sholio: book with pink flower (Book & flower)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-20 07:12 pm

Unraveller - Francis Hardinge

I haven't read Hardinge in ages, so I'm catching up some of her books I missed. I started with this one, and really enjoyed it! Although it's not specifically similar to it, I was reminded of Fly By Night in its general vibe - not as dark as some of her books (... I say this about a book in which
slight spoilerone protagonist's brother ate her sister and that's not even the worst trauma of her life),
with entertainingly unhinged worldbuilding including a kingdom partly ruled by spiders, and kid protagonists caught up in adult politics in which they're not sure which of the various morally gray adults around them they can trust.

Basic setup/characters/etc )

Spoilers )
turps: (bite me)
turps ([personal profile] turps) wrote2025-08-20 05:00 pm

(no subject)

I'm looking after Kayleigh's cats and tortoise atm, visiting twice a day, and man, having the two kittens makes the job so much harder. Fun, but I totally understand why the phrase like herding cats was invented.

We went to see Materialists yesterday, and while I really enjoyed watching Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, I can't say it gripped me, so I wouldn't really rec.

James also had an appointment with his back doctor. It was at the private hospital and when we got there we were told there was a 40-min delay. But in the end we only waited about 20 minutes, probably because the consultant was rattling through his appointments. James' literally took less than two minutes, asked if the pain was back, told yes, okay, can have the injections again, appointment will be sent as soon as possible, then done, out we went.

Today was weight management class, cut for those who don't want to read )

I finally picked up my new compressions today. I actually got the thigh high pair last week, but those are meant for use in the house or just pottering around, so I haven't worn them much. But today I got the below knee ones meant for every day, and you know I'm going to wear the blue patterned ones tomorrow.

I'm going swimming again tomorrow morning. So it'll be cats, swimming and then back home to tidy up and move furniture as my MiL is coming to spend the week on Friday. I'm just hoping James' appointment doesn't come really early as there's already an overlap of looking after the cats and my MiL. I could do without James' being down for the count, too.
turps: (beach)
turps ([personal profile] turps) wrote2025-08-17 04:27 pm

(no subject)

It was our first craft fair of the year yesterday, so the days before involved checking through stock while James finished off new items. With him having to cancel a few fairs last year after breaking his elbow, there was lots to sell. It was held at our local cat only vet in aid of Consett Cats, and went very well. It's a small space so things got crowded, but we managed. And a bonus, I didn't adopt any of the adorable kittens there for cat cuddles. I was exhausted last night, though, ready for bed at eight, but managed to hold on to nine.

On the subject of broken elbows, James was finally discharged from physio. They said they've pretty much done all they can for him and his grip and strength is much better. He still can't get his hand to his mouth, but at this point the only thing that may help that is surgery and neither of us are keen on that happening as it would be very little gain for a big risk. Not that he's had an appointment to discuss the CT scan results yet, so surgery may not even be an option whether he wants it or not.

We went swimming again last week, got to the pool and the receptionist said, are you aware the pool shuts at 9:30 for an aqua aerobics class? And no, no I was not aware. But we got a good 40 minutes swimming so better than nothing.

B12 injection day again on Thursday and I went from the doctors to the gym. Can't say I felt any more energetic, though did do a 45 minute recumbent cycle session so maybe there was a bit of a boost going on. It was actually great at the gym as it was nearly empty for most of the time I was there. Which was good as they'd completely ran out of hygiene wipes so no one could wipe down the machines after use. Which was pretty gross and I cleaned mine the best I could with the hem on my t-shirt.

We went to see Freakier Friday and it was fun, a good way to spend a couple of hours.

Weight management class was about unhelpful thinking patterns, and it was one of the best classes I've been to yet cut for those not interested )
sholio: murderbot group from episode 10 (Murderbot-family1)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-15 11:55 pm
Entry tags:

Murderbot fic: Natal Day Gifting

Bookverse-compliant except for Pin-Lee's TV pronouns, written for a Tumblr prompt.

Title: Natal Day Gifting
Word Count: 1400 words
Characters: Gen, Murderbot & Gurathin, PresAux in general
Summary: Murderbot gets dragged along on a birthday present shopping expedition. It enjoys this surprisingly somewhat more than expected.
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69306156

Notes and Prompt )

Fic under the cut )
sholio: Gurathin from Murderbot looking soft and wondering (Murderbot-Gura)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-14 10:29 pm

Murderbot promptfic from Tumblr

Cross-posting a couple of ficlets I wrote for Tumblr prompts earlier in the week.

***

1. A prompt for Murderbot and Gurathin undercover in the Corporation Rim. Originally posted here.

1000 words or so )

2. A request for de-aged Gurathin. Originally posted here.

About 1100 words )
sholio: A stack of books (Books & coffee)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-11 10:20 pm
Entry tags:

Murder in the Trembling Lands (Ben January #21)

Working on belatedly writing up some books I've read lately.

A new Ben January book came out in July, and I had tremendous fun with it! This is one of the books in the series where Hambly goes Full Pulp with the plot, and she is delightful at it - buried treasure, pirates, abandoned houses crumbling in the swamp, identity shenanigans, long-lost relatives ...

Spoilers )
turps: (cheerful duck)
turps ([personal profile] turps) wrote2025-08-10 05:33 pm

(no subject)

I called into the pharmacy on Friday to see if my new compressions had finally been delivered. Now, I've called in and asked twice since my initial appointment, and each time they'd said, not yet. Yesterday they admitted that while the script had been sent off, it had been done so without any measurements attached, and the right form had only been sent that morning.

Which is all kinds of frustrating, especially so as I had asked those two times. So, as they are made to measure, I'm looking at another fortnight at least to wait.

Yesterday I was Bodhisitting. She turns four next Sunday, so I was asking what she wanted for her birthday, and it's all superhero stuff as she's really into Spider-Man and the Hulk right now. Which okay, I can work with that. Kayleigh has actually bought a Spider-Man costume and intends to deliver Bode's birthday presents while dressed up. Which, way to go the extra mile.

Then last night we went to the theatre to see Chicago, and I enjoyed it lots. Roxie Hart was played by the ex Strictly pro Janette Manrara, and I wasn't sure what to expect as she's not the best as a presenter, but while she's obviously not a stage trained singer, I thought she did a good job. The whole cast did, in fact.

But in a what are the odds moment, two rows behind us was the woman who was thrown out of the Hamilton showing. She has a very distinctive voice and way of speaking, and I turned around and yep, there she was. This time much quieter, but she still chattered away throughout to her friends.

Today it was more Bodhisitting, and yet again I spent hours looking for criminals and getting arrested. Not sure what I ever did to require being arrested so often, but obviously I must be some kind of bad guy that needs locking away from the world.
sholio: Carol Danvers glowing (Avengers-CM Carol glowing)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-09 09:57 am

MCU meme

Stole this from [personal profile] muccamukk.

Bold = Watched Entirety
Italic = Watched Part
* Watched more than once.
† Watched in the first few weeks of release (at least initially, for TV shows).

Big annotated list of movies/shows )

Some nostalgic nattering about that )

Code if you want to do it yourself:
sholio: murderbot group from episode 10 (Murderbot-family1)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2025-08-08 08:00 pm
Entry tags:

Just Murderbot things

Check out this person's adorable manga-style art illustrating scenes from the first three Murderbot books. I love their art style!

I was thinking about how the adaptation for the next season might go.

More about that )
turps: (cats and coffee)
turps ([personal profile] turps) wrote2025-08-07 04:48 pm

(no subject)

I picked up my fruit and veggie box this afternoon, and look at the goodies )

I usually pick up from the Re-F-Use café, but this time, with it being a different day, it was a pickup from an address from Durham. It was a quick drive there, but then I stood knocking for ages. Finally messaged the person who runs the collections, and they said to just go down the drive and the boxes were under the car port and I could pick which one I liked the look of. Did that and yeah, there were four boxes to pick from, sheltered nicely out of the sun.

Once I knew what to do, it was so much easier than a café pick up. Now I have an excess of carrots to deal with, and yes, more lemons *g*