Decaf green tea is not as nice as normal green tea (in fact, it’s a completely different colour and tastes rotten)
You can eat too many potatoes
A-format paperbacks are the size we normally get in Singapore, they’re the babies of the bunch (the larger B-format is the standard size in the UK)
Pressing a key sequence in error while trying to paste something in a Microsoft Outlook email will send it prematurely (unfortunately, I still don’t know what this key sequence is, although I’ve done it loads of times)
Sometimes, I just can’t make time to craft (and so I have to stay away from swaps on Craftster)
No matter what kind of barrel a whisky has been stored in to mature, it still tastes bad (but okay in a cream liqueur)
I give rational relationship advice (that resembles horoscopes in general accuracy)
did the weekly shop at Asda (I’m doing all sorts of salads this week)
tried to go to the home improvement and self-build show (parking — £3; individual adult ticket — £7.50!), but we didn’t in the end
went to Ikea for lunch and didn’t find what we were looking for (the remaining shelves for our wardrobe)
picked up Shirley in the mini-bus for her surprise birthday party, that her boyfriend Chris organised
had dinner at JT Rochead (this is gonna be a long list entry) — the service was atrocious because the restaurant manager had the worst attitude in the world; Chris had booked the table of 20 two months prior, but we were told the chefs couldn’t cope, which was why it took an hour for our starters to dribble out; Neil’s ravioli was two sheets of pasta and sauce, and his pesto bread was completely charred, but the manager told him she saw them coming out and the bread wasn’t burnt; Neil then cancelled his meal and ordered a black coffee that didn’t come until he asked for it a second time, 20 minutes later, and when it did, it was white; someone further up the table had to send his starter (pâté) back because it melted all over his plate; there was more but I can’t remember any more (do not, I repeat, do not ever eat at JT Rochead)
spent the rest of the evening at the club downstairs (a pretty cool jazz band played) before being taken home on the mini-bus and chilling out for a bit at Brian and Carene’s (mmm… pizza)
spent the arvo with Hazel at the Royal Botanic Gardens (lunch was a Boots 2.99 meal, squirrels are hilarious and the visiting cats were brilliant), then looked at shoes (I’m in love with a pair of super-high patent leather boots at Russell & Bromley)
had Chinese takeaway for dinner (Neil was feeling too tired to even consider cooking)
LibraryThing’s 106 most unread books. Bold what you have read, italicise what you attempted, and strike through what you couldn’t stand. Add an asterisk* to those you’ve read more than once. Underline those on your to-read list. If you haven’t heard of them, just leave ‘em alone.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses Madame Bovary
The Odyssey Pride and Prejudice*
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad Emma*
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway Great Expectations
American Gods
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex Quicksilver*
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales The Historian
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible 1984
Angels & Demons*
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury Angela’s Ashes*
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present Cryptonomicon*
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved Slaughterhouse 5*
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Cloud Atlas The Confusion*
Lolita Persuasion*
Northanger Abbey*
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics: a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers
(I’ve heard of the rest, and some I’ve read — the abridged versions — as a child.)
The author of Singapore, a friend indeed to Burma clearly has a bit of an axe to grind (or a lousy editor — “he likes to stay at the tacky Meritus Mandarin hotel on Orchard Road…”), but if any of the article is true (and we know Singapore is heavily invested in Burma), it is indeed quite embarrassing that Singapore likes to bleat on about ‘Asian values’ when all they mean is money is their god. Why not come out and say the Singapore government / elite is pragmatic, those are our values. Human rights and all these soft things like democracy are only good if they keep a country economically productive and politically stable.
I’ve been reading (and almost finished) a book titled Toxic Sludge is Good For You. It makes me despair*. They even say that blaming consumer’s behaviour is a PR ploy from the large corporates. To some extent I agree. Stuff is so excessively packaged that even if we wanted and tried to consume less, there’s no guarantee the amount of plastic we throw away will be reduced.
Talking about the environment, carbon emissions / footprints, and being green is so trendy now that I don’t want to be involved**. I am sick of businesses and politicians saying we can ‘save’ the environment by simply altering what we consume, but not changing how much.
I don’t need to spend more money on ‘ethical’ or ‘fair trade’ things just to show how good a global citizen I am. I’m not a good citizen. I like stuff. I don’t like waste, however (although Neil would disagree, judging by my ‘eyes bigger than stomach’ habit). It’s really up to genuine grassroots activism to cut pointless demand and, hence, waste.
So what I’m going to try to do is this***: save underwear, socks, and shoes, I will not buy new clothes. If I want to buy clothes, I will go to a charity (op) shop. I love a bargain, so finding something I like (and fits) at a charity shop will make me happy. I will endeavour to keep the clothes that I do own in good nick, either by mending, dyeing, or re-purposing them (I have been eyeing a jumper of Neil’s that’d shrunk in the wash for arm warmers).
I’m thinking of freecycling our non-working car stereo so someone can use it for parts. Assuming someone wants it, that is. But we’ll be getting a new stereo to replace it at some point.
Nothing revolutionary or PR-able. I just think I could be more thrifty.
* Even organic farms are being lobbied to use said toxic sludge on their land. Nothing is safe! AAAUUUGGGGHHHHHH! (The book is old, so for all you know, all your organic American food could be contaminated with heavy metals!)
** For example, all these car companies and their ‘low CO2 emissions’ and hybrid cars. If you say you’re concerned about the environment, don’t buy a car. Buy a secondhand bike or use public transport.
*** Like the (non) smoking journal, I’m making this public so I’ll be too embarrassed to renege.
was picked up at Ingliston Park & Ride for a weekend trip to Pitlochry with Neil, Brian, and Carene
got a wee bit lost by ending up in Perth first, but got to our guest house, Carra Beag, at 8pm (methinks Brian, the owner, was a bit annoyed at us turning up just at the start of a Rugby World Cup match)
had a drink at a small pub that played country music near the loch (Drummonds, I think it was called)
had eggs, bacon, tomato, and a tattie scone for breakfast (and one piece of toast and multiple glasses of orange juice and milk and a pot of tea)
walked through the woods to Edradour distillery for the free tour (it’s so nice the novelty hasn’t worn off yet, plus I wanted another bottle of their cream liqueur) and tried the Tokaji whisky (and re-affirmed my long-held dislike of whisky)
walked through the woods and a field containing Black Castle and cows (avoiding cow poo) to Moulin for a quick lunch at Moulin Inn (not impressed, unfortunately)
walked back to Pitlochry and had a nap before dinner
had dinner at Spice of India (where the Balti was too hot for me but the garlic dhal was great, and Neil ordered the hottest thing on the menu, the chicken phaal, and we have been waiting for the phaal-out ever since)
went to the Kingfisher bar for a few drinks and saw the band (a group called Shamanic, they’re a cover band)
woke early enough to have the full Scottish breakfast (bacon, sausages, eggs, tomato, fried bread, haggis, black pudding, baked beans), though I couldn’t clear the plate (but still managed a pot of tea, two glasses of orange juice, and a glass of milk!)
went back to the Soldier’s Leap at Killiecrankie (this time we walked / climbed down to the rocks where the soldier made the leap instead of just viewing it from above)
headed off to Dunkeld for another view of the cathedral (had breaded and fried mushrooms for a snack / lunch)
met up with Kevin so Brian and Kevin could do the Sphere thing (they get in a big rubber ball and are bounced / rolled down a hill) just outside Dunkeld
took the long way home (by accident)
had a pizza for dinner
had no sympathy for Neil who was depressed the weekend was over (I got used to it, he’s gonna have to!)
