Fragments

I have my book! I also have dirt on my forehead from when I blacked-out in the middle of a path and somehow avoided the broken glass bits. And in a minute or so I will have a cup of coffee right next to me. Life is so exciting! Confession: I have a weakness for very silly Ben Stiller films. Dodgeball and Zoolander, particularly tickle my funny bone. So, when I saw the trailer for Tropic Thunder, I felt compelled to spread the news: think Apocalypse Now but with Ben Stiller as an action hero, Steve Coogan as the director and, er, Robert Downey Jr as an Australian Oscar-winning ah-k-tor who takes method acting to extremes .. It'll probably be utterly naff but I like being utterly naff at times. Sue me.

Okay, less naff entertainment: do judge a book by its cover. Aww..

On Parcels Expected And Unexpected

Isn't that just pretty?

My Canadian friend, Fearthainn, wrote to me asking for my snail mail when she realised that a) I had rediscovering crocheting and knitting and b) I had fallen ill.

And she has just sent me the most beautiful handspun yarn I have ever seen in my life. Yes, she is a yarn-spinner and a knitter and I'm a bit in awe. I have no idea what I'll make from these skeins of beauty (the picture does not do them justice - trust me) but I'll be beaming like an utter fool whilst knitting. Thank you, C. It may be a small gesture for you, but it means a lot to me.

In other news, my postman might just be a tiny bit scared of me because these past few days I have been eyeing him somewhat obsessively. I pre-ordered the new Philip Pullman from Amazon on March 23. Now I may have mixed up the dates slightly and have been looking forward to the book arriving as early as Tuesday (it's published today, Thursday), so apologies to the postie .. but it also turns out that a certain net-based bookseller has f'd up and I won't get my book until, er, Monday. Do you think if I scare my postman even more, he might be inclined to find the book parcel for me personally and bring it to me sooner than that?

Yes, I know there are bookshops in Glasgow and they'll have it in stock .. but I'm house-bound right now due to me being slightly too active earlier on this week. Boo. Hiss.

At least I have Radiohead playing live on the Beeb streaming through the speakers and so the world's okay and everything is in its right place. Except my book. Which should be in my hand.

Cardboard Art

Very cool: Cardboard art. You take a piece of cardboard, sneakily remove the flat top layer so the corrogated inner workings are revealed, add a dash of colour and you've got art! Okay, it's a bit more complicated than that but it's very nifty.

Read the entire arty blog or just click the top link for easy gratification.

Saving Our Botanics

The Glasgow Botanic Garden is a treasure grove of abandoned Victorian buildings, rose gardens, playing grounds, medicinal plant beds, squirrels chasing squirrels and big glasshouses filled to the brim with exotic plants. For some unfathomable reason, a property developer has decided that it would be a really fantastic idea to put a nightclub in the middle of this. And for an even more unfathomable reason, the idea has actually made it to the City Council.

Quite apart from the fact that the Botanics provide a wonderful gateway to the River Kelvin, that they are a real haven in the midst of the very busy West End and that you already have numerous nightclubs in the area, the suggested site is the abandoned railway station dating back to the late 19th century.

The railway station lies underground and its platforms are only visible in glimpses - magical, wildly absurd glimpses - and in order to redevelop it, a large portion of the Botanics would need to be disturbed. A protected species of bats live in the rail way tunnels. They will lose their habitat.

So, today we went to the Botanics, were handed small flags staking a claim to the Botanics and planted our flags in the wet, muddy place that might just turn into a nightclub. The organisers had managed to gather a huge crowd, the sun came out just in time for the news cameras and children played among the daffodils. I'm a firm believer in ordinary people being able to use our voice to change things. I hope our voice will be heard.

Save Our Botanics // More than 1,000 people gather in the Botanics // Botanics protest held in West End

Careful, Stumble, You Might Fall

I'd show you a picture, but it's a bit too gruesome: I have yarn burn on my left hand. It's all band-aided up now, but I had to abandon the yarn-fest late yesterday night after it started hurting too much. Who knew that my latest obsession would turn this nasty? I'm accustomed to paper cuts, of course, and dropping books on my feet/head/other limbs - but yarn is supposed to be soft and snuggly, isn't it?

Life's small adventures continue.

I nearly had a blackout in my favourite bookshop (scroll down to end of page) the other day. Again, you might think "Fainting in a bookshop? ah, but at least they have aisles and nice sofas.." but my favourite bookshop is naturally one of those places where the books are overflowing the shelves, spilling unto cluttered piles on the floor and me keeling over dramatically would just cause an avalanche of books that'd block the entrance. Plus I might injure one of the cats or dogs.

I'm awaiting an appointment with a neurologist.

And finally, just because I have a huge stack of SF/fantasy links (mostly all from Other Half who's slightly tired of me obsessively surfing for beautiful, beautiful injury-inducing yarn): say, you want to create an alien language..?

Novy Odense

The pilot gingerly untangled his fingers from the rope he'd been holding on to, worked out which way up he was, shifted the tool box off his legs, wiped the oily water out of his eyes, and hauled himself upright.

"Well, Hester, looks like we're getting the hang of this," he said.

His dæmon, who looked like a small sardonic jackrabbit, flicked her ears as she clambered out of the tangle of tools, cold-weather clothing, broken instruments and rope. Everything was saturated.

"My feelings are too deep to express, Lee," she said.

You can read the excerpt from Philip Pullman's prequel to His Dark Materials here. Once Upon A Time in the North will be out on April 3 and is available to preorder from Amazon already.