Did my last shift at Lockyers Quay for a while last night. I have today and tomorrow off and Thursday will be spent taking notes at a big disciplinary in Yeovil. Then Friday I'm off to Weston Super Mare. Truth be told, I'm bricking it. I have no idea what kind of mess that place is in. I'm going to have to go in as a GM. Although I know how to do pretty much all the things the GM does... I've never really had to step back from the front line as a GM before. I need to be able to lead everyone from the back of house. Now I know that I'll be working on the floor now and then. Probably the first few days to see what is working and what isn't. But if I try and lead the floor every day, along with running all the other functions... I'll kill myself with over work.

I also had someone add fuel to a suspiscion I had about this 2 week hold. You see the last 3 Christmases, someone at our site has gone to work somewhere else. A couple of those times started as small holding stints and ended up being for longer. Garry (the hotel manager at our place) said yesterday that he doubted I'd be back much before Christmas. I can see that happening unless I mess up majorly :/ Although that could be a good thing, I don't like the amount I'd miss out on with Stacey and baby.

Oh well. Hopefully I'll prove myself wrong and slip into this role just fine :)

Take care all!

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/for-those-who-read-this-blog-for.html

(Serena Altschul and some author in July, sitting on the trampoline after two days of interviews. None of which, oddly enough, were done on the trampoline.)

Mr. Neil,

I DVR'd yesterday's installment of Sunday Morning and after zipping through it back and forth multiple times cannot seem to find you, though the description indicated the correct episode. Was it bumped to next week? Have you been sucked into an alternate Neil-less universe?

A concerned reader,
Mary

I'm afraid it was bumped by the Fort Hood Massacre.

I checked: The profile CBS did of me is apparently still going out, probably some time in December, although no-one seems certain when. I was told that we could help ensure that it is broadcast (and possibly make it come out sooner than December) if CBS think people would actually like to see it. Which means that if you do want to see it, you can help the process along if you write or email CBS and (politely) tell them so:

ADDRESS:
CBS News Sunday Morning
Box O (for Osgood)
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019

E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com

...
Dear Neil Gaiman, I ask for half-a-moment of your time (I would not presume to ask for more). This Spring 2010 I am teaching a Topics in Literature class on YOU at Winona State University (Eng 225: Neil Gaiman). Easy enough to select representative novel (American Gods), short stories (Fragile Things), children and YA (Graveyard Book), but here's the rub: I will likely only assign one Sandman graphic novel to students. I have been debating which is most representative, most worthy of inclusion, most amenable to class discussion and student scholarship. Then I thought I'd ask you. I know you suggest above that, for questions of this sort, we consider you a dead author, but I know you're not. When I came to a similar impasse about which of Ursula Le Guin's works to include in another class, she actually replied and offered her input. I extend the same offer to you: which of the Sandman volumes would you like to see on the syllabus?
Thank you for your time,
Nicholas Ozment, English Instructor
WSU

It's a hard one. I think if I were teaching I'd either go for Season of Mists or Fables and Reflections, because both of them have stuff to teach -- those nice chewy bits that people can like or dislike, argue with or discuss. I know a lot of teachers like to teach Dream Country because a) Midsummer Night's Dream won awards, and b) it's short and c) it has a script in the back. Your call. And good luck.

...

I mentioned recently that there were some beautiful new Polish and Russian book covers for my books that I'd seen at signings, which got me thinking. The International Cover gallery on this website is incredibly out of date.

It's at http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Works/Books/International_Covers.

And though I get a lot of foreign editions in, and will at some point head down to the basement and rummage around and scan some (this week's mail brought the two-volume Japanese edition of Anansi Boys, on the cover of which Fat Charlie is not only Very White, but also Very Thin, and the complex Chinese - ie. Taiwan and Hong Kong - edition of The Graveyard Book) I thought that blog readers, being, as you are, all over the world, might be a better resource for knowing where to look for foreign covers.

Was your basement finished when you purchased your home or did you have it finished for your basement library? If you finished it yourself, how difficult was it? Also, I thought I saw a dehumidifier in one of the Photosynth pictures. Do you need one because of the books?

I'm asking because we have a full unfinished basement that we would like to have finished. We are running out of room for our books also. I don't think we don't have as many as you do though. :)

Any other suggestions for such a project would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
C.

No, when we got here the basement had a clay floor that puddled when it rained. We hired some nice builders and spent a lot of money finishing it, putting in drainage tiles, underfloor heating and all. There's a dehumidifier there in the summer and a humidifier in the winter, because after the first few years I noticed that binding glue and leather book covers were both cracking and flaking. There's now the equivalent of a large house in basement rooms beneath this house, filled with books and CDs and suchlike stuff.

And finally, a few photos from the China trip, taken by Ian Ford (or in one case, on his camera). Ian's a travel guide who now lives in China who helped organise my travels, and came along with me for part of the journey.

Amanda and I in the silk clothes that my publisher had given us as a thank you for coming, and because they are terrific.

I'm holding the Galaxy Award for this year, given to the foreign author most popular with Chinese reader-voters. This was my second year of winning it, so I have retired from the competition and said that they have to find a new favourite foreign author now.

Anyone fancy a trip underground into Cwmorthin mine?

(I should probably point out it was tentatively for this weekend given repair work going on and I wanted to lend a hand to re-timber and shiz but if other people are tempted and wish to come along there's nothing to stop us doing it another time)

Oh and you'll probably want to bring your own shit or rent! This ain't caving, but you'd be getting pretty messy; wearing your favourite pink top and jeans is probably not the smartest idea..

Last note, I'm no instructor and the people I know familiar with routes in Cwmorthin aren't either; so you're responsible for yourself basically.

I apologise in advance, because one of these is in German. If you want a rough translation, ask. If you don't, I have slightly more respect for you, since it's bleedingly obvious.

- Take four books off your bookshelf.
- Write the first sentence
- Write the last sentence on page fifty
- Write the second sentence on page one hundred
- Write the next to the last sentence on page one hundred fifty
- Write the final sentence of the book
- Let your friends guess what book it is.

Like ormery, I am making that 15-30-45 for one of them, since it's a graphic novel.

BOOK ONE
- "Wait! We've been a team now for how long?"
- Satellite signal is corrupted, please try again.
- "MADNESS!! No! We stand and fight!"
- "Oh my god."
- "We need to talk..."

BOOK TWO
- Im unruhigen Seegang hob und senkte sich das vom Blut der Kaempfenden glaenzende Deck des franzoesischen Schiffes in Besorgnis erregendem Masse.
- "Er ist zu weit von den Tauen weg," sagte Temeraire, "Ich werde ihn holen."
- Als er sich ihrer wahren Freundschaft bewusst werde, loeste sich die Traurigkeit ein wenig, und es gelang ihm, den Toast auf seine uebliche Art zu erwidern.
- Schon war die fuer das Fliegerpaar nichts weiter als eine kleine Gestalt, die mit jeden Flugelschlag weiter zurueckblieb.
- Es dauerte gar nicht lange, und er glitt in den Schlaf hinueber, geborgen in der Sicherheit des langsamen, tiefen Pochens von Temeraires Herz, das ihn an den ewigen Klang des Meeres erinnerte.

BOOK THREE Killashandra by Anne McCaffrey, guessed by aralli
- Winters on Ballybran were generally mild, so the fury of the first spring storms as they howled across the land was ever unexpected.
- "Whatever could it be? Optherians don't import much."
- Would the islanders be in contact with the Ruling Elders about the terms of her ransom?
- The pillows, hammocks, what kitchen utensils there were, the rugs, curtains, everything compacted into a manageable bundle to which Lars attached the antigrav straps.
- "Right now?"

BOOK FOUR Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman, guessed by not_cynical
- This morning on Planet Earth, there are one thousand, six hundred and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otherwise superpowered persons.
- Feral doesn't just dress up as a monster - the hair and teeth aren't a costume.
- It barely seems real.
- A louder chime from the Power Staff tells me I've made a mistake.
- You keep trying to take over the world.

We had the referee of The Sunderland-Liverpool Beach Ball Goal fame, and his dodgy nature continued. None of the pundits, none of the press and pretty much everyone is united in the feeling that the penalty shouldn't have been awarded. Having seen it on MotD, I'm not sure it was a penalty but at the same time I'm not sure it wasn't. From the angles on TV, it looked inconclusive. I can see that some refs wouldn't have given it, but at the same time, given where the ref was, I can see why he thought it was a penalty. So needless to say Grezza (aka. Graham Alexander, aka. Alexander the Great, the oldest-ever outfield Premiership player at the age of 38 and showing no signs of being out of place) stepped up and duly dispatched the ball into the back of the net. That's about the 70th penalty he's scored from 74 taken, so one of the best penalty-taking records around! He later scored the other goal, a rare outfield one. It really was a beauty.

One of Hull's players also got sent off for a second yellow. Perhaps a little harsh, but if he will insist on mouthing off at the ref...

Quite a few key decisions went against Hull and I do feel sorry for them because it was rough on them. That said, even without the sending-off and everything else, I honestly think we'd've won regardless because we were the better team. There wasn't much in the paper about the match - it was all about Hull and Phil Brown (the manager) as to whether the sack was imminent.

Relegation predictions: Portsmouth, Hull and Birmingham still, though Wolves and West Ham and a few others aren't looking too promising.

Felt the baby kick for the first time this evening. Jnr is going to be an active little fecker :D


In other news, work is meh! that is all!

OK, I know it was a fortnight ago, but brain hasn't been in the best of states. Our first home defeat. Didn't get much of a mention on Match of the Day. Not anything particularly memorable to comment on. May update this once I've re-read the match reports in the paper.