New Streams of Life (14)
New Streams of Life (14)
After a warm and sunny week the temperature suddenly drops today. The weather forecast says the coming week will be cold with hail and snow in most parts of England. So I went into the garden with my friend this morning moving the bay tree
pot into the greenhouse and put protector on the willow tree which sprouted quite a few buds during the last week.
Talking about last week, quite a few things happened actually. First, I cut my friend’s hair at home. I read a few websites to ensure I knew all the basics so
that the cut-hair-at-home project wouldn’t end with a tragedy. I was glad that
my normally fussy friend trusted me to cut his hair. Now after the experience (He likes the hair-cut by the way), I am thinking of trimming my own hair soon. Isn’t it great if you can achieve self-sufficiency and low-budge at the same time
?
The second thing was I went to the local library again, collecting my reserved books and renewing books I intended to keep for another three weeks and borrowing
two books I accidently found while waiting for my turn to check out. The local
library actually was not as bad as I thought. It is true that you can’t always
get books you intend to read instantly, but by reservation and with patience they will come along your way eventually. Besides, the library assistants were really amiable, the sort of people that you just know they will be always there when
you need help.
Talking about books, I just finished Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, and am half
way through The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. I don’t know why on
Wiki people gave a very low opinion of Mansfield Park. It was amiably written and tingled with characteristic Jane Austen’s writing style: moderate amount of mocking and laughing well interwoven with the stories among the genial English Families. It was not much different from her other beautiful works in my opinion.
About John Fowles’ works, I didn’t really enjoy it honestly speaking. The story somewhat lacked coherency, even the write acknowledged himself in the book that sometimes he didn’t know what would happen or once happened to his characters
, which was mostly the reason I disliked it. It is true that once characters are
created they will have life and soul of their own; but it was the writer’s obligation to ensure that everything he recorded was sensible and consistent. If you created your characters and left them astray afterwards, it was unlikely that
people, who came across your work and the characters you created, would get impressed.
Anyway as I promised before, I didn’t let reading novels get in my way. I had read quite a bit of information about distance selling details and import regulations on HMRC website. At one point I actually sort of understood in Coffee Republic Sahar and Bobby said the importance of “being ignorant.” Laws and regulations always tend to be intimidating and overwhelming if you don’t take the right
attitude.
I was almost stuck in it and felt myself not up to the business yet. But I managed to get through the frustrated feeling and stood up to my feet again. I think
it is a bit like the attitude of looking at a half empty or full bottle thing. When you read along and find so many blank fields, you can either choose to think
“the more I read the more I get under my belt” or “the more I read the more
I need to read and it will never end.” And I think it is which perspective one
chooses that will make the ultimate difference.
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