slow

I've been having one of those weeks that seem to crawl along at the pace of the dog that lives next door. It tries to take advantage of the main gates of the house that are wide open, tempting it to race outside... to freedom... to fun... to foolishness perhaps. But this little mix of a sausage/godknowswhatelse- i'm not good with breeds it is a slow mover. It is like the peoplemover at Disney World, which I remember being absolutely bored on although at Disney kids are never supposed to feel bored! With other dogs one might describe it as ambling, dwaddling along, but with this mutt, it's just racing, although it really doesn't seem to be moving, it is. And it's halfway to the gate, halfway to fun freedom and foolishness and... and... it never makes it there. It loses the race. The gates close. It's not even close to freedom foolishness and fun. It gazes forlornly outside, probably cursing its stubby legs and long body, its lack of fitness and need for speed. It is a dog in need of a reboot, no, a reformat.

I've been sidetracked as usual. As I was saying, it's a week that's just crawled along. Reading dimsumdolly'sblog on my Wild Rocket lunch that never happened (for me at least), I realised soberly that it was only two Saturdays ago. It felt like ages ago since I did not go Wild Rocket-ing and ended up having to go look up someone else instead.

Maybe it was because I did not follow my own advice and take xx days leave to get xx days off during the two PH week last week. But then if I had, it would've been a wasted week anyway! So all sorta... er... turned out.. for the best... I ... think...

So I'm halfway through Dorian Gray and about a-third through American Psycho. It's absolutely fascinating reading one , reading the other. (And also having started on the first two chapters of Comfort Me With Apples - couldn't help it.)

One set in the 1980s, in a hedonistic life of drugs, drink, expensive clothes, restaurants where you need to be seen, gym memberships, facial products, walkmans. The other, in the 1800s. Also decadent, but in the manner of lords and gentlemen. Instead of phone calls and emails, Dorian gets "the usual collection of cards, invitations to dinner, tickets for private views, programmes of charity concerts, and the like, that are showered on fashionable young men every morning during the season.''

Both wholly given to a decadent lifestyle. They who are monsters yet seen as the ideal beings in the eyes of others.

Christian Bale, who plays Patrick Bateman in the film adaptation of American Psycho, said in an interview: "I think of Bateman as a 20th-century Dorian Gray. Essentially, his obsession and vanity about youth and appearance are converted into merciless amorality.

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