Haydninvienna: Dunroamin' (or Villa Costa Lotta)

So here is the new thread. "Villa Costa Lotta" is a lie, sort of, because the new digs is (are?) not a villa and didn't cost a lot by Brisbane's current standards (which are bats**t insane). "Dunroamin" is, I hope, not a lie. I've lived in 4 countries, at at least 6 addresses, over the last 20 years. I'm sick of updating my address.

Today has been a productive day. We met my sister in law Marcia for coffee (and learned to our chagrin that there is a Westfield* centre in Brisbane that has no lift access to one of its car parks — that took some sorting out), went to the Main Roads Department to apply for the issue of a Queensland drivers licence instead of my UK one (horror story below) and I JOINED THE LIBRARY! Also got our applications for electoral enrolment posted. (Being on the electoral roll is a legal obligation in Australia. The State and Federal electoral rolls are maintained by a Commonwealth Government authority, which is also responsible for managing elections.)

This house is the smallest of the 3 we have owned but it's a good candidate for nicest. The area has lots of reasonably mature trees so plenty of birds, including rainbow lorikeets, which I adore. I can hear them screeching in the trees now. I love them, but they aren't melodious.

And there's a thunderstorm coming on. I like them too.

The horror story is that there isn't one. I had my passport, my UK licence, a proof of address in the form of a copy of my electricity supply contract, and 2 bank cards with my name on them, and they were happy with that. So they took all the details, gave me a document that has to be carried with me in the car, relieved me of $188 for a 5-year licence and sent me on my merry way. All told, took about half an hour. The new licence should arrive in the post in a couple of weeks (they take the issue of them fairly seriously).

*Westfield: major operator of shopping centres in Australia; they have at least 1 location in the UK also.

Happy new thread!

My 5-year licence expired in the midst of the major Covid lockdown a couple of years ago. One office in the suburbs of Durban had the wit to start making appointments for renewals (the others simply crammed as many people as possible into the least space they could and took as long as possible to deal with them). They relieved me of money -- not as much as Queensland -- and gave me a "temporary" document valid for a nominal three months I used happily for a year before lockdown eased enough to be able to just turn up and claim the new card.

>1 haydninvienna: May this home be the best of them and may your days there be blessed.

Happy new thread! And I join in the wish posted by >3 MrsLee: . She has a lovely way with words.

As for settling in and dealing with the practicalities of life, you got your library card and you are working on getting set up to vote. Those are two great blessings right there!

Happy new thread! That was a remarkably easy process to get your license. If being on the electoral roll is an obligation, what's the penalty or incentive?

Edited later, this was a question because I was curious, not any kind of political statement or comment.

>2 hfglen: >3 MrsLee: >4 jillmwo: Thank you all. And >3 MrsLee: , thank you for the blessing.

It’s not just drivers licence and voting. In the past week I have applied for our Medicare cards (government-
provided health cover that every Australian resident is entitled to), and renewed my passport. (For the drama about my passport, see my last thread.) In another stunning demonstration of … something …, I lodged the application through the Calamvale post office on Wednesday and got an email from the Passport Office yesterday saying they had despatched the new passport! I suspect the system picked up that I had an emergency one and pulled out the application for immediate processing.

According to my local weather app, that storm last night produced about half an inch of rain. Sorely needed.

>1 haydninvienna: Happy New Thread & Happy New Home!

What >3 MrsLee: said. May your days be filled with joy.

Little snippet in passing: remember I had to get a temporary passport? I put the application in for a proper one at Sunnybank Hills post office last Wednesday. No fuss, no bother, no need to make an appointment, and the post office lady took the photos. All in all, it took about 15 minutes. I asked how long it was likely to take to process — she said a couple of months, maybe (not a problem, we are not planning to go anywhere). Guess what? Australia Post Courier has just delivered my new passport — and I didn't even have to pay an expedition fee. I reckon the system just flagged that I had an emergency one and pulled the application out for immediate processing.

>8 haydninvienna:
It is good to hear stories like that.

>9 pgmcc: You betcha. I put the application for our Medicare cards in at the same time but they haven't shown yet.

We were having dinner just now and I could hear the lorikeets screeching in the trees nearby, and I said to Mrs H that I hadn't realised how much I missed the parrots here.

Happy new thread and VERY happy new home!

>11 Sakerfalcon: Thanks Claire!

Kookaburras!

>8 haydninvienna: Amazing, I only wish the process was that efficient here.

Now coming to terms with living in (or near) Asia rather than Europe. I’m the cook in our household. Yesterday I wanted some pancetta, to make a recipe that I used to do routinely in England. In England I could buy it in Tesco. Woolworths near us doesn’t stock it—I asked. OTOH, in Tesco I couldn’t have bought sambal oelek. Here, no problem. So my “what’s for dinner” thinking is going to have to pivot somewhat towards South-east Asia rather than Italy, I think.

>15 haydninvienna: That is interesting. Are there any neighbourhoods with a lot of Italian immigrants? You might have to make a special shopping trip when you are craving more unusual (for Australia) ingredients.

>16 Sakerfalcon: The great age of Italian immigration to Australia was decades ago, and what used to be Italian spots have mostly merged into the generality of suburban Australia. If you want Italian specialities now, you’re likely to have to go to a high-priced gourmet deli.

It’s been an interesting and expensive couple of days. Back in mid-August I was having pain on the right side of my jaw, which my dentist in Bicester suggested might have been due to me grinding my teeth in my sleep. For a while it more or less went away, as my stress declined, but it’s back now. First thing Friday morning I found the local dentist and an x-ray later, it appears that I have a molar that is going to have to come out. Right on a nerve so the dentist suggested I go to an oral surgeon in town. On Tuesday afternoon. Ugh.

Then we had a doctor’s appointment for Mrs H since she was about to run out of one of her various medications. Rightly or wrongly we decided to go to the same practice as I had been to a few weeks ago when I needed my scripts renewed. “Wrongly” because it’s in Fortitude Valley, 20 km from where we live; “rightly” because they seemed like an efficiently run practice and the doctor I saw impressed me. So there we went, and I got my first chance to drive in Brisbane city. Not too bad except for some fun and games with Apple CarPlay in the Camry. Visit to the doctor went well enough that we will continue to go there.

This morning I had to visit a dental mechanic (who makes dentures and suchlike) to have a broken tooth on my upper denture repaired. While he was working, I drove the few kilometres to visit the Salisbury Second-hand Bookshop, in an industrial area near where I went to high school. This is definitely not your high-class antiquarian place: it’s a tin shed. The sort of place I could happily browse in for hours. All the books are $4. It’s apparently staffed by volunteers, which suggests that there is a charity involved, but I haven’t seen anything to say what charity, if so. Anyway, I bought A Wunch of Bankers (about the Hayne Royal Commission* into Banking) and The Ball and the Cross, by G K Chesterton, which I’ve never encountered before.

*A Royal Commission is a very formal public inquiry. The name comes from the fact that the Commissioner who runs the inquiry is appointed by an instrument called a commission, signed by the Governor-General as the King’s representative. The Commissioner is usually a retired judge**—in this case it was Sir Kenneth Hayne, a retired Justice of the High Court of Australia. A Royal Commissioner is usually given very wide powers, including compelling witnesses to attend and answer questions under oath, compelling documents to be produced, and so on.

**In Australia, judges of all courts have to retire at 70.

>17 haydninvienna: Sorry to hear about your tooth, I hope the extraction goes well.

I appreciate all of your posts about Australia, I've never been there and most likely never will, but I really enjoy hearing you tell about it. The same is true of the other folks here who tell us about their travels and the countries they visit.

>17 haydninvienna:
I am delighted you have found a medical practice you are happy with. Sorry it is 20km away.

When we moved to Lucan in 1992 we chose a local doctor at random when we first needed one. We struck gold. The main doctor in the practice has the best bedside manner I have ever come across; his medical centre is equipped for small procedures, e.g. ingrowing toenail extractions, and he is qualified to carry them out. The second in command is also a marvelous doctor. She likewise has a brilliant manner and is very professional and knowledgeable in her work. We have considered ourselves very fortunate to have these doctors to help us through our child rearing years and to look after us now. It was only about two weeks ago I learned that the two doctors are husband and wife. Apparently my wife has known this for some time, but would she tell me?

Unlike your situation our doctors' surgery is within two kilometres of our home.

Good luck with your dental work.

>17 haydninvienna: May you soon find joy in eating again. One of the things I dread most is having to find new doctors/dentist/hairdresser, etc. Perhaps why we haven't moved in 38 years.

>5 Karlstar: I noticed that I didn’t answer the question about the penalty for not being enrolled. There is a fine of A$275 for failing to enrol, or failing to keep your details on the roll up to date. There is also a fine for not voting, but “voting” means only attending at an appropriate polling place on the day and having the electoral official note that you have done so—you don’t actually have to vote.

>18 Karlstar: >19 pgmcc: >20 MrsLee: Thanks all. To be honest, I’m kind of looking forward to the extraction, but Mrs H will be a nervous wreck—she starts to worry that I’ve had a misadventure if I’m out of sight for more than a few minutes.

>21 haydninvienna: Thanks, good to know. Another question, if you don't mind. Some/many states here have early voting, sometimes as much as weeks before election day, is that also something there? In other words, do folks have a range of dates they could show up, or does everyone have to appear on election day?

>22 haydninvienna: Good luck, I guess... later today?

>23 Karlstar: As far as I've ever seen, in principle everyone shows up on an election day (always a Saturday in Oz) at a polling place in the electorate (US "district") for which they are registered. But there are various provisions available for shut-ins and travellers, so that they don't have to move or go home to vote.

It's possible to get 3 elections (Federal, State and local government) a year here, but it doesn't happen often. At a Federal election there are 2 ballot papers (House of Representatives and Senate), and most States also have 2, usually for the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, the latter of which in former times was often appointed by the Governor*. Queensland has no "upper" house (Legislative Council), because of a slightly shady political manoeuvre in 1922 in which the Government of the day found itself hamstrung by a stubborn upper house and persuaded the Governor to appoint sufficient pliable members to the Council to vote for its own abolition.

*Oh boy. The nominal Head of State of Australia is the Sovereign, His Majesty King Charles III. The practical head of state is the Governor-General, who signs everything as the King's representative. As I said before, Australia is a federation, so each of the States has a Governor. Corresponds exactly to the Canadian setup in which there is a Governor General (so spelt, I believe) for the Dominion as a whole, and a Lieutenant Governor for each province. (As to the importance of the Lieutenant Governors, you need to read The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies, if you haven't already.)

Oh, and thanks for the good wishes.

For anyone who may have been wondering, the dental op went OK. No side effects and everything seems to be almost back to normal (so far as possible).

>25 haydninvienna:
Glad to hear it went well.

>25 haydninvienna: That's very good news! I hope you don't have any more such experiences for a long time.

>27 Sakerfalcon: Thanks. You and me both.

Happy Thanksgiving to the US-ian GDers!

>29 haydninvienna: Thank you, hope your day was good.

Found out about this by accident and am adding it to my wishlist: How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations. It is said to be a popularisation by two Australian legal academics of their academic book on the same subject.

>31 haydninvienna: Looks interesting, I agree! Hopefully, you'll get it as a gift from St. Nick and you'll be able to provide the rest of us with good feedback on how well the authors' intent comes across.

Little surprise this morning: the arrival of our first grandson X (no name chosen yet — get right on that, mum & dad), a couple of weeks ahead of time. This was a slight surprise since Caitlin was booked in to be induced tomorrow, so we were told. Mother and baby evidently well; going home tomorrow.

>33 haydninvienna: Congrats! I hope Mom and Grandson continue to do well, that's a quick exit from the hospital.

>33 haydninvienna:
Congratulations, granddad, granny, mum and dad! Welcome to X.

>33 haydninvienna: What >34 Karlstar: and >35 pgmcc: said!

>33 haydninvienna: Congratulations!

>33 haydninvienna: Well, that's exciting news! Congratulations on the new addition to the family.

>33 haydninvienna: Happy Birth Day! A lovely bit of news.

>33 haydninvienna: Oh, how wonderful! So glad you are there for this phase of your life. (Am I wrong in assuming this grandchild was born in Australia?)

>34 Karlstar:  — >40 clamairy: Thanks all. Clam: Your assumption is correct, but in a different city: we are in Brisbane, they in Canberra (a day and a half by road).

On a different topic, today's paper bears news of a plague of rats in Queensland. I hope "Villa Costa Lotta" isn't too badly affected.

The only rats that affect Villa Costa Lotta are the financial kind (translation: I bought a nice slightly-used Camry this morning and am still smarting at having to pay stamp duty (state government tax) on the transfer).

On checking the news, I see that the plague of rats is in Karumba, a small town in the Gulf of Carpentaria, 2130 km by road from here. What’s 2000 km from Durban? Actually, I’m slightly impressed that news of anything happening in Karumba made it as far away as South Africa.

>42 hfglen: & >43 haydninvienna: I hope there are enough pipers to deal with the situation!

>43 haydninvienna: Well it was in the humour slot ...

Quelimane in Mozambique is just over 2100 km by road from Durban according to our favourite search engine.

>43 haydninvienna: I'm pretty happy knowing there is a town named Karumba. We spell it Carumba here when we are saying the equivalent of "darn it!"

>33 haydninvienna: Congratulations! Very best wishes to you and your family!

More about Karumba here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karumba,_Queensland. As you will see, it isn’t exactly Metropolis, although it’s a good place for a Morning Glory.

>47 Sakerfalcon: Thanks Claire.

Incidentally, new grandson now has a name: Xavier Jack.

Time for a poem, I think:

On the birth of his son

Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister.

From https://allpoetry.com/On-the-birth-of-his-son (which rather regrettably doesn’t credit the translator, Arthur Waley).

>48 haydninvienna:
Nice poem. I trust Xavier will grow to know the wisdom of those words.

>48 haydninvienna: Love the name. :)

>50 MrsLee: it’s perhaps not what I would have chosen, but that’s not the point, is it?

I bought the new Camry from a Toyota dealer at Booval, which is a suburb about 20 km out of Brisbane in the Brisbane-Ipswich conurbation. Dropped the rental car off in the city and took the train out to Booval, about an hour’s journey—it was an all-stops suburban train. As we wound our way through the southwest of Brisbane I realised how much I’d missed the “tropicalness” of Brisbane. As I said, the place has changed a lot in the 50-plus years since I lived here, but I’m glad to be back.

I have to admit that I was impressed with the car dealer. Friendly, helpful, no attempt at upselling me—mind you, I just walked in and said “I want one of those”. David (elder son) says I’m a commission salesperson’s dream customer. The dealer actually made a little ceremony out of handing the car over—took me to the centre of the showroom where there was a car covered with a black sheet and a big pink bow, and invited me to remove the sheet, and reveal the cherry red Camry underneath.

Shows you how little I’ve kept up with the state of the automotive art though—I discover that it has a camera that can read and recognise speed limit signs.

>51 haydninvienna:
Robo-cop in the cab with you. :-)

>52 pgmcc: So far, it hasn’t tried to hand me a ticket, but then I'm a pretty law-abiding driver. The local speed limit is displayed on the dash and I’d assumed that GPS was involved. No, it reads the signs directly.

Have you watched Fifth Element? The taxi kept telling Corben Dallas when he infringed traffic laws and automatically applied penalties to his licence.

Multi. Pass.

Who else wants to negotiate?

>53 haydninvienna: So now there's no excuse that the driver was going by what the GPS said about possibly outdated speed limits, especially in work areas. That's good tech.

I’d been noticing how orderly Brisbane traffic seemed to be. There’s a lot of Camrys in it and a lot of Teslas, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Teslas could do the same trick.

And I realised that we’ve been here for more than two months and I haven’t seen a cane toad yet.

>57 haydninvienna:. What is a cane toad? (I could google it, but you invariably bring more interesting details to the fore than the general Wikipedia entry.)

>58 jillmwo: This is an extreme example

>59 Sakerfalcon: Well, certainly an encounter with one like that would keep me out of the park!

>58 jillmwo: >59 Sakerfalcon: One thing that Claire’s contribution didn’t add was that the toads were quite useless for the purpose for which they were introduced—that is, controlling cane beetles. In coastal cities in Queensland you would see the toads sitting under the streetlights at night hoping to catch the occasional unwary moth.

Full marks to the park ranger who was hardy enough to pick that thing up though {{shudders}}.

And if you want interesting details, try this: https://www.smh.com.au/national/toads-to-be-juiced-20060126-gdmuh9.html.

I understand they're invasive and they need to be removed, but it's just so typical of humans to have brought them to Australia in the first place, and then be horrified when they flourish and try to exterminate them.
We just suck. :o(

>61 haydninvienna: Sort of gives frogs in a blender new life.

>62 clamairy: It isn't that we suck. (Well, we might) But we are eternal optimists that we can "fix" things. Even those who are trying to fix the problems others created don't always get it right because there are so many unknown variables in nature.

>61 haydninvienna: The worst example I can think of of the deliberate introduction of a pest animal is the introduction of foxes to Australia. They were supposedly introduced only to provide the "bunyip aristocracy" (look it up) with something to hunt.

>64 haydninvienna: Because there were no other animals in Australia. *eyeroll* That definitely qualifies for clamairy's assessment. Different times I guess.

>65 MrsLee: I assume the squattocracy* didn't fancy the idea of view-hallooing after the kangaroos (which could easily outrun a horse). ETA "View-hallooing" is exactly what I meant: fox-hunting on horseback, with pink coats and hounds and all.

*squattocracy: portmanteau of squatter and aristocracy. "Squatters" were the pastoralists who moved out from Sydney in the 1820s and simply "squatted" on huge parcels of open land (of course ignoring (or worse) the traditional owners).

>64 haydninvienna:. The Wikipedia entry had me rolling on the floor! On some levels, that's just hysterical.

Another of those defining moments yesterday: I bought a magnolia (by which I mean Magnolia grandiflora "Little Gem"). I adore all magnolias, but the last 4 houses I've owned have all acquired an M. grandiflora. (The first one, at the old house in Canberra, was specifically placed to block a streetlight from a bedroom window. It did this very effectively and i was once told that it was one of the sights of the street. When I sold the house the new owner removed it. Vandal.) Unfortunately, where I want to put this one, the soil is 2 inches of wood chip mulch over 2 inches of topsoil and then clay. Fortunately "Little Gem" apparently grows well in a tub.

In that spot at the street frontage of our unit there's a row of 4 Murraya paniculata, which are growing pretty well out of I know not what. They are in flower now, and I can smell the orange-flower perfume as I type. Add the magnolia and you should just about be able to navigate by scent around here.

ETA Noting @MrsLee's comment about distracting you with chat to hide the lack of bookish conversation, I realised that I haven't mentioned a book for a while. I picked up The Starless Sea from the library but am making fairly heavy going of it. The library has also produced a couple of Tim Powers's books, in particular The Drawing of the Dark, which I've been intending to read for a while. Said to be one of Powers' less successful works, but hey, Vienna, beer, defeating the Ottoman Empire — what's not to like?

And while I'm about it: something that has bothered me for some time is, what happens if Mrs H or I become incapacitated and the ambulance people can't get in? My sister in law gave me the tip that you can put a key safe somewhere outside your house and let the ambulance office know where the key safe is and its combination. Fortunately we have a suitable place just outside the front door.

>68 haydninvienna:
I like your magnolia tradition. That stricks me as a nice way to mark “Home”, especially as you have done so much travel in your work.

>68 haydninvienna: I have a 60' magnolia in my backyard that was planted by birds, dug up by my grandmother to give to her niece, said niece never got around to picking it up, so it rooted itself through the wooden box it was in and kept growing. My cousin comes to visit "her" tree now and then. I love it.

>70 MrsLee: What a story! I've never had any trouble getting them to grow, but as I was carrying it out of the shop two people commented that they'd never been able to get one to grow. Incidentally, it has a flower bud on it.

Where I grew up in Brisbane, a nearby house had a magnolia that was taller than the roof. Since it was a 2-storey house, it was quite a big magnolia. My mother told once that the lady had told her that someone had suggested removing the magnolia, to which the answer was "Over my dead body!". That was 50-odd years ago. The house is still there but the magnolia isn't.

Last two pieces of our puzzle: Medicare cards and our possessions. Yesterday was a day short of 4 weeks since I posted the application for Medicare cards, and nothing had turned up, so I rang their 13xxxx number (free call from anywhere in Australia), and after a wait and some really sh**ty music on hold spoke to a very pleasant gentleman who was able to find the application, assign it to himself to process and do whatever was necessary. He called me back about 20 minutes later with our card number (Mrs H and I will be on the same card, but a duplicate card is available if you want one). It will still take another couple of weeks to get the physical card, but now I have a number that I can give to doctors.

Possessions are arriving tomorrow (and probably for a couple of days after that), inshallah.

I've added a couple more pieces: I've applied for a seniors card (discounts on some services and free travel off-peak on public transport), and need to find out whether I can get a disability sticker for the car — I'm not disabled, but I transport Mrs H, who is.

I am glad to hear you are getting the final pieces in place. We have found the free travel card here to be of great use. We have used it for train trips to Cork, Limerick and Longford. The “outside” peak limitation appears to have been removed here.

Of course, my wife wants to improve things, so she has been working with her political colleagues to make moves at EU level to have a free travel scheme introduced for seniors across all EU countries. :-) I will not hold my breath. However, some of her party colleagues who will be running for the EU parliament next year have taken the idea on board as something to boost their campaign.

>68 haydninvienna: Plant news is always welcome!

Possessions arrived, half an hour early. Three extremely fit blokes carried boxes and furniture and whatnot for a couple of hours and that was it. Now I just have to unpack it all. The garage is temporary (ha ha) storage for a lot and I managed to get the car in there as well, but only just. I have about 2 inches clearance on the passenger’s side, and the only door I can open is the driver’s door.

>74 Karlstar: I have actually planted the magnolia into a tub. Now we shall see. So far so good.

>75 haydninvienna: I was just reading online yesterday that they can be grown in pots/tubs. Will there be a potential issue with it blowing over/away? I haven't grown trees in pots, at least not since I had an Angel's Trumpet at a previous house and that was only about 3' tall.

>76 Karlstar: At present it’s a fairly small plant in a decently large tub, and I’m not worrying about it blowing over. I am worrying about having to give it a new home in a few years, though.

We have a house lizard. While the doors were open for the movers a skink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_garden_skink) sneaked in and is still in the house. At the moment we think he’s probably under the fridge, but who knows?

>77 haydninvienna: Rather a skink than our invasive geckos, methinks. Here skinks are rarer, less obtrusive and much less messy. But they both eat mosquitoes, and therefore should be at least tolerated.

>77 haydninvienna: It slinked in?

>79 Karlstar: Probably. They's pretty common here, and I like to have them about.

Another wildlife spotting: a sulphur-crested cockatoo. As usual with these noisy birds, you hear them first, and then while I was driving back from the Resource Recovery Centre (AKA the tip — lots of trips there lately) I actually saw one.

Trips to the Resource etc are going to be a part of my life for a while. The movers will collect empty boxes but they'll only do it for free once, and we don't have anywhere to store 250-odd empty boxes, so to recycling they must go.

Still opening and emptying boxes, and taking them and a good deal of their contents to the Resource Recovery Centre. Hardest thing so far to find a new home for: a load of soft toys. Mrs H and my daughter Laura both accumulated a number of them, and most of the collection need new homes, but most of the charities won't take them, because it's really hard to clean a soft toy. I managed to find one that rather tentatively agreed to take them on the basis of my assurance that the toys were clean. Somebody must take them, because "Big Ted", who sits about 4 feet tall, came from a charity shop. He won't be going anywhere though.

The kookaburras started at 3.30 am today, an hour before sunrise. Dawn chorus, bah, humbug!

In the middle of all of this I managed to read Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv. I wouldn't say I was quite as enthusiastic as Peter was, but I liked it, and will see if I can get hold of other books by Kurkov. One of the newspaper reviewers drew a comparison with Haruki Murakami, and I quite see that, although there isn't (in this book, anyway) the sense of menace that you often find in Murakami. I also found the style a tiny bit stilted, and I assume this was a translation issue.

Still plugging on with The Starless Sea. At the rate I'll finish this library copy about the time my own copy emerges from a box somewhere. Next up (probably): a couple by Tim Powers, The Drawing of the Dark and Hide Me Among the Graves.

>81 haydninvienna: I'm a fan of Tim Powers and am about to start on his latest novel, My Brother's Keeper. Have you read The Stress of Her Regard? If not, be advised that Hide Me Among the Graves is a direct sequel to that novel. The Drawing of the Dark is an earlier stand-alone that I read years ago. It took me a while to catch the title reference; Powers does like his puns... ;)

I'm still catching up and just saw your thread. Congratulations on your progress getting settled, and best wishes in your new home.

>83 Jim53: Thanks, Jim. We’re doing all right so far with unpacking, but there’s a way to go yet.

You might remember that a while back I posted about the Extinguished Countries Project. They are intending to publish a series of guidebooks to countries that no longer exist. First was The Republic of Venice (no touchstone), which I bought and was seriously impressed with. Now they are working on an even larger task: the Habsburg Empire. More information here: https://extinguishedcountries.com/.

>81 haydninvienna:
I am glad you liked Jimi Hendrix in Lviv albeit not as much as I did. The one criticism I have of the translation is the use of "sat" instead of "sitting". This North of England colloquial grammatical error has become part of common usage in recent years. In Jimi Hendrix in Lviv I felt the translator may have made a deliberate decision to use "sat" as it felt right in the context of the story. It usually grates on me when I hear it, but when I read it in this book it felt just right.

My enthusiasm for the book was based on several things. Firstly, a story about soviet era characters in a post-soviet era situation attracted me. Also I liked the characters. They were people going about their everyday life trying to make ends meet, putting up with the challenges of life and plodding on with the mundane, and coming across some disruptions to what they considered to be normal. I liked the interactions between the people and their approaches to dealing with unusual events in their lives. Humour was another aspect that worked with me.

Now that you mention it I see where the comparison with Murakami comes in. The use of a supernatural element to shape the story, but is not really central to what the book is about, but merely a mechanism to bring out the relationships and character behaviours. I find Murakami's use of the supernatural to be a technique that lets him explore aspects of his characters without making his stories about the supernatural events. The first two books of 1Q84 take place mostly in a parallel world but those books are about violence against women, not the parallel world.

>85 haydninvienna:
I remember your mentioning that. It is an interesting concept for a series of books.

>81 haydninvienna: >82 ScoLgo: I've been meaning to get to reading Tim Powers, I'll move him up on my TBR list. Where should I start?

>85 haydninvienna: I may have to give their project some support.

>82 ScoLgo: & >81 haydninvienna: I might have taken a bullet on The Drawing of the Dark. (I see I own On Stranger Tides, which I must have bought during an ebook sale.)

>81 haydninvienna: There is a way to clean them without chemicals, but I guess it's expensive.

>88 Karlstar: I don't think you can go wrong with The Anubis Gates, which is a time travel fantasy. The Stress of Her Regard is a vampire story - but the vampires are not at all the blood-sucking variety popularized by Stoker, nor the sparklers imagined by Meyer. Last Call is an excellent stand-alone novel that begins the loosely connected Fault Lines trilogy and riffs on Las Vegas, gambling, and the Fisher King legends. On Stranger Tides is another stand-alone that riffs on Caribbean pirates, Blackbeard, and the Fountain of Youth. Those are essentially the only elements shared with the movie though as the film is a very loose adaptation, (more of a clumsy shoe-horning into the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, really). The film is fun and the book is good - but they are not closely related. As mentioned above, The Drawing of the Dark is an early stand-alone that can work as a quick intro to his work. I do not recommend Declare as a first Powers. I personally think it may be his best novel to date but, unless you are up on cold war era spies and middle-eastern biblical legends, it might be a tough entry point. The Anubis Gates was my first and remains a good recommendation 30+ years later.

Powers also has some very good collections: Down and Out in Purgatory, The Bible Repairman and Other Stories, and Strange Itineraries.

Nearly every Powers novel can be classified as 'Secret History'; tales that are designed to mesh with reality and history as we think we know it while introducing supernatural elements behind the scenes that help explain events and motivations of the characters.

I support @ScoLgo's recommendation of The Anubis Gates as being a good introduction to the books of Tim Powers.

>90 ScoLgo: >91 pgmcc: Thanks to you both. I had a Tim Powers book on my Amazon wishlist for ages, but for whatever reason, it was never purchased. I'll put The Anubis Gates on, at a minimum.

>88 Karlstar: The Drawing of the Dark was my first Tim Powers. It's one of his earlier novels and is more of a historical fantasy than his later secret histories, having more overt fantasy elements. It does tie in with the Habsburgh Empire though, being set in the Siege of Vienna! The secret histories are a lot denser, so be warned.

>93 Maddz: As dense as a Jordan novel or a Chernow biography?

>82 ScoLgo: Then I've half a mind to send Hide Me Among the Graves back to the library and take out The Stress of Her Regard instead, given the pace of my reading at the moment. BUT: a quick check shows that the Brisbane library service doesn't have The Stress of Her Regard! Maybe someone borrowed it and never returned it?

I've got to the bit where Duffy finally reaches Vienna, and there's a casual reference to him walking up Kärntnerstrasse. Bit of a frisson there: I've done that a time or two, although I bet it looks a bit different now from what it did in 1529.

Our Medicare cards arrived in the post today, and my senior's card was in the same post. Mrs H's electoral enrolment was confirmed yesterday. Now all we need is a disability card for the car, and a senior's card for Mrs H, but for slightly complicated reasons that will be a little more work.

One other small thing I did: I've been worried for some time about what would have happened if something had happened to me (so that I couldn't open the door) and the ambulance paramedics couldn't get into the house. My sister in law put me onto the idea of putting a key outside in a lockbox in a safe place and letting the ambulance service know. The local ambulance district now knows where to find the lockbox and how to open it.

>95 haydninvienna: Hide me among the graves was my first Powers read. I had no idea at the time that there was a preceding novel, and didn't find any obstacles to my enjoyment of Graves. I did find the pacing uneven but that was because Powers was tying events to the characters real-life chronology which obviously did not flow like a novel! But it was good, and I've since gone on to enjoy Last call and the rest of the trilogy.

My mum now has a keybox outside her house. It's such a good idea.

>94 Karlstar: I've not read any Chernow, so can't say. Jordan I bounced off around book 6 or 7 when they became all too reminiscent of The Belgariad. I'd say denser and far better written than Jordan.

Still opening boxes. A couple of small wins: the nice lady at the Red Cross op-shop at Sunnybank (don't some Brisbane suburbs have gorgeous names) told me that they will take soft toys "but we basically give them away", so there they go if I find any more; and I found out why the animal shelter won't take quilts/duvets/doonas (whatever they're called in your part of the world). I dropped off a number of blankets and towels at the animal shelter this morning and the guy there said, almost as an afterthought, that they don't take doonas or anything with stuffing: "some dogs rip them apart and eat the stuffing". I should have known that. We had dogs when used to do just that.

>98 haydninvienna: My shelter takes comforters/quilts/duvets. They used them for the cats!

>97 Maddz: Thanks, I've put The Anubis Gates back on my wishlist to remind myself and I'll keep The Drawing of the Dark in mind. I'm looking forward to reading something by an author that's new to me.

We did a quick trip down to Wauchope (pronounced "WARhope", the C is silent) yesterday and today to visit our new grand-daughter. This was the child who arrived three months early back in May. She is now the size of a full-term newborn, and seems to be bright and lively, and is of course as cute as a button.

Just occurred to me that the two grandkids are continuing the family tradition of birthdays in odd-numbered months. We have birthdays in January (Philip aka Son who Cooks); March (me); May (David, my kids' late mother, and now granddaughter Alena); July (my daughter Laura and Mrs H); September (Alexandra, Alena's mother) and November (daughter Katherine and now grandson Xavier). The only standout is Xavier's mother Caitlin, whose birthday is in August.

The new car was due for its first periodic service yesterday (15,000 km or 1 year, whichever comes first — remember when you had to change the oil every thousand miles? I do) so I picked it up after the service and we drove the 530 or so km to Wauchope. No complaints at all. It's smooth, quiet, surprisingly energetic if you need to put your foot down, and when I topped up the fuel halfway back to Brisbane the tank took 36-and-a-smidge litres (8 Imperial gallons or 10 US gal.). At that point we had driven 740 km on 36 litres of (admittedly premium) fuel. You're welcome to work out what that comes to in MPG or litres per 100 km or whatever, but I like it.

>101 haydninvienna: Sounds as if you had a wonderful day trip! And it's great update about Alena!

To change the subject with a jerk: you may have seen this story on Atlas Obscura. It got me wondering. If birds are basically evolved dinosaurs, what of the science fiction trope of an alien race that are evolved dinosaurs? I can vaguely remember one or two stories in which the alien race seemed to be basically tyrannosaurs but smarter, with scales and tiny clawed hands (but they have interstellar spaceships and so on). I also remember vaguely that in L. Sprague de Camp's Viagens Interplanetarias stories, one of the alien races laid eggs but was humanoid enough for human and alien to, er, get it on, but of course no offspring resulted. So what would an evolved reptilian alien look like? For a start, they might well be warm-blooded, as with birds. They might bear their young alive — some reptiles do. They might not be scaly  — if birds can evolve feathers, I don't see why reptiles can't evolve fur or hair. What they are not going to evolve though is mammary glands, because if they did they'd be mammals. Remember that there are egg-laying mammals, such as the platypus (ETA: which have fur).

I don't recall any other details of Sprague's humanoid aliens, but presumably they were not repulsive to look at. Reptilian aliens in SFF are so often the Bad Guys that it's rather nice to think of a "reptilian" alien who wasn't a Bad Guy.

Just by the way, I'm given to understand that T. rex had at least some feathers. To get a humanoid dinosaur, I'd start with a probably bipedal, furry or feathered omnivore of "moderate" size.

>103 haydninvienna: The story/series that comes to my mind is Harry Harrison's West of Eden series. I believe in appearance they were of a human frame and proportions with reptilian head and tails.

>105 Karlstar: Never read West of Eden, unfortunately.

>104 hfglen: Not going to disagree wth either suggestion.

I'm not really sure where I was going with this thought, other than to ridicule the idea of an evolved dinosaur being just a tyrannosaur with brains. But let's have some alternative history. Suppose the K-T extinction hadn't happened and the dinosaurs* (other than the avian ones) had continued to evolve? I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest, given that some reptiles already do bear young alive, and some even have something very like a placenta, that the reptiles would evolve into something very like mammals. If there's a story idea in that, you're welcome to it.

*Or reptiles — even then, not all reptiles were dinosaurs.

>106 haydninvienna: Hmm. Didn't one of Kate Elliot's series feature intelligent troodons?

Also don't forget Robert J Sawyer's dinos although that was straight SF not alternate history.

>107 Maddz: Never read either of those either!

>108 haydninvienna: I recommend the Robert J Sawyer's Quintaglio Ascension. They are actually retellings of the age of enlightenment set on an alien planet.

I've got the Kate Elliots, but it's been a while since I read them Spiritwalker Trilogy. Like most Kate Elliots they are rather long-winded and are basically an alt-hist fantasy. The premise is that the ice age didn't end, and the Americas (certainly North America) are populated by intelligent troodons.

Another one to consider is Stephen Popkes A New World which was on LTER a while back.

>106 haydninvienna: That's basically the plot of the Harrison series, with the dinos being masters of biological technology.

>109 Maddz: I might try the Sawyer books, if I can find them here.

We continue to unpack boxes. In the course of doing so, we found a number of duvets/doonas/comforters (depending on where you live) that we no longer need. I'm very reluctant to send them to landfill, so have been searching for places that will take them. I've been a member of Metafilter for almost as long as I've been on LT, so I posted a question on Ask.Metafilter. Nothing useful so far, but at the bottom of every question there's a little panel with "possibly related questions", among which was this, which is about cheese. And librarians.

>111 haydninvienna: That's a lot of cheese. Shelters (people and animals) often need those sort of things, though maybe not this time of year for you. No luck with those?

It’s 6 am on Christmas morning in Brisbane, and silence outside. I know there are kids in the neighbourhood, so why aren’t they outside playing with their new bike or whatever? Maybe they all got computer games or whatever is the current hotness. Or maybe they don’t celebrate—this area is diverse enough that they might be of some other belief.

Anyway, a merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and to those who don’t, have a great day.

>112 Karlstar: Nothing definite so far, just the off-chance that Vinnies (that is, the Society of St Vincent de Paul) might. Their website says they will take bedding and doesn’t mention doonas.

>113 haydninvienna: A very Merry Christmas to you and yours!

>113 haydninvienna: What @MrsLee said, and a happy new year!

>114 MrsLee: >115 hfglen: Thanks to both of you, and a happy Christmas to both of you and your respective yours-es.

It's been an interesting Christmas Day here. We had a splendid Christmas lunch at the local pub, and now we are sitting in our living room watching a thunderstorm develop. Storms here for the last three or four days in a row.

>117 haydninvienna:
I am glad you have had a nice lunch and are now settling down to watch the show. I hope your first Christmas in your new home continues to be pleasant and joyful.

>118 pgmcc: Thanks Peter. Merry Christmas to you and yours also.

>117 haydninvienna: How I envy you! I am marveling at the news that there are pubs in Australia open on Christmas Day. May I join everyone else here in wishing you the best of the season (all twelve days of it). Take care of yourself and those with you. (Oh, in the meantime, take a nap and afterward, enjoy a good book.)

>113 haydninvienna: >117 haydninvienna: Merry Christmas to you also. Sounds like a fine day.

>120 jillmwo: "The pub" actually means a fairly large hotel which is a pretty good hotel-motel but also serves as a watering hole for the general area. We lived there for a week or so while waiting for our house to be settled.

We had at least one Christmas lunch at a pub in England too, although our favoured Christmas haunt pre-Covid was a bit grander: a large hotel (with a history allegedly dating back to Henry VIII) in a village near Bicester. Many pubs in Australia open on Christmas Day, although not necessarily for the full day.

I understand that Pennsylvania has, er, "unusual" liquor laws. In England all grocery stores, big or small, sell liquor (in this paragraph, "liquor" includes all kinds, beer, wines, spirits, whatever), and for the smaller ones it's often their major source of profit. Here in Queensland, grocery stores don't sell liquor but there's always a liquor store nearby. "Liquor store" means a store that sells liquor and can also sell mixers and party accessories and even snacks. In Canberra when I lived there, supermarkets sold liquor, although they tended to do so in a separate section with a separate checkout. (I suspect that this is more to do with the way that the Australian Capital Territory taxes liquor sales than any moral objections.) In Ireland I remember that the supermarkets sold liquor but on a Sunday could not do so before 11 am, so if you went in to Tesco earlier than that all the liquor aisles would be covered with sheets. No liquor in the supermarket in Doha, of course.

>121 Karlstar: Thanks Jim. It was a fine day, and the thunderstorm came up to scratch. We are promised another today — that's at least 4 days in a row.

>113 haydninvienna: Merry Christmas!

>123 Narilka: Thanks mate!

Happy Christmas!

>125 hfglen: And to you and yours (including the furry ones).

Happy Boxing Day!

>120 jillmwo: Some pubs and restaurants now open for Christmas lunch in England now. The meal is usually a very expensive 3 course set menu - I very much hope that the reason for the expense is to pay the staff for giving up their own Christmas Day plans.

>127 Sakerfalcon: Back when my late mother was still living at home and was reasonably compos mentis, my sister + sprogs would come down the week before Xmas and get the house ready for Xmas. I'd come down for Xmas Eve, and we'd have the family meal before my sister headed home to her house. Mum and I would go out for a meal on Xmas Day at one of the local hotels. The afternoon we'd go for a walk on the beach.

Even earlier, when my dad was alive and living in France, he'd come to the UK and take my sister and myself to a restaurant for a meal (my parents were separated).

So yes, it's not uncommon for places in the UK to be serving a Christmas meal, especially for an hotel. I suspect when Paul's mother dies, Paul and I will go away for Christmas. I certainly don't want to bother with cooking.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great day yesterday!

As I noted on the "weather check in" thread, it's stinkin' hot today so we are staying inside as much as possible. I noticed that I haven't given you a poem for some time and went looking for a decent geographically and seasonally-appropriate one. Best I could do was this, which I quite like:

White Wine in the Sun
by Tim Minchin

I really like Christmas
It's sentimental, I know, but I just really like it
I am hardly religious
I'd rather break bread with Dawkins than Desmond Tutu, to be honest

And yes, I have all of the usual objections
To consumerism, the commercialisation of an ancient religion
To the westernisation of a dead Palestinian
Press-ganged into selling Playstations and beer
But I still really like it

I'm looking forward to Christmas
Though I'm not expecting a visit from Jesus

I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun
I'll be seeing my dad
My brother and sisters, my gran and my mum
They'll be drinking white wine in the sun

>129 haydninvienna:
Very interesting in terms of the weather at Christmas.

>130 pgmcc: It's 4:30 pm and the temperature here is 34℃.

An odd experience this afternoon. I've complained before about being unable to read. maybe this year has just been too chaotic. I had been sitting playing a mindless computer game for some while when I suddenly felt inclined to read T S Eliot's poem "Little Gidding". So I found it on line and did so. Then I picked up The Starless Sea, which had been sitting by me with a bookmark in it literally for weeks, and read it straight through.

I don't really have anything useful to say about it. It's very strange, and although there's a lot of talk about stories, I don't think it could be mined for narrativium. The logic, for want of a better word, is dreamlike rather than story-like. Fortunately I quite like dream stories as long as they are not too much like a nightmare.

>131 haydninvienna:. You're sweltering in the heat so the "drinking white wine in the sun" poetry would naturally have its appeal.

The biggest source of stress -- the move with all of its moving engine bits that would stall out mysteriously and then (equally mysteriously) would suddenly begin to grudgingly turn again -- that stress has largely been removed. Or at least your brain has come to that point where it can make room for "other" stuff. I'm glad you can sit down and read again; the printed word moves more consistently and may be controlled as input more consistently. There is space now and you can relax a bit.

By the way, I had to go and look up the definition of narrativium.

>129 haydninvienna: >131 haydninvienna: Thanks for the poem. I'm glad you are back to a mind-space where you can read.

>132 jillmwo: >133 Karlstar: Thanks both. Jill, you're undoubtedly right about the stress of moving — I stopped reading just about the time it all started getting heavy.

>131 haydninvienna:
Yesterday I was reading Miss Benson's Beetle and turned to Chapter 14. I immediately thought of your comment.

>191 What is it with British writers and the Brisbane summer? In my last thread I quoted Arthur C Clarke to much the same effect.

As of now, it's not too bad: grey and overcast but much cooler. There's a line of storms about 100 miles north. Mrs H and I were out driving earlier today and drove through a short spell of pelting rain in the northern suburbs, but nothing much here.

Sounds like Durban, which is understandable. Influenced by a warm current on our doorstep and a 3000m-tall mountain chain 200 km away, we can go from 34°C to 17° in an hour or two. And back a day or 2 later.

>137 hfglen: The latitudes are similar (Brisbane 27°28’ S, Durban 29° 53’ S) but Brisbane’s summer is much less variable. Hot and usually pretty humid. No offshore currents (that I know of, anyway) and the mountains to the west and southwest don’t even reach 1000 m, let alone 3000.

>131 haydninvienna:. Wait a minute. You can't stop mid-word like that! Hurling suit- The obvious completion is an image of someone hurling suitcases but those are heavy and that's dangerous stuff while standing on a gangplank as Margery is.

>139 jillmwo: Hurling suitcases full of flowers into the water.
Hurling suits worn in anticipation of the next hurling match.
Hurling suits into the water and swimming ashore in their altogether.
Hurling suitable offerings to the gods.

>139 jillmwo: Not guilty, your honour. Wasn’t me, it was Peter, or rather Peter’s kindle.

I thought for a brief startled moment that you’d taken exception to “Little Gidding”, but of course that’s the title of the poem, and of a village and religious community in England.

>141 haydninvienna:
Thank you for clarifying that. I was wondering what Jill was on until your post.

>139 jillmwo:
The reason for the page from Miss Benson’s Beetle was the first paragraph. Richard had commented on the heat in Brisbane. Some time after that I came across that reference to heat in Brisbane while reading my novel. Coinkydink!

Hurling suitcases was far from my mind at the time.

>141 haydninvienna: and >142 pgmcc: Okay guys. I can see the issue with regard to a disconnect. I pointed to the wrong message and thus created confusion.

That said, you are still leaving me hanging here. The heat was the point in that initial paragraph of Chapter 14 in Miss Benson's Beetle and I like the sentence about the insects chittering like electricity. But I still have a question about the SECOND paragraph in the image of Peter's Kindle shown in post #135. What was being hurled by Margery's friends? Flowers, brick-bats, what?

After my incident above (>131 haydninvienna: ) I’m now making steady progress with The Drawing of the Dark. Nothing to say so far other than that the editing is a bit odd. I saw a reference to someone speaking “quitely” and just now Vienna having been “infested” by the Turks. I assume that Powers meant, and probably wrote, “invested”. But WTH, Random House? The copy I’m reading is the trade pb from 1999.

>143 jillmwo: I already gave you many lucid answers in >140 MrsLee:. Why must you quest for the truth?

Finished The Drawing of the Dark. About time too. As others have said, it's a little rough around the edges in places, but I'll give it four stars (I don't generally do ratings, but ...). This is the kind of fantasy that I like — it's connected with lots of real myth (real in the sense of myth that exists rather than being made up for the purpose of the story). I'm puzzled by people who attempt to prove that there was a real King Arthur. The myth is much more important — it's been a significant part of Western literature for a millennium or more, so the historicity or otherwise of King Arthur is basically irrelevant. In a sense, if somebody were to produce a real historical person who was King Arthur, the myth would be diminished.

I ditched Mr Dickens and his Carol (picked up more or less at random during my next-to-last library visit) after a couple of pages. Definitely not my thing.

Now I have Kraken by China Miéville, Hide Me Among the Graves by Powers, and Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas to go. I have a copy of The End of Mr Y somewhere but I don't think I ever finished it. Maybe once the books come out of the boxes. I don't expect to finish all 3 in the next 12 hours.

>144 haydninvienna: Seems to me that if you're going to gripe about the lack of proofreading in a trade publication from 1999, then you need to study your typing in >146 haydninvienna:. (I don'e expect to finish all 3 in the next 12 hours.)

Clearly, publishers as well as Pub denizens are equally prone to missing these things. But we still love you anyway...

>147 jillmwo:
He was phonetically affecting a Scottish accent. It is Hogmanay after all.

>146 haydninvienna: Ah well, ‘tis sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard ….

And given that it’s now well past midnight here: Happy New Year!

>150 haydninvienna:
Happy New Year, Richard. May 2024 be wonderful for you and Mrs H.

Wishing you the very happiest of new years! Looking forward to your new thread in the new year of 2024!

>143 jillmwo:

To satisfy your curiosity:

Everywhere she looked people were meeting friends, shouting, waving, hurling suitcases, pointing which way to go.

Joyce, Rachel. Miss Benson's Beetle (p. 97). Transworld. Kindle Edition.

>151 pgmcc: >152 jillmwo: Thank you both. Same to you and yours.

Please can we all have a quiet 2024? Not too much drama and a lot less collective stupidity?

>154 haydninvienna: From your mouth to God's ears, as they say...I too would prefer a quiet 2024.

>153 pgmcc: Okay, so someone actually WAS hurling suitcases. I was hoping I was wrong. But having looked up the book in question, I will look forward to hearing your review. It sounds like it might be fun.

Happy New Year! Another vote for less stupidity in 2024.