Looking Ahead

Today’s message from the Daily Bread was on looking ahead - with the footnote

“It’s better to look ahead and prepare,

than to look back and despair”

Good words indeed.

The Master Fiddler – Janet Dailey

The second of Hyacinth’s books – this was a tad better than the other one cos it involved a stunning blond who was a spoiled brat, used to getting her own way by using her beauty and charm. She runs away from home to prove her independence and proceeds to crash into Choya Barnett's car and meet his motherless little son, who like all other males falls in love with her. She then loses all her money and is forced to accept help from Choya who seems to be the only one immune to her charm.

Bluegrass King - Janet Dailey

Hyacinth lent me two Mills n Boons and this was one of them that I read in one sitting. It was about a tomboy Dani (Danielle) who was happiest amongst horses and is then thrust into the model world by her father’s wish that she becomes more ladylike and with the help of the usual ‘bad guy’ Marshall who gets her into modeling. Of course she falls in love with Barrett King the kingpin and much sought-after bachelor of the county ........ and so on to the usual syrupy ending.

The Kiss Blowing Lothario

Just last week the strangest thing happened…. There was I, minding my own business hopping off the 175 in Borella and hopping onto the 190 and anxiously scanning the seats in the hope of locating one vacant one for my little ole self, when what do I see?.... this guy blowing kisses at me!!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I looked blankly at him for a full minute until it hit my befuddled sleepy brain…. YUP he WAS blowing kisses to me. I made sure it was to me by looking wildly around to see if there was anyone else in the vicinity of the blown kisses. Nope.. Nary a soul but adorable me.

I wondered what I had done to inspire such ardor from someone I had never laid eyes on before in my entire life. I would have remembered him if I had …. He WAS kinda good looking too. I chanced another quick peek….. yup… there he goes again.. another handful of blown kisses and this time he batted his eyes at me too (that was the giddy limit – I thought ladies were the ones famous for fluttering eyelashes).

Humph I thought… and firmly turned my back on him until a seat in front of him got vacant. Of course I hastily took the weight off my feet and drifted into dreamland. A couple of minutes later I was rudely awakened by a tapping on my shoulder (none too gentle either). I looked around into lover boys eyes.

‘Ara parcele oyageda’? (Is that parcel yours?) he asks pointing to one on the luggage rack above us.

‘Naa’ I replied and turned away.
Another hard tap. Ouch.. that hurt!
‘Kaageda danna neda’? (Don’t know whose it is no?)
“Dannnaaa” I murmured turning away again.
Another prod on my poor aching shoulder … puhleeeeze.. doesn’t this man know how hard he is prodding me?

“We have to be careful these days no… people are leaving bombs and all.. don’t know whose it is ne?” he queried.

Luckily I was spared an answer when the man next to me growled that it was his, and snatched it off the overhead rack.

I sighed with relief and lapsed into my contemplation of nothing in particular. When Lake House loomed into sight, I quickly hopped off the bus without a backward glance and took two steps forward only to find I now had a shadow! What’s your name?? I was mute with astonishment at his persistence in the face of no interest.

“Aaaay what’s your name aney?”

Can you give me your telephone number?

Huh? Aaaai,??? aney???? (What the heck?)

Then he tried to push his phone into my hand saying….

“Here you can put it into the phone with your own hands. I wanna call you. (Guess it didn’t matter if I didn’t want him to call me).

When I still refused the man was almost jumping up and down in desperation telling me that he wouldn’t ever see me again and can I please, please, PLEASE, give him my name and telephone number?

Since he was trotting alongside me I asked him where he worked. At the WTC he informed me!!! Yikes!!!! That’s where I work too. He then went on to add that he had to go to a meeting on Bristol Street and that he got off the bus at Lake House just to talk to me (Oooh lucky me…. I was supposed to be flattered I think).

I curtly informed him that if he too worked in the same building (nope I didn’t tell him which office I worked in despite his desperate pleas) we’d probably bump into each other again and sent him dejectedly off to his meeting.

Phew!! What an ardent encounter. He didn’t recognize a no if it came up and punched him in his handsome nose!!! It certainly made Sunethra and Tushara laugh though when I recounted the tale to them… so guess there was some upside after all!

Mitsou - Collettes Intimate Diary of a French Showgirl

I read this book over the weekend. It was quite well written… quite a bit was in the form of a play and some of it in the form of letters, but it was quite sad and quite realistic too I guess. It was about the girl called Mitou who is pretty and warm and innocent and who has a gentleman friend who is called the ‘Respectable Man’ and who keeps her in style - if not in love.

Mitsou falls in love with an officer called Robert who is also smitten on their first meeting. Their love flourishes by mail but when they finally meet after their first initial fleeting meeting, he finds that he is no longer in love with the real woman, while she fatefully realizes it.

I was not happy with the ending cos there didn’t seem to be one!!! After all, the entire book was based on Mitsou and her fluffy friend, with her thoughts and love and emotions all recorded ever so carefully and then……. the whole thing is just left in the air. The final curtain raises on the lives of other showgirls, their acceptance of the lifestyle they lead, their fleeting romances and oft times single motherhood. Their dashing lovers leave them when they find them (the showgirls) lacking in finesse despite their beauty.

It was a book I bought from my little ole bookman and decided to let him have it back rather than keeping it. It’s not a book I would ever re-read that’s for sure.