I was struck today by the largely very prosaic naming convention for shops on the Holloway road - it's all very workaday - the such and such bakery, so and so clothes. The acme of this is my very own offy which languishes under the moniker : "Holloway Off License" That must have taken an eternity to come up with. Especially when just down the road is the wonderfully named "Booze Nest" HOL is by far the better grog shop tho. There are of course one or two exceptions - the lighting shop is called Helios which i suppose is particularly apropriate given it's such a Greek area and the Kebab shop, which is fantastic but is still , absolutely, a kebab shop, nothing more or less is rather grandly named "Crystal - Charcoal Restaurant". If I ever open a chippie (not very likely I know) i shall call it "Pan's - Unhyrodgenated Vegeatable Oil Restaurant"

Having said all that if you are on the Holloway Road and need a kebab Crystal's is easily the best place to go, so I shall allow them their moment. And they do dolmades and lamb-y/chick pea-y things as well. Mmmmm. In fact food wise they're easily up to restaurant standard, so perhaps I'll let them off altogether.

as you can tell I'm feeling very magnanimous today which is pretty unique as I am visiting my parent's tomorrow which I find pretty difficult sometimes. it's not that we don't get on but I'm broke and don't have a job so i'm going to get a 2 day silent lecture about responsibility and pensions and settling down. All of which is true, and all of which I already know, so moaning at me about it, no matter how well disguised and how well intentioned just put's my back up.

You might wonder why I don;t just tell them to be silent but I also want to borrow £400 off them to pay off the unpaid council tax, which I know I won't be able to pay back till May. It's humiliating but borrowing money always is and as the usual sources of such things rarely favour the unwaged I'm out of options. Esp as I don't have a credit card anymore. After paying off the one I had years ago I swore I would never have one again and so far that has been a good decision. The reason for this is that about the 1991 - 1992 period I got into a piece of hot water with credit of such high temperature that with hindsight it was lucky all I got was thrown out of my bank (after paying it all back natch) rather than actually prosecuted for fraud, which I believe is what knowingly spending other people's money is technically called . oopps.

So I have to take the moaning in order to secure a loan to get the fucking Council Tax bailiffs off my back. Actually it's so much worse than that but anyway . . .

I'm so bad with money it's unbelievable.

On the other hand I had a very positive interview this morning so onwards and upwards ;)