recent books

• peter wimsey - dorothy sayers
• hamish macbeth - m.c. beaton
• noise - kahneman, sibony, sunstein (2021)
• league of denial - fainaru-wada & fainaru (2013)
• the undoing project - michael lewis (2016)
• young wives' tales - adele parks (2012)
• the premonition - michael lewis (2021, fresh!)
• the bilingual brain - albert costa (2020)

it's been a pretty decent list of enjoyable stuff. peter wimsey and hamish macbeth pop up like whack-a-mole's in between the rest. i am in constant tension between reading another one and getting closer to the end of the series. and, as you see, i tend to like michael lewis' action. 

also, the bilingual brain is brilliant. i only wish i remembered to give it its own review. 

here are some that i could not finish, owing to pretentious writing irritating premise or unfulfilled promise:

• c. northcote parkinson's parkinson's law - leo gough (2011). gah gah gah. the original is miles better 
• to sell is human - daniel pink (2012). we just don't get along. i've tried drive and i could not finish that either
• stuffocation - james wallman (2013). long-winded pedantry. as a new word i learnt puts it, it's prolix
• surrounded by idiots - thomas erikson (2014). same vibes as the above. pity, because it has such a catchy title 
• real food/fake food - larry olmsted (2016). i am unable to manage beyond a few chapters and i stop in the interest of self-preservation. because one needs to carry on eating, you know

and i am working my way through mental acrobatics for this one, because i catch glimpses of a glorious blue sky amidst the (admittedly witty) verbiage:

• the stuff of thought - steven pinker (2005)

quantitative easing

we go from 2-a-group-no dining-in to the liberty of 500-per-gathering next week.  i feel a sense of loss.

i like silence.

i like my own company.

i like not getting a cold.

i've got some cool looking masks by now.

i like the space between you and me.

i like having an excuse not to visit.

i like attending meetings on zoom.

and i like going to church in front of the TV.

i dislike RRT intensely.

bicycles

4 groups that one meets:

1. the MAMIL* on their aristocratic rides hustling for asphalt rights

2. MAMIL-wannabe (same clothes, with paunch) on mountain bikes with monster tires jostling for space on the park connectors

3. new generation middle-aged avuncular types on foldable bikes who think they are also pedestrians

4. those who cycle on errands

*middle aged men in lycra

retired

HOM's retired.

the loo seat is fixed.

the junk basket is half full. (it was full)

the spare batteries are organized.

the NAS has a back-up.

E is bemused.

it's been two weeks.

we are grateful.

tech support

today i break free of the tyranny of calibri and finally learn how to make arial the default on my word documents. it's only taken all of several decades. that and google.

kindness

i wait at the traffic junction for the light to change. i hope it changes before the drizzle gets heavier. suddenly the drizzle stops. a stranger stands nearby with her umbrella sheltering me. we wait for the light cross the road together and part at the start of the covered pathway.

thank you!

my song and yours

this is my song, o God of all the nations/ a song of peace for lands afar and mine/ this is my home, the country where my heart is/ here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine/ but other hearts in other lands are beating/ with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine/ my country's skies are bluer than the ocean/ and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine/ but other lands have sunlight too and clover/ and skies are everywhere as blue as mine/ oh, hear my song, o God of all the nations/ a song of peace for their land and for mine. - lloyd stone

thinking of current affairs and feeling bleah. :(

for an amputated survey, consider china - usa - russia - uk - malaysia - israel - vaccine idiocy - conspiracy theories - myanmar - india - huawei - you name it. so many good intentions gone astray. it's enough to make a girl give up on reading the news.