Before the weather got any worse, I made a quick dash into town to stock up with some more Chinese take-aways for the weekend. I also dropped into ALDI to buy some of those special frankfurts which, if you boil them just that little bit longer, reveal a secret opening for the mustard.
Not many people seem to know this, just as not many people seem to share my taste in books and therefore, luckily, leave them for me to pick up whenever I drop into Vinnies, which I did on my way home.
I mean, only a Danielle Steele or Wilbur Smith addict could've gone past a beautifully preserved copy of Ramona Koval's "By the Book - A Reader's Guide to Life" or Gerald Murnane's "A History of Books". At only two dollars each, I felt ashamed to walk out with just two of them, and so I added "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright and Agnes Newton Keith's "Land Below the Wind". I already have a copy of this beautifully written book about Borneo during the times of the British Raj, but this one is a well-kept hardcover with an almost pristine-looking dust jacket.
(They also had a Lonely Planet Australia travel guide which must've been an old edition because in the section where it warns about the deadliest things in the country, it only listed the bull shark and box jellyfish and completely failed to mention Beef Wellington.)
The post box was full of bills, including one for the annual rental of my permissive jetty licence. It's $125 for the rent and a $276 admin fee, which means it costs me twice as much just to have the invoice raised by some overpaid and superannuated public servant. Couldn't they outsource this to someone in Bangalore? I'm sure that's where my call gets re-directed to, should I wish to query this ridiculous charge. (If you wish to help me with this or any other invoice that finds its way into my mailbox, send your cheque to PO Box 233, Batemans Bay NSW 2536)
The severe weather warning is still current. Not that I care. I am back in my bedroom, with the heater switched to HIGH, and ready to get stuck into my newly-acquired books. I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I am like that. If I stop reading, I die.
