It's become a Tuesday tradition that I go for a long walk towards the end of Clare's working from home. I went a different route this time, and the weather was a shocker I got soaked. I walked to Folkestone and up the Old High Street. Most things closed (in fact Blooms restaurant has completely disappeared) but a few shops open, included the whole foods store that I wanted. I listened to podcasts on the way in, including Richard Herring's where he was talking to Robert Webb about his new book, Come Again1. Sounded good, action time travel type thing so I bought it in town. I got a special signed edition in Waterstones, which might not be a good sign (no pun intended). The last special signed edition promotional thing I bought was the Ian Rankin one at the top of this list and it was not great. Still, time travel, how bad can it be?
| Author | Book | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Ian Rankin | Westwind2 | Dated thriller, shame. |
| Ian Rankin | Doors Open2 | Really good crime caper in Edinburgh but with no Rebus. |
| Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games2 | Borrowed from the children, very good. |
| Suzanne Collins | Catching Fire2 | Hunger Games part 2, read this even quicker, a bit darker. |
| Suzanne Collins | Mockingjay2 | Hunger Games part 3, joyless and grim. Very 2020... |
| Karen McManus | One Of Us Is Lying3 | Another one liberated from the children's bookshelf. A Breakfast Club whodunnit, dying to be a film, not at all suitable for a ten year old... |
| Robin Paige | Death at Glamis Castle4 | Edwardian era mystery written by Americans. I read one of these before. Quite atmospheric, though a little twee. Sort of romance / crime. Written in accents, with plenty of "of the time" attitudes. |
| Jed Rubenfield | The Interpretation of Murder5 | A charity shop find, one you always see, have had it kicking around a long time. Historical crime fiction again set in New York 1909, featuring Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Great, but complicated and fairly unlikely! |
| Muriel Spark | Loitering With Intent6 | Branching out a little this time, it's not even a crime. |
| Julie Wassmer | Murder on the Pilgrims Way7 | Going back to the familiar now. Fairly gentle and local crime. Forgot I had this one from when we met the author in Waterstones. Mostly predictable and cosy but I did not get the actual end murderer correct. |
| Reginald Hill | Blood Sympathy8 | Even more familiar, have read this before, but keen to revisit this crime series. Very enjoyable. |
| Reginald Hill | Born Guilty9 | Joe Sixsmith again, hoping I enjoy all of this series as much as the first one. Dated and a little complicated but lots of fun. |
| Robert Webb | Come Again1 | Time travel action rom-com, I suspect it has major weaknesses but enjoying it so far. |
All our coronavirus cases are being under reported still, so this chart is even less useful than I thought. The spike of cases in Leicester is not showing in the raw numbers these charts come from so there are lots of cases being covered up...
| Country | cases | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 2681811 | 129358 |
| Brazil | 1370488 | 58385 |
| Russia | 641156 | 9166 |
| India | 567536 | 16904 |
| UK | 311965 | 43575 |
| Spain | 296050 | 28346 |
| Peru | 282365 | 9504 |
| Chile | 275999 | 5575 |
| Italy | 240436 | 34744 |
| Iran | 225205 | 10670 |
The weather also changed my plans to go for a run. It had been so windy that I thought I could walk to Hythe in the morning, then run back to Sandgate, doing a full 5k with the wind behind me. A record time beckons. But I did not.
Busy day so far today, supervising homework, housework, making lunches for today and tomorrow and shepherds pie for tea. Then to make some effort in the garden as I have some friends coming round on Friday for garden beers, after another long walk.
Also trying to organise a camping trip with some friends, are the campsites really open? They are keen to visit here, so we might end up camping in the playroom if we can't get into a local site. I hope the pubs open properly soon, I want to take them to the Inn Doors...
Coronavirus weekly death graph for USA + Brazil + UK + Italy + France + Spain
5k: Five km, about three miles in old money.
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in A small town. Wed and dad to two, I'm a full-stack web developr, and I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, restaurants, home-automation + other diy stuff, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, and time travel.