bookmark_borderAnd so I'm back… *

Back less than a day and already my calendar is filling up. Hey, it’s not my fault I’m popular. Right?

In the week I was gone not a lot happened really, the holiday was good but nothing to write home about, so I didn’t. That plus the fact that we’d have been home before any postcard arrived. Suffice to say that there was a lot of sitting around in the sun, a few meals out (including one gorgeous fillet steak that I struggled to finish and cost all of … £14? would’ve cost me at least £20 here…) and I chipped into the Spanish economy as best I could via the golden nectar that is San Miguel (which shouldn’t really be drunk outside of Spain… nor sober for that matter…).

I read Casino Royale on the plane on the way over (it’s only a couple of hundred pages) and quite enjoyed it. Very old fashioned now but still quite exciting. Then I tackled Watchmen which was very good and has only whetted my appetite for the movie all the more, then it was two very forgettable Grishams (The… summat or other…) left their by, probably, my sister-in-law, then the last Ian Rankin, saying farewell to DI Rebus (perhaps). On the plane on the way home I rifled through The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett, largely because I’m a big geek and these things interest me (if they interest you too give it a look, it’s a smart book).

Alas I didn’t get to listen to much in the way of music because the cable I took over to charge the iPod Nano wouldn’t charge my iPhone! I’m guessing that’s because my Nano is 4 years old and the cable specifications have changed but… no music for a week!! Agony. Still it did mean I had more quiet times in which to contemplate… well.. all sorts of everything and plenty of nothing.

It was all very relaxing if I do say so.

Which I do.

In fact I just did. Do pay attention.

In other news… there is no other news!

How the hell are you anyway? What ya been up to? Anything new with you? Any revelations? (aside from John Sargeant leaving Strictly obv.) Come on, what was THE defining blog moment in the past 7 days?

* I missed Ohrwurm Wednesday on Twitter ya see…

bookmark_borderThere's nothing like a good book

We are off to Spain next week so there are some vital things to sort out. Namely what music to put on my iPhone (I’ve got Series 1 of The Wire on there already), and most importantly what books to take!

I’ve got a Jeffrey Deaver and an Ian Rankin on standby and have just ordered Casino Royale and Live and Let Die so that should get me through the week, in between trips to the pub and general lounging around of course.

I don’t really make time to read all that much these days, in fact I struggle to get through the two monthly magazine subscriptions I receive (Esquire and Runners World if you must know). Aside from that mostly everything I read is for work related purposes and even then I’ve got a backlog, it’s just never that high up my priority list to be honest. I’ve tried to ‘hack’ my habits to get back to reading more often but nothing has worked, my attention and thoughts continue to lie elsewhere and, if I’m honest I’m fairly happy with that at the moment. We’ll see if that changes any time soon but my take is that, if I was REALLY that bothered I’d have done something about it.

Obviously I’m not.

That said there is a part of me that is looking forward to getting away, purely to be able to completely zone out in a good book, or at the very least a trashy thriller. There is nothing quite like losing all sense of time whilst you frantically flip pages, desperate to get to the next part of the story, and the quiet sense of despair you feel when you reach the end and, just like that, it’s over. You don’t get that with every book, some just fizzle out and leave you somewhat deflated but others take you on such a journey that the temptation to re-read them immediately is almost overwhelming.

Go on then, what are you reading right now? (aside from this blog, obviously!).