Day 40. Who knows where the time goes? (9/2/19)

I'm sure I used that title last time out as well.

(Soundtrack: My own radio show again. Songs They Never Play on The Radio 31 from 20th March 2015. I'm taking on it but the music is great. https://www.mixcloud.com/SongsTheyNeverPlayOnTheRadio/songs-they-never-play-on-the-radio-31/
I should point out here that the adverts/images for these shows were always brilliant - basically pictures of the best looking people that have ever lived. Marilyn Monroe possibly turned up more than most. As is only right.)

It's 6:50. PM. I've just got back in and I feel like I've spent the whole day running round.

Obviously there's just been a game. Liverpool winning 3-0 against Bournemouth to go back to the top of the table, three points above city, equal games played. All talk of 'a blip' now being dismissed by the media pundits who started it.

I kind of wish that I hadn't muted all the wingers and bottlers on Twitter who had spent the last week complaining that we had thrown the league away. One lad on the lovely balanced network had replied to me today saying, "who the fuck are you to tell me the game isn't for me?". This after I had suggested that if he couldn't stop panicking then maybe the game of football as an entirety wasn't for him.

"Who am I? I'm the bloke who isn't whinging and bottling it," I replied before pressing the mute button. He can spend his entire life shouting at my tweets and I'll never know. Feels nice that. Though I do wish that I'd thought to add "you must be the other guy" at the the end of my tweet in tribute to Marky Mark(of '& The Funky Bunch' fame)'s marvellous line in Scorsese's 'The Departed'. Chance wasted.

(Currently playing Fatima Mansions' imperiously savage 'Blues For Ceaucescau' - spelling on that may be way off, couldn't be bothered checking - I may be the only person that's ever played that on radio anywhere in the world)

We'd got up about half ten. I know that's not exactly 'running round all day' but it's part of the point of this. Headed out to our local Aldi for a shop. We were late onto the wonders of Aldi despite it being literally round the corner but once discovered? Fully embraced. Great fresh produce, excellent wine and there's this Sauvignon based gin that they developed themselves that, if you haven't tasted, you're frankly missing out on.

A quick run round to both Switch Island and Aintree retail parks and we had a picture frame to finally hang the print by an excellent local artist that I bought J for Christmas.

And when we were driving home J commented on the fact that we never used to be able to do this.

And here's the first part of the point:

For 27 years I worked weekends. Longer to be honest. Until redundancy five years ago every job I'd ever had had involved working weekends and unsociable hours. As J pointed out, I missed out on so many weekends with the kids when they were growing up. More so in later years when Sundays became more and more plentiful. Our social life was seriously unbalanced.

This is what retail does to you. You get two days off in the week and you're on your own on those days because your partner works in a normal job. And your partner is on their own on their days off because you don't.

Shopping? Something other people do together, something you do separately. The normal things are missing. Little things you don't think affect you but do.

And here's the whole of the point:

I missed years of that. I now have it.

Don't worry about the things that were, enjoy the things that are.

Weekends. They're great, aren't they?

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