between the rock and the cold, cold sea

I am wrecked and nervous, and the cat is needy. Also, my brain and my motivation have eloped, leaving me here alone. With the packing. And the needy cat who is very needy.

Books 2008: 83-84

83. Charles Stross, Saturn's Children.

I liked it. A lot.

84. Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age (Boston, 2004)

A short book, but nonetheless an excellent overview of piracy as a social phenomenon.

#

Gods, I'm tired. And anxious, and under-exercised. Bad combination.

I really just want to go hide in a wardrobe until the packing magically does itself and all this shit goes away.

(And on an unrelated topic, I am pissed off at the racist and sexist dialectic I keep coming across in the national papers. It makes me want to hit something. Can I not just have a civilised country already?)

I have printed out my to-do list and ticked some - not enough, but some - items off of it.

What I have learned about packing for eight weeks as opposed to one: I worry about it much more.

I have also had a haircut, and gone to the climbing wall, where I sent zero routes, despite meeting two nice boys - Andy and Alex - who spotted me a belay each. I fail gecko. But I played around with bouldering and traverses, and know now where my priorities lie this coming October.

(If I climb evenings Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, karate Tuesday and Thursday, pick up a jujitsu lesson on Wednesday evening and do my running at weekends... What, you think I might be trying to do too much again? Probably right. Still, we'll see what the timetable looks like.)

Tomorrow is my day to finish packing everything that goes in checked luggage, and burn CM. Also, more errands in banking and photocopying. Friday I back up files and pack most of carry-on luggage. Saturday noon, pack laptop, head airport-wards.

*frets*

It would be nice if I could actually calm down long enough and far enough to get some writing done. So far, no luck.

So I have 26K on the damned b*&k, and after some good progress, I stalled out yesterday.

( Cut for thinking out loud )

I think this is sufficient complications to stir up that particular character's life. My other two characters - well, one is easy to get to talk about her complications. The other might need some re-examining, but not until I have much more b*&k. I'm aiming at 80K by year's end.

---

In other news, I ran today for the first time in a couple of weeks. Pathetic effort, really, 3x5min intervals with 2mins between them, but still, better than nothing.

I have also started to pack. Packing for eight weeks, on principle, is not so different to packing for one. Except it requires more books. And some DVDs. (I, Spy season one.)

So far, I have:

Karl Schroeder, Son of Suns
Chris Moriarty, Spin State
Mike Carey, Dead Men's Boots
Jack McDevitt, Deepsix
Patrick O'Brien, The Mauritius Command
Graeme Fife, The Terror (non-fic, revolutionary France)
Fontana series of ancient history - The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, The Later Roman Empire, and a book on Hadrian's Wall, all college reading
My karate kihon and kata guide

I've some e-books on the laptop, and I'll probably bring two more in carry-on: I'm thinking LeGuin's Earthsea and probably Zelazny's Lord of Light, since I've been meaning to get around to reading them since forever.

There are also t-shirts, shorts etc, but really. Not so important as books.

Tomorrow I meet the grandmother, then go to town to get a haircut, some suncream, some aftersun, some soaps, maybe another pair of shorts, and sundry other things. Paracetamol, probably, and lipbalm. Handcream? Face wipes?

Also, print out ticket, photocopy passport. Go climbing, one hopes.

Other stuff. So much to do. Only three and a half days left.