Back to work

This is taken from the car as we drove up the Buttertubs Pass. Some day I must find out why it has such a strange name, but for anyone looking for a spectacular drive through Yorkshire countryside - look no further than Muker to Hawes.

Today I am clearing the decks prior to starting work. Checked for e-mails, and joined a new Yahoo group just setting up - click here to find out more. Hopefully this one will not become a place where authors send in excerpts of their books but never stop to discuss books in general. I yearn for a good discussion group!

I've downloaded a couple of titles to my new Sony e-reader and spent time yesterday scanning e-publishers. I was surprised to find that publishers like Sourcebooks, Avon and others sell at almost the same price as a paperback. I expected them to be substantially lower, but perhaps I am not looking in the right place. I also need to find if there's a way of scanning an e-book for a particular chapter. I haven't found a way to do this yet.

As for my reading - I've just finished the last Harry Potter. I enjoyed it as much as all the others and applauded the author's imagination. Of course, it could have been shorter and tighter, and there was a mid-section where not a lot happened. I did not question how 3 growing teenagers could survive on mushrooms for what seemed like half a year. Highly improbable, I know, but at least the author did not take the easy way out and have them steal food to survive. I was pleased that Snape was vindicated in the end, and could see why Harry would annoy him so. Poor man! I'd better not say more in case someone still has the pleasure of reading it to come - and it was a pleasure for me.

Kitchen exhaustion

I'm exhausted. Since our walk at Kielder last Friday, we've decided to revamp our kitchen. First of all dh checked out the internet, then we did a recce in town on Monday. That took us over to North Shields, twenty miles away in the search for replacement doors for kitchen fittings. We're not keen on a total revamp, but do wish to replace our under the counter oven with an eye level one. Ditto for the fridge. Six or seven visits later, we realised we were not going ot be able to order new doors in mahogany as they are no longer made. (Preservation of hardwoods, of which I thoroughly approve)
Melamine is now the thing!
But - horrid thought - trendy people are ripping out actual wood kitchens and replacing them with plastic imitations. Argh!
Tuesday I had a check up for my deficient thyroid and then straight off on a further quest to order carcases (or housing, if you prefer that term) to take the new oven and fridge. Wednesday I think we stayed at home, and I wrote 2500 words of what might (if it works out) prove to be an entry for the new HM&B Undone line. Then today we were off to pick up dh's new spectacles and to order the new double oven and fridge. In checking out the opposition we found a cooker hood/extraction unit we liked, and ordered that too. Our "new" kitchen will be part mahogany, already in situ, and part new black panels and cooker hood. The oven is Hotpoint, the one with the ice-glass front. I love it's elegance.

I bought a Sony-E reader! Correction. My dh has paid half as my birthday and Christmas present in advance. He can now relax for the rest of the year! I have yet to deal with charging it up, and loading whatever is on the CD but exciting times are ahead.
As a result of all this activity - not to mention the shocking amount of money we've laid out at a time when money seems to be going down the drain thanks to greedy-for-bonus-whizzkids, we are tired beyond belief tonight. Reaction is setting in....
But it is nothing a bottle of good red wine won't cure. We have a super weekend lined up, with guests on Saturday and the Singapore Grand Prix!