Current read. I bought it a week or so ago when I realised I’d be waiting over an hour for an appointment I’d been given the wrong time for. I absolutely adore the surrealism of Murakami’s work; he’s like a literary Salvador Dali only not quite as crazy - he uses a style, like Dali, that’s quite detailed, realistic and figurative, and applies it to a subject matter that twists the world in a brilliant and engaging way.

And my fiancé is convinced that he’s a ninja.

Guest starring me and my stupid hair :)

Thursday was a much more eventful day at work, since the paper had gone out and we were starting to get once again swamped with people writing in. All the same, I went on a little walkabout at lunch time - the weather was gorgeous; too nice to sit in the office all day; plus I was hungry and had some photos to pick up.

The black and white prints turned out satisfactory, though a lot of them were blurred due to inadequate light. This didn't surprise me as a lot of the pictures had been taken on a winter evening. I'd try to defend them as having an almost spectral quality to them but - well, they're a bit naff. You can see what's on them but it's all fuzzy and vague.

The colour film was my main concern. Because my camera had faffed up and the film had detached itself, I hadn't been able to rewind it. I'd realised in Blue Planet that something was horribly wrong. At home, I made the crucial mistake of opening it up - and even though I did it with the curtains closed, the film was still exposed to white light. I was expecting the worst when I picked up the film, but the result wasn't terrible. The Perry shot survived, as did the rather ironic one of Anna sulking because I wouldn't take a picture of her. I lost all the Blue Planet and museum photos, but got a few of the rather arty ones of a heap of my jewellery. I'm hoping to turn those into a large-scale painting.

The funny thing is, I didn't see these travesties until I showed Jason later on. So this is the first glimpse he's seen of my photography, and they also happen to be totally not indicative of my skill. Excellent. So now I look like a crap photographer!

( Anyway... )