Today I am back to work, which is lovely. In my absence almost all the work has been done on the new case for the rare books - all the dusty, woodshavingy, banging part of the process - which leaves me to over see the final stages - gap filling, shelf spacing. For this I am happy. Soon all our rare books will have a new, safe, visible home. This is a good thing because contrary to popular opinion rare books like to be seen. They like to show off. "Look at me, I'm from the 15th century", "Yeah? Well I've got copperplates depicting the garb of the priesthood in the time of the first temple", *another book arrives* "What do you think of my original maroon morrocan cover?" *First books shuffle off grumbling and casting glares over their shoulders*

Sorry, own little world there for a moment.

My point, if indeed I had one, is that if books are locked away, never handled or examined, nasty things happen to them. They turn bad and plot to take over the earth. Things like mould, and damp and bookworm. Ever seen what bookworm does?



Or you could try


Bookworm is bad. There are many other bad things that can happen to a book, many of which can be resolved, but a basic rule of thumb is when something is eaten, you aint getting it back.

So the rules for today is: new bookcase good, bookworm bad.

----------------------

[livejournal.com profile] peadarog had a very interesting post here about the relation of genre and literature which on the whole I agree with. I'd go so far as to sum it up as Genre excites, Literature resonates, hense the two are not incompatible. Does this mean literature is more about language than story? In some cases definitely. I still find it amusing that people like Shakespeare and Dickens, held as an inviolate part of the canon of the literary school, would have been the genre writers of their day. That they happened to write beautifully was an aside. What they wrote was largely disposable fiction. Makes you think, huh?

---------------------

I also noticed in Dunnes Stores yesterday a large number of mummies with their seasonal shopping club vouchures running amok because they did not have children (for they are back at school), buying all the things they couldn't get near for the whole summer holidays. Like lampshades, vases, female clothes, shoes... I was among them. Two new lampshades, which then unfortunately translated into a trip for e_w_h to Woodies later that evening to buy new lightfittings as those in place were falling apart. Oh little details. Don't bother me with details. Can't you see I'm shopping? Without children?!

--------------------

So that's about it for random meanderings today. I should have edits on The Penitent shortly, and some more blurb work. I wrote some more of The Wolf's Mate last night and I subbed again To Regain Heaven yesterday. (I hate it when novels just sit there on your hard drive, doing nothing but distracting me.) I have a pite of crits. I will get to them. I promise. *sigh*

rflong: (Maggie Cheung Hero)
( Dec. 12th, 2007 09:45 am)

I took the day off yesterday. So did my husband. The reason? Christmas shopping in the city centre without children. This also turned into a very nice brunch, followed not too long afterwards by a very nice lunch and lots of us time. 

Dublin has not changed much. Granted, it was a Tuesday morning/lunchtime so it was not manic. Here, in no particular order are the highlights:

We went to the Kilkenny Design centre, a shop one cannot enter with a three year old and a six year old - not if you want to come out again with anything still resembling a bank balance. There is lots of pottery and crystal and expensive breakable things. We had pancakes, bacon and maple syrup in the café there whilst looking out at Trinity and over at the large mosaic/mural on the wall of the Setanta centre. It depicts the life of Cú Chulainn and basically gave me a couple of great ideas for Moy Tura. I think I will have to return with a camera, but I can see one of my major characters looking at it and being rather upset about the depiction of her husband, and another character having a fit because she appears to have lost her top whilst horse-riding! :D

Temple Bar was very quiet when we walked through it, although the clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank was entertaining. Not sure what they were doing or why. It didn't seem to be a show. Just... a clown in full costume and make-up chasing a man in boxers around the Central Bank. But there you go.

Past Times was having a pre-Christmas sale. Everywhere seems to be. No one seems as interested in shopping for Christmas this year. I'm putting it down to the whole "having no summer at all" malais that seems to have gripped the nation. Two full months of rain when you wanted sun will do that to anyone. We're all sick, there are strains of the cold and flu that wouldn't be amiss in a Science Fiction Disaster movie, and the economy is as wobbly as anyone so all the shops are desperately trying to make people spend money anyway they can. One of the major chains of department stores (Irish people-how do you explain Dunnes to non-Irish people?) had a 25% sale all weekend on everything instore. It was great. That said, I talked to a shop assistant there and he said it had still been really really quiet. This was in their flagship store.

The National Library were doing their bit to boost sales too - a free copy of Treasures of the National Library to anyone who spent more than €20. They gave us a free tote bag too. So that's another Christmas present sorted!!! (And no, the person getting it doesn't read this. Btw I'm keeping the tote bag!)

We had lunch in L'Gueuleton a wondrous French bistro on Fade Street, just above the Georges St. Arcade and Market. It is one of the top three restaurants in Dublin. (We've now eaten in two of them and have no wish to spend €40 on soup in the other one!). I had soup - French Onion Soup with a Grueyre Croute (I'm sure I haven't spelled that right!). I only each French Onion Soup in French restaraunts and it was phenomenal! Real comfort food! Big thick slices of homemade bread. YUM. Hubbie had a paté which was also YUM! All in all delice. We shared desert. Home made Ice cream (a scoop of Toffee and Pistachio, Vanilla and Pomegranate, and Passion fruit sorbet, served with a raspberry cookie and (we suspect alcoholic) jelly! Mega YUM! Then coffee. Good coffee. More accurately - excellent petit café creme!

Ok, as 

[livejournal.com profile] matociquala 

 would say, enough food porn.

We meandered back. Went to my favorite bookshop where I spent some time picking out the books from people I have talked to here and turning them cover out for all the world to see. A small and petty, but extremely satisfying hobby. I just hope someone will do the same for me one day! (Of course if I was working in the bookshop and trying to keep the shelves all neat and orderly I would HATE me!)

The newbie sales person in the bookshop told me that they didn't do a discount for members of the Library Association of Ireland. Foolish foolish newbie! A few minutes later, we left with our 10% discount on our pile of books and caught the Luas home, all happy and satisfied.

 Then we had to pick up the kids, so that was a dose of reality, wasn't it?

Still, we got some things done, got ideas for the rest, so Christmas appears to be underway after all.

Wow! I had no idea this was going to be such a long post. I blame the clown and the mostly naked man.

R

The Lost Rose went up on Haruah today. Yay!

http://www.haruah.com/item.php?sub_id=2494

Went shopping, bought shoes! :D Happy day.
rflong: (Default)
( Aug. 10th, 2007 11:46 am)
Do you think I might be getting excited about my holiday? Off to France a week tomorrow, driving to Cork and getting the Ferry overnight to Roscoff. We've even got the posh cabins. Can't wait. Starting to get unbearable.

Things are still a bit chaotic. The kitchen is still not finished. The annoying part is that it's just little things left but getting them actually done seems to be presenting an insuperable barrier. We have family coming for dinner this evening regardless, so spent last evening cleaning everything and washing the livingroom carpet. I have to do the shopping for ingredients on the way home - spag bol all round I think.

I've done precious little writing. I did finish the scene in Moy Tura Echoes with Nuada in Newgrange, and started the next, but didn't get far on it. I must get more regimented. But not tonight alas. Maybe I will manage to write more while we are away. The laptop is coming with me anyway.

Had a great laugh reading the new Ansible last night, particularly the thought of CS Lewis and Tolkien in a death match.

Anyway, with my basic nothing to report today, I might as well stop typing and try to do something here. I am planning on a shopping trip at lunchtime. Not sure what for. Just want to shop!

R

rflong: (Default)
( Jul. 7th, 2007 07:53 pm)
 We went to see Shrek 3 today and really enjoyed it. It does, admittedly, probably help to have 2 under 6s with you, but based on the reviews I was expecting a lot less. There were a couple of genius moments.

Then we had lunch in Eddie Rockets, which was great fun.

Then I hit a couple of shops looking for a wedding outfit for a week's time. Spent more than I meant to (no surprise there) but I really love what I got. In my favorite shop East, of course: Dress Mine is the second from the left: the Tunis Botanica print Wrap Dress, just in case you were wondering.

This is the hotel where the reception is taking place: Glenlo Abbey Yes, would much rather be staying there, but I would have had to go without the dress to afford it, and probably the shoes too and it would have created a scene. No one wants to upstage the bride!

Ah - just checked the rates. Make that the shoes, the dress, and possibly the laptop too. Oh, and the new phone! Ouch! But lovely.

We are staying here: Corrib haven  We've stayed before and it is lovely.

So really just another day but a family day, which was lovely.

Other than that, I got a bit of editing done on The Penitent last night. So much for  a quick run through before I send it off! :D  The end is in sight, I think, at least of this pass. I should probably do at least one more.  Funny thing is, looking for just a repeating word means I concentrate more on the individual sentences rather than the whole so I don't get sucked into the story as I usually do. I found that idea quite interesting. What I'm doing is finding the word, in this case "was", focusing on the sentence and changing it where I comfortably can. Then I look at the context. If it doesn't work, I can always change it back, but I find I rarely have to do that.

R
On a bit of a learning curve this evening, but in a good way.

Good things -    

1. bought a new laptop today (online, so awaiting delivery). The plan is that this is mine and I will be no longer hounded off the computer by either small children or a husband. Therefore I will write more... or surf the web more. One or the other anyway. Possibly both.

2. Found out that my mobile phone company will give me another SIM free of charge and I can keep my mobile number. Yes, though I have lost all numbers I ever stored on the phone, I will still have mine.

3. Learning how to use autostitch on photos from the UK.

4. Learning how to load photos to Picasso.

5. Bought new shoes and a handbag - as we all know one can never have too many shoes or handbags to quote a certain somebody.

Bad things -

Nothing major. Watched the last Dr. Who of the series. That's bad. And Picassa is taking a long time to load up my lovely Hampton Court photos so I cannot show them to you yet.

Still haven't finished my story for the Liberty Hall challenge, but nearing the end. 2 more sections. Hopefully it will all be sorted soon.

And I haven't received the confirmation email for the laptop yet, which is more of a worry, but maybe it has to wait until tomorrow.

So anyway, lots on tomorrow. My son is going to my sister's Art camp for a fortnight. We need to ring about insurance on the mobile etc and see if we can get something for it.

Hmmm. Should Picassa take this long?

There are a lot of thumps and banging coming from upstairs. Better put on my best girl detective hat and investigate...

R
.

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