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Dang technology dudes! I've just spent twenty minutes trying to get my friend's computer to let me access the internet. Cripes only knows what I was doing wrong. Why it is so difficult to use other people's machines?

I'm at Kate's flat, looking out across the water and the sparkling distant lights. It's a surprise visit and we will have a little too much to drink,I suspect. Thanks to the rather gorgeous G, who was generous enough to spontaneously drive me here. I'm terrible with directions and sent her home with the helpful instructions to "just drive in a straight line until you get to the motorway, more or less." There's nothing as disturbing as being given directions by a non-driver. Except being given directions from me.

Aside from the crazy Hampshire road-trip that is my life, I've been giving more thought to the whole girl detective theme. I am certain there must be some brilliant women P.I.s out there in the land of make-believe. I know Sarah Paretsky writes V.I Warshawski, though I've never liked the cover of those - I know it sounds flippant, but sometimes it's important. There's Miss Marple, of course. I liked the Mma Ramotswe in the same way that I used to enjoy reading Agatha Christie, too.

A quick google search yielded a MySpace site whose moniker was Girl Detective (I typo-ed that as Git Detective, made me laugh.) She was cool and I've put her on my add list, she had an interesting blog where there's a discussion on the difference between art and pornography. Her friend Dan states: "Fairly simple: art is what you look at to stroke your mind. Porn is what you look at to stroke your body." I add him as well, especially when his comment ends: "For the record, I have yet to masturbate to a Matisse print." What do you think?

Then I stumbled across a real gem. The Madison WI public library website. If you have aspirations for your library, this inspires as well as entertains. The MADreads blog is superb, and absolutely free to run, as you can see (you didn't think I was paying for this, did you? Anyone can do it, and please let me know if you do.)

http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/booklists/index.html

For literary and library inspiration.