Quantum anomaly

My eating habits were slightly odd today. Had Starbucks vegan porridge for breakfast, then over the course of probably two and a half hours I ate a whole tub of hummus and three pitta bread for lunch. In the afternoon I had chai latte and vegan mince pie from Café Nero. Then in the evening we had a family outing to Marciano to try out their vegan menu. I had the vegan BLT with fries. Doorstep white bread.

I think it’s safe to say that you could call that typical midwinter fodder: bulk and stodge, carbs and calories. I am beginning to yearn for a return to salad days (and I don’t mean my youth).

Marcianos was good, buzzing, excellent food, slightly crazy staff - one Scots woman who talked and spoke like she could take Woking single handed (she came from Glasgae) and another who appeared silently out of nowhere, pale skinned and dressed in black to ask you if you wanted ketchup. Scary.

A conversation with the boss’s boss of bosses today prompted me to start a new graphic illustration project which attempts to explain how the NHS works in terms of astronomy and quantum physics. My boss’s boss rang me up to ask my advice on red wine and my boss took part in a teleconference which was wholly professional; no booze or planetary bodies. But the more I thought about it the more I realised that life is like astronomy; we are all hurtling through the cold dark void of time and space but if we are lucky we share orbits with others and bask in the warmth of shared beliefs and behaviours. Some people are living on the cold outer fringes and some are just black holes that you don’t want to go near. But unlike planets we can shift orbit and move closer to the things that matter. We have a choice, even if we have to exercise it over time. How does the song go? “You’ll never shine if you don’t glow”.

Personally I like to think of myself as a quantum anomaly. If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist …