medlar jelly* 

Best bit about werking again? Seeing all the beautiful things that get published.

An array of goodies arrive constantly and they beg to be talked about. Two Simon and Garfunkel paper doll books turned up the other day (hah! i hear you scoff, but the truth is they are actually very lovely); I have just finished Patrick Ness' More Than This and I am BURSTING to talk to about it, but as it's not due until September I'll have to bite my tongue; but it's Luke Slattery's "Reclaiming Epicurus" that I'm loving most right now. Epicurus was a 3rd century bc(e) Greek philosopher and the word epicurean - derived (obvs) from his name - is a word we generally associate with gourmets (ergo, greed) right? But Epicurius himself, you see, embodied a far more ascetic idea of pleasure, believing, "that genuine happiness comes from the quieting of desire: from less, not more."

I'm eight weeks into Dr Michael Mosely's fasting thing and though not quite a miracle (but bloody close to), let me simply say this: learning how to employ restraint and to desire the quieting of desire has changed my entire outlook on life, and it, combined with twice weekly sessions of yoga? Restraint, it turns out, can be a thing of astonishing beauty.  

*didn't really work out, mr slater...i am so sorry, but i think it needed a much longer boil at the end. a missed step ?...