Loose Change Troubles (Blog 282)

Yesterday, I decided to go into Kingston to finally cash in my birthday cheque before it was too late, (a contagious bank plague spread by the ‘fleas’ of lockdown seems to have wiped out the more local ones) and for the sake of giving me material for my minimum fourth blog of the month. I know my problems may sound trivial, but I’ve had a buildup of loose change in my bedroom that has been annoying me for a while. Why do I have to have so many pound coins?? Tough times, tough times. Things have been worse, though. It was my plan to finally sort out my mess by purchasing some CDs. I could have given starving tramps my money, but I wouldn’t want to burden them with my problems, especially if they had OCD like I evidently do. What do you do if you can’t bare a messy house? Easy, make your house a sleeping bag. THAT’S easy to maintain, but I doubt all homeless people choose their way of life for that reason. Just the nutters. Maybe I should take the money they’ve been collecting in a cup or whatever to help them, but intuitively something is telling me that would make look like a complete asshole. So I won’t. You have to trust your gut.

I Googled the Hallifax bank before I left and it was just few meters away from the CD shop, meaning my walkings shouldn’t be too complicated, but of course, take a wrong turn and things will get nasty and snowball. Not long after, I left for the town and someone there actually asked ME for directions. Good luck with that. Amazingly, I found the bank after a couple of minutes of walking. I tried to soften the blow when in the place by explaining my cheque was both old and tacky. That way, it would look like I knew what I was talking about. As in ‘I’m aware how bad this situation looks, please don’t call the police.’ As explained in an earlier blog, I was accused of being a fraud the last time I handed an old cheque in, but the staff yesterday were so calm and understanding. I know it would be highly unlikely, but if a raging sergeant sacked from the army for being too aggressive was employed by the bank, maybe to scare away genuine fraudsters, I WOULD be in trouble. What would I do? Run away? Army sergeants are fit, again making them a good choice of staff. Sergeants are also known for their reliability AND their ability to deal with logic. So there you go. Nightmare.

On a lighter note, I bought two indie CDs by bands I’ve never heard of and another mystery CD that was in the emo/punk section. I wish the two genres were separated, as they are quite different. By that I mean, were the Sex Pistols emotional when they started fights with their audience? i.e. I love you, but TAKE THIS! And by THAT, I mean take a punch. That’s not a healthy relationship. If you can get your head around the concept of friendly aggression, you can probably work out how cats can be alive and dead at the same time. (Yes, a favourite concept of mine). But keep your thoughts to yourself, as you will cause everyone needless mental confusion and even pain. Anyway, I like emo, but punk not so much making the mixture of genres a little hazardous. It’s like mixing metal CDs with jazz and if you do that, you really are clueless. And of course that’s coming from someone who barely understands rudimentary map reading concepts, and who wanted to rob the homeless. NOW I understand why they collect change. It’s for food, not a form of masochism! I’m all better, now.

I spent about £30, was given 2p change, and had £6 left. As I don’t REALLY care about change that small (I’m not boasting or anything), I put it in my unzipped jumper pocket (or is it a pouch?), meaning it would probably fall out. I could have given it to a tramp, but again, they have enough problems. Oh yeah, they like change. (Better now). Anyway, with my pouch, it was time to be carefree as a load was lifted off my mind in the bank. Because the day was so successful up to that point, I decided to get some special chocolates to celebrate. I spent £6.01 on 6 chocolates, perhaps suggesting each one was worth £1 and a sixth of a penny. If so, that is very sneaky behaviour. Were the shop trying to get people to buy more? I mean if you can’t possibly give someone an amount of money that small, you’d HAVE to buy more than one sweet wouldn’t you? You can’t exactly chop a penny into pieces and hand it to the staff, can you? You’d be stuck. Amazingly, I found my 2p coin to be VERY useful as I had no money left! An awesome feeling.

I jogged back to the station and found I only had to wait five minutes before the train home. Again, to say the trip out was a success would be a huge understatement. I ate my chocolates, and kind of thought to myself ‘I don’t REALLY miss these too much’, meaning my recovery from addiction shouldn’t be too bad. Yes, I have struggled a lot over the years, and the fact sugary foods are EVERYWHERE really doesn’t help me. People say drugs are everywhere, but they’re not really. Personally I find the idea of talking to dealers who could happily kill you quite disturbing. That alone puts me off the illegal substances. Then there are the mental health problems, the risk of being arrested, etc. If your life really is THAT empty, may I suggest therapy? In England it’s free. if its not free for you, maybe go on a walk? Walks won’t calm you down as much as heroin I’m sure, but they certainly won’t make you violently sick later, unless you’re walking in the COMPLETELY wrong way. Maybe walking naked in the snow would cause illness?? But that’s illegal too, so.

As I’m typing this up, I’m listening to my CDs. I’m annoyed I had to pay £10 for one of them when Amazon says it’s worth £3, but the main thing is it’s not so bad, and hopefully it will grow on me. I was a bit concerned at first, as it starts with nothing but a rubbish drum beat. Then came in the other instruments and singing. Oh thank God. I did however get a CD cheaper than it was on Amazon, so things kind of balanced out. I’m not sure what else to say, really. Oh yes, turns out the mystery CD WAS emo. Great stuff. I don’t dislike punk music, but with lyrics such as ‘don’t drink and drive, you might spill your drink’ and ‘I don’t care how many I kill, I just care about how much beer I spill’ it’s best not to be TOO much of a fan. Needless to say things will go SERIOUSLY wrong if I took that stuff literally. Apparently I’m impressionable. That’s the blog over with, but I want to point out again that I was left with just one penny without even trying! :O