Every home should have one

Expotition: Chichester

I was humming and hahing about day trips - six and a half hours on a train is tough in one day, and it limited me to a Saturday for cost reasons (or I have to make do with five hours there, less than travel time, or have to pay more). So rather than pay more, I elected to buy a theatre ticket and a hotel room. That's how serious about saving fifty quid I am...


Meanwhile, to give life a bit of variety, my left knee went boing. It thus took me the best part of an hour to hobble from the station to the hotel (should have taken a cab - I took one to the station), then I needed a little sleepy, and it left me with ninety mins for the exhibition.

( Cut because of images )

£17 saved...

I finally limped - via Tesco - to Cafe Nerd and finished Patternmaster (I finished Frankenstein Unbound on the train). After that should, I was tempted by the Eastgate and beer, but figure one pint would put me to sleep, so hobbled to the hotel. Thus Mind of My Mind got (re?)read and an early night was had. At one point I'd thought of trying to get a ticket for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - which I saw a version off, 25 years ago, but I'd thought better thank god.

I took a swift postbreakfast nap - those 3am bedtimes have caught up, I think - before checking out, and managing to walk to Nerd. I was too tired to walk at first, and people watched. Chichester was less white than earlier in the year (perhaps they're back from uni?), and about forty five years younger on average than the theatre audience. Many mums with prams in Chichester Nerd, compared to rarely more than one here. Eventually I turned to Survivor and finished that, before walking to the theatre. The knee was definitely better than yesterday.

Chichester Mermaid Theatre had stolen the idea of the Stoppard/Sheridan The Real Inspector Hound/The Critics double bill, but I had the idea of a) skipping this, b) leaving after the Stoppard. As it was, I stayed the course and glad I did - it was as much paranoia about trains after 18.15 and getting marooned than anything. Nicholas Le Prevost and Richard McCabe were excellent in both, Una Stubbs steals her performances, and blimey, that's Derek Griffiths.

I figured my knee was up to walking, and got down to the station in record time - only to find the train delayed and cancelled. Cue fit of can-I-get-there-via-Brighton, and PA offering alternate routes for Horsham and Gatwick but not Redhill. I gambled at Horsham and changed after one stop on the Brighton train; I figured I could find the Bognor service, and change. A platform alteration complicated this, but thank got for stations with ramps, and whilst this seemed to stop everywhere, it left me a good connection at Redhill, albeit I nearly got on the portion which was heading back to Horsham. The later train I'd planned to be on may have given me an hour in Tonbridge, but this one left fifteen minutes, and gave me time to finish Wild Seed and a spare couple of stories from Aurora. I'm glad I took eight books with me - I read six of them.

Dear You

Thank you for at least some semblance of asking after my health for once, rather than inquiring about a specific absence. Or, rather, as those inquiries didn't seem concerned but accusatory, thank you for not telling me off for once. And on absence, there's this concept called leave, which translates as "working elsewhere".

But it's a start. I don't think that the question, "Are you going on a crash diet then?" is one you've yet earned, and be aware that many people are sensitive about their body image. I'm sure that in your own mind you were trying to be helpful, but it just seems like a criticism at best. "Would it help if you lost some weight?" might be better, but frankly I'd consider the whole thing pretty taboo.

Maybe, and of course this might have some sensitivities, a discreet inquiry after my progress might be more timely? Otherwise, I may have to ask you how your people skills training has gone, and if you need a refresher course.