7603/20542
And if that wasn't enough I revealed that Julia Sawalha is going to be my guest (along with Joe Wilkinson) on 6th November at the Leicester Square Theatre. We have a little history, though haven't seen each other for about 20 years and I think we're both quite looking forward to this. Though it may not all make it to broadcast
so buy a ticket!
It was all go today as well, with a tough early personal training session - the first time I've struggled this month, but I think it was due to lack of sleep, followed by a trip to the supermarket. The car park was open to all, rather than operating the barrier system that gives you a ticket entitling you to 2 hours parking if you buy some stuff (it's the most thrilling gamble of my middle-aged life to sometimes park there when I am not shopping there and hoping the man won't be in the booth at the end - he usually isn't). And loads of people who weren't shopping had clearly parked there (people like that make me sick) and there were no spare places to park. I went all round and into the extra car park at the end and then had to illegally drive the wrong way round the one way system to have another look. The only open spots were disabled parking, which I wouldn't park in anyway, but as a patron of Scope it would look even worse if I were caught (though as someone who has raised them so much money I can't believe they haven't given me a free badge- the fuckers) and one space for Shoppers with children. Now I didn't have children in the car with me and one might argue that those spaces are for people who have their kids with them. But it doesn't say that. I am a shopper with children- they just weren't with me at that exact time and so I constructed an semantic argument in my head about how I was entitled, as presumably was anyone who had reproduced at any point in their life. It's nice of Waitrose to acknowledge our contribution to society and global warming by letting us park near the shop.
No one challenged me - though as I walked back to the car I was behind a woman with a little girl and a pram who was gently complaining about having parked in a non-kid friendly space. Not that she knew I'd parked immorally. My car has kid seats in the back, so I looked legit.
I felt no shame. I had no choice. Well my only choice was to look like a real bastard by limping as I went to get my car from the disabled bays.
It was Ian Waitrose's fault for not manning the barriers. Doesn't he know that people park in there and don't shop. Go after them (and the ones in the disabled parking spaces who aren't disabled) first.