Post Office blues

A quiet day at work. Read through the brochure for next year’s work-related conference and decided I’d been right about my initial choice of seminars. It’s just that the management speak was clouding the sense of them. As it tends to do indeed. And I discovered a new university TLA (Three Letter Acronym, for the uninitiated …) – SMT, or Senior Management Team. Hmm. Why not just say “team of crazed professors” and have done with it?

Walked round the campus at lunchtime but decided not to chance any of the damp benches (gives you piles, you know) and instead attempted to post a review copy of “Pink Champagne and Apple Juice” to Canada. My first attempt failed as the campus PO had decided to close for lunch as there’s only one of her on counter today. So I popped back at 2.30pm and the queue was so long it was actually out of the door. Most of this appeared to be Japanese students attempting to post boxes to home, poor things. Suspect they won’t make it for Christmas now. I was so long in the queue (half an hour to be precise, but I stuck it out as it’s a quiet day at the office) that by the time I got to the top of it, I’d forgotten (a) how to speak and (b) what I was there for in the first place. My confusion was doubled by another queue-dweller asking me to get some stickers for her, but I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted, asked for the wrong thing and, when the right thing was handed to me, I attempted to fill it in myself instead of the Canada form I was supposed to be filling in. Are you with me so far? Hmm. Still, it gave the line of people behind me a few laughs, so never say we don’t provide an essential student support service in this office …

This afternoon, Lord H took time off to battle with the pre-Christmas food shop. At least he didn’t need to get mince pies, as I panicked earlier in the month and we now have six boxes of them. Which I do accept is probably too much for two people, but you can be sure we won’t run out. I intend to spend the evening watching TV and being a couch potato. And an early night would be good. I might do the odd sentence or two to “The Gifting” but I’m not holding my breath.

Today's nice things:

1. Lunchtime walk
2. Sending out a review copy of Champers
3. An evening in.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk

Christmas wrapping and novel request

No church today - hurrah! And we're not going to this evening's carol service and party either. Double hurrah! We are indeed to be numbered amongst the lost ... Instead, Lord H and I had a lazy lie-in, followed by porridge (goodness, it must be winter) and our annual session of Christmas present wrapping. Not that it was that onerous, as we've cut out present-buying for most of those above the ages of 8 yrs. Seems reasonable to me. This session usually consists of me looking at the gifts and the wrapping paper, waving my hands in the air frantically whilst sobbing and then retreating to the safety of the spare room. Upon which desertion, Lord H wraps his cloak of capability round him and wraps them all up himself. There were no changes this year. Though, cunningly, I did furnish him with a pen and a pile of post-it notes so he could put what each present was on the top after he'd wrapped it. This saved the agony we had last year of having to unwrap everything to work out what it was before rewrapping it with a label, accompanied by a stiff brandy. Or two.

And hell's bells, we (that's the marital "we" here) now have them all wrapped and in bags to go. Somewhere. If only we could find a post office still open to take them after the government's last cull. Do we still actually have a postal service in this country?

Further deep joy - Two Ravens Press (http://www.tworavenspress.com) have actually emailed me to request the full MS of "Maloney's Law". Ye gods and little fishes! General rejoicing and astonishment abound in the house. So I've spent most of the afternoon printing it out, stroking it, kissing the pages and putting them in an envelope. Which is now ready to go - at which point the last para applies once more.

Oh, and to cap all the festivity, I forgot to say that Lord H got his first theology essay back from his new course - they gave him an "A" which corresponded to 72%. Double hurrah! Again. Naturally, I spent the next ten minutes after finding this out shrieking with joy and pounding him on the head. Well, I'm from Essex - this is how we express approval. And all Lord H could say was that he thought 72% was a bit low. Honestly, these intellectuals are never satisfied ...!

I've also done a job-lot of other submissions for other stuff, including non-fiction, so never let it be said that I have wasted my day of rest. I might even do some more to "The Gifting" later. You never know.

So this week's haiku is:

That afternoon, crisp.
In winter skies, a swan flew,
telling us of snow.

Today's nice things:

1. Lord H taking command of the wrapping strategy
2. Two Ravens Press requesting "Maloney's Law"
3. Not going to church.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk