A warning

It seems I’m not the only one who is finding work a bit hard going at the moment. The chap I sit next to, D, who is normally placid and even-tempered waited until N stood up and walked away from his desk and then started to swear because N just would not stop going on about trying to buy a cable for a tape recorder. On and on. On and on and on. On and on and on and on. You’re getting the idea aren’t you? D did actually manage to find a cable for it and I did suggest that he might like to tell N where he could stick it. N just gets obsessed by things, distracted by trivial detail and it does your head in when he just keeps going on. On and on. On and… Oh hang on we’ve been here already haven’t we?

I’m reading Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult at the moment and that’s quite a good read. Recently I was horrified to find out that someone I work with always reads the end of a book before she reads the rest of it. My jaw dropped at this news. Surely part of the point of reading a book is that you let the story unfold before you? Anyway, with Salem Falls I actually had to look at the end of the story to find out what happens, even though I am nowhere near finishing it yet. There is something about the book that riles me, not because it is bad but actually because it is engaging. The book riles me because this bloke gets falsely accused of raping a woman and what bothers me is that no matter what he says no-one will listen to him. People have already made up their minds and however much he tries to explain what happened (or didn’t happen for that matter) no-one is interested. Instead he accepts a plea bargain because it is the safest way to ensure he won’t spend years in prison and so he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Then he gets accused again – which is kind of the main focus of the story – and because he already had a conviction people have already made up their minds and he is in even more of an unenviable position to prove his innocence.

I think what gets to me is the position of powerlessness that the chap is in, that no matter how much he tries to explain himself, no-one wants to listen, even though his whole life could be ruined as a result. I can feel the tension when I read about him trying to get people to believe him so to save my sanity I had to see how it turned out. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t this really fantastic book, but somehow it bothers me to read about some fictional character who just wants people to listen to him and give him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know what’s going on in my head at the moment. Things just ticking over. I’ll return to normal soon.

Anyway, if you’re easily shocked - or eating for that matter - you might not want to scroll down any further. You have been warned. It seems that the security checks at airports are more thorough than has been reported in the press. I would recommend careful thought about whether you really need to travel at the moment.