Random Jottings

Quiet day

Have spent today fiddling about, putting wash on, generally catching up on bits and pieces and psyching myself up for work tomorrow.  Part of me wants to stay at home a bit longer, another part of me wants to get moving before I sink into a routine of wandering around all day doing nothing which is very easy to do.  My lovely new cleaning lady is due tomorrow so it will be wonderful to come back to a nice clean flat, it certainly looks a bit of a tip at the moment.  After her first visit I kept going into the bathroom and looking at my reflection in the taps and gloating over the lovely shiny bath and sink etc and my ancient carpet looked bright and new.  Amazing what a good hoover can do.

Have had some laid back reading to match mood and I have caught up on two Alexander McCall Smith Scotland Street books I have had for a bit as these seemed the right kind of reading for today.  I am a huge fan of AMS as regular readers will know, but not sure why, found these latest adventures of Scotland Street slightly irritating.  Much though I like the gentle rhythm of his writing and his philosophical outlook with which he endows all his characters, I found myself thinking that it would be really good if just one of the characters who people Scotland Street would show a bit of gumption and actually do something.  As it is, the main star of the pages seems to be Cyril, the dog with the gold tooth who likes his saucer of beer in the pub.

Of course, the main character in this series who really stands out is Bertie.  Poor Bertie, aged six, with the Mother from Hell, who takes him to yoga, holds conversazione in Italian with him, has him pyschoanalysed by a psychiatrist who seems to Bertie to be completely mad, makes him play the saxophone, join an orchestra for teenagers even though Bertie is far too young.  Poor Bertie wants to be a normal little boy, to choose his friends and lead an ordinary life but his aspiring mother, Irene, has other ideas.  What keeps me reading these books is the hope that she will soon get her come uppance and, as Bertie has already spotted the likeness between his new baby brother Ulysses, and his psychiatrist and has mentioned it to his father, one feels that perhaps this is not too far away.   AMS himself says that wherever is travelling he bumps into readers who beg him to allow Bertie to get away from his awful mother, so hopefully he soon will.

Spent some time this afternoon in a horizontal position on the sofa watching a couple of episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, having just purchased the DVDs, but had to stop as my laughter was making my cough worse, at the moment I kid you not, I have a hack that would do credit to Emily Bronte.

And to round off a seriously intellectually stimulating day I am currently watching Liverpool play Inter Milan in the knock out rounds of the European Cup.  So far a mind numblingly boring game with very little happening except that the Italian team are down to ten men so you would think the UK team would have the advantage.  You would think, yes but I do not expect anything much to happen and then in the second half the Liverpool Leaning Tower of Pasadena, ie Peter Crouch will be brought on, all 6' 5" of him and long balls will start to be fed to him in the usual manner of desperate Britfootball so see if he can manage to head a goal in.

Cynical mois?

'The Mirror Crack'd from side to side'

'The Curse has come upon me' cried the Lady of Shalott

And a quote from another poem describes me well today 'alone, and palely loitering' as I am attempting to get back to normal after a truly horrid week.  You have all read about the Mirror Incident and the resultant concussion etc, well it transpired that I was also hit with something else, a very nasty virus which is doing the rounds at the moment, the symptoms of which were masked somewhat by the Falling Mirror Syndrome.  After four days of permanent vomiting and unable to eat a thing, the doctor diagnosed this particular virus and said cheerfully nothing to be done it just has to work its way through your system.  I am not a patient person, I loathe being ill and the idea of just sitting and letting something take its course is anathema to me, but in this case I simply had no choice.  I don't think I have felt quite so ill in my life, I have been unable to keep any food down with the resultant feeling that my legs were made of cotton wool, I have had to walk around clutching onto furniture and walls to stop myself falling over and only today am I beginning to feel vaguely humanoid.  I have managed to lose nearly 12lb in one week, OK great I can always do with shedding a few pounds, but would prefer not to do it this way and seem to be able to only manage lightly boiled eggs and soldiers and the odd cup of soup at the moment, all very boring.  I am going to see the doctor this afternoon as I feel I must have something to control this permanent nausea (remember those days folks when we were young and in early stages of pregnancy and how we felt then?? yep, well that is how I feel at mo and I have been there and done that and am not enjoying it much now....) so that I can start eating properly again.

I would also rather like to get back to work as I have seen enough of my apartment at the moment and crave company.  I also feel if I don't push myself a bit I will just sit here in a pathetic heap.

So I am back, and sorry this is not exactly a sparkling post but a distinct lack of sparkle in Chez Simpson-Long at mo.  I have had to cancel a visit to the opera yesterday and am determined that my birthday treat to myself of The Importance of Being Ernest with Penelope Keith as Lady Bracknell this week is also not going to go by the board if I can help it.

Once again can I say a big thank you for all the continuing messages that I am receiving along the lines of 'Do get well Elaine'. 'take care and take it easy' and 'hope you are well soon'. They are all gratefully received.  Now what I want is a few along the lines of 'OK stop whinging, get on with it', 'move your butt and stop feeling sorry for yourself'.. that kind of thing to galvanise me into action.

Any reading that has taken place at all in the last week, minimal, has been strictly of the Hello/Grazie variety so very little thoughts of any literary merit will emerge for a while I fear.

And one final thing which I know you will be delighted to hear about.  One day last week when I had managed to make a cup of tea and stagger back to bed to recover I received a telephone call from the Royal Bank of Scotland Fraud Department.  Had I attempted to purchase £450 of spare parts for a motorcycle in the last few days?  Transpires that my bank card has been cloned and some nefarious creep was trying to spend my money. 

Yep, so after all this the only way is UP!

Wobbly Thursday

Have managed to actually achieve a vertical position which is a huge achievement but am just about to go back to bed as I feel as if I have been run over by a ten ton truck.

My main reason for posting was to say THANK YOU to everyone for your messages, both on and off blog, they have reduced me to tears, I was not aware that so many people would say such kind things.  Such a stupid stupid thing to do and brings home to me how fragile the human body is that such a minor accident could make me feel so dire.  Also, as I live on my own I am very grateful it wasn't worse. 

So thank you all once again from the bottom of my heart for your kind thoughts and wishes.

My daughters have threatened to put me in a home...they say they are joking.....

Update

OK have spent most of the afternoon in A&E on a drip and I have delayed concussion so no posts for a day or two while I lie quiet.

Oh, and to reassure many enquiries I have had, the mirror is fine...

A Day in the Life - Monday

Thank you for all the kind comments and enquiries regarding my head and the mirror.  I have had as many queries as to the state of the mirror as well as my cranium which is a lowering thought.   A tad tender still but no giddiness, no sickness, nothing so I think I have avoided concussion.  My boss is out of the office this week so have had a quiet day and no rushing about so that is all to the good. 

Responding to your comments and questions may I confirm that yes Jan Jones, IS Jan Jones who has had a book published by Transita (and lovely it is too) and all information about her can be found on her website here.

Two visitors have left remarks along the lines of 'this sounds like an episode of I Love Lucy' and this is not the first time this has been said as regards my life with overflowing baths, water coming through the ceiling from my upstairs neighbour (who was taking a bath with his girlfriend and while I did not really want to know what they were doing, got rather enthusiastic and water came cascading down my kitchen wall. Which, it will not surprise you to know I had just painted), dropping a pint of milk over a kitchen floor I had just washed, and then once rewashed the dust bag on the Hoover split all over same floor.  I could go on and on. 

So it will come as no surprise to you all to hear that my electric kettle blew up yesterday.  It is a pretty hideous yellow one and I have been waiting for it to give up the ghost for years so I could get a new one, but why waste money until it does die on me when I could buy a book instead?  Well, yesterday when brewing up there was a bang, a crackle, a flash and the element went all black and the plastic melted. Ah, well no point in changing the fuse then thought I and hurled it in the dustbin.  Resorted to boiling up water in the microwave which made the resultant brew taste vile and so I have to buy a new kettle tonight.  Fortunately, there is a hardware store on the way back to Liverpool Street so shall nip in and purchase before I meet Darling Daughter Mark 2 for a meal.  She is bringing her laptop with her as all the official  TWOTY photos are on there and she will download them for me onto the memory stick I have purchased for the enormous sum of £9.99.  I think I had better warn her that I have had two disasters this weekend and the third has yet to come and I would hate to short circuit her mother board.

Oh and I have read nothing this weekend at all for obvious reasons so all comments literary are in abeyance for a day or two while I come to grips with Amos Barton.

A Day in the Life..

Went to Cambridge yesterday to meet up with good friend Jan Jones and lunch at La Galleria restaurant which is rapidly becoming one of my favourite places to eat, but this time the little balconies on the side overlooking the Backs were not yet open despite the fact that it was a simply glorious day, so we had to sit inside instead.  We had agreed to rendezvous outside the Haunted Bookshop which is a place we both like to visit, but instead as I came very carefully down the steep staircase from the gloriously crowded second floor which is full of the works of Sutcliff, Alcott, Blyton, Montgomery, etc etc it was to find Jan was already in the shop herself. I spent some money there, including a Richmal Crompton, on which I did a deal as this was one of the books that had been loitering on their shelves for osme four years.  I know as I check it out each time I visit.

While her adult books are out of print, scarce and difficult to get hold of, and while I spend a lot of money on books, I did baulk somewhat at paying £55 for this particular title.  So, I took the bull by the horns and offered £35 and pointed out that they would never sell it at the price it was marked.  After consultation with the owner on the phone, yes it was agreed, and I got it for the price I wanted.  Now there is another one there marked at £70 which has also been there for over four years and I said I would be back in a month or two and make another offer on that one.  If you don't ask, you don't get.  Here is a pic of me with the book (dire photograph I know, no wedding day make up on this time) and I am pretty sure that Simon on Stuck in a Book will be interested in this.  Mark you, if he writes and tells me he picked up a copy somewhere for a fiver, there will be trouble.....

After lunch Jan and I made a foray into Lakeland, that wondrous shop full of the most incredibly useless things outside of the Innovations catalog which used to be found in the pages of magazine and brought about gales of mirth with its Heath Robinson contents.  At only £1.99, special offer, there was a packet of four 'fitted sheet grippers', a timer which you put in your pocket and went off to warn you that your parking time was nearly up (what is wrong with your watch I ask myself), and a 'pebble effect' lining for your sink which stopped you from breaking your glasses when you washed them up and, what is more, could be cut to fit 'any size sink'.  We left in the end because we were getting funny looks from customers who were obviously taking it all frightfully seriously and I don't wish to diss lakeland as they have some very useful stuff there, albeit a tad expensive, but the exhibit of the day was these pictured on the right:

After all this excitement Jan headed off for home and I did a fairly useless trawl of Marks & Spencer, finding very little I wanted, or could wear.  I read an article last week in a magazine announcing that this summer 'The smock is Dead'.  Perhaps somebody ought to tell the buyers at M&S.....

Then realising I was later than I thought I headed for the Park and Ride bus and found a horrendous queue.  Managed to get on the bus after a 20minute wait, traffic was bad and it had got stuck, and then started the trip back to collect my car.  Normally takes about 15 mins or so but on this occasion was incredibly slow and just when I was heaving a sight of relief that we were only a mile away there was an ominous clang - the bus had gone into the back of a car in front.  No real damage done but another 20 minutes while addresses were exchanged, both drivers walked round the car and the bus stroking their respective chins and going 'hmmm' at regular intervals, then finally shook hands and off we went.  By the time I left the sun was going down and it was getting dark and I hate driving in the dark and was not looking forward to tootling along the M11.  However, as I know this route pretty well, it wasn't too bad.  Stopped off to pick up pint of milk and lottery ticket (well you never know) I finally made it home.

And then came the perfect end to the day. Opened my chest of drawers to put away ear-rings and watch taken off and the jerk of the drawer being opened toppled a vase of daffodils on top of the chest. Water started dripping into the drawer below and as I grabbed the vase and slammed the drawer shut all  and in one movement, my extremely large and heavy 1930's mirror which has been balances on the top of drawers for some five years with no problems, suddenly tipped forward and hit me slap bang on my head and knocked me out. I think I was only out for a few minutes and when I came to was flat on my back in my bedroom, with mirror on top of me strewn with daffodils. Thought crossed my mind that I must have looked like a model for the Death of Ophelia by Millais sans the long red hair of course.  Oh dear.

Sat up, sat very still while the pain in my head subsided and then spent the rest of the evening on the sofa.  Took myself off to bed quite early as I felt exhausted and my head was aching, so knocked back the painkillers, and finally fell asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night in a muck sweat with my head pounding and the realisation that as we had left Lakeland we had been informed that the shop was closed for the next two weeks owing to refurbishment.  What was I going to do if I suddenly needed those fitted sheet grippers?  I knew I should have bought them.....

Friday letter

To Messrs Smith Elder & Co, 19 October 1847

Gentlemen

The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this morning. You have given the work every advantage which good paper, clear type and a seemly outside can supply - if it fails - the fault will lie with the author - you are exempt.

I now await the judgement of the press and the public.

I am Gentlemen

Yrs. respectfully

C Bell

Dear Diary

As I have said before, it is a truth universally acknowledged that all prequels, sequels and trequels (ok, I made that one up) of Jane Austen books, particular Pride and Prejudice (and they nearly all are P&P) are badly written, silly and redolent of hopping on bandwagon rolling past.  However, I have found an exception to this rule, in fact several exceptions, and these are the Diaries Of...by Amanda Grange.

I think these succeed because they are slotting into the story told, there is no attempt to make up any additional characters or events, they are already there.  Instead we get the other side, the other viewpoint and, let's face it, aren't we all dying to know what Mr Darcy thought of Elizabeth, how Captain Wentworth felt when he met Ann again, the realisation that Mr Knightley was in love with Emma, and now, what Edmund thought of Mary Crawford and Fanny Price?

I own all of these and have taken enomrous pleasure in finding out the answers to my questions.  Interspersed in the various entries are great chunks of Austen's original language so that lovers of her books know exactly what is going on at the time.  It is intriguing when Edmund comes home with a chain for Fanny's amber cross to then hear her take on the Mary/Henry Crawford donation of same, as we know Fanny's innermost thoughts about this, and to listen to her response to his ravings about the wonderful Mary, knowing how much it is hurting her.  I have to say that I have come to love Fanny Price over the years and appreciate Mansfield Park more and more, though I know that she is not everyone's favourite heroine, and reading this diary and seeing her through Edmund's eyes, makes such a difference to one's perception of her.

I understand that Amanda is producing diaries of all of Austen's male protagonists and we now have Edward Ferrars take on it all to look forward to and to hear how he became entangled with Lucy Steele and his feelings about Elinor.  In Sense and Sensibility, which I have just re-read with huge enjoyment, Edward does seem to be a somewhat one dimensional character (sorry Simon Stuck in a Book I know you will disagree!) and the diary will be interesting and will round him out.  So hope that one is not too long away.  Mark you Colonel Brandon's Diary would also be fun (Mem: have just checked Amanda's website and it is, in fact, Colonel Brandon's diary that is to be published and Edward is still locked in his bedroom with his pen).

I have to say that the diary of Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey will be the most intriguing of the lot.  I mean, Catherine Morland is just so plain silly that I can't wait to see what he thought of her!

Lovely books and lovely covers.  I have the paperback of Mr Darcy's Diary which I picked up in the States a year or so ago, but I think I will have to purchase the hardback edition to match the others that I have, as the portraits on each one look so right somehow.

Such a pleasure to have and to read.

And the Winners are....

This is Henry and he was given the task of choosing two names from the basket which are:

Please click on email me at the top left hand side of my main page with your postal address and I will get them in the post to you as soon as possible.

Up for Grabs - Mothernight

After comments on my reivew of Mothernight and noticing that some of you would love to read this, lovely Em has sent me a few more copies.  She has already posted a couple off for me direct to the recipients but I now have two spare going.  I cannot contact some of you who have left comments as there is no email address etc shown so leave your names and I will hold a Grand Draw.  I will post them anywhere.

I will do the usual drawing out of a hat so that those of you in time zones will have the same chance as those in the UK.

Please leave your name and postal address and tomorrow, I will do the draw and send the book off to you.  Only string attached is that you read and review on your blog!  If you don't have a blog, please don't let that stop you putting your name in the hat, as long as you promise to talk about the book to anybody who will listen....