Autoblography entries of late have either been hearty, well-edited pieces prepared the night before, or piquant little scribbles tapped out in my lunch break and idle moments.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present: something in between.
Stuff
Reading: Colin Thubron: Lost Heart Of Asia
Nothing like a little top-notch travel writing to make you feel alive. This is also the first book in ages where I've had to keep a dictionary nearby - which also makes me feel good because I don't like the idea that there are a load of words out there that I might want to use, but just don't know them. That said, I'll just quickly dash off and look up 'chiaroscuro'. *
Listening: Shivery Tunes, the full Amon Tobin back catalogue, a little Bach, The Streets, and Leonard Cohen's Greatest Hits.
Behold my supreme eclectism. It's making my head feel a little funny actually.
Playing: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (PS2)
I'm not really fully into this game as yet, despite it being pretty good. I think it was at the point when the 'back at base' character authorised the main action character to use 'any and all force necessary' to achieve his goals. I just wasn't in the mood for killing Georgian policemen that day.
Writing: A little more than usual.
I'd eased off on the munter of a main task - redrafting the novel about twice, because I'd started quivering in the corner at the thought of piling into it all again, but I've sweetened myself with a few smaller side projects and so on, to jolly myself into doing the harder work. Honestly. Sometimes it's so easy to trick my inner child. He's so immature.
Eating: Italian, naturally. I will try Robyn's Nepalese Momo this weekend. I swear!
Drinking: Not a lot. The spectre of Tuesday's Work Christmas Party, whilst fully recovered from, is still haunting me.
Looking forward to: The Christmas break, if not Christmas itself. I'm looking forward to heading back to the Island, seeing my family and friends (and the parrot) and generally doing rural, caulkheady, back-of-beyond type things. Oh - for some better island pics, go see Plig's brilliant photographs of his recent break there.
Missing: Specifically? Not a lot. I'm feeling pretty future-oriented at the moment.
Wondering: Aren't we all?
Have a good weekend, everyone.
* One of its definitions is 'pictorial representation in terms of light and shade without regard to color'
Why is it, I ask you, that SOME of us get to come from places like THIS (http://www.wightindex.com/gallery/john_durrant/shanklin_old_village2.jpg), and I have to make do with being from places like THIS (http://www.aaroadtrips.com/colorado/i-025_nb_app_i-225_0495.jpg)?? Is that even REMOTELY fair?
1) mmm..amon tobin. you have good taste, stuart.
2) i can't find your email address anywhere..can you email me please? i have a request to make re: konvolut and your xmas break home. thank yoo!
Books that require a dictionary to be near-by are automatically off my "Need to read" list. You are such a trooper! You gotta tell me how you liked the book though because I might make an exception for an extremely good one. ;)
Nicole: I'm enjoying it enormously. Central Asia is an area I know almost nothign about...it's that kind of vague area that used to be a big Soviet-Bloc covered region. It's fascinating, and really well written. The words aren't all that common - it's just that I can' stand the thought that these are good words being used in context, and I don't know them! When do you decide that you know enough words?
I would definitely recommend it...
You must learn patience, my friend, before calling people "such a tosser."
I thought you were a nice person.
I try, but when I've already tried and it didn't seem to work, I drop a few rungs on the eloquence ladder.
No hard feelings.