No, not very happy at all.

After lots of travelling lately today I was poorly and had to stay in bed until after lunch - this never happens. Then I got up only to discover that I didn't win anything in the Beads & Beyond competition this year - what's new. The only thing I can say is that my understanding of "original" differs a lot from the majority of the B&B readers and judges. I thought Becky Fairclough's Peacock was outstanding. But never mind.

The most horrendous thing though was the review of Rod's book "The Demi-Monde" in the SFX which came out today. It was just a pack of lies and made up crap written in the most malicious way. I couldn't believe what I was reading. As if the reviewer was envious that it wasn't himself who had come up with this brilliant idea for this brilliant love story - you see, they call it "steam punk", but in the end it is a beautiful novel about real love and real heroes. With lots of good humour and wit - so enjoyable!

It was very much like when they reviewed my album "Jazz Noir" in "Jazzwize"; I still remember the ending: "...And "The Boy From Ipanema"? - ouch!" - I am not pulling your leg, these are the very words that prat used!

This review thing made me so cross, I had to write it all down in my blog to calm down a bit. The book, according to this person, is so bad that he gave it three stars and said that it would keep you hooked. I just hope that all those people in Poland, Russia, Germany, Italy, the rest of Eastern Europe, who have bought the rights to the book and are now busily translating it, and, of course, guys in the US have seen something in this book that Mr Holt of SFX has failed to see - or, maybe, he got a bit jealous?

Becky's Blog, 111 stars and Taking Photos in the Rain :)

Becky Fairclough of Chameleon Designs, being an amazing glass artist and making amazingly beautiful beads and things, also is a truly beautiful person. Whenever I see her at fairs and meetings, she always smiles, always happy, always has a chat with her numerous friends and acquaintances. I was really happy when she told me that she ordered my book; now she received it and wrote a whole blog about it! :) You can read it on http://www.chameleonsdesigns.blogspot.com/ . I am feeling so fluffy inside! :) :) :)

Yesterday I realized that now I have 111 feedback stars on ebay! I thought it was a pretty cool number. It shows that you are not a novice, and you have sold a considerable amount of stuff, and that customers care to leave a nice feedback about what they bought from you. I always thought that once I have over a hundred of these stars I will be very pleased indeed (you see, some customers don't leave anything, and it isn't because they are dissatisfied, but they might forget or be busy). But now, of course, I am dreaming of, say, 500 stars! I don't know if I'll ever be able to produce as much as feedbacks for a 1000 items! But you never know...

Also yesterday I was very clever and I took photos of the beads I was going to put on ebay in advance. I usually list items on Friday, and usually Friday is a very hectic day: choosing and additionally inspecting beads (lots of noise, I tell you!), cleaning (for a 10th time) and polishing (for a 20th time) the beads which would be ready to be photographed, taking photos, choosing photos, tagging and naming them, ooooh! busy. Then the actual writing of the descriptions, measuring etc. When I woke up I saw a lovely sunrise, which was surprising as all night it was raining. Remembering where we live now (it rained a LOT LESS in Norfolk) I used the sunshine for these great photos of my beads. Here's one. I should have called the beads something like "Lunaglow", but this great thought only came to me this morning, so they'll just have to be simply "Lentils"!