Gardens
My zygo has flowers! Very exciting. Well, they’re very much buds at the moment, but they will be flowers and there are lots of them. A succulent-y thing which I had thought was dying has also got proto-buds happening, so that will be interesting, and a plant I have to give back to Kate tomorrow has buds too (sigh). A lot of the bulbs are doing well – Mum informs me that yes, they should be growing now and flowering in Spring; however, some of her daffs have decided that now is the season for flowering, so I don’t feel that my plants are nearly so daft. I have some autumnal roses happening (they’ll be winter roses by the time the buds open), and the coriander is mostly still alive which is amazing. Sage is not doing so well; seems to be getting a bit et, actually. The resurrected cyclamen has flowers coming on.
It’s all very exciting.
The Amazing Ajax
Ajax must be close to neutral buoyancy, we have decided. Yesterday I spent a number of minutes watching as he happily crawled out along a fairly thin stalk, eating algae the whole time. He turned around when he got to the end of the stalk – don’t ask me how – and went back a ways, then managed to get onto a nearby stalk and do the same thing. It was fascinating to watch. He was prtty much wrapping himself around the stalk, which must have the bonus of letting you eat everything while helping you stay stable. Also noticed that you can see what must be the colon, or whatever poo-carrying tube snails have, inside the shell.
Odd Book Shop
A very lovely little store in Adelaide Mum took me too.
Night Watchmen
One of the most recent Terry Pratchett. I’ve left it in Adelaide for Kathryn and Mum to read first – aren’t I nice?
The True Story of the Novel
Should be interesting; by Margaret Anne Doody. “This book sets out to prove something worth proving, that the novel is an ancient and protean form…” I wonder if it will include that Egyptian official who got exiled for something and moaned about it and then got recalled?
From the Beast to the Blonde
“On fairy tales and their tellers,” from the beginning to Angela Carter and Walt. Highly Exciting. By Marina Warner.
Troy
It was good.
I went with Mum because she has just recently done some Classics (actually she’s doing it at the moment, but not actual myth stuff), and so she understood when I got miffed or excited, which James would not really have.
They made a few changes, of course… I was a bit surprised at them completely leaving out the gods, to be honest. However, I guess it was already a fairly long movie, so things had to be sacrificed. A few people died who shouldn’t have, and didn’t need to (I thought, anyway). Eric Bana was fantastic, as expected, and Orlando Bloom was perfect for the role – if only because he just looked simply too beautiful to be a warrior; I thought he fit Paris just right. And Brad Pitt was pretty good too. It was also much fun, and not a little smug-ifying, to say “that must be Ajax” or Nestor or someone else… and be right. I think that says good things both about me and the film. Glad they got Aeneas in there too, much as I dislike Virgil.
It looked good: it was really well shot, I thought, although the bro got annoyed with some of Achilles’ long lingering looks. Personally I thought they fit. They must have used the Massive program from Peter Jackson – it reminded me very strongly of LOTR, in places, particularly the thousand ships.
Mum tells me that millihelens is a standard of measurement. If you’ve got 10 millihelens of beauty, you can launch 10 ships…
Adelaide and back again
Went to Adelaide on Friday night, for my sister’s 18th the next day. It’s always nice to go home, although in no real sense is it my home; I haven’t lived there for almost exactly 20 years (scary; I just realised that), and I certainly haven’t lived in there current house. However, the fam is there, and more importantly the bed I’ve had since I came out of a cot is there, and very nice to sleep in it was too.
The party was fun: good way to see all the rellies (except the aunt who is in WA) at one time. It was, however, a bit freaky then to go out that night to a bar… with my sister (and her friends). I’m not sure whether I feel old or just bemused at the thought that my little squister is old enough to go out to pubs legally. I think it’s jsut weird. It got even weirder when the bro joined us… all three kids out drinking alcohol together?? Bizarre.
No Doctor Who
I’m a bit sad… I had been sad at the thought of missing him last night while flying home, but it turns out that was unnecessary, so now I’m jut sad that he’s not on the next two weeks, while Aunty has highlights of the French Open instead.
pft.
I can’t believe Agassi is out! Inconceivable. And the Poo, too… although that one isn’t so hard to believe.
Dead runt
Well, I found the runty rainbow this afternoon – dead, and looking a bit odd- against the filter intake. He had no colour, mouth gaping open, and looking a bit mouldy! I had actually assumed that he had died and been et by his compatriots, but it looks like they weren’t interested in eating him.
I think the goby must be dead too. Hasn’t been sighted in a while.
The tank survived the days without me; James tells me he fed them a bit and spent a few hours on Sunday just looking at them and listening to music (niiice). The chain plant thing has, instead of going around the rock, decided that going around the filter might be a fun thing to do… I might have to make it think again.
Alex is away…
Alex is away and I miss her, so I played some more with my new camera. The fish are really hard to take good pictures off – I’m used to very static things www.thirdglance.com . But here are a couple more
I found the bumblebee
Hurrah. He was there at the back this morning… although I had done some pruning a few minutes before and not found him. Seems there are some good hidey holes. He doesn’t look entirely happy, though… breathing a bit fast and colour not looking fantastic at the tail end.
James thought I had been exaggerating about the colour of the rainbows. Ha.
Randomly Yours, Alex 