Lists of Nothingness

About to embark on a new life in Wroclaw with The Gulag, i have spent much of the last month selling my belongings on Ebay. The highlight of this selling spree for me has, not been the money but the opportunity to create lists, league tables, fantasy financial calculations. You see for a man who often lives his life in a perpetual state of disorganisation and dissaray, I have always loved making lists, this love affair has lasted since early childhood. The lists are rarely of any use to anyone who exists outside the deeper recesses of my mind. My most recent list game has revolved around me estimating how much something will sell for on ebay and then comparing it with the actual selling price, hours of endless fun. My earliest recollection of this list addiction goes back to being a 6 year old, my mother and I used to go and stay with my godmother and her sister in London, the Fulham road to be exact. There i used to spend many a happy evening, notebook in hand nose pressed to the window, scanning the street below, then meticulously filling in how many different makes of car passed the house, then at the end of the evening i would convert the results into a league table.
A budding mathmetician you may think? Alas no, maths never became a strong suit in my education, but my love affair with lists and league tables continued. my next serious foray into league tables and lists came at about the age of 8. my mother was the caretaker of a rowing club in Henley and downstairs beneath our flat was this largely unoccupied clubroom for most of the year. I would go down there with my foam football and recreate matches between imaginary teams in my imaginary league, on my own. I cannot remember the rules and stipulations i implemented on myself but i do not think these were of huge importance it was the collating of the results and the league tables that were the point of the exercise, that was when the real excitement began. It is worth noting at this point, that i have never been a big list maker when it comes to important topics, where making a list might actually be of considerable use. My lists have almost always revolved around a fantasy world. I am sure a psychiatrist would have a field day with my love of lists of nothingness but sometimes the internal worlds we create for ourselves are like anchors for our mind. I know that I have always found that something that focuses and concentrates my Inner world is often a great solace to me. it gives some sort of structure, no matter how delicate to the raging seas in my head.
I do not know yet what opportunites Wroclaw will provide me for my list making future, but i am already considering some kind of Pierogi based league table, anyway i will keep you posted.