Holiday Report

Number of times got sunburnt: 1
Number of exercise sessions: 3
Number of handsome American men called Chris snogged: 1

Not bad at all.

I also bought a fab new lemon tulip dress, some gladiator sandals (yes I jumped on the bandwagon - sue me), and quite a lot of jewellery. I really feel totally relaxed and ready to face the world. Bring it on.

Babooshka

I got my friend C a birthday card with a Russian doll on the front. I'm off to see her tomorrow and we're going to get pampered in a swanky spa. She's had an awful 12 months with her father dying and her mother being diagnosed with a degenerative illness.

I wrote in her card:

Remember that you are like a Russian doll. You carry within you all the women you have been, and all the women you will become, and all the people you love.

Packtard

I can't pack for going on holiday to save myself. I bring the wrong clothes, forget my pyjamas and toothbrush every time and my luggage is invariably falling to pieces. In an effort to be organised I put loads of clothes in the washing machine this morning, and used Tesco own-brand washing tablets. Well, that was a mistake. They didn't disperse properly and all my clothes looked like they had been chalked. I was all set to send an angry letter to Tesco when I took a closer look at the packet and saw that the tablets are supposed to go in the drawer and not in the machine itself, where I had put them. I can't keep up.

So I'm currently trying to dry lots of clothes that I've had to wash for the second time in a day.

I'm also packing my sports bra, trainers and davina exercise dvd. A holiday from exercise this is not.

The Book Thief

I have just finished reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It was truly magnificent and I was howling like a baby by the end. I think it is the best book I have read in years. It is narrated by Death, who comes across as a very merciful, if misunderstood, entity. (Terry Pratchett uses Death as a narrator in some of his comic novels.) It is the story of Liesel, a nine year old girl living in Nazi Germany. I think it is really clever to set it there, as we rarely get that perspective on the Second World War. That said, pretty much all of the German characters are very sympathetically portrayed, several of them refuse to join the Nazi Party for example, and we're shown the consequences of that.

The narrator tells us very early on that Death will visit the book thief (Liesel) 3 times. And it also reveals the impending death of a key character very early in the novel. This gives the narrative a sense of foreboding, and I found myself reading with a certain amount of dread. It is written in beautifully simple, yet elegant prose. I wish I could write so sparingly.

I loved this book and I'm very keen to find out if the author has written any others.

Oh Lord

I am properly hammered. Drunk enough to say inappropriate things, drunk enough not to care.

My favourite Carol Ann Duffy poem is

Mrs Darwin

7 April 1852

Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him -
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.

I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant....

....these shoes. I tried them on in TopShop today. But I didn't buy them because I'm on a strict budget this month (saving for NYC). They are patently ridiculous and too high, and I have nothing to match them, but I don't care.

I did 30 minutes upper body exercise this morning and then I walked from Bank station to Westminster this afternoon. It was a lovely walk. I took the 53 bus home, and walked back through Deptford. I'm thinking of joining the gym there, which costs £35 per month. I was enquiring at the Virgin Active gym on the Strand, but it's over £100 per month if I want to use the one at Canary Wharf as well. That's a lot of money. I'd rather spend it on shoes. Some things never change.