Sources of stress

As I have called this blog "Rish's Diary", I feel that I ought to use it to let off a little bit of steam. Sorry if this is self-indulgent, but what are (most) blogs for? These items are in no particular order:

1. Commuting to work

When I started commuting, my Dad warned me I would be fed up after a year. Not strictly true, it has taken me nearly two. But I am fed up now. In the last two weeks, it has taken me over two hours to get to work (49.7 miles, according to my car's trip computer) on no less than four occasions. That is an average of about 20-30 mph. Boring, waste of time, sore left knee from clutch control. I suppose I have no-one to blame but myself (well, I could blame my girlfriend for being so lovely that I chose to live with her in Nottingham rather than move to Birmingham in the first place), but that doesn't mean that I cannot have a good old moan about it...

2. Muse or The Killers?

This one is a little more trivial, but Muse are playing Nottingham Arena on the 17th November, and The Killers are playing Wolverhampton on the 18th. I can only afford to go to one or the other. My friends are going to The Killers (assuming they get tickets), and it is also going to be Sandeep's birthday treat. No-one I know likes Muse that much, except for Clare who is not going to be around on that day - Nicola has said she will go with me to Muse if no-one else will, but although she likes some of their songs, I think she might get a bit bored and her ears might bleed. Pros for Muse - they are a great live band, I really want to see them, but it is more expensive and no-one else really wants to go. Pros for The Killers - they have done some great songs, Brandon Flowers is a great personality, they have lots of swirly keyboard sounds, and many of my friends are going, but Brandon cannot sing live. I have to make a decision by tonight...

3. Selling my house

Having admitted defeat with the commuting thing, we have decided that the time is right to sell our house and move closer to where I work. I think I have put in almost as much effort to make the house look pretty for potential buyers as I did to get the place shipshape to live in when we first moved in! This brings us onto:

4. Toilet roll

We want to make the house look as good as possible. Colour co-ordination is a key part of that. Our bathroom is blue and white. Having blue toilet roll works nicely to complement the feel of the room. Except it is nigh-on impossible to get it in Nottingham, and when you can, it is in uneconomical four-packs. I had to go to York the other day for a course, and briefly stopped in a big Tesco, where I found a twelve-pack of blue toilet roll. Can I take it from this that no-one in Nottingham has a blue bathroom anymore, or maybe that people in Nottingham aren't concerned about colour co-ordination?

5. Playing music

I whetted my own appetite by playing a couple of acoustic songs at Assam Day (see previous post), and now I really want to play again, except that I don't have the time, I need to concentrate upon selling the house, and to make the place look more tidy, I am probably going to take a couple of my guitars and amps to store at my parent's house, which will obviously make it harder to play them!

I could go on and on, but I am supposed to be at work, and it would only bore you. Thanks for your patience - just be thankful I haven't even started on road rage and other drivers...