dark nights, light thoughts

Though I don't look forward to them, long nights and short days do have their advantages. One is staring me in the face right now: my laptop. The shorter days - it's now dark in Cambridge England, at 6 15. That means any summery temptations to be out in the garden, strolling by the river or having a late drink in the pub garden, have been dissipated. Now is the time for long evening reflections. So, I begin my blogging by thinking about blagging.
Blagging is an art form that I have spent much of my 60 years developing. To blag: 'A generally successful attempt to sound sagacious in the earnest belief that those who know less than you will receive a net addition to their store of knowledge'. That too, of course, is a blag-worthy definition.

Anyway, blagging is a real art form. I spent a merry hour in Borders today, while Sheila was shopping in M&S, browsing through some popular business books of the self help variety. Most were pot boilers filled with the most inventive blags - mostly state-of-the-obvious stuff. There was a book called 'Pay off your mortgage in two years'. It was full of blag-enriched text whose only function was to fill pages. 'Make a list of your top spending priorities' - 'Make a list of things you can do without' 'Make a list of 25 ways you can pay off your mortgage in two years'. Then of course, there is the inevitable space for those pointless lists to be filled in by the hapless and generally duped reader.

On this long dark night of the sole (there's only me here) I have had several ideas for blag-heavy book.
'Get rich by writing a self help book'
'250 ways to write a 250-point list'
'Self help yourself to publishing profits'

Anyway, it's time for some fish soup - a liquified remnant of our dinner last night.
'100 things to do with left over haddock'