Last night I stopped off at our local bookstore to admire the books and imagine what it would be like to have one of my own amongst them. I looked for the Go Girl series but couldn't spot them. I wasn't really surprised. I know it's more likely to be on sale at Target and Angus & Robertson rather than in boutique stores like this one.
As I was about to leave a girl of about 7 - 8 came running in, dressed in a judo outfit, with her father trailing behind. I thought to myself "She's exactly the demographic that the Go Girl series is meant to appeal to - active young girl." So I watched to see what she was looking for.
At first she seemed disappointed. "They don't have any dad," she said. But then she said "Oh yes they do!" and pulled two books off the shelf. I peered, stalker-like from behind a column of Andrew McGahan novels. She'd chosen two Go Girl books. It was all I could do to stop myself dashing up and saying "I'm writing the next one!" but I thought it would probably freak both father and daughter out. The father was already looking at me oddly. So I contained myself and contented myself with just being tremendously impressed that the little girl had recognised the demographic to which she so clearly belonged...
The other thing that happened yesterday was that I learned that I passed the Glucose Challenge test with flying colours. Iron levels also looking good which is a relief. I really didn't want to be anaemic.
On Friday night, after the movie, we ate at a dumpling house that had run out of dumplings. Luckily, there were other things still available. Vegetarian buns, for instance. And noodles.
Someone said ‘You know, I worry about barcodes. We must be going to run out of them at some stage.’ ‘In fact,’ said H, ‘next year an additional line is going to be added to barcodes. They’ll become thirteen digits. I’ve been to seminars about it.’ She took a bite of a vegetarian bun (which were very good). ‘Actually,’ she said, ‘that’s not quite true. I haven’t been to any but I’ve sent others along instead.’ ‘Why are there twelve numbers anyway?’ asked M. ‘Were there ever less than twelve?’ ‘Oh yes,’ said another M (there were three of us there that night. ‘They started with just one.’ We all stared at him. ‘But that didn’t last very long,’ he added, serving himself some more sizzling beef (which was no longer sizzling). ‘And then they moved on to two.’
Behind us on the window ledge, for no apparent reason, was a large soft toy merino sheep.
