This came from the Guardian newspaper... And it sums up my reading challenge on Goodreads...
Karen
Santa Claus is stuck at a broken electric charging point at a service station somewhere in the Midlands, sources have revealed.The jolly, bearded present-giver recently made a pledge to reduce his carbon footprint after his traditional, reindeer-powered sleigh was deemed to have fallen foul of Euro 6 emissions standards.However, his replacement electric sleigh featuring a quad-motor powertrain and best-in-class 1,000kWh lithium-ion battery is now stuck at a defective charge point in an undisclosed location just outside Birmingham.‘Get an electric sleigh’, they all said. I went for the fastest, most powerful one I could find, able to go from 0-60mph in 2.9 million wishes time, which – I was assured by the manufacturer – made it the fastest electric sleigh ever built.“I’d done most of the North of England in one swift hit – the acceleration off the line was really quite breathtaking! – at which point it showed 1,000 miles of range left.But then I hit some cold weather and despite going easy on the throttle, the range suddenly dropped to 34 miles. I stopped at a charging point but of the four installed, three had those godawful SUVs parked in the bays. All of them were fully charged.“The fourth charger was a 7kW lightweight that didn’t even work. Now I’m stuck with nine different charging apps on my phone, a flat sleigh and a boatload of presents.“Ho. Ho. Ho.”Onlookers later reported Santa attempting to exchange a number of boxed gifts for a service station meal deal, though he was turned away for insufficient funds.
If you don’t like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don’t like it, nobody is telling you to finish it. To read a 600-page novel and then say that it has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended.
It's hard to believe that the little sprouts that were in my pot now have tiny traps.. And looking closely at them, it's possible to see the differences in the traps.
I know that when I got the seeds, I was told that there would be different varieties in the seed packet, and I have to admit that I was hoping to see if I would get something slightly unusual.
Well, looking at the traps (the ones I could see) it does look like I did manage to get at least one unusual variety... I think I may have this one:
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| A sprout - not sure what it is yet - hopefully a VFT! |
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The growing media after 6 weeks - the peat medium is the top of the image- the peat free option is the bottom. Supplied by Wacks Wicked Plants. |
“He had heard about talking to plants in the early seventies, on Radio Four, and thought it was an excellent idea. Although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did.
What he did was put the fear of God into them.
More precisely, the fear of Crowley.In addition to which, every couple of months Crowley would pick out a plant that was growing too slowly, or succumbing to leaf-wilt or browning, or just didn’t look quite as good as the others, and he would carry it around to all the other plants. “Say goodbye to your friend,” he’d say to them. “He just couldn’t cut it. . . “Then he would leave the flat with the offending plant, and return an hour or so later with a large, empty flower pot, which he would leave somewhere conspicuously around the flat.The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified.”
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| Venus Flytrap seeds - image courtesy of Hampshire Carnivorous Plants |
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| The growing medium after standing in rainwater |
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| Triple chocololate chip, Sweet mix spice and vanilla |
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How Not to be a Cricketer by Phil Tufnell
