The prodigal earring and another review

The earring has returned! Double hurrah! The spirit of the quivery old earring man has obviously done its work. Either that or St Anthony (patron saint of lost things) has been busy, Gawd bless 'im. Anyway, I was sitting at the computer last night, Lord H said something, I turned round to answer him and I saw it lying next to the chair. Rejoice and kill the fatted calf indeed! Well, I had a whisky & ginger to celebrate, so honour is satisfied. Thank goodness we don't Hoover on a regular basis. Oh, all right. The sound of your mocking laughter is deafening me. We rarely Hoover at all with any sense of commitment.

And Irene (http://www.thisthatfromireneblack.blogspot.com) from Goldenford (http://www.goldenford.co.uk) and author of the stunning romantic Indian thriller, "The Moon's Complexion" (available from Goldenford and Amazon and why on earth haven't you bought it yet you're missing a treat ...) has given me a lovely review of "A Dangerous Man" (ooh and while you're buying "Moon", you may as well pop across to http://www.flamebooks.com and buy this one too, tee hee ...), as follows:

“You sure don't pull your punches, do you? That's some novel! Where does it all come from? My mind's been blown to smithereens - I'm awestruck! If you haven't read Anne's book yet, I thoroughly recommend you to do so. You will be totally amazed and left breathless and blinking!”

Oo-err, thanks, Irene, hugely! Michael's quite touched too, but then again he's like that ... Thank you!

So, after reading Irene's review six million times and smiling a lot (okay, okay, and then reading it another few million times ... I know I'm an egomaniac, I know ...), I leapt into some kind of action and submitted my monthly offering of poetry, this time to Staple magazine. Phew. Literary honour is satisfied. I popped a couple of leaflets in for ADM and "Pink Champagne and Apple Juice" (also from Goldenford) as well, on the grounds that if they can't stand my poetry, then they might soften towards my prose instead. You never know.

And lunch with Robin, who is planning another shopping trip soon, depending on whether I might be able to afford it or not. She's bought ADM (thanks, Robin) but I know her pile of books is huge so suspect she might not reach it until at least 2008. We went to the Harrow in Compton as always, but they've taken their baguettes range off the menu (surprise!! I know I shouldn't have said that they were my favourite ever lunch item - the curse of Brooke's Discontinued Items strikes again - deeeep deeeep sigh). We had to have sandwiches instead. It just wasn't the same.

Oh, and I've been looking through the University 101-page document on the restructuring (thank God only 4 pages actually seem to relate to me, or I might implode entirely) and was highly amused by the throwaway comment in the first page which tells me that the reason for the current restructuring is the fact that the last restructuring was just too expensive and we can't afford it. So, basically, we're restructuring because we can't afford the restructuring. Hmm. As I said in a reply on my last blog, I'm starting to think I'm in the middle of a particularly bizarre Monty Python sketch. Higher Education is indeed a wonderful thing ...

Then again, if I ask St Anthony nicely, perhaps he'll deal with my job the same way he managed the earring? There's always hope.

Still, life goes on - I've written a couple of hundred words more of "The Gifting" and hope to scribble some more later on. But my main plans this evening are slump, slump and (you've guessed it) slump again.

Today's nice things:

1. The return of the earring - hurrah!
2. Irene's lovely review of ADM - double hurrah!
3. Lunch out - but bring back my ruddy baguette, you bastards!!

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com