EmiTown

Last night I was watching a few episodes of Red Dwarf from 1991. I could remember watching them when they were first broadcast. I can hardly believe that it was twenty years ago now.

I finished reading the book EmiTown by Emi Lenox. It's described as a "sketch diary" and basically covers a year in Emi Lenox's life, from May 2009 until April 2010, through text, comic strips, random song lyrics and sketches. It's a really fun book with some really enaging artwork.

Today I went along with my Dad to the Ocean Terminal shopping mall. We had a coffee at Starbucks and I bought some books: Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane, Kraken by China Mieville and Black Hills by Dan Simmons. Then we went along to my parent's house where we had whiskey, and then a Burn's Supper of haggis, potatoes and peas. Burns Suppers are celebrations of the life and work of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, and are traditionally held on or near the 25 January, Burns' birthday. Traditionally, Burns Suppers include a recitation of some of his poems, and the haggis is cermonially brought in while someone plays the bagpipes and recites the poem "To a Haggis".I'm thinking of maybe stopping writing on here every single day, to give myself more time to do my own writing and so on. I'll still be on several times a week, but just maybe not every single day.

Fevre Dream

Last night I finished reading the book Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin, which was first published in 1980. The book is set on and around the Mississippi River in the 1850s and tells the story of Captain Abner Marsh, a tough steamboat captain with big ambitions that have been seriously dashed since he lost most of his boats during the previous winter. One night he meets a strange, wealthy man named Joshua York who offers to finance the construction of the steamboat of Marsh's dreams, the biggest, fastest and grandest paddle steamer on the river, which they name the "Fevre Dream". As the boat sets sail, Marsh becomes increasingly suspicious of York and his companions, all of whom sleep during the day and only come out at night. Also York seems to be very interested in a series of mysterious deaths in which the victims are found drained of blood. It's a very entertaining and pretty tense fantasy adventure thriller, and makes a change from some of the more recent vampire stories.

Today I went along to my parent's house for lunch. We were having our "Burns Supper" for lunch. The Burns Supper is held to celebrate the life and work of Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, who was born on 25 January 1795. It traditionally consists of haggis, turnip and potatoes (haggis, neeps and tatties in Scots). In more formal Burns Suppers there would be someone piping in the haggis on the bagpipes, and when it reached the table someone would recite the Burns poem "To a Haggis" before cutting it and serving it up. We started off with a vegetable soup (which my Mum described as being "like cock-a-leekie soup, only without the cock") followed by the haggis, mashed potato and mushed turnip with some peas. We didn't recite the Burns poem but we did toast the haggis with whisky. It was really nice. I actually like haggis a lot, but we only ever have it once a year.

This afternoon I listened to the first of a three part radio adaptation of The Honourable Schoolboy, based on the 1970s novel by John le Carre, in which a British journalist, and sometime secret agent, is sent to Hong Kong to discover a money laundering operation that is financing Soviet spying operations.