Offer declined, Dog paws at counter (Ugh), run triggers blue-sky thinking and bran flakes phase
Wednesday
Last night I watched a leaden performance by Liverpool at Chelsea. Seeing what’s become of them now (mind you, Chelsea weren’t much better) reminded me of watching one’s favourite TV drama long way past its peak years. Multiple sharks have been jumped. Its once lead actors are all off making movies now. That’s how Liverpool looked. It was good while it lasted.
After growing up in the era when they were winning everything both domestically and in Europe, there followed 30 years of overwhelming ordinariness with the odd great player passing through on the way to securing a move to by then more glamorous and successful sides, so the Klopp era has been a much-needed shot-in-the-arm for fans, though I still think he hasn’t won enough. It took four years to land the first trophy. People bang on about how Man City and Liverpool have dominated English football the last five years but the fact is City have won 4 titles in that time to Liverpool’s just one, so Liverpool have definitely been second best in that particular battle, just as Wenger’s early Arsenal were a distant second to Ferguson’s United in that old duopoly. What I will say is that Liverpool’s 2019 runners up were possibly better than their title-winning team a year later, and if they weren’t, they are the greatest runners up I’ve seen, surpassing, in my book, Clough’s Forest in ’79 and Wenger’s brilliant Arsenal side 20 years later.
I spent a couple of hours this morning rehearsing one of my sets. I haven’t done this particular set for a few weeks and I knew I had forgotten some of it. It never ceases to amaze me how if I don’t do something repetitively, I almost have to start again when I resume it.
The easiest thing to do was watch back a full video of the set. Or rather listen. I don’t particularly like to watch and I didn’t need to in this instance. I just needed to hear it. I only needed a few minutes to refamiliarise myself with it rather than listen to the full set and then I was up and running. I rehearsed at home for an hour and then for the full duration of my run, I continued to run through the set, coming up with a couple of new lines. That’s the positive side of the running. Often, particularly on the longer runs, this happens. The blue sky thinking comes in. I must’ve done five full run-throughs on that run.
‘The wall’ for me with regards to the running is always 6k. Once I break through that, even if I run another 10k, it’s a lot easier. It’s just mentally and physically I suppose, the first 6k is always an obstacle for me.
I arrived at the back-up café this afternoon buoyed by the lunchtime 11k run, which could’ve been 12 and would’ve been without the BOUFFANT. The time for a haircut is fast approaching and that won’t be straightforward. It never is with me.
I’m currently having a very strong bran flakes and yoghurt phase. I’m like that. In trying to cut back on cereal, I tried to hang onto the bran flakes. It’s a bit like that mid—70s Scooby Doo change when they got rid of half the Ghost Machine, and brought in Scrappy Doo to accompany Scooby and Shaggy. Mind you, my porridge addiction is arguably worse. I can never have a light bowl of porridge. The late-night bowl of porridge after gigging is often a guilty pleasure that I struggle to run off in the morning.
Just after lunch, I made a cheeky bid on eBay for a Last 17 Star Wars vintage action figure. These are ‘the last 17’ action figures made in ’85 I think, and are that scarce that they go for hundreds of pounds. I suspect that the dealer, or seller as may be the case here (a dealer wouldn’t make this mistake), may not know what they’re sitting on here so I thought there was nothing to lose.
During lockdown, I saw the Last 17 figure that fetches the most money going for just a fiver via a Chinese seller. Now I had the fiver, but I like the wheeling and dealing aspect of eBay. I didn’t want to pay the fiver. I made my bid, just under £5 and then completely lost my cool and messaged them several times trying to push the sale over the line, by which point they must’ve got wind that the figure was more valuable. It went for £45 in the end, which is still nothing, as that particular figure often goes for £500.
The thing is, as valuable as some of these figures are, I don’t want to sell them if I’m ever lucky enough to secure them. I want them for my Star Wars Football League and these Last 17 figures are the final figures that are perfectly suited for the Subbuteo-like offshoot that’s been running now since October 1982. Every other line of Star Wars figures that come into the League have to undergo minor surgery (too movable limbs having to be glued, in some instances, the waists too) in order to get them to the level of the older figures. Champions League tonight, by the way, with Yavin 4 hosting Corellia in the Last 16 Second Leg to see who goes into the prestigious group stages.
Pre-shower, I trimmed the beard right back. Wearing glasses more and more now, I do find shaving without glasses near impossible now, but shaving with glasses is itself something of an obstacle. It certainly takes some getting used to and it makes me appreciate what friends who’ve worn glasses their entire lives have had to go through, because it is a disability.
I popped into Superdrug for my fix of Halls lozenges, which have been a fixture in my life since I first got Covid. Superdrug must think I’m permanently ill but the truth is, I just got hooked on these sugar free lozenges back in the spring of 2021. I’ve managed to curb my night time lozenge habit to three but it could easily be more. This is another example of why I could never do drugs. I’d always have had a problem and personality-wise, I’m not built to hustle on those streets. I’m too much of an introvert, though I wonder if that would still be an issue once you’re addicted to drugs? Do you get introverted addicts?
As I left Superdrug, I wished the wispy-bearded young man at the door (handing out the baskets of course), who’s always very polite, a nice day. I always get the ‘nice day’ back, but I berated myself as I exited for abruptly curtailing my eye contact with him. Say it like you mean it, and all that.
Café Soundscape 15:47hrs
Upright, cackling behind the counter (I’d love to be half as happy) brings over my first decaf latte.
“Your first coffee of the day, Daniel,” she smiles.
If only.
Mind you, it’s only the third. That’s good going given I went into the second lockdown knocking back 20 fully-caffeinated coffees a day before running into health issues that I was only able to calm down by cutting down to a quarter of those coffee numbers and switching to decaf. My dad, incidentally, used to regularly hit 30 coffees a day. I know, because in the late 80s, I was making about 15 of them for him. I think that’s how I became so good at making coffee.
Meantime, my back-up café Doppelgänger is here, sat at the back as he usually is, hooded up, dragging out his orders as I have for the last 22 years in SW8. He’s got the kind of rapport with Muscular Madeiran that I have in THE café with The Beard and The Mullet. Except it probably didn’t take him 22 years to build that.
16:10hrs
Muscular Madeiran, who’s finished his shift, is taking his dog for a walk. Remember, he lives next door. His large husky is stroked by staff and customers, and is tall enough that when it stands on its hind legs, it’s able to paw the counter.
Brilliant.
How wonderfully hygienic.
Café Soundscape 16:12hrs
16:21hrs
Doppelgänger left, finally.
His long black leather coat no doubt made him feel very cool, bought probably as a result of The Matrix being one of his favourite films. I got to be open with you: – I’m not a big Sci Fi guy and while I did get dragged to that film when it came out, I didn’t enjoy it, in no small part to just not having a clue what was going on. But the long black leather coat to me always conjures up an image of Spandau Ballet’s frontman Tony Hadley taking to the stage at Wembley for Live Aid back in July ’85, probably not appreciating just how hot it was that day. You can see by the end of the first song, sweating buckets in his leather coat, he’s thinking maybe I should just remove this, but to have done so would’ve just drawn attention to how ridiculous it was to have chosen to wear it in the first place at the height of summer in front of a 100,000 in the stadium and millions watching around the world.
16:27hrs
It’s incredible but once again, Nostril Flare just hasn’t acknowledged the empty latte glass on my table. I’ve got to make that long walk of shame to the counter to do his job for him and get this second latte. If I leave any later, tonight’s Star Wars football fixture will fall through.
I reach the counter.
Flare tells me they’re out of the decaf now.
“That’s alright,” I say, pushing through a rare smile to counter his nostril twitch. “I’ll take the caffeine.”
I of course have a curious arrangement in THE café where I start off with a caffeinated latte and then the second and sometimes the third, are all decaf.
And there we go. 16:30hrs, the second latte finally arrives.
Good Friday is almost upon us. Only once in my life, 1999, have I forgotten not to eat meat on that day. My aunt of course has never forgotten. I’m due a call tomorrow to remind me. It ends up becoming one of the longest days of the year for me. It’s not as if I eat a lot of meat anyway, but when I’m not supposed to do something on a certain day, then I find that day becomes unusually long for me.
16:42hrs
I’m winding up in here. A back-up café regular, late 60s maybe, white, male, walking stick, comes in. He takes a seat as Upright brings over his orange juice (with straw) and coffee. My sensitive nose immediately picks up on the familiar odour. I don’t know how or when people make the decision not to wash. I guess if you jumped in a time machine and travelled back a century or so, this would be the default smell for those times, but it’s 2023, right. Of course, there is also a cost of living crisis. But surely, there’s about two hundred things you cut back on first before the washing yourself?
Doesn’t Wash continues to mutter.
“No luck with this c**t.”
I glance over to see if he is at least talking into his Wire burner phone.
He’s not.
Well, it’s been a reasonably productive writing session. I still haven’t resolved the plot issue in the script but I’ve done some good work around it.
Let’s do this again soon.
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