Certainly no more books! Not for a while anyway.
a while adv until all six books and one graphic novel have been read in their entirity and possibly re-read.
The day was never destined to follow any rules. It started innocently as an inexpensive trip to the Melbourne Museum to check out the Spirit of the Games exhibit. It was going to cost $12 for my parents and I to get in - Dad gets free entry - and it was going to be a day spent walking happily through all the exhibitions and learning new things. Unfortunately I didn't realise that the exhibition was opening at 15:00 today so we only got to see the Spring Roll (a.k.a. flying W-Classd Tram from the Ceremony). Needless to say there were proud photos being taken by my parents and we decided to take a raincheck and explore the Food & Wine festival just outside.
Of all the ways to pass a morning off, knocking back small samples of dessert wine with my Mum was not what I would have guessed. The wine was lovely though and we each bought two bottles. I got a bottle of feijoa wine and a bottle of blood plum rosé. Very yummy. We also experienced our first taste of fresh pistachio nuts. I honestly held the belief that the lurid pink and green colours must have been part of the salting process of these nuts, but have been pleasantly surprised to discover that they actually are that colour. We decided they were quite addictive and bought four bags ($5/bag) as a result.
With our snacks for the day taken care of we trundled off to the Vic Markets to pick up some souvenirs for Dad to take to the Closing Ceremony for the teams he walks with. While at the market I found this snazzy-oh-so-fashionable black military (?) style jacket that I had to have. It was a bargain at $35 and we all know how I feel about jackets. While browsing the Market we also discovered that for $10 we could have bought a kilo of fresh pistachios as opposed to the kilo that we bought for $20. We're taking that as a learning experience though.
After quick lunch break, a fast shop for nuts for Herman (man that rat gets spoilt) and a short walk to the car I was on my way home. Not for long though. I dropped my stuff and headed straight to Chapel Street to meet up with Matt for an afternoon of shopping. (This is the part where it starts to go a little wrong)
I was quite proud at how little I'd spent so far in the day and wasn't planning on buying much, but then we got talking and Neil Gaiman came up and I became fixated on buying a copy of Death, the high cost of living so we went to Borders. Despite them not having a copy of the comic, I walked out of the shop with no less than three Robert Asprin books. You see Borders were having a "buy two get the third book free" deal on all sci-fi & fantasy books. Bargain! We wandered down Chapel Street, Matt got a great pair of jeans and funky t-shirt while I apparently flirted with the guy in the shop. A cup of hot chocolate and a debrief of the ceremony and I was back on a tram on my homeward journey.
Over cups of hot chocolate we debriefed the ceremony a bit, discussed work and life and the all important question of "what's for dinner"? This caused me to remember that I'm almost out of yoghurt. I figured that I'd just stop by Lygon Court and pick some up on the way home. As some of you may know, Lygon Court has a Borders in it... it's just to your right as you enter from Lygon Street while you innocently try and walk past to the supermarket...
As I walked past the bookstore I thought to myself that I should go and see if they had a copy of the aforementioned comic. Happily they did. They also had the book that I'd read an excerpt of on the tram, on the way to Lygon Court, in one of those free sampler books that I was given after buying the Robert Asprin books in the other bookshop. Naturally having picked up one book I had to search for a second reasonably priced book so that I could get my bargain third book free. An hour later I exited the shop $88 poorer but guiltily happy in the knowledge that I now own, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire, The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin, Shadowfall by James Glemens and of course Death, the high cost of living by Neil Gaiman.
Oh and in case you're wondering, I did remember to get the yoghurt too.
So now I'm at home with plenty to read and a fair bit of guilt over the book spree. I should never be allowed in a bookshop unsupervised. Retail therapy and a good nights sleep have done me wonders though. I'm in good spirits again and ready to tackle a big day of paperwork and preparations for the Closing Ceremony (which is just a week away!)
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