Hello Internets!

Did you miss me?

Thought not... : /

2006 already - back to school next week! So far, it's been a good year. Have accomplished precisely nothing productive with my holidays, to wit:

- Read Cory Doctorow's back catalogue. I really love Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. It's one of the most beautiful books I've read in ages.

-Read Richard Morgan's Woken Furies: luckily Market Forces was the fluke...a return to form. Could be the last Kovacs novel, by the feel of it, but we have his fantasy trilogy to look forward to!

- Just finished Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen)'s novel The Vesuvius Club - Edwardian Bond-ish secret agent: smashing! (Ooh - Graphic Novel! Intriguing!)

-Read far too many comics, and watched lots of TV. Bad TV. Did you know She-Ra once fought the Stoat People? I shit you not. Stoat People.

-Saw Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (Thanks expoduck !) Although I'll miss Ecclestone, I'm looking forward to Tennant's run. Is it just me, or has he been everywhere since he was annonced as Who? Potter, Casanova, Blackpool...

-Ripped 6/10ths of our CD collection

-Saw Kong and Narnia. Enjoyed both.

-Worked Christmas at the bookshop. Tiring.

-Spent a few days at Ttekceba Retreat. with the Muffin. Yes, it is as beautiful as it looks. Eccentric, bohemian, and utterly restful. Veronika, the owner, has a continuous house sale in progress (to circulate her extensive collection), so we returned with a naked lady and a pangolin.

Odd dreams - mainly chitinous:

- We live in a row of terrace houses, and own two pet spiders, one black, and one white (named Andrea). They look like huntsmen, about the size of your hand. They are very tame, and will abseil from the roof of the terrace to your hand for a sachet of the pinkish goo we feed them. Cute!  

-More of a vignette: a human-sized mantis-like being, covered with thick downy fur, trying to negotiate a barstool. Advice from others at the bar ranges from "crouch on it with all four legs" to "rest your thorax on it and let your legs hang," only confusing the creature further.

-Just about everyone I know is gathered in a bluestone square under a clocktower. I think we are about to sit an examination. It is very important, but I don't know what it's for. Inside the building is a pulsating Brain Bug type creature, waiting to assess us.

Going to try to post here more - hopefully these dreams keep up!