Weekly Roundup

Posted February 1, 2020 by Nicky in General / 4 Comments

Aahh, it’s the weekend again!

Of course, this week was not wonderful: against my will, I have been stripped of my European citizenship. It is really difficult seeing other bloggers rejoicing about it, and really hard to keep those feelings from affecting my interactions with those bloggers. In case you’re wondering, my wife is currently allowed to stay, but she does not have settled status (and no, us being married doesn’t make the tiniest bit of difference at any stage in this process).

Still, the week has had its upsides: this week was the start of the Six Nations! I hope you’re all cheering for Wales with me… You must’ve been, since we pasted Italy! And my wife bought me a present: a triceratops footstool! Now I never thought about it that much, but my preferred reading posture is actually sitting up, with my feet on something to bring my knees closer to my chest. I can credit Matilda (after Robot Wars’ house robot) with some very comfy reading sessions this week.

Photo of a triceratops-shaped footstool

Isn’t she great?

Books read this week:

Cover of Because Internet by Gretchen McCulloch Cover of The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski Cover of The Luck of the Vails by E.F. Benson Cover of Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates by Kerry Greenwood Cover of Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood

Reviews posted this week:

Bloodlust & Bonnets, by Emily McGovern. It had its moments, but I wasn’t a big fan of the quirkiness-by-way-of-randomness. 2/5 stars
Because Internet, by Gretchen McCulloch. I really enjoyed this, but it might not be for you if you find language change horrifying. McCulloch is just fascinating by  the changes, not prescriptivist in outlook. 4/5 stars
The Last Wish, by Andrzej Sapkowski. I read this all in one fell swoop! In retrospect I have more hesitations, but I’m intrigued enough to pick up the next book. 3/5 stars
The Luck of the Vails, by E.F. Benson. Atmospheric and a little surprising in the way it deals with the characters, though ultimately I can’t say it’ll particularly stick in my mind. 3/5 stars
Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates, by Kerry Greenwood. Phryne’s too good to be true, but that’s half the fun, watching her swan around in the most beautiful fashions waving a gun around. It was a lovely reread. 4/5 stars

Other posts:

WWW Wednesday. In which I mostly discussed The Luck of the Vails and The Last Wish.

Out and about:

NEAT science: What is R0? A hopefully reassuring explanation of the supposedly terrifying R0 of the novel coronavirus first found in Wuhan, China. This was written at the start of the week, so there have been more scientific papers since that might have changed the landscape, but it’s mostly still relevant.

That’s it for this week. How’s everyone been doing?

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4 responses to “Weekly Roundup

  1. I love Matilda! I was a huge fan of the original Robot Wars and I loved Mr Psycho! I never much liked the rebooted version as it lost all the things I loved about the original.

    I know you and I are on the opposite side of the Brexit debate so I won’t go into it, other than to say that people like your wife coming here, legal and law abiding to live and work, are very welcome and I hope her settled status comes soon, and that it might bring you more peace of mind. *hugs*

    • We ended up watching a lot of the old series on youtube a while ago. I’d forgotten some of the favourites, like Cassius and the first self-righting mechanisms!

      Thanks. She won’t have settled status anytime soon, we had to rush to get her here in order to even qualify for pre-settled status, though the delayed leave date did help with that too.

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