Wow, I should try getting up early more often.

I did on Thursday and it ended up being a very busy day. Firstly I went out and did the old voting thing which really was that exciting but considering a lot of people have spent a lot of time in jail and some have even been killed so I have that right it seems rather disrespectful for me not to bother, especially as the whole process took me the grand total of about seven minutes.

The I went up to central London to see if anything was happening by way of a Mayday protest but there wasn't, even international workers day march was distinctly light on numbers. This immense vacum of nothingness was probably due to the fact that on top of the protest movement suffering from it's usual curse of cliquey infighting, fragile egos and a degree of cowardice there was also a very long and intense run up with the old rumour mill going into overdrive causing divisions and factional infighting. The main reason however was that, in what some would suggest was a planned move, the movement got itself all over excited when the Olympic torch came to town, wore themselves out on the state sanctioned protests and had to have a little nap before they got all grouchy.

This is a particular shame because with the 5th anniversary of the start of the Darfur conflict coming in late April and the new Burmese constitution being announced on May 10th a strong mayday protest would have helped to build a slow burning pressure in the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics. This of course could have helped to improve the lives of a large number of people worldwide so it's a shame that instead it was decided it would be better for everyone if the issue was burnt out quickly and brightly so the Chinese government could be forced into some headline grabbing but ultimately ineffective talks with the Dalai Lama while the Chinese government were made angry and Chinese nationalism takes even more of a feverant hold on the country with rioters specifically targeting French chain stores of all things.

When I got back from what was a rather wasteful afternoon, although having two mounted police trying to discreetly follow you is always good for a laugh, I received a letter from the infamous Department of Work and Pensions. I am glad to report that they have now decided that they are prepared to behave in a lawful fashion and have restarted my benefit claim at it's usual rate for an indefinite period. Unfortunately though they have also decided that they are only going to backdate payments by a week rather then the month they were stopped for. Sadly they also appear to have missed a golden oppotunity to increase my income but I shouldn't complain because there will now be people running around Whitehall patting themselves on the back telling everybody that they've done me a "favour". Interestingly enough I am still waiting for that mysterious certificate to turn up which is odd because for a perfectly worthless qualification somebody seems to be going to extraordinary lengths to make sure I don't get it.

Later on I spoke to a mate of mine who apart from being awash with a rather misguided sense of optimism should also be rather disappointed because having lost his previous job he was all set to take up another one delivering and selling consumables to the pub and restaurant trade. This might not sound an amazing job to most of you but it was without doubt a very good oppotunity for him. It's a shame then that just before he was meant to start his prospective new employer was forced to dramatically pull out of the agreement almost as if someone had exerted a degree of pressure on him so once again my mate has been forced into yet another shitty driving job with little opportunity for personal and career development.

So there you have it then, clearly neither I nor any of my friends will ever be allowed to reach their full potential because if they were we'd be forced to question certain people's authority to use words such as "Success", "Thriving", "Pride" and "Prosperity."