Dinner plans

Conversation between Adam and I late this afternoon.

Adam: "Can we have chinese for dinner? I don't want what you're cooking tonight."

Me (slightly taken aback but happy to not cook): "Um, yes, we can have chinese."

Adam: "....what are you cooking tonight?"

We went out and had Peking Duck. I'll forgive him the faux pas :)

It doesn't take much to make me happy

Caitlin has not had a particularly easy learning to read experience. Although she does love to have books read to her and will happily browse through non-novel type books of various types I've rarely seen her settle down with one and read for a significant length of time and she has read very few chapter books.

This afternoon Caitlin came out of class clutching a book and began enthusiastically telling me all about it. The book in question was The Magic Faraway Tree. I asked where she'd got it as it didn't look like a library book, turns out it's one of the many books I've bought over the years hoping to tempt her to try something that wasn't either Disney or the god-awful Rainbow Magic series, she'd found it in her room and decided to give it a go.

Once we got home she and Tom disappeared downstairs and a disquieting silence fell. I would normally be driven to investigate such a suspicious circumstance but I'm still feeling a little worn out so I decided to risk leaving them undisturbed. They've just come upstairs and it turns out that the nefarious activity they were engaged in was reading the book together, they took turns reading aloud to one another (yes, Tom's reading is as good as if not better than his 3 years older than him sister - he'll quite happily spend hours on the lounge with a pile of books).

I gotta tell you, when I heard Caitlin being full of excitement for a book which I remember loving at about her age I felt like doing the dance of joy. Hallelujah! I'll turn her into a reader yet!

Now I have to get them to do their homework. I can't help but feel the reading was time much better spent.

Huscarls hillside camp

We went camping with the Huscarls on the weekend and to be perfectly honest I didn't have much fun. I don't mind roughing it a bit but I object very strongly to not having any flat ground to sleep on - sliding feet first off my bed multiple times through the night does not make me happy. There were other problems too but I don't really feel like going into them here. Suffice to say I've had better weekends.

Which isn't to say there was nothing good about the weekend. The kids certainly had fun. The weather was good. Clara had fun (I'd have been happier if she hadn't been growling at wallabies in the wee small hours of the morning, but hey, I was awake anyway on account of the whole sliding off the bed thing). There was interesting food that was new to me and I'm all for exploring the new. The guys had bought a whole goat which they roasted on a spit over the open fire. It was basted with a honey marinade and stuffed with grapes, bread and I believe barley. It was pretty good as was the veggie stew accompanying it. Leftover goat was added to the stew and served up for breakfast the next morning and that was seriously yum. Adam cooked porridge in one of the smaller cauldrons. Lunch on Sunday was rabbit cooked in buttermilk. Plus, I wasn't in charge of the cooking and that's always a good thing. I actually felt quite guilty at how little I did to help, I'd have done more on the Sunday but by then I was feeling somewhat worse for wear (I had a thumping headache and felt nauseous which in hindsight may have been due to smoke inhalation).

So yeah, I have mixed feelings about the whole experience.

Here have some photos.

Goat on a spit.



Tom, Clara and geteld on a hill.



Waxing Adam's drinking horn to seal it.



Watching the goat cook.



Adam sitting outside our tent (a Viking a-frame).



Viking a-frame tent with shield.



Still watching the goat cook (it took 7 hours). I've stolen Adam's seat.



Rabbit being prepared for Sunday lunch.

Menu plan 18 Aug 08

Damn I'm exhausted.

There's no way I can face both grocery shopping with the kids AND cooking tonight so home delivered pizza it is. I'll drag myself up to the shops once the kids are in bed.

Last week's plan worked out pretty well. We swapped Wednesday with Friday and Caitlin had her instant noodles when we were eating roast goat on a spit on Saturday night.

Monday
Pizza
Fruit & yoghurt
Tuesday
Honey lamb casserole, rice and broccoli
Ice cream & fruit
Wednesday
BBQ seafood kebabs (garlic prawns, tuna, scallops), rice and stir fry veg
Crepes - didn't manage this last week, shall try again
Thursday
Sausages, mashed potato & steamed veg
Ice cream & fruit
Friday
Crockpot coconut beef, rice and steamed veg - time to try something new in the crockpot
Bread & butter pudding
Saturday
Di & Bren's engagement party - My mum is looking after the kids, I think I'll do a left-overs raid for them.
Sunday
Shepherds pie
Fresh fruit

On the re-reading of series

I've just been reading a post, and the subsequent comments, over at Tor.com titled Re-reading Long Series. There's something very satisfying about seeing a whole bunch of people talking with enthusiasm about re-reading the same series of books that I too love re-reading. There were a number of series I haven't read mentioned as well, perhaps I should give them a go.

There are a few series that I re-read on a fairly regular basis, I love coming back to the familiar characters and watching the stories unfold with the pleasure of knowing how all the puzzle pieces fit together. It's about appreciating the craftsmanship of the writing, noticing all the little details that are imbued with so much more meaning now that I know where they are leading. Noticing details that I missed the first, second, even third time through (I read fast, the first time through I'm all about finding out what happens next). Revisiting worlds that I love, immersing myself in the series' universe and reveling in the fact that I can stay there for many, many hours as I work my way through anything from 3 to 36* books.

Here's my (probably incomplete) list of series re-reads. Some I'll come back to on a yearly basis, others I revisit when there's a new addition to the series and some I haven't re-read in years but really should dig out and rediscover.

Dorothy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Whimsey
Terry Pratchett - Discworld
Lois McMaster Bujold - The Vorkosigan Saga, The Chalion books and The Sharing Knife
Dorothy Dunnett - The Lymond Chronicles, The House of Niccolo
C. J. Cherryh - Foreigner
Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
Madeleine L'Engle - The Time Quintet
Marion Zimmer Bradley - Darkover
C.S. Lewis - Narnia
Tolkien - Lord Of The Rings
Susan Cooper - Dark is Rising
John Marsden - The Tomorrow series
C. S. Forester - Hornblower
James Herriot's vet books
Spike Milligan's war memoirs
Sharon Kay Penman - The Welsh trilogy: Here De Dragons, Falls the Shadow, and The Reckoning.

I even went and wandered around my bookshelves when compiling this list in an attempt not to forget any of my favourites. What I noticed (aside from the fact that my bookshelves require a "wander" to peruse rather than a "stand in front of") is that there are a fair few series on my shelves that I used to re-read regularly many years ago but which I now have no desire to re-visit. I wonder if I would be recaptured should I venture into those worlds again. Experience suggests not as I also found some series which I have tried in recent times after many years absence only to find my that either my tastes have changed or I'm much less tolerant of less than wonderful writing now that I have rather less time to spend with book in hand.

Are you a re-reader of entire series and if so what are your particular favourites?

*Ok, I haven't actually done the Discworld series from go to woe since it reached such gargantuan proportions.

I hate him

Adam has just got home from having dinner with his brother at the Lord Nelson. It was a gourmet set course meal with beers matched to the food. Let me share with you the menu.

oysters natural
with three fruits
06 deus brut des flanders 11.5% - belgium

steak and kidney ravioli
three sheets pale ale 4.9% - sydney nsw

confit of asian spiced duck
sauteed shitake king browns bok choy
little creatures pale ale 5.2% - freemantle wa
111 pale ale 5.4% - sydney nsw

trentingrana
from trentino alto ita
broadside 200 8.7% - sydney nsw

oven baked flourless chocolate pudding
rich chocolate sauce and mascarpone
six month keg conditioned old admiral 6.1% - sydney nsw
coopers stout 6.3% - adelaide sa

He has now used the phrase "fucking awesome" at least a dozen times in telling me about his evening. I hate him.

Next time I'm going too.

Link-fest No.4

Another random collection of stuff to read.

The August edition of the Down Under Feminists Carnival is up at Audrey and the Bad Apples.

One of the reasons I'm not watching the Olympics (or watching very little anyway): Lauredhel at Hoyden About Town posts on women athletes' uniforms.

The 2008 Hugo Awards results have been announced.

Check out Tor.com, there's short stories, news and a community to join.

There's a new Serenity comic on-line at MySpace Dark Horse Presents.

And finally, who would ever have imagined there were so many possible Zombie Rhymes? lilacsigil contributed one of my favourites:

Who are the rulers of zombie dwarves?

THAAAAAAAAAANES