As the winter nights draw in, I find myself with the perplexing problem that I cannot tell what time it is due to nightfall occurring around 4PM, which makes me believe that it's actually 6PM, until I check on the time on  my mobile, while avoiding getting mugged. This problem was evident  yesterday after I hopped on a train to Reading where I attempted to find a shop that I had previously been unable to locate on two previous occasions. Having previously getting lost when Googlemaps had directed me to an entirely different road, I asked for directions to the shops postcode, which was altogether more accurate, although due to the fact that I couldn't tell the time accurately (it had been overcast all day, so looked like evening anyway) I actually got to Red Garden at around 3:15PM.

There was to be a launch party for Final Blossom, Karen Yumi Lusted's first printed manga which started at 12:00PM, so by the time I got there they'd already finished the cake & put the Karaoke machine away! There weren't too many people in the shop at the time, besides Karen, Publisher Willie Hewes & Frank there were about two other people, apparently there was a particularly good turn out, but the early onset of evening probably drove everyone away early. I picked up a copy of Final Blossom as well as Amaranth & The Witch. I waited around as I had nothing in particular to do, looked at soem of the manga titles that wee on sale & tried to remember the title of anything that I might have needed to buy, but couldn't remember anything. It didn't seem as though anyone else would show up, so hey packed up  closed earl at 4M, although I was able to hear something interesting about the Re:Con that will take place there on December 11th

I got on a train home, thinking that it was around 6PM when I arrived at the station, although it was only 4:45PM so I decided to see if Woolworths was still open & how much stock they had left. The company is now in administration, which means that every employee will effectively be out of a job before the end of the year, which isn't the sort of thing anyone should hear during the run up to Christmas now is it!