New Year, Same Old Tales

So, you would think that being on holidays would provide plenty of time for crafting The Tales. However a plethora of emphatically good reasons that this is not, in fact, so can be provided - amongst them are home improvements and heat waves.

You might also then think that a return to work would herald forth a return to regular postings.

Alas it appears that neither situation has any bearing on one’s ability to find time for crafting Tales to the high standards expected by one's discerning audience.

Therefore it appears that in order to steer this great ship back onto the rails and fly high once more I shall have to scrap any grand plans for holiday updates and look only forwards.


As compensation, in the spirit of the Internet done right, here is a pictorial depiction of what happens when a chronically under-brushed The Tiger meets an impending heat wave.






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New Year, Old Books

Well after a rather uneventful Xmas and New Years - no family hijinks and even Hulk awakened by fireworks turned into a rather sweet and delightful session of watching bang-bang-pop-pops from the upstairs window - it behoves one to begin the new year with a roundup of one's recent (i.e. past 6 months) reading.

We kick off with the first of several corpulent volumes:

Under the Dome by Stephen King
Observant readers will have noted that one has a soft spot for Mr King's oeuvre - particularly the Dark Tower series.
This one has naught to do with any other of his books and was read as a sort of experiment alongside watching the eponymous television series, with an interest to how much and how soon they would drift apart from each other.
A bit and quite soon was the answer as a major character from the TV series is removed from the story at the bottom of about page 3 if I recall correctly.
All in all a good King story with no great surprises and earning 3 and a half stars.


To Die in Italbar (and A Dark Travelling) by Roger Zelazny
One decided to tackle a much slimmer volume next and chose this duel title from the teetering pile of ex-library books in the study.
It dates from the early 70's but only dates a little. The title story concerns a galactic Typhoid Mary character and various factions tracking him, interesting even if more science fantasy than sci-fi.
The second story is more of a teen multi dimensional tale with nothing great or terrible about it.
Three and a half stars overall.


Liberator by Richard Harland
This one is a sequel to Richard's teen book Worldshaker. It was an enjoyable romp through the steampunk setting and seeing what happened to the characters. Not quite up to the first book but a solid three and a half stars anyway.


A Storm of Swords: 1 Steel & Snow, and 2 Blood and Gold by George R R Martin
These two are the split in half book 3 of the Song of Ice and Fire aka Game of Thrones series.
As for Under the Dome one was attempting to read alongside the televisual series, however the weighty tomes took much longer to consume than Salsa Girl's voracious appetite for just one more episode would allow.
Together, and individually, I found them to be a four star reading experience and not just to end my run of three and a half ratings - they do add a lot more depth to the world and character motivations from the TV series.


The Intruders by Michael Marshall
This one is from an old favourite author whom one has let slip from my regular reading and, with Nurse Janet's encouragement, decided to catch up a tad on when it crossed the returns desk one day.
A solid four star read as I slipped back into his comfortable prose and the rather uncomfortable and unsettling worldview of his contemporary settings.


Among the Missing. Strontium Dog: The Alpha/Sternhammer Years #1 by Matthew Smith
An ebook novella release featuring one's equal favourite 2000AD character next to Judge Dredd. So of course it was a nigh-instant sale to me when it was released in December.
Mr Smith captures the classic Strontium Dog "western" feel in a story that doesn't outstay it's welcome. Back to three and a half star ratings.


Judge Dredd. Year One: City Fathers by Matthew Smith
Also an ebook novella release this time featuring one's equal favourite 2000AD character next to Johnny Alpha the Strontium Dog. It also was a nigh-instant sale to me when it was released in December - luckily Salsa Girl is none the wiser of my dropping a few dollars here and there on these..
Mr Smith does reasonably well at a Dredd story although the setting at the start of Dredd's career is missing any trace of the gonzo wacky stuff that was eventually written out of the comic as it settled down. Methinks Badger may be disappointed at the lack of Dredd telling any perps "baby your doing time for this!".
Still it was a reasonable romp and also doesn't outstay it's welcome. Another three and a half star rating (although Goodreads doesn't do half stars so it's a 4 over there).
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A Very Important Party

It seems to me that a very important party is quite the fitting topic as one stumbles into one's 450th post to The Tales.



Several weeks ago Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself made the rather long Southwards journey to partake of the Libraries celebration of Xmas. After some initial trepidation Hulk decided to cut loose on the dance floor with Groovy Spirits and indulge in much important running backwards and forwards.
We partook of some yummy food and headed home at a decent hour and definitely well before the karaoke was begun.


But that was not the very important party.


Last week was the User group Xmas lunch. It was preceded by a meeting but that is not one's focus for the day. There was once again an abundance of food available and I feel that the library was well represented by oneself, Sidekick and Supervisor Grand Chief K as together we made Bayside the clear leader in the consumption stakes.
One also took the opportunity to give Young Jim a telling off for his non-attendance at gaming this past half year. He muttered a promise of 110% attendance in the new year and I let him off easy due to some excellent wine.
In the end a large part of the afternoon was spent in important networking activities until the wine ran out and we ambled on home.


But that was not the very important party.


On the weekend past - or so - Salsa Girl, Hulk and oneself made our way to one's ancestral home for the important event of Freeloading Mum's 70th birthday celebrations. Of course all of Legion was in attendance as well as Handy Dad and many friends of the family.
Unfortunately young Hulk was feeling a little crowd-shy so we had minimal time to circulate, although one did manage to fit in an impromptu speech and several rounds of cake.

The party was, of course followed up in subsequent days with the gifting of Freeloading Mum's asked for electronic device and the resultant tech support from yours truly to get said device into a workable state.

All in all this time of year does seem to through up many a laudable reason for having a very important party.
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A Zoological Expedition

This weekend past Salsa Girl and I decided to provide Hulk with her first experience of the Zoological Gardens.

So we loaded ourselves up for the excursion - ironically sans excursion bag - and trekked out for the Google determined 17 minute trip.

35 minutes later we had arrived and made our way in for an afternoon of viewing exotic animals the like of which Hulk had never before seen. The two biggest and most exciting moments were seeing the seagulls gathered around the food stall, and seeing the ducks on the elephant pond.

We were joined by the Double Jays and progeny for the last part of our visit before it was time to transport a tired and overstimulated Hulk homewards.



Speaking of zoos, the weekend was rounded out with a Gaming Sunday and a houseful of gamers.
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