You may have already noticed that November was a busy month for me. I spent less than half of the month working in the office with several overnight stays. Of course when I was in the office I had plenty of work to do that meant I was working over lunch or staying late, and frequently both.
However, there was also fantastic news in November because I got a Rollabind punch , and what is even better is I did not have to pay £60 for it. I bought it, along with over 1000 discs of different sizes and colours, for £36. I don’t want anyone in the UK to get excited at the prospect that Rollabind is available for a decent price here, because I’m afraid it’s not, this purchase came from the Polish equivalent of Ebay, Allegro. The items are still for sale there, but apparently the seller only takes payments through a Polish bank and does not want to post internationally. Fortunately someone did a great favour for me and purchased it on my behalf, I would love to mention them here, but I am reluctant in case they are bombarded with requests to help others.
Goals – this has still not progressed, but I did complete Nanowrimo which was looking very unlikely two thirds in. Last year I wrote a fair bit during my lunch break, but this was not possible this year and my evenings were frequently shorter than I would have liked. However I concentrated at the weekends and kept updating my plan to help me get to the end, and I did it with 18 minutes to spare.
Fitness – Mmm, another one that is not progressing, my weight increased slightly to 67.2kg.
Tasks – Should I actually look at this? At the end of November my list had a backlog of 96 days, which I don’t think is too bad considering that is only an increase of 4 days during a very busy month. I have managed to delegate some of the tasks and chosen to cross others off, but I need to do a serious review of the list. Thank you to Stephen who has emailed me some tips, I will be taking action towards the end of the month to ensure I start the new calendar year with a significantly shorter list.
Books Read
I read an impressive 7 books in November (I’m not sure when I found the time though), but did not write any reviews for them. This means I have read 58 books in 2007 averaging 5.3 a month, more than one a week but still a little way off my goal of 75 books in a year.
- Stardust (Amazon)
- Back Spin (Amazon)
- Fade Away (Amazon)
- Ralph’s Party (Amazon)
- Northern Lights (or for those outside of UK, The Golden Compass) (Amazon)
- One hit wonder (Amazon)
- Pemberley (Amazon)

Good job on the reading! How did you like “The Golden Compass”? I rather enjoyed the concept of alternative technologies.
@Stephen,
I enjoyed The Golden Compass. I first read it about seven years ago and wanted to reread it before going to see the film (which I haven’t done yet). I think I may have enjoyed it more this time. I was surprised how much I had combined the stories of the later book with this one, so I was surprised how ‘early’ it finished.
I live near Oxford, so have some affection for the location of the books and I am looking forward to seeing the film adaptation.
Is that rollabind punch US letter or A4?
Hello Simon,
The punch does both US letter and A4. There is a sliding guide with notches for about 6 cm including markers for A4 and 11″. There are 12 punches instead of the 11 on the Levenger punch.