Notes from the floor
Literally; we're on a mattress on my mother's lounge room floor. It's pretty comfortable this time around.
*
One of the things my mother asked of me when I turned up this time was to help her buy books. :DDD
When we were teenagers, she gave our kids' books away to a relative with little kids, and now my mum has grandchildren, she wanted to be able to read to them again. More, she wanted a lot of the books she remembered, certain editions with certain illustrations. So I got on BetterWorld, hunted about for a few hours, and came up with about a dozen, which we weeded down to ten, which she bought. And then she thought of three more she wanted, and we bought those too. But she still wanted a book of nursery ryhmes, and there weren't any Australian classics amongst them, so when I went into Sydney yesterday for dinner at Chedi, I hit up Gould's afterwards, and methodically went through their kids' section from one end to the other and discovered:
* A marvellous hardback children's book of nursery rhymes and other stuff called the Big Bedtime Book, which has a 1988 print date but has illustrations from the 1920s, and from the look of the text is a reprint from that era.
* Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, print date 1948, hardback, more or less pristine, and the same edition mum still owns from her childhood
* The Magic Pudding, hardback, also beautiful condition
* The Wombles, paperback, but in good condition, very readable
* A picture book of a Banjo Paterson poem, Benjamin Bandicoot. Mum loves poetry, particularly Paterson, out of the Australian poets
* A gorgeous hardback book of Jean de la Fontaine's fables, with the verses in English (properly rhymed and metered) AND the original French, with beautiful engraved illustrations by Gustave Doré throughout. It's a modern printing, though according to Doré's wiki page it was originally printed (in French) in 1867.
And for under $80, the lot. Bargain. Mum and I are going to cover them in a bit, and then they'll be ready for use.
We also found a few others at Target. I went in looking for There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, which I loved as a kid and knew had been reprinted recently. We also got Yes, We Can and It's Lovely When You Smile by Sam McBratney, which have beautiful illustrations by Charles Fuge and are just charming stories, and Noodle's Knitting, which we grabbed because it was adorable, and has fuzzy bits, and it's about knitting, how could we resist? Especially as it was only $3.
*
We got the sim in my Nokia activated, so now it's actually a phone, not just a glorified ereader. Adding contacts was easy, and the messaging and phone call side of things seem easy to use, so that's good. I also bought my first paid app, TripView, since there doesn't seem to be a free app for Sydney public transport that's any good. Initial poking at it seems like it's worth all the high ratings; it's got all the information that's useful about the buses and trains and ferries, and we will use it when we visit.
Also, I downloaded a bunch of games that sounded interesting, and the winner, so far, is far and away Pandoodle. It's a logic game, where the object is to colour all the dots the right colours. It's got a pleasing, simple interface, non-intrusive ambient music, and it's a basic idea very cleverly executed. And it's free, which is a big tick in its favour, right there.
*
Anyway, that's it for now. I might post again later tonight, maybe some pictures, I've been taking some.
This entry was originally posted at http://iamshadow.dreamwidth.org/367816.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
*
One of the things my mother asked of me when I turned up this time was to help her buy books. :DDD
When we were teenagers, she gave our kids' books away to a relative with little kids, and now my mum has grandchildren, she wanted to be able to read to them again. More, she wanted a lot of the books she remembered, certain editions with certain illustrations. So I got on BetterWorld, hunted about for a few hours, and came up with about a dozen, which we weeded down to ten, which she bought. And then she thought of three more she wanted, and we bought those too. But she still wanted a book of nursery ryhmes, and there weren't any Australian classics amongst them, so when I went into Sydney yesterday for dinner at Chedi, I hit up Gould's afterwards, and methodically went through their kids' section from one end to the other and discovered:
* A marvellous hardback children's book of nursery rhymes and other stuff called the Big Bedtime Book, which has a 1988 print date but has illustrations from the 1920s, and from the look of the text is a reprint from that era.
* Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, print date 1948, hardback, more or less pristine, and the same edition mum still owns from her childhood
* The Magic Pudding, hardback, also beautiful condition
* The Wombles, paperback, but in good condition, very readable
* A picture book of a Banjo Paterson poem, Benjamin Bandicoot. Mum loves poetry, particularly Paterson, out of the Australian poets
* A gorgeous hardback book of Jean de la Fontaine's fables, with the verses in English (properly rhymed and metered) AND the original French, with beautiful engraved illustrations by Gustave Doré throughout. It's a modern printing, though according to Doré's wiki page it was originally printed (in French) in 1867.
And for under $80, the lot. Bargain. Mum and I are going to cover them in a bit, and then they'll be ready for use.
We also found a few others at Target. I went in looking for There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, which I loved as a kid and knew had been reprinted recently. We also got Yes, We Can and It's Lovely When You Smile by Sam McBratney, which have beautiful illustrations by Charles Fuge and are just charming stories, and Noodle's Knitting, which we grabbed because it was adorable, and has fuzzy bits, and it's about knitting, how could we resist? Especially as it was only $3.
*
We got the sim in my Nokia activated, so now it's actually a phone, not just a glorified ereader. Adding contacts was easy, and the messaging and phone call side of things seem easy to use, so that's good. I also bought my first paid app, TripView, since there doesn't seem to be a free app for Sydney public transport that's any good. Initial poking at it seems like it's worth all the high ratings; it's got all the information that's useful about the buses and trains and ferries, and we will use it when we visit.
Also, I downloaded a bunch of games that sounded interesting, and the winner, so far, is far and away Pandoodle. It's a logic game, where the object is to colour all the dots the right colours. It's got a pleasing, simple interface, non-intrusive ambient music, and it's a basic idea very cleverly executed. And it's free, which is a big tick in its favour, right there.
*
Anyway, that's it for now. I might post again later tonight, maybe some pictures, I've been taking some.
This entry was originally posted at http://iamshadow.dreamwidth.org/367816.html. Please comment there using OpenID.