An occasional journal
The Bobster enjoys a present.
We had the family round for Boxing Day, with a repeat of our Christmas Day meal (but pico-pizzas for the veggies). There were even more prezzies, including the traditional coffee, some rather lovely pictures and about 500 tomato seeds of many varieties — thanks, G,D,F & B!
And unlike last year, we managed a flaming pudding by using calvados rather than brandy.
We scored a traditional 10 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter (thanks, A2!).
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.. of alcohol-free gin? And it’s not much cheaper than ordinary gin.
A1 is rereading The Mercy Chair by MW Craven.
A2 is reading The Red Notebook* by Michel Bussi; malfeasance to and from migrants in Marseilles, with a terrific twist.
The cats being friendly, for a change. It’s the Geminids tonight, but in keeping with the rest of the year we’ve had unrelieved gloom. Tomorrow night looks like it might be better, but there’ll be a nearly full moon.
A2 is reading Locked In* by Jussi Adler Olsen. Department Q’s lead detective is jailed and beset by assassins on all sides for fearsomely complicated reasons.
A halo and contrails, while we’re waiting for Storm Darragh.
A2 is reading The Last Devil to Die* by Richard Osman. We are watching Black Doves.
Our webcam caught a colourful sunrise this morning:
A1 is reading Leave No Trace* by Jo Callaghan. A2 is rereading The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas.
The full Moon surrounded by a colourful corona, with Jupiter on the right. There are Leonid meteors around now, but the glare makes them very hard to spot (sneer at the link’s “rare celestial spectacles” — they happen every year).
We had seasonally appropriate bangers and mash for dinner. And we’re looking forward to (allegedly) nine hours of heavy snow from midnight on Tuesday.
A1 is reading The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe. A2 is reading Polostan by Neal Stephenson.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is on its way. The image below was taken by the sun-researching SOHO spacecraft, and shows the comet moving into its field of view. Also captured is a solar flare, which — when the CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) hits the comet later today or tomorrow — may disrupt the comet’s tail. CMEs also cause auroras when they reach Earth. The weather is looking clearish for sunset time from 10 Oct, when the comet should start to become visible from here. Here’s hoping.
A1 is reading The Mars House by Natasha Pulley, thus finishing A1’s immensely pleasurable tour through NP’s oeuvre (A1 really needed some distraction during recent events). TMH is a cheerful SF tale clearly playing homage to Terry Pratchett (complete with amusing footnotes). The SF elements can be a little ropey, but the writing is so splendidly enjoyable that it’s forgivable. It’s baffling why her previous publisher (Bloomsbury) refused the book and dropped her completely … she’s clearly a terrific writer with much left to say.
A2 is reading Kennedy 35 by Charles Cumming.
Pigeons being fed in Dortmund Square.
Yesterday and this afternoon A1 and A2 tried to clear some of the rampant brambles, raspberry canes and weeds clogging up our back garden. With an audience: this little chap kept his beady eye on the progress on both days, doubtless hoping for some grub to be unearthed. A1 also tidied the pond a bit, so now we can actually see it. And we still have fish! At least six were spotted.
A1 is rereading Restless by William Boyd. A2 is reading Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (thx A1) in which we all learn a bit about astronomy.
After a cloudless day, the clouds rolled in after midnight and there were only a few small gaps at 3:20am when an eclipse was due. Fortunately one of these gaps let the Moon peep through, and we saw the (very! — 8%) partial eclipse.
Fittingly, A1 is reading Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd.
…Cloud Appreciation Day. So here’s a montage timelapse of today’s cloudscapes, about 6 hours in less than 2 minutes: cumulus, altocumulus and cirrocumulus all blowing in different directions.
A2 is reading Precipice by Robert Harris; the PM dallies with a young woman on the brink of World War One. True story; nothing changes.
Tonight we saw some weird lights in the sky illuminating the clouds, perhaps over Roundhay Park.
A2 is reading Kill the Father* by Sandrone Dazieri which was also weird and illuminating.
It rained a lot last night, but the damned pigeons have been sitting in the rain gauge again and blocked it with their crap.
A1 is rereading Ghostwritten by the splendid David Mitchell, a welcome change after the recent run of humdrum books. Rereading DM is always worthwhile, with shared characters and previously undetected links between novels becoming apparent.
A2 is reading Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan which is also humdrum.
…before nail bars? Chapel Allerton now has an extra two, one still being fitted out so just pipped to the post by this one. Which had its Grand Opening today, with a fire-dancer and a stilt-walker. They kept smiling, despite being ignored by most passers-by.
A1 is reading The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins by Antonia Hodgson. A2 is reading The Wild Swimmers by William Shaw.
Off to Manchester again, for the Pet Shop Boys at the new mishap-prone Co-Op Live arena, which was clearly designed in Minecraft. We travelled by coach this time, after worries about Sunday railway timetabling, and arrived about midday.
After paying our respects to Alan Turing — holding an apple, perhaps a bit tasteless (Here are A1 giving Alan a respectful pat on the shoulder and A2 giving him a friendly cuddle)
— we visited the very Manchester-centric Science and Industry Museum. Much of this was closed for refurbishment, but enough remained to be of interest — including a BBC Micro, A1’s old 1980s machine, prominently displayed.
Much wandering (and aching legs) followed, both on foot and on Manchester’s free buses. It was rainy, cold and windy, more like March or April than June, which didn’t make that part of the day very enjoyable. We did find the old Roman ruins by the canal though, which made an interesting contrast with Manchester’s splendid crop of new skyscrapers.
Eventually we started to make our way to the venue, some way out of town next to a football stadium. This proved to be very difficult, due to A1’s lousy mapreading and the complete lack of signage. After a lot of faffing about we were directed to a tram station underneath the railway station, where it appeared that a van had blocked the tram system and there weren’t any running in our direction. So the station gradually filled up with PSB fans, complete with silly hats, while the display’s “next tram” time stayed still.
And then … the trams finally came. One after the other, all packed to the rafters. We managed to squeeze on one eventually, and it seemed we could have walked there and back a few times in the same time — it was only a couple of stops. We were a bit worried about paying, but it seemed it was all free courtesy of the Co-Op. No-one was checking tickets anyway.
And it was still raining. Of course it was. Bizarrely, they’ve built a new arena in Manchester, and among the weird list of banned items is … umbrellas. Fortunately everyone completely ignored this, including the security people. Also banned are plastic bottle tops for some reason. And nobody was allowed a bag bigger than A4 so there was no chance to go S.H.O.P.P.I.N.G.
A2’s stick proved very useful again, as we got to queue-jump a bit thanks to the generally very helpful (actually almost excessively helpful) and pleasant venue staff. The venue’s capacity is about 23,000, and we estimate it was about 90% full — which makes about 20,000 people in the queue.
Having had the experience of vertiginous seats at the top of the arena last time around, we had booked the more expensive seats much lower down, which involved a walk of shame for A2, holding onto A1 as we staggered down numerous steps. As soon as the show started the people in front of us stood up and could not be persuaded to sit down. So we ended up in the cheaper seats higher up, where we were much more comfortable, and once we were settled we thoroughly enjoyed the show. Two things we were promised which didn’t materialise: step-free access and freely available drinking water. Oh well. Never mind.
Finally, here’s It’s a Sin, one of the band’s signature tunes.
The Tories’ attempt to ban rainbows fails…
A1 is rereading Fall: or, Dodge in Hell, the sequel to REAMDE. A2 is rereading The Men Who Went Up in Smoke* by Sjöwall and Wahlöö.
A very large 2000-piece jigsaw, which took us two weeks to finish and required the whole table to do. Why is there always one piece missing?
We had toad in the hole with garden broccoli and rhubarb crumble with garden rhubarb for our family meal with garden flowers on the table and scored an absolutely appalling 6 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Cut Short by Leigh Russell. A2 is rereading PopCo by Scarlett Thomas.
Spring-like weather: sunshine, showers, rainbow (with a faint secondary at top right).
A1 is rereading Henry Porter’s Empire State. A2 is reading The Candy House* by Jennifer Egan. They can remember it for you retail.
Lots of rain overnight, but we woke up to find the rain gauge blocked. Probably pigeons again…
Also the webcam is mysteriously refusing to upload. Can’t blame the pigeons for that.
[Update: all fixed now]
A2 is reading Invisible by Paul Auster; a novel about a dying poet writing a memoir with assistance from a novelist.
The Belt of Venus is the pinkish area in the centre of the picture. The darker blueish area below is the shadow of the Earth, rising as the Sun sets.
A1 is reading Too Close to Breathe* by Olivia Kiernan. A2 is reading The Snow Girl* by Javier Castillo; a dogged reporter on the case of a lost child.
Midnight fireworks viewed from the traffic island.
2023 was our wettest year ever but also featured our longest dry spell from May 20 to June 17. Full info here.
We tried the GSQ on our own and scored a miserable 6. It was from last year so it doesn’t count.
Morning pigeons! Morning Sun! Nice to see you again after yesterday’s incessant deluge.
A2 is reading Snare by Lilja Sigurdardottir.
In the 9th century Baghdad was apparently crawling with cats. At least, according to A1’s latest game Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which has a very impressive recreation of the city. And local wildlife.
Happy birthday, Guida!
We had various pasta bakes for our family meal, followed by parkin and custard. We scored a reasonable 11 on the GSQ, then repaired outside to let off a box of fireworks to celebrate.
A2 is reading The Black Path* by Asa Larsson, which was so complicated she lost the plot.
The splendid interior of the Local History section of Leeds Central Library, where A1 spent the day shadowing the staff.
A1 is rereading No One Home by Tim Weaver. A2 is reading The Last Goodbye, also by Tim Weaver.