Goddess of the Porcelain Feet

The Year of the Three Winters

2010-09-18T11:47:00.002+12:00

So this weekend the mother of all storms headed our way. The thunder was so loud yesterday it shook the lab and had a really loud thud - I actually thought someone had dropped or managed to push over one of the rather heavy, expensive pieces of equipment we have at work. So went out of the lab (which doesnt directly look outside) and looked out of the write up room windows and the rain was so thick you just about couldn't see through it. Unreal - so was a complete surprise when I woke up this morning and there was blue sky to be seen. I liked that a lot and started making plans to go into Wellington and grab B's Schoc chocolate and coffee beans to send to Shepshed asap. Then it got very dark and the heavens (cause God hangs out in Totara Park) opened and gale force winds ripped through shaking the darling buds of September! Then I thought well everything I wanted to buy can be found online and I will order them when I am in Napier. That and my coat needed a clean so I whacked it into the washing machine this morning - just another reason not to go to Wellington today.

Earthoria

Which brings me back to that this year is notable for a number of things but will be remembered as the year of the three winters. My first winter was in the UK - which was the coldest for 31 years and was memorable for lots and lots of snow, buses skidding sideways and a taxi putting on the brakes two houses away from our apartment and skidding to a halt directly outside our driveway. Not having grown up in place where there is a lot of snow (I didn't really experience snow till I went to live in South Korea) - Napier is more known for sun, sun, sun. I loved the snow - don't love the ice so much. Decided I love our awesomely insulated and double glazed skylights as well - it makes a difference.

Although to be fair when this hit B and I were swapping rings and the like but you get the idea and I suspect this weekends weather is looking very similar...

The second winter has been in the land of the long white cloud - or rather black grey clouds and freezing cold. I forgot my thermals and had to get B to send them over - Doh! And it has been sometimes decidedly unpleasant without a car (Upper Hutt is not known for its excellent transport) I took to wearing two scarves and hiding under trees whilst waiting for the bus (no bus shelter sigh). The house I have been living in is quite light and sunny, but NZ houses aren't known for double glazing or insulation, so when it is cold, it is really cold. But having said that the temperature has moved in an upwards direction just in time for me to make an exit stage left back to the UK in time for my third winter. I must admit that it wasn't planned to be the three winters in a row - I had to come back to NZ to get a visa to stay in the UK - which took longer than I thought and was quite stressful really - but all sorted now and I have the lovely but expensive visa sticker in my passport and I will guard it well!!

I now have my eyeballs on a new winter coat and some wool tights for our trip to Glasgow to ring in the Christmas Party with Psychochicken and his most lovely woman. Rock on with the snow!

Spring is in the air...

2010-09-13T18:48:00.004+12:00

Not known to be the cultural mecca of New Zealand, Upper Hutt's Spring Carnival (really a fair down the main street) was quite enjoyable. I even bought a politically incorrect golliwog knitted by elderly members of the Upper Hutt Bowling Club. Not for the faint of bogan's or crowds but kinda cool anyway. Best picture of the day.

Seriously where else can you find Punch and Judy cavorting with the devil (or SATAN) as the voice person was quite keen to tell the audience....

Come on Kindle, light my fire....

2010-09-06T21:08:00.000+12:00

So in previous posts I have extolled the virtues of reading books as God first thought them out i.e. ink on paper and for all intents and purposes I don't think you can go past the whole book reading experience smells and all. However, books cost money, and in New Zealand books are unbelievably expensive and I'm not as down with that as I once was - even going to the second hand book shop isn't as fun as it once was. Truth is mostly it because I found a lovely little file sharing site which allows me to download whole series of books in pdf form, in very quick fashion for nothing. Nada all free. I am so, so okay with this - and as B said why don't you go to the library - trouble is they often don't have what I want, or if they do I have to wait for it, and the truth is I am a voracious reader. I read a lot, in the last few months I have read 49 books (which reminds me need to update the list), which, if I had to pay for would have chewed into my budget a fair whack. I have read them on my mac baby which I love, but lugging it around and reading at the bus stop or on the bus is less than thrilling or really practicable. Which leads me to thinking that it might be time to invest in a kindle that will allow me to read my pdf's where and when I want.

I think I may be being dragged kicking and screaming into the world of the kindle, sigh. Sob - Santa can I have one for christmas? Or even as a pre christmas taster?

Whew!

2010-09-05T10:59:00.000+12:00

Wow - Christchurch had a rather large earthquake yesterday morning at 4.35am. Jolting all and sundry out of beds, cupboards and shelves and onto the floor. Scared the bejesus out of a lot of people I imagine.

Have to say woohoo for our earthquake guidelines and building regulations because the majority of buildings didnt fall down and cause injuries and fatalities. Yay too for the timing of the quake had it been in the afternoon and a weekday I dare say it wouldve been a different story. Glad my whanau and friends were save and sound just shaken.

S.

Leaving on a Jet Plane 1

2010-08-29T18:30:00.001+12:00

So yet again I am making preparations to leave the land of the long white cloud. I have the UK visa (also known as "The very expensive sticker" in my passport. I have my tickets booked - Wellington to Napier. Spend a couple of weeks with peeps I love. Then on October 15th Napier - Auckland and then Auckland to Heathrow via Hong Kong.

I like flying via Hong Kong it's generally shorter and you can get out and walk about the massive complex that is Hong Kong International. Compared to LAX it's heaven. Although I must say Singapore-Changai was really nice but AirNZ (who were cheapest) doesnt fly through Singapore on the way to London. Am excited must say. Just organising little things now such as getting a new drivers license and possibly organising a little care package for me to be posted before I leave NZ but in time to be back in time for the postie to deliver it to me. Have been looking at jobs in the UK and writing apps - Yay - hope the job is forthcoming quickly!

And of course I have made a list of books that may accompany me on the plane :D at the moment it is only two: The Passage and Americans in Paris.

I thought it was warming up - I was wrong

2010-08-10T19:58:00.000+12:00

It was freezing last night and its colder than cold tonight brrrr! But warm on the inside cause my UK visa came through - hallelujah and thank the baby jesus! Not necessarily well planned my timing as I will be enjoying three winters this year, but with double glazing and a hefty set of thermals I sense no real problems ahead. Ewww and highly likely I will get a paper out of six months of work - which works for moi - Im liking that.

Have been reading a lot lately - I found out that around 15 books is the max my brain can tolerate in a two week period before I need a break. Good to know my limits - will review them later.

Sometimes Winter's just cool...

2010-08-04T22:37:00.002+12:00

Upper Hutt on a very foggy morning. I saw the photo I wanted but had to wait for bystanders to get out of the way. It works though, it works.

S.

Back to reality, Ooops there goes gravity

2010-06-16T21:41:00.002+12:00

I'm quoting Eminem - nice! It has been grey, rainy and gloomy lately. Not surprising really it's winter in the deep dark heart of the southern hemisphere. Today was lovely though - blue, blue sky, but so cold if you came too close your eyes would be in danger. Snow on the hills was the spectacular reason for the very low temperature last night. So what does one do when it's cold and rainy and you have no car and the bus service to your suburb doesn't run on Sunday and public holidays? You read lots of books, listen to music and watch fun movies.

La faute a Fidel! (Blame it on Fidel!)

A lovely wee movie by Julie Gavras about the upheaval a young girl goes through when her thoroughly bourgeois parents decide to take a step sideways and become far more proactive in left leaning humanitarian causes such as abortion in France and advocating for Chilean activists. It's a really cool look into 1970's French society and social change from a child's perspective. It is also a look at how parental choices affect children, no matter how well meaning they are. I really liked the conversation about how group solidarity was different to be a sheeple.

I would say watch it! It is in French with subtitles in English.

Lungs - Florence and the Machine (2009)

I love Florence's voice. I love strong interesting female vocalists and Florence is definitely one of them. I have to say Dog Days Are Over is my favourite song - that and Rabbit Heart (Raise it up). I also quite liked Hurricane Drunk. There is a very modified 80's feel going on in this album. I keep thinking I can hear Talking Heads in Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up). I like the harp in the background and the fact that she can sing is a definite plus. Nice to have a boogie and chill out music on the same album.

We saw her live on Jules Holland's New Year's Hootenany and frankly it rocked - this album was a birthday present for my 30 mumblemumble birthday - thank you darling man!

As an aside I-tunes has flung up Fly My Pretties and Fur Patrol - I think I need to have a chillax music night me thinks.

Holysmoke - Gin Wigmore

Now I like her - I like that she writes her own lyrics and music and I like her crusty rusty voice. It is a plus she is good looking and hails from New Zealand. She does get a bit thrashed on the radio but Im okay with that cause when Im in the lab doing monotonous stuff singing helps drive away the lab bench blues :D. Her songs have strong beats and they are very catchy songs that worm their way into your head such that you find yourself singing away to them all day. I really like Oh My and Too late for Lovers. She's funky and kinda hot - it will be interesting to see how she develops as a musician. Her earliest offering Hallelujah was good and I think she's brewing like a nice nana tea.

The live video isn't that flash, you can find another better version here. She wrote the song when she was 16 - I couldn't write my name at that age :D.

Wideacre - Phillippa Gregory

In the world of Wideacre (the first of a trilogy), it pretty much sucks to be a woman, with no real rights to anything in 18th century England. Beatrice Lacey loves her bit of land farmed by her semi gentry father - he takes her everywhere teaching her the lay of the land and how to take care of it. Turns out she is good at it, but she's a bit of a sociopath who will do anything to control that land and see her children inherit that land. Anything includes murder (twice), attempted murder, fraud, incest, starvation of people on her land and lots of sex. Oh and she forces her husband to become alcoholic and steals his inheritance. It is not for the faint of heart and she isn't a particularly likeable character but it's a great to see a strong, dark character in the pages of a nicely, nicely author. It was a good tale, it got a bit phaffy at the end of the book, felt a bit rushed. I would possibly read it again. I think I have to read the rest of the trilogy now.

That's all for now.

Bored? No not I....

2010-06-01T21:56:00.005+12:00

It started out as "Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger returns."

AFRIKAANS : Ja liewe lesers - jou baie afwesig is teruggekeer het blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear readers - your very absent returning blogger.
ALBANIAN : Po i dashur lexues - bloger shumë mungon tuaj kthyer.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes dear reader - the blogger much miss your turn.
ARABIC : نعم عزيزي القارئ -- المدون افتقد كثيرا دورك.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger much I miss your turn.
BELARUSIAN : Так, дарагі чытач - блогер я тугу ваша чаргу.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger anguish is your turn.
BULGARIAN : Да, драги читателю - аз блогър мъка е ваш ред.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - I blogger grief is your turn.
CATALAN : Sí, estimat lector - que pena blogger és el teu torn.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalty blogger.
CHINESE : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了刑罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn penalties blogger.
CHINESE_SIMPLIFIED : 是的，亲爱的读者 - 轮到你了处罚的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CHINESE_TRADITIONAL : 是的，親愛的讀者 - 輪到你了處罰的blogger。
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your turn punishment blogger.
CROATIAN : Da, dragi čitatelju - na redu si kazna bloger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your fine blogger.
CZECH : Ano, milý čtenáři - je to vaše pořádku blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
DANISH : Ja, kære læser - det er din ret blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right blogger.
DUTCH : Ja, lieve lezer - het is uw recht blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it's your right blogger.
ESTONIAN : Jah, kallis lugeja - see on teie õigus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - it is your right to a blogger.
FILIPINO : Oo, mahal na mambabasa - ito ay ang iyong karapatan sa isang blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right to a blogger.
FINNISH : Kyllä, rakkaat lukijat - se on sinun oikeus blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it is your right blogger.
FRENCH : Oui, chers lecteurs - c'est votre droit blogueur.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear readers - it's your right blogger.
GALICIAN : Si, caros lectores - que é dereito seu blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GERMAN : Ja, meine lieben Leser - das ist richtig Ihrem Blogger.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, my dear readers - that's right your blogger.
GREEK : Ναι, αγαπητέ αναγνώστη - ότι είναι σωστός blogger σας.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - the blogger you are right.
HEBREW : כן, קורא יקר - בלוגר אתה צודק.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger you're right.
HINDI : हाँ, प्रिय पाठक - एक ब्लॉगर तुम सही हो.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
HUNGARIAN : Igen, kedves olvasó - egy blogger, igazad van.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you're right.
ICELANDIC : Já, kæri lesandi - a blogger, ert þú til hægri.
Back to ENGLISH : Yes, dear reader - a blogger, you are right.

I love BAD Translation. You should too.

Word to the wise

2010-05-25T19:29:00.003+12:00

If you are a microbiologist or evolutionary biologist don't read Virolution by Frank Ryan. It's pop science repetitive vomit. If you have had any sort of genetics learning it becomes very boring very quickly. Pity because I thought it would be good. Now Im not a great decryer of pop science - I just like well written science books that dont read like a massive ego boost on the authors behalf. For a really cool pop science book on microbiology read these books - I have read them and they are good. Yes I am a scientist - so you know they're good. The bold ones are written by author's I just could kiss - they are just that good.

10 Good popular science books (emphasis on the micro side)

The Coming Plague - Laurie Garrett (Awesome book - been out a while but still very, very good. It is on the long side but dont let that stop you very good book)
Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer (one of my favourite pop sci books - really well written and the parasites are just cool)
The Seven Daughters of Eve - Bryan Sykes
Stiff - Mary Roach
The Doctor's Plague - Sherwin B. Nuland
Plague's Progress - Arno Karlen
Viruses vs Superbugs - Thomas Hausler
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
The Hot Zone - Richard Preston ( Very, very interesting book)
The Dark Lady of DNA - Brenda Maddox

There are more - I just have to remember which ones I have read - there is a really good one about antibiotics whose name escapes me. I will return :)

Eww look her eyelashes are fluttering!

2010-05-18T21:18:00.001+12:00

Yes dear readers - your very absent blogger has returned. So what have I done since I last posted? Got married, promptly ran away to a faraway land, started a new work contract and moved house. Not much really. I have been reading - lots of science guff but also a few books as well.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Moral corruption, theft of bodily tissues and the multi-million dollar business that is of the world that is HeLa. HeLa cells are quite frankly God's gift to this world - they have enabled a very large amount of life saving science to proceed eg Polio vaccine, cancer research etc. None of it would have happened if Henrietta Lacks had not contracted the HPV virus which caused cervical cancer. The tumour grew wildly and spread throughout her body eventually killing her. The short and the long of it was that the doctor who first cultivated the cells took them from her pathology without patient permission or any sort of informed consent. He then proceeded to send the cells around the world for a fee. Did I mention this occurred at John Hopkins? It is a really, really interesting book about the life and death and immortal cells of Henrietta Lacks. Oh and the really slack, pass the buck culture that has occurred within the Science community at large and at John Hopkins and Invitrogen in particular.

PS thank you darling man for my bday present.

Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

Who doesnt love a bit of Zombie gore and biowarefare? I liked it - good for reading on a plane - which is what I did. It is all about our main character chasing, killing and generally blowing up the terrorists and their pet zombies. Not too hard out Im in a thinking mood kinda book - but we all need a blow em up book every now and then.

The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

I like Tess Gerritsen. I like her slight fluff style of murder thriller novels. I liked this one too. It has nuns, blood and gore, and dirty secrets. Dr Isles and Detective Rizzoli on the case. Good for killing time.

Eww and I have been watching some movies and docos:

The Bridge

Compelling and disturbing is an accurate description of this documentary. It revolves around the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the people who are determined to jump off it. Literally the stood and filmed for a year people walking the bridge, some stopping, some jumping, some being hauled back over the bridge by worried citizens. They took note of the jumpers and then went and interviewed the relatives and friends of the jumpers. In one case it was a guy who stopped a female jumper, in another it was one of the jumpers who decided half way down he didn't want to die and changed his position on the way down, so instead of dying he just shattered most of the bones in his body. It was really weird watching these people walk across the bridge trying to pick the one who was going to jump - odd. It also worried me that they were waiting for these people to jump to film it and not doing anything to stop them - icky ethical issues. If you get the chance watch it.

Invasion

Im a microbiologist - I inherently wanted to watch it. A space shuttle crashes bringing a type of alien virus with it and it spreads through blood or body fluid contact (loved the vomiting into coffee pots at a CDC conference). Enter Nicole Kidman, psychologist and her son (who by rare coincidence has had a type of chicken pox from which he almost died and so is now immune to the scary virus). The virus enters the human host and become symbiotic once the human enters REM sleep, they then start talking and feeling as one and talk about being harmonious because there is no Other - so no fighting or wars just everyone working together minus the emotions. The fight is to keep Nicole awake and her boy from his infected father. Fluff movie but I liked it.

That's all.

Okay I will bite

2010-05-18T20:46:00.000+12:00

I haven't been very ranty lately - quite mellow actually. The thing is at heart I'm a scientist, in particular I am a Microbiologist. I am also a parent of a teenage girl. Several headlines and news articles caught my attention this week and annoyed the bejesus enough out of me that I am going to rant. This rant is pretty much about Immunisation and the media's role in demonizing common good sense science. Here goes:

Once upon a time a doctor and his colleagues thought that they would publish an article on a study they had carried out. This study had no real scientific basis, had a small co-hort of 12 individuals amongst other later revealed disturbing unethical bits and pieces going on, but came to the conclusion that the MMR vaccine causes autism. This piece of research was held up by the media in general, autism conspiracists and general wackaloon's as stone cold solid evidence that the MMR vaccine was mad, bad and dangerous to give your beautiful babies. Pity of it was that almost as soon as it was published it was called into question and it's findings refuted - did the media want to know? Nope - they ignored the majority of scientists and went with the one study that was the proverbial "whistleblower".

The result of the media's ability to cause calamity where there was none is that a large number of reasonable, otherwise smart parents were conned into believing that the MMR vaccine could put their child at harm. Whereas, in reality the truth is that the MMR vaccine is necessary to protect your child from some potentially nasty diseases. Much like the meningitis jab - had a great conversation with someone last week who said cause the epidemic had "gone away" it wasn't necessary to vaccinate her child. WTF?? Are you serious?? I mean really - what did you think caused the decrease in cases?? What happens when the now vaccinated cohort grows up and the kids who are being born now aren't vaccinated? Quite possibly another epidemic - just because we controlled (note I say control not eliminate) this one doesn't mean it wont happen again. Bacteria and viruses survive because they change and try to dodge the immune system - if you don't give the immune system a heads up - your child has a higher chance of becoming seriously sick and possibly dying. Am I scaremongering? I dont think so - I think that is it almost criminally negligent of parents not to vaccinate their children. We as parents have a responsibility to provide kids with proper care and attention - part of that is ensuring they are healthy and have access to proper medical care.

The other current vaccination scaremongering is concerning Gardisil - the HPV vaccine or rather a HPV vaccine which has been associated (via the media not scientific publications) with nasty side effects like death. HPV causes cervical cancer - it does. Part of the problem is that there are many different genotypes of HPV - this vaccination protects against the most commonly associated strains. So while it is conceivable you may get one of the rarer ones - you will be covered for the most common ones. You can only do so much.

Am saving the other part of the rant for another time.

Suffice to say vaccinate your child - herd immunity will only take you so far.

Counterclockwise

2010-01-30T09:12:00.001+13:00

xkcd

I love the UK's charity shops. They have the best range of second hand books for the most reasonable prices ever 1 - 2.50 pounds - awesome. I found Austerlitz on the shelf - love that. The range of books I find is really cool - it's like people read them once and then give them away - I am so not that kinda girl. I often read my books once, twice - sometimes three times. Sometimes more if I am in love with the book. Go figure.

S.

Ipad me baby!

2010-01-30T09:09:00.002+13:00

If it had a camera so I could use it to Skype, it would be sex on legs. I think I still want one.

Rocky Road Muffins

2010-01-26T05:36:00.001+13:00

Rocky Road Slice

Have been tinkering in the kitchen again. I was envisioning a rocky road inspired muffin and so i whipped up some chocolate muffins with a few additions and from what I'm told they're really yummy. Sitting here at the moment the recipe with a few tweaks will be perfect - as is would make a nice brownie mixture. I havent included nuts in this recipe.

Tweaked Rocky Road Muffins

60gms unsalted butter
2 cups of plain flour
1 egg
3/4 cup of milk
1/2 cup of white sugar

4 Tblspns of best cocoa you can find (im generous with my cocoa more is better than less in my book)

2 tspns baking powder
100gms dark chocolate bits
100gms white chocolate bits
handful of small marshmallows
cup of frozen raspberries

Cream sugar and butter. Add the egg and mix well. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add to egg/butter mixture, alternating with milk until all mixed well. Fold in the chocolate bits, marshmallows and raspberries. Spoon out into muffin cases - makes 10 - 12 muffins. Preheat oven to 190C cook for 20 mins or until risen.

Original recipe - tasted awesome but didnt rise that well (which might have been temp 180C and the baking soda) and may be more suited to a brownie:

1 cup of plain flour
1 tspn of baking powder
1 egg
1 tspn of baking soda
1/2 cup of milk
50gms of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
4 tblspns of cocoa
100gms of white chocolate
100gms of dark chocolate
handful of marshmallows
1/2 a cup of raspberries

Same directions as before. Baked for 30 mins at 180C.

Very moist recipe - yummy according to B - king of the sweet muffin.

I was thinking that a dark chocolate ganache and marshmallow topping might be nice - if you were going for a once in a while treat. No photos I forgot to take any, will next time.

The Tooth Files

2010-01-24T07:21:00.002+13:00

I have to admit having a sore (and when I say sore think excruciating pain) tooth can put you off doing pretty much everything else. So I haven't blogged, nor read any books to blog on lately. Then the pain stopped, cue abscess with fever and accompanying unbelievably fast swelling, making me look like I had a golf ball in the side of my cheek. Literally pain stopped early Monday morning and by Tuesday afternoon when I saw the Dentist the swelling had gone from little or none to this large swollen gum and gland. The lovely Polish dentist shot me full of drugs, drained it and prescribed me heavy duty antibiotics. God Bless that woman - the swelling has gone down a lot - I don't look like a chipmunk.

Unreal. I think it was the combination of me taking Nurofen and Panadol (a lot of it as my tooth hurt unbelievably) - downside to this is they also counteracted my immune systems own way of dealing with the cavity. So when I ran out of Nurofen on Sunday and stopped taking the Panadol (cause I was concerned about the level my liver was processing) my immune system went a bit nuts and attacked the infection.

So feeling better this weekend - swelling hasn't fully gone away yet but haven't finished the course of antibiotics yet. Off to the dentist again next week to get the tooth sorted out.

Am reading Shattered by Mavis March - is interesting as the autobiographical story of how their family coped when their son suffered a serious head injury and was deemed to be a vegetable by the medical fraternity.

Jealousy will get you no where

2010-01-17T02:36:00.001+13:00

Tom Gauld

My hard drive lives again - well that's not technically true. It died a bad, bad, clicky death - but I have a new one now so my Mac Baby will start producing more blog entries now. This is Tom Gauld's work - he's great. He publishes for the Guardian. Before my hd died I had started compiling a list of all the books I have ever read - that I could remember - scarily there were a large number of SciFi books in there and I hadn't really thought about all the books I had ever read. Sigh I need to go and feed my habit now.

The Trains are Terrible

2010-01-10T11:16:00.000+13:00

The trains were hideous on Friday - but... I finished reading The Interpretation of Murder by Jeb Rubenfeld - awesome book I liked it a lot. Will review it later. I went to Oxford and loved the wonderful number of really good bookshops - it was like a test from God and I failed. I caved and bought Wedlock (which is on the list) and If this is man/truce by Primo Levi (which is not on the list). Am enjoying Primo Levi - but it's a bitsa book where you have to read it in bits as it's a bit intense and I need a bit of time to do justice to the author's words. I felt the same about Crash, although the book content is worlds apart.

Hard drive is really, really dead. Need a new one.

S.

Arrrggghhhh!

2010-01-07T08:22:00.000+13:00

Stoopid hard drive died - the mac whisperer said it's probably fatal. The hard drive is currently in the icu (otherwise known as the freezer). The entries may be a little slower than I first anticipated.

Stupid hard drive.

S.

Oh, the places you'll go - Dr. Suess

2010-01-05T07:05:00.003+13:00

As part of my New Year's only resolution, to blog about a book each day, I think I should tell you about books that matter, books that you should read, that your child should read and this is one of them. Dr. Suess books matter. My daughter had as many Dr. Suess books as I could find and afford. "Oh, the places you'll go" reads as well to an adult as it does to a child. I love the rhythm, rhyme and intonation found here and in all Dr Suess books. I love this book of all the Dr Suess books.

Congratulations!

Today is your day!

You're off to great places!

You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

in any direction you choose.

You are on your own. You know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

What's not to love about a book that advocates self confidence and taking responsibility for ourselves and our own actions? It also talks about when we fail - because we will and do - to pick yourself up and keep going. It talks about the negative ruts we get ourselves into and how we get stuck in waiting for the future to get here we forget about the here and now. I love this book - love it.

Verdict: Read this book. Read it to your Mum. Read it to your Dad. Read it when you're happy. Read it when you're sad.

The Lost: A search for six of the six million - Daniel Mendelsohn

2010-01-04T06:01:00.000+13:00

I brought this book new. I thought about it a bit before I purchased it as it is a large book to read and the material at times is a little hard going but I am really glad I did. Obviously I have read a lot of Holocaust associated books written by or in collaboration with survivors of WWII, both Jewish and non-Jewish - this one is a little bit different to the rest both in the fact that Mendelsohn himself wasnt a survivor nor were his grandparents, and that he really pulls no punches. This book tells the story of how Mendelsohn tracks down and tells the story both of his great-uncles family disappearance into the holocaust and of the incidious nature of the brutality that Jews recieved at the hands of not just the Nazis, but also the Ukranians. The sheer horrific nature of the brutality metered out is told in unflinching terms and it has to be this is what happened. It happened just this way.

I really, really enjoyed this book. But be aware it is a large book and I did eventually skip over the Torah portions, as for me it detracted rather than enhanced my reading of the remainder of the book. I really liked how he told the story of this little town in Ukraine, which for all intents and purposes fell into a William Golding mold, where the thin veneer of civilisation was so quickly ripped away. What gets me in this book was that even the Nazi's were horrified at the treatment dealt out to the Jews by the Ukranians, when it became obvious that the Jews had no rights and it was a free for all. We often think of the Holocaust and how the Nazi's were just plain evil and what they did was horrific. This true, but we forget that they walked into countries where the non-Jews were often just as bad as the Nazis - Anti semitism didnt go away because Germany was defeated either. I found this interesting too and Mendelsohn investigates this as well - where Jews returned home expecting to go back to living their lives as they had previously only to find people living in their houses refusing to move or to acknowledge that they didnt own the building. Often it was easier just to leave and make a new start.

Recently I went to a talk by a survivor who escaped from Austria just before the war proper started. I welled up when he read a letter from a family member who was deported that day the letter was written and died in the gas chambers. I got to hold a prewar German Austrian Jewish passport in my hands and saw that the survivors uncle had just made it into England with two months to spare before no escape could be had when the war started proper. I was overwhelmed a bit I think, I ended up sitting there just looking at this passport in my hands and thinking my God how lucky were you.

I think we need to read books such as this, where it is a one on one personal story, six million plus is too large a number to take in, to understand the horrific nature of what happened in Europe not just 1939 to 1945, but more 1933 to 1950. The only way to truly understand what occurred and still is occurring if we are honest with ourselves, is to read the personal accounts to see the ripple effects of one persons actions. There are many published accounts of people doing the right thing often at great personal cost to themselves, unfortunately there are also many more unpublished accounts of whole towns, not just one soul, not doing the right thing.

Verdict: Read this book - it is well worth keeping at it, it is large and at times can be a bit chunky, but worth it.

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton

2010-01-04T04:34:00.002+13:00

Now I did slate this book a little to be fair. I actually put it back on the shelf and left it there for a month or two because it just didn't grab me as it should have. However, I went back to it due to my dwindling lack of reading material over the Christmas/New Year's break and read it from cover to cover. I am pleased that I gave it another go and read it again however I don't think I will be in any great hurry to read it again.

The essential plot of the book revolves around three strong female characters, each damaged by traumatic events in their lives who learn the truth of their heritage in different ways. The mysterious Authoress, abandoned and broken Nell, and Cassandra, also abandoned by her mother and damaged by the loss of her husband and child. Each chapter is told by a different character, in a different setting (either in Australia or England) and in a different year - 1913, 1975 and 2005.

There is a lot of jumping around in this novel and it may have that which was off putting initially. We go from Cassandra being abandoned by her less than useful mother at the door of her grandmother's (Nell) house to Nell herself arriving in Brisbane literally off the boat alone and by herself with no knowledge of who she was or where she had come from, with only the memory of a woman called the Authoress. The bulk of the book revolves around Cassandra's resolve to find out about the property Nell has left her and her discovery of who she is and where she came from. The book concludes with the revelation of the big dirty and disturbing family secret (and a number of smaller just as manky family secrets), the problem with this is that you can see the resolution coming a mile away.

This book isn't pulp fiction - it is twice the size of a small novel - at 645 pages it is a bit of a tome to be honest. It is around the same size as a Gabaldon book without the class. It reads as an okay attempt at gothic type literature, it justs fails to meet the mark for me. Although having said that a number of people have enjoyed it according to Amazon.com reviews - I wondered if they were reading the same book as I was.

Verdict: Okay, just okay. I'm in no hurry to read it again. Read it if you are killing time in an airport on a long haul flight.

Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris

2010-01-04T03:35:00.002+13:00

Surprise it's a supernatural sci-fi thriller pulp fiction type book from Charlaine Harris. Of course it is that's what she writes and why not she does it well and had a cult following from before the days of True Blood and blessed HBO. I like Charlaine Harris in the manner I like Julia Quinn, it is not "classic" literature, but it rocks along and allows me to read a book in a day or two if it's dragging its feet.

Grave Surprise is no deviation from that - second in the Harper Connelly series, other titles include: Grave Sight, Ice Cold Grave and Grave Secret. I liked the main characters Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang, unrelated step-siblings who make the best use of Harper's unusual talent for finding dead bodies and identifying cause of death. Without giving too much away Harper and Tolliver are called on to give a demonstration of Harper's unique talent at a Memphis cemetery to a university class that studies the paranormal. In the process Harper discover's a body where it shouldn't be - the body of a child she had previously been involved in searching for with no results. The book is then a pretty straightforward who put it there explanation. There aren't a lot of surprises in this book - although to be honest I don't think it's a let down - it is just a bit formulaic - but given my liking for Regency romances and the odd murder/crime book I don't mind that. Although every now and again a surprise at the end that I didn,t see coming is always good - and invariably makes that book a classic for me.

This book isn't a classic all time, forever kind of book. It is what it is - pulp fiction, but I do love Charlaine Harris's style of writing.

Verdict: Quite readable - more than once.

On the second day...

2010-01-03T09:04:00.003+13:00

Still freezing outside. We ventured outside because we needed household stuff and I needed a new coat since I borrowed B's or used an umbrella, it was cold, very cold. Typically it rained as well. However, on the hunt for a coat I found two of the books on my to be read list - the interpretation of murder and gone with the wind. Fantastic. I also started reading Grave surprise by Charlaine Harris - have read it before liked it will write a review later, feels a bit like the southern vampire novels which is hardly surprising given they have the same author.

On the first day...

2010-01-02T06:23:00.000+13:00

Happy New Years! It was so cold today that the ice that had formed on the puddles was still there at 2pm thick and going nowhere. Tucked up on the couch I finished The Forgotten Garden - verdict is that it was okay - not something I am clamoring to read again and the resolution is predictable and was. I always like it when I am surprised by a book - I wasn't on this occasion. I can cross one book off the to be read list - always good.

To be read in this the year of our Lord 2010

2010-01-01T04:05:00.003+13:00

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (I have read this before and loved it - loved reading it in summertime Berlin in an open air cafe)
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris
Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
Virolution - Frank Ryan (The last of my Christmas book pressies)
The Mitfords: Letters between six sisters - Charlotte Mosley
April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay (Cry every time I read this book - makes my top 100 books)
Farewell to the East End - Jennifer Worth
Wedlock - How Georgian Britain's worst husband met his match - Wendy Moore
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England - Ian Mortimer
Kisses on A Postcard - Terence Frisby
Down and Out in Paris and London - George Orwell
1984 - George Orwell
Austerlitz - W.G Sebald
Night - Elie Wiesel
Scottish Covenanter Stories: Tales from the Killing time - Dane Love
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell (Scarlett is so much a stronger, likeable character in the book rather than the movie - really like this book)
The Interpretation of Murder - Jed Rubenfeld
Once - Morris Gleitzman
Waiting for Anya - Michael Morpurgo
Miss MacKenzie - Anthony Trollope
Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens
A plethora of regency romance novels - as is my guilty wont - Balogh, Quick, Quinn, Laurens etc
The death of Bunny Munro - Nick Cave
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
Complete Stories - Flannery O'Connor (A good man is hard to find by FC is my favourite short story ever, closely followed by The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Gilman Perkins)
Into the wilderness - Sara Donati (have read this before but not in a long time)

Okay so it is unlikely that I will confine myself to 30 books in the coming year, these are the ones that I will make an active effort to find and add to the "library". There will of course be others that catch my eye and they will be welcomed to the whanau - thankee kindly.

The books, for my sins, that I forgot

2010-01-01T01:37:00.007+13:00

So I stopped writing last night about books and thought I should finish the list of recently read books that, for the author's sins, may or may not deserve a mention.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

One of the reasons I neglected this book is I read it in one sitting on the train from Glasgow to Birmingham. The book has been slated by those in the know as a masterpiece and a real piece of literature - which often condemns the book to the bookshelf rather than a pair of warm hands. I have to say whilst it was a well written boy I felt like saying to McCarthy give the boy a bone ffs! It is just relentless in its bleakness and nothingness. I don't feel like there was gratuitous violence in there - and the cannibalism I don't think was out of place. I just found it a little unsatisfying as a read - possibly as the resolution at the end wasn't a resolution and the story felt unfinished. Note to authors: you are allowed to stop the story dead, there doesn't have to be redemption.

Im okay I read it - don't know if I would read it again - it might be like the last of the mohicans - where I really like the movie (which is very unusual for me) and don't like the book.

The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale

I liked this book - even though it was about a historical murder mystery. I liked it. It was interesting and well researched. I wont tell you the best bit cause that would ruin it but I liked it. Essentially it is the story of the investigation, by Jack Whicher, into the death of a 3 year old boy at Road Hill house - gotta love a Victorian murder mystery. Interesting characters - all of them - uncomfortable house dynamics - makes for a good read. Unexpected ending and probably wouldn't happen today. Read it.

Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire - Gordon Ramsay

I gave up on this book. It was interesting for the first half of the book. You have to give the guy kudos he married the right woman and inherited her father's business nouse and money. That and he can cook - even if he is a bit of a knob. I got bored is what it was - the book goes like this: I got married, father in law decided to hitch his star to me and we opened a restaurant and then I hired this person who went on to make this (insert name) restaurant an enormous success (bask in my glory I taught this person everything they know), and it goes on and on and on. Ad Nauseum.

Maybe you will enjoy it more than I, but I am unlikely to read it again.

Scarpetta - Patricia Cornwell

I liked Kay Scarpetta as a character. I enjoyed the books when they first came out - I read the majority of them more than once. However, I found the books became less and less enjoyable the more she published - I have had the same feeling with Kathy Reichs (although I do enjoy her books). So I stopped reading them. So whilst browsing in WH Smiths at Stanstead there was a 3 for 2 deal (which I find hard to turn down) so I brought it. I liked it. Pulp fluff but I liked it - the story was a bit (okay a lot) of a stretch and suspension of disbelief was a little hard, dwarfs and all. Should I find myself without a book to read I would read it again to kill time.

Small Island - Andrea Levy

I tried to like this book. I made the effort to read it but gave up a quarter of the way in. It just didnt do anything for me. I even made myself watch the BBC version on Iplayer thinking that might spark an interest in re-reading the book - nope, not even a little bit. I forced myself to watch the second half. You would think that coming from New Zealand I would understand the whole dominion thing and how Britain really was the Mother land and how our "Boys" had gone off to fight a war not once but twice as cannon fodder. I do, I get that - but I think this books problem was there was nothing for me to hang my hat on so to speak - to associate myself with. The book revolves around Queenie and her own personal disillusionment and trials within the context of WWII london and immediately following the war. It also follows the story of Gilbert and Hortense who travel from Jamaica to England to settle. Intially Gilbert goes to the UK to be part of the RAF but never flies due to prejudicial superiors, he returns to Jamaica where Hortense offers him a deal. The book looks at prejudices encountered by Jamaicans who immigrated to England in WWII or directly after. TBH wont be reading it again - it feels like hard work, books shouldn't read like that.

The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton (Currently reading)

I brought this second hand - I do most books, although tbh the cost of books in the UK is cheap compared to home - I still like to trawl the second hand book stalls. I started out reading it but couldn't make it through the first chapter - it didn't grab me. So I put it back on the shelf and left it there until yesterday when I in search of something to read as my christmas reading list had run out. It has improved, but I say that tentatively as I'm only a quarter of my way through it. It is essentially the story of Nell and her grand daughter Cassandra and a big bad dirty whanau secret. Im undecided on this one as I haven't finished it yet.

Now off to finish my to be read during 2010.

S.

Bookalicious - Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T06:09:00.001+13:00

What's a holiday without books? Nothing I tell you - so in the spirit of the season I donate a few reviews of the books I have read recently. Most of them are fiction - shock horreur.

The Southern Vampire Series 1 - 9, Charlaine Harris

This series spawned True Blood but I prefer the books, always have prefered book characters they are better developed. Based around Sookie "the telepathic" barmaid and her relationships with vampires, shapeshifters, werewolves, goblins and faeries, also with the fellowship of the sun. They are never going to be "literature" with a capital L but I like them I like Sookie and I like Eric and I like how she develops the relationships. Read them.

An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon

I like Diana Gabaldon. I dont like that it takes her around four years to write one of her tomes. I didnt really enjoy the two previous to this one - but I feel like she has gone back to the writing of the first four novels in the Cross stitch series. I loved Cross stitch (which I went back and read after getting my hands on this one), Voyager and Drums in Autumn. Didn't love Dragonfly in Amber. An Echo in the Bone continues the Fraser whanau story and I liked the twists she put in there :) and as always left me wanting to read the next one right now - sigh. I will be ancient before the next one is out.

Cross Stitch, Voyager - Diana Gabaldon

Book 1 and 3 in the Cross stitch series. Jamie is just hot and time travel and smelly highland scots - what's not to love. Read them.

The Nazi Officer's Wife - Edith Hahn

True and compelling story. This book just goes to show really when there's a homicidal dictator on the loose in Europe it's luck of the draw as to whether you survive and tbh I think this woman had one rather large jewish fairy godmother looking out for her. It is the autobiographical story of Edith Hahn, Viennese Jew, who managed to avoid being sent to polish concentration camps by "borrowing" her friends details, hi tailing it into Munich (which at the time was the deep dark opposite of where you would expect to find any Jews - given it was Hitler's stomping ground). She then met and married a Nazi officer (well he was a pleb that became an officer during her marriage to him) and had a child with him. She told him before they were married that she was a Jew and because he was of a perverse nature decided not to turn her in. The man, even by her account was a few sandwiches short of a picnic - but he never gave her away. After the war she became a judge in east germany but couldnt deal with another oppressive regime and skipped out with her daughter to England.

There was an interesting part in the book where she describes how she went looking for her mother after the war and was accosted because she wasnt anorexic, therefore had to have been a collaborator. Which for me was one of the interesting bits of the book - her story was one of the most interesting ones I have read. I have read a lot of books on the Jewish experiences during WWII and while the stories are horrific and compelling they tend to follow the same line - segregated, deprived of rights, isolated, shipped off to camps where one of two things happened they survived or they didnt. Very few of them step away from this. This book does - she must have had balls of steel to step up and walk into Munich (the heart of Hitler's groundswell) being a Jew. The sheer luck or good fortune that came her way during that time is amazing - she found the one Nazi officer who was just a little bit loco enough to ignore that she was a Jew and marry her anyway.

I like this book you should read it.

I have read more than these few books - but I will leave the rest for later. Also going to do my to read list for 2010 - well January anyway :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2009-12-31T05:11:00.001+13:00

Other than snowing like there's no tomorrow Scotland had a lot going for it this weekend. In particular, Glasgow's fabulous Christmas market, awesome lights display and wonderful street performers. We went up for an annual Christmas party - which was fab and we sampled two different kinds of mulled wine - Gluhwein (German) and Glogg (Danish). I have never really enjoyed mulled wine at Christmas because well Christmas in the southern hemisphere is too warm for it - I loved going to the Christmas market being freezing and it warmed me up delightfully so I have found some recipes for you to share to keep you warm.

Gluhwein

4 bottles of red wine

600 mls brandy

1 cup of sugar

6 cinnamon sticks

12 cloves whole

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp mace

2 oranges, sliced

1 lemon, sliced

Put all in a pot simmer for an hour. Drink.

Glogg

250ml water

4 tblspns of white sugar

1 cinnamon stick

3 or 4 cloves

5 or 6 cardamom seed pods, peeled

small piece of ginger, peeled

peel and juice of 1 lemon, 1 orange

1 bottle of red wine

90 gm dried fruit

90 gm blanched almonds, chopped

Quarter of a cup of port

Boil cinnamon, sugar, cloves, cardamom, ginger and peel in the water for about 10 minutes. Remove the peel and spices. Mix in the juices, fruit and nuts and heat to almost boiling. Take off the stove and mix in the wine. The port gets mixed in just before serving.

It'll warm the cockles of yer heart..

2009-12-17T08:35:00.006+13:00

So the weather has turned decidedly chilly, with the prospect of snow tomorrow or friday we have had soup twice this week. When I was a kid we would have large pots of soup (in particular pumpkin or bacon bone) bubbling away for hours on the stove or on the cast iron fireplace in the front room. There is just something satisfying about eating soup and sharing it with friends and family. The soup we had tonight was based on this recipe.

Celeriac and Cheddar Soup

1 tbsp butter

3 sliced onions

3 potatoes peeled and diced

1/2 a large celeriac peeled and diced

1 litre of vegetable stock

4 Sage leaves

Rind of a medium sized lemon

1 cup of grated cheddar cheese

1. In a large pan, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook for 5 mins until softened, add the potato, celeriac, stock, sage and lemon peel.

2. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 30 mins, remove and discard the lemon zest and sage leaves, blend the soup until smooth. When smooth add the cheese, serve with buttered toasted seed bread.

This week we also had Tomato and Tamarind soup with toasted spices and raita that B found in Cuisine. OMG it was really, really good tasted perfect and B even made a dark rye bread to go with it. It did smoke up the kitchen a bit when he toasted the spices, but it smelt good :)

I made the fruit bread today - was okay I thought the fresh cranberries made it too tart but as it was made to be toasted it should be fine. Next time I will use more fruit and use crasins instead of fresh cranberries.

So this is Christmas...

2009-12-16T06:12:00.001+13:00

And what have I done? Well Santa John I have been quite productive I think. I made sloe gin and raspberry gin, apple and hawthorne jelly (hawthorne's I picked myself), hawsin dipping sauce, apple and red pepper chutney, chocolate christmas cake balls, cranberry and spiced squash christmas muffins and I just put up the christmas lights :). Christmas lights always make me feel good. I brought some lovely fresh cranberries when I was at borough market, which went into the freezer and I used in the muffins, but now Im thinking I want to make some fruit bread for christmas morning. Lots of lovely fruity toast with drippy marge yum! Am searching for the right recipe as we speak - I'm looking at this one but with some major tweaks - no saffron or almonds - I want it a bit more like hot cross buns with a heap more fruit. Actually I have found this one which will just be made into a loaf but with lots more fruit.

Cranberry and Spiced Squash christmas muffins

2009-12-14T08:10:00.005+13:00

I found this recipe but tweaked it to give it the Christmas Goddess touch :) You will need to bake one medium size butternut squash split in half for about an hour and a half at 180C. Cool the squash and remove the flesh, removing excess fluid. I also sprinkled a little sugar on the top of each muffin before cooking. Have also been taste testing the chocolate balls I made the other week - they are improving with age - yum!

Cranberry and Spiced Squash Muffins

2 cups flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons Baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon mixed spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup baked squash flesh

1 cup of fresh/frozen cranberries

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup of milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Cream brown and white sugar with butter.

2. Combine egg with creamed sugar.

3. Add remaining wet ingredients and mix.

4. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice and salt. Make a well and add to wet ingredients. Mix to a smooth batter.

4. Generously grease a 12-muffin tin and dust with flour or line with paper muffin cups.

5. Fill muffin cups about 2/3-full with batter.

6. Bake muffins in preheated 180C oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until nicely browned.

Chocolate Christmas Balls and Sloe Gin

2009-12-06T09:14:00.000+13:00

So I have shaken my Sloe gin (Left) and Raspberry gin (Right) today - the raspberry red colour is gorgeous and will make a nice pressie for someone. I also made chocolate christmas balls which are currently in the fridge setting and when I pull them out I will cover them in more chocolate -yum!

Chocolate Christmas Balls

800gm christmas cake
200gms dark chocolate
120gms unsalted butter
3-4 tablespoons of Brandy (or 2 of orange juice)
2 tablespoons of finely chopped glace cherries or citrus peel

Crumble christmas cake into large bowl, add brandy and set aside. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler or glass bowl in hot water, when melted add to christmas cake/brandy mixture. Mix well, then using a teaspoon make small balls, rolling them around in your hands. Place on lined tray and put into fridge to set for 1 - 2 hours. Then ice with more chocolate and return to fridge until icing set. Makes 30 - 40 little balls.

You can use white chocolate on top of dark chocolate and use glace cherries or jelly lollies to make them look like little puddings. Yummy!!!

Pickled magnolia flowers

2009-12-05T10:45:00.002+13:00

Hmmm - Late Autumn slash early winter is not the time to be going hunting for Magnolia petals - but I imagine they would be quite delicate. I found a recipe for pickled Magnolia petals, as a sort of side dish. Will have to wait till spring time :)

The sun has disappeared too - gone south - raining now it's meant to snow tonight on the hills.