the mystic masseur - v.s.naipaul (1957)

lavish and colorful and sly and irreverent and cutting and all the time pretending to be gently bumbling along.

as a novel this is clean entertaining stuff that doesn't quite get written anymore.

for a first novel by a 25-year-old this is amazing.

the only quarrel i have is with the ending, where Ganesh's metamorphosis has an almost deux ex machina-like quality.

a prayer for courage at the start of the year

in returning to work that challenges and to the scruff and the scuffle, grant us strength and purpose. grant that we may look to the days with holy excitement and be unafraid of the year. grant us courage in the face of the unknown. nay, grant us curiosity wonderment and anticipation because that which comes from thee will also come with supply unto each. teach us to count our blessings and to know the joy of resting in thy provision. thou who hast searched us and known our most loathsome flaws, take these broken pieces and fashion a sound vessel useful for thy purpose.

gym. me. 2

my infraspinatus aches with a pleasantly effete ache today.
near the insertion. oww.

done it

i update my iTunes to reflect my name my country my address my credit card and make my first purchase. the type that involves a monetary value i mean, not the free type that they euphemistically list as a purchase anyway.

after years of lurking in the apple milieu and sponging off HOM's iTunes account and other people's strategically complimentary offerings i feel that i have finally adulted.

gym. me.

my first session today with the Guy.

my body fat is 22.8% which is in the ideal range. yesss. let's go for coffee! 

not so fast, he says. things change with age. we want to build muscle too. 

i'm not too ambitious, i tell him bluntly.

he says (kindly i think) at the end, i think for you for now your core exercise should be lying on the floor.

day off

a book. online access. a cuppa. jazz. blustery weather out.

a girl could get used to this.

because i do this every year

resolutions for this year:

• use that DLSR!!
• read!! specifically, books, non-trade
• be nicer to more people
• do something different

to these ends, the camera battery is charged and i have Rumpole to read and choir practice to show up for this saturday. HOM threatens me with a personal trainer. this is not bad, as new year resolutions go.

perspective

not a bad thing to remember at year's dawning

before the winds trouble and the rains come 

and heart's strength is tested anew and again

and i forget that the measure will equal the days

talk to the hand - lynn truss (2005)

my first read of the year and a rip-roaring re-read.

twelve years on i agree with her even more about those idiots who tell their life stories on the 'phone in the train who take up two seats on the bench for one body and who allow their kids to holler in library. i especially agree that something ought to be done about the awful use of grammar in public places by people who should know better.

unfortunately i am unsure her optimism at the end is justified. twelve years on rudeness has just become more systemically and individually entrenched.

but i will end with my own note of optimism. it's new year i guess, so i will try to be nice to more people this year. not because i am nice but because we ought to THINK OF OTHER PEOPLE sometimes.

resuscitated

here she is.

back from two weeks of infirmity and a few days at the store getting a logic board change and two nail-biting days getting the ol' gal back to what she was. 

i have so missed the fingerprint access.

💕

thoughts on New Year's

• taking down the baubles is a pain
• it's shaping up to be a food delivery kinda day