A quick post a la "Keeping up with Katie": I've been in a music rut for the last month, just listening to my playlist of top-rated music from all the thousands of tracks I have. Today, while I'm working, I'm listening to Les Miserable from start to finish... something I don't think I've done since moving here. I love rediscovering why I've always loved this music. "The world is full of happiness I have never known."
This is the week of short posts... maybe I'll get a little existential next week. Anyway the silly paragraph below will explain the title.
Today I picked up an extra shift of volunteering at our local Oxfam charity book shop. Since moving to Clifton Village, I've stopped by the bookshop at least twice a month. Most of the time trying very hard to resist buying another book. It definitely helps to have the local branch of the library right across the street. On more than one occasion I've found a book I'd like to buy then run over to the library and borrowed it. [smile] Anyway I decided a couple of weeks ago that I'd really like to volunteer a couple of hours a week at the shop to bring a little stability to my schedule and hopefully to take advantage of the opportunity to meet a few more people in my neighborhood. I've worked a couple of times so far and its been really great. Today was my first shift totally by myself and it went really well. The manager checked the afternoon sales and they were about equal to all that was sold yesterday. Perhaps this is because Thursday gets sales from people anticipating the free time for the weekend, maybe it was just a fluke. I like to think the spike in sales was because of the extra sweet smile of the Georgia "Peach" behind the counter. My mission to spread Southern hospitality wherever I go seems fairly secure.
Conducting some preliminary research yesterday and today at the Bristol Central Library. I've found some useful information, still waiting to hit that perfect source that will open up the whole dialogue of my dissertation. But sitting at my desk in the library now all I can focus on is my need of some caffeine either in the form of tea or coffee. I guess I underestimated my level of addiction today. I'm usually able to skip a morning or two during the week... this should not have been one of those mornings. Think I'll pop down to the library cafe and check out the fare before I take on the microfiche. [smile]
One of my favorite pastimes is just walking around the streets in Clifton Village, where I live. Its not a particularly large commercial area, but the shops are all quirky and you never know what you'll find. I should also clarify that Clifton is the "posh" area of Bristol so mostly I just window shop. Just a few feet from my front door is a small bridal boutique and each week they change the dress in the window. Some of the dresses I've liked, others I can't imagine ever wearing. Last week the dress in the window was perfect... simple, understated, and sweet. In saying all that I know it must sound like I'm one of those girls who when she was little planned out all that day would entail, but I promise I'm not, really. My little sisters and I used to pretend with our box of dress up clothes and baby dolls, but I can't remember a time when we imagineered a wedding, except maybe between Ken and Barbie. [smile] Despite that I must have over the years of watching movies and flipping through family photo albums arrived at some idea of what I might like because looking at the dress I just knew.
Last Tuesday I attended a pub night with my host Rotary Club. A little ways out from Bristol, we met at a pub that had a skittles alley. If you're not sure what I'm talking about see definition. Sounds like it should be a lot like ten pin bowling right? Well, its not really. The scale is completely different and though I'm not a great bowler, after trying both I think it really takes much more skill to play skittles. Just in case you ever find yourself in an English pub getting ready to play, I'll enlighten you to some of the "tricks," literally from the ground up. Beware the skittles alley. It's slanted... purposely and not visible to the naked eye. Arched in the middle making the task of aligning the ball with the pins decidedly more difficult. Then take the skittles, aka pins, themselves. They are shorter than bowling pins. Their shape with the bulging part in the middle make them harder to hit with the wooden ball, which is deceptively heavy and is just the right size to pass directly through the skittles formation without touching a single pin. Still its a fun game and because it takes considerable skill or great luck to play well, there's little danger of anyone taking the idea of competition too seriously.
skittle |ˈskitl|noun
1 ( skittles) [treated as sing. ] a game played, chiefly in Britain, with wooden pins, typically nine in number, set up at the end of an alley to be bowled down with a wooden ball or disk.
2 a pin used in the game of skittles.
