DVDs throwing them this way and that without regard for who or what was behind me.

Other than that I’ve spent a few nights crawling up in bed with an episode of Murder, She Wrote and lulling myself off to sleep at 9.30. That’s right, I’m a man of disgusting luxury.

After months of back and forth with various institutions, I’ve just about had it with this whole teaching nonsense. I’m frustrated to no end, and at the moment staying at work and getting paid is sounding like the easiest thing. It’s not what I want to do forever, but I’m going to apply for an upcoming job and see what happens.¬†I have an uncle who likes to think quite highly of himself, and make sure everyone else does as well. His midlife crisis involved learning the guitar and embracing american bluegrass music in a way that could get you locked up 60-odd years ago. And still should. As someone who has been playing only a few years, nay “feeling” the music as he tells me, he gave me a patronising “Are you still playing the piano?”, accompanied with the embarrassing clich?© hand movement. “Good on you, make sure you keep it up” he trailed off while his mind continued “… and one day you’ll be as good as me at pickin’ a gee-tar like I pick jerky from ‘tween ma teeths.” Once I told him what I’d been up to he made a concerted effort to move onto another family member to impress.