It is a bit of a busy old time here at P Towers. As well as working on several different bits of gaming-related stuff, from Star Trek to 28mm terrain, I'm also doing a spot of courting, and having to deal with my automocar. The infernal device has been giving me such grief of late that I had already decided to stop driving it. I was coming back from somewhere the other day and had to turn it off and on to reset the computer. It's an automatic, and keeps trying to start at traffic lights in third gear. I am as vexed as other drivers! Anyway, I pulled over, turned it off and on again, and nothing. It clicked a bit. I had experienced this before, so gave it ten minutes. No. Another ten minutes. No. Ring the accident guys. Wait another forty minutes. Try it again. Yes! Cancel accident guys. Drive home. Hate car with a passion! So yesterday I had to ring my insurance folk to cancel it, which was a breeze. I filled out the form required for a partial refund of road tax, also declaring the car off-road.
The saga is not over yet. I need a car to get to a wedding in September. Public transport won't cut it. So I also rang Mum's insurer, who had to ring someone else, and eventually discovered that I can't get insurance on her car for the two days I would need. Insurance companies say the darnedest things! So now I need to sort out a rental car. I have also tried to book the hotel, but they are having trouble with the code for the wedding, as they were yesterday, so they are calling me back some time today. Whew!
Last night I went to see a friend, which is to say she picked me up, as her house is either inaccessible by public transport or would demand a ridiculously circuitous route. Some time this morning she'll bring me back, I'll try to field a call from the hotel at some point, and my young lady is coming over about midday. We would like to go for a walk, but I managed to slash the side of my left foot on a piece of dead and ancient computer the other night, so any footwear hurts. Telly instead, then! Then I need to catch a bus down to see some more friends in Newcastle in the evening.
Everything seemed fairly quiet on Wednesday. I read Iain Banks' The Wasp Factory, which is a thoroughly disturbing little book, and started nibbling
around the edges of my copy of A Passage to India, which is as stuffed with introductions as a pepper is with rice! I am going to dissolve them before going on to the main event. If it gets too dark - and from what basic knowledge I have of the storyline, that seems fairly likely - I shall break off and read some Betjeman. I began reading him the other day, and he's very moreish. Yes, I am on something of a literary kick at the minute. I read Cold Comfort Farm the other day, and very funny it was, too. As I have mentioned before, my formal schooling included a lot of very successful work by my teachers (and the devisers of the curriculum, no doubt) to put me off classic literature. I am now returning to conquer that mountain of unread paper! Wish me luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment