Day Two

So there’s nothing wrong with my copy of Elvis Country, it’s not dodgy mastering, having each song bookended with a snippet of I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago was Elvis’ artistic choice!!! So tomorrow is going to be spent try to trim the songs to just the songs!

Get two surprises today, the first was receiving my P45 - which in the past always seemed like a big deal, but now it’s meh - and my VES money - always nice to have a bank balance that is in the black J, although most of it is on its way to a savings account (to prevent any accidental splurges!).

I also used my leaving vouchers to buy:

1. Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation by David Crystal:

“Behind every punctuation mark lie a thousand stories. The punctuation of English, marked with occasional rationality, is founded on arbitrariness and littered with oddities. For a system of a few dozen marks it generates a disproportionate degree of uncertainty and passion, inspiring organisations like the Apostrophe Protection Society and sending enthusiasts, correction-pens in hand, in a crusade against error across the United States.

Professor Crystal leads us through this minefield with characteristic wit, clarity and commonsense. He gives a fascinating account of the origin and progress of every kind of punctuation mark over one and a half millennia, and he offers sound advice on how punctuation may be used to meet the needs of every occasion and context.”

2. A Burglar's Guide to the City by  Geoff Manaugh;

“At the heart of Geoff Manaugh's A Burglar's Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: the city as seen through the eyes of robbers. From experts on both sides of the law, readers learn to understand the city as an arena of possible tunnels and picked locks and architecture itself as an obstacle to be outwitted and second-guessed. From how to pick locks (and the tools required) to how to case a bank on the edge of town, readers will learn to detect the vulnerabilities, blind spots, and unseen openings that surround us all the time. This simultaneously allows us to view the city from specific buildings and individual rooms to whole neighbourhoods through the privileged eyes of FBI investigating agents and security consultants, people dedicated both to solving and to preempting these attempts at devious entry. Full of absurd and marvelous stories of heists and capers, A Burglar's Guide to the City offers a kind of criminal X-ray of our built environment. Never again will readers enter a bank without imagining the vault geometry, or visit a museum without plotting ways to bring their favourite painting home with them.”

3. Get Harry Ex (Button Man), by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson:

“The world didn t seem to need a man like Harry Exton anymore. An ex-soldier and mercenary, Harry was a human-killing machine without a vocation, until an old colleague told him about The Game . The players, known as Button Men are paid to fight to the death in a modern-day gladiatorial contest. Organised by mysterious backers known as Voices, the killing game offers bountiful financial rewards... if you live. Harry decides to participate, but soon discovers that death offers the only way out!

The world didn t seem to need a man like Harry Exton anymore. An ex-soldier and mercenary, Harry was a human-killing machine without a vocation, until an old colleague told him about The Game . The players, known as Button Men are paid to fight to the death in a modern-day gladiatorial contest. Organised by mysterious backers known as Voices, the killing game offers bountiful financial rewards... if you live. Harry decides to participate, but soon discovers that death offers the only way out! Written by John Wagner (Judge Dredd, A History of Violence) with art by Arthur Ranson (Anderson: Psi Division, Mazeworld) Button Man is an action-packed thriller, deservedly regarded as one of the greatest strips ever to be published in 2000 AD."

1 is my ex-civil servant choice and 2+3 are my fun/heard good stuff about them picks (and defo not aides for my next career!).