Books again

Books you ought to read, lest your life be forever poorer: Keri Hulme's The Bone People and Te Kaihau: The Windeaters. I'd probably recommend her other stuff if I'd managed ot get my hands on it; I am particularly interested in The Silences Between: Moeraki Conversations and Strands.

Books I have been told I ought to read and never want to: The only one I can think of is Joyce's Ulysses, which I have read, all the way through, and I don't like it. Some extracts are fine, but I don't like the damn' book.

Reflections on housekeeping

Potscrubs pain you;
Laundry's damp;
Brasso stains you;
And hobs cause cramp.
Slaves aren't lawful;
Mops are grey;
Bleach smells awful;
You might as well pay.

What I have done, and what I have failed to do

For a start, I'd like to know where I attended enough English-language Masses for that to pop into my head.

What I have done:

1. Put away clean laundry - though naturally there's always more. Does it count if all my "clean" underwear has been a catnest for over a week and is covered in fur? I put it away as clean anyway. If I catch something dreadful, I'll let you know.
2. Go into town to return DVD, buy stationery, and lodge a cheque
3. Washing up - all of it. Every plate, mug, bowl, teaspoon is clean. Well, except tha tI have since made a cup of tea. However.
4. More dirty laundry. It never ends. I have no idea where it comes from. Who's wearing all these clothes? Perhaps I should institute seperate laundry baskets, just to see which of us generates more laundry.
5. Grocery shopping - before 09:15 am, what's more.

What I have failed to do:

1. Make cupboard doors. Rob has to do this, really. I have thrown up my hands in despair because my Cunning Plan won't work and I want him to design me a new Cunning Plan.
2. Buy cladding, but there's no point until the electrician has run his trunking everywhere.
3. Take winter duvet to the laundrette
4. Put away the rest of the clean laundry
5. Post wedding invitation
6. Chase more RSVPs
7. Chase florist
8. Chase plumber

Trashy Books

I'm getting increasingly annoyed at this as a categorisation. Yes, I have used it myself. But I don't understand how it's used - some people use to to mean "genre I don't like", some use it to mean "plot I don't like", some use it to mean "badly written", and some use it to mean "popular". What makes a book trash?

I think that I tend to use it to mean "poorly thought out" or "unoriginal and badly written". But I suspect I have also used it to mean "popular romance".

Can you think of any genres which you think of as "trash"?

The Wedding Planner

I have finally found a florist who is (a) not booked already and (b) willing and able to do pot-plant hire. I am going to see them on Thursday morning.

It's going to be expensive. I want a bunch of daisies, and apparently it's going to cost 30 UK pounds. The bridesmaids flowers may well cost about the same. Perhaps I will go very very heavy on the cheap decorating plants and light on the more expensive, pretty ones.

I have also spoken to a printer; getting "order of service" type things done will be about 30 quid as well, which seems reasonable. And they'll do it from jpg, which means that they won't mess up any of the Swedish or Irish parts. The trick now is to get my ceremony finalised and laid out so that I can produce these jpgs.

Buzz buzz buzz goes the bizzy littul bee.

So I've chased the plumber, found a florist, called the registrar, done laundry and housecleaning, had breakfast, rejected the idea of lunch as being too much work, and not managed to do any study.

Maybe tomorrow I'll want to settle down. Until tomorrow, I'll just keep skiving off.