My Week | 7 July (with added pig)

I haven’t referred to this as an update on my reading week because I haven’t actually done much reading, for which I blame Wimbledon. Sporting distraction will be made much worse by the advent of the Tour de France which started yesterday but that is much more manageable because I tend to only watch the highlights. So that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

More about the pig later.

So I’m currently reading two books; The Clockwork Scarab which I mentioned in last week’s post I think (checks – yes, I did), and Stalling for Time which I’ll talk about more below. I’ve given myself a target to finish them both this week, which I think is achievable if I just manage to Pick. Them. Up.

In terms of new books, it’s been a good week as I try to limit my spending and I only bought two things:

• the aforementioned Stalling for Time by Gary Noesner which I bought because we have started watching the Waco TV series and he is one of the FBI hostage negotiators featured. The blurb says that Noesner will take us on ” a harrowing tour through many of the most famous hostage crises in the history of the modern FBI, including the siege at Waco, the Montana Freemen standoff, and the D.C. sniper attacks.” I haven’t read much of the book but so far it is totally fascinating.
• Growing Things & other stories by Paul Tremblay – “Unearth nineteen tales of suspense and literary horror, [..] that offer a terrifying glimpse into Tremblay’s fantastically fertile imagination.” I read The Cabin at the End of the World last year and was impressed enough to buy his other books. This is a new release which I think makes his short fiction available in the UK for the first time.

I also had an unplanned outing this week. I accompanied the Book God to an appointment and after that we took the opportunity to head to Greenwich to visit the Old Royal Naval College, specifically the Painted Hall which is a wonderful space as you can (hopefully) see from the picture at the top of the post. They provide wide seats in the centre of the room so that you can lie down and appreciate that ceiling. It’s also where Nelson’s body lay in state before his funeral.

And now ….. some of you will know that I was diagnosed with diabetes several years ago and one of the things I try to do to help manage my condition, with varying degrees of success, is exercise going for walks. This usually means covering a minimum of 3 miles at a time around my neighbourhood.

I really didn’t want to do it today – it had been drizzling and was very humid, but I got myself ready, plugged in my headphones so I could listen to podcasts (on this occasion My Favourite Murder and Quinn Cummings Gives Bad Advice) and set off. And I got an unexpected and delightful reward, because walking down a residential street not far from my house I met a young woman who was taking her pig for a walk. On a lead.

I live in south-west London and it is not usual to see a pig in the street 😀

Anyway I stopped to speak to the woman and complimented her on the pig, who was a handsome chocolate-brown chap standing about hip-height and a very solid animal. I didn’t want to impose too much and knew I had to make a choice – ask to take a photo or ask to touch the pig.

Reader, I stroked the pig.

It was awesome. And in the absence of a photo you will just have to take my word for it!

Have a great reading week!