So it's Tuesday morning and Christmas seems to be a distant memory already, although it was only yesterday that I found myself back at work—all the way across the living room to my little nest of computers. The sun is blinding and I can feel its heat on my back, making up for the past couple of days when a biting north-easterly meant we had to wrap up against the chill when we went for our walk.
I shouldn't because I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow—a routine check-up, nothing to worry about, but I know they'll want to weigh me. I ought to be starving myself today because I've put on my usual Christmas three pounds, and that's pushing me towards weighing the same weight I was on my last visit. I'd managed to lose over half a stone during 2025, but it's now not looking quite so good!
Christmas was mostly eating and watching TV. We (in this case me and my Mum) usually make a good job of Christmas dinner, but this year seemed especially good because we got the amount just right; at the end of it we were comfortable rather than utterly stuffed. We managed to avoid almost every show that made up the Top 10 most watched shows over the Christmas period (although a couple, The Scarecrow's Wedding and Amandaland, I recorded, to be watched when I get a chance). Instead we watched Wallace & Gromit, a couple of quizzes, a couple of old Miss Marple episodes and (of course) The Great Escape.
I treated myself to a book, which arrived yesterday. In my early days of reading science fiction, the Sunday Times and Gollancz ran a competition. This was back in 1974 and the results were published in 1975. I borrowed the winners from Chelmsford library, Catchworld by Chris Boyce and Shipwreck by Charles Logan. I was particularly taken by the latter, but didn't bother to buy the paperback that came out in 1977 because my pocket money was already stretched to breaking point.
Copies seemed to be particularly scarce, and were usually in the £50-80 range, which I certainly wasn't going to pay for a paperback. I promised myself that if I saw one for under £15 I'd pick it up and I've searched every now and then without seeing it drop in price. Cutting to the chase, I spied a copy on Ebay just before Christmas and thanks to a discount that was being offered, I managed to pick it up for under £14.92 (including postage). And I now have it: a bit creased and grubby, but a reading copy that I'll pop onto the top of my "to be read" pile.
I managed to clear all the junk off the scanner this morning, so I've managed to Photoshop out many of the faults that were spoiling David Bergen's fantastic cover.
If I'm going to make a new year's resolution, it will be to try and read more. I did fairly well last year, after years of reading under ten books annually. That's under ten books simply for pleasure, I should add: I read quite a lot for research, including 86 issues of Action comic during October/November for the book I'm working on. That's over 2,750 pages of tiny print. After a day of reading for work, it's so easy just to plant myself in front of the TV.
Which is where I'm heading now. Happy New Year to you all.
No comments:
Post a Comment