I realised while driving in the car, and flicking frantically through the menu on my mp3 player (not as dangerous as it sounds, honestly - I was on a nice straight bit of road) that I had neglected to rip the ninth CD of Birds of the Feather, the 30s mystery novel I’ve been listening to. Just as Maisie Dobbs, detective and psychologist, was sitting down to discuss the case with the police detective, the calm British voice of the narrator announced, “This ends Disc 8″, and I pressed the button to flick through to Disc 9. Which wasn’t there. Disc 10 was, of course. So I’ve neatly missed at least an hour of narration, and probably the most crucial and exciting bit of the story. I can’t decide whether to just listen to Disc 10, and try and figure out what happened on Disc 9, or to get the discs out of the library again and rip the missing one, which will probably take at least a week. Well, actually, I can decide - I’m just going to listen to Disc 10, because I’m far too impatient to wait a week to find out what happens. But you can be sure that I spent some time stomping around muttering “Bother!” after making that little discovery.
We had some friends over for lunch on Sunday - we have decided that we should do this more often, because it forces us to do dull things like clean the shower, and sweep off the verandahs. Um, and because we like our friends too, of course. Because it was a tremendously hot day, after lunch we retired to the spa, with the esky full of vodka & limes (me) and beer (everyone else) in easy reach. I have decided it is a very civilised way to spend the afternoon. We have decided the heater on the spa is either broken, or we can’t figure out how to turn it on, but this will only become a problem in winter - at the moment, the cold, bubbling water is the perfect antidote to humid summer days.
5 Comments
14 January, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I’m impressed that you just stuck to “bother”. I let fly a little more fruitily than that. But after sitting through No Country for Old Men and realising that in amongst all the violence there had been NO swearing, I decided I really must try harder.
15 January, 2008 at 4:57 am
Oh! I am so impressed with your ability to just deal with the missing chapter. I would have rearranged my entire Monday morning just so I could get to the library to check out the missing disc as soon as possible.
But that is because I am a nerd who loves order. And chapters? They are numbered so that they stay in order. Order!
Oh, my heartbeat and breathing are both irregular just thinking about it!
15 January, 2008 at 5:53 am
Bother might have been a little bit of an exaggeration, Hazel. But I do remember my mother giving me a lecture on swearing in my teenage years and telling me that “bother” relieved quite as many feelings as other words, and I should stick to that one in times of stress. Was there no swearing in No Country? No, I guess not - I didn’t notice that at all, I was too filled with dread during the entire thing.
I know, it’s a bit awful isn’t it Artemesia? And it wasn’t just a chapter, there would have been several chapters on the disc, which just make the whole thing worse. I started listening to the next disc, and thankfully the murderer gave a neat little summary of “this is what I did and why I did it”, which I imagine were the things they discovered in disc 9. I do wish I’d got to listen to it though!
16 January, 2008 at 9:05 am
I have been looking at your photo project on Flickr and was thinking of doing the same. It really gives you a feel for the day.
23 January, 2008 at 9:06 pm
It’s great fun Kate, and I think it’ll be great to look back on. I’ve been lazy and leaving the photography until the end of the day, which is a bad idea, and results in crappy photos - I’m going to have to fit it into my day better.
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