Early morning somewhere in Styria

The first look out of the window was... well, beyond description. It rained during the night, and the ground is still very warm, so when I opened my eyes shortly after sunrise there was this slowly-rising mist backlit by the sun. It was *golden*. Some treetops peeking out and a pale blue sky. Beautiful.

Janine, the wise woman, was right to take the adjacent room so she can sleep undisturbed. I finished lying across the bed, near the headboard, while Lucius and Cornelius were occupying the lowe half, luxuriously spread out across the duvets.

Not usually an agressive person, I'm driven to unknown heights of anger by people who claim deckchairs by depositing towels etc. at 7 a.m.!! This is so... aargh! My vocabulary is letting me down. Petty doesn't even begin to describe it, and 'greedy' is but a euphemism. Can't they just go to the pool after stuffing themselves silly at breakfast, and take what's left? No, they can't.

Discussion last night over dice poker (that the right word?). It turned out that both Janine and I are happy about my not being a mother, considering how I am with my cats. I.e. disregarding the rule that one must *not* take food from the breakfast buffet up to one's rooms. Shameless ham-filching yesterday morning, and even more shameless--because more blatant--abduction of two slices of roast beef and two of roast veal after dinner. Plus, extremely indignant reaction to fireworks ("I wish they'd blow themselves up") which caused both kittens, hackles raised and tails looking like feather boas, to hide behind the curtains. Will have to give them something for New Year's Eve, poor things.

Much as I love fireworks, I hate the noise. To think that people all over the world have to *live* with those sounds, only it's not for amusement...

Proud

Finished betaing ch. 1 and 2 of The Lady, or the Snow Leopard during breakfast. (Not really breakfast, just black coffee and delicious mix of pineapple+apricot juice+water) Very pleased with myself.
Stole ham for kittens and gave it to them, mixed with a few spoons of their favourite baby food (carrots, rice and turkey). Can't understand why people bother with buying cat food. It stinks. can't stand it. Much better to boil some fish or meat without salt and put in a bit of baby food. They love it, I love it, and it's healthy.

Slightly dazed and not making much sense

Should be writing instead of reading fanfiction. But hayseed updated Ordinary People, which doesn't allow for that kind of discipline, because it's one of the best stories out there. Another proof of the theory that, no matter how well-used a plot, a good author is always able to make something remarkable of it.

What else? Some hours ago, in the thermal jacuzzi--side note: NEVER enter a thermal jacuzzi without a man you can devour immediately afterwards--it occurred to me that I have to change my opinion on threesomes. While the idea never seemed particularly alluring, the (purely imaginative but nonetheless enthralling) possibility of having one with Timothy Dalton and Jason Isaacs has made me reconsider my former opinion. Does anybody know how to create doppelgangers? If you do, please send recipe.

Started reading Yann Martell's 'Life of Pi' today and am utterly fascinated. Weird. Now that two years of writing and betaing have developed my ability to put into precise words what I like/dislike about a story, a book still has to capture me on a gut level to be a complete success. And I unashamedly confess that I'm still occasionally buying a book merely because I like the cover illustration. Strangely enough, this method has produced very few failures. But 'Life of Pi' is one of those books I wholeheartedly agree deserved the Booker Prize they got. Which cannot be said about every winner. The last book (or rather, books) I was so totally drawn into was Pullman's 'His Dark Materials'. Writing at its most accomplished, really. Strange that he isn't a lot more famous than JKR. Simply for successfully pulling the trick of making a character (Lord Asriel) dominate the trilogy, although he scarcely ever appears.

OK, nuff ranted. Going to take a shower and then, if there's enough time, write another bit of TSO 27. When will this monster ever be finished? 27 chapters for a scant 1 1/2 months? That's 190.000 words. Yuck.