Anti-stress options.

It was a sleepless night here so I spent most of it watching Black Books. which I learned from a bookdealer friend Dylan Moran researched by visiting actual secondhand bookshops and the occasional bookfair (he bought a book from a friend at one of the Edinburgh fairs so that's first hand information.) The whole set-up does have an air of authenticity about it, especially the proprietor's attitude toward customers. Very realistic. I don't have nearly enough of the ill-tempered, tobacco impregnated, drink sodden Moran charisma to cut it as an eccentric, hence the low profile of this shop no doubt.

Bill Bailey is definately one of my desert island dozen.

When I'm stressed or depressed I usually re-read Harry Potter and am now on the third book. It works well as a distraction but nothing is sending me to sleep so I have dark impressive rings under my eyes and a bad taste in my mouth - why does tiredness always seem to do that? The formidable A team are once more in formation, grandfather, grandmother, step-grandmother, mother and now mother's partner who is touchingly distressed by it all, not only for Chloë but very much for Sandy as well. Grandad has arranged an interview with the school for himself and Chloe late today, and, since communication between parents seems to be the immediate problem, I've even brought in the social work team which is a road I swore I would never travel. I'm waiting for the duty SW to get back to me, or to Chloe if they ring late enough. She seems heartened by the support.

Hanging around doing nothing is the worst.