This is another cider I had in Toronto.
This one was lovely and sweet and very apply. Good stuff!
A place for everything
Success! I went to Asda again this morning and someone was actually on the Asda Money counter! It was a much nicer walk too without the rain, especially as the trees have already started changing and it’s looking very autumnal out there.
After a bit of admin, I was finally able to get on with some house stuff today:
It required a lot of Tetrising from garage to landing and back, but both the TV/film spinoff novels and the comics, as well as all the bedding and towels, are now in their correct and final places. Another job done!
Still catching up with unwatched Marvel Universe films. Tonight it was Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, which was really funny and a good watch. In some ways it’s nicer to be watching them in the comfort of home, but I expect we will start going to see the films at the cinema again once we’ve caught up.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Bucks Fizz – Piece Of The Action
Spice Girls – Mama
Duran Duran – The Chauffeur
Duran Duran – A View To A Kill
Jonas Blue and JP Cooper – Perfect Strangers
Billy Ocean – Suddenly
Book Review: Knots And Crosses
I first read most of Ian Rankin’s Rebus series when I was a teenager, mainly because Black And Blue is (was? This was nearly twenty years ago) a central text for Higher English, and so every high school kid in Scotland had to read it. I kept up with the books for a while, but never got round to reading the later ones, so I decided recently to re-read the lot from the start, aided by my Kindle.
Knots And Crosses is interesting if you’re familiar with the series, because it’s still kind of finding its feet. It was written (and hence set) in 1985, quite a bit earlier than the bulk of the books, and so the main character, John Rebus, is not quite yet the grizzled, cynical maverick that he will later become. There’s quite a lot of interesting stuff going on with his relationships with his brother and daughter at this point, and a few characters are introduced who will become very important later in the series, but by and large it can feel like a bit of a strange prequel with hindsight.
The plot zips along nicely, though, and the fact that it’s a bit more straightforward than later stories will be is actually quite a refreshing way to start reading the series again.
Of course, as an Edinburgh native, the setting is my favourite thing about the books, and here as ever the city is depicted beautifully. Something that’s always frustrated me since I started university in my hometown is the way that some people can live in Edinburgh for years and still never see beyond the picturesque, touristy, student-friendly surface. Ian Rankin’s writing, by virtue of its subject matter, evokes every aspect of the city, from its architectural beauty to its dark underbelly, from Morningside to Pilton. I know every street Rebus walks down, if not quite every pub in which he drinks (some of them have not survived the intervening thirty-three years!), and for me that really gives the stories life.
I have the next few entries on my reading list, so I’m sure I’ll get round to them soon!
A rainy Monday
Back to work all day today, followed by a fairly pointless walk to Asda and back in the rain. I’m trying to sort out a client’s payment at Asda Money, and this evening, despite being supposed to be open all day from 9am till 8pm, they had a cheerful ‘just popped out for a minute – be back at 7.45pm!’ sign on the counter. It was 6.10pm. I wasn’t going to hang around for an hour and a half, so I will have to try again tomorrow, which will be my third time trudging to Asda for this thing (the first time I went, there was a non-Asda-related problem with the process).
This is one of the many reasons that I will soon be formally updating my business policies, so that I’m not wasting time doing things like this!
Anyway, other than that, I’m having a fairly relaxed evening. Geth is out at a boardgame night, so I’ve got the Now! ’80s channel and my Kindle to keep me occupied.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Jermaine Stewart – We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off
Simon & Garfunkel – Cecilia
Abba – Lay All Your Love On Me
Abba – Head Over Heels
Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Brother Beyond – The Harder I Try
And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:
Baltimora – Tarzan Boy
2018 Ciders #46: Heritage Estate Dragon Cider
Back to the ciders! I’ve got a bit of a backlog of these so I’ll be posting lots of them in the next wee while.
Dragon Cider, like a lot of the Canadian ciders I had while I was in Toronto, is a very light-tasting cider – very refreshing for the hot weather. Awesome-looking can too! If I wasn’t trying to de-hoard my life at the moment, I’d have kept it as a souvenir.
A non-working Sunday…
…which has been unusual recently. Still, it meant I had the time and energy to get a bit of housework done, and that sort of counts as working on the house, right?
I also finished notifying the last few companies who send us post about our change of address (well, nearly – I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make tomorrow). And I made that nice veg meal that I invented yesterday again, this time with added beetroot. A nice, normal Sunday, on the whole.
Geth has started playing Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP, so I’ve also got a whole new set of Final Fantasy music to listen to.
Going to have a bath and an early night before work starts again tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Housemartins – Happy Hour
Duran Duran – Notorious
Rod Stewart – The First Cut Is The Deepest
Final Fantasy XIII-2 – Plains Of Eternity
A should-be-regular Saturday
So parkrun this morning went something like:
- Decided to run it really sedately so as not to do myself any injuries before the Great North Run next week
- Realised about thirty seconds before the start that I hadn’t adjusted my watch’s display metrics after it crashed last week so the main display would still be stuck on current pace rather than distance so far
- About 1km in, got fed up of running with jeffers (run/walkers), sped up a bit to escape them, and glanced at my watch to see my current pace was 5.47 mins per km
- About 2km in, again looked at my watch and saw my current pace was 5.53 mins per km
- Thought ‘I CAN DO THIS’ (i.e. hit elusive goal of sub-30)
- Bombed it as hard as I could the rest of the run
- Didn’t get sub-30, but was only one second slower than my previous PB (30:39 to the 30:38 of four weeks ago)
So I’m fairly happy with that, overall. All my issues with runner’s knee seem to have disappeared for the moment, so hopefully I’ll be okay for the GNR next week.
Also, I’ve set my watch up properly now. Pace giving me daft ideas is fine at parkrun, but not a good idea in a half marathon.
The rest of the day has been spent making lists, doing odd bits of housework/admin, watching the Now! ’80s channel and otherwise not really knowing what to do with myself. I’ve got a big list of stuff to start doing tomorrow, though.
I also made a really delicious new meal. I’ll make it again soon so that I can share the recipe.
Today’s earworm playlist (fairly short today ’cause I replaced it with actual music as soon as I was out of the shower after parkrun):
The Human League – (Keep Feeling) Fascination
Yazz – The Only Way Is Up
Bucks Fizz – My Camera Never Lies
George Ezra – Shotgun
Aretha Franklin – I Say A Little Prayer
Summer’s end
It was good to get out and have a walk today. Geth and I finished packing up his office fairly quickly, and after bringing his work essentials home, we headed back into town to go for lunch and a couple of pints. Now having a fairly relaxed evening, starting to catch up with some of the Marvel Universe films we’ve not seen.
Just under two hours to go until meteorological autumn. I’m very excited!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Hot Chocolate – It Started With A Kiss
Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes – (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life
The Righteous Brothers – You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
Tears For Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Tears For Fears – Shout
Matt Terry – When Christmas Comes Around*
Duran Duran – A View To A Kill
Queen – I Want To Break Free
Tracey Ullman – They Don’t Know
Bananarama – I Want You Back
Final Fantasy X – To Zanarkand
The Beatles – Ticket To Ride
And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:
Puretone – Addicted To Bass
*I want to emphasise that this was because there was a poster in the Metro station advertising Matt Terry’s role in a musical at the Sunderland Empire, not because I’m thinking about Christmas already! I have a whole autumn to enjoy first 😀
Very nearly caught up…
…but not quite. I got all of this week’s work done, but I now have some more for next week. Still, being a freelancer, I can’t complain about work coming in, even if I do kind of wish it would be more balanced throughout the year.
Geth is now Netflixing Robin Hood: Men In Tights, one of the many films I have never seen before. It’s fairly amusing.
Change of scenery tomorrow because I’ll be helping Geth pack up his office (the university is moving staff around its buildings, as universities tend to do). It’ll be nice to get out of the house!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Bananarama – I Want You Back
Prince – Kiss
Mesh – Friends Like These
Steps – One For Sorrow
Paul Young – Come Back And Stay
Soft Cell – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
Pop Will Eat Itself – Def Con One
Phone Box Thursday: Upper Street, London
Yup, we’re still on Upper Street (aka. the A1) in Islington, which is a great street for phone boxes!
(Coordinates 51°53’49.0″N, 0°10’45.4″W.)
This one is a K2 model rather than a K6 – you can tell by the more bulbous top. As ever, the Wikipedia page has some good pictures illustrating the differences.
Love those autumn leaves too!
Update 5th February 2026: added coordinate link.