Black Monday

And it looks like next Thursday is going to be black as well.

I love Lidl specials, and I hate them too. I bought a set of four pliers, because I don't have any (£3.99), a soldering gun, for which I have no immediate use (£4.99) and a 'perforator set' (£1.99).

There's a gadget for making holes of different sizes, one for installing press studs and one for installing brads/eyelets.

Last night I went to the cinema to see "An Englishman Abroad", which was written by Alan Bennett and filmed in Dundee, as the best substitute for Moscow in 1983. The film was funny but we (the whole audience not just me!) laughed as much at the shots of Soviet Dundee as at the script, I think. My favourite moment was seeing Soviet soldiers marching on guard outside the High School. The extras were all locals - I wonder if any were in the audience last night? I was a stressed bunny afterwards because I went with two people I hadn't seen for ages, and of course I was early while they arrived exactly on time for the film starting. I bought a copy of Simply Knitting on way home, partly because Mary-Lou is in it, and partly for the Beach Bunny Babes. I guess I'll be buying next month's as well, what with the pattern being in two parts, and I want that knitted surfboard!

I also released my first book into the wild . I wonder if I'll ever hear from it again.

I spent Saturday night sorting out my foam shapes into different bags. You know, all the round ones together, all the square things, yada - it was to keep my hands busy while I watched telly, as sore armness prevented my usual occupations.

There was a Kurt Vonnegutt reference in CSI:NY. When they showed a photo of the dead girl to the suspect, he glanced at it and said "So it goes" - Slaughterhouse 5. The cops took this as an expression of callousness, but we know better, eh? Of course, he was the person that had killed her.

NCIS is zooming up my favourite telly chart, and not just cos of the goth girl, who I think is tremendously cute. Week after week, it has well put together plots, funny character interaction and it just all round entertainment. Another new entry in my telly chart is "Spiral", a French thriller being shown on BBC4. It is so different from the usual American imports, and pretty compelling telly. It's shown on Sundays, repeated on Wednesdays, and I'd be happy to watch the same episode twice a week. The French legal system is so different from ours and it is fascinating to get an inside view, even if a dramatised one.