Thursday Afternoon TOIL

TOIL (short for Time Off In Lieu) is always funny to me because when you are taking it you are not labouring hard at all. We're allowed to build up up to 7 hours a month and take the equivalent of 1 day off. Which I don't normally do - I build up the time and then carry it forward. So this month I decided I'm going to make a concerted effort to take it.

Today was the day. I took an afternoon during which the boyfiend and I decided we would go to the movies. We didn't really care what we went to see just as long as it was during the time we should have been at work. Its something about the whole thing that you're supposed to be somewhere else that makes it feel naughty and therefore so much better than when you go normally. So we bought tickets for Bright Young Things which passed the time admirably.

On the way out the boyfiend had to go to the toilet which was at the end of a corridor of other screens (huge maze of a multiplex in Wood Green - quite bearable at that time of day during the week and practically empty). Over the doors of the other screens it told you the start time in dot matrix. One film's programme had started about 10 minutes before and just because nobody was looking and we were feeling naughty we popped our heads round the door and found that the film was just beginning - the opening credits were rolling. So we sauntered in and sat down. We were only going to stay for a while... but it caught us so we stayed for the whole film and although Down With Love wouldn't have been something I would have actively chosen it was really quite good (and probably much better for being free).