Today’s Asian otters, Daz and Chip, reportedly lived together for fifteen years before dying within an hour of each other. They were 19 and 16 years old.
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a good book (or a bad one)? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
We had an earthquake in Adelaide. It was just a little one – no damage reports, nothing more than a shudder, but understandably, a big event for people who have never felt an earthquake before.
I’ve read a few other bloggers describing the shake, Deborah. So far not even an ornament broken amongst anyone I’ve read – that’s a relief!
Is it terribly wrong of me to be tweet-seeing this weekend’s Supanova cosplayers in Melbourne somehow mixing it with the Regency Fair cosplayers up in Canberra this weekend? Or is my palpable (it’s throbbing alarmingly) jealousy making me imagine WEIRD AND TWISTED THINGS?
This is all #firstworldproblems, but here we are:
1. thinking of friends who are stranded various places in Europe due to the volcanic ash, and who are about to board various buses which will take a day or longer to get them home.
2. doing preliminary research towards buying a used car. I’ve never owned a car before and ugh, I hate doing this kind of pre-purchase research: so much reading conflicting reviews and wads of caveat emptor guides to understand the market well enough not to be utterly utterly ripped off.
3. not thrilled about picking my PhD research back up, but that’s what has to happen to finish it up.
Glad to hear you only had a baby earthquake if you had to have one at all Deborah!
I have a friend who is, oh no, stranded in Venice. He had checked into his British Airways flight before the ash cloud made it necessary to ground all flights into the UK. So they put him up in a hotel in Venice for a couple of days. But now they’re bussing all the passengers to the coast, and taking them to the UK by sea – moving from the blitz to Dunkirk, as he put it.
He’s not too badly off – he has some time in hand before he is due back on this side of the world, and no dependents, and because he had checked in first, everything is covered. But it must be very difficult for people who are literally stranded, with flights cancelled and no support.
I’ve been trying to signal boost this all day yesterday – a woman who can only speak Kiswahili is trapped in the Schiphol airport, and she’s probably out of money and people are trying to get in touch with her to tell her about her change of flight plans. Horrifyingly, no one in authourity will help, so they’re relying on good folks who are going to be at Schiphol and can take a cellphone call >_<
@Jha, I was about to do a post to signal boost your Kenyan woman’s plight, but I checked your Twitter stream and saw that she was found. I’m so glad. So will she make the graduation ceremony?
Got the fright of my life when the GP sent me for a chest X ray (multitude of mysterious symptoms following flareup of a rare but “mostly harmless” condition) and said he’d only get me in “if there was a problem” but otherwise he’d like to catch up in the next few weeks. Rang office next day and GP was out & receptionist told me “he wants you to come in”. Spent night making final arrangements, kids, dog elder care etc only to find that it meant scenario 2, ie. come back to discuss non life threatening issues. X ray absolutely fine. Aaaaargh!
These experiences do give one a bit of a dose of perspective (plus the fright over the phone is the equivalent of a rollercoaster ride for scaredy cats)
Apparently, there’s a new Australian cookbook, “The Pasta Bible”, that has had to be pulped because one of the recipes called for “salt and freshly ground black people”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8627335.stm
Penguin, the publishers, are claiming that it’s a “silly mistake”, but won’t be recalling any of the books from bookshops.
I’m really not sure what to think. Except that the cynic in me is saying that it’s not just a spellcheck error – it seems to me that it was a case of “let’s put this in and see if anyone notices.”
@Helen, I’m so glad that it ended up being non-threatening life issues! The unnecessary fright still seems unfair.
@bekitty, that’s just…wha?
Actual domestic conversation:
Me: That sounds like Stephen Fry…
He: It is.
Me: Oh, it’s St Trinians. That’s the new one…
He: It’s only got 20 more minutes, not worth watching
Me: Does it matter that we missed the beginning? It’s a St Trinians story – there will be a dastardly plot, the Sixth Formers will be caught up in it, and the Fourth Formers will rescue them with catapults.
He: (wry chuckle) True, but being all the same that means we don’t need to watch it even more, doesn’t it?
Me: Except for the fact that Fourth Formers with catapults are Awesome.
We’re not watching it. But here’s some 4th Formers taking on some Roman Gladiators:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/x34IXgDcMTw?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
Anyone got any links to some good examinations exploring St Trinians and the Monstrous Feminine?
I don’t have a good examination, but I did see the newish St Trinians when it was on at the movies, and definitely enjoyed.