Weeknotes #85

I currently have a stack of unfinished science fiction novels:

1. Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama”
2. Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Blue Mars”
3. Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow”
4. Liu Cixin’s “Death’s End”
5. Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation and Empire”
6. Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Ruin”
7. Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven”

I’ll start a novel with the best of intentions but my interest will wane and I’ll push another book onto the pile. The taller the stack gets, the less likely it is I’ll return to books lower down. It doesn’t help that it has now been years since I stopped reading, say, “Children of Ruin” so I’ll probably have to restart it. Seeing the full stack in one place makes me realise I should think twice before adding anything new.

C is a big fan of vehicles (almost entirely land-based, he has no interest in the sea) and we made the mistake of browsing YouTube for "construction vehicles for kids". We're now attempting to wean him off a German channel featuring an adult playing with children's toys.

E and I watched “Sound of Metal” on Prime Video and thoroughly enjoyed it. In retrospect, it was an odd choice for breaking in our new soundbar.

Following the gluttony of Christmas and inactivity of the past year, I’ve made an effort to cut back on pointless snacking, especially in the evenings. Breaking the habit of a square (or two) of “Mint Intense” chocolate once C is in bed is proving difficult.

As a Christmas gift, E and I went for a spa day on Thursday before heading to my parents’ for my dad’s birthday. It is increasingly clear that my diet has a lot in common with the Butterfield Diet Plan.

Listening to a lot of tech podcasts while finishing painting my office led me to delete the many weather apps on my phone. I had hoped to never need one but, after getting drenched while running along the river, I begrudgingly reinstalled Carrot Weather and nothing else.

My mum’s American-style fridge freezer broke after 16 years. She ordered a replacement but it wouldn’t fit through the one door necessary to get it into her kitchen. A lesson in preparing the way.