As you will know, DM has been under a bit of pressure of late so I’ve been doing my best to relieve it by helping him with things he doesn’t need to do himself. “Go and get me some retractable pens” he said. So, I went to Plymouth to buy a new outfit to wear in interviews and while I was there I picked up two boxes of 20 retractable pens.

When I got home, he complained that they didn’t work properly for the purpose. “Go and get some more” he said. So, I rummaged around the house and found ten or so that he could use then off I went, this time to my trusty Trago, and bought another 20. I’m now £30 down and have 60 pens that I don’t really need and frankly I could have done without spending £30 this week. The things I do for love. Hopefully he appreciates the effort. As DM says, we won’t need to buy any more for a while. I reckon they’ll be good for about ten years!

Anyway, I threatened him by saying that if I was shelling out for pens for his work, I wanted them back once he’d used them for the purpose they’d been bought for. So tonight, job done, they duly turned up here again. Well, at least they could become my photo as I seem to be going through something of a lean patch at the moment. I’m struggling with the will to do it for the first time since I restarted in January.

I may buck up after Wednesday when I’ve got the first big interview I’ve had in what seems like half a lifetime and I must confess to being scared half to death. If I don’t find my way through it then it could be the first of many before I get settled with something meaningful to do after May.