Status-Q

It's important to keep variety in one's life, I feel, and not get caught up in too much of a repetitive daily routine.

Take today, for example. I drove out to a nearby village, had a pleasant lunch with my wife and mother-in-law, and then, a little later in the afternoon, a lion peed on me.

This is not something that I would normally expect on a quiet Sunday afternoon, but life would probably be very dull if it didn't happen from time to time.

He was, I admit, the other side of a fence. We looked each other in the eye, we both purred some suitable greetings, and we seemed to be getting on rather well. But then, as he turned to go, he lifted his tail, and his range and aim were good. I turned fast, but not quite fast enough to stop a little from going down my neck.

I shall continue to assert that he intended this as a mark of great friendship and respect...

Well, as regular readers will know, Rose's first novel, The Blackstone Key, launches today. She's written academic books before, but this is her first work of fiction, and is the start of what will be at least a trilogy.

It's the nearest we're likely to come (or indeed, have any desire to come!) to announcing the birth of a first child, so we're quite excited. Mother and baby (1.8lbs , ISBN 978-1847441331) doing well so far!

If you, or anyone you know, is interested in historical adventures, this should be on a bookstore shelf near you in the next day or so, or you can get it from Amazon or RoseMelikan.com. The US publisher has described it as "Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie", which is good, because it might sound pretentious if I had said it. :-)

Amazon are also taking orders for the sequel, which will be out in about 11 months' time.

My friend Aideen brought an interesting device in to show us the other day. It's called a Rollermouse, and it's a combination mouse and wrist-rest:

The black bar rolls up and down and slides left and right to move the mouse, and you can click it too if you prefer that to using the buttons.

Now, this looks (and sounds) a little strange, but it worked amazingly well. I saw it and was skeptical, and tried it and was impressed. They're rather pricey, but if you suffer from RSI, or just want a mouse you can easily use in bed, this might be the thing...

In this day and age, you can get almost everything in a USB-connected form.

I must confess that this was something I had never even contemplated, though.