Mission 036: Where Susan tries to exercise self-restraint.

I admit it. I have a problem.
That's the first step to dealing with it, apparently. Get it out there, acknowledge it. Then you can start dealing with it.
So, my confession: I am a compulsive book collector.

Give me a 'three for the price of two' and chances are, that even though I walked out into any given shop to buy a magazine, or even 'just look' at the new releases, I will leave with three books, and a magazine.

Several weeks ago I joined the library in an effort to counter this tendency, especially as I'm not working at the moment, so I need free books, not three for the price of two, or even one, books (although you must admit that three for one sounds like an especially tempting deal). Besides, while I do my Masters, I need to read as many books as I can. After all, it's research into other types of creative writing. Right? Right.

Anyway, so I joined the Auckland Central Library. First day I got out eight books. Fantastic. I finished one of them a couple of days later, so popped in to return it. And took out five more. Finished one. Took it back, and walked out with another five. I now have 16 books out, teetering by my bed in an unruly stack.

My logical mind tells me that even if I read a book a day, I won't return all those books within the next two weeks. Yet, I also know that next time I go to return one, what will happen is something like this:

1. I walk in calmly, and deposit the book in Returns.
2. I spy the 'New Books' display to my left.
3. I spot 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' on the stand. I think, 'A new Pulitzer prize-winning novel that I haven't read; I must get it now, before someone else snatches it up! Otherwise I might to wait for it.'
4. I grab the book, and walk around to 'Recently Returned Books'. After all, what if a title I've been waiting to read has just been returned? A quick check here could mean I get in before someone else.
5. I find three books by reasonably well-known authors, which I should read at some point in my life. I decide now is as good a time as any, and I add them to 'Oscar Wao'.
6. I decide to visit the Librarian's Choice' stand, just before leaving, just in case there's an interesting book I haven't heard of. I find one, and take it.
7. I take the five books and check them out, stuffing them into various parts of my bag and laptop bag, as I have not brought a carry bag as I only intended to return a book.

So my mission. Next time, I will NOT take out any books, or buy any books, for TWO WEEKS. 11 April is the next time a new book is allowed into the house.
Feasible? I hope so, or the Buckwell is going to declare my book stack a health and safety risk.

Mission 035: Where Susan grows an aubergine

Okay, so I'm still slacking off. Not a lot of bloggage happening. However, thanks to the recession I now have a bit more time (and bit less money) as my two days a week of work has ended. For now, anyway.
Right now though, I have a new and very important mission. It'll take a few weeks to know whether I have had success.
I am trying to grow an aubergine/eggplant. Obviously I would like to grow many, but just growing one is proving challenging. See, the problem is that aubergines need pollination, like all vegies and fruits. They need the boy flower and the girl flower for this to happen. Yet, despite planting several aubergine plants, so far my plants have been stubbornly refusing to produce more than one flower at a time. And not even at the same time. One plant produces a flower, then it falls off. Another plant produces a flower, which then falls off. And so on, and so on and so on.
Until today, my aubergine plants have been sitting in the garden slowly growing larger (they've been there four months), eating their compost goodness, drinking copious amounts of water, with nothing to show for it. Then this morning, I saw two flowers. At the same time! Successful home aubergine growers recommend hand pollination to boost your chances of getting fruit. That is, you get a cotton bud and wave it round in each flower in turn, several times, to share the pollen, and hopefully fertilise the flower. Then boom, out pops an eggplant several weeks later. Well, maybe not quite that instant.
I can't help feeling that all this cotton bud waving is a bit like a group turkey basting. What a hideous thought. But good for plants. And if it gets me an eggplant or two, it'll be worth it.