More Rusby!

Kate Rusby's new Christmas album is out today. I was going to resist the Christmas creep, but who am I kidding? It's excellent. Tomorrow might be a Rusby day on the iPod. With a little Tori mixed in for good measure. It sure is dark enough outside at 3:45, anyway. Small sadness: her closest tour venues to us are Nottingham (sold out) and London (on a night we can't do). Oh well, we had a good run with Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough, and Bury St Edmunds. Hmm...I might have a Rusby addiction.

I stumbled across this post from a transatlantic blogger, In the Left Lane, and laughed out loud.

My only amendments would be to change the first dates to 2006 and to add a few.

UK 2006: Why are all these cars so teeny tiny?
US 2011: How are these cars all so gigantic?! How do you people ever park?

UK 2006: Woah. This gas sure is expensive!
US 2011: HOLY CRAP this petrol is cheap!

John didn't find it as funny as I did...then again it's a fairly narrow subset of humanity who would.

Kindle debate (internal)

I'm confused. I'm reading Victoria Forester's novel, The Girl Who Could Fly (which always makes me think of the Kate Rusby album, The Girl Who Couldn't Fly), and the copyright lines in the front say "First published in the US in 2009."

Fine. But I added it to my book list as a result of a recommendation on Stephenie Meyer's website, and I've checked the dates in my archive and I read Breaking Dawn in early 2009. But when I tried to add it to my Amazon queue, it was listed as "out of print." But it's now here, and seems to be the first printing. WHAT?

Anyway, so far, so good. I'm still stalling on Wolf Hall - I feel like I should read it, but part of the problem is that it's so enormous I can't take it with me to work without using a bigger bag than my super-awesome Etsy messenger bag that my brother gave me (thanks, Ed!). It kind of makes me want a Kindle.

Pros:
-It's small! I can take it on trips to NY, trips to London, train trips, and commuting, without filling my suitcase with books. (Me? Fill a suitcase with books? But I need the one I've almost finished and the one that I'm reading next and the one after that and maybe one more for the plane ride home?)
-It's instant-gratification - when I want to read the next in a series (Twilight, Hunger Games, McCall Smith), I can do it right then.

Cons:
-I love free books. I get them from the library, read them, and give them back.
-I really only ever read one book at a time (except for you, Wolf Hall).
-When I finish a book that I actually own, my first impulse is to share it with someone. Mother-in-law, book-group buddies, my mom, choir pals, random other friends, etc. I tend not to see books for years at a time. They wend their way back eventually.
-It's expensive (compared to free, anyway). I'd have to buy the Kindle. Then I'd have to buy the books.
-Do I need another gadget? No!

As you can see from my list, the cons still outweigh the pros, at least in my calculations. Things that would tip the balance:
-A 2-week Kindle 'loan' program from the library (or Amazon, or whoever). Like Netflix. Done? Delete the book and you can have another one. I rarely reread books (and the ones I do, I buy so I can reread over and over and over), and I'm not precious about having a 'library' in the house (mostly because with the amount I read, we'd need a bigger house!)
-For Suffolk County Council to go mad with their cost-cutting and get rid of my Stowmarket Library. Although I will make trouble if they do...

Not a paper cup

The coffee at work is legendary. And not in a good way. Since we have a really nice coffee maker at home, we make enough in the mornings for two travel mugs worth. It's SO nice to sit down at my desk and get started on my day with a cup of coffee. We have two Aladdin (discontinued) "I'm not a paper cup" travel mugs. They keep the coffee warm for about 2 hours, even with the sipping lid open. And they don't leak, which better than all the other travel mugs I've used. If you want to keep coffee hot for hours and hours, get a Thermos. If you just want it to be hot when you get to work (our commute is about 25 minutes), I'd recommend these.

I fully admit that we look rather dorky carrying matching mugs in to the office in the mornings, but it's worth it. Oh, and woe betide you if you forget to bring your mug home at the end of the day. It has knock-on effects through the following morning. Ack.

My other most recent work-atmosphere improvement has been The Wailin Jennys. My dad found them while on his Kate Rusby Pandora channel, and they seem to me to be a cross between KR, the Indigo Girls, and the Sirens (a Colby acapella group). LOVE them.

I finished reading Megan Whalen Turner's first novel, "The Thief," this week. It was very much in the same style as Graceling, and I really liked the descriptions - she conveys the moods of the settings and the characters very well. I think I may have read it too close on the heels of Graceling and Eragon- I found myself overlapping characters a bit. Definitely worth a read if you like YA fantasy novels. I've put it on James' bedside table to see if we can bring him on a little bit from Darren Shan.

I've started my book club book which required some deep breathing after the first few sentences. It's The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

A writer never forgets the fist time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story.

Panic set in. I. Hate. Books. About. Writers.

Write what you know, and all that, but don't write about writing, please. I did manage to regain my composure and I'm now about 20 pages in.

Reviews: Christmas Music

Having been liberated from a previous colleague's taste in schmaltzy pop Christmas music (Do They Know It's Christmas? How could they miss it? You've played the song 12 times so far today!), my iPod has been keeping things festive in my office. Please note: I'm NOT inflicting this on anyone else.

Kate Rusby: Sweet Bells
The peerless Ms. Rusby (whose songs fit v. nicely within my range) sings traditional Yorkshire folk arrangements of the Christmas carols you know (and some you don't). It always reminds me a little of the Sutton Manor versions of Christmas carols, which must seem very strange to outsiders...

Tori Amos: Midwinter Graces
A bunch of really traditional Christmas songs, Tori-fied. She kicks butt. And pianos. The album does rather over-use chimes to invoke church bells, but I'll forgive her.

Benjamin Britten: Ceremony of Carols
Way funkier than people give him credit for. We're rehearsing this for our concert on the 20th (shameless plug!), and I really love it. We're doing the SATB version with organ or piano (I can't remember which), but the recording I have is of the SSAA version, and I have to say I prefer it. My favorite movement: "This Little Babe". The lyrics start out seemingly harmless, but it's sung in a crazy fugue and comes across as complete chaos.

Sesame Street Christmas
We've been through this. I love it. Everyone else thinks I'm crazy. I'm ok with that.

On the mend

Right, no posts lately because today is the first day in a week that going downstairs to have breakfast hasn't made me want to come back upstairs for a nap. My main contacts for the last week have been this lot (shown reading one of John's Linux mags):

I don't feel great, by any means, but I *think* (provided taking a shower and getting dressed doesn't wear me out) that I may actually leave the house today. I have a book to pick up at the library (and two to return). I imagine that's going to be it for my adventures, though.

Between my epic napping sessions, I've been doing some reading. I read Jasper Rees' chronicle of rediscovering his French horn, I Found My Horn, which was a little self-absorbed and very anorak-y but quite entertaining. I'm not sure how engaging it would be for a non-horn player, but I liked it. Definitely a library book, though, not one to buy and reread. I may even pick up my horn and give it a few toots.

I also finished The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton (who also wrote The House at Riverton). I really liked it - I thought the characters were very well-drawn and I loved the fairy tales that Morton weaves through the story. It was a little bit predictable, but I didn't find that it diminished the book at all.

To round out the fairy tales, I read my Tales of Beedle the Bard. Cute stories, witty commentary, glad that JKR is raising money for children, but overall: meh. Maybe in my brain I've come to terms with the fact that Harry Potter is 'finished', so this was sot of a miscellaneous extra that happened to be loosely affiliated with HP. Worth buying for the charitable aspect (and so I have the complete set), but probably not going to get reread.

I've now started on The Jewel In the Crown, which one of my friends loaned to me. My parents (and John) recognized it as a PBS/Granada miniseries from the 70s? 80s?, but I'm finding it really heavy going at the moment. It's gotten a little better, and I'm going to stick with it for a bit longer before I give up, mostly because ALL the reviews on the back (NYT, Telegraph, etc) praise its amazing wonderfulness.

To accompany all my reading, I've been listening to Kate Rusby's newest CD, Sweet Bells. We heard most of the tracks on the CD at the concert we went to in Norwich last December, and have been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the CD to come out. I LOVE it. Someone on the interwebs commented that they could happily listen to KR sing the phone book, and I'd be right there listening with them, but this is the perfect Christmasy CD.

The 2 other CDs that I've ordered from Amazon for Christmas seem not to have shipped yet (the new John Tavener and a CD of the King's College Choir doing their Christmasy thing). I feel deep hatred for 'pop' Christmas stuff (I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, etc), but the Rusby is sufficiently religious (and well-sung) as to be acceptable.

Birthday recap

Last weekend, we went on another bike ride - here's a picture looking from the Stowmarket/Needham Road to the north.

There was much excitement when we went to Tesco - this bird had flown in through an open door and was looking around for a place to perch. Sorry the picture quality isn't great - we only had the point-and-shoot and not the SLR.

Two weeks ago, I got an e-newsletter from the Kate Rusby folks, announcing her upcoming tour. I was super-psyched to see that not only was she coming to Ipswich (SO much closer than Norwich and Peterborough, where we've seen her play), but that she would be there on my birthday (this past Thursday). Obv, we had to go.

In my infinite geekyness, I emailed her record company asking to have a song dedicated to me for my birthday. And she DID! Hooray!! She played 'Where Does The Time Go', which is a single that I don't have (yet), and said that it was for "Kate, or Katie, whose birthday is today, I think. Or tomorrow, or yesterday. Anyway." I felt special. Her she is, in all her blurry awesomeness.

And here we are at the intermission - John bought me a Kate Rusby mug (since I already have a KR t-shirt)

To add to the overwhelming birthday goodness, I am also the proud owner of a new and exceedingly shiny iPhone. My contract was up and I had been coveting one for yonks, so that was that. I LOVE it, with the only drawback being that the battery life is completely crap. My old Motorola Krzr would merrily go 6 or 7 days between charges, but the iPhone barely eeks out 24 hours. I've been turning off some of the push-synching when I'm not using the phone (I don't need it to tell me I have an email at 3am), and that seems to help a bit. I'm having issues with the Apple store, too - as an American, my AppleID is registered to a US address, and so Apple can't comprehend that I might have LEFT the country. Bah. The interwebs have yielded a few suggestions - we'll see what happens. Other than that, though, it's great. Being able to sync my google calendar to wherever I am is awesome, and texting on the 'keyboard' is so much easier than on my old phone.

One final birthday thing - on Wednesday night when John's buddies came round, they brought me some gorgeous birthday flowers. Thanks, guys!! They brought a bottle of really tasty wine, too (no picture, it's all gone).

Peterborough

First, a scene of decadence and restraint. Guess which one I was having...


John and I went to Peterborough yesterday to see the wonderful Kate Rusby play. She was not in as good voice as the concert we saw in December, but the band was completely on form and it was a great concert.

Having lived in Peterborough, there were a few places that I wanted to see again. The cathedral was as stunning as ever, even in the rain:

The ceilings are incredibly ornate - they have mirrors around so that you can look at them without craning your neck. I love all the angles in this shot:

Katherine of Aragon (wife #1 of Henry VIII) is buried there, and Mary, Queen of Scots was, for a time. Here's M,QoS' blurb:


And here's the cathedral in the evening, all lit up. No, we didn't have the tripod.
However, despite my emotional attachment, the rest of Peterborough (with the exception of John Lewis, the Lakeland branch, and Pizza Express) is...a dump. It was filled with people who looked like they were either coming from or going to a drug deal, and every other store was a "Cash for your jewelery!" or similar. It was never Bury St Edmunds, even in the early 90s, but we were glad to leave. Sketchy.

Obviously, there are some great places nearby, and the outlying villages within the city are much nicer, but the city centre was dismal. We ended up moving our car from the initial place we'd parked it because we didn't want to walk through the neighborhood at night. And I've lived in New York.

Rusby Roundup

We went to Norwich last night for a Kate Rusby concert. She's an incredible performer - the concert was REALLY good. Having both been to our fair share of 'concerts,' John and I both assumed that since the tickets said '7:30pm' it fell into the rock/pop 'doors at 7:30 - opening act at 7:45 - Rusby on at 9'. So we got there at about 7:30 after getting a little lost on the way and having trouble finding a parking spot. Not worried about missing anything, though.

We were a little surprised, since there was nobody in the foyer. And there was an act on the stage. And when we got to the box office our tickets were in a little pile by themselves. They whisked us to our seats and we sat down right as KR started strumming the first chords at 7:32. Oops!

The concert itself couldn't have been better: it was about half Yorkshire Christmas songs, which Kate obviously LOVED singing. They were all really beautiful - different tunes with the traditional. It made all of the well-known carols seem really vibrant, and the arrangements were flawless. I really hope she records them and releases a CD. The rest of the concert was a mix of old stuff and things from her new album, which we loved. It reminded me of the folk concerts that Mom & Dad took us to when we were kids - it was very sedate but the singing was enthusiastic.

John & I both had an extra day of holiday to use up before they expire at the end of the year, so we took today off. We've both been feeling pretty run-down and I definitely thought I was coming down with something. We had a lazy morning and then headed to Cambridge for some Christmas shopping. It was pretty hectic in town, considering that it was a Tuesday - why weren't all the people who were there at work? We're both feeling much more rested and generally better.

John made a really tasty moroccan lamb risotto from the leftovers - he used lots of spices and some dried apricots and raisins. It had a really well-rounded flavor, but we both agreed that it was missing something...it didn't quite have the 'sparkle'. We'll just have to have another leg of lamb to experiment!

mmm...chocolate

We had some Gu soufflés after dinner tonight - we impulse-bought them at the supermarket after being v. restrained and following our list and menu plan all week. Here they are, in all their chocolatey goodness. The picture is fabulous because hubby used the uber-camera with the portrait lens. None of the point-and-shoot for him!


Included in our menu plan was a spinach and lentil curry for dinner tonight, which I was CONVINCED had way too much water (900ml of water for 150g of lentils). It actually turned out pretty well, despite the fact that I was a little cavalier with the recipe. If I follow it properly, I think it'll be a keeper.

We've also bitten the bullet and bought tickets for Kate Rusby in Norwich next week. I'm SO excited. I felt so silly a few weeks ago - I was talking to two of my college roomies and apparently they were listening to KR when we were all living together - I'd thought that a few of the songs sounded familiar. The fact that I didn't discover her properly until 5 years later and on a different continent is a little bizarre, though.

Another random thing I did today (and completely cracked myself up about): I was texting my friend who was not at work today, and got tangled up in predictive text on my phone. I meant to type 'email' and ended up with 'dohaj'. I got a completely mystified text back from my friend asking what on earth I was on about. Ok, now it's not funny. It was at the time, though, trust me.

Oh, and my friend E. has started a blog, called 'All Abode' - go check it out (link in the 'blogs' section).

Found things

I'm currently obsessed with Kate Rusby. She's one of the premiere folk singers in the UK - I heard her on the weekly folk program that I listen to on Radio 2. John and I both heard the track "High On A Hill" and reached for our wallets to buy the album. Once we get our heads round this one we'll be buying some more. She has sort of a Joni Mitchell / Emily Saliers sound - I LOVE it.

My first week back at work was a little chaotic - I've never taken 2 weeks off from a job before and I had a v. large pile of email when I got back. My colleague and I also swapped offices with the marketing department this week - there are three of them and two of us and our office was quite a bit bigger. It works out for us - we get REAL (un-recycled, un-filtered) air. We have a an office with a big window and 2 doors. I've made it, I think. :)

My other new discovery (besides Ms. Rusby) is Boden. It's a UK clothing store that I saw an ad for in a magazine and ordered. Every page has something that I'd wear - when I get back down to a reasonable weight, I'm going to treat myself to an outfit from them.

Speaking of weight, it's going reasonably well - I've been making a conscious effort to end every meal a little bit hungry, and we went for an epic walk today and are planning another one tomorrow. I'm RAVENOUS right now, but I've also been drinking a lot more water to fill myself up and I'm feeling a lot better. John made a gorgeous paella for dinner tonight - it had chorizo, squid, shrimp, mushrooms, peas (I even ATE them!), and some other yummy stuff. I'll keep him.