Thursday morning ....Reduced Hours and Comparative Bums

First day officially of working less hours to make more room for CatCalls , woke to rain and wind but couldnt resist the bike and the ferry landing and the wild sea , and thanks to the new camera and not knowing how to use it discovered several videos of the lashing waves on rocky seashore later this afternoon that I didnt know I had .

Must have coincided with propping myself up on my bike and staring out at the rocks and remembering a time years ago when my cocker spaniel used to chase rats there . No rats now , but a sudden wetness against my bare leg made me jump , a blue roan cocker spaniel being friendly . I must have caught sight of the dog out of the corner of my eye setting off a train of thought , I jumped and the bike almost toppled . The dog gave me a fright and admittedly my first thought was of a rat ......

the challenge now to get one of the videos downloaded to the blog for posterity .....

What a day my first Thursday of not working , anxieties of keys , a trip to the dentist , lunch with N before returning her to school and her friendly counsel about my key anxieties and how I handle them and how I might make Other People feel .... I should listen more to her .

Trip to town to return wrong sized bras ( the last remnants of our weekend ) and a box of art deco mugs from Fenwick Ltd which turned out to have one chipped mug when unpacked . I had vaguely wondered whether there would be an apology for this but .. no .. and I was expected to collect a new box myself ( and check them myself ) .

Oh well , not that I want to sound ninety and like I have nothing better to do with my time than whine about shop assistants . But really . I remind myself of my old Social Admin professor who said , when describing her treatment at the Registrars Office as she attempted to register her father 's death , noting how she had been kept waiting then treated largely with contempt rather than the kindness and respect one hopes at such a time , " Obviously they didnt know who I was ....."

and my unexpected urge to say ".... and who are you ? ... and should it make a difference who you are ? "

Influenced by the ongoing debate in the Sociology Dept at that time possibly , about whether the students should be permitted to use the same lavatories as the lecturers and understanding from a student whose name escapes me now ( how irritating ) , that most of the lecturers were agin , though " Betty was ok with it , and Ann " . I thought it was daring to use their first names as I was fresh from school but still hear her voice as she said in her Accent that was Different from Mine ( I hadnt been far then ) " I mean I said to Kathleen what's so much better about your bum than my bum " and I almost wished I'd had the nerve to propose myself as the student rep so I could take part in these fascinating discussions . Memories .

Blog Administrator....Martha s vineyard etc

For those of you wondering about the Removed Comments and the Blog Administrator , a delightful comment appeared after N had asked to see the blog and I had asked her permission to write about our Bra Day . She was fine with this and even contributed to the post . But the comment although excellent and witty did contain some profanities which though the modern mother accepts that her children know and use many of the same words as her parents ( when under pressure ) seeing them in print is not a comfortable experience . After much deliberation and indeed heart searching about her right to express herself as she saw fit , and indeed two reply comments to that effect , I finally exercised my right to press the delete button , with her agreement that she would write a different comment . I was sad though , to lose the kiss off comment ( isnt that what reviewers call it ? ) which went something like " I love you like fat kids love cake " and know that at least one of the profanities was due to a typo and a very amusing one at that .

Which brings me to the subject of reviews . My friend Michaela thinks I have a career in this field after I wrote a spoof review of her husband Neil's book " Martha's vineyard " ( Neil Griffin : 2006)

Go to http://www.lulu.com/content/607829

Neil had asked me to review the book but made the mistake of asking me several months after I read it and I don't know about you but if I read something last week I'm hazy about the details three hours later .


" I read this great book by Neil and I definitely wondered how Chaela would feel about her husband having relationships extra maritally on planes and in foreign parts and also that he seems to have harboured feelings on a longstanding basis for a colleague . So hey the book must have been dead realistic .
It was also dead good as it made me feel like I was imminently going on holiday / about to win the lottery or have my own inheritance appear out of the blue from a relative Id forgotten I had . There was nice weather as well . ( ??)
There was a clever twist involving a husband and some other people , and Neil got tied to a chair at one point which was dead scary . I read really fast at that point and didnt put the book down sometimes when I should have .... so eager was I for the denoument . "

If you re interested in reading Neil s book , which is excellent by the way , you would do better to read the notes on lulu.com and perhaps dont hold your breath for my (proper) review .
Even better , why not read it yourself and then review for Neil on lulu , as I know he's always looking for feedback . In my case its hard to disentangle the Bob character from the author and I did keep wondering why he picked the name Bob , though Im sure there will be a reason , I just havent had time to ask . The time constraints of modern life .