All evidence to the contrary I’m not just sitting on my arse, enjoying the last vestiges of summer, before my island is plunged into the eternal dreariness that is a British autumn and winter (I don’t mind the cold, I don’t mind it getting dark early. I don’t even mind it when it rains heavily. It’s the constant grey drizzle that gets to me).

There is a blog post coming I promise you, it’s just proving harder than usual to write. Unfortunately for you, dear readers, I have to get this post out of the way before I can go on with the show. It’s sitting there at the forefront of my mind like a giant slug on the garden path of my creativity. I HATE slugs, so I’m having to psych myself up before I can step round it. Basically, till I write this one post, nothing else of any merit is going to come out.

As an important aside here, in the Bright Meadow Household, traffic hold-ups are rated on a slightly unusual scale:
1) The Preserve.
This is a slight slow down of traffic, but nothing too bad. You’re never really stationary – it will annoy you, make you five or ten minutes late, but the world ain’t gonna stop on it’s axis.
2) The Jam.
This is your average hold-up. You’ll be stationary for up to 15 to 30 minutes, but whilst it’s a right bugger to be caught in one, you’ll forget about it as soon as you’ve got to your destination.
3) The Marmalade.
Forget all your plans for the next decade. This is the 20 mile tail-back halfway round the M25 in both directions. You’d follow the diversions sign posted but you’ll just end up in Outer Mongolia (or Lower Wallop, which is even worse). Forget about going anywhere in the BMW – it’s either set out on foot or settle down and plan to raise the family on the hard shoulder.

Why the detour into traffic reportage? My brain is in marmalade territory. Sorry. It’s the time of year unfortunately. September (and October to some extent) suck monumentally.

On top of the post-from-hell, I have two job interviews, the start of college, a chunk of freelance work I really can’t put off any longer, and my day-job to finish (and a new one to start), but when that’s all out of the way things should return to their even keel.

Or not.

Whatever happens, happy birthday Jack!