I really enjoyed The Woman on the Cliff crime thriller by Janice Frost. This plot went to some pretty unexpected places, and the flashback timeline was cleverly woven in. Character growth was also on-point. 📚

Cover: The Woman on the Cliff by Joy Ellis.

Thought-provoking! What Do Doctors Owe To The Dead People They Dissect?

If thinking of a dead body as a patient seemed strange at first, I’ve begun to see it as a microcosm of the health care system at large.

Lablabi (Chickpea Soup)

This week’s international breakfast was Lablabi (Chickpea Soup) - Traditional Tunisian Recipe. Even without the caraway it was very delicious. A chunky bread would have been better than the soft white sliced we had. Long prep time, with soaking chickpeas overnight.

A bowl of chickpea soup with poached egg on top.

Darn! We’re making another International Breakfast today and somehow ground caraway fell off the shopping list (it was on the list, but fell out of my brain). We’ll need extra imagination today. Plus, added to the list is mortar and pestle for grinding seeds that were available.

And in today’s Wikipedia search failure…

The page “Lorena Light-Footed Woman” does not exist.

Link to “Lorena, Light-Footed Woman” page.

It failed for a comma? really?

Screenshot of text: The page "Lorena Light-Footed Woman" does not exist. Immediately below that is the page “Lorena, Light-Footed Woman”.

A good watch: the 30 minute documentary Lorena, Light-Footed Woman. Tarahumara woman Lorena runs ultramarathons in her sandals and skirt with T-shirt. Favourite part: she rejects the fancy running shoes she’s sent because those who wear such shoes are always behind her.

Lorena, Light-Footed Woman poster.

It’s a ghastly cover and a sadistic crime, but I enjoyed reading Mother Love (DI Sarah Quinn Mystery Book 2) by Maureen Carter. 📚

Olivia Kent hasn’t been seen for 5 days. Detective Sarah Quinn needs all the help she can get … even muckraking journalist Caroline King.

Mother Love book cover.

Never had so many problems before ordering from the Apple website, but have finally achieved it. I just wish I could use Apple Pay. Out of the 20 or 30 times I’ve tried to use it I think it’s worked exactly once. Airtag 4-pack ordered. Can’t believe tags don’t feature a loop.

I’ve been meaning to clean up the quail run a bit. Today I scraped out some of the poop and old straw etc and added some fresh straw. I need to buy another bale of straw too. Last week I added plastic over the open part of the roof for winter rain protection. 🐦

A wide view of the small quail run. Two quail by the food bowl. Closer view of two quail eating.

As I thought:

As for strapping an AirTag to a pet, Drance says, “If people do that, they just have to make sure that their moving pet gets into range of a device in the Find My network” so its location can be tracked.

Apple’s AirTag tracker respects privacy and foils stalking

I enjoy watching The Rookie. Interestingly, S03E10, Man of Honor, gives us 3 separate storylines of men supporting women in achieving the goal the woman has set out for. Makes me realise how unusual that storyline is.

This 35 minute interview was so interesting: Lisa Genova: The science of memory and the art of forgetting. I liked this bit:

Our brains have a very difficult time remembering proper nouns. People’s names, cities, movie titles, book titles … are very difficult to get to.

Hooray! — Massive health sector overhaul explained — Aotearoa New Zealand population is ~5 million.

Our system is far too complicated … We simply do not need 20 sets of decision makers. Nor do we need 20 plans for capital investment, for IT systems, and for our workforce.

Hanging out at the local Library — Te Takeretanga o Kura-hau-pō — after finishing errands while waiting for groomed dogs to be ready. It’s a great space: free WiFi, comfy chairs, cafe, random person playing the piano (well, too).

The night before grooming. Sasha’s a little unfocused, but Oshi’s looking his cutest. 🐶

SMall black dog, slightly out of focus. Small white dog looking at the camera.

I visited the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in Palmerston North. Amazing photos. Such dedication to the art (hours waiting for the perfect shot) and planning. Here are 2 favourites: Pallas’s cats and a spoon-billed sandpiper. 🐈 🐦

Pallas's cats photo write-up. A litter of Pallas's cats. Spoon-billed sandpiper write-up. Spoon-billed sandpiper and its reflection.

I had the best ever chicken teriyaki at Mr Choi Sushi Bar, 364 Main Street, in Palmerston North. Looked pretty suss but was busy with a variety of diners so I took a chance. So glad I did. Freshly cooked, piping hot, with rice, perhaps seaweed, miso soup. Delicious. 🍱

Mr Choi shop window. Plate of chicken teriyaki, bowls of rice, seaweed and miso.

Excellent and powerful article re TV: Vegas keeps the Māori warrior-gangster trope alive for another generation by Leonie Hayden. Infinite quotable bits. Here’s one:

From that one simple lie to justify a failure, came the notion that all indigenous peoples were warrior races

Yay … 😰 75% chance of major Alpine Fault earthquake in next 50 years

NZ’s Alpine Fault has a 75% chance of causing a major quake … within the next 50 years.

The Alpine Fault runs about 600km up … the South Island… and poses one of the biggest natural threats to New Zealand.

Map of New Zealand’s South Island showing where the fault lies.

Note for future me, and others in a similar situation: after extensive troubleshooting for why pressing Play on an TV+ episode just led to a beachball and no video — I had to use Vodafone DNS servers not Unlocator — to match the geographical location of the TV+ user.