So what have I been up to for the last few weeks that has kept me away from here? I wish I could tell you that I have been busy writing a masterpiece, or carrying out some ground-breaking research, or taking up an extreme sport, or repainting the house, or training for a marathon, or undergoing tasteful yet very effective plastic surgery. But I haven't.
- I've been greedily devouring the first two series of The Wire and am now well and truly hooked.
- I've also been reading books. Notably, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell — an excellent novel about the scandal of psychiatric internment of perfectly sane people into old age; and Toast by Nigel Slater — a wonderfully evocative book in which the author's memories of childhood food are wound into the story of his early life. (It made me remember the exact feeling of sticking my tongue into a walnut whip and searching out every last bit of the white creamy insides. Yes, he makes it sound suggestive too.)
- I made some excellent banana and cinnamon muffins ...... and some cheese and spincah muffins that had to go straight into the bin.
- I spent a dreich afternoon watching children run around in a frenzied state of over-excitement at the annual school carnival after weeks of anticipation.
- Spent the whole of last Sunday standing outside flogging a lot of old rubbish at a "vide grenier". Made €130 so it wasn't all bad.
- Had an excellent meal at a Sardinian restaurant and a truly dreadful experience at a new Japanese restaurant.
- Opened a new language centre at work (opened as in set-up, not actually cut a red ribbon while wearing white gloves) .
- Developed a fleeting addiction to Scrabulous Blitz and then lost it when I realised how bad I was at it despite a massive investment of time and mental effort.
- Booked a place in Moliets for the upcoming spring holiday.
8 comments:
White people love the wire. After season 2, it really picks up as well.
Vide grenier? What did you sell?
Scrabulous is so February/March. Have you tried scramble?
The book sounds great but not only am I addicted to the internet but I am also addicted to buying books from Amazon and not reading them :-( I have a pile a mile high to get through.
The Wire is great. White people must have very good taste. Were you wearing a north face fleece while you were watching perchance?
I have discovered Life on Mars. Yes really!
Anyway, you sound pretty busy. you obviously need your holiday. Please let the sun shine through. Please!
Tell us more about the dreadful Japanese resto!
aha I have just visited the scrabbulous site and it looks very dangerous. I used to have a serious scrabble reputation when I lived in London and could actually play in English! So either way it is bad news: I will find out that alzheimers is so advanced i am rubbish at it, or I am good at and wont do anything else...
A quick note on scrabulous for scrabble players: the two games are very different. I find that I am much better at scrabulous than at scrabble for two simple reasons. Time: I have no one waiting on my move, shifting around in their chair and distractedly rearranging their tiles while I try to figure out my play. (Not to mention the tequila-shot distraction (which used to be a fixture of the game with my friend Alexis back in college)).
And 2, freedom. From prying eyes. I don't have to visualize the board with my letters on it, with scrabulous I am at liberty to place the pieces right on the board, to move them around and tinker with the words, all without fear of my opponents seeing what I've got in my hand. That makes a huge difference.
And with all that said, you can spend a big chunk of life playing scrabulous if you're not careful. 15 games at a time? That's nothing. So be careful!
Oooh, comments. I'd forgotten how nice it is to get comments.
I feel a Scrabulous post coming on. .... But first I have to start The Wire Season 3.
Antipo : it turned out to be one of those Japanese restaurants owned by Chinese people.
OK, you're excused.
I'd have eaten the spinach and cheese muffins...
Hi,
I've enjoyed my visit to your blog,
I also love that book. If you're stuck for something else try " The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield.
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