7752/20693
My little pod was fine and I slept OK, but woke up before 6 as usual and so got to go out, grab some breakfast and see what London is like first thing in the morning. I was never a night owl, prepared to stay up til 1am max to get lucky and so haven't really been at this end of the day in Central London before. It was fairly quiet. Just the early morning people. They couldn't all be doing interviews on X Fm.
I had fun chatting to Chris Moyles and his team, talking a bit about the cancer and this clip
got tweeted later. Then I was interviewed by the wonderful Shaun Keaveny for his Daily Grind -
available here. We talked about the blog in it and now it's in the blog!
Then as is my wont when in London I walked across town to Kings Cross, before getting the train home. I still love getting through London at this pace, watching the people. Nothing spectacular on this trip, just a noticeable increase in very distressed homeless people and I passed a woman who looked a bit like Cheryl Cole but probably wasn't Cheryl Cole because Cheryl Cole wouldn't walk around on her own looking exactly like Cheryl Cole - or maybe that's how she can go around incognito surfing on the wave of disbelief that Cheryl Cole would be out and about looking so exactly like herself.
I'm trying to clear out my office a bit before we move and have been working my way through boxes of documents, some from the last century, working out what I need to keep and what I can throw away/recycle or destroy with fire. I have kept everything, but have accepted that I don't need receipts from 2012 or letters about a mortgage on a house I don't own any more.. But I still find it a bit hard to get rid of that stuff. What if I shred or burn or recycle something important? I think it's worth the risk. It feels wrong to shred an important document even if it's from 2008 and I did it with difficulty and then slowed myself down considerably by attempting to save most of the documents for recycling, just ripping out any personal info. I have at least two huge boxes full of documents. It will take some time.
I did find the documents for the life assurance we took out about 12 years ago. I thought that it had a 13 year cut off period, but it turns out that it's 25, so I can still die and give my wife a pay-out (or fingers crossed, it is I who gets the minor lottery win! Not yet though. If she can time if for when the kids are about to leave home it will be perfect). There is a serious illness thing on there too and I wondered if I actually could have claimed for my cancer after all, but from my uneducated reading of the document it would have had to put me out of work for 25 weeks and I was interviewing Jeremy Paxman within 7 days of the op, so I doubt I'm getting anything.
I didn't shred that one though!
Looking at old stuff like this does make you realise how much more expensive everything has become. Back in 2012 my hotel rooms cost £30 a night sometimes - you'd be hard pressed to find even a Travelodge for under £90 now. It's weird to realise also that we are nearly a quarter of the way through this century already. It'll be three quarters before I know it and then 2100. I wonder if I will have anything on paper to look back at by then.
A great RHLSTP with a remarkable human being, Davina McCall - now up wherever you get your pods,
like here.
And I am hosting two events for the Comic Strip Presents on March 23rd which I think will be worth your time - including Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson and Stephen Mangan.
Tickets to both here.