darryl claims to have discovered my method of "sequential wilting" (the revolting phrase is his, not mine, she says stiffly.) which is not a method, merely a policy, more like a guideline, not to buy my flowers all at the beginning of a week and then replace them at the start of the next one, but to buy one bunch at a time, a day or two apart, so that as the week passes and some of the flowers wilt, there will always still be other flowers in bloom.

at the moment, however, there are no flowers whatsoever in this room. i have adopted a suffering attitude, because if i'm going to have to be poor and hate my department, i might as well do the thing properly and make things really bleak. i don't see why people always try to make the best of a bad job - so very valiant and pathetic - eating stale bread and sharing crumbs with birds on the windowsill and cheering up a shabby room with single poor rose in the window and reading by the light of candle-ends, hah! catch me doing that! all that putting a best face business makes me sick. if i can't have an extravaganza of flowers then i will do without!