Diary Sunday 17th April 2016

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I was excited to finally figure out by sheer trial and error how to create alphabetical lists on Microsoft Excel, which is greatly speeding up my cataloguing of my pub signs and pub photos collections. The list gives me at a glance, pub name, town, county, if there is a sign or not as some pubs have none, if I have been in the pub, if it serves real ales or not, if I have used the images on Facebook, Twitter, Mylot, Pinterest, Google pics, my own CD-Rom storage, if I have plans to use it in talks, features, etc. and a points rating for sign quality and when I have been in, pub quality too, and general notes too. The weather brightened up as I headed to the local shop ATM in despair at how much my money has dwindled at present. I will have to be very restricted in what I spend now until the end of the month. The sign I am using to illustrate this feature is of The Thomas Burke pub in Leigh, Lancashire. He was a very popular operatic tenor singer regarded by many as comparable to the Great Caruso. Local campaigners called on the pub owners, Wetherspoons to name the bar after him, and happily, they obliged. My Mum started on me with one of her random periodic you need to get a job now’ rants, pretty well telling me that the only reason I don’t have work is because I’m not even trying to look for one’, and making out I haven’t worked in thirty years though I have had several jobs in that time. It was impossible to even reason with her and given her heart condition, a heated angry reply from me would be dangerous to her as she knows full well – she is actually playing on that, so I walked out completely. She seems to think if she makes me uneasy and uncomfortable it will give me an incentive to get a job, which is out of touch with the reality of my job situation. I purposely don’t tell her who I apply for work to as it would just give her more to throw back in my face. I actually sent off for a dozen jobs online today – yes, Sunday, but she thinks I’m not even trying. It makes home life extremely unpleasant right now. Arthur Chappell