Friday the Thirteenth

What's so spooky about Friday 13th? Who decided it was "unlucky"? I've had a far better day today than yesterday, the supposedly far-less-unlucky Thursday 12th. Here's a comparison of "relatively lucky" Thursday 12th and "unlucky" Friday 13th:

Thursday 12th
Have to leave for work late, due to severe traffic. Unlucky!
Arrive at station and manage to catch train straight away! My luck is in again...
Doors fall off train, one station before the one I need. Oops! Unlucky...
Have to walk the last mile to work. But it's not raining! What a stroke of luck.
Have to work for what's left of the working day by the time I actually get to work. Unlucky.
On way home, get stuck behind man in Rover. Rover cars have a special device which causes the driver to ensure that they are always at least 10mph inside the relevant speed limit of the road. Wherever possible, in the outside lane, just in case, at some point in the next 3 miles, they may need to turn right. Tedious, and not the luckiest situation.
Go to lovely girlfriend's and get monged on bootleg ouzo. At least the day ends nicely.

And so to...
Friday 13th
Have day off work so lie in. Nice, how lucky.
Do unspeakable things with lovely girlfriend. My luck was in there...
Wander round shops and buy vodka for later. Middling, luck-wise, as no man really enjoys wandering around shops, though the vodka purchase improved the situation.
Take girlfriends kids to feed ducks in park. Ducks run away, wind howls and ears get cold. But I need fresh air as I have a bit of a bunged up head. Result.
And so to the evening, relaxing with lovely girlfriend and the aforementioned vodka. Not especially bad luck, I feel.

Now, some may say my evidence is not truly empirical, however, from the evidence I have gathered, it seems clear that Thursday 12th, and NOT Friday 13th, is actually the unluckiest day. I think it is time to rehabilitate Friday 13th, to rescue it from the hands of cheap horror movie makers and the superstitious, to recognise it's useful and positive contribution to the calendar as a whole. Let's put a stop to this terrible injustice against an innocent day. Free Friday the Thirteenth!

At the Post Office...

At the Post Office today in Chavsfield, I spotted:

2 overly large pushchairs containing overly large children and pushed by overly large women
7 women who have not used shampoo in many, many weeks
1 obvious heroin addict
2 other people apart from me (and the staff) who really didn't want to be in the Post Office
9 pensioners of varying states of decrepitude

Curiously, all of these individuals, with the possible exception of one of the pushchair children were female.

So it was quite a quiet morning, really. In fact I only had to queue for about 10 minutes. Well done to the Post Office, I say!

Happy New Year

Time for another of my increasingly infrequent posts... and the first of the new year.

Christmas is finally over, and kids everywhere are back at school - which of course means that traffic is ridiculous again in the morning, and getting down roads near schools becomes near impossible. Not that that has bothered me for the last two mornings, as finally, sadly, my old car made it's final journey to the scrapyard this morning. I have to say this was a quite emotional journey as the car and I have been through a lot together, but it was rather worn out, and unfortunately, it decided the other night to do a Herbie and try and start itself. Quite bizarre - although unsuccessful I am glad to report.

So, having obtained a new car, I now have one of the greatest joys imaginable to look forward to tomorrow - queueing up in the Post Office to get a tax disk... ah, pensioners, pushchairs and peasants - all in a line - if that doesn't give me something to rant about then I guess little else will...