Sherlock seems a lot better today, after yesterday. He was...oh, I don't know. It's a lot to take in, given his uncertain start in life, with people coming and going all the time.
We made scones this evening - well, he made them, I just reached things from high shelves.
John and the boys are up to something - quite possibly more than one thing!!
All the butterflies have now been released to lead their own lives out in the big wide world. I hope some of them stick around the allotment - it can't be a bad life for them!
Work's busy, but good. We've had some excellent arrests, charges and convictions recently. Really proud of everyone.
Also glad...certain high profile sentences were increased. Sometimes...sometimes I really wonder what the judges are doing, honestly.
Anyway, I'm off for four whole four days next week - Weds to Sat. Which is great!
Have a nice flower-type-thing.
79 comments:
Is that real? It looks like a hedgehog on a stick.
It is real. Echinops ritro. They're beautiful, aren't they? I'm a big fan of very sculptural plants.
They're amazing. Was that at the allotment? I never saw it if so.
that flower is beautiful and those scones look delicious!
I'm glad works going well at the minute, its nice when you earn just reward for your hard work :-)
...now he's getting in MY spam box. Honestly, Danger, get out of there!
No, not the allotment, just someone's garden! :)
AnonyBob - yeah, doesn't happen often enough!
I'd like to!
I'm now having to keep an extra browser window open just to fish you out of spam... this may go in my vows.
"I promise to love you, cherish you, pick you out of the spam folder, from this day forward, as long as we both shall live."
My spam thing's still open as well.
That didn't sound good.
...I might just go to bed early, quit while I'm only slightly behind.
Don't take a wrong turn and get in the wrong bed ;)
If I did, you'd have to come and fish me out of there as well.
you're doing better now!
I would only fish you out with permission.
What's my surpriiiiiiiiiiiiise?
If I told you, it wouldn't be a surpriiiiiiiiiise!
Damn you and your logic.
Wonder if I can bribe Sherlock...
I don't think so. He's pretty well pre-bribed.
curses. foiled.
Have to see if I can get it out of you, then....bed? ;)
Excellent plan.
I am VERY impressed by Sherlock turning out a tray of scones like that! I certainly wasn't up to that at his age--or for quite a while after, either.
That flower puts me strongly in mind if those squeezy plastic balls with soft spike-like extensions all over...I forget what they're called, but they were everywhere for a while. (The flower is prettier, though. :))
You inspired me, Sherlock! I made a batch of the cheese scones, and they are DELICIOUS!
Glad you enjoyed them :). Ours were rather cheesier than the recipe called for... But very nice.
I cycled to work this morning. Decided I needed to do a bit more to keep fit. Or keep fur, as my phone would have it.
Hmmm, yes, with both dogs and degus I don't suppose you need to keep any more fur.
Hope you all have a good day/week.
And...once again, just been caught in the most torrential downpour. Literally couldn't see the other side of the street. The spam Gods hate John. The rain Gods want me to walk around in a wet shirt. I need less obvus nipple jewellery...
From one wet cyclist to another: always travel with an extra pair of socks ;)
Ella
And, it would seem, an extra shirt. :)
Can you keep some spares in the office? I used to do that when I taught preschool.
I know I'm a bit late, but do you want me to bring you something dry?
I had dry stuff at the office. I just didn't expect to need it! Glorious sun...pouring rain, now glorious sun again!
Don't worry, folks, as someone experienced at being puked, bled and spat on, i do have spare clothes at the office. Until i use them...and then require memory to bring in more.
How's the allotment, Danger? Was Mycroft right, and everything is battered by the torrential rain and wind? Have you had to stake lots?
A bit of staking, yes. Sherlock thrusts them into the ground as if staking a vampire, and Mycroft and I tie them up.
Tie up the vampires? With silver threads?
I thought that was werewolves?
I don't know. They don't cover it at Hendon. No supernatural beings section to the exams.
Massive oversight. I'm reading a book with a young constable who starts seeing ghosts. He could've used that kind of training.
Coffee later?
Sooner would be better than later - waiting for an interpreter and then I'll be stuck in interviews for a while. If you guys are about, that is?
Tell Sherlock we can have something with meringue, yes. And he doesn't need to text me twenty times to ask.
Yeah, on our way. :)
I will tell him. And also remove the phone from his custody.
To be fair about three said 'meringue', six said 'PLEASE' and four said 'baked Alaska?' And the rest said 'please I'll help loads' or similar...
John, I love that book! Assuming you're talking about Rivers Of London and sequels
Oooh, yes, Rivers of London. (If that isn't what you are reading John, please share the name of what you ARE)(because my list of things to read isn't quite three pages long yet)
Although I think hubs and I need to put up a big map of London so we can enjoy it better.
To be fair about three said 'meringue', six said 'PLEASE' and four said 'baked Alaska?' And the rest said 'please I'll help loads' or similar...
When it comes to meringues (or baked Alaska), you want every chance of getting a "yes"!
Not that one actually, it's called Midnight Riot.
Same book different title, it's one thing in the UK and the other in the states. Either way it's pretty good!
That's... odd. I did get it used, but still. And I don't know why they'd change the title. Rivers of London is much better.
It must fill of words spelt all wrong though! How will you ever understand it?? ;)
My suspect has coughed, now he's realised that 'not understanding' wont wash with a translator :)
...that was me demonstrating my own firm grasp of English...
It must fill of words spelt all wrong though! How will you ever understand it?? ;)
Believe it or not, while some publishers will just slap on a new cover (and title, and title page and running heads) and publish it as is, many US publishers will make it all American by having a nice editorial assistant do universal find-and-replace on the most common different spellings and then having a copy editor check the rest. (I know because I have done this, in the not-nearly-distant-enough past. :))
That's what I was implying - he's managed to get himself an American book, so everything will be spelt wrong.
Ah. Well, it still depends--as I said, a fair number of US publishers just change the title and leave the rest as is.
(WRONG?!?!?!)
Yep, wrong ;-p
Interestingly, American publishers don't usually Anglicise American books for a UK audience. It's all sidewalks and vests that go over your shirt and pants that go on the outside and blocks and color and guns :-)
I really enjoyed the book, John, and you've reminded me that the most recent in the series has just downloaded to my Kindle. *plans tonight's reading*
Hmmmmm.
Interestingly, American publishers don't usually Anglicise American books for a UK audience.
No, they wouldn't--if I recall what I learned about international copyright law correctly, US publishers can't sell books printed here in the UK, so why would they? It would be the UK publishers that buy the UK rights that don't Anglicize the spellings and vocabulary. (US publishers rarely if ever Americanize British vocabulary, just the spelling.)
Lots of Americans seemed to struggle with their not being 'blocks' in London. When people used to ask for directions when I was on the beat it was very hard to give ideas of distance.
Even Californians? :D
Well, most American cities are built to some plan (largely, although not exclusively, the grid system), rather than having grown up on their own, so that's what city dwellers are used to. (Certainly, most Americans have no real understanding of how new everything in the US is!) I'm a bit surprised that suburbanites also think that way, but I guess they expect a city abroad to be just like the cities they go into when they go into "the city" here.
WE'RE HAVING BAKED ALASKA and it's with chocolate ice cream and raspberry sauce and I bet you all want some
Sherlock, I really, really do! Enjoy it. :) (Did you help lots?)
That sounds delicious Sherlock :-) enjoy it.
That was one of the first things my tour guide told us when we hit London in...er, ages ago, no need to cite the date. Ahem. Anyway, to not expect directions in blocks, but in streets and time. It didn't seem too difficult - in a city like London, it seems the only logical way to do it. The time thing is a bit odd - easier to follow but hard to give to others, as Americans really aren't used to marking their distances that way, but for Londoners I'm sure it's second nature. :)
I'd love some baked alaska, Sherlock.
Directions should of course be by pub (take the next left after the White Lion etc) or at the Macdonalds/Tesco roundabout turn right, or even better "go past where X used to be".
The best direction I was given lately was go straight past Traitors Gate and take the steps on the left.
Ha, yeah, pubs are undoubtedly the best.
Or direction that begin "You know the Harpoon and Fiddle?" "Yes!" "It's nowhere near there." :)
Maz - let's just say "Five minutes down the road" covers every distance from ten yard to about five miles...
I can watch TV for about 15 mins before adverts for payday loans and stuff make me too angry.
Perhaps I should read a book...
I've never understood the idea behind payday loans, how can anyone borrow from next months pay check and not have to borrow again the next month? people who need short term loans are people who are short of money and they pay interest rates that are just below those of loan sharks!!
No need to watch TV for me, just the mention of them is enough to drive me mad ;-)
Good luck finding a book to take your mind off it :-)
Pubs are how I was taught to give directions many years ago. Because they stay the same when all about them changes.
Was a bit tricky at one point because I lived in a "dry" area! This was in Adelaide "city of churches" which could just as well be called "city of pubs". Except where I lived which had been settled by Methodists in the 1890s and the council ordinances forbade drinking establishments to be built there, and still do.
AnonyBob - exactly! It just gives people a legitimate way to dig deeper into debt which is impossible to service.
I'm not very good with books. I don't even really know what I like. I haven't read a book for...years. I read the paper, and articles online, and paperwork, and stuff, but never books. Apart from the very occasional non-fiction.
Books require a certain level of attention span and after the attention you pay to work I can imagine that your brain is not really ready to pay concerted attention to a book at home.
Debt is a funny thing in the world at the minute isn't it? I don't understand how people can live constantly in debt and not be nervous wrecks but so many people do!
If you are in debt and can't get out, you live with it or die. Eventually it's situation normal.
Mind you, no one should wonder why people in that situation spend their money on drink and drugs including tobacco.
Those payday loans are outrageous - the interest rates are just appalling, thousands of per cent. More people sinking into poverty, more people needing food banks, and more of these vultures feeding off their desperation. Disgusting :-(
AnonyBob - it amazes me what people consider 'essential' now, for sure.
Mum used to pawn stuff. I can't say I'm happy about that, either, but at least there was a sort of honesty to it. So you got a few quid and lost your video player...you still weren't, in monetary terms, worse off. Better than borrowing fifty quid this week and owing 70 next.
They should force the payday loan companies to pay for adverts for the free advice and debt repayment services that actually get people out of debt, not further into it.
But nowadays, she'd pay for that video player with a credit card as often as not, often at a predatory interest rate. And then she'd be selling it to pay off the debt that was incurred to acquire it.
Well...yeah, we got a lot of things on the never-never. Credit was around long before credit cards, afterall.
I don't know what people pawn nowadays. Apart from stolen goods.
Being curious I've just looked up a local pawnbroker, who does pay day loans. APR of 820.5% and their website says that "a payday loan is not appropriate if you are in financial difficulty". Why else would you use one?
The big menders are way up in the thousands of percent though, aren't they? Insane. And yes, exactly, why would you use one unless you were desperate??
...lenders, obviously.
I'm going to bed...
I used to work a Moneytree when I was young and desperate for work. I lasted about a month. It was horrible, seeing people come in on their paydays simply to give one check over to pay off the last check, and then taking more money out. It just amazed me, and I wanted to shake some of them and just tell them to go without for a little bit so they could get in the green again.
I'm in debt up to my eyeballs now, but part of that is student loans and having to use the credit card for food and doctor bills. Still, I would rather eat peanut butter sandwiches for a few weeks than go to those payday places. Yuck.
Ah, directions. I remember the first time I went to London I got lost in Paddington. I was standing on Leinster Gardens, trying to work out WHERE THE HELL was Leinster Terrace? Which was meant to be right where I was, but which was clearly signposted Leinster Gardens. A Brazilian tourist tried to help me, but we ended up asking a nice copper, who pointed to the other end of the street, and said, "See where those terrace houses are? That's Leinster Terrace." The same street had two names, depending on which end you were on. While I've seen really long roads do that, I've never seen it on such a short, suburban street. So confusing!
@Rider: Mind you, no one should wonder why people in that situation spend their money on drink and drugs including tobacco. That makes total sense to me as an adult, but I truly couldn't understand as a child why my dad always found money for cigarettes, and switched from cheap red wine to more expensive whisky the less money we had. Also as an adult, I've come to realise that financial sense is not inherent, but learned. I'm glad I'm learning it now, though I wish I'd been taught it as a child.
Yeah, i couldnt get why Mum could always buy cigarettes. Until I was stealing them off her and addicted too.
Even the "legitimate" lenders charge poor people usurious interest rates anymore. Once you're in the hole, it's hard to get out. It took three tries for me to pay off one credit card, because they kept charging me a few pennies interest for the days between when I sent the payment and when it cleared the bank.
That's why I'm very glad i cannow setit up on the internet to pay things! The number of missed deadlines when my shifts ran over and I couldn't get to a bank when I needed to before was ridiculous!
True. And thanks for the reminder. I had a recurring payment finish recently that I needed to reset.
BTW, John, thanks for mentioning "Rivers of London". I got it at lunchtime yesterday (under the American title, alas) and finished it last night. A good read!
L, reading nonfiction definitely counts as reading books. I'm constantly having to point that out to parents who want their kids to read, but don't think of themselves as readers. I've even had some of them say "I don't read much" while they've got a 500 page tome on the work they do in their hands. Fiction isn't the whole world.
Let me know if you work out why it's called Midnight Riot. It's a mystery to me so far.
L, reading nonfiction definitely counts as reading books
Quoted for truth! A good two thirds of my leisure reading is nonfiction, never mind my work-related tomes.
I do think I know what the title references but...spoilers. Not that it makes sense as a title, but that's what I've concluded. And that selection probably had to do with the perceived preference of Americans for violence and mayhem, and the fact that most don't know much more about London than it's big and has those red double decker buses.
I can't for the life of me figure out why someone thought "Midnight Riot" was a better title than "Rivers of London". Maybe they thought someone would mistake it for nonfiction?
I loved it though. I'm a hundred pages into the sequel now, and still having fun.
If you liked the blend of mystery and fantasy, you might like "Thieftaker" by D.B. Jackson, although that throws in historical fiction as well. Set in Boston just before the American Revolution, and thoroughly grounded in the local geography.
Another good blend of mystery and fantasy is the "Alex Varus" books by Benedict Jacka, "Fated", "Cursed", and "Taken".
Set in London with things like a giant spider living in Hyde Park who has a sideline in making bespoke clothes for the wealthy :)
after all, everyone has to make a living somehow!
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