Having another rough day, my dears - where the hell are those smelling salts?? I think half the world's catarrh is actually living in my throat, dammit (sorry, too much information. Way, way too much ...). Sorry. Suffice it to say that I am smearing my throat with castor oil and snorting for Britain. Mmm, lovely.
All of which probably isn't helped by having spent today at the departmental away day. I was dreading it, I have to admit, but it wasn't so bad really. Such events always make me feel exceptionally bitter and twisted, and I snipe bitterly at anyone who endeavours to drag me kicking and screaming to the Waters of Strategic Thinking - in fact I probably over-sniped at the start of the day and secretly wrote myself out a big yellow post-it saying Remember: Keep My Mouth Shut, which I stuck to the front of my file. I don't think anyone noticed. And it's better than being sacked, ho hum. However, I think I did actually manage to say a couple of things that sounded vaguely strategic and might even have been useful - the boss looked quite impressed at one point - so I had a chocolate cake at teatime to reward myself. Plus I've probably infected the whole of the student care team with my current disease, so apologies in advance ... And I seem to have come away with a hell of a lot of post-it notes and marker pens, so my evening will no doubt fly by.
Yesterday's excitement, mind you, has been the highlight of our week - a nice little man came by and installed a satellite dish on our flat roof that you actually can't see (thank the Lord), so we now have digital channels, non-fuzzy TV and Channel 5. Channel 5, my dears - the thrill of it all! And we appear to be able to watch one thing and record another, and we also have the ability to stop time by turning back real-life TV. How the hell does that work, eh???! It's all too much for us really, but is making us feel wonderfully modern. Though Lord H did say that, now we have everything in super-sharp focus, he did notice that the cast of Friends weren't quite as gorgeous as we've all been thinking they were. Ah well - perhaps a little impressionism is good for us all.
Talking of technology, we are having great trouble with our new torch, which we bought at the weekend. We couldn't make the dang thing work, so I took it back to the shop yesterday and of course the bloke behind the services desk switches it on and it all works perfectly. So I rush home in acute embarrassment at my complete failure to make a torch work and ... yes, you've guessed it ... it doesn't work any more. Deep deep sigh. Perhaps it doesn't like our new satellite dish? Or it doesn't work in blocks of flats which have more than three floors?? The mystery thickens, and we are indeed still in the dark. Or we would be if Lord H hadn't found the old torch we thought we'd lost (are you keeping up with this?) in the car yesterday. That's working. Or maybe we'll just switch a light on. There's a solution.
Oh, and I've had my first reflexology session with a new therapist in Godalming as unfortunately the University aren't providing that any more (shame, we cry!) - however, Alison (the new girl) seems to be lovely and I've booked another appointment for the New Year. I was so relaxed at yesterday's session that I even fell asleep. Bliss.
In terms of writing news, my review of Damon Galgut's magnificent novel, The Impostor, is now up at Vulpes Libris - I can thoroughly recommend anything that Galgut writes really. If he published his shopping list, I'd probably buy it. I'm also very happy to say that Two Christmases is getting good ratings and reviews at the Goodreads site, so thank you for that. It's really cheering me up in between snorting sessions.
And I've sent back the first round of edits for A Stranger's Touch to the editor and am waiting for the second round to come back. It's all go here in the shires, you know!
Anne's website - getting the Christmas illness over with now, I hope ...
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