Brrr - it's Thursday

What a great start to the day - woke up, went downstairs, tried to have breakfast - no milk (apart from a little skimmed - yuk!). Thought it felt a bit cold in the house - yes, the central heating hasn't come on. OK - no problem, the boiler just needs re-set again, I thought. I tried everything, but couldn't get it going, so resorted to having a shower downstairs - how unpleasant is that?

I then tried to go online and book an emergency engineer's visit - it was still only 6:40 am remember. No joy - next Wednesday the earliest date available. Eventually phoned them - yes they would come out today - what time would you like? All day or just 12-6 pm? All day, says I - by this time, her majesty has arisen - "not this morning" she cries - "I've got a hairdresser's appointment" - cancel it, says I - this is far more important - cue scowling faced wife. What does she want me to do - take a day off work just so that she can keep her appointment at the Ladies Barber Shop? Bah!

Situation eventually resolved with a (near) smile as I headed off to Fraserburgh again - Jo eventually realised she could still go to her hairdresser's and leave Ross to wait for gas man. It has, however, screwed up our plans to go to see Invictus (http://invictusmovie.warnerbros.com/) at the cinema this afternoon.

So, yesterday, I finished my latest audiobook on the way home from Fraserburgh - A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs (http://www.augusten.com/site/a-wolf-at-the-table) - a pretty harrowing and personalised tale from his childhood. The author himself does the reading - and he acts the part out in full. He's tried to make it a bit of a multi-media event as well - the soundtrack has occasional music and other noises added to it for dramatic effect, and, at the end there are a few songs specially written by his favourite singers (including Patti Smith). It's made in 100 little mp3 "chapters" which is quite helpful if you miss a bit and want to go back. A lot of audiobooks come in only 3, 4 or 5 sections and it's pretty awkward to re-wind them.

My home reading has stalled a bit just now - there's a pile of 5 or 6 books lying on the bedside table. I'm reading occasional bits of 2 of them and the others are being saved up for holidays - these include the next 2 instalments in the Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson plus Ginger Baker's autobiography (a Christmas present!).

Incidentally, notice the mis-spelling of "Februrary" in the calendar adjacent? Not my fault, guv.

Are we fed up with Word of the Day yet? No voting on this - I'll decide - and yes, I think so, but, just to round things off, what about one last one? - COQUETRY. It's a noun, meaning dalliance, flirtation - and the example given is "'You were probably very bored by it,' he said, catching at once, in mid-air, this ball of coquetry that she had thrown to him". - extract from Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.