Tag: admin2 reading

Roast Chicken

For our family dinner today we had A1’s lovely roast chicken with halcyon potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, mixed vegetables, stuffing and gravy, followed by tiramisu ice cream (which took a lot longer than the recipe’s stated 5 minutes to thaw), followed by the quiz at which we scored a sadly deficient 8, bringing our average down below 10.
A1 is rereading The Three by Sarah Lotz. A2 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron.

Spin Cycle

Another rider on the anemometer merry-go-round/ Look at that pigeon go!
A2 is reading City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff Vandermeer; a compendium of novellas concerning the imaginary city of Ambergris, with an appendix at least as long including information about squids, a partially decoded cryptic text, bibliographies, glossaries and tasting notes on the fonts employed. Reading it I was struck by the similarity to the works of Alasdair Gray and sure enough it turns out that Jeff is a massive fan of Alasdair and cites him as a mentor. Books send out hyphae into the literary subsoil and somewhere far away another book pops up like a mushroom.

For Fox Sake

A bold fox crossing next door’s garden on its way to meet another fox lurking in the undergrowth in our garden.
A1 is reading Desperate Undertaking* by Lindsey Davies, in which a series of elaborately staged theatrical murders in Ancient Rome are investigated by a well-drawn heroine. Entertainingly written and light-heartedly gruesome, LD’s Rome bears more than a passing resemblance† to Terry Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork (by no means a bad thing), with its eccentric inhabitants and somewhat cynical approach to policing. A fun read.
A2 is reading Ghost-Eye* by Amitav Ghosh, an engrossing saga combining reincarnation, psychic powers and environmentalism.

† It turns out LD is a big fan of TP, and cheerfully acknowledges “tribute plagiarism”.

Happy Birthday Dave

It’s Commonwealth Day and also Dave’s birthday so we ate Swedish meatballs to celebrate his origins and A1 served up a lovely cake with candles, peach slices and sprinkles on top. Afterwards we did the quiz with Ivy as quizmaster and scored a steadying 10.
A1 is reading Death at the Sanatorium* by Ragnar Jonasson. A2 is reading The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.

Dinner with the Royals

The first Jersey Royals of the season have arrived in the shops and immediately there is an argument about whether they should be cooked starting with cold water or boiling water. The packets were no help; they gave opposite instructions. But anyway they were delicious, served with salmon and creamy cheesy leeks and followed by A1’s scrumptious pineapple upside-down cake.

Sadly Gez and Bob were absent from our gathering so we only scored 7.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler. A2 is rereading (though I don’t remember reading it the first time, twenty years ago) The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw.

May Flowers

The garden after an April which was middle-of-the-table warm and wet but the third sunniest, including five of our all-time sunniest April days and the earliest ever >12kWh event.
A2 is reading Desperate Undertaking* by Lindsey Davis, which was er um OK as thrillers about serial killers in ancient Rome go, but part of a series that would take too much effort to read all the way through.

Healthy Veggie Food

We had brassicas for Africa this week, and Gez is dieting for health, so our food for today was cauliflower cheese with coleslaw and a garden lettuce salad followed by fruit salad, after which we scored 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Edge of Darkness* by Vaseem Khan. A2 is rereading Death at the Sign of the Rook by the ever-enjoyable Kate Atkinson.

Jabs for the Girls

A2 went for the Covid jab and Salvation Army shopping experience today. Changes: very few punters, you no longer get a certificate and the nurse calls it a sharp prick instead of a sharp scratch or a little prick. And the wall of the long departed Jabberwock has been painted over again. [Aside: A1’s id number at boarding school was 37. But he had nothing to do with this. Honest.]
A2 is reading Tom Lake* by Ann Patchett, featuring three sisters in a cherry orchard.

Welcome Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS)

Another marvel from the Dwarf Mini; captured by A1 in the wee small hours in a gap between trees.
More info on Roast with a bonus North America Nebula. Update: Here’s a better photo, taken the next morning:
Our bathroom book is The Single Helix 100 short science essays by Steve Jones, which has well-timed chapters: one for a no.1, two for a no.2.