Planning for the Nile trip and e-book formatting

In addition to the current days tasks for a variety of parties, including Mr Straus with further ideas and inspirations for design modifications required to his branding, there were three elements of interest today.

The first was the complex decision making leading to the decision for me to accompany Miss T on a Nile trip to Egypt's antiquities. The country had been featuring in the news during its revolution during the earlier part of this year, with concern about security and safety therefore being uppermost in my mind. I consulted with my Insurance Brokers to ensure that we could get appropriate travel and health cover for the trip later in the year. This was complicated by the fact that a prophylactic medication that I take, which retains me in the good health that I enjoy, meant that the medical health insurance element resulted in a higher premium for me (still providing an overall premium a good 15 to 20% below that from other sources!). Once the steps were put in place, it was then possible to book the tickets with the reputable travel company Thompson.

The second point was an idiosyncrasy arising from payment. I had paid with a credit card. The sum, despite the heavy discount, was not inconsiderable and I wished to transfer funds from my bank to the credit card. In all other instances, I make payments over the internet to other accounts. However, I could not transfer monies from my bank account to my credit card! Ah, the impenetrable and inscrutible financial services – no dount there will be a charge involved in the final solution to my problem.

The third element of interest was a discussion with fellow author and interested party in e-book publication, Ms Ekblom. We had an interesting exchange of information on the use of software such as Sigil for the editing of the formatting in the underlying HTML language of texts and the subsequent formatting in Calibre. Ms Ekblom had an eagle eye as a proof reader that complemented my knowledge on the formatting language as we shared a common view of a screen through the medium of Skype internet telephony.

A pleasant diversion was the arrival of the empty picture frames for my Cambridge Open Studios exhibition. Miss T was instrumental in carefully opening the frames and then mounting selected pictures, after I had signed them. It now remains for me to arrange the printing of four outstanding images and also painting two images using the newly acquired art of Chinese Brush Painting.

Ms Riches, our publicity officer for COS, also contacted me over lunchtime via Skype and we exchanged text comments whilst listening to a short interview on the Peterborough Open Studios of circa 40 artists. COS was also mentioned and we were pleased that this year we were starting public awareness of Cambridge Open Studios early.