Phew.
What a day
that was.
And I mean that in a (mostly) good way...
It started by my waking up to this gorgeous card ->
and a very large bar of Cadbury's Turkish Delight.
Then I was served scrambled eggs with mushrooms on toast, in bed.
When I came downstairs I found our last amazon.co.uk order had arrived. Purely spontaneous this one: Ken had the Doors'
LA Woman stuck in his head last week and just couldn't get rid of it, and I've recently been hankering after Rush's
Cygnus X-1 (first time I heard it was courtesy of Bruce Fraser while I was still in Edinburgh - thanks Bruce! - and I've never forgotten it (part 1 at any rate, I'm nothing like so familiar with part 2), and just now it will be an excellent background track to a possible new book commission. Terribly sorry to be so vague about everything that's happening on the work front at the moment, by the way: publishers are becoming more protective of their forthcoming publications, so we have to be cagey as well. All will be revealed closer to the publication dates...)
So we ordered
LA Woman,
A Farewell to Kings and
Hemispheres, dirt cheap and free p&p. I'm now listening to
Cygnus X-1 part one as I write:
I set a course just east of Lyra
And northwest of Pegasus
Flew into the light of Deneb
Sailed across the Milky Way
On my ship, the Rocinante
Wheeling through the galaxies,
Headed for the heart of Cygnus
Headlong into mystery
The x-ray is her siren song
My ship cannot resist her long
Nearer to my deadly goal
Until the black hole
Gains control...
Crackin' stuff. That odd syncopation still throws me, though, even after all this time...
Then the doorbell screamed. It was our delivery from
Ferndale - a 50 gallon water butt plus downpipe connector, a tub of eco-friendly blanket weed killer for Roeg's Pool, and a pair of heavy-duty shoulder length waterproof pool gloves for me. It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow, and rain the next two days, so hopefully we can get the butt organised ready to take advantage of the weather.
Then I had to trudge up the hill to the Doctors' (I changed my appointment so I could spend yesterday in Exeter instead of having to charge back for lunchtime today). Pap test time again (I swear they're coming around more quickly than they used to... Actually, they are - it used to be every five years, now I've been told every three years...)
[rolls eyes] The nurse couldn't find the cervix. Not my fault,
I hadn't hidden it! So that was all longer and even more objectionable than normal. Then the doctor (one I haven't seen before) couldn't find the pulse in my arm when trying to take my blood pressure. Even switching to my left arm she could only just hear it. (And don't those cuffs
hurt!) Apparently my blood pressure was a little raised, but frankly I'd have expected it to be high, given the previous fifteen minutes' experience and the fact I really do
not like surgeries or hospitals... Anyway, I have another appointment for next Wednesday, early, for four (yes, four) separate blood test - cholesterol, liver function (that's the Hep C one. Apparently it's now standard for the partners of sufferers to also be tested. I'd grump and say nice of them to let us know, but it's possible that Ken
did tell me and I've forgotten, so I'll shut up), diabetes, and... I can't remember what the fourth one is for. Unless the liver function and Hep C tests are different.
So
that was fun. Not. But when I arrived back home there'd been another delivery - a
whacking great parcel from WindLily in Florida! [whimper] Two
Hellsing DVDs, and, in manga, [takes deep breath]
Vampire Game vols 1-7,
Flame of Rekka vols 1-6, three
Crying Freeman volumes,
Boogiepop vol 1, Clamp's
Legend of Chun Hyang,
Kami Kaze vol 1,
+ Anima vol 1,
Supreme Power: Contact (written by J Michael Straczynski of
Babylon 5 fame) and
the first two books of A Distant Soil!! (Which I've already devoured - such
pretty aliens...)
Watch Joules drown in anime/manga/graphic novels... No, no idea when I'll find time to read 'em, but I'll manage somehow!
Although I actually didn't get around to opening the parcel for over an hour: one of the editors had rung while I was out, chasing a contents list I'd already sent but which she hadn't received. So I had to sort that out first, then email our agent, then Kai needed a page printed out for his Romans homework. Stupidly hectic day.
But the steak dinner was
wonderful. We watched it with
Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is still thoroughly enjoyable after all this time.
Kai has been invited to a school-friend's party - ten pin bowling at the Hollywood Bowl, Cribbs Causeway, on Saturday. Only he got the invite on Monday, was supposed to have RSVPd yesterday - and didn't tell us about it until tonight. [shakes head] I'll ring tomorrow and hope it's OK. And also hope Kai can give me some sort of idea what the boy likes, so I can find something appropriate as a present!
So all in all a fine day. But I didn't get any work done. Need to do twice as much tomorrow now...
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 10:28 pm
.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment