Introduction

'I'm too old to be young and too young to be old'. I read that on a bus shelter I was sitting in last week. It was written on an advert for one of these outdoor pursuits weekends that have become quite popular in certain circles. It took me by surprise. I've just left university and things are a little slow. It’s an awkward time of life. I knew it would be but I hadn't worked out why. Then I found myself sat in a bus shelter in the middle of the day, an odd place to sit when you have nowhere to go. So with nothing else to do I continued to read: 'If you have ever felt like this then you are either very stupid or very apathetic.' I thought to myself, to be honest I really don't know and I really don't care. Perhaps this adventure weekend was not for me. The problem is, I find myself, almost a week later, still perplexed by this advert. I'm reading The Guardian, something I do from time to time to convince my father of my superiority. The article was entitled 'Authors of their own destiny'. It claimed blogging was the future so here I am. I've always wanted to write but I wouldn't say I want to be an author or a poet, or even a journalist. I just don't want to be nothing.

At this point I feel I should address the issue of the 'Cafe Terrace at Night'. It will become apparent over time why this painting means so much to me. I will say at this time that of it rests above me on the wall of what my father has recently come to call the 'drawing room'. It sits in a thin black 'Klassen' frame (IKEA order no. 3756). I'm not sure a finer metaphor for modern Britain has ever been conceived. Sat in its shadow, I have spent the last month looking for work, but mostly I have been looking for direction, a process that requires a great deal of sofa time and an unfeasible amount of Earl Grey. Where do I want to be in ten years? I don't know and as yet I don't care. All I know is I do not want to be here: living with my parents, jobless, moneyless, girlfriendless and, most importantly (apparently), ambitionless. I have nothing: so now, I have a blog.