Morning. Ish.

Hello readers. How are you all? I sort of took the morning off. Instead of swimming and coming into the office, I went to Birmingham to look at furniture. I'd received a leaflet which promised things like 'Eames Chair, was £1500, now 20p'. It turned out to be obscenely expensive articles reduced to merely extortionate and I bought nothing. I was tempted by the massive bookshelves (damaged) reduced from £12500 to £10,500, mostly because they featured a ladder on runners. I'd only have required three…

Then I went to Habitat in Brum, which is now a rather forlorn 'outlet'. Tempted by an elegant sun lounger which would serve very well as a chaise-longue, and by the extremely cheap, solid CD storage, but couldn't be bothered. I'll just see what the parents have in the attic when I move in a few weeks.

Exhausted, I met Bec from my PGCE to compare teaching workload and colleagues. She's over from Walsall for graduation, and was resplendent in a suit and Staffordshire Uni gown (staff wear the gear from the institution at which they gained their highest qualification). I was less resplendent in my 2004 English Youth Championships fencing t-shirt, 501s and an ancient but very cool pair of superannuated fencing trainers. People think I'm the photocopier engineer.