The car is in for its WOF, so I ended up needing to take three different buses. It was relatively painless, but a lot slower to get to work than I'm used to, and you can't read if you're having to hop on and off buses all the time. I hope that the car is ready in time for my trip up to Foxton this afternoon.
***
I have done my part in the DVD-watching stakes - I watched all the rest of Haibane Renmei last night. I quite liked it; not everything was nicely tied up, but nothing felt contradictory, and there was enough information there that you could construct your own satisfying explanations. I could tell you all about the series, or I could point you at the official website instead. (Or a site that isn't just in flash, even.)
Of course, that means I'm woefully behind on the "constructing an interesting game for Saturday" stakes, but I've got all of tonight and Friday to worry about that. :-)
***
Teriaki chicken, cream cheese and cranberries sushi is a little odd. Not bad, but odd. :-)
People liked the beer batter I made - I cooked a bunch of things coated in it, in a somewhat tempura style. The beef schnitzel and terakihi was quite nice, but the surprise tasty treat was the thinly-sliced carrots. It's a bit too work-intensive to do in the pan very often (and the splatter is a bit messy), but it was a nice experiment to make.
Speaking of experiments, next up is a chicken casserole using the leftover ale in the pot, I think - thanks to my sister Ellen for making the suggestion! :)
***
I got to talk to my sister Ellen on my birthday - she sounded a bit tired, and it wasn't a great connection, but it was very cool to talk to her. It reminded me of wandering around Oxford with her whooping like a gibbon; I actually remember her saying (about a particularly magnificent example) that, "It was a surfer gibbon giving big ups to a lady surfer gibbon."
I think I'll miss Erik a lot when he goes overseas.
I remember Ellen's revelation about the "heaps" in British English - namely, that she used the word "heaps" where the people around her used "loads", and they only noticed because their assumptions were subverted. Don't give in, Ellen - give 'em heaps!
(However, you should also send me the package of stuff that I left with you, darn it - so hurry up and read The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency! Other people in my flat want to read it!)
I hope that she manages to get home at some point once she finishes her Masters; ideally, by getting a lecturing job in Wellington (though the Auckland gig would be okay too).
***
Norman very thoughtfully gave me a piece of petrified wood for my birthday, to remind me that I'm not all that old.
***
This morning, I hauled a bunch of stuff out from under my bed - it means that my room is more messy, but I've actually found my shoe polish. I remember Giffy commenting about how much my brother and I clean our shoes; I'm not sure if that's so, but it has been bothering me that my black shoes have been scuffed since my trip away. Now, they're a nice shiny black - no more worries about the leather being damaged by water. Maybe I'll remember to rub in beeswax tonight.
Cleaning your shoes is satisfying - the goal is fairly clear, the amount of effort is not substantial, and the change is visible, immediate, and lasts for a while. Plus, clean shoes!
Next step - clean room. :)
Posted by svend at September 30, 2004 2:13 PMI hope that doesn't mean that you read when you're driving!! :-)
I read the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. I honestly thought it was a bit over-rated, so would be interested to hear what others thought. Let me know when you've read it ya??
I enjoyed the book, but wouldn't say it was a great novel - I'm not itching to reread it, for example. I may be judging it too harshly, since I was reading a whole lot of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler at the time, but all of the mysteries seemed fairly straightforward; it's more a way to show the Botswanan setting and people than detective fiction. This is kind of interesting, since a lot of the Brother Cadfael mysteries are arguably showcasing medieval England religious life in the same way, yet the solutions aren't as heavily foreshadowed.
I guess the reasons that I enjoyed reading the series was they were quite light while still being engaging, they were reassuringly upbeat, and the writer obviously loves the country and people. I found them excellent books for travelling with.
I'm not sure whether I'll pick up his series set in Scandanavia, though.
Posted by: Svend at October 1, 2004 12:10 PM