Don't Mockingjay me, Higson

Bloomin' love teen fiction.

I've been reading The Dead.  I read it in the wrong order; I read book 2 first, then 3 and 4.  Just finished 1 this morning - turns out it's not too bad an order to read them in.  Maybe 2,3,1,4 would have been better.  All I know is that I've bought wholesale into this universe that's been created, I can't think of a (series of) book(s) where I've cared as much about so many of the characters (Not Pure, It comes close, but I think I read the first two too far apart - although to say I'm not a bit excited about Burn would be a lie. Not HG, wildly addictive story but all the characters are idiots. Potter at a push? His Dark Materials maybe? Stuff I read decades ago like LotR and Narnia? Nope, I'm all out) and I'm itching to see what happens next.

Fortunately, The Fallen came out this week, I think it's going to follow from where Book 1 left off. I'd say I can't remember the last time I was this excited about a book, but I can, to the day, 24th August 2010. You better not be Mockingjaying me, Higson...

Tiananmen Squeg

Just seen Chimerica.  Now that was something that's been hyped to tipping point in just about any publication that can hype stuff. And you know what.  The hype was right. I won't write too many words, as there's a heap of people that actually know what they're talking about that have written informed bobbins about it.

I'll just say: you should probably go and see it.

Keep it Carbohydrate

The Doughnut Dash.  Five kilometres; five doughnuts.  I like running I like eating - I'm reasonably adept at both  Sounded like a hoot.

It wasn't.

They used iced doughnuts.  That wasn't in the small print: I was expecting sugary rings not jammy clown faces. I reckon I just about scraped the top ten - it was almost as though any actually good runners were worried about what that amount of carbohydrate would do to their fitness regime.  Turns out it will make you buzz for about three hours, then fall asleep.

In other news I saw Darth Vader in Much Ado About Nothing.  Didn't make the play less boring.  Yawn.

Lingonberry Jam

Who goes to Finland for a holiday?

I started in Tampere (pronounced as in 'What's she gonna look like with a chimney on her').  Now it's the second city and I'd heard that it was a bit industrial.  And yes, you could see three industrial chimneys whilst standing in the town square but if you walk for about ten minutes then this is the view.  Ridiculous.  That's not industrial, that's lakes and trees and sky and clouds and not a fat lot else.

I snuck down to Helsinki for a night. Now there's one of those cities that I had pretty clear visions in my head of how it was going to look / be before I got there. Obviously I was wrong, it wasn't the edgy cool that I had in my head, although there were a lot of soviet straight lines. The city itself varies wildly between being a proper buzzy metropolis and a tiny fishing village, sort of epitomised by the town square being on the harbourfront and used as a berry market.  For the record, all markets should be berry markets - normally I avoid them because they're chock full of idiots, this one I just wandered around salivating.

Talking of salivating, I didn't go to Finland expecting culinary delights but I did inadvertently stumble on two. The first, reindeer, was a whole new meat for my tickboxiness, the second, mustamakkara, was like an especially juicy blackpudding.  Both were made ace by lashings and lashings of lingonberry jam.