2006 — Day 57 - Mater's festschrift

My sister-in-law in NZ has come up trumps with a marvellous booklet celebrating the life of a certain young lady whose 90th birthday looms at the end of the first week of the New Year. Well done, Lis!

In other news

That wonderful institution the IBM pensions department has already sent me notice of the first payment (accompanied by the tax-free commutated lump sum). Gracious me, a black¹⁷ bank account!

Oops department

Mr Amazon knocked on the door at 8:15 this morning, and thereby managed what must now be his final delivery of 2006. A delightful trio (well, on the evidence of the first 280 pages or so) of fantasy novels by Jonathan Stroud:

The Amulet of Samarkand
The Golem's Eye
Ptolemy's Gate

Or maybe I just have a soft spot for an authorial/narratorial voice that uses footnotes!

30 December 2006

Footnote

¹⁷ Actually, I'm old enough to remember when Barclays (for example) were quite prepared to use a red ribbon in their impact printer. But I've only ever been overdrawn once. On that occasion, caused by one of my former banks taking 24 hours to clear a cash injection, I took umbrage and decided it was a valid reason for changing to another vampiric outfit. You should have seen the stinking letter of complaint I sent them; no effect whatsoever, of course.