Defeated by fatigue, I have brought myself to my bed. The neighbours are making a racket with their bins. What on earth are they up to? It sounds like they’re practising a street performance act or something.

You often see that sort of thing in the centre of town: a group of kids spinning on their heads while a boom box thumps out hip hop music. This is fine, they’re doing something they enjoy, maybe making a little bit of cash. What isn’t fine is the way passers by congregate around to watch, but give them such a wide birth that the circle of onlookers leaves no space for others to get by and woe betide anybody who encroaches on the huge empty space of the impromptu performance area.

People are stupid. I must try to remember this and see them as no more than cattle being herded through town, driven along by the call of the retail giants who try to lure them into their emporia to buy things that they don’t need or necessarily even want.

Shiny thing make it all better.

Sleepytime make it all better.