The Weekend Papers
It's nearly here again.
It's a beautiful thing.
The weekend.
But already I can feel the first tinge of guilt wrapping its nail bitten mitts round my stomach. I can feel the first signs, a distant dull pain, of the concentration-induced headache that will inevitably become my companion.
But I am not thinking as one might assume, about the end of my weekend before it has begun no, that would be the ultimate in pessimistic defeatism and besides I'm freelance...
I am thinking about the weekend papers, which have been a loved addition to my Saturday since I became aware of their luxurious existence sometime during my early twenties. I have mourned the loss of their existence during brief stints living abroad where language barriers aside there really is nothing to compare to the opulent selection of weekend reading material we are offered here in the UK.
As I sit in the kitchen, feeling a little like Charlie, Roald Dahl's imaginative figment about to unwrap his birthday chocolate treat to reveal the life changing golden ticket, I remind myself how lucky I am to be UK based and therefore privy to such a literary treat and try to quell the rising panic I feel tickling away with her razor sharp nails next to Ms Guilt. Because I already no I will not be able to do this printing triumph justice.
I claw at the plastic covering my bounty, necessary I realise despite its environmental impact, as the contents spill across the table.
And so the confusion begins. Which section first? I shouldn't always go for my favourite. Travel. I should be disciplined. Try a different approach, maybe I should read the sections I least like, Sports, Business and Money (which I should definitely be paying more attention to considering my mounting debts). The first thing I do, a little like picking people for your team in the playground in reverse order, is discard the weakest.
Eventually I have made three piles, favourite sections (travel, the female magazine) should read sections, (arts/reviews, the actual newspaper) and the realistically speaking, will not even attempt section, which I direct straight to recycling sack (including sports, business and money).
But as I open the first section, as I see the bright picture of bent palm trees lit by sunny skies enveloped by rows of text, I already realise with a sinking feeling that in order to read every article, I would have to stay glued to my seat in the kitchen for the next seven days...
And so to solve my dilemma I have devised a challenge to myself, which will also form my weekly blog.
Each week I will act on six things, one from each section and for each day of the week (excluding Saturday the reading day) written in the paper and blog on the results. Each week I will change paper so as not to be politically biased.