I can't tell if it's cloudy or bright...

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. If I were a better person, I would be better able to express how much they mean to me.

Being as I am, stymied for lack of substance (which is a most bizarrely mixed metaphor - look up "stymied" if you don't believe me - but I don't care tonight), I have nothing to offer but a vague wave from the bottom of the pit here, and good news for somebody else. PW have somehow failed to scatter stars before moshui's feet this time around, but they said, inter alia, this about Jade Man's Skin:

Building on the brilliantly subtle groundwork laid in 2009's Dragon in Chains, Daniel Fox's Chinese fantasy series continues with [spoilers and plotstuff]. Readers who enjoyed Fox's delicate descriptions and leisurely prose will be thrilled to find more of the same, along with greater depth of story as the numerous characters are pulled together by schemes and destiny.

So Dan's having a good birthday, anyway. Me, the best I've managed so far is to break the spout off my white tea pot. Happily, I have a spare (along with a green tea pot and a black tea pot, obviously: doesn't everyone?), but even so. Life is meaningless and full of pain. Don't nobody kick my door in, though. Helen's got the key, 'k?

Coo

Sometimes, though, things get suddenly better, y'know?

As when the telephone-machine stridulates, and the voice at the other end belongs to someone whom you have known since she was a bump, and whom you had hitherto believed to be either in Spain or else in Germany, but who declares herself now to be in Newcastle and available for lunching on the morrow, yay!

I may break my leg in getting there, but get there yet I shall. Ruth is ... special to me.

And in other news: I could finish this story tonight. But Ladyhawke is on TV in half an hour. But I saw it only a couple of months ago. But it is my favourite movie. But every moment of it is yet fresh in my mind. But it is my birthday, and indulgence is legit. But...

*is torn*