... I'd write my autobiography, but no-one would believe it....
If you come across any words you don't recognise in this blog, take a look at the Taylorspeke Glossary in the left-hand infopane, you'll usually find a definition there.
There's room for one - or maybe two, at a pinch - more on that bedroom windowsill (the only one in the house that's ideal for them). Let's see what I find. Well, that didn't last long...
EO - Everlasting orchid. Phalaenopsis. I've had this orchid since 2007 and it just keeps flowering...
AO - Alien face orchid. Phalaenopsis . Bought 2018 - lovely little flowers, all different patterns!
RO - Rescued orchid photo to come when it flowers. Phalaenopsis. Rescued from a bin up the road in 2019. Classic!
TO - Tiny orchid. Phalaenopsis. Bought at Tesco 21.8.20. It just begged to come home with me. How could I say no?
CO - Crimson orchid. Cambria. Another Tesco find. This one may be going to live in Ken's room once we've redecorated and put up the new shelving; it prefers a cooler, less sunny windowsill. If so, I'll need to find another cambrian to keep it company.
GO - Golden orchid. Phalaenopsis. Saw this one when I bought CO and left it behind - then immediately regretted it as soon as I got home. Never seen one like it before. Ken, bless him, went back over to Tesco in the rain and bought it for me...
DO - Dendrobium Orchid. Smells of wisteria, so beautiful...
RO2 - Rescued orchid no 2. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I rescued from the wall along the road middle of 2021.
PO. Pink orchid. Phalaenopsis. This is the one I bought at Cabury Garden Centre on special, late 2021. It's much happier here!
TWO. Teeny weeny orchid, Phalaenopsis. Rescued from Tesco end 2021 (I think).
"Autumnal - nothing to do with leaves. It is to do with a certain brownness at the edges
of the day...
Brown is creeping up on us, take my word for it... Russets and tangerine shades of old gold flushing the very outside
edge of the
senses... deep shining ochres, burnt umber and parchments of baked earth - reflecting on itself and through itself,
filtering the light. At
such times, perhaps, coincidentally, the leaves might fall, somewhere..."
(Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are Dead Act
2: Tom Stoppard)
Autumn...
I love this time of year. I love the colours, the sharp slant of sunlight on the trees, mosaics of acid-yellow and harts-
blood, velvet and
darkness and a haze of mist-grey over the hills. I love its immanence, its mellowness, the tang of frost just around the
corner of the
year...
Watching the little birds in the goat-willow in my garden, I realised something more.
I love this land with a fierce, possessive love, deep-rooted in two thousand years of history. From the frosted beaches
and cloud-brushing peaks of the north to the wind-haunted meanderings of the rivers of the east, from the sensuous
rolling patchworked hills of
the south to the demanding dark moors of the west, this land seeps into bone and blood and synapse, mother of
motley nobility,
culture, individual freedoms. It can be known. It can be understood. It can be felt deep inside.
I love its effortless eccentricities, its vigour and vibrancy, its flawed perfections, its silent strength and tenacious
resilience, its hard-won tolerances and intense and variable beauty, the profound energy in its sacred mythical
landscape.
Home and more-than-home, the forces that shape and protect and bind, in me, as I am in the land. Love returning love
in the stillness
for those who'll only take the time to listen...
Currently reading:
Cixin Liu - newest favourite author.
Ben Miller. wow. Just, wow...
Currently working on: Haadri
Dystopic novel starring Devon from Dystopia
Currently chuffed with: My garden
Currently miffed at:
Effing BND (you know who I mean) Nestlé, TFG Tinyhands Fart, Toadface Farage
Currently maintaining:
Wavewrights, on and off... BCHS BCW
Blog Pics I've gathered some of my pages of photos together: the page of links is here. I'll be adding more as time goes
by!
Evil Squid
A Little Glossary of Taylorspeke
(in no particular order)
plit popints - n. Typo for 'plot points' typed on a keyboard with more than half the characters worn off...
[PING] (alt [ping]) - n. A brainwave. The text equivalent of a lightbulb going on blindingly over someone's head. Usually mine. And usually at the most inconvenient of times. [sigh]
TPTB - The Powers That Be.
wulmet - n. A person of little or no talent who somehow inveigles himself into a position where he is in power over other, far more talented people and uses his position to downplay them in order to try to make himself feel superior.
biteable - referring to an anatomical part vb, tasty.
Flatterfed - vb. 27.02.08: my typo for flattered, but since it's so cutely apt I thought it would fit nicely
here. Lutra defined it as "the lovely warm feeling of satisfaction resulting from enthusiastic reviews..." (which I've been
getting for my MB fics).
Composted - vb, 'compos mentis', mentally capable of working. Contrast with
uncomposted or non-
composted, not 'compos mentis', not capable of working, hungover...
Cumbles - n, cucumbers.
Kewp - how Ken says 'thank you'. We rather like Lutra's 'nanx', too...
Musekick - noun, music, without which I cannot work.
'feinne - noun, caffeine, essential for correct mental functioning, especially first thing in the morning. I
prefer mine in the
form of SodaStream Diet Coke. And on that subject...
Skoosh - verb, noun. To skoosh - to add CO2 to a sodastream bottle filled with water to make it
fizzy, prior to adding
Diet Coke syrup (or just drinking as sparkling water). A skoosh - a bottle of water that has been skooshed. Skooshy
- something that
has been skooshed, water, or that whipped cream that comes in tins you have to shake then upend and press the
nozzle...
Shoogle - verb. To shake gently, for example, of roast potatoes in a roasting tin to ensure they're
covered with oil. I
have vague memories of this being a real Scottish colloquialism...
Stegasaurus - n, spider of the genus tegenaria. Why? No idea. I just find it easier, that's
all...
Edit 08.09.07: Lutra thinks that Brian is a good name for a mini-stegasaurus. From now on, any 'Brian's in the posts
may be assumed to be a tegenaria. Except where otherwise specified.
Viterals - noun, vitamins + minerals. Also a pun on victuals.
Splish - verb. A combination of slosh and splash.
Parrots - noun, paracetemol (from the old joke "Why are there no aspirin tablets in the jungle?
Because the parrots eat
'em all...")
Maggles - noun, magpies. As opposed to non-magical people.
Flamewings - noun. Swifts. So called because the first time we became aware of them was an early
summer evening
when they were flying high, the light from the setting sun seemingly turning their wings to flames. Lovely little birds. We
always know
summer's arrived when we hear their high-pitched squeeing.
Murfs - noun, moths.
Peasant cut - noun, roughly cut up into big chunks, e.g. vegetables chopped in a hurry for a
hearty stew or
soup. By extension, anything prepared in a hurry - haircut, material, even a first draft of a story...
Giraffe - noun, a carafe (of wine, coffee or water, for example).
Shrumps - noun, mushrooms.
Splings - noun, Kai's spelling homework: by extension, any spelling.
Tyops - noun, typos. var toyps, typso, psyto, psoyt, etc. Usual result of a dose of the
fingerials (see next
entry).
Fingerials - (pr. fin GEEE ree yalls) noun, fingers that will not type what you want
them to.
Haddock - noun, time, of which I never have enough. (Origin of this term here.)
Sleep - noun? vb? a.k.a. sheeeeeeeeep.... I used to know what this word
meant...
:: World Timeserver For checking the current time around this world
:: Universal Currency Converter Actually it's just a terran-global currency
converter, not universal,
but it's still useful...
So what is it with the
haddock? Am I some kind of fish freak?
I'll leave that to
others to decide.
The tale (or tail if you prefer) harks back
to October 2000, when my GoodTwin and I, ably assisted by Sue,
ran the first UK Professionals convention... It's common
knowledge that I never have enough time, and I was determined
not to bewail the fact that weekend: hence I promised not to use the
'T' word... Of course, that didn't really work (if nothing else I
had to let the trainees know what times things were supposed to be
happening!) so we decided a substitute word would be employed
instead. There were several suggestions. Banana came very close to
being chosen. However, I eventually decided that 'haddock' fitted
the bill nicely. Ever since, haddock=time. Hence the title of my forthcoming
autobiography, My Half-Life in the Haddock
Space Continuum....
Normally I wouldn't, but these
were just irresistible...
These
Too-Kawaii Kitties were adopted from Ghost's Anime
Page (which appears to have disappeared, alas...)
Anime still needed to complete series' I'm collecting...
Many thanks to everyone who has helped me acquire the collection!
Ai no Kusabi
Owned:
DVD Dj: June Special CD: Ambivalence
Cyber City Oedo 808
Owned:
DVD
All 3 eps on Video, dubbed Dj: Cyberage 1-3
Illustrated Book 2 (Benten's) in Japanese
From Eroica with Love
Owned: Manga Vols 1, 9, 11
Mirage of Blaze
Owned:
DVD Vol 1 (eps 1-4)
R.G. Veda
Owned: English Manga: Vol 1 Japanese Manga: Vol 1-7 complete Tarot Pack
R.G.Veda video
Twelve Kingdoms
Owned: Anime Vol 1-12: complete
Under the Glass Moon
Owned: Manga Vol 1, 2
Vol 3 needed
Vampire Hunter D - Bloodlust
Owned:
DVD
Vampire Hunter D Book 1
New Vampire Miyu
Owned:
(Studio Ironcat) Manga Vols 1 -5 (complete)
Yami no Matsuei
Owned:
Viz Manga: English translation, Vols 1 - 11 (complete: I believe vol 12 is only available online)
Japanese 3-DVD set
Central Park Media: Descendants of Darkness Vol. 1, English/Japanese subbed.
Sketchbook
[::..Joules SP fied..::]
... this is Terra? How the hell'd I end up here...?
It's been busy, productive, and quite interesting. Sunday after my last post we all did some gardening out the front: hoed, the choisia and ceanothuses are now planted, my pot of Sultan's Palace irises too (not the main huge pot on the patio, the ones in a smaller pot out the front that didn't do at all well last year), and a handful of other plants sorted out. It's beginning to take shape...
On Monday, after drilling at all hours of the day and evening on and off for over two weeks, the noise from next door became unbearable - a horrible, high-pitched grinding sound. So I created a LOUD playlist - including a truly awesome mashup of Imagine DragonsRadioactive and Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark, downloaded from here -
Then from 11 am until 4.30 pm played it at 50% of max through my speakers (with half an hour off for lunch). Made everything vibrate and was so loud I had to put in proper earplugs to avoid being deafened while I got some work done.
It's been nice and quiet ever since. One day I'll try cranking up the volume to max and see what breaks first...
On Tuesday, as I was taking the cloches off the tomato plants coming along very nicely in the greenhouse, my phone went - it was the dentist saying they'd had a cancellation and did I want the tooth extracted today? Did I hell! 11.40 appt: left the taking in of the deliveries to Kai, cancelled swimming, and headed off for the Broadwalk bus at 10.20. (Time to do a little shopping before the deed, very useful).
Of course, it didn't go smoothly. I needed an extra anaesthetic injection to completely numb the area, then the twisted root broke off as he was pulling the main part out, and he had to dig around for it for an extra few minutes. But it is now done, feels a bit odd but is pretty much completely healed already and the relief of not having that awful constant pain is great.
(I've posted photos of the tooth here but I don't advise anyone to go look. It's not at ALL a pretty sight.)
On the 'watching' side, we saw Bangkok Dangerous, which was quite good, with Nic Cage's acting unusually understated and effective. And we're currently on lost Season 3... It's a struggle. I am NOT enjoying it. The first season was fine, then it started going downhill. It's... as though someone got a bunch of disparate individuals together, said "We're aiming to make a sci-fi/fantasy/thriller/mystery sort of thing - any ideas?, then took everything everyone threw at them, bunged them all together and tried to make them fit. Which they don't. And I want to slap half the characters for being so effing stupid!!
I will watch to the bitter end (all 6 seasons) in the probably vain hope it picks up...
Quite a lot done in the garden over the last few days, too. K&K are making a 'cobbled' path up the slope from patio to railway track to make it easier for me to manage the washing. The tea tree shrub is also now planted. And the Juneberry is looking gorgeous.
Off to suffer through a bit more Lost. Later...
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 7:27 pm
hee, nice one with the soundtrack. I hope you've cracked it (or him...)
Glad to hear the tooth problem has been resolved even if it wasn't without drama. There's nothing worse than toothache.
I seem to remember we tried the first episode of Lost and decided it wasn't for us - it had the feel of something which was going to get more random and inevitably jump the shark... :)
3 Comments:
hee, nice one with the soundtrack. I hope you've cracked it (or him...)
Glad to hear the tooth problem has been resolved even if it wasn't without drama. There's nothing worse than toothache.
I seem to remember we tried the first episode of Lost and decided it wasn't for us - it had the feel of something which was going to get more random and inevitably jump the shark... :)
Jumped the shark, surfed on the shark, played hockey with the shark, then took the shark home to meet the parents for xmas dinner....
We're onto Season 4 now. It's getting worse.
of course I looked at the tooth, grossing myself out is practically in my job description :)
yeah, but ow, that looks gnarly...