I know, you’re very busy. Let me help you out.

Ian began the conversation in his well rehearsed, time-worn and foreboding manner.

How have you been? Busy?

Several terse responses to this banal question passed through my head before my well trained social barometer batted them away with the adept flick of a pro-tennis player’s backhand. Instead, I engaged in the usual busyness-based business conversation, attempting to battle the confusion caused by simultaneously expressing both joy and sadness at our respective states of busyness.

Unravelling whether busy is good or bad has always confused me. Busy can mean lots of work, therefore success, or it can mean someone is overburdened, leading to exhaustion, ergo bad. It is not a feeling, so I can’t easily react to it, it’s merely a state of being, like running, or sitting, which can be both beautifully productive or acutely damaging.

In short, ‘busy’ is a meaningless thing to say.

Metallica were one of my favourite bands as a teenager. I saw them live in 1996 and own a gold disc that was prepared for the lead singer, James Hetfield, which hangs on the wall opposite my enormous gold framed be-sequined Ganesha print.

Metallica’s live performances often featured cover songs including Stone Cold Crazy by Queen and So What by Anti-Nowhere…