Sssh!

Went for an eye test this morning. They do it cheap down Asda, round the back of the frozen meals section. I didn't like the bit when they blow air into your eye - I jumped back so violently I almost tipped the chair over backwards. After much fumbling about with comedy David Hockney glasses I was pronounced clear of sight, even if not of mind. My old glasses were given a service and I was free to leave.

Birkbeck Library wasn't quite the haven of peace today that I have become accustomed to on previous visits. There was a bloke sitting near me with a cough on a 30-second loop, which was echoed by somebody else on the other side of the room every time. Mobile phone ringtones and noise of builders on the floor above. After three hours of this I'd had enough - although I had read half of Vasari's Lives of the Artists and a wodge of very wordy articles in the meantime - and not a Guardian crossword in sight I hasten to add.

This evening's course was in researching on-line bibliographies. Now this is living. I expect the drunken man on the tracks of the Docklands Light Railway who delayed my journey home was thinking along similar lines.