Hypatia Avenue

"It should have been £55 but then went down to £27.50, then it was halved again and then put on the 50% off rack and I took it to the counter and it went through at £6.85! Wow!"

Have just tried to look up events information via Google for “the Brutish Library.” I cancelled my misspelled search before anything came up and now I’m in a quiet patch in my morning, I’m burning with curiosity to put it through again and see what online delights appear.

Speaking of events, a certain few have occurred since I last wrote here: Chinese New Year celebrations with my family and Taxloss last Thursday went very well, with the Girl Toddler wreaking cutesy mayhem through the flat in an embroidered, padded silk outfit while the grown ups went bass fishing (via the Dreamcast) and ate lots and drank lots and were noisy and lively as New Year celebrations should be. Year of the Monkey is my year and it only rolls around every 12 years so we shall see what happens between now and January next year.

Friday, I had a day of intense sales shopping and treating myself which included getting my haircut, two pairs of brand new shoes (one pair bright red and shiny and very pointy! IlovethemIlovethemIlovethemIlovethem), a faintly utilitarian / Oriental looking silk jacket, new trousers and a comedy knitting kit with sparkly knitting needles and enough wool and directions for a pair of stripy legwarmers. I’m aiming to have them finished before the weather turns so I get a chance to wear my handcrafted woollen gear or else face a summer of innovative and faintly ridiculous 101 Other Uses for Your Legwarmers. I would wear them to my dance course but as it is a fairly serious, grown-up dance centre, I don’t think I should go prancing in, high-kicking and shouting “Let’s do the show right here!” as I slide about energetically on the bonnet of a parked taxi. Um. No.

Saturday was spent mincing about the market and libraries, breaking in my lovely new shoes and the evening saw me and Taxloss in our local having a very quiet drink, going over some brochures for evening courses (we’re like that, sorry) when suddenly it became distinctly less quiet with the arrival of a quite dishevelled and worse for wear couple, followed swiftly by a group of policepersons who swooped upon them after the bar staff found them paying with cards obviously not their own. The lady of the couple had scarpered by then and the man was left behind to be searched, claiming loudly that his lady friend was a prostitute and actually someone he had never met before coming to this pub together and he didn’t know her name or address at all. Hmmm. Lots of holes in that story, lots.

Speaking of holes, I started and finished Holes this weekend and highly recommend it: coincidences, curses, serendipity and the effects of the past on the present crop up and occur delightfully in this deceptively simple and understated kids’ book. The twists and turns and revelations (of which there are many) aren’t trumpeted and heralded by glaring signs shouting “This is a twist / turn / cunning and unexpected revelation!” as done so often in other kids’ books but instead allowed to come through the action, with every piece of the puzzle falling into place almost without the reader noticing, which makes the whole (hole) experience so much more enjoyable. Read it: it’ll take you the length of a train journey or an afternoon in bed with the sniffles.

Sunday saw my Bro visiting for lunch and much food was consumed, DVDs were watched and a few rounds of soul-destroying Pop Idol were played on the PS2. I never thought Britney could be done worse than by Britney herself but witnessing Taxloss maul her already heinous “music” to the point of making bats cry and block their ears to the accompaniment of truly awful and inappropriate cockernee knees-up 4/4 piano… well. It’s not nice. I am doubtful that Bro will be chasing us for return of this thing.

While I’ve been oozing my vapid mind-drool about shoes, Holes, holes, legwarmers and Pop Idol, Taxloss has been discussing politics and personal choice. I recommend a close read: he’s terribly clever, and so is the Conservative American he is currently in dialogue with, which makes very interesting blog tennis.

Off to the theatre this evening and have just committed myself to an evening of jazz for Wednesday – in my recent thinking on revamping this blog, perhaps I could start running an arts review diary and keep my hand in with the critical / analytical work I did before I became a worker drone. Readers: whaddya think?