6 February 1958

I'm not going to talk about Michael Jackson.

I was at the kids playground at the local outlet centre yesterday, drinking Starbucks and pondering the workings of the universe, when a tall, heavyset man sat down next to me. He was wearing knee length shorts and there was a large and intriguing tattoo on his calf. The design showed a large clock with the hands at 3.04. Under the clock was the date, 6 February 1958.

I was curious about this, but I elected not to ask the gentleman what it meant. It could have been the date of some tragic event in his life after all, and he might have taken offence. Instead I made a mental note of the time and date and googled it when I got home. It turns out that it is the time and date of the Munich air crash that killed eight Manchester United players.

Not only that, but reading the account of the crash on Wiki, I found a list of survivors. I don't follow football, and I didn't recognise many names, but I did notice the name 'Harry Greg'. Harry Greg was at one time manager of Swindon Town football club. I know this only because I knew his daughter. She worked at the same hotel as me. I waited tables, carried bags, and washed dishes while I was at collage, she was a receptionist. I probably worked with her for two or three years and I never knew her father was a survivor of the Munich air disaster. Isn't that amazing.

They're talking about discriminates of quadratic equations with no real roots in my cube!

I had the wheel bearing fixed on the old car. It works much better now. It's so quiet. I don't need to crank the stereo up to dangerous levels just to hear it any more. The garage asked me on the phone which wheel had the problem. I confidently told them that I was sure it was a front one, but didn't know which. It was of course a back one. I suppose I should be pleased with the fact that I managed to correctly diagnose a wheel bearing problem. It cost £175 including VAT. I thought it was a lot. Turns out that the bearing on its own was over £75 though. So, perhaps I shouldn't complain.

I bought new shoes. They're comfortable, but they look a bit homosexual to me. I can't decide if I like them. They were quite cheap. I got them in a sale.

The weather was so nice yesterday that we decided to have a barbecue in the garden. I bought one of those disposable types. It's just a foil tray full of charcoal with a grill on top. I'm always amazed at how well they work. It kept going for well over an hour and we cooked lots of good stuff on it. Really good evening.

I have new varifocal glasses. I actually should have been able to pick them up last week, but the frames I chose turned out to be a bit crap. They couldn't adjust the arms to fit my head because they were aluminium. So, I had to chose another pair. I actually ended up with Ray Ban frames, but I'm intending to paint out the little logo. Varifocals are quite odd. Things get bigger and smaller as I nod my head.

In my new glasses case I discovered a cleaning cloth, of course, and a little bag containing 18cm of very narrow white tape like stiff ribbon, and 27cm of thick nylon thread like fishing line. I have no idea what it's for, but I'm on a quest to discover the meaning of this enigma.

I was going to include some pictures today, but it's now 11pm, the boy keeps waking up because he has a cold, and I'm knackered because, for reasons I won't go into now, I didn't sleep last night.

See, told you I wouldn't talk about Michael Jackson.