Ok, so it didn't even take a week.

This is my going to be my 5th full day at home and I'm already going stir crazy. I'm meeting up with some friends later which should be good, but in general, yes the insanity has set in.

Have a lovely long list of tasks to accomplish like actually unpacking , tidying my room and the house in general because my family are hoarders, and horror of horrors going to the job centre.

I've already started looking online for jobs as part of the 'Move out of Home and Get A Life' plan but seeing as I'm now so skint from my amazing trip of a lifetime, I think Job Seeker's Allowance is beckoning. Oh God I really hate that place. The Job Centre is so depressing. That's hardly suprising though: it's a place designed for people desperate for work and money to congregate and be asked inane questions whilst wading through millions of pointless forms that have been over-simplified so much they are impossible to make head or tail of. Everything about it, from the physical aspects of the building to the annoying touch screen computers which never work properly, collects negative vibes and makes me want to run away screaming. I suppose that's a good thing really because it makes people find work just to stop having to visit there. Which is what most of us want anyway. Still, I feel bad enough about being unemployed as it and that once fortnightly visit just adds to the misery as a rule.

I'm slowly adjusting back into normal life (translation: I've caught up with Desperate Housewives and Dr Who, now there's only Lost and Heroes to watch, who would have thought the writer's strike would be a positive thing? Half a series means half the virewing time and my catch up tv marathon cut in half) but it's a very strange feeling. It's kind of like I've never been away, but at the same time I feel like I was away for a lot longer than 4 months.
As far as I can tell, all my friends and family are in more or less the same state they were when I left (I was pretty good at keeping in touch with people, so I've had regular updates on the major developments). It's the pop culture I'm down on.

Like when I found out a few weeks ago that Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London. I thought it was a joke. I really did. My second thought was along the lines of 'My God, London has gone the way of California with the Terminator/Kindergarten Cop as the Governor' and the thrid thought was 'Who the hell voted him in???' To be honest I don't know that much about his policies, but in my book, any man who could be decimated by Ian Hislop and Paul Merton on 'Have I Got News for You' really shouldn't be the political representative of Britiain's capital.

Then yesterday, I discovered a tv show called 'Beat the Celebrity'. I though we'd scraped the barrel of celebrity/reality tv shows 5 years ago- I was wrong.

Oh yes, and Gordon Brown is going to suspend Habeus Corpus even further than before. At this point, Victor Meldrew would be screaming 'What's happened to this bloody country Margaret???' but luckily for all concerneed I am not him. Just interesting how much four months can change everything. Then again, my dad came in from work on Wednesday morning, the day after I got off a 12 hour flight and had no sleep for 24 hours and after sitting down for approxiamtely 3 minutes, began lecturing me on getting a job, doing the washing, emptying the dishwasher and generally 'pulling my weight' which I had failed to do in the 40 minutes of that day I had been conscious after been out cold with jet lag. So like I said, the PEOPLE I know are exactly the same, it's everything else that's different.

Like tv. It's always disquieting when the BBC changes its little promo videos, even more so when you have had no idea that they changed but you can always get over it with the following Points of View letter from Mr V. Meldrew as read by the dulcit tones of Mr Terry Wogan:

'Dear BBC
I am writing to inform you that I am very dissapointed in your decision to get rid of the sychronized swimming hippos.
As I recall, that was a very expensive piece of footage to create and I'm sure your new video with the neon lights moving around a carnival was also an expensive waste of the taxpayer's money. Surely you could have followed David Cameron's example and 'Gone Green' by either using Energy saving Light Bulbs or perhaps airbrushing in some tutus on the hippos to mimic Disney's Fantasia (copyright the Disney Cooperation)? Might I suggest thinking of your Carbon Footprint in future and using a water conservation strategy next time because I'm sure that this waste of the tax payer's money is somehow related to the housepipe ban in Greater London and the South in general which is ravaging my prize winning Begonias.

Regards,
V. Meldrew, Basildon'

See! You can get over any shock when that kind of stupidity is presented before you, laugfhter is the best medicine after all. It's also great to see Terry Wogan barely hiding his amusement and exasperation as he has to respond to the letter as well. However, seeing as I missed the changeover, I also missed the Great British Public's outrage at said change and the BBC's attempt to sooth the masses via Mr Wogan.

AND I missed Eurovision this year! Eurovision is one of the markers of the year I find, it's a hallmark of Spring ( which I missed this year) and I 'll have to wait another year to hear the genius of Wogan (see, there WAS a link to that last point, however tenuous) on the voting strategy of Europe 'Scandinavia? 50 points to Sweden? Now there's a suprise..'

Oh well, shouldn't moan, I did have an absolutely amazing time, but I think the adjustment period will go on for a while yet.