Capitalism working flawlessly to separate people from their money. 😵💫
I was a bit iffy about the first Sister Joan book, but when the chance came to buy 9 books for less than $2 I decided to risk more in the series, and I didn't regret it. The series grew on me and I'll read more yet. The Sister Joan Mysteries Books 1–9: Nine utterly gripping crime mysteries by Veronica Black. 📚
One captivating box set, steeped in the atmosphere of the wild and windswept Cornish coast …
Meet Sister Joan, a rebel nun who solves baffling crimes.
At 3.30 a.m. Deb and I decided to have a cup of tea after being woken by wind gusting to 55 Kph (35 mph). The forecast is for moderate gales up to about 60 Kph by mid-afternoon. Presumably the gusts will be stronger. 🌬️
Red One was a lightweight and fairly funny movie, with great creativity:
On Christmas Eve, a black ops team breaks into the North Pole complex and kidnaps Santa.
Magnificent reindeer, polar bear and other critters. Some very clever magical tricks.
Christmas lunch was perfect: an appetiser of two bacon, pesto and haloumi bites, followed by roast duck legs with plum and Orzo Salad.
Simple, easy and delicious.
And washed down with a cold Bundaberg Blood Orange drink.
Who knows whether they're coming or going? NZ Dotterels on the move. 🐦
When I checked the swallow nest above the zendo door all the little warm bodies were gone, but this tiny egg was alone in the nest. 🐦
A jolly good read — Star Nomad: Fallen Empire, Book 1 by Lindsay Buroker. 📚
Steal a dilapidated and malfunctioning freighter from a junkyard full of lawless savages. Slightly suicidal, but she believes she can do it. Her plan, however, does not account for the elite cyborg soldier squatting in the freighter, intending to use it for his own purposes.
I see more from this series in my future.
Baby swallow photo, with added baby swallow. 😆 🐦
Good local news:
The Horowhenua Star will be published by ID media, which already publishes community newspaper Otaki Today.
The news comes just days after the final issue of the 134-year-old Horowhenua Chronicle, which was closed by parent company NZME. …
‘A local newspaper is one of the cornerstones of a community. It’s not just about news – it’s about connection, engagement, and a sense of pride in where we live.
Uh oh. This is a road we may be using a fair bit after we move north — :
SH1 Whangārei to Marsden Point - Northland: NZTA said that from 2011 to 2021, 22 people had lost their lives and 73 people had been seriously injured on that stretch of highway. Mostly they were either head-on crashes or caused by people turning onto or off the highway, it said. The road is one of the government's Roads of National Significance with plans to make 22km of SH1 south of Whangārei four lanes, including upgrading the SH1/SH15 intersection.
Via What are some of New Zealand's most dangerous stretches of road? | RNZ News.
The system I use to track my reading
Hollie wrote about wanting to keep track of reading. I almost exclusively read books I've bought from Kindle, but find the Kindle device worse than useless for organising and tracking.
I created a list in OmniOutliner on my Mac that tracks title, author, purchase date, cost, URL of all books, Kindle or not. When I finish a book I write a very brief blog post that I copy to my OO list and I check the book as Read.
Then I look at my list to see what I want to read next.
Sometimes I search my OO list when a book's offered at a special price to see if I already have it, have read others by the same author and liked them, or have abandoned or hated books by that author.
This system works very well for me.
For some reason I don't so often post photos of the Australian coots on the wee lake down the road. Rectifying … 🐦
OK, compose the picture of the baby swallow on the zendo roof, carefully and slowly depress the shutt…
Gone! 🐦
At brunch at Floriditas in Wellington yesterday I was looking out on this electronic billboard and space mural.
It's rare to see BBEdit discounted, but WinterFest 2024 is offering a coupon:
BBEdit is the leading professional-strength text and code editor for the Mac. Crafted to serve the needs of writers, web authors, software developers, and everyone else who deals with text
BBEdit is my text workhorse.
Today we visited Wellington for brunch at Floriditas, where I ate Brioche french toast, Lewis Farms strawberries, strawberry caramel syrup & chantilly, first with a hot chocolate and then with a green tea.
It was fun to join half a dozen others in our now 30+ year Brunch Group.
It's baby rabbit season.
Working on a friend's tiny plain HTML and CSS web page. Grr, doesn't work … still not working … still not working.
Brain wakes up: try editing the correct file. 😵💫
Well! Would you look at that! 😁
I wanted to watch something light and fluffy. The Grinch did not disappoint.
I liked all of it, but especially the animals, Max the dog, Fred the reindeer, the reindeer family and also the goat.
It was a fun watch. 🎥
