I had a day off. The Sun newspaper asked me if I could write an article about plagarism in comedy by 6pm (I wonder
where they got that idea and I wonder
where THEY got that idea) but I turned them down. I know how critical the Sun are about sloppy writing and spelling mistakes so thought I'd better not risk it. In any case I needed a rest from work.
It was going to be a day of reading "Year of the Flood" by Margaret Atwood on my Kindle (still enjoying this, though it's not as easy to flip back and check for something you might have missed as it is with a paper book and this particular e-book has some annoying mistakes in it, including putting double hyphens every time a single one is required - so e-book would read "e- - book" - great book though) and watching Battlestar Galactica.
I also cycled down to Chiswick to get my hair cut. Things had been a bit shabby up there and I was thinking of getting my hair quite short again, like in the olden days (not as short as when Pizza Hut "ran out of pizza bases" when I had a skinhead in 1987), but in the end I just went back to shoulder level. I wasn't really in the mood to chat and luckily the young lady who was shearing me didn't either. I was a bit tired and not really concentrating. At one point she said something that I didn't catch, clearly about the job in hand, which ended with a querying, "Yes?" Instinctively I just said "yes". And then sat for the next five minutes wondering what I had just agreed to. Politeness and social embarrassment stopped me from saying, "Sorry, hold on, what did you say?" Which was ridiculous of me. She could have said anything. What if she'd said "And we'll dye it all magenta, yes?" or "shall we go for a mohican, yes?" or "you're a gigantic prick, yes?" I'd just said "yes," because "yes" is the answer you give when someone says "yes?" but I didn't know what I had agreed to. And I felt quite sleepy. What if I fell asleep and she carried out her dastardly scheme without me being conscious and able to stop her? What an idiot. Why hadn't I just said, "Pardon" or if I couldn't stop myself saying "Yes," then why not then retract and say, "Oh sorry, I said that instinctively. I didn't actually hear you."
Luckily whatever she said didn't seem to have much effect on the cut. Maybe it was, "You want me to finish off cutting your hair, yes?" or "We're in a hairdressers, yes?" or "This is the year 2009, yes?" in which case my answer was correct.
I wonder what she said though. It might have been something of massive impact that hasn't yet happened. "It's a good idea to assassinate the Queen, yes?" for example. If only I had listened.
But I am going grey and going deaf. Because I am old.
If you missed me talking about how David Hasselhoff brought down the Berlin Wall then you
can listen on iPlayer for the next week. I listened to it for the first time this lunchtime and enjoyed it. Most of the hard work was down to the producer Simon Barnard.
And just a reminder that there's a live Collings and Herrin Christmas podcast at
the Duke of Yorks Picturehouse in Brighton on the 8th December. It looks like it might turn into a bit of a party, so if you're in the area and fancy coming down do book ahead. It sold very well last time.
