When a foodie needs some time out…

It’s been a stressful time in Australia lately, and I feel as if I’ve been either horrified, or scared or angry or all three since well before Christmas. To say I needed some time out would be a gross understatement, so the last couple of days I’ve retreated to books. Or should I say, one book in particular : The Quiche and the Dead.

I gave The Quiche and the Dead 5/5 stars on Amazon and left this review:

I read lighthearted mysteries when I’m feeling down and need a pick-me-up. Well, The Quiche and the Dead did more than just lift my mood, it left me in awe of the author’s imagination, writing skills, sense of humour and…cooking ability!

I mean, really! A murder mystery that actually makes some [subtle] social commentary? has realistic dialogue? has main characters who are instantly recognizable and come across as real people? has secondary characters who aren’t 2 dimensional plot devices? is well written and edited? and does all this whilst making you want to try one, or all, of the pies featured in the story? Oh, and has a tight plot and excellent pacing?

Frankly, I was going to give The Quiche and the Dead 5 stars even before I reached the final page, but then I finished the story and discovered that the author really did know how to cook and had provided recipes for all the pies in the story!

Apologies if that was a spoiler, but I’m a foodie and intend to try those recipes in my own kitchen. In fact, I intend to buy more of the Pie Town series in case there are more goodies at the end. And for the story, of course. 🙂

Would I recommend The Quiche and the Dead…you bet, with bells on!

Drat, just realised I forgot to mention the cat! Seriously, buy this book and read it!

cheers

Meeks

Cat-flix?

Finished my burning off and did two hours of mowing this morning so…I deserve this:

And yes, it’s another jigsaw puzzle. 🙂

cheers

Meeks

A shed by any other name…?

This is a shed, a quirky shed, one of 23:

This Hobbit-hole type shed is featured in a fun article on New Atlas. With bad news at every turn, sometimes it’s nice to remember that we humans have some positive qualities as well. 🙂

cheers

Meeks

 

 

 

Christmas in a Teapot. :)

As an antidote to all the marketing I did over the last few days, here’s something that’s just for fun:

Yes, it’s a bright, red teapot on wheels and it sells Mulled wine, Eggnog and something called a Maple Warmer. At those prices I doubt you’d want more than one, but the concept is so lovely I think I’d splash out on an Eggnog just for the fun of being able to say that I ‘bought it from a teapot’. 😀

I don’t have much information about the photo, but you can find it on http://www.jigsawplanet.com, under the category of ‘Christmas’. The puzzle creator is known as ‘puzzleaddict2’ and the photographer is on Instagram under the moniker of @nellcavallo.

Hope this brightened your day. 🙂

cheers

Meeks

Hilarious!

No intros…just watch & listen!

…and yes, it’s exactly what you think it is. 😀

My thanks to Russell Ray for introducing me to this fabulous video clip!

Happy Tuesday,

Meeks

More play time for writers :)

My thanks to Dancingpalmtrees for introducing me to this fun app:

https://www.plot-generator.org.uk/m1bt/curse-of-surreal-pipe.html

The example you see there was created by Dancingpalmtrees, and she kindly gave me permission to use it to show you what the app does. 😀

To give it a try yourselves, just scroll down a little until you reach a big green button that says ‘Write a horror plot like this’.

That button will take you to a kind of form where you simply fill in the blanks with whatever takes your fancy. When you’re finished, the app. will scramble it all up and create a ‘story’ out of the elements you’ve provided.

Alternatively, you can scroll all the way down to the bottom of the screen to a button that says ‘Create New’. Clicking this button takes you to a screen where you can choose to create something in sci-fi, romance, like the Bronte sisters etc, etc. Select whichever options appeals to you, click it and you’ll get the same form. Just fill it in and sit back to have a good giggle.

Go on, give it a go! You’re welcome. 😀

cheers
Meeks

The Adventures of a rubber ball :D

I haven’t played this addictive little game on a smartphone yet, but I have played an early beta version of it on my pc – and even then it was a lot of fun!

It sort of reminded me of the old Nintendo game called Snake Rattle n Roll. Not in any similarity of graphics or gameplay, but rather in the adrenaline pumping need to get to that next level….-cough-

The game was developed – from scratch – by my friend George Panayiotou. Some of you may remember George from comments.Not only is he a brilliant game designer, he also taught himself Maya [Maya is the computer graphics program used to create most of the best CG in movies], and he’s a very talented graphic designer.

George and I go way back to an online forum called guru3D. It was a fun forum in which to hang out, but more importantly, it was a great place to learn from a bunch of very clever geeks. 😀

Aaaanyway…if you play games on your mobile phone, why not give The Adventures of a RubberBall a go?

The link below will take you to George’s site:

http://www.singlepixel-soft.eu/2016/10/the-release-of-adventures-of-rubber-ball.html?m=1

I believe you can get the Adventures of a RubberBall [for Android] from Google Play. The iOS App Store is coming soon. 🙂

Congratulations George!

cheers

Meeks

 

Social Media Part 2 – Have Fun

http://kriswrites.com/2014/02/26/the-business-rusch-social-media-part-2-or-discoverability-part-10-continued/

This post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and the comment by The Passive Guy, are like a ‘Get Out of Jail’ card for my guilty conscience. I have fun on my blog, but I don’t have fun on Twitter or Facebook, so I don’t go to those ‘parties’. Now I don’t have to feel bad about being so anti-social.

The truth is, I love having meaningful conversations with people, and I’d walk over hot coals for my friends, but I’m more hermit than social butterfly. And to mix my metaphors even more, this leopard can’t change her spots. Now I can just be me, guilt free. 😀

Have a great weekend.

Meeks

Doing something about Climate Change can be fun!

I’ve just discovered you can never predict how and when you will meet another kindred spirit! I’m not a sporty person by any stretch of the imagination, but thanks to my friend Candy Korman, and my post on the Climate Change rally, I’ve just met Lew Blaustein from New York City.

Lew is a blogger who combines his passion for sport with his passion for climate change action in posts that speak the language of sports fans. You can read some of Lew’s posts here and here.

For now though I’d like to share a Nike commerical that Lew showed me. Yes, a commercial. Trust me on this, you’ll enjoy it!

I doubt Nike intended to support action on climate change, and I’m not sure whether basketball superstar LeBron James had that intention either, but this one commercial boosted the uptake of bicycle riding by something like 10%. It almost got me off my chair as well. 😉

cheers,

Meeks