The afternoon after the morning before

Thank you, Cath. Your comment means more to me than you can guess. I work hard. I never know if it's worth it. I think you're more than a little unfair about your own writing. I haven't found it to be cliched so far - not that I'm the best judge. Thanks again. X

Alan this is very well written and very good. I particularly liked the shaving scene, the way you described something done nearly every day, in a fresh and different way. At the end, it left me feeling sad, and I wondered if it was supposed to. Foster.

Hey Alan, I really enjoyed this too. I loved the bidding war dialogue. I had a wince of recognition at that fantasy. I'm always trying to come up with decent metaphors/similes for male genitalia (is this a sentence I should be writing?) and I find it very difficult. The image of his old chap in the bath like a dead fish on seaweed, is really great. I kind of wished he had at least tried to estimate the number of hours spent masturbating. Shown his workings. The voice is great - charming and rogueish. Nice one. Joe

Thanks, guys. Another boost to my flagging spirit. Foster: No... don't feel down. A fresh start is looming for the man. This is all a rewrite of the original stuff, which has reached Chapter 36 so far on my Platform27 blog (.co.uk/Alan-Benefit). It's evolving. There's more, there's more... Joe: About 1,400 hours - but that doesn't account for the teens, when it's most of the time! Thanks again, guys.

I too very much enjoyed this, the intentions we all have to stop wasting our lives to finally get on and make something of oursevles. A sort of everyman character that i think readers can easily relate to. Juliet

Thanks Juliet. And, of course, he's not like me in the least.