La Tourneuse

As recommended by sp33dway, me and now also Nicky. Unfortunately a few brief sweeps of the local second-hand book shops since I read it have yielded nothing more by the same author except further copies of Blindness. I did fish out my library card a couple of months ago but I've not yet been able to face heading into the library to face the disappointment I know lurks therein. It's a shame that a giant library in a proper city should be shamed by the village library of my childhood; even though at least three-quarters of the shelves were legally obliged be occupied by large-print crime novels there was still plenty for me to read both as a child and youth. Whilst I had access to them I stuck to the uni libraries and only registered at the municipal version when I had to. I expect if I were more into biographies and suchlike that I might feel there was a little more choice but nothing really jumped out of the fiction section, especially the bits comprising the unread books by preferred authors which are the usual starting-point. I am led to believe that the wee local borough libraries are better than the big central one but suspect I'll have to re-register for them and only carry proofs of address round with me if I've been out to collect an undelivered parcel somewhere.

Which reminds me...

Following the series of postal strikings recently I was pleasantly surprised to receive a "we tried to deliver, honest" card on Thursday for a three-week-late birthday present for someone. It was dated Wednesday but I just assumed it had been stuck in another random letterbox in the stair and had taken a day to percolate down. Yesterday I took it with me to work and went to the sorting office on the way home as the card said "please wait 48 hours before coming to collect" which (according to the alleged "11am" on the card) meant that it should have been ready.
I am used to stupidity and obtuseness from the Royal Mail and their people in Brunswick Road in particular but this was even better than their usual standard. Hand card over. Show ID. Blokey scuttles off. Five minutes elapse. Mp3 player is installed. Three further minutes elapse. Blokey returns clutching card and no parcel.

"It's not here come back next week."
"But the card says you tried to deliver it."
"Aye but it's not here."
"So where is it?"
"Could be in Livingston."
*look*
"When might it be back here and is there any way of telling that it's here when it is here?"
"Naw. Do you want the number for customer services?"

I almost popped back along there this morning to see if the performance varies at different times of day or if the parcel was there but was just too deeply-buried on Friday for the weeblokey to be bothered to retrieve it but opted for a lie-in instead.