Fashionable, sporty or chilled?

Amidst a rather better day at work today (and at least no-one was bitchy to me, well hurrah, captain, and put out the ruddy bunting, eh ...), I have been trying to arrange my annual eye appointment. Since last year it's all gone more modern and now the Godalming optician circles appear to be bookable via the internet. Naturally, given the chance to avoid speaking to anyone at all, I will choose that route, so I spent a relatively happy ten minutes finding my store and picking a time. However, I fear it's not that simple, oh no. Gone are the days when you could just admit your name and select a slot. Now, my dears, you have to answer questions on your lifestyle and the lifestyle of your glasses before you even get to the calendar questions. However, none of the choices relate to me at all, and I fear I had to make a decision between whether I and my specs are (a) fashionable, (b) sporty, or (c) chilled. Strangely there's no option for bag-lady with an attitude problem - so much for widening participation then. I also find it strange that the glasses have a section of their own, so you can be sporty and they can be fashionable, and so on. Perhaps it's a way of separating the misfits amongst us?

Anyway, after much consideration, my glasses and I decided we are both chilled, even though it's fairly obvious that I am probably the most strung-out person in the universe, as the other options were even more ridiculous. I wait to see now whether my appointment will be confirmed. In the meantime, Lord H wonders whether this new approach will also affect the eye test itself and whether I will have to stare myopically at smaller and smaller pictures of beer bottles, sofas and televisions and see if I recognise them (substitute Armani and Farhi designs for the Fashionable set, and football club managers for the Sporty people) until my brain explodes ... We wait and see.

In the meantime, here's a calming poetry book with a pleasingly large font (ideal for Christmas): Salt and Gold.

Anne

Eyes, books and boilers

Had an interesting email (at least in terms of the wider literary scene) from the agent today - who says that apparently publishers are now taking much longer to respond to submissions (even agent submissions) than ever before and that even the New York agents are noticing the change. So it appears that The Gifting is not particularly unusual in having been out for six months with no feedback - as it's now the case that up to a year is rapidly becoming the norm. So, in my case, they probably haven't even got round to opening the envelope yet. Hell, they must be busy and - in this current economic climate - reluctant to open anything at all which might cost money. Hey ho. But at least I am not alone then. And hey I can write another novel in a year - though not a fantasy novel! There's a silver lining to every proverbial, eh ...

Oh, and talking of books, a lovely Goodreads reader has given Maloney's Law a five-star rating, double hurrahs and crack open the champagne! Of such unexpected pleasures is a writer's life made, I can tell you ... Thank you, Shannon.

Other good news today is that the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre have accepted our sponsorship of seats A13 and A14 in the circle (where we almost always sit indeed) for three years, which means that our names will be carved on the back of them, hurrah. So at last I have managed to get my name on a plaque - something I've been longing to do for years! And yes I know that people will be sitting on us (as it were), but it's the best I can do ... So, if you want to know what Lord H's real name is (and no, we don't share the same surname either), you'll have to get yourself down to Guildford and stare at the theatre seats. We will sit on them for the next three years with pride.

Anyway, this morning I've had my regular annual eyetest and - yes, it's finally come upon me, I fear - I'm now of the age where I must wear variefocals. The ultimate in professional glamour, of course. The optician and I were hoping to get away with another year before I'd need them, but my eyes have other ideas, dammit. So I have chosen a suitably glitzy frame (ho ho) and will wait to see what turns up in two weeks - though I suspect that now it won't be till after Christmas. It should at least save me from having to carry round my reading/computer pair and my driving/TV pair together all the time.

This afternoon, I've had my 9th session of physio and things are looking pretty good on that front. I've booked my last appointment the Thursday after my holiday and hopefully that will be it. Helen the physio is a definite miracle worker. In the middle of all this excitement, I've added another 1000 words to Hallsfoot's Battle, which brings me to 63,000 in total. I've got some major ideas for the scenes involving Simon and the mind-executioner too - which will I hope kick all expectations into touch, including mine. We'll see.

I've also finished Fiona Robyn's poetry collection, Small Stones: a Year of Moments. It took me a while to get into it as you do really need to slow down and chill - the collection is a series of short pieces taking you through the months focusing on one particular moment at a time. If you see what I mean. Some of the pieces I thought were stunning and very humane, as well as being utterly perfect in their length - but I do think that others needed to be longer and it was, in their cases, an opportunity missed. Well worth a read though for sure. The woman can certainly write.

Talking of writing, here's this morning's meditation poem:

Meditation 17

Carve
a special day

out of the lunacy
of the working week.

Give yourself
what the world refuses you:

time to rest,
time to think,

time to breathe.


Tonight, the gas man is coming (hurrah!) and Lord H & I will look at what boiler and new system options we want to keep us warm through the rest of the winter. Lordy, we just need something that works! And as quickly as possible, dammit.

Today's nice things:

1. New glasses
2. Theatre seats
3. The Gifting maybe not being such a sad case after all ...
4. Maloney's Law five-star Goodreads rating
5. Hallsfoot ideas
6. Books
7. Poetry
8. The possibility of warmth to come.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - perhaps not as hopeless as originally thought ...

The onset of reading glasses and lunch with the gals

Meandered early into Godalming today in order to get a car parking space, but actually at 10am-ish it wasn't too bad. I'd been expecting far worse. I wandered around the shops for a while and stocked up on jumpers and other essential winter items, and also spoke to the people at Godalming Museum. The good news is that I think we have a launch date for Thorn in the Flesh of Wednesday 27 February in the evening, hurrah!

The (totally unrelated) bad news is that I had my usual annual eye test today and - after much embarrassed coughing (well, the optician is really very sweet) - it transpires that I have moved far enough into my executive years to need reading glasses as well as my usual ones. Sigh! He doesn't think I should go for the bifocal option due to the amount of stuff I do on the computer, but he suspects that over the next two years I will probably need variefocals (sp??). However, for the moment it's two pairs and a zimmer frame. Oh, sorry, that last item just crept in there. I at once rang Lord H for support - ah foolish wife! - but all he could suggest, whilst laughing, was a lorgnette and a chain to keep the other pair round my neck. Really, this isn't what I signed up for at the marriage altar, you know. As a result, I fear that Lord H has lost all Husband Points gained over the last five years, with little hope of gaining any more during the following five. Indeed, it's lucky I can see to type this at all. Who knows what maner of tpyos I am maknig ...?

After all this age-related trauma, it was lovely to sit down to lunch with Jane & Ang, plus Ang's Saskia (hello, all!) at the Slug and Lettuce. There's nothing like a decaf cappucino and a duck wrap to soothe the delicate nerves. As it were. I also managed to bump into two other people I haven't seen for ages during my Godalming morning - one I was pleased to catch up with and one I was rather keen to avoid, so a nice balance was achieved by all, I suppose!

On the way home, I popped into see Gladys who, sensibly enough, is keeping warm and looking forward to the Spring. Heck, aren't we all. For the rest of the day, I have fiddled around with Thorn launch admin, which included managing to delete my invitation document by mistake - though thankfully I have succeeded in hacking my way into the recycle bin and retrieving it. But oh the shiver of fear that runs through the stomach and the lurch of horror through the blood when these traumas occur! I will have to lie down in a darkened room to recover again.

Tonight, I hope to do a little writing, though I'm really not in the mood. Dammit but my fingers are too cold. And I must watch last week's "Ugly Betty" and do a shed-load of ironing before we are totally unable to move in the flat at all for unironed clothes. Double sigh.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting the Thorn launch sorted.
2. Lunch with the girls
3. Ugly Betty - I hope!

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers