Hello!
It has, as they say, been too long.
In all honesty, I had planned an epic two-part ‘100 things from that made my 2022’ post, I had my list, I wrote 30% of it and then lost the enthusiasm for it. And you know what, the world kept spinning, Christmas, New Year and Dead Week came and went, and now we’re on summer-side of Blue Monday, The UO is back.
To business…. the best presents I got for Christmas.
Sponge-worthy Lego
This one is still in the box (in my defence I had more than a thousand pages of Vanishing Asia to read), Seinfeld lego set. Jerry’s sitting room, complete with lights and gantry (not to mention Jerry, Kramer, Elaine, George & Newman) I’m waiting for some quality time to rewatch the old episodes and put together the 1326 pieces.
An enormous travel photo book.
According to Wikipedia a “coffee table book” is:
an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and from which it can serve to inspire conversation or pass the time.
Kevin Kelly’s Vanishing Asia meets this definition but also a second, in that its weight and dimensions approximate those of your standard coffee table. This thing is huge. More than one thousand pages, spread across three outsized hardcover volumes covering East, central & West Asia and a hardback slipcase. Mine weighs 12kg.
Kelly, senior maverick at Wired magazine and man with an impossibly long resume, took the nearly 9,000 photographs on frequent travels to Asia over a period of forty years. Much of what he has captured in the photos especially in rural areas clinging to traditional ways of life was now been lost.
It’s less a book, than a visual experience. I’ve immersed myself in it most days since Christmas morning, and now have several hiking holidays in the ‘Stans bookmarked on my browser….
Variations in post carvings in rural Chinese homesteads.
Chilled and chilled.
I love coffee but don’t take milk or sugar, I love ice coffee but seemingly can’t find a decent one that is not pre-loaded with sugars, milks or flavours. My wife solved this with a gift box of Trip CBD infused cold brew coffee.
If you are someone who seeks to mask almost all traces of bitterness from your coffee this isn’t for you (but hey you could always add milk and sugar!), it is however a lot, lot smoother than most chain coffee cold-brews.
I’m still on the fence regarding the CBD oil. I’ve tried it several times, as supplementary pain relief, to aid sleep. I’ve found the effects of any of these negligible, however I’m currently using something else which I am absilutely convinced aid my sleep.
That will have to wait until next issue though….