Dredging

When dredging about for a post to entertain oneself while putting together a triumph for the next day (hopefully) it is all too easy to fall back to rambling on about the grand mighty river of time, the five great pineapples that fell to Earth and set the world a spinning, or the real reason why people will never understand the mysteries of making fragrant rice.

Oh, if only 'Civilization IV' and a visiting sister hadn't derailed my monster one-part story for today! One of the most enjoyable aspects of the recent holiday was the outward ferry trip where I began to rough out the first of the stories from the dormant stash planned out during the HND all those years ago. Of the seventy or eighty, only two or three were ever worked on in earnest, and now seem incredibly simplistic. Stay tuned, dear readers, as either tomorrow or Sunday will see the holiday story go up as a giant trial balloon. Who knows what might come of it all?

Away from the Five Great Pineapples, today was a day dominated by apple tart making and 'Civilization IV'. Reality sure does land with a bump when you get back to 'Civilization' and 'Diddy Kong Racing' and realise just how much less effective you are so many years later. That's more true of the latter as I was always terrible at the former. Being ardently pacifistic is rather a disadvantage in 'Civilization', as you almost always end up next to Genghis Khan or wedged between Stalin and Winston Churchill. It's all meaningless in the end! The apple tarts were a return to baking after a long absence (see subtitle of blog), and were partly reminiscent of the entry entitled 'Zing'. And they seemingly went well!

Right, before getting back to the important job of sleeping for the government, it is wonderful to report how wonderful holidays are for reading time. I may not have read anything personally new, but any excuse to get to Brian Garfield's 'Hopscotch', Nicholas Meyer's 'The Seven-Per-Cent Solution' and James Blish's 'Star Trek' adaptations is always welcome. It would be nice to have a new author to read though, someone just as good, to supplement the annual event that is the Jasper Fforde release. Oh, oh, perhaps it's time to get back to his 'Nursery Crimes' novels again...

Looking back, the appeal of holidays is still somewhat perplexing. It was unshamefully wonderful to meet the people I did meet but oh the tiredness! Perhaps it's time to dig out some more iron and toughen up the sinews before the next service interruption that will be Marseille and Barcelons?

O.

Note: All recommendations for Marseille and Barcelona gratefully accepted. Also, desserts.