Owls and Snails
It looks like doing November’s novel writing adventure has totally used up the serpent stash of words for the remainder of the year. Even squiggling Christmas cards and emails has become a struggle and the subject of much procrastination. Especially annoying is that thanks to the drastic drop in the value of the Oz zloty, Christmas shopping on Amazon is no longer the handy one stop Christmas shop that it used to be.
For years and years I used to contrast and compare Amazon and Book Depository. In most cases they worked out much the same because what you would gain on price you would lose on postage fees with the odds tilting towards Amazon for orders of more than 2 items. But in those days the exchange rate was between 90 cents and parity and not the ghastly 70 something that it is now which means having to add just under 50% to the Amazon price to get the currency conversion.
It’s a pity because Amazon.com is such an easy to use site. There’s an address list that actually works and most importantly of all, they understand the concept that people sometimes send books as presents so they let you write little messages or they even wrap the books if you are feeling particularly decadent.
Book Depository on the other hand make you type out stupid addresses from scratch each time even if they are already in your address book and the concept of sending gift messages is completely alien to them even though it is rather likely that if the shipping and billing addresses are not the same, it’s probably a present.
But even with all this carping and squawking it’s is still better than the appalling alternative of having to use Australia Post for anything. I haven’t darkened the door of that awful owlery since December 2012 when one of their goblin snails ate my box of zombies. So much stuff had gotten lost or delayed for up to a year and that was the last nail in the coffin.
The recent Izzie listlessness is partly due to the inevitable crash at the end of November. It’s always good to follow some big project with a smaller one straight away in order to avoid the writing equivalent of the post exams blues. Then there are a whole bunch of anniversaries and the endless intrusive thoughts concerning “This time last year…” The Dementors had a field day with those. It took until Tuesday to finally shake them off.
Then of course there’s been the convenient distraction of books to read some of which are so addictive that other activities involving words just get tossed on the back burner. “The Girl with all the Gifts” and “The Pelican Brief” come to mind. The first of these is the quirkiest and creepiest book I have encountered since the very surreal and strange “The Hangman’s Replacement”. Lawyers, Dystopian settings, mad scientists and wicked weeds are always welcome in a story. Maybe I should make a ‘shopping list’ for next November.
Since starting that voluntary job in the charity shop and claiming the book shelves as serpent territory, it has provided a Pandora’s Box of temptations. It’s like being a boozer working in a bottle shop.
It’s amazing how many bright shiny new books make their way to the store from the central warehouse or direct donations. About 20 ancient Asimov books have also landed lately.
Today’s grand plan included a visit to the annual Symphony in the City which is a free event featuring the local orchestra and lots of fireworks. Last year was the first time I ever went to see it and liked it so much that I had every intention of going again. The weather is mild. Not muggy and not raining like last week but this morning I lost interest. After a long and busy day yesterday and another tomorrow, just felt like lurking and lounging about and being a lazy serpent.
Got a bit of gardening done and planted seeds and stuff but did not make the most of the mild weather. The Christmas decorations are still sitting in their boxes in the corner. They had been on the ‘to do’ list for today. It was pretty much a ‘Do nothing Day”
Looks like all the Christmas cards and decorations will have to be left until some time tomorrow.
Again.
For years and years I used to contrast and compare Amazon and Book Depository. In most cases they worked out much the same because what you would gain on price you would lose on postage fees with the odds tilting towards Amazon for orders of more than 2 items. But in those days the exchange rate was between 90 cents and parity and not the ghastly 70 something that it is now which means having to add just under 50% to the Amazon price to get the currency conversion.
It’s a pity because Amazon.com is such an easy to use site. There’s an address list that actually works and most importantly of all, they understand the concept that people sometimes send books as presents so they let you write little messages or they even wrap the books if you are feeling particularly decadent.
Book Depository on the other hand make you type out stupid addresses from scratch each time even if they are already in your address book and the concept of sending gift messages is completely alien to them even though it is rather likely that if the shipping and billing addresses are not the same, it’s probably a present.
But even with all this carping and squawking it’s is still better than the appalling alternative of having to use Australia Post for anything. I haven’t darkened the door of that awful owlery since December 2012 when one of their goblin snails ate my box of zombies. So much stuff had gotten lost or delayed for up to a year and that was the last nail in the coffin.
The recent Izzie listlessness is partly due to the inevitable crash at the end of November. It’s always good to follow some big project with a smaller one straight away in order to avoid the writing equivalent of the post exams blues. Then there are a whole bunch of anniversaries and the endless intrusive thoughts concerning “This time last year…” The Dementors had a field day with those. It took until Tuesday to finally shake them off.
Then of course there’s been the convenient distraction of books to read some of which are so addictive that other activities involving words just get tossed on the back burner. “The Girl with all the Gifts” and “The Pelican Brief” come to mind. The first of these is the quirkiest and creepiest book I have encountered since the very surreal and strange “The Hangman’s Replacement”. Lawyers, Dystopian settings, mad scientists and wicked weeds are always welcome in a story. Maybe I should make a ‘shopping list’ for next November.
Since starting that voluntary job in the charity shop and claiming the book shelves as serpent territory, it has provided a Pandora’s Box of temptations. It’s like being a boozer working in a bottle shop.
It’s amazing how many bright shiny new books make their way to the store from the central warehouse or direct donations. About 20 ancient Asimov books have also landed lately.
Today’s grand plan included a visit to the annual Symphony in the City which is a free event featuring the local orchestra and lots of fireworks. Last year was the first time I ever went to see it and liked it so much that I had every intention of going again. The weather is mild. Not muggy and not raining like last week but this morning I lost interest. After a long and busy day yesterday and another tomorrow, just felt like lurking and lounging about and being a lazy serpent.
Got a bit of gardening done and planted seeds and stuff but did not make the most of the mild weather. The Christmas decorations are still sitting in their boxes in the corner. They had been on the ‘to do’ list for today. It was pretty much a ‘Do nothing Day”
Looks like all the Christmas cards and decorations will have to be left until some time tomorrow.
Again.