I'm behind the times as always - but here's Imelda May

I'm hopeless when it comes to keeping up with what's current in music.  I did start listening to the radio a bit more during last year so at least I'm a bit more up to date these days.  On the other hand, German radio plays an awful lot of (my beloved) 80s hits as well as an awful lot of horrible summer DJ type music so I cannot claim to have been exposed to an awful lot of good music.  I caught a glimpse of Gangnam Style on one of those review of the year programs last night.  Even though I've seen take-offs of it a few times, that was the first time I'd actually seen what those were based on.  I don't really get it but am fairly used to that feeling.  As someone who loves the llama song, I can't really claim to necessarily know what's good or not, I suppose.

How and ever, I just came across an interview for Irish television's new year celebrations with a singer called Imelda May.  I've never heard of her before but she seems like a lovely down to earth woman and, having found a few things on youtube, I'm liking her stuff so far.  Here's a clip of her singing on the Graham Norton show, followed by a short interview, in which she talks about the honour of having her photo placed on the wall of the martial arts studio above her local chipper next to Bruce Lee, Elvis and Jesus.

2012 - The Year in Books

For the third time, I am posting no big list of what the year brought me or what I plan for 2013.  Instead, you get just the year in books (here's 2010 and 2011's lists).  This year again I tried to remember to write down each book on a list whenever I finished it, or at least every three or four.  I haven't added the numerous gardening books, cook books, preserving books, simple living and general craft books that I dip into regularly throughout the year.

If you fancy posting something about your reading in 2012, hop on over to clickclackgorilla and join he book lovers' blog hop.  Simply add a link to your post at the bottom of this post and include a link back to that post from yours.  Sounds confusing but it's easy really.  I promise.  Thanks again to Nikki for the inspiration to keep a list of books during the year, not to mention for running a round-up for everyone to join in.  I do find it really interesting to see what others are reading but more than that, I have to admit that I find it really interesting to look back over what I've read.  I sometimes find myself wanting to re-read a book that, if I look at my list, I've just read recently.  And sometimes I look at some of the books on the list and it seems like years ago that I read them.

I'll follow this post in a day or two with a summary of totals for the different categories and plans for next year's reading. I failed totally in my intentions to actually post a bit more about the books I've been reading this year - will have to work on that next year I think.  Having a laptop at home again should help on that score though.

(BC) = Book club books
(RR) = something I've re-read - there are some books, such as by Georgette Heyer, that I invariably read every year when the escapism of new fiction isn't enough and I want to escape into familiar stories that always make me laugh or cry.

1. Jeder stirbt für sich allein - Hans Fallada (BC)
2. god is not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens
3. The Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry
4. More Than You Can Say - Paul Torday
5. The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
6. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. Personal Demon - Kelley Armstrong
9. Lark Rise - Flora Thornton
10. Living with the dead - Kelley Armstrong
11. Over to Candleford - Flora Thornton
12. Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde
13. Candleford Green - Flora Thornton
14. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer (RR)
15. Funny Boy - Shyam Selvadurai (BC)
16. A Civil Contract - Georgette Heyer (RR)
17. Charity Girl - Georgette Heyer (RR)
18. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
19. Sprig Muslin - Georgette Heyer (RR)
20. Arabella - Georgette Heyer (RR)
21. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer (RR)
22. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows - J.K. Rowling (RR)
23. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
24. April Lady - Georgette Heyer (RR)
25. The Unknown Ajax - Georgette Heyer (RR)
26. Paradise News - David Lodge (BC)
27. Heidi - Die Lehr- und Wanderjahre - Johanna Spyri
28. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
29. A Monk Swimming - Malachy McCourt
30. Emma - Jane Austen
31. Men of the Otherworld - Kelley Armstrong
32. Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong
33. Second Coming - John Given
34. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - Deborah Moggach
35. A Dance with Dragons 1: Dreams and Dust - George R. R. Martin
36. A Dance with Dragons 2: After the Feast - George R. R. Martin
37. The Summoning - Kelley Armstrong
38. The Awakening - Kelley Armstrong
39. The Reckoning - Kelley Armstrong
40. Half-Blood Blues - Esi Edugyan
41. This Champagne Mojito is the Last Thing I Own - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
42. Mr S. and the Secrets of Andorra's Box - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
43. The Oh My God Delusion - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
44. NAMA Mia! - Ross O'Carroll Kelly as told to Paul Howard
45. The Pope's Children: Ireland's New Elite - David McWilliams
46. Follow the Money - David McWilliams
47. The Speckled People - Hugo Hamilton
48. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
49. A Long Way from Penny Apples - Bill Cullen
50. The Emperor Wears No Clothes - Jack Herer (RR)
51. Do you come here often? - Alexandra Potter
52. Heat - Georg Monbiot
53. E-Mail an Alle - Matt Beaumont
54. Knight in Shining Armour - JoAnn Ross (RR)
55. Germany and the Germans - John Ardagh 
56. First Among Sequels - Jasper Fforde
57. One of our Thursdays in missing - Jasper Fforde
58. Merde Actually - Stephen Clarke
59. Children of Men - P. D. James
60. Xenophobe's Guide to the Aussies - Ken Hunt
61. Down Under - Bill Bryson
62. Hope and Glory - Stuart Maconie (BC)
63. Room - Emma Donoghoe
64. Ein Mann für jede Tonart - Hera Lind
65. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
66. Making History - Stephen Fry (RR)
67. Lobsters scream when you boil them and 100 other myths about food and cooking...plus 25 recipes to get it right every time - Bruce Weinstein + Mark Scarbrough
68. Great Irish Love Stories - Una Morrissy
69. These Old Shades - Georgette Heyer (RR)
70. The Masqueraders - Georgette Heyer (RR)
71. The Edible Woman - Margaret Atwood
72. Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
73. Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer (RR)
74. Curly Girl - Lorraine Massey with Deborah Chiel
75. Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters
76. Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
77. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
78. Waking the Witch - Kelley Armstrong
79. Two Sisters - Gore Vidal
80. The Kin - Suth's Story - Peter Dickinson
81. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer (RR)
82. Dime Store Magic - Kelley Armstrong (RR)
83. Industrial Magic - Kelley Armstrong (RR)
84. The City and the Pillar - Gore Vidal (BC)
85. Irisches Tagebuch - Heinrich Boell
86. Tales of the Otherworld - Kelley Armstrong
87. Spellbound - Kelley Armstrong
88. Thirteen - Kelley Armstrong
89. The Protector's War - S. M. Stirling
90. Jewel Garden - Sarah and Monty Don
91. The Sunrise Lands - S. M. Stirling
92. A Meeting at Corvallis - S. M. Stirling
93. Off the Grid without a Paddle - Lynne Farr
94. The Scourge of God - S. M. Stirling
95. Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check - Susan Gregersen
96. A Modest Proposal - Dr. Jonathan Swift
97. Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood (BC)
98. Friday's Child - Georgette Heyer (RR)
99. 7 Myths about Aquaponics - Michelle Booth
100. Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer
101. The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer
102. An Only Child - Frank O'Connor
103. My Father's Son - Frank O'Connor
104. Venetia - Georgette Heyer (RR)
105. Cotillion - Georgette Heyer (RR)
106. The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer
107. Cousin Kate - Georgette Heyer (RR)
108. Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods - Gary Paul Nabhan
109. The Sword of the Lady - S. M. Stirling
110. The High King of Montival - S. M. Stirling
111. The Tears of the Sun - S. M. Stirling
112. Dead Aid - Why aid is not working and how there is another way for Africa - Dambisa Moyo
113. English As We Speak It in Ireland - P. W. Joyce (okay, I'm only halfway through this but I may finish it this evening so I'm going to go ahead and include it but leave out the other three or four books I've started but not yet finished this year :) )

A few random things

For no particular reason I was thinking of this X Factor audition recently and have just re-watched it (again).  Brings tears to my eyes every time as well as a huge grin.  Jonathan has such an incredible voice and I can't wait to get my hands on their album (I just googled it and there is one, called Together). 

Christmas in the middle of summer is kind of wrecking my head.  Hearing ads on telly for getting great christmas deals to start your summer off with a bang is rather disconcerting.  As is seeing things like this (taken at Darling Harbour on Saturday):

And this (ditto):

Of course, after a couple of weeks of regular 40 degree sunny weather before I arrived, Sydney seems to have decided to be a bit Irish in terms of the weather now.  This is what Manly Beach looks like at the moment:

 And the Opera House was somewhat overshadowed by those clouds. 

Everywhere I've been is, understandably enough, fairly touristy but still I've been in one or two nice shops, including braintree hemp, which was selling real soap, something that isn't as easy to find as one might think.  Now to find a lovely piece of aboriginal art to take home with me that won't break the bank.

I slept the night through last night for the second time since getting here, although I didn't actually get to sleep until about 2 o'clock.  Jet lag is kind of kicking my ass but that might also partly be just trying to relax after an extremely busy few months.  Hooray for long holidays!

Holidays - at last

In the way that these things often happen, the day of departure for my visit to Australia seemed to be impossibly far away and yet has arrived far more quickly than seemed possible.  I think I've barely even mentioned it here.

Regardless, tomorrow I head for Frankfurt, a German book club meeting (still haven't read the book, oops) and then some Glühwein at the Weihnachtsmarkt.  And it's gotten cold enough over the last couple of days that drinking mulled wine will be even more of a pleasure - the year we had to take our jackets off because we got too warm while drinking it just wasn't the same.

Then on Sunday morning it's off to the airport for a flight to Kuala Lumpur, where I'll spend nearly two days before heading on to arrive in Sydney on my birthday.  My sister and her hubby will pick me up from the airport and after dinner that evening I suspect the next item on the itinerary will be sleep for at least three days.  At some stage I'll head up to Brisbane for a day or two.  My sister has a few days off before christmas and we're going to stay in the Blue Mountains for a couple of days as well as a night in a place called Jervis Bay, which she has wanted to go to for a while.  BiL is going to do a full traditional Irish christmas dinner, complete with turkey, ham, mashed and roast potatoes and all the other trimmings.  Sounds lovely.  Except that it's 40 degrees in Sydney at the moment.  Still, eating is the easy part, at least I don't have to cook all that. When I come back at the end of the month, I'm going to stay in my friend's place in Frankfurt for a few days and then I'll come back home.  All in all, I have FIVE weeks holidays and I cannot wait.  Just a few more hours of work (with twice as much to do as it should be possible to get through in those hours, naturally) and I can go home and start packing.

We got paid yesterday, including our bonus for this year (the last one - they're doing away with it next year). I didn't really manage to get my finances back under control quickly after the events of last April and May, so I've used my bonus to clear the credit card which I had used to book my flight and have paid a chunk off my old credit card and overdraft balances, too.  Debt balance is still five thousand, which is about where I was this time last year, if I recall correctly.  But my trip to Australia is paid for now and I have cash saved to spend while there (about what my sister recommended, which is three times what I would have thought necessary).  Sensibly speaking, I should have postponed it for another year but for one reason and another (not least that the bank holidays around the end of the year mean less holiday days used up to take a long time off work) I decided to go ahead with it and I am really glad.  I really need a break, I think it'll mean a lot to my sister that someone from her family is finally going to visit her and it's a once in a lifetime trip that should be lots of fun.  I don't much like the heat but I do think a few weeks of sunshine in the middle of winter is going to do me a lot of good as well.  Maybe I'll even start to get my vitamin D deficiency under control. And my sister's going to lend me her camera when I'm there so you might even get to see a decent photo or two.  Hooray for holidays!

Do you kindle?

I got myself a kindle recently and was interested to see how I really liked it.  I had tried out a couple of friends' first to at least make sure I didn't hate it.  There were a couple of reasons that I decided to buy one.

• I don't have a whole lot of space to keep many more books.   I have gotten better at not holding on to books I'm not very likely to read multiple times but even so, space is limited.  And there's always the environmental aspect of all that paper, too.
• I don't like reading hardbacks but they're always what comes out first.  I don't always mind waiting for a paperback to come out but that can mean up to a year.  With the kindle, if it's a book I really, really want, I can read it when it first comes out without having to get the hardback version.
• I hate writing on a book but now that I'm reading more and more non-fiction, I also have the need to be able to make notes more and more often.  I got the kindle with a keyboard to allow me to do just that.
• Easy to use when travelling.
• And another reason I only recognised after buying it: you can download samples of books, which means reading about the first chapter of a book for free.  So far, this has been useful. 

Now that I've had it for a couple of weeks I've had a chance to see some of the good and the not so good.  On the whole, for the reasons listed above, it was a good purchase.  But I haven't fallen completely in love with it either.

• I haven't bought a cover for it yet and perhaps when I do I'll find it more comfortable to hold while reading.  For the moment, I'm getting used to it - it's good for leaving lying on the table and reading while eating (bad habit for some people but one of my main reading times), however it's not great for reading while lying down (lazy Sunday mornings being one of my other main reading times).  I have a tendency to press on the page forward or back buttons by accident, especially when turning over.
• Kindle editions seem to be generally far worse in terms of formatting and editing in general.  This is possibly related to the final and most important downside to the kindle.  Which is...
• It's just not paper and it's definitely more difficult to lose myself in the pages.  I wonder if the editing and formatting really is worse than paper-based books or if I'm just so used to looking for and seeing errors in documents in work that I see them more quickly on the screen.

 The kindle is great when travelling.  It's great to be able to switch between two or three different books easily.  I love the note-taking facility (once I had figured out how to disable highlights made by everyone else.  That was just as annoying as reading a book that someone had written in).  It will never replace paper books for me but all in all, I'm definitely glad I got it. 

Seventh generation

There is an Iroquois saying about living which basically says to consider each decision in light of the impact it will have on the next seven generations (here's the link to the wiki entry for it).  I was certain that I first read of this idea on Musings from a Stonehead but a quick search of this blog only turned up this post about planting a tree for the long-term.  Wherever I did read about it, it made something of an impact and it seems to me to be a fairly decent guiding light to always have in the back of your head.  It has occasionally even made me think that I should learn how to play chess.

When I was away in July I spent a few days in Bad Herrenalb.  Now that I have finally found the cable for my camera, I wanted to share a photo or two.  This piece (I'm not sure if this is called a sculpture or something else) is in a park in the middle of this small touristy spa town.  It was a grey and rainy morning when I was spotted it and even so I spent quite a bit looking at it and if it had been sunny, I can easily picture having spent a couple of hours sitting on the grass close by, reading and looking up from time to time.  I'm not much of an art connoisseur but every once in a while I'll have a somewhat instinctive, emotional reaction to something, and that is what I felt looking at this.  As I approached it I found myself wondering what it was and thinking it would nearly fit into the "seven generations" idea.  So I wasn't really terribly surprised to find a plaque quoting the Iroquois in front of it. 

I found myself wanting to take multiple pictures from all different angles, although I managed to contain myself.  It was one of those moments I wished for a really good camera and the skills to match!

It's the simple things that make me happy

Like finishing off all of the nice beef in tomato, courgette and onion sauce that I made this week (four meals).  As well as almost all of the salad I bought last weekend (three meals).  Which meant not needing to buy lunch every day. 

Like posting off my sister's birthday present.  It probably won't get to her on time for her actual birthday but at least I've sent it before the day, which is a huge improvement on the last few years. 

Like doing the washing-up that I had ignored last night this morning before work. Starting the weekend without a sink full of dishes waiting to be taken care of feels good.

Like doing all of the above and not feeling like any of it was a big deal. 

Anyone else care to share the simple things making them happy at the moment?