Blimey, that was a long day!
I did indeed tidy, hoover, clear out my car and get changed before heading off to work. It was an event to mark the winner of the Orange prize for fiction announced tonight at Shoreham library and was staffed by me and three senior library staff. We had 32 attendees so the library was pretty full which meant we messed around setting up chairs and tables for ages, sorting out refreshments and then last minute photocopying ballot forms and cutting them out while people queued outside the doors from 20 past 7 onwards (the event started at 8pm). We did meeting and greeting and pouring out drinks and offering nibbles before all sitting down and someone read a synopsis of the six shortlisted books then people read excerpts of them all. Brenda (second most senior person) read two and she said to me afterwards she’d almost passed me one to read which actually I would have done quite happily. Then everyone voted for their favourite and had more wine while we counted up the votes and announced our winner followed by the actual Orange winner. The same book won, which was one I’d got about halfway through and given up with but actually having listened to a passage read outloud will possible go and try and read again giving it the chance to drag me in a bit more as I’d tried to read it in small sections with Ady or the children around and listening to it read aloud I realised it deserves more than that and needs the chance to pull you into it’s pages and make you feel like you are really there with the characters.
The attendees (very s l o w l y) left, we cleared up and I left just after 10pm getting home within about 10 minutes to a dinner in the oven (Ady had long since finished his) and the taped Apprentice which I’d avoided all text messages incase I got the result before I’d watched it. And now, I’m off for a bath before staggering to bed and doing it all again tomorrow – reminds me of retail at Christmas time and as next week is even busier than this week I really will be ready for a holiday come Kessingland!