... the IT man in LibraryLand
After a delayed flight from Melbourne and a sprint to catch my international connection at Sydney airport I did finally make it safe and sound. Of course all did not go so smoothly on the flights. The delays were caused by thunder storms which were also the cause of turbulence all across the Australian part of the trip and caused the disaster of one of the free meals being skipped! I also had to wander Frankfurt Airport for a while in order to find my final connecting flight (which actually had jet engines this time). The good news was that I was bumped up into business class for that flight and received breakfast instead of just a cookie.
Flying into Svetlanaland international Airport I noticed that there was this strange white stuff on the ground. After fruitlessly waiting for my bag which had apparently been unable to make the sprint for the flight at Sydney I headed out through customs to the patiently waiting Svetlana.
After reacquainting myself with Svetlana for several minutes she informed me that, yes, there was snow, and, yes, she was wrong and there would actually be snow before late January this year.
We headed straight from the airport to the traditional welcome lunch with the parents, where I think I passed the grandma test as I wasn't given the evil eye.
Several free lunches, dinners, and breakfasts later it was suddenly Christmas eve and it snowed. Not just any old snow, mind you, but real movie/TV snow. Fat flakes floating gently down and covering everything in a blanket of white.
I had the fun of cleaning the car - removing great powdery heaps of snow from the roof - before Svetlana and I headed off to a friends for the traditional Christmas Eve drinking of home made wine from Korchula until midnight.
After a morning sleep in Christmas lunch was a relaxed affair at the parents place out of town. Grandma had definitely accepted me and was repeatedly trying to make me put on another layer to make sure I stayed warm enough. I was stuffed full of food and brandy and then went sledding with Svetlana's two young nieces. The countryside was a magnificent pure snowscape and the experience was breathtaking - especially after all that food.
Since then I've mostly been indoors with the occasional foray out for coffee or drinks. The snow has begun to turn to mush and our plans are now being solidified for exploration across Europe.
Oh, Svetlana has just returned from drinks with friends and I have to go now, I'll write further when they let me out again, bye.
... The Last They Ever Saw of Freeloading Phill
I'm flying out on my trip to Svetlanaland today.
This makes for the perfect opportunity to make use in my heading of the literary device that is used quite often to foreshadow a final parting.
In my reading experience it is used most often by Mr King when one party his heading off into certain doom and I am quite fond of the little device (picture me patting it on the head with fondness) - though I am no longer shocked by the usual twist of it being the party left behind that suffers the terrible fate. Still, you all better still be here when I return...
Special Bonus Posting - The Advance Copy
Arriving just before I return to the East is the advance copy of the first chapters of my new book. I think you'll all agree that it looks just spiffing.
I'm hoping that the rest of the chapters can be done in the new year although it may need to be revised with my current trip taken into account.
Anyhow, have a read of the sample chapters and decide for yourself.
This makes for the perfect opportunity to make use in my heading of the literary device that is used quite often to foreshadow a final parting.
In my reading experience it is used most often by Mr King when one party his heading off into certain doom and I am quite fond of the little device (picture me patting it on the head with fondness) - though I am no longer shocked by the usual twist of it being the party left behind that suffers the terrible fate. Still, you all better still be here when I return...
Special Bonus Posting - The Advance Copy
Arriving just before I return to the East is the advance copy of the first chapters of my new book. I think you'll all agree that it looks just spiffing.
I'm hoping that the rest of the chapters can be done in the new year although it may need to be revised with my current trip taken into account.
Anyhow, have a read of the sample chapters and decide for yourself.
... The Pressure to Blog
Well my loyal readers I have to say that I am now feeling some pressure to continue the tales with the high standard they have been maintained at for so long.
This whole process is a voracious content monster. No sooner have I relaxed after making a post than suddenly it's a few days later and the monster wants feeding again.
And now I fear that Supervisor Grand Chief K may have enabled a whole lot of people into expecting amazing mind-blowing revelations about about anything they may have experienced by my side.
Take last Friday's Work Social Club Xmas party for instance. It contained the usual amount of over-consumption (not from yours truly though I sensibly stuck to my four glass limit... or maybe five); bad dancing, loud boisterous conversation; outrageous costuming by Beeby; enforced "on-call means on-beck-&-call" chauffeuring of SGCK and friends from one tacky venue to another (who builds a replica train carriage inside their bar anyway? (ooh and I do mean tacky - at one stage Sergeant PoodlenaThePoodle needed help peeling his shoes off of the floor at Transport bar so that we could leave at closing time)) until I could escape home for some much needed rest; but really nothing spectacular or blog-worthy happened so what am I to write about??
I suppose I could put in something about Legion4 moving in to begin his house-and-Tiger-sitting stint on Saturday, or about Sundays Last gaming for 100 miles session, or possibly even about the wonderful timing my new blinds have by being ready for pickup tomorrow but there's really nary a chuckle or a cautionary tale in those events, is there?
This whole process is a voracious content monster. No sooner have I relaxed after making a post than suddenly it's a few days later and the monster wants feeding again.
And now I fear that Supervisor Grand Chief K may have enabled a whole lot of people into expecting amazing mind-blowing revelations about about anything they may have experienced by my side.
Take last Friday's Work Social Club Xmas party for instance. It contained the usual amount of over-consumption (not from yours truly though I sensibly stuck to my four glass limit... or maybe five); bad dancing, loud boisterous conversation; outrageous costuming by Beeby; enforced "on-call means on-beck-&-call" chauffeuring of SGCK and friends from one tacky venue to another (who builds a replica train carriage inside their bar anyway? (ooh and I do mean tacky - at one stage Sergeant PoodlenaThePoodle needed help peeling his shoes off of the floor at Transport bar so that we could leave at closing time)) until I could escape home for some much needed rest; but really nothing spectacular or blog-worthy happened so what am I to write about??
I suppose I could put in something about Legion4 moving in to begin his house-and-Tiger-sitting stint on Saturday, or about Sundays Last gaming for 100 miles session, or possibly even about the wonderful timing my new blinds have by being ready for pickup tomorrow but there's really nary a chuckle or a cautionary tale in those events, is there?
... The Devoured Earth by Sean Williams
I finished the final book of the books of the Cataclysm today during my late lunch.
It was a fitting finale to the series and definitely puts it as the series of the year (although with only Fantasy-Family-Saga to compete with its not a huge field).
It may have been a little easy for the characters to defeat the realm consuming being in the end but otherwise it was quite a satisfactory ending to the series.
It was a fitting finale to the series and definitely puts it as the series of the year (although with only Fantasy-Family-Saga to compete with its not a huge field).
It may have been a little easy for the characters to defeat the realm consuming being in the end but otherwise it was quite a satisfactory ending to the series.
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