Just finished reading ...

... a Darker Place by Laurie R King. T'was alright but not nearly as good as I had hoped.

My mum started me reading King's Mary Russell / Sherlock Holmes mysteries when she gave me the first of the series, the Beekeeper's Apprentice. I love it and rushed to get all the rest (well up to Justice Hall, 2 more have come out since, The Game and Locked Rooms, I'll be on the look out for those now). So I figured I'd like other stuff she has written. This was ok but I didn't get into the characters nearly as much and didn't feel that sense of urgency about getting to the end, finding out what happened. Pity, but life can't be prefect can it, that would be dull.

Some very long time ago ...

... I donated a sum of money to Heifer International.
I did not do this out of the kindness of my heart, I did it because I had read if I donated a certain sum or over I would receive a special limited edition little booklet called Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with some Observations upon the segregation of the Queen by Sherlock Holmes. I'm quite the fan of Laurie R King's Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell books you see.
Well, it didn't arrive and I figured I'd buggered up the international currency conversion or they'd run out of copies or some such, swallowed my disappointment and moved on.
Well, colour me happy, it was waiting for me on the doorstep when I got home today. I'm tickled pink!
O, and the icing on the book, signed by the author!
I quote: "Chief among the everyday miracles within the hive is that of how the first bee discovered the means by which watery nectar, vulnerable to spoilage, might be made to keep the hive not only through the winter, but through a score of winters. Can one conceive of an accidental discovery, a happenstance that arranged for the hive sisters to be arrayed en masse at the mouth of their hive, fanning their wings so vigorously and for so long that the nectar they had gathered evaporated in the draught, growing thick and imperishable? And yet if not an accident, we are left with two equally unsatisfactory explanations: a Creator's design, or a hive intelligence."

I'm a Winter bebe ...

... but it seems my wishes are Spring-based. 'Tis my birthday today. So, a couple of months ago I gave Mr Brown my birthday wish list:
a native bee hive (with bees);
a pomegranate tree (with nice eatable fruit); and
dinner at The Ottoman (a favourite from our Canberra days, recently opened here in Sydney).
Well, 1 out of 3 ain't bad. We dine at the Ottoman tonight.
He did try for the full list (that's why he's my favourite) and the tree and the bees are on order. Problem is, neither can be delivered until the Spring. He did give me this though, the dafty. And, so I'd have something all wrapped up to open on the day, he gave me this too - one of my favourite smells ever (I guess that makes me an old-fashioned girl).
The whole birthday thing started yesterday with lunch at the Bambini Trust Cafe (where I had the most amazing duck liver and black truffle pate and a beautiful baked pork cutlet with pomegranate molasses and other yummy things) with some special girl friends - and they shouted me - bless their little cotton socks.
And Fiddles gave me the loveliest colour-coordinated gifty (book mark all the way from Vietnam), this is my favourite use. Then cake for afternoon tea (shared with another birthday girl and a pregnant one, as it was her last day). Then drinkies at the pub after work. I was only going to stay for 1 but have no self control and so I was easily talked into several fizzy wines and chatted and laughed and got home quite late and was in no fit state to cook Mr Brown any dinner.
Oh, and there were parcels when I got home. My new T-shirt from Remo, and one for Mr Brown (2 for 1 special - mine on the left, his on the right, apparently funny if you are a computer dweeb), and my two new Mary Russell books from Amazon (because there was no way I was waiting until they were finally published here) - it's very wild, wet and windy outside, perfect for me to curl up with good books and, perhaps, a fire.
Oh, oh, and I finally got a hair cut, 2 years and 1 month since the last one. The haircutty chappie was most surprised that someone would leave it so long, but did say nice things about how healthy it was (all that not dyeing or frying with hot irons or curling wands I guess).
Then I went and renewed my drivers license for another 5 years and can you believe it? I managed to pass the eye test - that really made my day!
On Saturday my mum will be cooking one of my all-time favourites (lemony veal and lots and lots of green beans) and the following Saturday we meet up with some old friends to eat at Chinta Ria, a Brown Mouse tradition. I am SO going to have Sassy's Duck.

Books ...

... Yesterday I went to 3 bookshops at lunchtime, looking for the last 2 of the Mary Russell books I mentioned a day or so ago. Four if you count the second-hand book shop I’d visited the night before on the way home (always the first stop). Turns out they haven’t come out in Australia yet. This makes me very angry – why do we have to wait for books, sometimes a year or more after they’ve been brought out in the UK or USA? Why are Australian book fans treated in this shabby way? Bastards.
Fuck it, I thought, if they won’t sell me one in Australia they don’t deserve my custom and I’ll Amazon them. So I did. I expect a nice parcel in a week or so.
However, I’m pretty weak willed, so while I was in one of those book shops I bought Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution, I’m so glad I did it’s brilliant.Mr Brown was being a corpulent corporate bastard, dining out on business expenses last night so when I got home I put on a little Dead can Dance, covered myself in cats and read it to the end. It’s a thin, beautifully written little novella so it wasn’t an effort. A jewel of a story about an old man (clearly Sherlock Holmes though that name is never actually mentioned) and his final case, the theft of a young Jewish refugee’s pet Grey Parrot. The parrot, at times, recites a series of numbers in German. The ending, while not totally unexpected, just broke my heart. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever read, but in a good way. A book that makes you feel real emotions, that can make you cry (or laugh) is a thing to be treasured. I highly recommend it.

Finished reading ...

... the last 2 Laurie R. King Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes novels.
The Game (most excellent) and Locked Rooms (damned fine). The Game worked Rudyard Kipling's Kim into the story while Locked rooms had Dashiell Hammett written in and working with Holmes.
Bugger all and damnit, why does the good stuff read so fast? now I have to wait until she writes another one - sigh.
Lucky for my my last birthday pressie was presented to me last night, Cultural Amnesia by Clive James - what a tome 40 years in the writing according to Mr James, this should keep my busy for a while.