What are you reading?

I love a good book, and read nearly every day, but have not had much in the way of new stuff passing my door of late.  LO is usually a good source of different books, but with Christmas but a few days away, most purchases of books have been put on hold lest Great Aunty Bessie should be looking to give it as a present*, and a month refit has meant that we have not been visiting our local library like we usually do.  That, and a general lack of desire to leave the house to join the madness that is the high street at this time of year.

In fact, the last book I read, which I told you about in a previous post, started off as a Library book, but ended up being something I bought on Amazon because the late fines were about to exceed the purchase price.  I now have it forever, and probably will re-read it sometime in the future.  Re-reading is therefore a current theme for me, so that at the moment I am going back through my own personal library, digging out my own personal classics.  I am currently on a Bill Bryson, and then plan to move on to a Ffyona Campbell: On Foot Through Africa which is a cracking good read**.  She is best known for cheating, but let me tell you that was a tiny error in a massive massive achievement, and if the section where her backup Landrover breaks down and she reverts to pulling all her possessions in a hand cart does not make you glad you don't have demons****, then I don't know what will.

The only other thing to report is the loneliness of a long distant teleworker.  The rest of the family are finished for Christmas now, so it is little ole me in the corner trying to concentrate on work while they are blowing the cobwebs off the home cinema system in a way that is making the walls shake.

On that note, gotta dash, conference call to attend, and likely some email to be tidying while I attend.  Have a good week, and speak again before the break, assuming you are indeed planning to have a break.


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* Unlikely at the best of time, not least because the last time we checked our family tree, we did not have a Great Aunty Bessie
** Having said that, I recommended, and indeed lent, it to Brad and he didn't get on with it at all, but then he is gay and bald so that probably explains it***
*** I am gonna be paying for that real soon.
**** It does seem to be a common theme that these extreme sports type bods do have some kind of demon driving them on (father issues, in case you were interested).  Just read Ranulph Fiennes to confirm that, which are another set of books somewhere in the collection.

Anyone got a spare five mill?

So I am at the start of Day Three*, and I am reminded of what I said to my mum when I was five, having done the first two days of Infants School.  Striding out of the school I declared "Well, I have tried this school thing, and I don't think it is for me".  I don't recall mum's response, but it would no doubt have included something about it being the law.

So this is what I am feeling somewhat today.  I have tried this work thing, and I am not sure that it and I are suited.  I don't usually have this feeling after a holiday, but this one really seems to have got me.  Provence is really something, and while I am not sure I would spend all Summer docked in St Tropez, I could manage a week or two just getting used to the upper-deck leisure seating, testing the wine cellar and keeping an eye on the deck hands to make sure they are keeping the boat shiny.  Well I assume that shiny is how it should look, so I shall also be reading the style mags to be sure.

Anyway, this plan is all coming together nicely.  I have selected my short-list of boats to trial, I am fairly sure I know what colour scheme for the deck hands' uniforms - simple blue polo shirts and beige shorts seems to be de rigueur, but I am tending towards orange.  I have read that St Tropez is best in early summer, Monte Carlo for the end, and maybe somewhere in between for the hot middle bit.

The final piece in the puzzle, just a little piece really, is the five mill I need to fund the purchase.  I have a few ideas, but only an idiot would give away their secrets, and only an even bigger idiot would base their plan on the Lottery.

Does anyone have Peter Mandelson's number?

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* Not sure these days now it has moved to Channel 5, but this always used to be said with a Geordie accent.