On Monday evening I am getting my friend Allison, the expert hair stylist, to chop off my locks and make me look new again. I'm actually looking forward to shedding this crazy lion's mane. It may not look great but I don't care. Human beings can be ridiculously symbolic and I'm in that frame of mind. Shed the hair, shed the past - it's easy like that sometimes.

Oh! I am reading a fantastic book, and you must run to your local bookstore and purchase your very own copy. It's called Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell, by author Susanna Clarke, and it revolves around 19th century England and the revival of magic. Yes, precisely - it's like an adult version of Harry Potter, complete with a dark black cover, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages long and very compelling indeed. I'll provide a better description and review once I get through it. Anyone reading anything interesting lately? Apart from that quiet hobby, my other project will be a pair of mittens. I just have to pick out some wool in cool colours and figure out how to knit with four needles. Nevermind IQ tests, or professional ambitions, or otherwise - I think this will determine my real level of intelligence. Oh, the pressure!

I'm eating corn flakes out of a plastic bag right now. And trying to juggle the blog writing with the editing of a discussion paper. And thinking about how I love the sound of ringing bells when I walk to work. Good ol' Leonard, he said it best:

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything -
That's how the light gets in.