Snooker Loopy, Nuts am I
24/04/06 11:36 AM
Friday was an unexpected work-from-home day for me as the trains down to London weren’t running. Working from home during the World Snooker Championship of course involved having it on in the background all day.
In the way that songs and smells remind you of certain times and places, I always find it kind of comforting when the snooker’s on. It reminds me of when I first moved down to London and lived with some mates and my girlfriend. At first not all of us had jobs yet and lived off our quickly dwindling savings. Unemployment brings certain routines.
My day, pretty much every day, was:
- Get woken up early by girlfriend getting ready for work (she already has a job…). Feel a little bit of shame.
- Check the papers for jobs with Lowman. His girlfriend already has a job too. He feels no shame.
- Watch quality day-time telly while flicking back-and-forth to the snooker until about mid-day when we:
- Go into Crouch End to get lunch. Consists of some sort of beaut meat paste-based sandwich concoction, with the obligatory Saus Roll™ and sometimes gingerbread man / doughnut. We clearly didn’t have the funds for this sort of extravagance.
- Enjoy lunch with cup of tea (sometimes coffee – quicker to make) while watching Neighbours and laughing at the squirrels in the garden. They can jump miles you know, from tree to tree. Boing! Ha ha.
- Sometimes watch amazing TV detective programme ‘Shoestring’ (Eddie Shoestring was a rumpled private detective – with a history of mental illness – who took on a problem-solving phone-in programme on Radio West, a local station in Bristol).
- Watch snooker all afternoon and find the jargon the players use in interviews: “I really did think I was gonna get a maxi, but…” a bit too funny.
- Play a bit of Playstation; classic games hired from Blockbuster such as Lego Racers and Wacky Racers. We couldn’t justify spending money we didn’t have on hiring Playstation games.
- Quickly wash up listening to Mark B and Blade (“Fantastic, tastic, tastic, tastic…” repeat to fade) and hide Playstation games from imminent girlfriend arrival.
- Welcome girlfriend home to be quizzed on how many jobs I’ve applied for today. Feel a little bit of shame.
And so it continued until getting jobs spoiled it all. Bah.
So when Clive Everton and Dennis Taylor are marvelling at another of ‘Rocket’ Ronnie’s left-handed wonder-shots (“Has there ever been a more naturally gifted snooker player?...”) I’m smiling to myself about when I was out of work and with nothing to do all day. They were good times.
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