These days are just flying past, perhaps because I am having a fair bit of fun. Work is marvellous, absolutely hectic, tiring and sometimes stressful, but I'm enjoying every moment. I didn't think I'd say that, but working part-time is proving to be a very stimulating, enjoyable occupation indeed. I will miss working during the week, as I have been recently, doing my stint at training has been excellent.

I've also been nose-deep in Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher. It's a book I've fallen in love with, having seen the ITV drama some years ago and adoring not only the romance and the costume-drama-ness of it, but also the Cornwall that I know and love so well. A long, meandering book, always pricked with sorrow, but inevitably followed by a happy ending. Having finished Coming Home, I was scouring the book shelves, wondering which book would be next. I have a pile already neatly formed in my bedside cabinet, waiting to be devoured and savoured. Instead of reading something easy, I want to expand my literary horizons, dip my toe into different wordy waters, and see what I can find and learn from the experience. I looked onto the shelf and saw, looking back at me, a very very old copy of Laclos' 'Les Liasons Dangereuse'. It's a thick tome of a book, and one that can be wordy in the extreme, but nonetheless is a good book, the storyline is riveting, if a little slow in places. I got about half-way through the book, then we moved, it got put into a box and forgotten about for a while before it was unpacked and left to fester on the shelf. I will one day start it again.

Then my eye wondered to Homer's Odyssey. I love the Classics, I must've been the only girl in boarding school who loved Latin class, and could've quite happily spent an afternoon reciting "Winnie ille Pu". I found a beaten-up old copy of The Odyssey a while ago having completely forgotten about it. Heavily foxed and musty-smelling, it was just the book I need for cool nights and cooler mornings, in between work-work and house-work. It got me thinking about the meaning of an odyssey, usually described as:

"A long series of wanderings or adventures, esp. when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc."

Which then led me to thinking about my funny little life of late, how many things have changed and how I've done things recently that I never thought I'd be able to do. Life is peppered with wanderings and adventures, notable experiences and usually some hardships somewhere. It's as though every few years something causes change, like the Incas and their pachacuti (pachacuteq) or world-changing/world-disrupting event that always brings in the new. The one certain thing is that there are no certain things.

But this year has been nice and I've achieved far more than I expected, and good things to boot. I got married, got myself an interview, and a job! I don't know where my own personal little odyssey is going to take me, but it's enjoyable to wait and not-know all of the details! It's what keeps life exciting.

You're all wondering where this is going, right? I don't quite know. It is more a stream of thought, the strange things that can spring upon us, good and bad. I don't think I'm going to be as lucky as Judith Dunbar, the heroine of Coming Home, and have an aunt leave me ridiculously rich, with no choice but to buy a wonderful house in Cornwall. But when I catch myself thinking about all the funny little things that happen, you never know what's just around the corner on this little odyssey of ours.

If anyone would like to add to my 'to find/ to read' list, please feel free!

My current books and authors include:

A tale of two cities
Anya Seaton
The Man in the Iron Mask
Laurie Lee
Gore Vidal
Cathy Reichs
Barbara Pymm
James Joyce
Louisa May Alcott
...and others!