Today I have lots of time to write and no one with whom to talk due to the publication of a certain novel which shall not be named. In fact many of you probably aren’t reading this until tomorrow because you have to hit page 759 before your bodily functions resume regular service. This house now holds enough copies of the book to keep a steady fire burning for the next week (though in this climate why would one wish to?) as all my cousins are avidly consuming chapter after chapter, along with my sister, having picked up the books at midnight. There are also a few spare copies lying around though I did not really understand the explanation. I think it probably had something to do with increased efficiency and literary osmosis. Suffice to say that with most of my family reduced to the status of willing thrall, I now realise just how antisocial an activity reading a book can be.
On the other hand it leaves me free to write to you fine people, so at least there’s a silver lining. There is little really to report since we arrived at Monroe. The last leg of the journey involved travelling through a pleasant national park in Virginia and then driving pretty much non-stop until we reached Louisiana, stopping only to eat and sleep. Here we have been relaxing with family in various different ways, from frenetic bouts of Gears of War on the Xbox 360 with Caleb to playing everything under the sun with Karleigh. There has, admittedly, been rather a lot of the latter. After a brief shyness upon our arrival, she now adores the attention particularly upon discovering a stash of old photos and videos of her on my laptop. A very bright three-year-old, she swiftly learned how the computer worked and has already spent hours eagerly watching herself and showing anyone else who will look, now becoming slightly bored by the repetition (and only slightly) so instead demanding that more photos be taken of her to expand the selection available. With my new camera now ordered (the Canon EOS 400D, which here goes by the odd “Digital Rebel” moniker, along with an EF 28-135mm IS lens), this request is unsurprisingly rather likely to be fulfilled.
22 July 2007 at 9:26 pm
Wow I must have reached a higher plain of existence or unlocked further brain power to read this while chomping through the new Potter book (I’m sorry but its the ending of a chapter in my life (Excuse the Pun :p)) Anyways good to see your travels are going well. Over in “sunny” England we have tornadoes and deluges to watch out for. Fun Fun Fun! I passed my first year although annoyingly missed out on the requirement to stay on the masters by 2%!!!!!! GAR! But I can resit and I means I should be in Luffs for my friend’s bday so not complaining!
22 July 2007 at 9:28 pm
Okay did not seem to like the :p smiley swiftly followed by two close brackets.
24 July 2007 at 6:13 pm
I too can’t stop reading! Today I read Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and I’m about a quarter of the way through The Uncomfortable Dead, which is classically mad. Also, you may find that you need this lens.
24 July 2007 at 8:55 pm
Thanks for the tip — will take a look. The L series lens scare me a little though; well, not so much me as my bank manager…
25 July 2007 at 5:04 pm
Aye, I can understand that. Last time I sold one of those it was around £420, so it might be worth waiting until your next trip to the land of plenty (of cheap stuff). Someone asked me today if I’d read Harry Potter’s new book. I hadn’t realised they were autobiographical. I responded by asking if he was that one of Big Brother…
25 July 2007 at 5:05 pm
*off. As in from. As in shoot me now…