Squirrel entering a time warp

Welcome back. Here I sit in my living room with my brand new cherry red lap top. Thank you, Mr. Visa Card. My very first laptop, which I had lovingly dubbed Stephen Fry, is no more. So it goes. Well, the bulk of him still works but his screen is knackered. So I have retired him to the bedroom cupboard, having been lucky enough to take off all the necessary files and store them on my external hard drive before the screen went permanently black.

And now she is here. Her name is Leigh-Cheri, named for the character in Tom Robbins’ Still Life with Woodpecker. If Fry was my symbol of endless possibilities, then Leigh-Cheri is my symbol for…juice. I think I have reached the beginning of the juicy stage of my life. I think of this stage as being approximately 15 years long and containing a fearlessness of expression, a revisiting of that lawless spirit of youth, without the accompanying hormonal melodrama. At least, this is what I like to tell myself. And hey, I’ve always liked a good story.

Being so cut off from the cyber world is strange. Because I have no telly, suddenly being without my computer was like having a lifeline shredded. But it was okay. I listened to Richard E Grant’s Wah Wah Diaries on audio book, which I highly recommend. Grant himself does the reading and he has such a wonderful voice, I think I could listen to him reciting the alphabet for at least an hour before turning him off. I also listened to Slaughterhouse Five, as read by Ethan Hawke - very well done.

Books. I am rediscovering books. I have started MFK Fisher’s The Gastronomical Me, which I adore beyond measure.

I follow quite a few blogs. Often I feel a frantic need to catch up all the time - all the posts keep piling up and suddenly I am like Lucy in the chocolate factory. I have been trying to read so many that by the time I get finished scrolling through them all, I have no time to create anything myself. I need to change this. I don’t know how other folks manage this but I am thinking of trying to play catch up once a week and not worry about the state of my GoogleReader the rest of the time.

A friend of mine will fly in on Tuesday and will be here for two weeks. Cafes and restaurants will be visited. Cheese shops will be perused. Walks will be taken. Laughter will ring out many times.

Tomorrow I aim to make no fewer than three different soups. Wish me luck. Have a splendid weekend, full of adventure. Time warp squirrel signing out.