Take Away
So I was going to write about about something else. It was funny and happened on friday - but for some reason I - after logging in I got up to make a cup of tea and gave in to the urge of two rice cakes with marmite and peanut butter. I was annoyed with myself because since starting acupuncture about a month ago I seem to have mostly dropped the habit of snacking - especially in the evening. This evening it's come back with a vengeance. I've already had an orange (acceptable) and some chocolate. I was following the rice cake urge (yes it is possible to have one - people have all sorts of urges) and a minor disaster occured. I was listening to her phone conversation whilst spreading the marmite - wondering whether or not she would tell her friend about the night away in a hotel I've organised for our tenth anniversary(she didn't) - and I reached for the peanut butter and there was a soundless crash and I looked around and there were black shards everywhere. (Christ these rice cakes are stale - definitely not worth the bother.)

I wondered for about two seconds how a jar of peanut butter could turn into black shards. It reminded me of the sort of ashes which fly out of the mouth of John Coffee in The Green Mile. Then I realised that the shards had previously been the plate the rice cakes had been sat on. They are black glass and go everywhere when broken. I re-ran the events in my mind. There had been two PB jars - one on top of each other. Which fucking idiot had left them like that? I had my suspicions... it was their fault. Running the scene further forward I became aware that I had picked up the lower of the two jars which was why the upper one had fallen on the plate. I can't explain why I did this.

It took ages to clear up the debris. She was still on the phone. I swore twice, hoping for her to interupt herself and ask me what had happened. She didn't. I wondered if fate was trying to tell me to stop snacking. Then I rememebered that I don't believe in fate and that it only operates on those who do.

Anyway - on friday night I went to the chinese take away with my older son and his univesity friend. The friend chatted at length while we waited for our food. He told me about his post graduation plans and mused about which branch of science he was most interested in. I felt slightly conscious of the other man in the shop. He was leaning against the window in a manner I took to be drunk. He seemed to be staring at me a lot. I imagined he was judging me and mine for being studenty middle class types. As our conversation came to a pause his chips arrived. He seemed to summon all his energy to leave the comfort of the window and before he left, turned to my son's friend and uttered the words "Physics mate".