Eish! London 11 August

Tuesday, 11 August

I’m not a happy temporary worker. I found out today that the ‘no work no pay’ rule applied when I was down with Swine Flu. My bank account showed that I’d lost the week’s pay. My manager had signed my time sheet for one day, and my bank balance was now way under the amount I had budgeted on. Not good. Not good at all.

15h00: John Buchan’s ‘The 39 Steps’, Criterion Theatre, Piccadilly Square

£10.00, Stalls Row B, Seat 18. As has become my habit, I wait to see if a show is any good, and then, if it is, I buy a programme at interval. I bought the programme for this show and found its history fascinating. 3 different movies have been made since Buchan’s classic novel was published in 1915; one of which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Apparently the biggest mystery of the story was: What were the 39 Steps?

This play-version of the novel was written by Patrick Barlow, and although I have never seen any of the movies or read the novel, I thought the script was well constructed and worked well for the actors (especially the side kicks played by Stephen Critchlow and Stephen Ventura), I thought they played their parts brilliantly as they hopped in and out of different costumes and created many scenes with their actions and a minimal number of props. I think the director did an excellent job too and would recommend this show to anyone wanting to see a comic thriller on one ofLondon’s rainy afternoons.

My bank account was worrying me; another one of the horrid aspects of temporary work, along with no paid annual leave, no pension benefits and paying double National Insurance (NI). I was going to have to have a lot of faith on this one.

I had my second trip to the chiropractor this afternoon. Oh my word! Clearly I had no idea of the huge impact of strain the last four months had had on my body. After being loosened up at my first appointment, the adjustment today was ‘no-bars-held’. It felt like every vertebra in my neck had been out of place and in one twist of the wrists the chiro told them that they had to get back into place; I just wish they hadn’t protested so loudly at the move. After the adjustments (and a few stress-release body adjustment tears) the chiro asked how the week had gone. I told him that the pain from the last session hadn’t lasted that long and my recovery period was about right. I then went on to voice my concerns about the diet change. I told him that I was adjusting my diet, but that it was so difficult to cut out everything he said I should try cutting out. He smiled at me and said that it didn’t all have to happen now. He said that I was making lifestyle changes to improve my overall health and energy levels by eating naturally healthy things. Change wasn’t going to happen immediately, change takes time and adjustment, all I needed to do was take it a day at a time to consciously improve my eating habits and that would slowly help my body too. I thought about it, one step at a time? Yeah, I can do that. I’ll keep at it and just watch myself. I can only do the best I can do one day at a time.