Ride 'em cowboy!

Just a quickie to say both Chelsea & I got offered jobs at the Stampede as bussers (people who seat customers, chat to them, then clear up when they go) in the Budweiser tent, which was not quite what we wanted, but all the bartending & serving jobs had gone already, despite it only being the second day of 2 weeks of interviews! We've accepted them - there will be some tips though not the big bucks we were hoping for - but I'm also pursuing an alternative avenue of bartending jobs through a friend of some guy I met on the bus back from Sunshine a few days ago. Hey, you gotta try everything, right? But if that doesn't come off, we'll go with what we have. Incidentally, and much to my amusement, my job offer sheet actually says 'Position: Bus'. I do hope this doesn't mean I have to offer free rides...

In other news I've just finished A Spot of Bother (the new book by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time) which was absolutely superb and I heartily recommend it. Brilliant characterisation - the best written child I've ever read - great story, pin sharp observations and hilarious to boot. Utterly unputdownable, if such a word exists, which, if not, it should. It made me feel terribly nostalgic for home, because it's so very, very English, and as such, so dry I would have to advise you not to smoke around it.

The saga comes to a close

Well.

I'm extremely mindful that my biggest fear - and the reason I raced through the latest and last Harry Potter at a fair old speed - was that someone might ruin it for me by giving me even the merest hint of what might happen and therefore I shan't be posting anything on here which could give anyone still reading (or yet to read) any clues.

All I'll say then is that I wasn't disappointed for a moment.

Big night

As you may have guessed, my internet access is, at best, sporadic. I've just been staying at my friends Sophie & Dan's while they've been on holiday* and they don't have wireless broadband (the heathens!) and I swear to God** I felt like I'd been cut off from the whole universe. Which, in a sense, I suppose I was.

Anyway, enough of this nonsense. Tonight is, as you will no doubt be aware, a momentous and long-awaited occasion. HP7: the saga comes to a close. At once both incredibly exciting and incredibly sad. I shall be collecting my copy at midnight and reading through the night, each turn of the page an intrepid journey into the unknown. I shall race to finish it, heart in mouth and hands all a-tremble, and cry when I do; of that I have no doubt. Then I'll turn to page 1 and begin again.

I shan't post any spoilers, rest assured.

*I seem to have given up on bed rating, because I keep forgetting to take pictures: sorry
**a.k.a. Silas the Hobbit