Mundane News

[rockyroller]

might have to return Dad's watch to Mom. trying some elastic bands for her, which she expressed an interest in

 

[rockyroller]

Time for a few minutes away from the computer screen

let us know when you're back

 

[rockyroller]

Xmas, New Year and Chinese New Year, all within a month of each other.

This is not doing my waistline any good.

almost time for Valentine's Day! I like the heart shaped jelly donuts that Dunkin's makes seasonally

do you all do that holiday, over there?

 

[rockyroller]

Blustery and damp , got an hour ride in today.

isn't it so satisfying to ride thru unpleasant weather? I mean the part about getting back home, & all

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I've got my biggest bag back. It serves as the bag that holds all shopping bags and it had got commissioned for carrying Christmas gifts back and forth.

The workers are in the process of moving the building's gas boiler today and tomorrow. As this meant shutting off the heating, I sort of pre-warmed the flat by turning all the radiator valves up and shutting all windows. The heating appears to have only been off for a very short time, however, and I'm now stifling.

My average time for doing ''hard'' websudukos has now fallen below 10:38 for the first time ever. (It's an obsession for which I have a spreadsheet....)

 

[tom73]

I did use to use the libraries here - the one in the village when we had one, and the one in Ely. The village now has a Book Cafe and also a Book Swap thing in the bus shelter outside the village hall. There was a mobile library at one point as well.

Though with all of them, it's the age old problem that I can't get much that interests me, as they all cater for the tastes of Mr & Mrs Provincial Average. It's got very marked over the last few years as the sports, military history and sci-fi sections have shrunk to almost nothing.

I guess I was VERY spoiled with the academic libraries during my undergrad and postgrad days. When I was at Imperial, I had access to the impressive Haldane Collection, as well as the libraries of the Science, Natural History and V&A museums.

But I'm lucky that a bestie owns a book selling business, so I buy stuff off him. And fanfiction.net takes care of a lot of my sci-fi cravings.

I know just what you mean re access to academic libraries you normally find more interesting stuff for everything except your own subject.
Choice in general libraries main stream will win though it's a fine balance between board mix and having inefficient stock management.
The other influence is freebies from authors and publishers best gloss over the loan royalties they get. Social media and TV book plugs / book clubs also pay a part.
Most stuff is little interest to me either I often have 2/3 books on the go and like to dip in and out can take months to finish some times. So i'd mostly run out of time anyway.

 

[Oldhippy]

almost time for Valentine's Day! I like the heart shaped jelly donuts that Dunkin's makes seasonally

do you all do that holiday, over there?

You must mean jam doughnuts. Jelly is different here.😁

 

[DCLane]

I went out for a lunch-time ride to clear my head, and got massively caught out with a change in the weather from dry-ish to freezing wet. I needed to stop and warm up on the way home

On the up-side I did add two café's to the '52 Cafes in 2023' thread.

 

[biggs682]

let us know when you're back

Oops fell asleep 😸

 

[biggs682]

Blue sky patches here 😊

 

[pawl]

That’s my Sunday job completed building a fire surround Will post a photo when I’ve fixed it to the wall

Photo of completed fire surround

 

[Reynard]

Had a lovely luncheon of two slices of wholemeal toast, one with fig & cider ham (one of my poncy festive buys), one with cheddar & mango chutney, plus a pear, a tangerine and an apple. Oh, and two as well.

Still watching Ronnie O'Sullivan v Mark Williams. Belting snooker match.

 

[tom73]

I went out for a lunch-time ride to clear my head, and got massively caught out with a change in the weather from dry-ish to freezing wet. I needed to stop and warm up on the way home

On the up-side I did add two café's to the '52 Cafes in 2023' thread.

looks like rain , Oh look a cafe best go in. We believe you

 

[Reynard]

I know just what you mean re access to academic libraries you normally find more interesting stuff for everything except your own subject.
Choice in general libraries main stream will win though it's a fine balance between board mix and having inefficient stock management.
The other influence is freebies from authors and publishers best gloss over the loan royalties they get. Social media and TV book plugs / book clubs also pay a part.
Most stuff is little interest to me either I often have 2/3 books on the go and like to dip in and out can take months to finish some times. So i'd mostly run out of time anyway.

Tell me about it!

The Haldane Collection had fantastic sections on the Space Race (which I've always been interested in) and Egyptology. The latter I discovered by chance whilst furkling, and found some fascinating stuff to read in there.

 

[oldwheels]

I did use to use the libraries here - the one in the village when we had one, and the one in Ely. The village now has a Book Cafe and also a Book Swap thing in the bus shelter outside the village hall. There was a mobile library at one point as well.

Though with all of them, it's the age old problem that I can't get much that interests me, as they all cater for the tastes of Mr & Mrs Provincial Average. It's got very marked over the last few years as the sports, military history and sci-fi sections have shrunk to almost nothing.

I guess I was VERY spoiled with the academic libraries during my undergrad and postgrad days. When I was at Imperial, I had access to the impressive Haldane Collection, as well as the libraries of the Science, Natural History and V&A museums.

But I'm lucky that a bestie owns a book selling business, so I buy stuff off him. And fanfiction.net takes care of a lot of my sci-fi cravings.

Generally I do not read much fiction tho' I do have an attachment to good science fiction. The selection here is pretty dire and everything caters for the bottom end of the market.
There is a lot of fiction of the murder, detective and romance types and not much else.
The death of Terry Pratchett was a great loss and I have read most of his adult stuff but there does not seem to be anything to replace it that I have found so far.
Requests sometimes turn up after such a long interval that I had forgotten I asked for them.
What annoys me also is that something I want to reread has been removed and pulped.
The non fiction section takes up a pretty small area and is very limited and not really of much interest to me anyway.