Day 204

Worked desultorily on the last of the tickets till about mid-day: with nothing else for me to do, I went. Enjoyed my new-found afternoon freedom.

Out with M and J in the evening. Walked back in a cold and frosty night.

Day 203

In Haysend by ten. Typed till one: nearly done.

Back by 1.25. After dinner went into town to leave a timesheet at the Workshop.

My brother rang: he was pleased to see TOP SCHOOL IN DRUGS SCANDAL on the front of the local paper - one in the eye for our old headmaster.

Day 202

Did nine till three on the raffle tickets. That bloke from the Workshop rang up; spoke to him and assured him everything was going well and I'd be pleased to stay on at the charity.

Back about 3.30, post office was closed, had to borrow £5 from my Christmas fund. Can pay it back when I cash the Giro tomorrow.

Day 201

Mum lent me her car again so I was able to drive to Haysend, listen to the radio and smoke.

At Haysend the chief beardy bloke asked if I'd care to do another week or two after Friday (when the lottery finishes). I immediately agreed - should keep the Workshop happy at least. Me too actually, it's not so bad except for back-ache and having to catch the bus.

Went into the town for dinner, rolls and cheese triangles this time. Ate in the car in the charity's car park while reading the Independent and listening to The World At One.

Day 200

Beautiful golden morning recalling past idylls. Got to Haysend about 9.55. Did over 400 addresses by 4 pm. Went into Haysend for dinner: much nicer than a week ago, thanks to the weather. Co-op cheese and onion rolls now 'suitable for vegetarians'.

Day 199

Over 150,000 people were marching in London today against pit closures/unemployment. Very stirring. They sang Jerusalem at the end too. Arthur Scargill's really been rehabilitated, he could almost be a national hero.

Major's no Rommel, but could this be our El Alamein? Roll on Stalingrad, Sicily, D-Day etc.

Day 198

Saw on Ceefax that J. Major and his 'sources' are trying to scare off Tory rebels with ideas of a general election and Labour victory.

Day 197

Round to mum's early as she'd said I could borrow her car: got to Haysend at 8.55, so looking pretty keen. Did 166 names and addresses before leaving at 11.30.

Day 196

At Haysend I spent 1½ hours typing in 100 buyer details, then came home with very bad asthma and chest pains. Walked as far as the railway bridge, then by a massive stroke of luck M drove past and gave me a lift to the doctor's. When I came back I was feeling very chilled and took to my bed fully clothed with a hot-water bottle.

Day 195

To the doctor's - chest infection as usual - then to the Workshop for a blank time sheet. Was off-hand (deservedly) to the you-should-be-shot woman.

Then on to Haysend in the afternoon. Spent 3 hours correcting the omissions I made on Monday.

Day 194

Raining very heavily and thundering in the morning. Went to Haysend and did about 20 tickets, then they said I looked so ill (from the cold I've got) that they said I could go at 11.30. Got a bus back to Mugsborough. Still pissing down with rain, walked back getting wet.

Day 193

Up rather illy at 6.50 am for placement. I had to enter details of raffle ticket purchasers on a portable computer. Being used to tedious input sessions I set to work with a will. At dinnertime wandered round Haysend looking for something to eat. Miserable weather, grey, rainy and cold. Left about 3.40, having done over 200 addresses; arranged to come in 10am-4pm and have Thurs. am and Fri. pm off.

Back in Mugsborough about 4.15. Met M outside the DHSS just getting into her car. She remarked how smart I looked and gave me a lift back. Realised I had a rather nasty cold coming on.

Tories U-turned over the pits, a moratorium for 20-30 of them. Tory bastard press still against them, for a change.

Day 192

Wonder how the placement'll go - you never know, there might even be a job in it in the end.

Pit trouble continues - miners dumped 3 tons of coal on Heseltine's drive. Good for them I say. Serve the Tory bastards right.

Day 191

Anti-pit-closures campaign still gathering strength.

Day 190

Tories in more and more trouble: unemployment really seems to've overtaken them. Fear of tax has been eclipsed by fear of joblessness. Government looking crap. Will this be it?

Day 189

Phone call from that South African woman from the Workshop saying she'd found me a placement in Haysend. I asked What about the adult education, she said 'Don't tell me you didn't go'. 'Go to what?' It turned out I was supposed to go to some induction thing with them, ah well. She said I ought to be shot. I told her that if anyone ought to be shot it should be her.

Anyway, went to the Workshop in freezing cold N.W./W. winds, was 'interviewed' by a kindly bloke in green tie and jacket. I said yes, anything for a change.

Day 188

An excellent day, Government in disarray after opposition to their pit closures gathers momentum, Lamont and Major looking more like Laurel & Hardy than ever. After this, and Black Wednesday, what'll happen when they cut public spending? (Again)?

I was depressed politically after the election, today I recovered, kept whistling The Red Flag and the Marseillaise. In years to come, will this be a Big Historical Thing? I hope Peter Lilley has to eat his words in time.

50th anniversary of El Alamein - ~ turning point of the Second World War. Is it a symbol?

Day 187

Inspired by something M said, resolved to use the extra Workshop money to pay off my old credit card debt before the Workshop scheme ends.

Day 186

Norman Lamont (crap Chancellor) behaved like a nob on telly. Sending him to an island somewhere seems the kindest solution.

Day 185

Wonder what next week will bring me? Hopefully some sort of response from the adult education people. It's been long enough, after all.

Day 184

Watched Mexican film Homework. Surely with Mexico in the state it is they've got better things to do than teach film studies.

Day 183

I've been unemployed for 15 months now. Well, I never thought this would happen. Still: Never despair.

Day 182

Found a library book under my bed: took it back in the afternoon, cost me £1.44 in fines! Had to take it out of the Christmas/General Fund - leaves £10.56 . Went to the Workshop too, filled in a timesheet, came back.

Wrestled with immediate words in Forth - qualified success and seemingly inexplicable errors (story of any programmer's life).

Got depressed later what with the Tory bastards and everything, cheered up after listening to The Inexplicable World of Lionel Nimrod, chiefly notable for Tom Baker's introduction: 'we have nothing to fear except fear itself - and monsters, of course'.

Went for a walk - cold, cloudy, still. Watched Pris - concentration camp flashbacks with Joan as a Nazi. Rather tiring day.

Day 181

That wanker Peter Lilley (minister for social security) made the most evil speech I've heard in a long time at the Tory conference, aiming to blame the expense of benefit payments caused by Tory economic mismanagement on 'socialist scroungers'. What a bastard!

After hearing that on PM I was so angry I went out for a fast 25-minute walk. In the cold wind and under grey stratocumulus it was exhilarating and I felt quite relaxed when I got home, and had a good appetite for my tea. Perhaps I should have a 5.30 pm walk every day.

Day 180

It's a tough world when there are no moral absolutes.

Watched Pris, the sound went completely off-revs in the last 20 minutes.

Day 179

That plane crash accounted for ~ 250 deaths. It's the imperialism of air travel, so falsely glamourised: they take vast tracts of our native land, they jettison fuel onto people's gardens and finally crash onto their homes. Why couldn't it've crashed onto the Tory conference, that might've seemed like justice. Mind you, perhaps not all Tory bastards must die, if they ceased to be Tory bastards no action would be necessary.

Went for a walk in the evening. Cold and windy.

Day 178

They crashed a plane in Amsterdam, onto a block of flats. And a load of people got stabbed down the bus station last night, it made Ceefax and the Radio 4 news.

Day 177

Met Davina C in the library. Apparently she dropped out from Durham... All the trouble I had with her in those AO Maths lessons.

Watched a bit of The Living Daylights. Can't really see T. Dalton as Bond.

Day 176

Pound plunged again. Did Samuel Pepys really think, bloody Charles II, I'm sick of him, and that sodding fire of London, I'm tossed off with that Maastricht, Maastricht, it's not exactly rivetting.

Watched the end of the Labour Party Conference: Red Flag very stirring. They only sang the first two verses though.

Day 175

October already! M, now officially unemployed, invited me to come round and help fix her mum's shed roof. A police helicopter circled overhead, M claimed it was DHSS spies. Then into town for M to make a New Claim: I walked up to the Workshop and filled in a time-sheet.