23.03.06
My publishers have suggested that I burn one branded thing of high emotional value, ahead of the real day in August. I get the feeling they're calling my bluff, testing my metal to see if all these high-principled promises I'm making will actually come to anything. Though they say it’s a good way to start the book, I get the feeling it is in fact a down-payment of trust. I agreed without blinking an eyelid; it all has to go sometime, so why not now?

Well, that was three days ago, and there's no sign of any mini bonfires blazing round the Boorman household as yet. Actually, they have called my bluff. I've justified the relative inaction on me having to decide which items I value the most, but of course I know exactly what these things are; destroying any one of them is just too terrible to contemplate. Perhaps if I write them down, it will help me to make the awful decision.



Louis Vuitton Dahlmer Check Shoulder Bag
One of the first luxury items I bought myself back in 1999, when I first had some money in my pocket. Spending four hundred pound on this bag was a symbolic act financial freedom after leaving home. Everyone I know thought it was a crass gesture, but I'm sure this was really jealousy, and that made me flaunt it all the more.



Adidas 'Adistar Runner' Trainers
Not a particularly rare pair of trainers, but these were given to me when I first met the brand managers at Adidas UK some years ago. I seem to walk taller in them whenever I put them on. They are scotch guarded and delicately cleaned after every use.



Blackberry
I have a love/ hate relationship with this thing. The constant connection to email, text and phone has enslaved me to 24 hour working days. But there's no mistaking the effect it has on people when you pull it out of your pocket. It makes me look and feel confident, dynamic, adult. It means, quite literally, that I mean business.

The Significant Other
There's no doubt about it, I probably wouldn't have gone for the first drink with the wife to be, had she not been working for a very important contemporary art gallery. Now I'm not the kind of person that only keeps friends with people in important or flashy jobs (some of my best friends are IT consultants) but if I'm honest with myself, it was a factor in the initial attraction. I think she knows this too.

First out of the running is the missus, obviously, that’s just ridiculous. I think I might be confusing monetary value with brand value re: the Vuitton bag (or is it just too valuable to burn?), so that’s out too. Its down to the Adidas and the Blackberry. For years I dreamt of meeting the guys at Adidas, and those trainers are symbolic of a lifelong affinity with that brand. Destroying the Blackberry and going back to a regular phone feels like leaving the army and becoming a useless civilian again. I need another day to think about this.