Gillian Polack's Blog, page 314

gillpolack @ 2010-04-23T22:05:00

I've just spent a rather lovely evening with friends. We watched some vintage Bugs Bunny (with chips and chardonnay) and then we watched three episodes of Zorro's Foreign Legion (we polished off the chips and chardonnay). Our main course was steak and Bogart/Bacall and a fine red. Dessert was Jaffas and Fantales and those German spice cakes covered in dark chocolate.

Now I have a full evening's work ahead of me, but the day is so firmly tipped towards happiness that I'm looking forward to ...

gillpolack @ 2010-04-23T16:43:00

Thanks to interventions of friends (parcels!!) today started significantly better than yesterday. Still lots of not-good things, but amidst the not-good were some gems. I think my favourite of the gems has to be the cover of Baggage. Soon, soon, there will be a picture. Not too long after, there will be copies for sale. In the meantime, you might check out what eneit thinks of the cover.

gillpolack @ 2010-04-22T13:11:00

This is not turning into a good day. Nothing big or disastrous, but lots of small things, from health to misunderstandings to people I care about who are hurting.

I'm going to jump ship. I have some Tom Baker (yay for friend with comfort DVDs - though I'm almost out of them) and I have those quantum physics lectures I'm working through, so I'll take the lectures and read them while watching Dr Who. It's the best I can do, today.

gillpolack @ 2010-04-21T14:25:00

I bought a birthday present for a friend this morning. Somehow I managed to score a Dr Who Annual 1977 and a 1950s willow pattern plate for myself. The plate is for class the week after next, actually, but I've always wanted one, so I'll pretend it's specially for me. The Dr Who Annual can be my birthday present to myself.

If I were richer, my birthday present to myself would have been the most wonderful Belle Epoque food server thingie. It was reduced to $156, and $156 is just not a possi...

gillpolack @ 2010-04-21T09:18:00

Every now and again, cheap airfares to Australia get posted to this place or that. Because the next WorldCon is in Melbourne this September, and because I want to spend time with friends at Aussiecon, it's in my interest to see that, now that the cheap fares are actually extraodinarily low (five years ago the same route cost over triple) that my the US friends who read this actually hear about it. Right now it's cheaper for US West Coast friends to get a return trip to Sydney or Melbourne t...

gillpolack @ 2010-04-20T22:37:00

I don't know if I should be happy that I just used the word 'verisimilitudinous' as if it belonged in the sentence or whether I should be sad that I looked at it after I had typed it, thought it was a complete nonsense of a word, then couldn't find it in me to replace it.

gillpolack @ 2010-04-20T15:22:00

All day I've been wondering why I feel slightly askew. The weahter report told me it was blue skies all the way, so I dismissed my weather sense as the cause. Well, the thunder has just begun. I'd better do my messages quickly, before I get rained on!

Where my mind starts with a clear thought but gives up on clarity all too quickly

My Bibliobuffet column has had its fortnightly update. This time I've interviewed Paul Haines. He talks about cancer, about life, about writing, about winning lots of awards.

There are a bunch of good articles in the current Bibliobuffet (all better-written than mine - I'm going to have to cultivate my language skills) and they've taken me from my editing in an entirely good way. My mind is refreshed. If I get myself a cup of tea then my body will match my mind and I can do amazing stuff...

gillpolack @ 2010-04-18T18:56:00

A couple of friends and I descended on Lifeline Bookfair during its closing hour. I managed to score 8 timetravel/timeslip/alternate history books to add to my little pile.

I know I don't actually have to read every one that's ever existed, but I don't see why I shouldn't keep a few (or even a few dozen) to work through over the next little while. The universe is conspiring in my favour in this respect. Twice friends have given me discards from collections (before they knew I was developi...

gillpolack @ 2010-04-17T20:00:00

It can't be just my life that has days like this:

I was given a Dr Who figurine (with sonic screwdriver - the fourth doctor in Pyramids of Mars garb) on the way to my talk at the Jane Austen Festival. There was a quiet moment when I hung round the front desk. We talked about all sorts of things and somehow, just somehow, I casually mentioned I had Dr Who in my handbag.

The Jane Austen fans I was chatting with positively flurried with excitement. They were properly costumed, which was probab...