I'm just a cock-eyed pessimist

I had good luck on the way in this morning - bus to Putney Bridge and quick arrival of a train (as I was walking up the stairs!), managed to board it, and caught the first train at Earl's Court.

Conversation of the morning:
Commuter one (commenting on how packed the train was): It could be worse.
Commuter two: We could be sheep.
Commuter one: I think the regulations regarding the transportation of livestock are more restrictive than the conditions under which we are currently travelling.

I also had one of my recurring dreams, In Which I Am Forced To Go Back To High School. For some reason it was a high school in Mount Vernon, Washington, but at least they served Mexican food in the cafeteria.

Dork highlights of the weekend: I got a £5 kettle at Woolworths, and I matched up all of my takeaway tupperware then gave half of it away to my newly arrived 'merkin friend. Do I know how to party or what?

Today was one of those days that justifies me keeping a diary. Why? Because it was so damned boring that by tomorrow I'll be lucky if I can remember any of it.

Lowlights: two long meetings, possibly only an hour and a half each but ... I don't know, it was like the scene in Poltergeist, where the hall keeps getting longer and longer. I learned my company is the Number One BLAH BLAH site in the UK. And some other stuff, most of which got dumped in the bit bucket before it even made it to my ears.

To relieve my boredom (and hey, it's the time of the year when jobs get boring, since everything is slowing down ... unless you work in retail), I headed over to Great Russell Street (or whatever street the British Museum is on, I'm too tired to remember) to do a bit of Christmas shopping. Purchased: mug for uncle, a game that I should seriously just mail to my brother's inlaws (especially since I got the super cute travel version, which is the size of a CD case and only cost 5 pounds) but will probably keep, a Mystery Thing, and another Mystery Thing. I also saw a game I really needed to buy for myself, as it is So Perfect For Me, but with luck someone else will get it for me and I won't have to buy myself by decending into "one for you and one for me" on my very first Christmas shopping expedition.

I also stopped by the nice butcher on Theobald's Road and got some lamb chops for dinner. I was unable to resist the 2.50 pre-marinated lamb shanks (I just bought one) even though I knew I couldn't eat it tonight, but it's in the oven marinating in the cookwitch sauce (or a variant thereof). Later (ever so much later as the freaking second meeting of the day kept me until 5, leaving me high and dry and not finishing up until an hour later), I picked up some pesto from the extremely upscale organic grocer down the way on Lamb's Conduit (Kennard's Good Foods I think), where I was praised effusively for having brought my own container. This later joined up with some fresh nobbly pasta and sauteed bell peppers/chopped carrot and swede/grated zucchini to make a most fine accompaniment to the chops.

Yes, dinner, the likely highlight of my day. It's already nine now? Great, I want to go to bed and dream of going to Cape Verde, where I'd likely stay in a dirtbag hotel, but at least I'd be warm.

PS: this Dilbert cartoon reminded me all too sharply of my bad days at $howboat - a bit frightening since I kept hearing the C something O today say we're going to try to do things "a bit more Agile-ly" today.