Yesterday morning I woke up late. Too late to eat, and too late for a coffee before I left the house. I wanted to catch the first showing of Prometheus but needed to get to the bank first. Thinking about it now I really didn’t need to go to the bank first, I didn’t have shit to do between the film ending and the bank closing. It turned in to one of those mornings when you rush about cutting things out of your routine and end up being earlier than you need to be.

I used the time I’d created to sever ties with the chain-bookshop I used to work for. I’d been planning to do it for a while. I chose some books, used up the points I’d accrued on my loyalty card, emptied a £10 gift card, and left for the last time. I have nothing against the store, I just think it’s time I started supporting my local independent bookshop. I’d rather put my money in the hand of the person whose door I’m walking through than a till in a network of thousands.

I still hadn’t eaten but it was time to watch the movie. The ticket queue was long. The computerised till had crashed and once restarted the guy behind it, an old friend, didn’t know how to process a voucher 2 girls at the front wanted to use. He made a call but no one came and we had to wait for him to flag down a colleague to help. When I got to the front we shook hands and said hello while I hoped he wouldn’t inflict his comedy routine upon me, again.

Before he started working at the cinema I hadn’t seen him for a few years and now every so often he informs me of a new career he’s on the verge of hitting it big with. Before comedy it was online poker. He’s a nice guy and I didn’t mind hearing about the poker, there isn’t much someone can tell you about a game of online poker to make you feel awkward. Stand-up comedy is another matter though, when someone unexpectedly does comedy at you it’s a terrible situation to be in. This time I got away with only hearing one tasteless joke about the death of Robin Gibbs, the punchline being “How deep is your Bruv?”.

I enjoyed the film despite it’s faults, and will see it again if I have time next week. Akira the Don just about addresses all the problems I had with it in the video below. Unlike the Don however I thought the design of the Engineers made sense.

After the film I finally got something to eat. I went to a local restaurant/bar/coffee shop and had a spinach omelette. While I was eating a group of women came in and occupied the table next to mine, 2 of them had babies with them. Before long they started to discuss childcare. They were angry that they couldn’t make their au pair’s work more hours than was legal. They then questioned each other about what they made these au pair’s do on top of their childcare duties. It sounded like they hated these women and wanted to punish them for accepting the job of raising their children. I think they knew they were shitty Mothers.

A couple of years ago I posted about my changing views on eating animals. These views continue to evolve and in a perfect Universe I wouldn’t eat meat at all, but as it stands my will power is not quite up to the challenge of never tasting another rare steak dripping with blood.

My issue with eating meat has never been about equality between humans and other species. My main concern has always been the unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted upon animals bred in a factory farm environment, just so we can eat them cheaply. I see no problem with eating animals but do see a problem with the well documented levels of cruelty in such places. Right now I’m best described as somewhere between a pescetarian and weekday vegetarian, but in reality I eat less meat and fish than either of those labels imply. When I do eat meat I try to avoid establishments which are likely to have sourced their stock from these factory farms, for example I haven’t knowingly eaten meat from a supermarket or fast food chain in at least 2 years. If I’ve ever told any of you I’m vegetarian it’s because it’s a simple label to default to, avoids boring explanations, and saves you the embarrassment of bringing me a chicken leg I’ll probably turn down.

Today was a carnivorous day. I ate a pig’s head and kimchi bun with a side of amazing chipotle coleslaw at Pitt Cue on Newburgh Street. We then walked to Covent Garden to grab a Dead Hippie burger at MeatMarket. A 2 lunch, 2 burger day is a good day.

edit: Im not the only one to find one of these in South London CLICK

Tuesdays and Wednesdays I volunteer at a drug and alcohol addiction centre in my area, on my lunch breaks I go to a local coffee shop. To get to the coffee shop I pass 2 others on the same street because the coffee and sandwiches are considerably better tasting, and competitively cheaper. Today I got there a little later than usual due to a meeting running longer than expected. A few minutes after I ordered my usual sandwich and usual coffee a hipster dude walked in, sat down, and removed a Macbook from his tote bag. Despite the gentrification Ive witnessed in the area during my lifetime its still pretty rare to see these strange little guys on this particular stretch. 5 minutes later another one entered. They knew each other but by the looks of surprise on both their faces they hadn’t arranged to meet. The second one also removed a Macbook from his tote bag.

Before long they fell in to the kind of conversation I expect is the norm amongst their kind. Tumblr reblog statistics. They discussed reblogs per post, what kind of things attract a lot of reblogs, and some guy they were impressed with because he got a high amount of reblogs regardless of what he posted. These guys were the reason why people hate hipsters. They were the reason I hate hipsters. If these guys were Tumblr pages they would get no reblogs due to lack of content.

I finished my second coffee, put my book in my bag, paid, and walked back to work.