Blog ≫ 2020 ≫ Few days with no updates
Have had an active-but-relaxed few days. Thursday night I took a spontaneous trip to the Inn Doors. It was quiet, but nice, only four of us in there. Friday afternoon I did some investigatory work for popbitch that led me to realise I had left backups on my old work laptop that are now deleted. Had to scrabble round some usb memory sticks to get it back. This led me to try and rebuild the old old popbitch message board as a static site. It's just too many files though so I will have to break it down by year. Interesting that we have some old message board posts from 2001, which is the investigation I came in for. I've put that on the back burner for now. Thursday and Friday I also did some preparation for a thing I have next week, about which more later if it all comes off^Reading this back two and a half years later and it very much did come off. It was the Tesco job interview. I left a hidden comment at the time "[The Tesco job interview, I've started making notes for questions which are likely to come up and been doing some practice algorithms and problem solving.].
Friday afternoon I investigated a new pub. Who knew there was one? I think it must have come up in conversation the night before, just up the road from The Lifeboat is The East Cliff Tavern. I took a walk there to meet Alwyn, and got there just for opening. It's on a terraced street and is small and doesn't looked to have changed much since the 1950s. Very nice though, friendly, a good beer on, and a real cider for next time. After, back to the Inn Doors again.
Saturday the boys were round grandpa's house so we walked into Folkestone for some shopping. Remembered it is the opening of the new Leas Lift cafe, so went there. Too busy for us to sit in but I got a vegan sausage roll and a spicy bun mushroom bun thing that was really good. Just the job, I would go here again. From there to the post office and other chores, to a shop to get a new book (more below) and then to the Firkin Alehouse for a nice relaxing sit, just the two of us, very very rare. Clare got the bus home to be ready for a night out and I stopped in the Inn Doors again.
I watched Memento1 last night, good film, I still don't totally get the truth of the story though, I must read it up.
Today Clare did pump class and I did a 10k run, to West Hythe, over the first bridge and back again. My second best time for a 10k. I wasn't really pushing it, could have beat my time I think. Lots of people out and on the beach, people definitely having a last hurrah party weekend. The last time for a while people can congregate in groups of more than six without breaking the law. This afternoon instead of going back to the Inn Doors (it would be the fourth day in a row) we went as a family to the Clarendon and did our semi regular sit outside with a pack of Top Trumps. Delightful, the weather is still good, a nice place to sit. Now back for our dinner at the last installment of Cormoran Strike1.
I have started another new book! I now have two books on pause so I could read the Richard Osman crime novel, The Thursday Murder Club1. I'm liking it a lot already. I bought it full price in Waterstones yesterday, I see I could have got it for half that on the amazon, gah. I'm going to buy the new Cormoran Strike book1 soon and definitely read it before I get back to my Hilary Mantel. I am enjoying it but it's just so long and not to be rushed.
Then back to another week, the boys to school, Clare to work, me revising a bit for a thing. Then starting to look ahead to Friday again. It will be great if this week goes well and I can really enjoy a Friday afternoon out with friends confident the week went as well as could be expected.
I am still technically furloughed so it's ok to maintain this furlough reading list a bit longer. I didn't read as many books as I thought I would.
| Author | Book | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Ian Rankin | Westwind1 | Dated thriller, shame. |
| Ian Rankin | Doors Open1 | Really good crime caper in Edinburgh but with no Rebus. |
| Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games1 | Borrowed from the children, very good. |
| Suzanne Collins | Catching Fire1 | Hunger Games part 2, read this even quicker, a bit darker. |
| Suzanne Collins | Mockingjay1 | Hunger Games part 3, joyless and grim. Very 2020... |
| Karen McManus | One Of Us Is Lying2 | 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 Castle3 | 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 Murder4 | 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 Intent5 | Branching out a little this time, it's not even a crime. |
| Julie Wassmer | Murder on the Pilgrims Way6 | 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 Sympathy7 | Even more familiar, have read this before, but keen to revisit this crime series. Very enjoyable. |
| Robert Webb | Come Again8 | Time travel action rom-com, not very good, feels like two unrelated stories in one with no resolution. |
| 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. |
| William Golding | Lord Of The Flies10 | Like I'm doing GCSE English! I had not read this before but we had it in the house. |
| George Orwell | The Road To Wigan Pier11 | Might be a bit bleak but again I already had this one in the house as part of a George Orwell box set. I took a break from this to read my new books. |
| Bill Bryson | Shakespeare12 | Something else we had in, a short read but brilliant. We know almost nothing about Shakespeare. |
| Kate Atkinson | Case Histories13 | Birthday present, have seen these Jackson Brodie stories on TV and liked it a lot. This story is awesome but horribly sad in parts. I think sometimes murder can be sad though. |
| Kate Atkinson | One Good Turn14 | Another birthday one, Jackson Brodie book two, set in Edinburgh. Loving it so far. |
| Arthur Conan Doyle | The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes1 | Read before, but reading again with thing one. |
| Hilary Mantel | The Mirror And The Light1 | Book three of the Wolf Hall trilogy, another birthday present. |
| Richard Osman | The Thursday Murder Club1 | Have paused Wolf Hall to read this one, couldn't wait. Liking it a lot already. |
| Country | cases | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 6637319 | 197421 |
| Brazil | 4283978 | 130474 |
| India | 4657379 | 77506 |
| Mexico | 652364 | 69649 |
| UK | 361677 | 41614 |
| Italy | 284796 | 35597 |
| France | 363350 | 30893 |
| Peru | 716670 | 30470 |
| Spain | 576697 | 29747 |
| Iran | 397801 | 22913 |
We went to see Stephen Fry speaking some of his autobiography ten years ago today.
Coronavirus weekly death graph for USA + Brazil + India + Mexico + UK + Italy
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10k: Ten kilometres, just over six miles in old money. Sometimes talking about 10,000 steps though, an arbitrary daily step count target.