A quick update on life

*flails at wanky formatting*

I'm trembling on the brink of finishing the paper, with over 24 hours to go before the submission deadline. Ah, the raw beauty of my enhanced metafile Excel charts!

This afternoon I am meeting dear friend G who is selfishly leaving me to make her fortune on the other side of the world. I am helping her choose a wash bag, but may have to drag her to the rag market, for rags. I'd love to find a copy of The Charioteer, by Mary Renault, but I don't even know if it's in print anymore. The last time I saw it anywhere was the public library about 15 years ago.

Got one!

Borders had a copy of The Charioteer. In fact it had two copies, one with the doe-eyed boy on the front, and another two-tone grey copy, which I bought because it was cheaper. Reading it is compulsive, like eating chocolate when you really crave it. I just can't stop, even though I want to make it last.

I won't see G now for a year or two, unless I can afford to drag my sorry carcass across the planet to New Zealand or Australia. India looks a bit more likely, maybe next year, or Sri Lanka, all places I've never been and would love to visit. We went to Yo Sushi in Selfridges where we drank expensive Japanese beer and ate slightly less expensive noodles, wandered about a bit and drooled in the stationary department, then went for chocolate and cake. Then finally it was goodbye and time to be dragged into a photobooth for some silly pictures.

I really will get round to answering comments soon, too, after finishing the paper-that-ate-my life. It's a good job that my co-author is also my ultimate boss, so he can waive my other work aside.