Of Tea, Cake and Other Matters of Importance

I arrived at work early, ready to hand in the third set of course papers and to wear an intelligent expression through that morning's proposed fourth (in-person) course, only to learn that the tutor had phoned-in sick. So the course papers are now slowly getting grubbier inside my locker, and it meant I was free to go home earlier than usual. Suits me.

So what exciting things did I do with my, in effect, free half-afternoon? Having weeded the garden, I started re-reading Rowan, which is one of the Artisan-Sorcerer novels. Rowan reminds me of Armand, in a way, except that he's not a vampire. He's young and difficult, gorgeous of course, and gets drawn into the glamorous magicians' world, which completely changes his life. Whether that's for good or ill is something for debate. Have you read this series?

Clothes shopping - I've never been an enthusiastic shopper, one of those people who genuinely enjoy trailing my fingers over rail after rail of clothes designed to fit 6-foot tall anorexics. Newspaper headlines are forever moaning about low high street sales, blaming the economy and the internet etc. How about the obvious fact that trying to find something nice - not for teenagers but not for beige-clad geriatrics either - which actually fits a normal human shape is so bloody difficult!

Anyway, despite my Victor Meldrew-esque moaning, I came home with a rather lovely minty green jumper, which had an embroidered geometric trim around the hem and cuffs. The irony of this is that I found it in the Edinburgh Wool Mill, which is geriatric heaven.

I've been toying with buying a laptop. This PC is nearly five years old, and a bit rubbish anyway, and I could do with having a backup in case it dies. It's still on Windows 7, which is my fault for not downloading the free Windows 10 when it was on offer, but so many people said not to bother. Now, though, I'm finding some bits of websites won't work with mine. I've had this before, with my previous PC when it limped into its ninth year of life before - literally - fizzling out. (It really did make a fizzle sound, a whine, a gurgle, then it died).