feather_ghyll

With the British summer weather as it is, my back-up plan for my holiday has turned out to be looking for charity shops. It wasn't going to be so extensive as buying nine books (and counting?) but I did leave home for a week's break with only a couple of days' worth on me. And then, apparently, according to the manager of the B and B, there weren't any charity shops where I am staying. Except that I found some. Very well hidden they were too. One develops a nose...

I have wandered through bookstores where they sell newly published books, but can't justify buying anything there just at the moment. I also found a second hand shop after my own heart in an outlying town. Books all piled up in a way that makes you afraid to sneeze, and organised by genre. The children's books available were a bit 'eh' as far as I was concerned though, thin paperbacks that weren't old enough to skew my interest. However, I did get an Angela Brazil, and that cheaply because two of the illustrations were missing, as the bookseller dolefully informed me. Did I care? No. So long as pages including the story aren't missing and the text is legible, sell it to me!

And then the charity shops. I don't want to try to top up how many I've visited over two days. When not shopping, I have been reading, and I may have reviews...eventually, but my brain is far too scrambled for all that now.


PS - About the tennis. I didn't have a prediction for either the male or female champion, as I thought both were within the grasp of a few people. I'm following via the internet at the moment, but it's interesting who seems to have been playing well.

I haven't quite got to grips with the Olymipcs. The Games seem to be ever-present in the BBC schedules, but I seem to catch the less interesting sports (or even 'sports') and the tail-end of the more interesting sports. Well, more interesting to me, which is an eclectic selection. But I am getting sick of watching the commentators get excited by the attempts of the plucky Brit coming sixth out of eight in a sport that will not be shown again for another four years.

What tennis I have managed to catch was Andy Murray losing - the other guy played out of his skin, and while it is nice for Murray that he has Plans A, B, C and D when so many players are one-dimensional (and why he really could be among the cream of the crop if he could bring it all together week in and week out), it is a shame none of them one. One wonders whether Judy Murray's comments will be proved right regarding freshness and the US Open though.

I also saw the final two games of the Federer/Blake quarter final, although it was hard to get involved as they'd flashed the results on the ticker-tape a few minutes before. Poor Federer, by his standards, this is an abysmal year His reputation was carrying him in the talk of a gold medal this year rather than form and results, and I felt he really, really needed it. But now he won't get it. This makes the men's game even more fascinating, and well done Nadal on the No. 1 spot. I have absolutely no idea what his or anyone else's chances are with the medals, but I think that I'll take this opportunity of being online to check up on that rather than continuing to whinge.