a million things I haven't done
Books on pre-order: Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec) Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027) Books acquired in July: and read: Distilling Sunlight (Mysterious Arts 7) by Celia Lake Unknown Depths (Liminal Mysteries 3) by Celia Lake The Chemistry of Familiar Objects by Alexandra Vasti The Christmas I Stole A Viscount by Alexandra Vasti and unread: Team Building (Shifter…
Drove up with a couple of friends this afternoon, mostly ok apart from a long long queue resulting from the A1 being closed at Peterborough services. Much better to arrive at 9pm than 2am, even if it did mean missing uni practice tonight. Tomorrow it will be 5C cooler here than in Cambridge, and I'm spending most of the day in an ice rink. Making good choices. comments
I got an EV charger installed on the house this morning by Octopus, and hopefully I'll soon be on their specialist tariff giving me cheap overnight charging. After literally decades driving but never owning a car, ice hockey has tipped the balance in favour of finally getting one. I'm using my employer's salary sacrifice scheme, which only offers EVs. My car is due to arrive in September, and I am…
Last Saturday was a one-day women's ice hockey tournament hosted by the Sheffield Shadows, and Kodiaks sent a team, a mix of both Kodiaks 1 and Kodiaks 2 players. ( ice hockey day ) Sunday morning I drove back to Cambridge, unpacked, packed a picnic, picked up Verity and drove to booked parking near Cambridge (central) station, and we went to see the women's T20 world cup final at Lord's. (…
It was my birthday at the end of June, and I did a number of celebratory things during the week, in the midst of an epic heatwave: "rewind" screening of Jurassic Park in the cinema (the day after May Bumps) a midweek student production of Romeo and Juliet , in Peterhouse Chapel, with teammate Olivia (the cast were entirely women/non-binary and/or gender non-conforming, and so were the vast…
Books on pre-order: Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec) Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027) Books acquired in June: and read: How to Fake It in Society by KJ Charles Playoff (Toronto Blaze) by Kim Findlay [7] Foreplayer (Rookie Rebels) by Kate Meader [7] and unread: The World We Make by N.K. Jemisin Borrowed books read in June: Pagans by James Alistair Henry [3] Trap…
One of the small joys of the May Bumps was reading the daily "Notes and Fines" from the umpires . In amongst the jargon of "failure to clear", "dangerous coxing", "dropped bung", and "running bank party" were some quietly hilarious gems. I love the juxtaposition in Wednesday's notes of: Jesus W5 - dangerous coxing, saved from hitting a stationary crew by hitting the bank first - £50 Jesus W6 cox -…
After my afternoon-and-a-bit earlier this year of watching Lent Bumps, I committed and got to most of the May Bumps this year. Wednesday evening I joined the 99s city boat club picnic for a couple of hours between work and preparing for Kodiaks 2 trials. I finally twigged that the colleague S I see in a weekly Teams meeting is also the friend-of-a-friend S that I keep meeting at parties and rowing…
I have about 15 minutes before I need to go to a school meeting, and I haven't updated in ages so: Hockey The inaugural season of Kodiaks 2 finished mid-May: we played 20 games and won 1. It was a bit last minute, but we managed to confirm enough ice time to continue with two teams next season, in time to submit our intention to the league by the 31 May deadline. Trials are next week and the week…
(aha, this post-by-email has finally appeared!) Books on pre-order: Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec) Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027) Books acquired in May: and read: Darksight Dare (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau Four Weddings to Fall in Love by Jackie Lau Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie [1] Big Red…
I managed to go Monday evening, Tuesday lunchtime to early evening (no closure Tuesday afternoon), Wednesday lunchtime and Thursday evening. Thursday evening was considerably more crowded but on the right side of my people-proximity tolerance: unsurprisingly I saw a lot of people I knew that evening, usually in passing. I had multiple cheese platters over the course of the festival, and also got…
... a new railway station in Cambridge! https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-stop-cambridge-south-new-stations-opening-date-revealed And it's now on the journey planners . The first train to stop there is definitely Too Early for me, but I'm absolutely going to catch a train there at some point on my birthday. comments
In January, I passed my 25-year anniversary of working at the University and was sent a nice email from my head of department. I've just been invited to a "celebration event" with the Vice Chancellor and a bunch of other colleagues also reaching the 25-year milestone. Regrettably it is right in the middle of my next hockey camp in Hull, which I booked a couple of months ago, and which I am much…
Beer festival this evening, I had three cheeses on the platter: Cornish Yarg Pecorino Mayfield (a swiss cheese, excellently tasty, a+ would eat again) I also had four different 0.5% beers, all them also vegan[1], of which the standout was Mash Gang's Lesser Evil , a chocolate cherry stout with a lovely complex set of flavours to it. (I have already ordered some cans for home consumption ...)…
I'm off this evening to watch Top Gun 40th anniversary screening in the local IMAX. This is probably the very definition of a problematic fave, even before you get into Tom Cruise's cult membership. But also I watched this film for the first time on my twelfth birthday, on a coach trip with school, and will probably never not love it. I think I've seen it once in the cinema, the summer Armageddon…
I have had a migraine this afternoon and evening, which is the warning sign I'm pushing my sleep schedule too much, again I read the new Murderbot book, very hard to put down, enjoyed it very much earlier this week fanf and I joined 20th wedding anniversary celebrations for atreic and emperor , who remain lovely people who collect lovely people around them, yay last weekend Kodiaks lost to…
The last of the Varsity ice hockey games between Oxford and Cambridge universities is tomorrow evening, at Cambridge Ice Arena, at 5pm. I will be playing for Cambridge Huskies B against Oxford Vikings C. Will it be high quality hockey? No Will it be entertaining? Absolutely Will I fall over? Obviously Will I get in a fight? Maybe, if someone touches my goalie My goalie is one of the Men's Blues,…
I have slept so much this week. Both Wednesday and Thursday evening I had a miraculous lack of commitments, and both evenings I thought "I could get a bunch of things done now" and instead ... went to sleep. And re-read Ocean's Echo because I needed a comfort reread, apparently. Anyway, I had Friday off work and Monday is a bank holiday, and I spent my day off going to Woking and back to buy new…
Books on pre-order: Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May) Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May) Call Me Traitor by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec) Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027) Books acquired in April: and unread: Greater Good (Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy 2) by Timothy Zahn and previously read: Warhorse by Timothy Zahn Borrowed books read in April:…
The Last... Movie I watched: in the cinema: Project Hail Mary (2026) on (my friend's) TV: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013) Series I finished: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 (2026) Book I finished: Daughter of the Deep, by Rick Riordan (2021) Book I bought: bought outright: Warhorse, by Timothy Zahn (1990) pre-ordered: Call Me Traitor, by Everina Maxwell (1 Dec 2026) Book I received…
Last weekend I was in Sheffield with Cambridge Huskies, playing in the BUIHA Non-Checking Tier 1 Nationals . Spoiler: we won. It was a lovely weekend, full of hockey and team and hard work and silliness. Also full of small reunions with hockey friends in other teams. I am so glad I got to go. I am so glad we won, especially for the people who are leaving soon. I love this team very much. Friday:…
Post-game interview on Facebook for the game against Invicta on Sunday (we lost 10-1). Favourite comment from a friend: "you both pulled such funny faces when the other one was speaking". My feedback on the Hull camp shared (with permission) on their Facebook page: "I've enjoyed all the camps so far and I think they're good value for money. I think they're helping me improve as a player, and I've…
Tony and I saw Project Hail Mary approx 18 hours after watching Artemis II launch ( space fiction and space mission ) Then on Saturday I went with Cambridge Women's Blues to play in BUIHA Womens Tier 1 Nationals 25-26 : ( Read more... ) Nationals was followed by two days of work and also staying up late last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning after hockey practice to watch Integrity go out of contact…
I stayed up way too late to watch the launch, and then stayed watching the live coverage for some time afterwards (some of this time with Tony and Charles animatedly chatting about space exploration until I threw them out so I could try to sleep). There are PEOPLE on their way to the MOON for the first time in my lifetime. (Last crewed mission was Apollo 17 in December 1972.) And I can watch the…
Books on pre-order: Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May) Radiant Star (Imperial Radch) by Ann Leckie (12 May) Unrivaled (Game Changers 7) by Rachel Reid (1 Jun 2027) Books acquired in March: and read: My Kind of Guy by Sarina Bowen Star Shipped by Cat Sebastian and previously read: The Martian by Andy Weir Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros Books acquired previously and read in March:…