A day of sight-seeing in Helsinki. The trains. Tea with a lactose-free cream doughnut-thing while waiting for the shops to open (10:00). Three of the Poets of the Fall CDs. Some yarn to knit. The indoor market, with sections for meat and cheese and tiny silver fish. The church and Senate Square. Havis Amanda. The ferry to Suomenlinna and a walk to ( Read more... )

Saturday - Tampere ( Read more... )

Travel is about the little things as much as the big ones. In a shower with a handheld showerhead, where on the body does that showerhead aim when you're not holding it? Our default is “on or just below your head, so you can wash your hair”. Here, in this apartment, if not more generally, it seems to be “on your midriff”. It works fine ( Read more... )

There's a time in long-haul flying when I tell myself “never again”. Well, except to get home. It came early this trip, somewhere between Auckland and Hong Kong. By the time we were winging it out of Hong Kong - after some delay about crossing a portion of Chinese airspace - I was into the zen of it. Managing three hours of sleep helped ( Read more... )

Starting in September last year I had a cluster of migraines ( Read more... )

I say
"your face,
subtly sculpted by
the fingers of another language"

it's not quite right

but if I said
"licked into shape
by another tongue"

you'd just say
"ewww"

Contemplate the word 'wry'.

I use it as an irony marker in text-based roleplay. My main character's not-infrequent wry smiles are (intended as) a sign of fond dry humour.

I've just found, during the post-mortem after playing with someone fairly intensively for over a year, that while I understand 'wry' primarily as TheFreeDictionary's definition 1:

1 ( Read more... )

We painted the computer room yesterday. It now has just the computers and the computer furniture in it, pulled away from the walls while they finish curing. This minimalism is pleasant -- although I will appreciate having curtains back -- but means there's currently a lot of stuff in the living room. We'll need to make some calls about where the ( Read more... )

Wind,
you've bodyslammed my house enough.

It's tiresome.

If we must play rough
let's go to the shore.

You'll fling spray and stinging sand.
I will turn and laugh.

300 g castor sugar ( Read more... )