The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
The second album I have of this band and it is similar in style to the first. It has strong storytelling elements that seem to be based in (American) folk traditions, though every so often they seem to enjoy throwing in a curve ball. It is an album to sit and listen to more than to play in the background. It demands a certain level of attention from the listener for which it rewards with little gems of audio delights.
Brooke Fraser – What to do with daylight
This artist was new to me and I didn’t know what to expect when I played her album. Sent as a present by my brother and his wife from NZ I have since found out that this young Kiwi girl is very popular there and in Australia. She has a pleasant voice and the songs are nicely written. We have played it a couple of times now and it will probably be on high rotation for a while to come.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Another year older...
Amongst the many cards and gifts I received for my birthday were books on foraging ‘food for free’, picking wild fungi safely, and spotting birds found in the British garden (along with a pair of binoculars), the latest novel by Dean Koontz, various T-shirts, a pair of jeans, a wallet, a box of wine, a nice whiskey, some chocolates, and a couple of CDs. Since we have only recently moved into our new home we decided not to go away, as we often do for my birthday, instead family and friends came over the weekend before and we entertained at home.
Virtually working...
Trip to Barcelona
I recently went to Barcelona with work on an annual sales conference. Somewhere in the region of 500 people from offices throughout our EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region came and joined in. Some of the extra curricular activities included a trip to the Barcelona football club home ground where we had a reception, tour and presentations with Eidur Gudjohnsen giving a brief talk. Not being that interested in sport or in football (soccer) in particular it all left me somewhat cold. One of the hotels we were in was near to the ground and during the few days we also saw Ronaldinho in the bar. Some of the attendees at the conference went to one of the matches on the Sunday evening. We also went on a short bus tour of the sights of the town (I had seen much of it when Sue and I visited a few years before) and we ended up having dinner at the Casa Batllo , one of the architect Antoni Gaudi’s best designed houses.
Trip to Manchester
I had another trip away this year, though this was only a flying visit to our training school in Manchester where I was learning about one of our products. The visit coincided with expected ‘blizzard’ weather conditions that were to sweep the west, south and midlands. On my journey back I prepared myself for the possibility that I would have to stop and book in at a hotel for the night, but the horrors predicted by all of the news networks and travel services didn’t affect my route at all, in fact I got home in record time as hardly anybody was on the roads. The public utilities in the UK can’t seem to cope with any minor variation in the weather (leaves on the line, the wrong type of snow etc.). A few centimeters of snow and everybody is all doom and gloom, yet colleagues of mine battled through several feet of snow in Germany and there the trains were running and the taxis still ran at 140kph down the autobahn!
I recently went to Barcelona with work on an annual sales conference. Somewhere in the region of 500 people from offices throughout our EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region came and joined in. Some of the extra curricular activities included a trip to the Barcelona football club home ground where we had a reception, tour and presentations with Eidur Gudjohnsen giving a brief talk. Not being that interested in sport or in football (soccer) in particular it all left me somewhat cold. One of the hotels we were in was near to the ground and during the few days we also saw Ronaldinho in the bar. Some of the attendees at the conference went to one of the matches on the Sunday evening. We also went on a short bus tour of the sights of the town (I had seen much of it when Sue and I visited a few years before) and we ended up having dinner at the Casa Batllo , one of the architect Antoni Gaudi’s best designed houses.
Trip to Manchester
I had another trip away this year, though this was only a flying visit to our training school in Manchester where I was learning about one of our products. The visit coincided with expected ‘blizzard’ weather conditions that were to sweep the west, south and midlands. On my journey back I prepared myself for the possibility that I would have to stop and book in at a hotel for the night, but the horrors predicted by all of the news networks and travel services didn’t affect my route at all, in fact I got home in record time as hardly anybody was on the roads. The public utilities in the UK can’t seem to cope with any minor variation in the weather (leaves on the line, the wrong type of snow etc.). A few centimeters of snow and everybody is all doom and gloom, yet colleagues of mine battled through several feet of snow in Germany and there the trains were running and the taxis still ran at 140kph down the autobahn!
Around the home...
The House
Boiler replacement
We had always planned to one day change the boiler in the new house as we have a preference for a combi-boiler rather than having separate hot water and central heating, when the electric immersion heater failed though we were forced to act quicker than we expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t easily replace the heating element in the hot water cylinder because whoever fitted the boiler placed directly above the cylinder, preventing us from getting access to the bits inside it. This lack of planning and poor execution is a theme that seems to run throughout the house (some might call it qwerky!). For a few weeks we had to do without hot water and we were washing either at work, at Sue’s mums, or at the local swimming baths. Now it has been replaced we are pretty much back to normal.
New furniture
We sold much of our furniture to the woman who was buying our old house as we had bought it when we moved in there approximately 10 years before. We brought only the sitting room furniture (the seating we intend to change later once we have finished the redecoration), and some shelving and storage units. We had bought new beds just before the move and we had a lovely old oak dining table given to us by Joyce and Terry (the frame of which is several hundred years old). We had new dining chairs delivered in the nick of time just before Christmas ready for use by all our visitors who were coming over to dine with us during the festive break. We have bought a few pieces of furniture which are in the Indian style in dark rosewood and rustic finish and they seem to suit the style of the cottage very well.
Decorating
We had help from Sue’s brother and nephews with plastering and some painting, enabling us to repaint the lounge, dining room, front bedroom and start on the bathroom. We have now nearly finished painting, with just the woodwork in most of the rooms and the walls and woodwork in the bathroom yet to do. Sue’s aunt is coming over soon to hang some wall paper on a feature wall to complete the lounge and then it is details such as door furniture, shelves, some pictures and a curtain left to hang after that.
Fence
We had some storms earlier in the year and the only fence in gardens in our terrace of houses to come down was ours. It was completely rotten and so we again called on Sue’s brother to come over and put up a new one with strong concrete posts that should now last a while.
Allotment
We still have our old allotment which we will slowly rob of useful plants, moving them either to a new allotment or to plant out in our garden. There is a section of land behind us that is being used as a vegetable garden and we have asked the owner if he would consider letting us rent (or buy) some of it off him, but we haven’t heard back from him yet. We have bought our seed potatoes, onions and garlic and we plan on starting planting in a couple of weeks, once the ground starts to warm up.
Boiler replacement
We had always planned to one day change the boiler in the new house as we have a preference for a combi-boiler rather than having separate hot water and central heating, when the electric immersion heater failed though we were forced to act quicker than we expected. Unfortunately we couldn’t easily replace the heating element in the hot water cylinder because whoever fitted the boiler placed directly above the cylinder, preventing us from getting access to the bits inside it. This lack of planning and poor execution is a theme that seems to run throughout the house (some might call it qwerky!). For a few weeks we had to do without hot water and we were washing either at work, at Sue’s mums, or at the local swimming baths. Now it has been replaced we are pretty much back to normal.
New furniture
We sold much of our furniture to the woman who was buying our old house as we had bought it when we moved in there approximately 10 years before. We brought only the sitting room furniture (the seating we intend to change later once we have finished the redecoration), and some shelving and storage units. We had bought new beds just before the move and we had a lovely old oak dining table given to us by Joyce and Terry (the frame of which is several hundred years old). We had new dining chairs delivered in the nick of time just before Christmas ready for use by all our visitors who were coming over to dine with us during the festive break. We have bought a few pieces of furniture which are in the Indian style in dark rosewood and rustic finish and they seem to suit the style of the cottage very well.
Decorating
We had help from Sue’s brother and nephews with plastering and some painting, enabling us to repaint the lounge, dining room, front bedroom and start on the bathroom. We have now nearly finished painting, with just the woodwork in most of the rooms and the walls and woodwork in the bathroom yet to do. Sue’s aunt is coming over soon to hang some wall paper on a feature wall to complete the lounge and then it is details such as door furniture, shelves, some pictures and a curtain left to hang after that.
Fence
We had some storms earlier in the year and the only fence in gardens in our terrace of houses to come down was ours. It was completely rotten and so we again called on Sue’s brother to come over and put up a new one with strong concrete posts that should now last a while.
Allotment
We still have our old allotment which we will slowly rob of useful plants, moving them either to a new allotment or to plant out in our garden. There is a section of land behind us that is being used as a vegetable garden and we have asked the owner if he would consider letting us rent (or buy) some of it off him, but we haven’t heard back from him yet. We have bought our seed potatoes, onions and garlic and we plan on starting planting in a couple of weeks, once the ground starts to warm up.
Christmas and New Year...
As we had just moved into our new house we took the opportunity to have Christmas and New Year at home. Joyce and Terry and Liam the dog came down to stay with, as did Jamie back from University in Hull. We had other family and friends over during the festive season and Sue and Joyce made very good use of the double oven cooking traditional roasts for the masses. We interspersed the eating with walks in the countryside, visits to the local hostelry and naps on the sofa. After Christmas Sue and I were left to our own devices for New Years, and took it easy kicking back and enjoying Jools Holland’s Hootenanny on the TV. This meant that we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on New Years Day and so we joined the local Westcott History Group , or a Sue calls them – the Hysterical Society, and went for a walk. The day was bright and fresh and the outing made us feel very virtuous. After our visit to see a 300 year old farm (with mulled wine and mince pies included) and the much older Saxon church we stopped at a pub to celebrate before returning home to open the champagne.
Friday, February 16, 2007
More of wot I have read...
Insomnia by Stephen King
King’s writing style tends to lean towards action and violence, often graphic and gratuitous, rather than a steady building of suspense and tension that I prefer. I thought his choice of main characters was inspired and I was looking forward to learning how they viewed the world, but they too seemed to become more inclined towards heroic activity than you would have credited them with. I was not totally convinced with the supernatural elements that King tried to convey in this book and this inevitably frustrated me. I just think I don’t get on with his writing style, but I know many others do.
'Ralph Roberts has a problem: he isn't sleeping so well these days. In fact, he's hardly sleeping at all. Each morning, the news conveyed by the bedside clock is a little worse: 3:15...3:02...2:45...2:15. The books call it "premature waking"; Ralph, who is still learning to be a widower, calls it a season in hell. He's begun to notice a strangeness in his familiar surroundings, to experience visual phenomena that he can't quite believe are hallucinations. Soon, Ralph thinks, he won't be sleeping at all, and what then? A problem, yes - though perhaps not so uncommon, you might say. But Ralph has lived his entire life in Derry, Maine, and Derry isn't like other places, as millions of Stephen King readers will gladly testify. They remember It, also set in Derry, and know there's a mean streak running through this small New England city; underneath its ordinary surface awesome and terrifying forces are at work. The dying, natural and otherwise, has been going on in Derry for a long, long time. Now Ralph is part of it. So are his friends. And so are the strangers they encounter.'
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
I found this book much more my cup of tea and I was drawn in immediately, attracted by the playful writing and the sympathetic and qwerky characters. Even though the idea is not necessarily a new one, the interpretation seemed fresh and exciting. I particularly enjoyed Koontz attention to detail and his almost poetic style of description.
"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd's otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different. A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd's deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
As a sequel this book suffers from the fact that we know many of the secrets we didn’t in the first book, and taking it on a step sometimes pushes the boundaries just a bit too far. There is not a lot extra that we find out about the characters we like and the new characters seem even more outlandish than before. It could be trying too hard.
Every so often a character so captures the hearts and imaginations of readers that he seems to take on a life of his own long after the final page is turned. For such a character, one book is not enough — readers must know what happens next. Now Dean Koontz returns with the novel his fans have been demanding. With the emotional power and sheer storytelling artistry that are his trademarks, Koontz takes up once more the story of a unique young hero and an eccentric little town in a tale that is equal parts suspense and terror, adventure and mystery — and altogether irresistibly odd.
We're all a little odd beneath the surface. He's the most unlikely hero you'll ever meet — an ordinary guy with a modest job you might never look at twice. But there's so much more to any of us than meets the eye — and that goes triple for Odd Thomas. For Odd lives always between two worlds in the small desert town of Pico Mundo, where the heroic and the harrowing are everyday events. Odd never asked to communicate with the dead — it's something that just happened. But as the unofficial ambassador between our world and theirs, he's got a duty to do the right thing. That's the way Odd sees it and that's why he's won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death.
A childhood friend of Odd's has disappeared. The worst is feared. But as Odd applies his unique talents to the task of finding the missing person, he discovers something worse than a dead body, encounters an enemy of exceptional cunning, and spirals into a vortex of terror. Once again Odd will stand against our worst fears. Around him will gather new allies and old, some living and some not. For in the battle to come, there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope. Whether you're meeting Odd Thomas for the first time or he's already an old friend, you'll be led on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror, wonder and delight — to a revelation that can change your life. And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas.
The Husband by Dean Koontz
I received this book for my birthday from my wife and it is a real page-turner. I didn’t want to put it down, drawn as I was into the horror as Mitch’s world is turned upside down and everything (well almost everything) he though was good turns bad. At the end it had my pulse beating faster as I willed him on. I have really enjoyed the few books I have read by this author and I will look out for more of them now.
What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?
We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he's standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.
Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch's wife and he's named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn't care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He's confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough… Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He's got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he'll pay a lot more. He'll pay anything.
BloodBowl by Matt Forbeck
If you approach this book with the same attitude as the game of BloodBowl them you probably won’t be disappointed. It is never going to win any literary awards but then that never was its aim. It’s just a bit of fun.
He should have stuck to fighting dragons…
Dunk Hoffnung’s life is going nowhere fast and being an adventurer is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. The pay is terrible, the conditions harsh and the only people you meet are generally monsters and they’re more interested in eating your flesh than sitting down and sharing their feelings…
When sports agent Slick Fullbelly spots Dunk bringing down a Chimera with a spear from a hundred paces, he’s sure that his search is over. Slick works for the Bad Bay Hackers, and they need a new thrower. Dunk is about to be plunged headfirst into the insane world of Blood Bowl, the fastest, meanest sport in this dark and brutal fantasy world. Dunk puts down his sword and steps off the battlefield…… onto the football field.
DeadBall by Matt Forbeck
This is more of the same, bad jokes, terrible puns, and wild action that is absolutely nothing more than a bit of fan fun.
Would-be star quarterback Dunk Hoffnung is back and, unfortunately, he's not smelling of roses. His dreams of fame and stardom within the ridiculously violent game of Blood Bowl have all come to nothing. But a good player never says die (though they have been known to say "Ouch" or "Look, take the ball! Just don't hurt me!" or "Not in the face!") and he's determined to make his name… in the Albion leagues. All he has to do is survive the dirty tricks, the sneaky cheating and the exploding footballs. And that's just the players on his team.
King’s writing style tends to lean towards action and violence, often graphic and gratuitous, rather than a steady building of suspense and tension that I prefer. I thought his choice of main characters was inspired and I was looking forward to learning how they viewed the world, but they too seemed to become more inclined towards heroic activity than you would have credited them with. I was not totally convinced with the supernatural elements that King tried to convey in this book and this inevitably frustrated me. I just think I don’t get on with his writing style, but I know many others do.
'Ralph Roberts has a problem: he isn't sleeping so well these days. In fact, he's hardly sleeping at all. Each morning, the news conveyed by the bedside clock is a little worse: 3:15...3:02...2:45...2:15. The books call it "premature waking"; Ralph, who is still learning to be a widower, calls it a season in hell. He's begun to notice a strangeness in his familiar surroundings, to experience visual phenomena that he can't quite believe are hallucinations. Soon, Ralph thinks, he won't be sleeping at all, and what then? A problem, yes - though perhaps not so uncommon, you might say. But Ralph has lived his entire life in Derry, Maine, and Derry isn't like other places, as millions of Stephen King readers will gladly testify. They remember It, also set in Derry, and know there's a mean streak running through this small New England city; underneath its ordinary surface awesome and terrifying forces are at work. The dying, natural and otherwise, has been going on in Derry for a long, long time. Now Ralph is part of it. So are his friends. And so are the strangers they encounter.'
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
I found this book much more my cup of tea and I was drawn in immediately, attracted by the playful writing and the sympathetic and qwerky characters. Even though the idea is not necessarily a new one, the interpretation seemed fresh and exciting. I particularly enjoyed Koontz attention to detail and his almost poetic style of description.
"The dead don't talk. I don't know why." But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn. Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd's otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different. A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd's deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.
Today is August 14.
In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares—and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
As a sequel this book suffers from the fact that we know many of the secrets we didn’t in the first book, and taking it on a step sometimes pushes the boundaries just a bit too far. There is not a lot extra that we find out about the characters we like and the new characters seem even more outlandish than before. It could be trying too hard.
Every so often a character so captures the hearts and imaginations of readers that he seems to take on a life of his own long after the final page is turned. For such a character, one book is not enough — readers must know what happens next. Now Dean Koontz returns with the novel his fans have been demanding. With the emotional power and sheer storytelling artistry that are his trademarks, Koontz takes up once more the story of a unique young hero and an eccentric little town in a tale that is equal parts suspense and terror, adventure and mystery — and altogether irresistibly odd.
We're all a little odd beneath the surface. He's the most unlikely hero you'll ever meet — an ordinary guy with a modest job you might never look at twice. But there's so much more to any of us than meets the eye — and that goes triple for Odd Thomas. For Odd lives always between two worlds in the small desert town of Pico Mundo, where the heroic and the harrowing are everyday events. Odd never asked to communicate with the dead — it's something that just happened. But as the unofficial ambassador between our world and theirs, he's got a duty to do the right thing. That's the way Odd sees it and that's why he's won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death.
A childhood friend of Odd's has disappeared. The worst is feared. But as Odd applies his unique talents to the task of finding the missing person, he discovers something worse than a dead body, encounters an enemy of exceptional cunning, and spirals into a vortex of terror. Once again Odd will stand against our worst fears. Around him will gather new allies and old, some living and some not. For in the battle to come, there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope. Whether you're meeting Odd Thomas for the first time or he's already an old friend, you'll be led on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror, wonder and delight — to a revelation that can change your life. And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas.
The Husband by Dean Koontz
I received this book for my birthday from my wife and it is a real page-turner. I didn’t want to put it down, drawn as I was into the horror as Mitch’s world is turned upside down and everything (well almost everything) he though was good turns bad. At the end it had my pulse beating faster as I willed him on. I have really enjoyed the few books I have read by this author and I will look out for more of them now.
What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill?
We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he's standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare.
Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch's wife and he's named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn't care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He's confident that Mitch will find a way. If he loves his wife enough… Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He's got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he'll pay a lot more. He'll pay anything.
BloodBowl by Matt Forbeck
If you approach this book with the same attitude as the game of BloodBowl them you probably won’t be disappointed. It is never going to win any literary awards but then that never was its aim. It’s just a bit of fun.
He should have stuck to fighting dragons…
Dunk Hoffnung’s life is going nowhere fast and being an adventurer is definitely not all it’s cracked up to be. The pay is terrible, the conditions harsh and the only people you meet are generally monsters and they’re more interested in eating your flesh than sitting down and sharing their feelings…
When sports agent Slick Fullbelly spots Dunk bringing down a Chimera with a spear from a hundred paces, he’s sure that his search is over. Slick works for the Bad Bay Hackers, and they need a new thrower. Dunk is about to be plunged headfirst into the insane world of Blood Bowl, the fastest, meanest sport in this dark and brutal fantasy world. Dunk puts down his sword and steps off the battlefield…… onto the football field.
DeadBall by Matt Forbeck
This is more of the same, bad jokes, terrible puns, and wild action that is absolutely nothing more than a bit of fan fun.
Would-be star quarterback Dunk Hoffnung is back and, unfortunately, he's not smelling of roses. His dreams of fame and stardom within the ridiculously violent game of Blood Bowl have all come to nothing. But a good player never says die (though they have been known to say "Ouch" or "Look, take the ball! Just don't hurt me!" or "Not in the face!") and he's determined to make his name… in the Albion leagues. All he has to do is survive the dirty tricks, the sneaky cheating and the exploding footballs. And that's just the players on his team.
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