Goodbye, dear little car

I got up early. Well, I got up at 8, to turn off my alarm, then an hour later staggered upright and went to empty all the junk from the boot of my car. I missed some things – a kilo of dried mud, some bits of paper that had been in the car since before I purchased it in 2004, the bicycle tyre marks on the ceiling, the usual stuff, before driving it to Kent.

They beat down my price by two hundred pounds, but if I'd held out for more they'd have laughed at me, and in any case, I hadn't washed the car or left any diesel in the tank, so I'm still ahead on the deal. The fools! However, due to an argument with my girlfriend about what the term “bear right” means on directions, I almost put the car through a stone wall first. Ah, the joys of international navigation.

After selling the car, we were driven down to my old employer in Kent, where I made the disconcerting discovery that I was the only person to have left in the last four years – everyone else is still hunkered down there. Rather the opposite of Wilde's aphorism about parents – to lose one employee is misfortune, but to not lose at least two smacks of carelessness. Or an Investors In People accreditation.

Still, it was pleasant to find that in this ever-changing world, some things stay the same. I'm terrible at introducing my girlfriend to people (particularly when I forget their name), the coffee is much the same, and nobody moves their desks very frequently.

We took a train back to town and went to Nando's. I've been promising this to my girlfriend as a special treat for months. When we were in Kuala Lumpur we failed to get a meal there, because it was closing before I discovered it, but this time it was the middle of the day and nothing was going to stand in the way of some peri-peri chicken. Apart from me being a vegetarian. And the staff taking half an hour to fry a chicken for my lady accomplice. And the kitchen being downstairs, and the staff forgetting how to carry food up the stairs and flinging it to the floor instead. But eventually we had something to eat and then went shopping for DVDs and books.

I've always thought of Hong Kong as cheap, but books and cds in London are incredibly cheap at the moment. When you can get the original series of Edge of Darkness for six quid, or His Subtle Materials for the same price, there's nothing to complain about. Apart from the cost of accomodation, travel, and the scarcity of Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle. Why, it's cheap enough to stop you needing to steal things from bitTorrent.

Or is it?

Or do I?

Had a delicious curry dinner with the family and friends this evening, came home, drank Welsh cream licquear. Or however you spell it. It still tastes like Baileys. Then the cat scratched my chest (not a euphemism – it ruddy hurts) and I took myself to bed. Another day over and done with.