oops

I’ve stuffed up. Or been caught out. The new Pratchett, Unseen Academicals, was due for release in the UK a couple of days ago. With memories of delays of up to a month between UK release and Oz (and 6+ months back in the 80s/early 90s), I ordered it from Amazon (along with Torchwood’s Children of Earth on DVD). Partly the delay and partly the price which I figured at around AUD$25-30 was going to be substantially cheaper than the local copy.

It appears it was released in Oz at the same time as the UK, and it was printed locally ie it was not an import. Admittedly it’s AUD$50 so I’ve paid nearly half that. However I’ve seen it in so many bookshops now, Melbourne & Sydney, and I’m not expecting my UK copy to arrive for another week. So I have deprived myself of the pleasure of reading it “now” and I’ve deprived local publishers a bit of cash.

moving along

I am now living in my flat and it feels like home already. It feels right. The move has not been without its hiccups, particularly as the removalists turned up in the small truck. I’d provided a full list of stuff to move, however the truck could only take most of the furniture and a few of the boxes. The furniture was moved a week and half ago with all the boxes a few days back.

The first thing I did was construct my bed, closely followed by net access. The Unwired modem I had for the old place has been useful as it means I have uninterrupted net access. I am looking forward to returning to proper ADSL once more as the wireless fluctuates more than I’d like. I’m actually looking at a naked ADSL connection which means I don’t have to pay for a phone line, thus relying on my mobile for regular calls.

On the weekend, some friends helped me move in the rest of the boxes ie all the books. My loungeroom is no longer quite so empty, though it still feels spacious despite the appearance:

I moved the microwave over last week, however I didn’t find its tray til last night. I spent the intervening week polishing bookcases. I popped into the local hardware shop and asked the chap there for advice on timber polishers. He recommended a good polisher which I tested on one bookcase. The results were great so I proceeded to do the rest and they’re all looking much, much better.

These bookcases are over 40 years old and were built by my grandfather as a wedding present to my parents. They’re still in pretty good nick. There is one bookcase however that is a little run down. As near as I can work out, this was the bookcase my grandfather built for dad when he went to bible college. Needless to say, dad did not look after it as well as he might

I had an interesting experience with the stove last week. Knowing I had a gas stove, I had bought a fire lighter. Turning the knob and pointing the lighter in the right direction achieved nothing. Read the manual a few times, still no clue. Rang gas company and they said they’d send someone out. Stayed home all day but gas techie didn’t show.

While on hold to the gas company the next day, I read the manual yet again. Toward the back of it, I came across the term “automatic ignition” and a couple of instructions and had a d’oh! moment:

“You turn the knob to the flame position and push it down til it ignites.”

Voila! Turns out, as a child safety feature, the gas doesn’t flow until you push the ignition. One of those times I was glad I was on hold and was able to cancel the techie. As my boss commented, it’s just as well the techie didn’t make it out as it would’ve been rather embarrassing

in motion

I arrived back in Sydneytown 2 weeks ago. I had the keys to my new home by the following Sat and I have booked a truck to move my stuff in on Friday. I may actually have too many bookshelves, my own plus all of dad’s. The new place can handle all my stuff but I suspect I won’t move in all the bookcases – maybe 7 or 8, or even 9; one big one will go at the back of my secure parking spot. With it my chest of drawers as I have a walk-in wardrobe with drawers on one side and shelves on the other. Luxury! My plans to convert the ensuite to a cellar have been foiled as it’s a bloody good shower and of decent size. Whereas the guest shower is a bath/shower combo. A good shower is to die for and this is hotel quality at that. Actually, the place feels a little like a decent hotel at the moment. That will change when I move in properly. It will never be as clean again. My new fridge and washing machine arrived last week and I got good deals on both.

I am back at work – a month off has made a massive difference. I feel refreshed. I’m enjoying work again. It helps that after a couple of years of double handling they finally got rid of one of the two systems I had to manually keep in sync. It has removed a tripping point from my work flow and has meant I can start to think again…think of what new things I can do. Where else I can take my job, what fun can I have?

I continue to travel, and still need to write up my experiences of IFLA Milan 2009, as I plan to visit Melbourne in the next few weeks in order to catch up with friends and with Dali. I’m also planning to make it to Perth at long, long last. That will probably be between Boxing Day and early January. Hopefully the wineries will be open. Nothing planned but look forward to hanging out and catching up with friends. Next year hmmm…there’s an eclipse of the sun and the best viewing spot is Easter Island. It has sufficient peculiarity as to be attractive – possibly combined with a short trip of highlights in Sth America.

I’m no longer at rest.

at rest

I have stopped. Motion ceased. I flew out of Sydney just under 3 weeks ago. Catsitting in London. Familiar surroundings but nothing of home. Stopping. I have spent days in the flat doing nothing, or reading. Days out, times catching up with London friends. Stopped. A breather from living.

A chance to listen to myself.

In the last few weeks I have had a whole bunch of moments; stopping points where the world has caught up. It’s been good.

In Oz, it is my birthday, not quite yet in Europe. I have received one “happy birthday” message and it was very welcome, from someone I continue to care about. Tomorrow the 21st, Europe time, I fly to Milan and will have a birthday dinner with library folk.

I am at rest.

books i might want

It has long been my practice that when I’m in bookshops, often, and I see a book I like, frequently, but not keen to buy it then and there, I add its ISBN to the note section on my phone. Potentially I can find it much cheaper online or perhaps more info, reviews and indications of whether it’s any good or whether there might be a better book on the same topic. Or even, given my fetish for nice bindings, a nicer edition. Or just simply the space to have second thoughts.

Having run out of storage space on my phone for such notes, here is the current list. This way at least, they’re stored somewhere vaguely useful.

• Science: A Four Thousand Year History by Patricia Fara [9780199226894]
• Ideas That Matter by A.C. Grayling [9780297856764]
• The Atlas Of Secret Societies by David V. Barrett [9781841813356]
• Science And Islam by Ehsan Masood [9781848310407]
• Treasure-house Of The Language: The Living OED by Charlotte Brewer [9780300124293]
• Historical Atlas [9780731813810]
• The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie [9780755344567]
• Cities Of The Renaissance by Michael Swift & Angus Konstam [9781906347109]
• Encyclopedia Of The Scientific Revolution: From Copernicus To Newton by Wilbur Applebaum [9780415988469]
• The Templars by Michael Haag [9781846681486]
• A Universal History Of The Destruction Of Books: From Ancient Sumer To Modern-day Iraq by Fernando Baez [9781934633014]
• Decoding The Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer by Jo Marchant [9780434018352]
• Age Of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes [9780007149520]
• A Companion To The History Of The Book by Simon Eliot, Jonathan Rose [9781405127653]
• The Hidden by Tobias Hill [9780571218387]
• The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000 by Chris Wickham [9780713994292]
• A Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past by Colin Wells [9781599211220]
• Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft by H. P. Lovecraft [9780575081567]
• The Historians’ Paradox: The Study of History in Our Time by Peter Charles Hoffer [9780814737149]

There was actually more fiction on the list but it appears that I’ve managed to buy most of the fiction I was keeping track of. There’s a few books I keep meaning to buy but never quite get round to, for which I haven’t recorded ISBNs such as Romulus, My Father, Cloud Street, a couple of those classics that have been reprinted in nice leather plus a few penguin classics. That’s all that comes to mind for the moment. I daresay there will be more.

texting book stuff

Was reading recently about catalogues and liked the idea of a button in a catalogue for texting the book details to your phone. This may well be an idea already becoming obsolete with the recent revolutions of the blackberry/iphone folk. However, it remains the case for me, and I guess many others, that standing in front of a catalogue, or an interesting book in a shop, and wanting a way to record the necessary information. In bookshops, I have long had the practice of saving ISBNs as notes in my phone. My phone is a very simple one but it can handle notes. However, in a library, I find the item on the screen and I either memorise the location details (approximately) or I look for a pencil and paper (also difficult as I’ve mostly lost the motor skill of writing long hand – I need a keyboard).

For this intervening period, a catalogue that can text book information sounds like a good plan. I suspect I’ll be upgrading my phone capabilities before too long (I need to start begging work to give me a blackberry – chance: almost zero) but many others will always be in catch up mode.

a continuance

Life improves. I seem to have snapped out of the depressive state I was in. It feels literally, like a snap; the world is viewed entirely differently. I now see things and possibilities I couldn’t see before. As I said in a recent conversation, I am on the right path and the step is firmer…however there is much yet to travel.

Good news: I got the flat I wanted at auction. My sister assures me it was an intense and nailbiting experience. For me, I seemed to become cooler the tighter it got, I was in the zone. I got it for a few thousand more than desired but within comfortable limits. It is a warehouse conversion, walking distance to my usual cafe. I can’t move in til September but it already feels like my space. I have a sense of it in my head and how certain things will be arranged, where the bookcases will go, the coffee table, the glass fronted rosewood cabinet. Of course the coffee table. All will fit. My books will escape their captivity of cardboard. 15 foot ceilings await.

Film: Sydney filmfest this year was half the length and somewhat lacklustre. One late chilly evening, the foyer was shut for a private party (prior to a Vogue documentary), and the masses had to queue in the cold for 3/4 of an hour, waiting for the party to finish. The film started very late that night. That happened a couple of times. The festival alas is struggling with more and more emphasis on chasing the dollar. it is becoming less and less a festival for film lovers. Perhaps this is a necessary evolution and perhaps too, I am turning into an old fogey. I had to skip the first night of my subscription series for the auction – which meant I had to get the flat in order to justify missing films. I still managed to see 28 films in 10 days. A week and a bit rather than 2 solid weeks. I haven’t done an assessment yet and there were a few good ones.

speaker of the book

Ah, a new way to destroy books and have fun at the same time. Some bright thing has come up with an idea of camouflaging shelf speakers as books by cutting up a few hard covers. I used to use a hollowed out street directory to hide spare keys in a previous household but like this idea too. Admittedly, it probably muffles the sound a little too much I’d guess; you’d probably want to use some sort of cloth (with pictures of book spines) across the bit where the sound comes out. Rather than cutting up books, it might be better to stick together some slipcases instead, living the the books themselves intact.

george r.r. martin is not your bitch

Sexual politics of the title aside, I think Neil Gaiman’s comments on the nature of the muse and writing are well worth a read. I recently subscribed to Gaiman’s feed and am finally after many, many years reading The Sandman properly. In his blog, there is a down to earth honesty that appeals. He is a writer first and foremost; and human being too. I subscribe to feeds based on my interest in the content, and I like what Gaiman writes. I also like his physical stuff:  Sandman and The Graveyard Book and so forth; stuff that’s published. In print and nice bindings. I’m currently midway through Vol. 3 (of 4) of the Absolute editions of The Sandman. Beautifully bound, enlarged, etc…mmmm. As a bookaholic, or bibliomaniac or other such term, the 4 volumes of The Sandman are some of the best in my collection. They sit well.

While my life is spent, or not spent…I am spending on books at least. Living still, in the home of my childhood, surrounded by boxes, depressed by many things, not least, my inability to gain a home in my favourite neighbourhood. I missed out on a house and was gazumped on a warehouse conversion. I’m in the running for another conversion that is above the one I missed out on. Though I don’t feel sufficiently lucky at the moment

My own writing has faltered as has my reading much. Just in time I squeezed out a dodgy abstract for VALA, I suspect it’s even dodgier than my last effort. That last one was accepted and I think this one would bookend it nicely. Oh well, if it fails to make the grade, that’s ok. An attempt was made. I have time but no mental space for writing. I miss my words; I have confidence they will return though I know not when.

In the mail today arrived yet another purchase, perhaps I should blog about my new arrivals as they arrive. That might inspire other things, other thinking. Today’s acquistion is a new work, of old, by JRR Tolkien, edited by his son, Christopher. This one is “The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun” which I think is based on the old Norse myths of the dragonslayer. Wanker that I am, I have the deluxe edition, nicely bound, and in slipcase. There is a satisfaction in holding a nicely bound volume in your hand. Paperbacks rarely come within cooee. I’ve mostly avoided the Tolkien publishing industry but I’m happy to have acquired this edition. It cost about AUD $80 delivered from the UK, and will be available locally for about $150. A score.

Speaking of Gaiman, I was recently in Kinokuniya, and scored a first edition, also nicely bound with artwork on the cover (once the paper cover is removed), of his Anansi Boys, for AUD $41. There is one more in the shop.

I refuse to buy the OED, though it is still a mere AUD $1,300. It will not be bought until I have my own place to put it in. If I get the place I want, then too, I will get a large painting for the wall…as that is how I want to honour my father…something larger than life, something that dominates the room, something that brings pleasure, something that is looking for a reaction, something that encapsulates the ol’ bugger.

days of life

Yesterday was Ada Lovelace Day – a day for celebrating female contributions to the techie world. I work in the library field which is 80 odd % female. Chances are there’s gonna be a lot of good ones. My two best bosses ever (and I s’pose I think of them as sorts of mentors too though never in any sort of official capacity)  are Maryce Johnstone (in my current job with Gale) and Kate Curr (in a previous job with the NSW Parliamentary Library). I find them both inspiring, both have had decades of involvement in the techie side of librarianship, one selling library systems and databases and the other managing such. Both are practical and down to earth, both seem to keep on getting things done, both remain interested in new developments. Both are inspiring.