Category Archives: life stuff

5 books that changed your life

17 Saturday Feb 2007

Posted by in books & writing, culture, life stuff

≈ 31 Comments

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In any way at all, big or small …

  • Fifth Business (Robertson Davies). It was the first book that really opened up new worlds for me. I was about 17 at the time and it was responsible for piquing my interest in subjects such as magic, philosophy, religion, mythology. It was also the first book I admired for the sheer intelligence and wit of the writing.
  • The Salmon of Doubt (Douglas Adams). It wasn’t the book itself that changed my life, but rather that it led me to the h2g2 site where I met Nog four years ago. If I hadn’t read that book I doubt I ever would have ever found h2g2 … or Nog (eep!).
  • Night Watch (Terry Pratchett). The first Discworld book I read. Got me started redeveloping my laugh-out-loud muscles. I’d forgotten that I could laugh so much. 🙂
  • Mother Tongue (Bill Bryson). It showed me just how fun the English language can be and helped me to teach better, with humour and relevence.
  • Foucault’s Pendulum (Umberto Eco). Made me feel clever and thereby warned me of the dangers of becoming an intellectual snob. 😉

Okay, your turn now. List any five books that have made a difference to your life and also explain why or how they did so.

This is also entered in engtech’s 5 things contest.

tv junkie

16 Friday Feb 2007

Posted by in life stuff, media, television

≈ 14 Comments

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How has this happened?

Last week I was a happily mal-adjusted internet & intensity junkie, still managing to squeeze in a few basically necessary RL activities here and there … but since I got the new Telefónica service it seems I’m suddenly also hooked on television!

How can this be? And more importantly – where will I find the time for this?

Well okay, I haven’t actually watched all that much TV since last Tuesday, but as I find out more about what is available to watch I find myself thinking about my day in a totally different way … as in, what will I be doing at 5pm today when House is on?

It’s crazy. For about the past 14 years I haven’t thought of my television set as anything other than a means to watch video/dvd films. But now there are actually programmes and films being shown in English!!! and it’s proving too tempting to ignore. f_bigeyes.gif

For example, last night Nog & I watched a couple of Simpsons episodes, which was quite fun (trust me, the Simpsons dubbed into Spanish seriously does not work). But then they put on Desperate Housewives – something I’d never seen before – and even though I wasn’t particularly enjoying it, I kept watching. Eep!

Perhaps the novelty will wear off? Maybe there is still hope? f_grovel.gif

sandal weather

14 Wednesday Feb 2007

Posted by in clothing, life stuff, sevilla

≈ 17 Comments

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When does it start?

For the past 4-5 days it’s gone up to about 21ºC in the afternoon. Last Saturday when Peter and I went out for tapas in the late afternoon was the first time I wore sandals this year. But since then I’ve been wearing shoes again … and today I wondered why.

If this was the beginning of November and 21ºC I’d definitely still be wearing sandals. But going in reverse (from cold to warm) it seems to require more than a couple of warm days to make the change.

Also, there seems to be an unwritten rule that people here don’t wear sandals before Semana Santa (Easter week), which is absurd. I don’t fall under this rule as I’m a foreigner and basically people expect me to be a bit weird. So I will be comfortably wearing a skirt with sandals in March when it’s 27º while other women are sweating in tights and shoes.

Any strange clothing rules where you live?

[note: on 3 March I found these!]

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