Honestly, I must try harder

I thought giving up the random words format of this blog would be liberating. Of course it isn't, because when faced with the infinite possibilities of free-form blogging, I cannot, of course, think of anything to write about. Consumer choice is all well and good, but most of the time the act of choosing becomes an activity in itself, instead of just a gateway to something fun or informative.

My late Dad, it is not an exaggeration to say, spent almost as much time staring at the blue and yellow musaky screen of the Sky listings as he did watching episodes of House. My brother claims that his flat mate does much the same thing. This might all be very entertaining for the person doing the choosing, but for anyone else in the room it's like watching the test card thinking that it might suddenly turn into your favourite programme, but it doesn't.

I have lost precious minutes of my life watching my mum select a jar of coffee. At least I need not fear for her penury - the amount of person hours she's prepared to put in to save 17p means that it would actually be impossible for her to run out of cash (if only because while you're engaged in calculating the cost per kg of granulated sugar it's very hard to be spending money on anything else).

So this is all going to be a terrible effort. Or should that be a terrific effort? Possibly both. Bear with me.