Ebay and the worlds least interested man

While the better-lookin half sat at my desk doing her work on her laptop I bummed around in Putney trawling through charity shops and employment agencies.

The reasoning behind those 2 visitations becomes clear when you look at the pitiful state of my current finances. I've decided that I don't particularly need a job this summer as I have a roof over my head and a job at the end of it to look forward to, so instead I've decided that it's time the bank looked after me and gave me it's fat overdraft to play games with.

As a result I have taken to pissing around with ebay and boot fairs for a laugh. The logic behind this is simple. As a long time ebay buyer (I bought a spear on ebay by accident earlier this year among other purchases) and a pretty bloody obsessive collector and hoarder (I used to collect stamps and comics among other things) I figured that boot fairs are a veritable treasure trove of readily exploitable resources which are just WAITING to be sold on ebay by me.

It was Diet Tasty who inspired me - he buys loads of stuff from boot fairs but being a compulsive hoarder his house is full of potential cash but he just can't bear to be parted from any of his junk! This weekend we were scouting the boot fairs of Peckham and he bought some bargain Swatches which he bloody decided were more value to keep in his house than to sell on ebay. Add that to the 55 other watches then...

I on the other hand have decided to take up the challenge of Del-boying it (most the boot fairs we go to are in Peckham too incidentally) and have gone on the warpath, buying and selling everything from PSIONs to Bauer rollerskates this week at vastly inflated prices having picked them up in the boot fair for next to nothing. It's great fun!

Which leads us to today - I decided that it would be a great idea to blitz the local charity shops for bargains as I'd listed all the stuff I bought on sunday and was bored, so off to Putney I went to spend my money on yet more crap. And crap did I find in spades, some of which I bought and some of which will actually sell! This whole game is marvelous fun!

Then comes the issue of getting a job.

I just happened to have my CV in my bag, and dressed like a bit of a tramp in my "Dogs die in hot cars" T-shirt complete with Oxfam bag full of crap I must have looked like the least interested person in the world as I strolled into agencies and shops casually applying for "any of the jobs in the window please". I may as well have had a neon flashing sign on my head saying "don't bother I don't really care" - perhaps I did by the reactions I got. Shucks

Just so you all are up to date, I walked home from Tooting the other day, after doing a night out on the beat, kind of, with one of the other officers. It was a great laugh and we moved on some weed-smokers. Also went down the mosque on Saturday to get down with the muslims.

Been cintemplating leaving the country but the combined factors of not having any real money to speak of and realising that I'm leaving the country in a month for a year anyway have made me reassess the point of this summer. It's been a while since I had a pointless adventure so I've decided to take up an idea thrown at me off-the-cuff from Dr Yale.

As I love London and I won't be seeing it for a year I've decided to make the most of it while I'm here - once Cute Tiger leaves on Aug 3 I'll head out into town and walk or ride a bike to every tube station on the underground map that I can get to - I figure that it is a great way to see all of London one last time before I go and to see loads of bits of London I just didn't even know existed. Hell I've got a month and nothin to do, there will never be a better chance!

If you fancy joining me when you get back then you're welcome. Til then...party on!

Mischief

Looks like all the cool people are going to the middle east...

What a day it's been. Couldn't think of much to do today so I done what I do best and aimlessly wandered around London, taking in how amazing the city is and seeing sights that make me smile.

Sight of the day is a close run thing today, and I only wish I had a camera with me at the time for these two pictures. First candidate has to be the thoroughly miserable japanese student, looking pissed off and downtrodden on Westminster Bridge. In his arms he was holding a beautifully ironic sign advertising McDonalds at City Hall with the words "I'm loving it" - a wonderfully ironic image.

My second favourite discovery was the Diana cafe in Notting Hill, a classic lebanese restaurant I think full of Lebanese people. The only difference is that the place also doubles up as a shrine to Princess Diana with pictures all over the walls of her. A hilarious pastiche of a restaurant. Truly my favourite tourist-authentic combination in London.

Matt - Apologies for my lack of conviction on the Columbian nosh and I think we deserved crap food at Tai Won Mein as penance. See you in the Gulf for a pint and some restricted speech

Hello again...he's bloody off again!

It's finally over. I've waited a couple of weeks since the whole PGCE ended but finally I feel I have relaxed enough to actually get my brain together enough to return to blogging duties.

And boy have we got a lot to catch up on.

June 18, 2004 will have to count in the history of Mischief as the major academic achievement of my life, overtaking the 100% in Maths at A-level in 1998 at the top of my list of top achievements ever. On the morning of Friday 18th June I woke up and went to school still not quite a teacher and not quite a policeman but by the time I woke up on Saturday 19th June I was both of these, having finished up my bloody course and been accepted back on the police course. It was a great day.

Since then I've been to Glastonbury and I've just come back from Lee's stag weekend in Birmingham so a fair few things have happened. Shout outs have to go to all the lads who made it to the stag and most of all to C++ who done all the arranging.

Matt I have a spare Glasto programme for you as you missed it. Bloody cheap bastards made these tiny little programs this year and charged 7 quid for them but us stewards could take the ones at the end so I figured you might want to know what you missed.

As for future plans, summer is again devoted to carnival then in September I am going to be leaving the country for a year.

I've accepted a job in Kuwait teaching Physics and Chemistry.

Like a man who knows he's gonna be fasting, between now and then I'll be filling my body with as much alcohol and pork as possible and watching loads of porn movies to prepare myself.