Yesterday I got up late having spent an hour reading How to be Free in bed. Then I did some washing up, put stuff in the compost, had a bath, rode my bicycle to the Weald village along Egg Pie Lane where W. H. Davies [20th century poet and author of  “Leisure” ] used to live. Distributed a few flyers for a pizza van in the village, had half a pint of real ale in the pub then went for a walk down a footpath eating free blackberries. 4pm to 8pm was working in the pizza van, taking orders and serving customers. After work I had a free staff pizza and cycled home. The key to idling seems to be finding a template, someone to copy and thinking up “what if” scenarios. What if W. H. Davies had a part-time job? What if Wordsworth had done a few book reviews? I am producing a play about Shaw as Coleridge made money from a play… found a starving writer at the Poetry Café who has written the script and Michael Holroyd is providing the contacts. Living in Kent is awesome: country lanes, big garden and quick train to London if required.

Send your Perfect Day (in three hundred words or less) to julian@idler.co.uk