A Long Way Down [antikvár]

MARTIN Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower-block? Of course I can explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower-block. ím not a bloody idiot. I can explain it because it wasn't inexplicable: it was a logical decision, the product of proper thought. It wasn't even a very serious thought, either. I don't mean it was whimsical - I just meant that it wasn t terribly complicated, or agonized. Put it this way: say you were, I don't know, an assistant bank manager, in Guildford. And you'd been thinking of emigrating, and then you were offered the job of managing a bank in Sydney. Well, even though it's a pretty straightforward decision, you'd still ha ve to think for a bit, wouldn't you? You'd at least ha ve to work out whether you could bear to move, whether you could leave your friends and colleagues behind, whether you could uproot your wife and kids. You might sit down with a bit of paper and draw up a list of pros and cons. You know: CONS - aged parents, friends, golf club. PROS-moremoney, betterqualityof life(housewithpool, barbecue, etc.), sea, sunskine, no left-wing councils banning *Baa-Baa Black Sheepno EEC directives banning British sausages, etc. It's no contest, is it? The golf club! Give me a break. Obviously your aged parents give you pause for thought, but that's all it is -a pause, and a brief one, too. You'd be on the phone to the travel agents within ten minutes. Well, that was me. The re simply weren t enough regrets, and lors and lots of reasons to jump. The only things in my cons' list were the kids, but I couldn't imagine Cindy letting me see them 3