Weekly Rundown: On Terry Pratchett & a Trip to Glasgow

It’s been a busy week here, but first I have to take a moment to mention the sad news of Terry Pratchett’s death. I don’t normally mention celebrity deaths here, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned a celebrity death on here. But I think Sir Pterry deserves a mention.

When I read the news on Thursday it hit me harder than when I read about other famous people dying because he was someone I actually met. It’s been a little over eleven years now and it was easily the best school trip I ever went on. He shared funny stories, most of which I’ve forgotten; little writing quirks, like the time he wrote himself into a corner and just decided to let the characters sort it out themselves; and then proceeded to chat to me about rats when I got to go up and get my books signed.

I suspect that I gushed something along the lines of ‘omigodIhaveratsandthey’rethemostamazingpetsDangerousBeansisjustlikeoneofmine’ and he laughed and said that you did not want to see what was inside the teacup and down the back of his hat after the publicity photos for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. And then he signed my copy ‘To Caitlin, with cheese’.

That school trip was followed by a trip to the cinema to see The Two Towers (best school trip ever). I clearly remember wearing my stripy toe-socks that day, and a black lacy top under my school shirt (so I could dress down at the cinema); I don’t have those socks or that top any more, I don’t have a photo of my encounter with one of my favourite authors, but I do have a brilliant memory of that day and I’m so glad I can say that I met him.

He was just as cool as I expected and I’m very sad that I’ll never get to meet him again, and that new fans of his work will never get that opportunity. I am glad that he’s not suffering any more and that he did so much to raise awareness of Alzheimer's.

On Friday we had a little sweepstake on the horseracing. I put a pound in for our work lottery syndicate each week and decided, what the hell, it was only a pound for the horseracing. Well, I won the pot. A whole £18. As we were having Chinese that evening I offered up my winnings as a contribution to that. But Mr Click’s told me to put it towards books instead. That’s why I married him.

I’m thinking that at least couple of the books I buy are going to have to be by Terry Pratchett. I don’t have The Carpet People after all, and there’s one more Discworld book still to get (Raising Steam), plus the Long Earth series and some non-Discworld novels. I’ve been working to complete my Pratchett collection for a few years now, unfortunately it looks like I’ll be able to do that. I suspect I’ll have to start a reread soon.

We also had a hospital trip to Glasgow this week. Aside from a minor blip on the journey, it was a really good day. We visited the Disney Store and came aware £16.99 lighter, but with blu-ray copies of Brave and Tangled (yay for buy one, get one free!) later that day I also cashed in some of our Disney Movie Rewards points so we’ve also got blu-rays of The Fox and The Hound and Ratatouille on their way as well.

The hospital appointment largely consisted of handing over consent forms and getting an envelope in return which contained a stack more consent forms. That’s our homework for our next appointment at the end of the month. Mr Click got off lightly, requiring absolutely no bloodwork to be drawn. I, on the other hand, had to have blood taken as well as swabs.

On the whole it was a good day and I’m glad to be getting things underway, even if it does mean lots of uncomfortable medical procedures. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it in the end.