Things are going crazy round here! The magazine should have gone to the printer 2 days ago, but I didn't have enough copy for 16 pages, and I was emailing people like mad to produce stuff at the last minute.Sending it off is today's job. I promised the printer I'd figure out how to use the Open Office database before this issue, for the mailing addresses, and I haven't been able to - my self-teaching skills have deserted me on that one - so the mailing list will have to go in Excel again. I've got extra people for dinner tonight, and we're all going to BATS to see Apollo 13, so I've got dough in the breadmaker for French rolls, and kidney beans boiling their butts off on the stove. I've got David Geary to introduce tomorrow night, so there's his introduction to research and write. I have to do it today, or tomorrow morning at the absolute latest, as I've got an Arts Partnership lunch to go tomorrow at 12.30, followed by free attendance at an NZSO rehearsal, followed by picking up the grandchildren from school while their mother does something I can't remember. And the Poetry Society meeting at night. There's an extra PoSoc meeting next month (the anthology launch is under control, thank goodness!) and I haven't advertised it yet. And I thought I was too busy to blog last week! lol.
Plus I hope to go and visit my Dad on Friday, as I haven't seen him for a couple of weeks, and driving to Waikanae at the weekends is not one of my favoured things to do. And the Air New Zealand Cup final is on Saturday night. Go Wellington Lions! We gave up our Stadium tickets when my income dropped to less than the dole, but curling up on the couch with a glass of my choice of wine (currently Jackman Ridge Muller-Thurgau), a bowl of bhuja mix and a pinapple lump (or 3) for each try scored is adequate and affordable compensation.
I went to to Karori library yesterday to change my books. The library (any library) is probably my favourite place in the entire world. In 2006 I went to the one in New York that holds and displays the toys that were the inspiration for AA Milne's characters, and that confirmed my feeling that libraries are almost all you need in life to be happy. Full of infinite possibilities, and quiet enough to absorb their intent.
The books I returned after a month were:
Apartment 255, Bunty Avieson. Awful awful awful. Promised much, delivered nothing. I abandoned it before I finished Chapter 1.
Another World, Pat Barker. I love her work. She's spare but absorbing, and this was an almost-ghost story, Nothing much happened, in that it was an interior rather than plot-driven story, but the characters all mattered.
The Stone Monkey, Jefferey Deaver. Currently my favourite author, and this was yet another masterly written thriller with sympathetic characters and a satisfyingly convoluted plot. Wally read it after me, and didn't get anything done last weekend .
Last Man Standing, David Baldacci. Another favourite author, and an even more convoluted plot. The characters a bit thinner, but nonetheless a gripping story that had me on the edge of my bed (when else would I read?) right to the end. I didn't get much done last weekend either.
So now I'm looking forward to a whole new set of books. I mainly source them from the Large Print section these days. It makes them easier to read in bed, though they tend to be hardback and a bit heavy to hang on to as I'm dropping off. Which I didn't do much of in that last batch (except the 1st one). I also check the trolley of returned books that haven't been shelved yet. It's a useful shortcut, and I got a couple from there too - Stephen Fry and Terry Jones. More about them next month.
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2 comments:
I'm happy for you that you didn't spend two hours at the Stadium watching that game in those conditions, but sad that you only had one chance to consume pineapple lumps - and that was for a Canterbury try! But who am I to talk, I'm an Otago supporter, and that's been a very hard row to hoe in recent years.
I hope the David Geary evening went well - I was sorry not be able to make it. And how was Apollo 13? We were thinking of taking 12-year-old, technology-focused son along - do you think that would be a good move?
Ah well. No pineapple lumps were harmed in the losing of this game and my sister had already finished up the Muller-Thurgau. (I opened a Babich Semillon Chardonnay, 2005.) My perspective on life is that worse things have happened and there's always next year. Roll on the All Black tour.
David Geary was brilliant. It was an interactive evening - we created a poem with some props he brought along - and I highly recommend his poetry. He's planning a collection, and I can't wait for it.
'Apollo 13' was fantastic fun. The theatre is set up like Houston (and very like the model room I saw at Kennedy Space Centre 2 years ago) and the original launch footage made me go tingly all over. I'm old enough to remember what it was like for real, and it took me right back. Awesome stuff. Take him!
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