I am not a cyclist
Today I bought a cycling jacket. It has sleeves that zip off – just one zip, which is very cool; starts at one shoulder, goes under the arm and across the back and around the other arm. But it’s red. Anyway, it should be useful. Warm. And rain-proof.
But there’s no way I will ever get cleats.
T2
My sister is in to tea in a moderate way. I have a couple of friends who are in to it in a big way. I have been thinking that it would be fun to get in to tea, recently – buy me a teapot, loose-leaf tea, play at being refined… So on Friday I went to T2 in the city. I must admit that this shop was also a factor in deciding to try being a tea snob; I went in with the sis, and it is just such a _nice_ shop! Wood panels, a lovely atmosphere, and ta everywhere… a bit like Dusk for candles, and KokoBlack for chocolate. Anyway, I went and smelled different tea, and looked at the options, and ended up buying their Sixteen Stack. Now, this was moderately expensive, but: you get 16 different types of tea (4 black, 4 flavoured black, 4 green and 4 fruity) in beautiful little tins that I’ll definitely keep, all in a nice big tin… and that day, it was buy one get one free. Score! They are such nice tins that if there are any I don’t like (I am a bit suspicious of Really Russian Caravan, which is apparently very smoky), I will be quite happy at giving them away as presents to those who will appreciate them.
Yesterday I bought a nice teapot, and strainer, and one of those mesh balls you can fill with leaves and just put in one cup (with a dragonfly on the end). I then tried Sencha Vanilla, which was very nice; and this afternoon I had Botanica, which is all apple pieces and raspberry. Lovely.
I think I will enjoy being a tea snob.
Hitting triple figures
Yeh!
Doing the proofreading for Distributed Proofreaders – the Project Gutenberg thingo – and I’ve got into triple figures in the rankings! I’m at 995, which means that overnight – when the Americanos get in – I will presumably be kicked back a way. But I’ve got in once… now my aim is to stay in the triple overnight. J thinks I am getting obsessed…. I’m just having fun.
Just call me Kit
Yes, last night we went for a ride, to and from Lygon St (so it was a night ride… Knight Rider… Kit… very sad I know). It was a lot more fun and less scary than I had worried – we’ve both got lights, after all, and it was actually warmer riding home at 10pm than it was riding there at 6pm.
The reason we did this was to attend a public lecture, on “Physics, TIme and Archaeology.” It was really interesting – with the amusing bonus that the physics dude and the archaeology dude are brothers, both working at MU. How cool. Anyway, the physics dude had a Geiger tube, so he was demonstrating how you can tell the rate of decay of unstable elements, and he also demonstrated thermoluminescence, using an old TV tube. He talked about how physics can help archaeologists by dating things, basically.
The archaeology guy – well, he wasn’t quite as good. For a start, he didn’t seem accustomed to using a microphone, because he was way too loud. I’m also not really sure what his brief was, because what he gave was an overview of the history of archaeology and attempts at dating (not mentioning Schliemann, interestingly). It didn’t really have relation to physics, as far as I could see, although I think a large proportion of the audience was physics types so maybe it was new and interesting to them.
It was fun, overall, and I’m glad we went.
Google video
I had no idea google video existed. Today I found it, thanks to blogographos – a couple of Terry Jones’ show The Barbarians is on there, plus a few Monty Python skits, etc etc… Dowload limit, here I come. Especially when you add in BBC Radio, athough that’s not such a huge amount.
Cookie Monster
I happened to turn to the ABC this morning, in the process of watching Spicks and Specks (which I taped from Wednesday, and I MISSED THE TIE-BREAK QUESTION!!), and there was Cookie Monster. He was testing which shape of cookie tastes the best – it was really quite funny, he went on a bit about texture and aroma; clearly one for the mums (moms?). Anyway, I have finally figured out how he eats the cookie! Other people might have noticed this before, but I haven’t really paid attention to Cookie Monster for a while. Everyone knows that he is a very messy eater… well, that’s the trick: the hand crumbles the cookie up, so that none of it actually stays in the mouth – it falls out! Very tricky.
Incidentally, J thinks that Cookie Monster has sold out, by now saying that cookies are a ‘sometimes food’.
Bad cliches
I am over – totally over – being told that I am on a journey through life. Really, really over it. We had a thing about Health and Wellbeing at work today – it’s all week really, and today was the keynote speech, when we all got told how important our Health and Wellbeing was. But the guy – my goodness. He had his odd funny moment, but generally a bit boring. And really quite self-centred too. He talked a lot about himself. Which to some extent for me was ok-ish, because I am (sadly? weirdly? frighteningly?) a bit like him – introverted, into books, blah blah, so at least some of the things he mentioned were relevant to me; but for everyone else – boring! And incomprehensible, probably, too! ANYWAY – I got some chocolate out of it, so I guess that’s one good thing.
The squister
I got home to hear a message from the Ma, asking me to call her when I got home, but that nothing was wrong. This is a bit worrying, despite the reassurance, so I call… and my sister is on the phone! She decided to come home quite all of a sudden, from what I can tell – the bro knew, because they talked about it when he was with her in Edinburgh, but we didn’t know. She got home at 11pm last night, having been picked up by a couple of friends from the airport. Apparently there’s some special bell ring she and the bro have, so she rang the bell, and Mum answered with toothbrush in mouth, totally bewildered – but now, very happy. And she’s coming to visit next week! Whooppee!
Me cycling
I don’t think I mentioned that I bought a bike – or had one bought for me, anyway… It’s a Kona Fire Mountain. J has a Kona Caldera, so it seems that lots of the Kona cycles are somewhat volcanic… Anyway, I’ve had it for a week. I’ve been trying to cycle every day, but what with getting home late and it still being winter, and me not having lights, makes this somewhat hard. At any rate, today we went into the city – more abot that later – and we decided to ride. Thi was quite a feat for me. It was 5.5km one way, which to experienced cyclists is a walk in the park literally, but for me was quite a way. The way in was quite easy – lots of downhill, which is always nice – but the way home was a bit home, for the aforementioned reason…. Nonetheless, I made it; hurrah!
ASif! and volunteering
No, I’m not reverting to adolescence here. Aus Specific in Focus is a new website dedicated to reviewing all the Aussie scifi and fantasy it can get its hands on. I’ve volunteered to review stuff, starting with Garth Nix, of course. Looks like it will be great fun.
http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/
I’ve also started doing proofreading for the Digital Proofreaders, for Project Gutenberg. You just sign up and start proofing… I haven’t had anything proofed at the second round yet (there’s at least two, if not three I think, rounds of proofing), so I don’t know if there is anything that I should be doing that I haven’t. Currently I am doing pages of Wordsworth poetry. I don’t have to stick with this, which I started on, but I think I will stick with it – might as well help it get through.
Randomly Yours, Alex 