The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

It looks like doing November’s novel writing adventure has totally used up the serpent stash of words for the remainder of the year. Even squiggling Christmas cards and emails has become a struggle and the subject of much procrastination. Especially annoying is that thanks to the drastic drop in the value of the Oz zloty, Christmas shopping on Amazon is no longer the handy one stop Christmas shop that it used to be.

For years and years I used to contrast and compare Amazon and Book Depository. In most cases they worked out much the same because what you would gain on price you would lose on postage fees with the odds tilting towards Amazon for orders of more than 2 items. But in those days the exchange rate was between 90 cents and parity and not the ghastly 70 something that it is now which means having to add just under 50% to the Amazon price to get the currency conversion.
It’s a pity because Amazon.com is such an easy to use site. There’s an address list that actually works and most importantly of all, they understand the concept that people sometimes send books as presents so they let you write little messages or they even wrap the books if you are feeling particularly decadent.

Book Depository on the other hand make you type out stupid addresses from scratch each time even if they are already in your address book and the concept of sending gift messages is completely alien to them even though it is rather likely that if the shipping and billing addresses are not the same, it’s probably a present.

But even with all this carping and squawking it’s is still better than the appalling alternative of having to use Australia Post for anything. I haven’t darkened the door of that awful owlery since December 2012 when one of their goblin snails ate my box of zombies. So much stuff had gotten lost or delayed for up to a year and that was the last nail in the coffin.

The recent Izzie listlessness is partly due to the inevitable crash at the end of November. It’s always good to follow some big project with a smaller one straight away in order to avoid the writing equivalent of the post exams blues. Then there are a whole bunch of anniversaries and the endless intrusive thoughts concerning “This time last year…” The Dementors had a field day with those. It took until Tuesday to finally shake them off.

Then of course there’s been the convenient distraction of books to read some of which are so addictive that other activities involving words just get tossed on the back burner. “The Girl with all the Gifts” and “The Pelican Brief” come to mind. The first of these is the quirkiest and creepiest book I have encountered since the very surreal and strange “The Hangman’s Replacement”. Lawyers, Dystopian settings, mad scientists and wicked weeds are always welcome in a story. Maybe I should make a ‘shopping list’ for next November.
Since starting that voluntary job in the charity shop and claiming the book shelves as serpent territory, it has provided a Pandora’s Box of temptations. It’s like being a boozer working in a bottle shop.
It’s amazing how many bright shiny new books make their way to the store from the central warehouse or direct donations. About 20 ancient Asimov books have also landed lately.

Today’s grand plan included a visit to the annual Symphony in the City which is a free event featuring the local orchestra and lots of fireworks. Last year was the first time I ever went to see it and liked it so much that I had every intention of going again. The weather is mild. Not muggy and not raining like last week but this morning I lost interest. After a long and busy day yesterday and another tomorrow, just felt like lurking and lounging about and being a lazy serpent.
Got a bit of gardening done and planted seeds and stuff but did not make the most of the mild weather. The Christmas decorations are still sitting in their boxes in the corner. They had been on the ‘to do’ list for today. It was pretty much a ‘Do nothing Day”

Looks like all the Christmas cards and decorations will have to be left until some time tomorrow.
Again.

Izzie is one happy happy serpent. There’s been lots of crisp and crunchy sunny days with the gorgeous delicate kind of light that this time of year is known for. Time for feeling most alive indeed and for plotting, planning and planting. Especially delicious as it is the first evening of twelve toad free days. Could not indulge in the usual fourteen as the very precious annual leave is needed for November.


There’s been lots of interesting bookish events this week but learned a lesson from the first week of May. Two many evening activities stretches the attention of this ever so introverted serpent just a bit too thinly. With the “Book is Dead” debate tomorrow evening at the Fremantle public library (with nibblies and a glass or two of red) and the expectation of attendance at Petunia’s place on Friday evening, tonight’s ‘meet and greet’ three local authors at the state library - also with wine and nibblies would have been just too much excitement. Instead spent the afternoon slinking in the sun and carting wheelbarrows of piggie poo to the graveyard where the big macadamia tree now lies. Spent some of the evening sipping bubbly and half listening to Big Ideas and our favorite goblin spotter Satyajit Das gossiping about Greece and the end of Ponzi prosperity
Peak Oil prophet Nicole Foss must be now declaring “Told you so” with all this gloom and doom about Greece. She said back in February that the financial meltdown would start before the others beginning with Greece and all those bankers and insurance companies who would be caught with their pants down. All sorts of dodgy goblins would be offering hedges and assorted credit default swap ‘insurance’ but few would have the silver sickles on hand to back their bets. In no time all sorts of banks would be falling like dominoes.


Even creepy crawly Zuckerberg is alone and friendless. Not that he cares since he’s already taken the money and eloped to Sugar Candy Mountain on the honeymoon of the century.
There was another bookish event yesterday. A woman who had written about her experiences with her autistic son. Reaching One Thousand Also more wine and nibblies. How could one resist the temptation of a place called “Crow Books”? Had the best of intentions but got lured by the attractions of other more insistent birds.

Somehow suspecting it is going to be a long time before coming across any story as mind blowing and totally sick and twisted as the Hunger Games trilogy. Was still sitting outside around sunset glued to those infernal pages when it was long time to be pottering off to the bus stop in order to be at the Crow Books store for 7pm. There was a shadow of doubt about how complicated it would be to return to the Lair after 9pm using public transport. It would not even be an issue if it was possible to stay snoozing in the serpent sack for the next morning. In the end inertia won over adventure.

In the end, listened to Big Ideas which had a talk about business ethics. Most amusing in the light of recent events. Was supposed to spend an hour or so squiggling about the latest drama at the day job. But such an overdose of evilness in both the world of work and the world of words meant that the mushy Izzie brain was capable of only of snoozing it all off. Hit the hay at 8pm. Such a waste of a gorgeous evening.

It’s been a very birdy week. No crows, lots of mockingjays and today was two very tasty owls. More gory details on those later but one got the Izzie thinking about a certain sort of pink and fluffy gorgeousness
Came across a little snippet on an online forum and the evil inner serpent just could not resist the temptation. An innovative and profitable solution to the looming aged care crisis


"I saw so many residents just give up and slowly deteriorate and either stop talking, stop being conscious and just die. I have seen people lose their will to live and that's a tragedy in itself. I heard two women when they first came into the nursing home say to each other - Just our luck - it's a single story nursing home. We can't even jump off the roof and end this torture. It was the last time I heard them laugh they went downhill very quickly. Poor nutrition tends to do that to the elderly. Works out well for the nursing home too as a quick turn over is very lucrative for them. Helps them to meet their budget."



Ladies and Gentlemen…. Let the 74th Granny Games begin