Friday, April 20, 2012

Booking in

The Kindle is a marvellous, fabulous, sanity (and space) saving invention, and I love mine unreservedly, even if it's now a dinosaur compared to the latest models. I don't mind that mine is bigger and clunkier and isn't a Kindle Touch and doesn't have colour. Colour, for god's sake! Anyway, I don't need colourful pages to be tempted to read - black & white will do me just fine. 


 The trouble with the Kindle, as y'all probably know, is that it's so desperately easy to buy books from Amazon with the "one-click" function... and unless you're downloading the free books, you'll find suddenly that you've spent rather more than you intended - dunno about y'all, but with me, if I don't actually SEE money change hands, I retain the illusion that I haven't spent anything. Until I check my bank account, that is. Buying the cheaper £1-or-less books might seem like a good idea, but believe me, even those add up pretty damn quickly ("Ah, it's just a quid, that's won't break the bank). 


 So, what I do nowadays is check out the daily deals on Amazon and if there are any books that seem interesting (and here I should thank the good reviewers who take the time to post their views), I login to my library account, do a search for the preferred authors and reserve the books. Sure, it costs 35 pence per book to reserve, but that's nothing compared to what I'd have to pay if I actually bought the books. Plus, I don't have to feel annoyed at having to find the space at home to store a physical book that turned out to be a crap read.


So yeah, It's a great way to keep up with the latest stuff and find new authors without wasting good money on authors that you may not like. 


latest reservations are for a couple of books by an author called Priya Basil. She's had some good reviews, all 5-star, so I have high hopes for a book called "Ishq and Mushq".


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In other news, the teenage son of a friend of Pete's has apparently sent out feelers (through his mom, as he was too bashful to make the request himself) to see if Pete would be kind enough to take him and three of his mates to the 6th Form Ball in the Rangerover. It's apparently de rigeur for the teenagers to arrive at the bash in fancy cars, mostly limos, and this kid wanted to make his mark in a slightly different style. 


 Of course Pete was more than willing to help, so no doubt they are going to pull up at the entrance to the posh hotel (where the prom is usually held) in a squeal of tyres, leaving rubber skidmarks on the tarmac - it's the sort of thing that would appeal to my husband, because he likes a bit of mischievous fun... plus he would get to show off his beloved Rangerover Sport Supercharged. 


 I, meanwhile, am considering sourcing a chauffeur's uniform for Pete, complete with cap and livery, if possible. It's the very least I could do for the lads for Prom Night! Right? Yep, thought so.


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Here's something really odd - lately I can't seem to reply to comments on my own blogs! I don't know why that is. I login, I write my reply, do the security code thing to verify that i'm a person, then I get the message that my comments will be published after verification from the blog admin (me). But when I go to the "comments awaiting verification" section, there's nothing there. Nada, zip, zilch. Anybody else encountered this problem? Why is it happening and what do I do about it? And how is it that other people's comments DO appear for verification by me, but not mine? *sigh* Blogger is getting to be more trouble than it's worth. I may yet have to migrate everything to my own domain. Although Pete says he'll host it for me, it's still going to be such a pain. I'm not ready for that sort of thing yet! Bah. 

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Tag - I'm it. Part 2.

11 questions from Lakshmi, who tagged me back.

1. Who is the guy who makes you go ‘what a hunk’ today?
Yesterday, today, tomorrow – Liam Neeson.

2. The last book you read completely?
The most recently read book – The Submission, by Amy Waldman

3. Will Akhilesh Yadav make or break UP?
Who’s he?

4. What comes to mind when I say NZ?
You :) And volcanoes, earthquakes, mud pools, sheep, the TranzAlpine train journey – to name a few.

5. It’s just not done to talk in Tamil in all the happening’ places in Chennai nowdays. Cool or uncool? And why?
I have to say “uncool” because what’s so wrong with speaking your mother-tongue? That said, I’m very aware that I’ll come across as a Grade-A hypocrite because *I* don’t speak/read/write Tamil properly or much, and never have.

6. Would you ever go back to live permanently in India? Why/why not?
Nope, not unless circumstances absolutely forced me to, because a) my husband is English and b) my mother and my siblings are all settled in the States.

7. Do you believe in global warming? It is just part of the Earth’s routine cycle of climate change or is it man made?
Routine cycle of climate change. Unless the scientists are wrong about the reason for previous Ice Ages and hotter times being all-natural causes... in which case, why did THOSE come about? Modern civilisation with its machinery and excessive numbers of cattle didn't exist then to take the blame.

8. If you think it would make a difference to global warming, would you turn vegan?
Perhaps. Very much based on how quickly the difference – good or bad - would come about.

9. What would you spend on a million bucks on, without regretting it?
Travelling to fabulous places, no question.

10. What is your favourite perfume?
Keeps changing. Currently it’s White Diamonds by Emporio Armani.


11. What is the one thing that always makes you happy?
A really good, well-stocked lending library.