The new year so far has involved some really quite legendary sloth. I spent all day yesterday on the sofa eating Godiva chocolates and watching TV, and today is looking quite similar although I am determined to at least clean the kitchen at some point because it distresses me with its dirtiness every time I go in there. I am almost (almost) looking forward to going back to work on Friday just to remind myself what it feels like to be a productive member of society.

At least slothfulness means I have been able to catch up on my reading and screen-based entertainment. As a result I can heartily recommend the following:

Reading

I got £200 worth of book tokens for Christmas and wasted no time at all in spending some of them, and I picked up a couple of books on popular economics. This is mostly because I am fed up of losing arguments with J whenever an economic theory is involved because he is a) very argumentative and b) distressingly knowledgeable about economic theory. And I can only cope with (a) if I am able to hold my own end up with (b). There is nothing like a bit of healthy competition to encourage me in the pursuit of knowledge.

One of the books I have already finished is The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford, and I heartily recommend it because it is readable and understandable and it explains things in terms I understand, mostly to do with why a Mocha costs more than a Latte. And unlike that awful book Statistics Without Tears, which I am still annoyed about, it doesn’t make me feel like my brain is slowly melting and leaking out through my ears.

Watching

I spent most of yesterday on the couch watching TV, and I was mostly watching Season 1 of Criminal Minds, the show about criminal profilers at the FBI. I’m not really sure why I find it so compelling, because every episode ends up being basically the same, and every profile seems to be a not-very-varied variation on a theme of ‘white male of above average intelligence’, and yet I kept on watching it. So, if you are in the mood for some good quality brain-switched-off entertainment I recommend it.

J and I went to the cinema a couple of nights ago for the first time in ages and we saw St Trinians, which I heartily do not recommend. It was only slightly redeemed by the fact that it featured both Colin Firth and Stephen Fry, and it was a little bit more redeemed by the fact that they had Colin Firth fall into a pond at one point and then walk out broodily in a soaked white shirt, in an exact replica of that scene from Pride and Prejudice. BUT, even so, it was dreadful. Poor J was most disappointed, as I think he heard ‘naughty schoolgirls’ and assumed it would be a practically pornographic lesbian romp featuring lots of pillow fights. I did try to warn him but he wouldn’t listen. It had Mischa Barton in it trying (and failing) to do an English accent. It had Rupert Everett in drag. It had the world’s most ludicrous plot, and not even ludicrous in a good way, just, bad. Awful. Don’t go. Stay home and watch Pride and Prejudice again instead.

Right, I am off to enjoy my last full day of laziness. Tomorrow I’m going to the theatre to see Glengarry Glen Ross, which, although not exactly taxing, does at least mean I’ll have to actually get dressed and leave the house. But today, today is the day of the sofa and Christmas junk-food leftovers. And cleaning the kitchen. At some point. Maybe.