Stuff to Report
There is little of note. This is good. Life is fairly quiet right now, and thankfully so. We’re thinking about kitten things, and about what to do with where we live. Complicated thinkings, but good ones. There’s some fun events coming up too – the Furthest From The Sea Festival on Saturday and Interrobang and Gorilla Burger a couple of weeks later.
Last weekend we enjoyed my Dad’s birthday. He’d planned it so that we could empty the lofts and have a vicious sift through things that we kids wanted from our childhoods. I only came home with four boxes of books and toys… We’ve sent a tonne of stuff on to freecycley things and charity shops, including some very battered and worn old Star Wars vehicles.
Once I reopen the boxes I’ll also root through my old school books and reports again. I feel a curious nostalgia for things I really don’t remember at all.
I also came across the fantastic kids’ book about where babies come from that the internet has recently discovered. I was never in any doubt that babies emerged from the flesh of their mothers. Precisely how it all works is still an horrific mystery.
Keeping Limber, Mind and Meat
We’ve had a variable start to the year, which has mostly gone undocumented due to creative fails. I started swimming again at the end of last year and was feeling pretty damn good about it. I missed swimming, having swum for Staffordshire waaaay back when I was a teenager, and hadn’t gone in the water for about 15 years. It took a while to get back up to speed and it was good to be charging through the water again.
In March I burst both my eardrums (possibly due to some infection) and promptly smashed myself and my bike into the new tram line going up into Chilwell. That was a shit weekend. The doc’s immediately told me I couldn’t swim for at least a month, and I had to get my bike fixed.
I only really discovered through abstinence just how much enjoyment and relaxation I was getting from swimming every day. It’s a nice little pool just round the corner from work so if I get there between 8 and 9 I can swim before work! But not for a month. I grew grumpy and frustrated. With the burst eardrums I’ve also now got the possibly permanent joy of tinnitus which adds exciting screaming and whooshing sounds to everyday life. Sometimes it’s so loud I think I can’t hear anything else (although I actually can) and I act as if I’m deaf. It’s weird.
I am however back to swimming now. I was going daily even when on sick leave after Merly died. I do think it pulls you together. It’s a focussed activity with zero distraction, except for slow people. It’s become a good reason to get up and leave the house in the morning, and I can go swimming every day that I’m working from my usual office, so that’s at least 4 days a week.
I’ve been bombing up and down with my beloved compact breast stroke and hadn’t really paid attention to how much I was swimming. I’d been told I was pretty fast and have frightened a few people out of the fast lane. Sure, front crawl’s faster, but it’s really hard to maintain for more than about ten lengths. And that’s when I cruise past… I can’t keep track of counting lengths, but I managed it for long enough to get an average. I reckon I’m doing about three 18m lengths a minute. So when I’m swimming for a whole hour I’m doing nearly 3.25 km! I like the stamina part of not stopping at all. Fun! Brain happy!
Improv
We had a fine Gorilla Burger last week, which I very much enjoyed compering. We had a slick order of play too: started with stories, then a round of two-minute games/scenes followed by two rounds of one-minute scenes and then an interval. The last bit was a series of four person Henrys; all of them were great.
I’m looking forwards to performing on Saturday with Martin (once he’s returned from his American adventures, and gosh, they have been adventurous). No idea what we’re going to do with our ten minute slot, but it’ll be good.
♥Last Week’s Scribbles
Colin Barnfather – Scattering His Ashes – last summer’s family trip to Scotland
This Week, Monday 8th June 2015 – so many television
Film Reviews – Visions of The Future (Fury Road, Tomorrowland, Moomins) – amazing film, average film, weird film
Events and Excitement
Saturday 20th June
Furthest From The Sea Festival
A huge free event with 6 stages around the Cathderal Quarter Derby showcasing live performances and entertainment – music, comedy, dance, theatre and much much more!
This is one my favourite events of the year, and I’m gutted to have been away from the gang for so long. MissImp have a slot on the theatre stage at 2.20 and I’m compering on a stage somewhere…
Handcrafted at the Cathedral Quarter features handmade and designed products from artisans across the Midlands!
Come on down and explore the stalls full of treasure, the workshops full of wonders and the performances of a lifetime! #CQSaturdays #FFTS15
Derby Cathedral Quarter
10am – 4pm
Facebook event with many more details
Tuesday 7th July
Interrobang – Improv Comedy Night
Interrobang is part of the Derby Comedy Festival. The only show of its kind in Derby, brought to you by MissImp & Furthest from the Sea Music, Comedy & Arts, features an improvised comedy jam in which everyone can take part, followed by a showcase of the best improv in the region.
Tickets are £5 preorder and £6 on the Door. Click here to book:http://bit.ly/1FwwgMt
Hosted in the Cube (Cafe/Bar) area of Déda Derby through out the night you will be able to order food and drink.
Box Office Phone: 01332 370 911
Déda Derby – Déda, 19 Chapel Street, Cathedral Quarter, DE1 3GU Derby
0 thoughts on “We Have A Problem With Books”
I’m with you on all counts.
This is an amazing post and one that I feel I could have written, minus the humor, readability, and references to A levels. Interestingly, we also have very similar reading tastes and opinions. While I haven’t read everything that you have, I agree with all you said about those I did read. The only place we diverge is that I live in an apartment and had I not decided long ago to get rid of some books when the sheer volume of them reached a critical mass I would surely be dead, crushed under a huge pile of heavy tomes. Although I do miss certain editions I once had, overall it has worked out pretty well for me.
A couple of notes. The Doctor Who book was likely Planet of the Spiders (a less inspired title I can not imagine) and while you’re right about the later Hitchhiker books, the sequence at Milliways in the 2nd book is my favorite part of the “trilogy.”
And lastly, I also still have my copy of the Hardy Boys Survival manual and once tried to make a survival kit like they describe in the book. However, I much prefer an earlier Hardy Boys spinoff, The Hardy Boys Detective Manual, in hardcover, which came out a few years earlier, and had so many great detecting tips. all sadly useless now in the internet era.
We clearly are the finest of people! I have recently declined the opportunity to take all the books I left at my Dad’s house when I left home. It was difficult, but partly from not having seen them for years I managed to get it down from 400 or so to a mere hundredish. I don’t know where I’m going to put them…
Ah yes, that sounds exactly as terrifying a title as I recall. I seem to remember that the cover of Planet of The Spiders was too horrible for me to even want to touch. You make a good point about Milliways. It’s possible I’m conflating several of the THGGTTG books into one.
Ah! I had no idea they did more manuals. I don’t know where I got the Survival Manual, but I suspect it was a marvellous second hand bookshop in Burton on Trent that had a charming Dachshund named Carl who would bark until stroked.