500 words a day

505 words - 19th July 2009

Can’t seem to find a topic to easily settle on but it will come - what about shirts, must be 500 in that.





Shirts were always a bit f a problem fro Joshua. He hated the stiffness and the fact that most places where he’d worked they seemed to expect you to add a tie to them. He did admit, occasionally, under pressure from his girlfriend and his mum – at a wedding or a special occasion – that it could look good but he absolutely hated having to wear them every day at work. It felt a bit like a uniform, well – it was a uniform – maybe his Dad’s army influence was why he hated the whole and tie bullshit.


He knew his Dad wanted it, even though he hadn’t seen him since he was 6 – he knew he would have gone on about for hours – added in a load of guff about pride and honour and setting standards. Fuck all to do with him and his life but a surprising amount f people seemed to go along with those values and not just military arseholes either. As far as he knew none of the blokes at work had been in the military or had parents who wee or had been, and yet, even amongst those that he knew were quite anti-military, like Gavin, who’d been on loads of anti-war marches and seemed to be the antithesis of all things military – he sense of importance he placed on wearing the uniform was alarming.


At least, at his last job he’d been able to slob around on so-called ‘dress down Friday.’ Interestingly, there even seemed to be uniform with that, smart jeans at the worst and often just trousers, often a shirt with no tie and a v-neck jumper and often formal shoes – sometimes for the most daring, a polo shirt.


The first time he’d worn what he wanted finding it liberating, scruffy jeans, a worn old classic t-shirt and his most comfortable trainers. A few people made ‘humorous’ comments –his boss said something like ‘steady on’ and looked him up and down like a prospective date in a night club and several people just stared or raised eyebrows. He’d been planning on a big change of career for years but nothing stood out or suggested itself to him as an obvious idea. He had a big salary to go with his suit and tie and a big mortgage and Credit card debt to go with it so it wouldn’t be easy.


Recently he’d thought about selling the flat – it was in the city, it was on the rooftop and it was worth double at least what he’d paid – pay off all his debts and just do something – anything.


He worried about the long term though, he’d need to somewhere to live but if he got another job hat was not as well paid he cold afford some kind f mortgage and if he could work somewhere without  a shirt and tie at least he’d be happy











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Steve Wybourn





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