After getting up late this morning and sitting in my robe for the best part of an hour, I looked out at the constant rain outside and a retail therapy session overcame me. I went to Maidenhead.
Those living outside of the UK may know Maidenhead from the John Betjeman poem “Slough”…
It’s not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It’s not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead
Maidenhead was it’s normal self - a town that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. The redeeming features as far as I am concerned are that it has a “GameStation” store, it has a Waterstones book shop, and it’s really cheap to get there on the train (far cheaper than parking the car).
After buying a few second hand computer games, some DVDs and a book, I found myself in Coffee Republic, wondering which coffee to buy. There’s something wonderfully bohemian about sitting in coffee shops with a book.
While sat contemplating my coffee and daydreaming, a shaven headed guy opposite pulled a book from his bag all about Christianity - which reminded me about a book I would like, but forgot to go and buy - “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins.
I did end up walking out of the book store with “Ubuntu”, a book about the Linux distribution, which comes with an installer disk. If I’ve totally lost you at this point, fear not. If you don’t know what Linux is, you don’t really need to know.
And on that note I feel the kettle calling. A cup of tea may be required. How tremendously English of me.