Mr. Popular

Well, it seems that the soap opera that is my life is getting more and more popular so I have some new storylines to explore today.

Today started when i woke up which is generally a good starting point.

I got a text this morning from my Mum saying she was coming through to Edinburgh for the day because a friend of hers was speaking at the meeting. I said that we'd pick her up from the train station.

On the way we went to Martin & Frost International which is actually owned by MFI who now open posher shops where they flog similar things at much higher prices to foolish rich people. The purpose of this trip was to choose a new suite for Donald's living room once I steal his current suite. I'm probably quite a good person to take shopping for major items as I know what things should be priced at, the art of haggling and also what makes a comfortable suite. To test it you need to sit, slump and lie on it every possible way that somebody (unless very strange) might. We found one that was comfortable and offered good support in every position and had the added bonus of motorised recliners where you could have your feet up, lie all the way back etc.. a bit like an adjustable bed but as a couch and without Gloria Huneford trying to sell it to you. Once we decided on it we went away to discuss negotiating strategies and to pick my mum up.

Everyone else has greasy sausage rolls and fattening doughnuts from Greiggs for lunch. I had a wholewheat roll with cajun chicken and I didn't have any crisps.

After that I felt duty-bound to go to the Torch meeting with my mum that her friend was speaking at. I used to go regularly 15 years ago so thought I'd see how much it had changed. I have a lot of time for Torch but at group level I find their evangelism strategy to be somewhat lacking. The structure of the meeting was identical to how it used to be, the hymns were the same ones that used to be sung and it was the exact same group of people. There was nobody there even close to being only twice my age. I don't want to say anything too cynical as they do a lot of good work and offer something for elderly blind christian people that many don't get in their own churches (which the churches may need to do something about) but needless to say I wasn't so much feeling nostalgia as losing the will to live. I amused myself by texting the whole way through it as I figured that couldn't possibly offend anyone as they're all blind anyway and nobody would see me. Dorothy kept me up-to-date on the sofa negotiations. She was embarrassed and hiding and said she's always just pay fool price (deliberate spelling of 'fool'). Donald negotiated well and achieved a fantastic deal that even I was proud of.

We went back and sat in the garden for a while and chatted and played with the kids etc and then had tea. Everyone decided on an indian so I had a think about what could be the healthiest thing on the menu and then didn't order it.

Alice came round after tea to chat to Dorothy and for some reason ended up doing sit-ups on the dining room floor. Later on Donald and I went to put my mum on the train. Donald keeps telling me I'm going bald because he's so jealous of my full thick head of hair... I know there's no truth in it whatsoever. When I got back I was forced to empty and reload the dishwasher (it's a hard life) with different dishes than the ones that had just been unloaded as that'd be pretty stupid.

Later on we watched the final of Joseph and then I came online to see who'd be online at 1:30am. Surprisingly Neil was one of the few people. Anna was another. Very unsurprisingly, Stephen was the other. I say that only a few people were online. I'm not talking globally but am more limiting that to people I know and who are on MSN... I'm sure that world-wide there are many many people online right now. I bet there are literally hundreds!!!