20th October

A young boy walked past the shop tonight as my colleague and I were closing up. "What happens in there?", he enquired to his father. I didn't hear his response but it's probably for the best he doesn't know. I caught a headline on BBC News tonight about how there are apparently 400k gambling addicts in this country and only one specialist treatment centre. I probably should have stayed and watched the piece but having just got home from work, I didn't feel especially inclined to do so. I suppose everyone likes to separate their working lives from their personal lives, but it feels especially important for me to switch off from what I do.

I don't lie in bed at night worried that I'm complicit in the ruination of other people's lives, but nor am I shut off from the consequences of what I'm involved in. I sense that this might become one of the major themes of my next stand-up show, whenever I get around to writing it.

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