Ear lowering day

28 November 2011

Ear lowering now done - a #3 crew cut that costs just £7.  But you know what ... I remember a guy I used to work with in the 1960s and didn't have a hair on his body.  Even his beard didn't grow!  I've often wished I was that lucky.  It would be cold during the winter but you would soon get used to it I'm sure. 

According to our diary I had a cardiac clinic appointment at 10.45 this morning.  So I got up and went up to the George Elliot Hospital, paid for 90 minutes at £2,  only to find out that it had been rescheduled for January - and again I've not had a letter about it.  That's twice they have done that to me and I'm not a happy bunny about it at all.

Anyway, after the wasted hospital trip I drove down to Asda and was lucky to get a parking space when one guy pulled out as I drove in.  After being the store for about 30 minutes I got back to my car to find a long queue of cars waiting to get in as well as a number of other driving round looking for spaces.  Here we are, 4 weeks to Crimble yet and the mad rush has started already.  It's crazy!  It will be like that every day now up to Crimble eve.  They on the 27th they will be back stocking up again and it will be packed solid again until New Years Eve closing. 

It reminds of me a couple Jan and I saw in Asda about 20 years ago.  We were behind them at the till and we watched as cases of beer and battles of wine and spirits were loaded onto the conveyor belt.  Our trolley was no different really, maybe not quite as much as they had.  I do remember we had a good bit left over though.  But back to t'ther couple ... the man looked at me and said, "We wouldn't bother if it wasn't for kids.  We only do it for them."  "Oh," says I, "You'll be coming back for your booze next week then."  He wasn't happy at that but with the amount of laughter he could hardly do anything about it ;-)))

So then ... this writing malarkey!  My copy of Writing Magazine arrived this morning while I was out so I had a quick look through and caught a few headlines.  One of them said, "If you want to be a writer, read a thousand books!"  Oh great!  Only a thousand.  I wonder if that is before or after you decided to write.  I'm sure I have already read well over a thousand books by now anyway, of all sorts.  I must have read over a hundred books for my BA Hons degree.  But I'm a slow reader and always have been, having to read each word.  Speed reading is just not for me.  I tried it once and just couldn't remember what I had read 5 minutes later; back to my word by word reading.   My reading speed also depends on the writer I'm reading.  Have you noticed that some are easier to read than others?  Normally with a standard sized paperback it takes me about 2-3 minutes to read each page.  So how much reading should we now do I wonder?  Let's see, 2 writing mags, a birding mag, at least two or three photo mags each month; there's the Dorktown News every day and the Sunday Express on Sunday; There's half a dozen blogs; loads of emails and websites ... I think that's it.  Of course at night time I do have a lie down read, that's when I have me a 'getting lost is nowt' read.  Currently it's a Harry Harrison book about a Viking invasion of Saxon England.  I have a an Iain Irvine on the go too, volume 3 of his The View from The Mirror series.  Oh yes, and don't forget all the proof reading as well.  Still working my way through House of Pain yet again!  I came across a new expression  just lately ... time poverty ... I know just what they mean  ;-)))