Wittering on

I witter on far too often and for far too long. Two examples:

• Tuesday evening, even after I had stood up and put my coat on to leave, I wittered on to a young couple about the good bits of Extras (comedy programme with Ricky Gervais) for a further five or ten minutes, despite the fact that they clearly weren't all that interested.
• Wednesday morning, during the initial meeting about the co-consultancy process I couldn't help telling two or three anecdotes which were of minimal interest to anyone else. The irony is that the process we were discussing included the clear discipline of 'no anecdotes'. OK, we were not exactly 'doing' co-consultancy, just talking about it, but even so I knew before I started that my stories would not excite or impress anyone.

So why do I do it? Is it lack of discipline? I know that the only person to benefit from my wittering is myself - in the sense that all these thoughts are going round in my head and it gives a sense of relief to get them out in the open. Is it lack of care? Tough luck if my listeners are not bothered - I'm going to tell them this whether they want to hear it or not.

Perhaps my next week's resolution could be not to tell a single joke, story or anecdote for seven consecutive days. It would be a huge challenge.