Lunchtime (yesterday)

I made it out of the office this lunchtime for a change (something that I'm trying to do more often) with the fairly simple mission in mind of buying a cycle cape/poncho and a book-chair for my recipe books, as seen at white_harts.

The first thing I did, therefore was go into Borders. Unfortunately, this instantly proved that I was in one of my very easily distracted moods (I am amused to note that I left of at very when writing this yesterday) and am instantly sucked in by their new magazine area, which is huge and has many many different magazines on it.

I have sadly reached a stage where magazines make me feel old. When I was young, I used to read Cosmo. At first I hoped to learn things and later I still found it amusing. After a while though, I tired of it and moved on to things like New Woman, Marie Claire and so on. I enjoyed them aesthetically and sometimes found the articles interesting or amusing. These days though, I look at the front covers and, well, nothing draws me. I remember going on holiday to stay with a friend my mothers age when I was around 18 and reading her (I think) Good Housekeepings and something else of that ilk, but even those don't look appealing now. Magazines for older women who wish they were younger women. So what is there for me. I get the WeightWatchers mag occasionally (I like the success stories and the recipes are useful too) but I want more. Maybe I should get a regular newspaper or something - perhaps that would do it. What periodicals do you lot read, anyway?

So I wandered round feeling rather overwhelmed by the number of things in Borders to be distracted by and, failing to find any book chairs, left and went to Waterstones. Where I still felt slightly overwhelmed by distractions. A staff member asked me what I was looking for and sent me up a floor where I did the same thing (Cookery books... Wine books... Gardening books... SF shelf) until another staff member sent me back down a floor so I decided to give it up for the day.

Next stop the outdoor shop where I did manage to get a poncho to wear on the bike, thus guaranteeing a dry winter. Then I decided I really wanted a nice civilized lunch somewhere - perhaps a soup and a paper or something of that nature. Unfortuanatly, the News cafe was closed for a re-fit, leaving me unable to think of any other venue likely to supply both of those things. If only I'd bought something to read at Borders. Ah well. Passing the Works, I noticed that they were having a "Closing down for refit" sale and decided to have one more shot for a book chair. Again, no luck but I did finally buy a shredder, which I've been meaning to do for ages. I decided to call it a day and settle for eating a baguette back at the office. Such is life.

Oh, by the way, new icon is of Charlie pouncing on the cord for Jeremy's camera as the picture is taken. Cute or what?

Interests list

Haven't done one of these in a while but for some reason this piqued my fancy...

1. caption 2002:
   Well, I helped to run it, so I was fairly interested at the time. I went through a phase of putting each Caption in my interests list but didn't keep it up. I should remove this really.
2. cowley:
   Yay. Cowley road is cool. I've spent a lot of my time in Oxford living there and I love the feel of interesting and perhaps slightly weird things going on in the shops, pubs and homes.
3. earl grey:
   Tea!!!!! My favourite type of tea.
4. liberal democrats:
   Yeah. I'm a boring, middle of the road person (although practically a leftie these days, I suppose). I have a post in mind in fact about the merits of absorbing ideas from all sides of the spectrum and that's partly what I look for from the Lib Dems - a willingness to listen to ideas from either side
5. mathematics:
   I did my degree in maths, you know. I still remember the sense of satisfaction and excitement I got from taking my Set theory and logic course (I know). It's the same base instinct that powers me to be interested in programming and in philosophy.
6. oxford university:
   This is where I did my degree. It rocked.
7. reading:
   Books, internet, stuff, it's all good. I enjoy absorbing a story via reading almost more than any other medium
8. small press comics:
   I find that it's very rare that mainstream comics are writing about the sort of things I'm interested in, or indeed real people at all. Sometimes I'm in the mood for superheros but when I'm not, it's the small press I turn to.
9. the zodiac:
   Not the signs, but the club. The Zodiac puts on good gigs and ... well, as I'm not much into clubbing, that's why it's there.
10. ursula le guin:
    I came late to the Earthsea books but very much enjoyed them and they're still regular re-reads. As an aside, I really wish you could capitalize LJ interests.

Enter your LJ user name, and 10 interests will be selected from your interest list.