Old bags and books

Goodness, where has the week gone? I thought I had nothing much to do, but after the wedding, gradually things popped up on the calendar.

First I had to reinstate all my bits and bobs into my large handbag. This is not quite on the scale of Lady Bracknell's, but it is, for starters, a portable pharmacy - indigestion tablets for M and for me; tablets for even more unsavoury stomach problems; aspirins, toothpicks, emery boards; tissues. Then, there's the makeup - eye pencil, eye shadow, lipstick, stuff to touch up spots - you name it, it's in there. And of course, on the whole, I don't make use of any of it. I just feel insecure without it. But at the wedding last week, I had to condense all my stuff into a smart little bag that went with the dress. I had a wallet with one credit card, and I could barely squeeze into the evening bag my reading glasses (for the menu) and two or three bits of makeup. Anyway, all's back to normal and I can be a slob again, in my trousers and jumpers.

I was out at a meeting on Monday evening; met my ex-neighbour for a natter on Wednesday afternoon and then to Sainsbury's; visited a friend who's husband just died on Thursday morning, and went to the Book Circle on Thursday evening. I hadn't quite finished the book, Love on the Dole but I have now. It was actually a revelation. That things could have been so bad, it's almost impossible to believe, except of course that they were. The writer, Walter Greenwood, was a young man, himself, at the time of writing and had various jobs, and drew the dole himself several times. There was barely any food to go around for the unemployed, and they lived in the same rags for years and years. It was an authentic view of poverty - real poverty - of people living lives almost completely devoid of hope. It made me think of The Grapes of Wrath. My only complaint was that I found the dialect difficult to understand.

On Friday night, my brother-in-law came for dinner, and we had our usual battle of the sexes.

Anne has completely restyled the Goldenford website, and it's worth going to have a look at it, because it's very elegant indeed now. I, in the meantime, have been adding to my own website, the ability to buy my books through Paypal. Unfortunately, I couldn't upload what I'd done, and had to keep beggin my service provider to sort it out. They finally sent me six sides of information and it turned out to be something to do with pop-up windows, which could have interfered with the upload facility. My son, when I told him this morning, on the phone, didn't believe a word of it, and humphed and huffed as if I had done something stupid. I grumbled at him and reminded him that he might have studied computers for his degree, but I've never had a lesson, just muddled along. The reason for sorting out my site was that Elizabeth Grace, one of my friends on Myspace, has asked for a copy of each of my books and Paypal is a very efficient way of receiving money from America. The books are going off on Monday, and I really hope you enjoy them, Elizabeth.

In what was left of the week, I dealt with some of the things on my current list, including booking the doctor, the dentist and the hairdresser, all in the next couple of weeks. I also sent off a terza rima to the Writing Magazine poetry competition, and dealt with a couple more invitations. If I send out any much later than this, they'll arrive at the party in time to see the rest of the guests departing.