This morning I waved the Goblin away and came upstairs to eat my breakfast (butter beans in plain yogurt sprinkled with cinnamon – it tastes better than it sounds). I would have skipped food and collapsed back into bed, but I had to take my pills. So I clicked on Listverse and enjoyed the latest list; greatest 60’s instrumental songs. I haven’t thought about Classical Gas in years (if you’ve never heard it, it’s brilliant!). With the curtains closed it was still dark, so as I listened to the music I sat here staring at my hands (as one does) and admired my fingernails lit by my computer monitor. Thanks to my vitamin regime, they’re hard as…nails…and sharp as…knives. Some cliches are really just an accurate description. If I’m not careful I could seriously hurt myself. I can hear it now, “We believe it was an accidental death. It appears the woman was scratching her neck…” You get the picture. So while admiring my fingernails I thought, “This might make an interesting picture.” Then I thought, “I have a camera!” So I started taking pictures of my hands. Then my sleep deprived brain thought it would be a good idea to photograph my face (my poor eczema covered, hagged out, fatigued, officially almost middle aged face). Some ideas should come with a mental health warning. Needless to say, I looked like a possessed harpy dragged out of her nest after just settling down from a long fruitless night. To cheer myself up I decided to buy a few songs on itunes. I don’t think Ozzy Osbourne’s ‘Flying High Again’ was a good choice for an exhausted harpy! As I tried to cheer myself up, the next thing I knew it was gone one in the afternoon and a bright sun was pouring in the cracks of my still closed curtain. I got another idea, I could open the curtain and take some pictures of my face in sunlight. There was a chance I might not look so…hideous! So the following photos (my favorites) illustrate my morning… [Read more…] about Self portrait of a Harpy…
Archives for February 2011
My heart beat faster…
My final Christmas present arrived today. Monday I discovered Amazon UK sells some imported American foods. They had half a dozen Pepperidge Farm cookies. After much agonising I chose the soft dark chocolate chip cookies. The item page (with a picture) said “pack of four” and I sat here wracking my brain trying to remember how many cookies each small white bag contained. I was sure it was six or eight. Had the bags got smaller? It seemed an outrageous amount of money to spend on four cookies, but heck it’s my birthday week and I figured one bag of cookies was less bad than buying a box cake; making it…frosting it…and eating it all. My Goblin found the box when he came home. It was big. I have four bags! I think that frosted cake might have had less calories. Too late! I’ll have to eat them.
There was one other thing in the box…a thin Non-fat Non-caloric item… My heart beat faster as I picked up my new second hand copy of Carolyn Courtney’s “Duchess in Disguise” (first published in 1979). I had to search for one with the cover I knew as a teenager, but I found one…and it’s mine! Will it be as good as I remember? I read the back of the book…then carefully opened it to the synopsis page… Oh I think it will…and Renata, cross my heart, I will not read one page of it until I’ve finished Dancing the Maypole! The cookies won’t last that long though.
Book Review: Maybe Next Time…
Last week I finally spent part of my Christmas Amazon gift certificate. After a month of changing my basket every few days (failing to decide what I most wanted) I impulsively bought a modern romance, something I haven’t done in years. I’d read an interview with the author, Jennifer Crusie, about her latest novel ‘Maybe Next Time’ and went off to Amazon to see if I’d like it. In the first few free pages she’d made me laugh and empathize so I bought it before I changed my basket-mind again. [Read more…] about Book Review: Maybe Next Time…