Discussion Random Discussion

[gringo2011]

You sound like me, I read in a similar way: binge on old authors that I have maybe read one book of. Been through all the Russian ones and love them: there's just something about the way they write and the feelings it gives. Love Chekhov: the way he describes/observes people is amazing. Love all Hemingway stuff and Steinbeck.

This summer I am going to read Thomas Hardy books I think. I only remember reading The Mayor of Casterbridge and I think of it often: something about doing something dreadful on a drunken night like selling your wife and it haunting you speaks to my love of exploring the dark side of humanity in what I read.

The only modern writer I order all books from is Irvine Welsh. Loved Trainspotting and have been hooked on anything he wrote ever since.

For trashy holiday reading that I don't have to think about I am a sucker for musician and sports biographies. I found Leigh Matthews biography was a good read and have read loads of soccer ones.... enjoy pretty much all the music ones I read, Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash etc.... they are all relaxing and fun reads. They are great for long flights or days on the beach. Also am partial to true crime/serial killer books. Reading books about Ted Bundy are always fascinating and The House of Horror killers Ted and Rose West.

Yeah I like Welsh, I liked Nick Hornsby books too but reread Hi Fidelity recently and it was seriously dated. Yeah, I like Hardy too. Love Dickens as well, they are just really good snap shots of a time in history.

Never quite got into Austen and Bronte books but have read the main ones. I went through a Graham Greene period a while back and read all of his books. I like some american stuff like William Faulkner too. Never been a huge biography fan but occasionally read one. Usually musicians. Don't mind some true crime as well, I read a couple of Helen Garner books the Joe Cinque one and the one about the guy who drove his kids into a dam. Both we good reads.

 

[Persevering Saint]

Anybody into glory betting (as opposed to money betting) ? Apps like Prediction Guru or BetUp?

 

[VDS66]

Really enjoying the latest Bunnings catalogue...

 

[Yawkey way]

WW2 records even now are providing new areas of study, people just have to ask the right questions.

In WW1 the soldiers wanted cigarettes, more than food and warm clothing, of course the word assassin comes from hasheesheen or hasheesh eater, addicts controlled by their habit and used as killers. James Brooke Rajah of Sarawak used to get his men to have a big party and sing along the night before particularly dangerous operations, I'm sure there'll be someone that knew what the beserkers used to get them in the mood, and of course the Royal Navy loved a good rum amongst other things.

I remember reading a biography on captain cook, from memory the ration was a pint of rum and as much small beer as you could drink.

Rum was 94 proof broken into two rations a day and had to be watered down with a quart of water.

Half the crew were pissed half the time, that rum ration lasted until 1970 or later I think.

 

[gringo2011]

I remember reading a biography on captain cook, from memory the ration was a pint of rum and as much small beer as you could drink.

Rum was 94 proof broken into two rations a day and had to be watered down with a quart of water.

Half the crew were pissed half the time, that rum ration lasted until 1970 or later I think.

If you read Dickens half the kids would drink beer for their health in the old days. I think hard times called for hard liquor. I read a good book on a shipwreck off the coast of South Africa and the survivors had a bit of trouble with the crew just running off to get pissed, they left the aristocratic passengers to fend for them selves while they went and fornicated with the locals in the bush. The interesting part of it was how much cash the English were hauling out of India at the time. You went and spent 5 years in India and came back super rich. Unfortunately here was a pretty high death rate for the limeys there.

In the grave yards at Kandy in Sri Lanka there are a heap of English that didn't make it out too.

 

[Yawkey way]

If you read Dickens half the kids would drink beer for their health in the old days. I think hard times called for hard liquor. I read a good book on a shipwreck off the coast of South Africa and the survivors had a bit of trouble with the crew just running off to get pissed, they left the aristocratic passengers to fend for them selves while they went and fornicated with the locals in the bush. The interesting part of it was how much cash the English were hauling out of India at the time. You went and spent 5 years in India and came back super rich. Unfortunately here was a pretty high death rate for the limeys there.

In the grave yards at Kandy in Sri Lanka there are a heap of English that didn't make it out too.

Yes they drank beer because you couldn't drink the water.

Amazing stuff history, what is it they say fact is stranger than fiction.

 

[Yawkey way]

Really enjoying the latest Bunnings catalogue...

Don't joke I always want lots of things I'll never use and my wife thinks she's a tradie with a bunnings catalogue in her hand.

 

[gringo2011]

Really enjoying the latest Bunnings catalogue...

I thought you were an author.

 

[VDS66]

I thought you were an author.

Yes but that was 12 years ago.

Slowly working on my latest... as in real slowly.

 

[VDS66]

Don't joke I always want lots of things I'll never use and my wife thinks she's a tradie with a bunnings catalogue in her hand.

I am joking. I used to do some DIY clinic at Bunnings a few years ago.

These days I tend to work with recycled materials. Furniture making and restoration is my hobby.

Currently restoring a vintage outdoor setting. The old steel and slats type.

 

[plugger66]

I am joking. I used to do some DIY clinic at Bunnings a few years ago.

These days I tend to work with recycled materials. Furniture making and restoration is my hobby.

Currently restoring a vintage outdoor setting. The old steel and slats type.

I once hammered a nail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[VDS66]

I once hammered a nail.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Too bad your hammer wasn't suited to modern day carpentry...

 

[plugger66]

Too bad your hammer wasn't suited to modern day carpentry...

I used a knife. Didn’t work that well. I can mow lawns and eat and drink. Skills after that are poor. Just ask my ex. She was very disappointed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yawkey way]

I am joking. I used to do some DIY clinic at Bunnings a few years ago.

These days I tend to work with recycled materials. Furniture making and restoration is my hobby.

Currently restoring a vintage outdoor setting. The old steel and slats type.

With the cast iron ends or the old comfortable steel and slat jobs.

 

[Pardon me]

Yes but that was 12 years ago.

Slowly working on my latest... as in real slowly.

George R R Martin confirmed

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

For trashy holiday reading that I don't have to think about I am a sucker for musician and sports biographies. I found Leigh Matthews biography was a good read and have read loads of soccer ones.... enjoy pretty much all the music ones I read, Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Johnny Cash etc.... they are all relaxing and fun reads. They are great for long flights or days on the beach. Also am partial to true crime/serial killer books. Reading books about Ted Bundy are always fascinating and The House of Horror killers Ted and Rose West.

i seriously dont have time to read books except when on holiday ... sitting in an airport for hours waiting for transit planes is about the only time i get to sit with a book ... with that its always gotta be something light that you can put down for a week then pick up and be right back into it ... Ben Elton is perfect for that .. its light , funny and always got a good pace to it ... the last one i read was his book "time and time again", its no life changing best seller but i enjoyed it

 

[st_trav_ofWA]

Really enjoying the latest Bunnings catalogue...

i hate that they omit the section on the snag in bread though ...

 

[VDS66]

With the cast iron ends or the old comfortable steel and slat jobs.

The flat steel carnival style with multi coloured slats just like nanna had.

My son has suddenly discovered how to use his hands in woodwork class, so we are doing it together.

 

[VDS66]

George R R Martin confirmed

Haha. No my book was shit, but topical. Sold a ton of them through API magazine tho.

Was going gangbusters in the USA until the GFC killed their market. Went from hero to zero in about 2 weeks.

 

[Persevering Saint]

Yes they drank beer because you couldn't drink the water.

Amazing stuff history, what is it they say fact is stranger than fiction.

In my lectures I regularly say, "I could not make this stuff up!".

 

[MUFKilda]

Do you Librivox?

Is that legal?

Not as far as I know. What is it?

 

[sunny3193]

View attachment 519605

I love that!

Kegs,
I lived in LA for a couple of years in the mid 90’s, beach city about 30 miles south of Downtown.
Place called Seal Beach. Between Long Beach, and Sunset and Huntington Beaches.
A coastal community.
Only three roads in and out.
A beachside village that was bordered by the San Gabriel river channel to the north (where the SS Minnow set sail for that three hour cruise), the US Naval Weapons Station to the east, the Anaheim Bay Nature Reserve to the south, and of course the Pacific to the west.
White.
Privileged.
Rich.
Safe.

To get from LAX to Seal Beach I had two choices: the 405 - which is famous for being a car park, or the newly built 105 (the freeway on which they shot the Keane Reeves/Sandra Bullock film “Speed”).

I learned to take the 105 as it was longer but still quicker than the 405.

The 105 runs through South Central, Compton, Watts, Lynwood.

Even though you’re on the freeway, and not on the surface streets of south central LA, the people who live on those surface streets are on the freeway.

If LA taught me two things it was these:
Drive with the doors locked and,
Never allow a car to sit in your blind spot where you can’t see the shooter.

 

[MOLTEN GANGLANDS]

I love that!

Kegs,
I lived in LA for a couple of years in the mid 90’s, beach city about 30 miles south of Downtown.
Place called Seal Beach. Between Long Beach, and Sunset and Huntington Beaches.
A coastal community.
Only three roads in and out.
A beachside village that was bordered by the San Gabriel river channel to the north (where the SS Minnow set sail for that three hour cruise), the US Naval Weapons Station to the east, the Anaheim Bay Nature Reserve to the south, and of course the Pacific to the west.
White.
Privileged.
Rich.
Safe.

To get from LAX to Seal Beach I had two choices: the 405 - which is famous for being a car park, or the newly built 105 (the freeway on which they shot the Keane Reeves/Sandra Bullock film “Speed”).

I learned to take the 105 as it was longer but still quicker than the 405.

The 105 runs through South Central, Compton, Watts, Lynwood.

Even though you’re on the freeway, and not on the surface streets of south central LA, the people who live on those surface streets are on the freeway.

If LA taught me two things it was these:
Drive with the doors locked and,
Never allow a car to sit in your blind spot where you can’t see the shooter.

did you get shot at? attempted carjacked? let's keep this story going

 

[Persevering Saint]

Is that legal?

Not as far as I know. What is it?

Librivox is an audiobook service. Volunteers read out loud classic works that are out of copyright. All their stuff is free. While some are pretty poorly done, a lot of them are really excellent productions. If anyone is into reading the classics, it's worth a look. https://librivox.org/search

 

[MUFKilda]

Librivox is an audiobook service. Volunteers read out loud classic works that are out of copyright. All their stuff is free. While some are pretty poorly done, a lot of them are really excellent productions. If anyone is into reading the classics, it's worth a look. https://librivox.org/search

Okay, it's new to me. I will bear it mind, thanks.