merchandising for libraries, being mistaken for 41

Vince showed us some pretty impressive displays - impressive because he used relatively ordinary materials, such as garden hose, balloons and gold ribbon. He showed us how to make our displays more three-dimensional and how to make podia (assuming 'podia' is the correct plural for 'podium') of different heights for the books. All very nice, as long as you only have three books to display.

Seriously, it was actually quite inspiring and made me wish I was given more time to do displays. Normally I have maybe two or three hours in the whole week in which I don't have to be at a desk, on the bus, or whatever. So I end up frantically photocopying pictures out of books and stapling them up on the board, fifteen minutes before opening time.

Surprisingly, we got morning and afternoon tea, and lunch provided - this is extremely uncommon at courses held for public service employees. My only criticism was the severe lack of fresh water in the room; I was pretty dehydrated by the end of the day.

We had a family dinner tonight at my brother's place. Mum supplied the food, my brother and his family supplied the venue, and I provided the reason.

As per normal, my brother's present to me was something he wanted for himself - this time it was a Tom Waites CD (last Christmas it was a Red Dwarf DVD). He also told his partner that I was 41, which later lead to the hasty replacement of the '1' candle with a '0' candle on the cake.

My nephew was very sweet - he played with me all evening, asked me to tuck him into bed, and said I could take one of his balloons home with me. Ahh...