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Monday, November 13

Walking It Off

There are a few good reasons for going for a long walk, which is probably why I spent about 45 minutes of this lunchtime on my feet, moving. Here are three reasons.

An Interview
Occasionally, when I do a gig in a club small enough that they'll use me as a headliner, and when I do a gig in a town small enough that a comedy club is some sort of news for the newspaper, I get a call from the local paper, running a story on the event, and wanting to know what they can write about me. The simple truth is that nothing you can say or write about comedy is inherently amusing. Still, I whittered on at the journalist who rang and I'm sure she'll make something out of what was said.

The only thing I said which amused me was an answer to her final question "Do you have anything to add?". I replied "I should probably say something like 'Buy my new album' but I haven't got one. So I'd say 'Don't buy my new album: it doesn't exist.'". This is not altogether very funny. Still, it amused me to say it.

So while I was being interviewed, and with the aim of getting out of the way of people who might wonder what on earth their office-colleague was posing to the press about, I walked into the nearby shopping district.

Frustrations
I think it's probably fair to say that my days are largely filled with frustrations at the moment. I'm working with a set of technologies that I don't yet feel familiar with, nor am I actually getting anywhere with them. It's just a catalogue of failed attempts at some non-specific goal, and it drives me round the bend. In addition, the house-buying process has hit a brick wall - one with damp in, probably. In order to quantify the risk of buying the house that I'm in-process with, I need to get an estimate from a roofer. Every time I get through to a roofer, I'm either told that they're not taking on any jobs, or I'm told that they'll call me back when they're off the roof they're on, or at the end of their car journey. I'm sick of waiting for the calls that never come. If people want to get work, then they need to keep in touch with their prospective customers. Apparently, this is what you have to expect from roofers. Well, it boils my piss... and my blood.

So, a walk can be a good way to get some frustration and tension out of one's system.

The down side of this is that every time I leave the main bit of the office, I have to wait outside the door until someone comes by - this is because, although I've done an excellent job of remembering various tickets to various gigs recently, I managed to leave the house today without my work ID card/door opening device. So, I want to go to the toilet, but I'm postponing it because it will undoubtedly cause me some hanging-around-the-door once I'm done. Very annoying. I'd ask for a temporary card to borrow from reception, but I can't be bothered to be told to sod off.

Health
A good reason to go for a walk is that it comes with many positive health benefits. It's exercise, which is probably good for you, and it's quite a relaxing thing to do. I don't walk enough. I don't really exercise enough, and with the current stress levels I'm encountering, a bit of exercise would probably help. On Saturday I took my bicycle into the shop for them to give it a service. I'm hoping that I'll feel motivated enough to get on it and do some cycling. This will, at least, give me something in the way of exercise without it necessarily feeling like I'm exercising for its own sake. Of course I would be, not having anywhere to go on the bike specifically - work is too far for me to cycle, and I don't really have anything I do in Reading which needs traveling to. In fact, I don't really do much in Reading, except go to the cinema.

However, if I were cycling somewhere then I would feel like it was a journey, even if I returned to the place I'd started before getting off the bike. I like cycling. Or at least I've told myself that I do, and I choose to believe myself. I'm sure that with an MP3 player in my bag and a few minutes to spare, I could easily work off some calories.

The bike is stored in a locked shed around the back of the house. This would, probably, be quite a discouragement for me. Even when I was in Newcastle with my bike in the easily-opened garage, I was fairly quick to feel like it was too much effort to open the think - there was a mini in the way, but that's hardly the reason. I'm just lazy. However, as I reasoned when I first bought the bike, spending money on something gives me a bit of impetus to actually do it. So, when I bought the bike and my first mp3 player (to listen to on it) I was shamed into using them, much like I shamed myself into vacuuming by buying my Dyson. The bike shop will be charging me for the "service" they're carrying out on my bike, so I hope to use that as a reason to use it.

We'll see.

Stop press
Since starting the writing of this, a roofer has been in touch. He will be doing a quote for me and then I'll find out whether I want to risk buying a house which needs that amount of weatherproofing/fixing.

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