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The Skid Mark remains. How many Tories does it take to remove one skid mark?
Fascinating stuff, watching democracy bend and buckle. Unlike Trump I don’t think Johnson has the kind of obsessive supporters who would storm parliament to keep him in power. But it’s surely interesting to watch him refuse to give up power. Even I was slightly supporting for him by the end of the day. Sacking Gove was a baller move and you have to love an underdog. Let’s give him one more chance, folks. I really feel he’s learned his lesson.
I managed to do a bit of work on my stand up set for Monday (though most of the work was done when I wrote the book and it’s now a matter of picking up the best bits and making them more stand-uppy and finding the bits that I can expand comedic ideas and have some fun. I don’t think I will do the ball stuff as a full on stand up show (mainly because I have already covered this material in three or four formats) but it does have a good shape already and maybe I can make it different enough to be worthwhile. Maybe my time would be better spent working on something else and I am enjoying mainly working from home and getting to spend time with my family. But I do want to get back to stand up and this is a good story. Maybe there’s a middle ground where I can do stand up from the story at book events.
I took the kids to their drama groups today - they are in different age groups so this is a kind of tag team affair where I spend an hour with one and then with the other. I took both of them to Pizza Express, one after the other, like I was in a sitcom and had accidentally booked two dates on the same night. But with two young children. That probably wouldn’t make it into a sitcom.
If you go to Pizza Express a fair amount (as we do with the kids) and use the apps, then they give you an increasing number of rewards for going, and we’re on gold level, where it starts to feel a bit desperate with how much they want to give you. On the first visit I got a free non-alcoholic beer because it’s my birthday soon, and had I wished I think I could also have had a soft drink, a coffee, free dough balls and a large bottle of water (and maybe a free book too). I’d only bought a starter for me and a small pizza for my daughter.
When I returned with Ernie, he had a three course kids meal and I bought a takeaway pizza for Catie. I got a free Diet Coke, a free double espresso, a free upgrade to Romano pizza and the kids meal was also free. So the bill was about £16 (including tip) which I think was less than the cost of the takeaway pizza. It was like Ian Pizzaexpress was standing over the table, crying with gratitude for me coming to his restaurant and foisting stuff on me for helping him to keep the place going. But to the extent where it felt like we were stealing from him, like he couldn’t possibly make money on the deal. I mean I guess it is still somehow working for him and maybe most people spend more than practically the bare minimum to get the offers and I suppose it does encourage people to come back - why go to a coffee shop for a sandwich and a drink, when you can get a hot meal and some bonus stuff for only a little bit more?
It just feels like if I get to the secret Platinum level Ian Pizzaexpress will come out of the kitchen and offer up his daughter or wife to me. Or maybe even himself. “Canna I givva you a blowa jobba under the table-a?â€
But if you get to the Diamond level and you spend £10 they give you the actual restaurant chain and then, in the ultimate irony, you have to start sucking off customers who buy enough pizza.
