while you're ahead…

Two posts in one day. What is going on?

I tell you what’s going on… I’ve just finished reading this:

I wonder what do authors of novels think when someone manages to read so much into their work… does JK pat herself on the back or does she have a good laugh? I guess novels are a sign of their time and analysing them it’s a good way to analyse the state of things, they way we are, where we are… maybe? What do you think? Let’s discuss.

Today I was tidying away some summer jackets that had avoided the purge and at the bottom of the cupboard I found a box of handmade shawls. Do you remember when hand knitted shawls were ‘the thing’? To be honest they might still be the thing for all I know… they’re just not ‘my thing’ anymore. Who said ‘the past is a foreign country’? (Google tells me it’s LP Hartley, the opening line of ‘The go-between’, which I haven’t read and I now want to, badly).

I felt slightly guilty looking at them, they represented the past, hours spent knitting or crocheting, souvenirs from a time that I struggle to connect with now. Some of them are beautiful and I will keep them, some I might even use, after all the weather has turned really cold recently… But they also made me a little sad, like looking at photographs of old friends I haven’t seen in a while because life has moved on in a different direction.

I’m rambling I know, perhaps it is only a displacement strategy to avoid reading essays from the Postcolonial Studies Reader that’s been staring at me since yesterday.

Also, have you seen the ‘Modern Love’ series on Amazon Prime? I love it. It’s like reading short stories except you can do it while ironing. (These are unique stories about the joys and tribulations of love, each inspired by a real-life personal essay from the beloved New York Times column “Modern Love.” Amazon.) Real feel good factor, and who doesn’t need a daily dose of that?

I have chocolate in my desk drawer bought for the boys advent calendar that might get eaten ahead of that. By me.

Today I bought my first Christmas presents. Small things. Probs for the stockings. But I’m stuck for more ideas for stocking fillers for teenagers, I need some serious help. And please don’t say socks or pants. I’m currently drowning in mismatched socks and pants that are all the same except they’re not but they look it and I’m constantly getting it wrong. Yes I am aware that they could be doing their own laundry but I just don’t have the energy for the fight that would require.

Mr M is watching the recording of a football match he watched live two days ago. I’m sure there are doctors for this.

The dog is snoring loudly on the sofa next to me.

Have you ever read anything by Ursula K Le Guin? Me neither, but recently I keep seeing references to her and I feel the universe is trying to tell me something.

The keyboard of this computer is a little busted… it keeps typing ‘oo’ when I need oonly oone… it’s totally annoying.

I gifted myself a subscription to ‘Granta’ magazine and I couldn’t be happier.

I must do some work. Stop distracting me.

I’m procrastinating.

Dithering.

Delaying.

Temporizing.

Dilly-dalling,