Red Arrows #dreamdiary 182

I’m trying to find my way to the coffee shop. I’ve got these new glasses to guide me. They interact with some mapping software and bring up some red arrows on the lenses to direct me. The trouble is that they fail to take height into account. They indicate when I’m at a destination, but only because the corresponding satellite states that I should be above it. So when I’m in a tunnel that runs underneath a shopping precinct, my device tells me that I have arrived. There’s diagonal arrows to indicate some nearby steps as a suggestion, but I have to restart my route again, because as I turn my back to my destination, an alarm is raised indicating that I’m travelling away from it. It never turns green or tells me how far away I am from it. It’s very frustrating as it can’t recognise what floor I’m on and where I need to go.

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown

The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was excited to read this book as there’s the right blend of action and history distributed at a good pace. I felt that the scenes were written more for a movie than a novel since there were too many backflashes within each chapter at the beginning as each scientific element was explained. I understand the concept of a shared consciousness but it’s confusing when you argue that two different people occupy the same body. I thought the ending was a bit anti-climatic and that marriage would be an interesting proposal for our adventuring professor. But it gives the author an opportunity for a fresh accomplice should another story develop. And just when you think the tale’s about finished, there’s always a bit more to explore. It’ll do the Prague Tourist Board a world of good though. There’s some interesting sights that have been scouted out, which will now attract some extra attention.

View all my reviews

Mailout

Here we go. Just another day sorting out the post. Oh, what's this, come to empty me already? Nope, just walking past into the house over there with some milk. Lady with a dog. She’s seen me. She's coming over. What's this? Yes, there's a letter in her bag. Here it comes, yes! Score for the post box. And the dog’s pissed all over me. It’ll be off putting to everyone who visits. Yet neither of them seem that bothered. Off they go without a care in the world that I now stink like wee. Here comes the post van. The postie gets out. He's pulled his key out of his pocket. He's just taken a big whiff of air… and he’s scarpered. Hope that letter wasn’t urgent. Serves her right anyway. Never mind, there's always the afternoon collection. Mind you, he should have seen last night's reaction on Monday morning after the crowd came out of that pub. There might be some smell remaining in the letters. Oh, here comes Mrs Davenport to change my cosy. What have we got here? It's a giant football. Well, that's just lovely.

Stand-off #richmond 19

 ‘What do we do?’ said Jim.

‘I dunno’ said James; ‘It’s like they’re organised’.

‘I suppose that if they’re not going to move then we’re going to have to push past.’

‘But they might bite. They might not have too much fear in these numbers.’

‘Well, we have to do something. We can’t stop here all night.’

Jim approached the Land Rover. All eyes were on him. There were two deer right in front of the driver’s door. They bent down and pointed their antlers in front of him.

‘If those deer charges and impales you, you’re a goner’ said James. ‘And they don’t look like they’re moving.’

‘Well, what if you come up with me?’

‘OK’. As James joined his friend, even more deer appeared. Their eyes were glowing in the night. They started to close in on them.

‘I don’t like this’ said Jim. ‘We’re going to have to either fright, fight or flight.’

What Sound do Hamsters make?

I could be played an actual audio file of a hamster. Or it could be a joke. Either way, I’ve owned a hamster and I’ve never known it to make any sound unless it’s in distress; in which case it does squeak; unless it spent its life in terror as it spent most of its life in a cage trying to escape. Perhaps that’s the modern role of a hamster. It wasn’t the hamster itself, but what it constantly made was a rattling sound as it loved to gnaw on the cage bars, if only to try and trim its teeth. I suppose I should have provided a block of cork to help it. It only ever escaped if the door wasn’t shut properly, even if it was the roof section. It loved to do the monkey bars. It was only quiet when it was asleep or if it was eating something; though it never went nom gnom nom.

The Advance #richmond 18

Just a little nip. That’s all it takes to cause a bit of fear. The blood will start to appear; there’ll be a bit of pain, and they’ll get worried. They might retaliate in anger but they’re more likely to run away to preserve themselves. They won’t gain anything by staying to fight. And once they’re on the run, we can go inside and investigate. Smash through the clear panes. We can use branches rather than our own heads. Use them as tools like they do. Although we do run the risk of them returning with more men. So we mustn’t let them escape. Instead we must surround them. Find the instruments that let us get inside all of their locked boxes. Then we can plunder the food and stop any of them from coming back in the morning. What would they do if all the gates are left open at night? And what would they do if they’re closed in the day?

"Use the Time You've Got"

Never underestimate time. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult when you just want to relax and it can force you into a sense of idleness as you’ll just feel overwhelmed sometimes. Things can just hang over you but you’ll feel a lot better if you make time to do them. Often, they take longer to do than you think they do because of the processes involved or things that you haven’t foreseen.  If you think about the time you have between your next event and what you have to do to prepare for it, you should really focus on getting that done first. You never know when you’ll be interrupted and you’ll have to spend that time completing a different task instead. Sometimes you have to be flexible. Some things you can do in bits and come back to finish them later; other things require a set time to complete them in one go. It’s a delicate balance.