Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale - J.K. Rowling

I started this for the first time in April 2007, while on holiday in Sardinia with S and a few chums. It didn't go very well. My GCSE Italian was not really up to the challenge, and I'd forgotten my little dictionary, so I quickly gave up. I started again last summer, hoping for a bit of light relief following my A level, and a fun way to build up my fluency and stamina. I think it worked - when I began, I was looking up dozens of words on each page, and really puzzling over quite a lot of grammar. Last night I didn't look up a single word, despite having my dictionary beside me, and my www.wordreference.org app on my iPhone, ready and waiting just in case.

I'm also reading set books for my degree course, and finding that they're tougher than Harry Potter, but a little easier because of him. I know that I can read now 7 or 8 pages in Italian in one sitting, without being tied to a dictionary, and while it's harder to guess what unknown words mean when you don't know the story, that doesn't mean it's impossible.

I'm off to Milan for a week on Saturday, and I think I'm going to be picking up 'Harry Potter e la Camera dei Segreti', and possibly one or two others. That way, no matter how confused I get by my set texts, I'll know that I've always got something manageable I can read - just what I need to make sure I actually do some Italian every day.

Plunge...

I've only gone and done it... Wednesday afternoon was never a good time for productivity, so follow me, @eleanor_steele, and help me pass the time!

Ponder...

I've just come out of a digital training session at work. It's given me lots of ideas for projects I'm working on with my clients, but it also made me think about what I'm doing online just for me, like this blog and being part of the Novel Racers. I read the BubbleCow blog, and have been quietly absorbing what they say about Twitter and other online tools for raising one's profile, but haven't quite taken the plunge yet. Part of me is worried that it'll take too much time (something I really don't have a lot of). I mean, I barely update my blog once a week, I never get through the backlog of blogs I read, so when would I have time to tweet and follow other people?

But now I have an iPhone, and things just look a little easier to manage - I can read my blogs in bed without my laptop, I can blog from the tram, so maybe I'm ready to dip my toe into the waters of Twitter...

Pause...

This year has been rather strange so far. There have been some big changes, and some small ones, which add up to massive changes when combined, so my focus has been somewhat blurry. Things are starting to feel a bit more normal now, and my optimism is gradually returning.

I haven't forgotten about writing exactly, but other things have sort of taken over the time I would normally use to write and to plan, but it has all been ticking away in the back of my mind. I've had a few minor epiphanies along the way, and I'm really hoping that this month I'm going to get the ball rolling on my second draft. Now, I just need to remember what it's all about...