Never judge a New Year by its cover

Oh dear. More than two months since my last blog entry? Oh well, New Year, new renewed vigour, perhaps.

The start of this New Year sees our swiming pool complete, but the garden that surrounds it under a continual state of development (as is appropriate perhaps for a Dubai garden). Guarantees from our British builder of a foreman (slightly bolshy, slightly balding, slightly overweight and no doubt not far from retirement; not sure how he takes his cups of tea though) that it will all be done by the end of January are, in my mind, dwindling in their reliability day by day, but we shall see....

Meanwhile - and prepare yourselves for two rather random and unexciting, but to me slightly quirky facts:
(1) I have already managed to start and finish reading a book this year;, and
(2) (For no other reason than it was there when I was standing in the office kitchen boiling the kettle and I thought I'd try it) I have taken a liking to green tea. Not only because it gives me something to do to break up the otherwise long, devoid-of-work office mornings, without having to go buy/make another cup of coffee (which, by lunchtime, is usually all I can taste after maybe 3 or 4 cups). But also, apparently, because it is Good For You^TM.

The book that I read though was called The To-Do List by Mike Gayle. A throw-away trashy novel admittedly, it relates the story of the author's quest to complete a 1,277 to-do list in a year. I read it in 6 days, which by my recent standards is a minor miracle. I'll admit though that it's been a while since I read something quite as easy; a break at least from the political biographies that line my shelves. I'm not convinced that, come the end, the author felt that he had achieved the life-change that was originally his motivation, but it was entertaining none the less. And rang many a few bells.

Next up: A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. It's one of 6 books (including "The To-Do List") that I recently bought here in the Borders sale - all for less than £20. Am already at page 30(!) after 2 days. I hope that I maintain this new found enthusiasm for reading.

And one side point (again, of questionable interest to most) that I will at least admit is that I have rediscovered that there is nothing quite like the smell and feel of a new book. I had been almost sold on the appeal (due mainly I'll admit to its inherent gadgety-ness) of the Amazon Kindle. But now, I'm fairly sure that I don't really want one. There are some things in life that you can't improve on. Brand new paper books are one.