Diana Wynne Jones: Archer's Goon and Dogsbody

I had just finished reading Hisham Matar's The Return, a good book but a sad story of a lost father, an unhappy country (Libya) and crushed hopes; the final chapters spiral down and down into darkness. What to read next, to restore some balance? I had been wanting for some time to reread Archer's Goon, and since durham_rambler was there, I asked him to reach it down from its high shelf, and Dogsbody too while he was about it.

( Archer's Goon )

( Dogsbody )

And the lesson we learn from this is that memory is not to be trusted. Rereading, the gift that goes on giving.

Not as out of the loop as I thought!

Driving in to Sunderland last night to dine with cousins who were in town for the match, we passed road signs about road closures for the building of the "New Wear Crossing". There's to be a new Wear crossing? Yes, apparently so - and durham_rambler, whose grip on the local news is better than mine, knew somrthing of it. Then, as we were discussing this, we looked across to our right, and there indeed was something new, a tall spike pointing up into the night sky, the single pylon which will support the bridge. I was embarrassed that I had been so unaware of something whose construction was so far advanced.

I felt a little better this morning when durham_rambler told me that the pylon had been in position since just three o' clock that afternoon. And look - Flickr has photos!