THE WORLD IS IN A STRANGE MOOD

Are we turning a corner or biding our time? Everything seems stuck at present. Not just the Greek economicos, but the countless boatloads of desperate people who have been sold a dream that doesn’t exist and may well die finding that out. What are they to do? What are we to do?

The weather is stuck too; warm, damp and humid. Where has summer gone? Everyone is putting off making decisions. The newspapers are full of improbable stories like the one about jellyfish clogging up a nuclear power plant, or G.M. crops falling prey to pests like normal plants, and other weird stuff you can’t make up. The big issues are too big to get a grip on, the little ones seem unimportant. Where should our loyalties lie?

I tried three times today to phone my tax office to report a mistake they’d made. After being kept on hold while the soothing music burbled away and being told I was second in the queue, average waiting time 45 seconds, enough time elapsed to make me lose the will to live. They never did answer. Automated telephone systems are rubbish. Having a conversation with a real person who can understand and deal with the problem – and it was their mistake – now that’s real class. Biding their time

I’m due a royalty payment in four days, for LOSING IT, my most recent book, Child With No Name, Unconfirmed Reports From Out There, The Poison Garden of Dorelia Jones, The Marsh People and Make Up or Break Up, the commissioned non-fiction book I wrote a while back. I’m not holding my breath.

I hear thunder outside.