so beautiful, so bitey

In a very, very rare turn of events BabyKittyPrincessAngel sat on the bed this morning.

It was very exciting.

Of course anything as daring as patting her was out of the question,  but we take what we can get.

Thanks lovely peeps for your well wishes. 

I’m still feeling somewhat fragile, but definitely on the mend (yeah thanks iphone, but I really didn’t mean on the men’s, as you so interestingly auto-corrected).

Work is kind of bonkers lately – we’re recruiting for a couple of roles in my team and Bobs, in his infinite wisdom, threw the job specs out to about 7 agencies (without consulting me) and then left me to do the wrangling – thanks Bobs! Just juggling everyone and remembering who comes from where has pretty much been a full time job for the past couple of weeks. This has meant that lots of my regular stuff has slipped, but it has done wonders for my abilities to very firmly say no, rather than being wishy-washy and apologetic.

Fortunately most of the recruiters have been excellent to deal with, but one turned into a kind of flirty creepy stalker and another tries to do the reach around to Bobs and cut me out (despite being told I am the hiring manager and to go through me). Total dick move and very short-sighted because no matter how good his candidates might be, I am really not inclined to progress them. 

Honestly, what is it about some brats in their mid-to-late-20s? I’ve had this ridiculous experience a couple of times recently and in the main the behaviour is confined to young, male Brits.**

I’m trying to decide whether it is classist, antipodeanist, ageist or sexist (or all of the above). Whatever it is, I could very cheerfully punch them in the dick(s). Of course what I should do in this case is call his manager and tell him exactly why we won’t be doing business with them again.

xxx

** Of course not all young male Brits display this behaviour.

a soothing photo that has nothing to do with this post

My almost 14 month streak of blogging everyday hit a snag yesterday (is that too many mixed metaphors?)

I was struck down by the most horrible dose of food poisoning – which left me curled up in the foetal position on the bathroom floor late last night. The pain was not unlike what I imagine Giant Rats gnawing at your innards would feel like. I’m still feeling a little fragile this morning and probably should have stayed in bed.

A good lesson to perhaps stay away from terribly expensive $13.50 chicken salad as a lunch option.

You might remember the adorable chobi cam, a tiny toy camera I used to take with me when running – back in 2013. How can it be that long ago?

Anyway it’s been on the fridge for ages (it’s magnetised) and I decided that I’d probably re-embrace running if I reinstated the practice of taking photos on the way. To my horror, the battery no longer holds charge, so I can only use it tethered – which is pretty pointless.

I could either find a tiny new battery and splice the connecting wires (way too tiny to solder) or I could buy a replacement. Sadly my beloved Japan Trend Shop is sold out of all varieties of chobi, so I took to eBay and picked up a tiny spycam for less than $9 . This was roughly 1/8 of what I paid for chobi (you can see where this is going).

It arrived on Thursday and came with an Ace! manual:

So Mini Camer ! The Smallest! But it can take video, audio, and photo. So lovely design just for lady or girls as gifts.

And naturally it broke within less than 24 hours – I’d taken maybe four test photos.

By broken, I mean all the photos were suddenly like this:

I did what any normal person would do and pulled it apart. All the bits were floating loose (in contrast, chobi has everything nicely silicon-ed in place), so I shoved everything back in properly and got it working again. Though I don’t hold out much hope for it staying intact without some assistance.

Here’s some output.

Can’t say that I’m all that jazzed. I particularly don’t care for the aspect ratio and that I can’t remove the date/ time – despite applying all sorts of methods found on the InformationSuperHighway.

It ain’t no chobi!

I thought I might steal the battery and put it in chobi – but alas, it is 5V and chobi is 3.7V.

Maybe I should just start taking my phone out with me?

Hey hey – more reading. This year I’m going to include books I’ve abandoned – and abandon I will! Gone are the days of ploughing through something dreadful just to say I’ve finished it.

This was the month-and-a-half of pretty terrible books. It’s enough to swear one off reading altogether!

➕ Nicola Upson: The Death of Lucy Kyte (Josephine Tey)
I’ve had this since December 2014 sitting unread on the kindle. I wish it had stayed that way. I can’t understand the rationale behind taking a famous author (Josephone Tey) and using her as the protagonist in a detective/mystery series which apparently has no relationship with any events in her life. WHY?!?!? Also the plot was quite terrible. This book made me angry.

➕ EF Benson: The Complete Lucia Victrix
I really wanted to like this – thought I’d adore the cattiness. Really didn’t at all.
ABANDONED after 14% completed.

I had a bunch of ebooks lurking in a folder on my hard drive which I had *cough* acquired many years ago. Through this folder I’ve discovered tons of great novels which have led me drop a couple of hundred $ on other books by the same authors, so I don’t feel terribly guilty about having it. Anyway …

➕ Kalusna Rose: Nudist Resort Murder
Thought this would be a bit of lighthearted fun. I’m always up for a murder with a quirky theme.
This was incredibly, unspeakably badly written – as if by a 13 year old boy.
ABANDONED after 14% completed (and that was too long)

➕ Guillermo Martinez: The Oxford Murders
I don’t think I’ve read a lot of (or any!) South American authors. Refreshing after the dreadful run I was having. Liked it, but can’t say I was really jazzed by the reveal.

➕ Guillermo Martinez: The Book of Murder
Liked this last one enough to pick up this. Quite good, compelling even – and then ultimately quite infuriating, very poor ending.

➕ Val McDermid: Killing in the Shadows
Quite liked this. My favourite murders are those with recurring characters (PD James; Ruth Rendell; Patricia Cornwell before-she-went-mad; Ngaio Marsh; Sue Grafton; Reginald Hill; &etc) – I adore long, slow character development over a bunch of books. This is a standalone, which is a shame – I found myself wanting to read more.

➕ Val McDermid: A Place of Execution
This one, not so much. It was a bit harrowing. Okay, actually it was a lot harrowing. I don’t think I’ll be returning to Val in a hurry.

➕ Nicola Barker: The Yips
Wow. Bad. Quite possibly it would have improved after the first chapter, but I was not sticking around to find out.
ABANDONED at 8% completed

➕ Robert Harris: The Fear Index
Pretty stock-standard thriller. Wasn’t terrible. I love an evil, sentient computer.

➕ Jonathan Coe: The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim
This was appalling. No, really. It tries to be very, very funny and I’m sure there are people would find it so. I don’t know any of these people (thankfully).
ABANDONED at 15%

➕ Kate Atkinson: Human Croquet
I adored the Jackson Brodie novels and I am glad I read them first, because I did not adore this. The reveal was, like, “wut?”. Not my bag at all. Way too, I don’t want to say whimsical, but that sort of whimsical thing.

➕ Jonathan King: Shadow Men (Max Freeman)
I persisted through this from sheer desperation. It was third in a series (where I hadn’t read the first two books). PI, ex-Cop in Florida everglades. Can’t say I was a fan.

➕ Roald Dahl: Switch Bitch
I first read Roald Dahl at school when I was about 13 or 14 (having never read any of his work for children) and I was blown away. Tales of the unexpected became one of my favourite books which I carried around for years. I delighted in Lamb to the Slaughter and that one where they stuff the sickly baby full of royal jelly and it turns into a bee. I came across this in my folder and thought I would love it equally – I didn’t, the stories (all around the theme of sex) were kind of lame and sad (not, sobbing sad but kind of meh). Perhaps Tales of the Unexpected wouldn’t hold up to adult reading either!

I’ve just started on J G Ballard: High-Rise in the hopes of finally getting something decent!

I’ve long been an occasional fan of playing mahjong on the tablet and phone (and PC back in the day).

It’s absolutely nothing at all like proper mahjong – this is more of a solitaire matching type game. I find it quite restful and I tell myself it is good for my brain.

Well, restful until recently. Maddeningly I’ve been stuck on the layout below for weeks and weeks.

I could cheat my way through or skip to the next layout, but I’m determined to blunder my way through. I suspect I’ll still be here in about 18 weeks.

Why I miss old people in the Workplace
Living in New York and working in advertising I rarely see people over the age of fifty.

Wait. What? Old People = anyone over the age of 50?

(It’s not a totally terrible article, but Holy!Goodness!)

This afternoon, despite getting home rather late, I managed to get myself out for a very slow 3km run.

It was a struggle. The weather was quite warm and humid – nothing approaching the ghastly temperatures of last weekend, but enough to arrive home drenched with sweat (ewww) and very red-faced.

At times I wonder if I should abandon all hope of outdoor exercise in January to February. It’s always horribly hot and everything is difficult. It’s very easy to become discouraged. 

Bobs said he’s considered joining a gym just for the summer months. This could be worth exploring.

Meanwhile, I’m really keen for autumn to make an appearance. We’re getting small signs already, cooler mornings, changing shadows, sunrise a little later. Not slow-roasting while running about  will definitely test where I’m at.

my only concession to valentine’s day – i’m not a believer

Hey, hey, it’s three months of no alcohol today!

Go me! I’m definitely not noticing any reduction of the waistline, but the skin is definitely brighter. And the mental health? Absolutely worth it.

xxx

I’m not really keeping track, but I’d given little to no thought of what I was going to post tonight (late, tired &etc) and did a quick calculation.

University information evening with our favourite son tonight.

Interesting times ahead!