The thing about knowing your karma is septic is that you don't then get all worked up when plans gang agley.

Like today, I just knew my computer wouldn't be ready -- so when I phoned the shop and they said no, I wasn't all bent out of shape. Not even when they told me my modem and scsi card aren't PCI and the new motherboard only has PCI slots. The poor young man who answered the phone was all ready to put in a non-PCI motherboard to accommodate the old cards, but after I yelled at him a bit he went and got someone with better english who agreed that yes, it was probably worth spending a bit more on a new modem & scanner than being stuck with a ye-olde motherboard.

So he's putting in a PCI modem and I'm getting a USB scanner. Ordered it tonight, via the internet. How very modern. It's a Canon CanoScan, a thin little thing that got very good reviews on jungle.com. And my computer will be ready tomorrow. Which is just as well because I hadn't backed up any of my files on the old machine. And now I'll be able to put the scsi card & modem back in it, and maybe one day get it a monitor and keyboard and mouse and network it. Or something.

I've set myself up for some more grief by booking my car in for a service. It squeaks like a cage full of budgies and the gearbox is "sticky". I hope it just needs a grease and some clutch fluid rather than a new clutch plate. I cannily booked it in for Thursday, well after the full moon.

I nearly had two traffic accidents today -- one when another driver ran a red light, another when an elderly ditherer tried to change lanes right into me. Tomorrow being full moon day I'm seriously considering taking the bus. That way even if I do have the accident I'm karmically unable to avoid, my car will be ok.

I got some perfume today with the Boots voucher, Ralph by Ralph Lauren. I was going to give you a link, but it's apparently too new for the internet. It's light, summery, floral. Almost like talc. My last perfume was Mitsouko by Guerlain, but my favourite is Eau Par Kenzo. Boots didn't have either of those. I chose the Mitsouko after a long session of sniffing samples at John Lewis. It's gorgeously rich, heavy but not toooo heavy, very feminine, soft and warm. And then a friend came to stay and was horrified, because it's her scent, her signature scent, she doesn't know anyone else who wears it. I felt quite guilty -- thought I do remember the saleswoman telling me, "No-one else in the room will be wearing this, it's very unusual." So I understood my friend's hurt feelings. I feel a little like that with Eau Par Kenzo, too -- I don't know anyone else who wears it. It's mine.