Lunar eclipse

I believe there is a lunar eclipse today - I was expecting the heavens to open and huge foul missives from the banks and credit card companies to be hurled down upon me like thunderbolts.  But no, not a peep so far.  But it won't last.

Look at the disingenuity of the opening sentence, of course I know there's a lunar eclipse today and the fact that it's in my 8th house means big, shared, money - so potentially an awful thing.  Maybe - insofar as eclipses often signify endings - it signifies the end of our slavery to Lloyds Bank.   Cheery old Susan Miller who always predicts nice things says this is a wonderful eclipse - new jobs, money, lovers etc. will flood into my life.   In eager anticipation I put on some earrings and went to a networking lunch.  It was even less interesting than usual - and I actually had already met about 7 of the people there.  However, the one person I hadn't met was a guy called Laurence Stone, an ex-Sun features writer who has just set up a PR company locally.  Unfortunately I didn't get his card.  He doesn't do marketing, so I guess we have stolen a slight march on him.  He seemed curiously unconfident, which was upsetting, I felt like offering him a clear field and retiring from the business.  But he had a very blingy partner with him, wearing white denim and looking as though she might be a retired glamour model....so I didn't feel too sorry for him.  He's in Canterbury - so we needn't worry too much at present I feel.     I don't think that was the big job opportunity. I didn't schmooze enough, but frankly there was no point, the drippy woman who does colour me beautiful and always looks pale and washed out was there.  I wondered why she had half given up her business - I guess she too lacks confidence, if she had done some of the things we had suggested she'd be coining it.   But perhaps she didn't have the money for it.

Is it worth doing this again?   Not this particular group I fear.  I sat next to 3 women who sold cosmetics, there were 5 alternative practitioners (1 hypnotherapist, 1 reflexologist, 1 reiki, 1 "relaxation techniques" (a representative of the massage community perhaps? and the empress of aloe vera), the usual accountant, a sales training woman, and 4 recruitment people.   Hmmm. I moved away from the cosmetics women after one of them asked me (when I said I didn't really wear cosmetics) why I didn't use skin care products?   I said I thought my skin was OK - "but don't you want to keep it that way?"  I lack the resources of credulity to accept that whatever she was flogging would keep my skin wrinkle free until the end.... although my father claimed that my mother was wrinkle free until she died (not far from the truth - it softens rather than actually scrunches up).  Anyway, I went to sit somewhere else as (a) I saw someone I wanted to speak to (well - sort of) and (b) I couldn't spend an hour sitting with 3 cosmetics vendors.   They might have interesting stories, but I wasn't in the mood.

One good thing: recently I have been having ideas to put on paper - and I suddennly understood what the short story is for - it is to enable one to work out characters and situations... I decided I would write a story called "The Last Fat Woman" about a society where everyone has had hypnotherapy to cure all their naughty habits and no one craves fags, booze or carbohydrates... the last fat woman has nowhere to hide, she cannot disguise her corpulence... everyone is full of popular psychological theories about why she is like this - she becomes a public figure - and is of course, a raging feminist - refusing to conform to the norms.....  [Did I mention the afternoon when I was chatting with 3 lesbians who were all discussing how tiresome it was to have to shave their body hair?  Not doing was clearly not an option.]  Of course she doesn't actually like being fat, but feels she owes it to diversity to stay that way... Or perhaps I should call it "A woman's right to choose".  I quite like this idea.  I'm not sure whether the blog is the place to think aloud like this... but at least I know where the idea is when I have time to sketch it out a bit. 

I don't know what happened to my resolution to only write about interesting stories I heard.  miserere dictu I have no stories to relate. 

Mark is in Cambridge, which is always very liberating.  I actually go to bed earlier when he isn't storming around the place complaining about me not coming to bed.  Contrarian, moi?  It is pathetic isn't it?

I have been working like stink on press releases etc. and am really tired, although it's only 9.15.  Perhaps I will go to bed.   I am reading James Shapiro's 1599 - about that year in Shakespeare's life.  It's very interesting, but not quite illuminating.  It is enjoyable though.

Oh - some girls on bikes have come to take Ned out for a crepuscular promenade.   He will annoy them now by not having his bike ready - and I wonder whether he has any lights.

Well so much for the momentous day of the lunar eclipse - but then again as SM says "you may feel the effects 4 days either side of the date" - I did get a cheque for £160 yesterday - from my father - two tanks of petrol.  What a saint he is!  I ought to be doing stuff for him really.   I wish I could (a) think of something to give him for his birthday (b) get him something really nice.  Perhaps a free weekend in Ramsgate?