Perth Concert Hall, June 2006

Originally uploaded by cosmicsmudge.

Very busy last week. Went to see Mum’s the Word 2: The Teenage Years at the King’s on Monday. Really funny, just as good as the original but a bit darker. I think my Mum enjoyed it too – she certainly seemed to appreciate it.

On Wednesday Husband and I attended one of the events for the West Dunbartonshire Literature Festival, the Return of the Femmes Fatales – a talk by three female crime writers, Lin Anderson, Alex Gray and Alanna Knight. They talked about their different experiences of writing: how they got started, dealings with publishers, the characters in their novels. It was a great event. Bought a couple of books after the talk, Driftnet by Lin Anderson and Never Somewhere Else by Alex Gray, so my summer reading is all sorted out. I’d been meaning to buy Driftnet for ages after reading Blood Red Roses, a prequel to Driftnet which we have at work. However, hearing Lin Anderson talk at the event made me even more keen to read her novels because she came across as a very interesting and likeable person and I like her sense of humour.

On Friday we saw Dylan Moran at Perth Concert Hall. He had been in Glasgow, at the Pavilion, but we didn’t manage to get tickets for that. My brother and my uncle went to see that show and really enjoyed it. The show at Perth was brilliant, he was really funny – he really is Bernard Black. If you ever get the chance to see him on stage, go! The funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time.

Well, summer is definitely here and don't we know it here at work.  Unfortunately, the library is positioned right bang in the middle of the building and seems to absorb all surrounding heat.  The temperature does not change, no matter how many windows are open.  I am looking forward to going home tonight and collapsing in our nice, cool flat.  Yes, I know I complain about the flat being too cold most of the time but, hey, I'm fickle.  I can see Husband and I spending most of our time indoors this summer, neither of us being sun worshippers.  I would love to stay out and enjoy the sun but I tend to burn to a crisp.  One thing I do like about summer, however, are the long evenings.  I'll just have to make the most of those instead.

I don't seem to have had much time to blog lately, what with one thing and another, so an update is in order.  A couple of weeks ago, our friends from Reading came back up to Glasgow for a few days.  It was great to see them again.  They used to live in Glasgow but moved down to Reading last August and we hadn't seen them since although we keep in touch through emails and phone calls.  We're planning to go and visit them in July, only for a couple of days as I don't think Husband's hay fever could stand much longer.  The following weekend we went up to Perth to visit Husband's mother and took her out for a birthday meal at Paco's.  We also went over to Crieff to deliver Husband's godson's (late) birthday present.  It was a good weekend and very relaxing. 

Work, on the other hand, is anything but relaxing.  We are shortstaffed and this is one of the busiest times of the year, so I seem to be running about like a headless chicken most of the time.  That is the nature of working in a Further Education college I suppose.  The busiest times are always at the end of term when everyone is panicking about handing assignments in.  For some reason, printers, photocopiers, anything technological in fact, also choose this time to break down.  Summer break is only a couple of weeks away…it can't come soon enough!

Another holiday…another day of illness.  Not a cold this time, but some sort of food poisoning.  Spent most of the day sleeping, trying to keep food down, and watching V on the Sci-Fi channel.