There are a couple of books due for review on here, but my mind has gone on holiday, and so we’ll take a wander through my day instead. It started, as every day has for the past week, with oversleeping – my alarm clock has become something of a mission statement rather than an itinerary i.e. an ideal which nobody really anticipates will be put into practice for the foreseeable future. Fortunately (!) the person with whom I walk to work was ill, and that meant I could take the shorter route…
…And so I arrived at work at 8.55am. And headed into a morning of sticking stickers on books, and scanning barcodes in books, all the while thinking scholarly thoughts, such as ‘which Neighbours character would I most like to return’ or ‘I wonder if the Chinese takeaway will be open tonight’. Nothing too learned for Stuck-in-a-Book.
This afternoon I became a qualified Microsoft Outlook user – an outlookist? A positive outlook? I’ve used the term so much now that I’m starting to think the programme is called something else… y’know, the emailly one. Which I never use, because I have Yahoo. (Incidentally – an
issue of pronunciation… do you say “yarr-hoo” or “yah-hoo”? For me, the latter is the search engine; the former is a hoodlum.) We’re working our way through the European Computer Driving Licence, and I am now qualified to use Word, Excel, Outlook and the Internet. Jealous? Thought not.
Home, via the Christian Bookshop to buy Easter presents, and Chinese food before heading out to Book Group… for a book I hadn’t even got around to getting, let alone reading. Oops. It was quite fun to sit and listen to people talk about a novel which I knew less than nothing about – by the end of the meeting I had surmised that it was set in 1919 Egypt; a strongly patriarchal family; stern and hypocritical father; small boy who couldn’t eat fast and was only allowed to eat between his father finishing and the servants clearing away; someone else had a divorce… full marks and a cuddly toy to anybody who can correctly identify the novel?!?
I’m off home to Somerset tomorrow, and so must now pack…
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz?
You’re good, Ruth!
I love the mission statement alarm clock situation … but perhaps you can leave it to make statements to itself over Easter?
(And I’d never have got the book … hopelessly neglectful of Mahfouz … must remedy.)
I was thinking Mahfouz as well. By the way—I just ordered a couple of things from the Book Depository (so nice to have free shipping overseas…how do they manage it?!) and thought if I’m ordering two why not three and make it worth my while (ha) but wasn’t sure what to get, and what had Iheard of lately that sounded good and thought of your review about Angela’s book. So I am patiently waiting for it. Two of the book came yesterday, and I suspect the third will come today. I might just be able to join in one of Cornflower’s book discussions finally!
Oh, and Happy Easter by the way. What book do you plan on buying first?
Yes, and what will your first book purchase be? You probably already have it picked out. nancy b t
p.s. Now, leave your mother’s chocolate alone… :-)
What an excellent game – identify the book from the discussion in a book club. What myriad possibilities! Have a lovely Easter and much fun book buying.
I’ve got 5/7ths of my ECDL because for a brief moment the NHS thought it would be handy for staff to have computer skills and I thought it would be good to brush mine up from self-taught to proper. Sadly as is always the way, the funding then disappeared into a big black hole (probably called Reducing Hospital Waiting Lists) before I had finished so I didn’t get Excel or databases done.
I am catching up on your past posts and wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on your acceptance to Oxford and the masters program! That is fabulous news. Have a very happy Easter!