The Daily Grind
January 13th, 2004
Well, the season of goodwill to all men has passed, and I can get back to being a misanthrope again. Phew.
Christmas itself was spent in Yorkshire chez family robotperson. Highlights include copious quantities of superb food consumed at increasingly odd times of the day; watching Father despatch ninja’s with the aid of the eye-toy I bought for my brother’s PS2; and wielding Narsil,
sword of Aragorn son of Arathorn, heir to the Kingdom of Gondor (limited edition) – won by cousin Jonty in a Lord of the Rings SMS competition.
A full week in Brighton followed, and as you can probably infer from the lack of updates, I settled into ‘relax’ mode rather too comfortably. The welcome interruption of a New Year’s dinner party did no good at all to my work-rate, but many thanks to Roger, Jenny and clan-Cronin for asking us along. Photo’s here.
Amongst many great presents Sy gave me the Fellowship and Two Towers 4-disc dvd sets, Lara in her capacity of wife and official underweer buyer gave me some great Bonds pants (you probably don’t want to follow that link), and more significantly, my long overdue new camera: the Nikon Coolpix 5400 (more in a little while). Also eagerly unwrapped was the eBay
hacks book and Daft Punk DVD I had listed on this page 
All told, a great first married Christmas.
Slightly disturbing though is the speed and ease with which I have slipped back into the routine of travelling and working. It is clear to me that my ‘default’ mode of being is that of ‘commuter’, but I would’ve hoped that alternate ‘relaxed’ mode me would have put up at least a bit of a fight before relinquishing control to commuter mode. As it is, it’s been almost depressingly easy to get back into the swing.
And finally …On a loosely connected note, there’s a coffee booth on the platform at Burgis Hill station called The Daily Grind. Genius.