How Larry Niven Affects Reality

Larry Niven The American Science Fiction Author
 - if you must know.  You probably won't recognise the name as none of his stuff has been transformed into cinematic entertainment, and it features hard science, and is moreover entirely bereft of twinkly twilight emo-elves -

Larry.  Lord of the Rings.

    - but I run astray.  Tonight, and you were probably ahead of me here, the bus was late.  It seems that if the atmospheric conditions produce rain, and the sun sets, all the First bus drivers hide in the depot for fear of - well, twinkly twilight emo-elves, I suppose.  Since the temporary bus stop I am now forced to use is a lot farther away than the normal one, Conrad really has to shift to get there on time.

An artists impression

     Which is kind of an exercise in futility as the bus has been late.  Can't get blase about it, though, as if you arrive late the bus will have gone early*.
     Tonight the 24 was almost half an hour late and the driver probably suspected some passengers of being twinkly twilight emo-elves in disguise, as he went sailing past the stop, halting about thirty yards away.  How he must have laughed at the shuffling crowd of passengers! - wet passengers - wet cold passengers - wet cold angry passengers - actually perhaps the light of laughter dimmed and died in his eyes when he witnessed a hundred pairs of other eyes less than twinkly.
       Then, wonder of wonders, the bus did not terminate in Royton but actually carried on to Rochdale!
     This is where Larry Niven comes in.  One of the worlds in his "Known Space" series is called "WeMadeIt", a cry that Conrad felt like exulting in when he descended from the Pubic Service Vehicle onto terra firma**.  As for First Bus, Conrad feels they deserve the title of another world from Larry's imagination: "Jinx".

"Aplomb"
Of course during my time of trial whilst enduring the elements  I behaved with considerable aplomb.  Which means "Poise, especially under difficult conditions".
     Conrad suspected it had Latin roots, although Wiki claims it comes from French, "A Plomb" - as a plumb-line.  Yeah, and where does the plumb-line come from?  Latin.
     Anyway, the French idiom means that one remains proudly erect under the storms of fate.  Or, in Manchester, the storms of rain.

Conrad, exhibiting aplomb.
That, or he's had a skinful.

NANOWRIMO
I have kicked off my novel, "The Annals of Urquelomplangia" (It Has A Long And Distinguished History, You Know), for National Novel Writing Month.  A bit late and a bit slow, I acknowledge, and I've only done 333 words, which constitutes 1/150th of the whole thing.
     No!  Not due to writer's block - good heavens I can crank off 1000 words a night for the blog on occasion, it's just that I now have the blog to write, cakes to bake, the pub quiz to attend, the weekly shop, overtime, going to the cinema, ironing shirts and watching films & television programmes. 
     Oh, and the whole Plotting To Take Over The World thing as well.  That too.

Look out!  It's a Lesser Weever!***

Matters Munchy
As I mentioned above, one of yesterday's distractions was baking Coffee And Chocolate Loaf, gluten-free style.  A dash of Xanthan Gum, some ground-up twinkly twilight emo-elf,  and a pinch more Baking Powder than usual to compensate, and Hay Pesto!

Frankly, it's a cake

     It came out really well, nicely risen.  Of course, being chocolate I won't touch the horrid thing, so I shall have to rely on the ganterpies at work to comment.
     Whilst this was baking at Gas Mark 3 for 60 minutes, I slid in a tray of these:

Tempura Prawns

      The instructions said to cook at Gas Mark 6 for 30 minutes, so I ignored them and did them underneath the CACL.  They were a little on the crunchy side, fine otherwise, despite being well out of date (Sunday?  Monday?) and I am here and alive the next day to once again snap my fingers insolently at Food Safety.

<snap!>

     I also parlayed Tom's pleading for a swap next Friday, from a normal shift to a late one, into this:

     Now, am I easily bought, or a driver of hard bargains?  Only you can tell!

"Where Eagles Dare" - The IMDB Goofs List
Sad, mad or bad - only you can tell.  Conrad has copied this list and pasted it down as a Word document, taking up 9 A4 pages.  Once I've rearranged and reformatted it, there will be fewer pages.  Since I'm doing it chronologically it might take a while.  Here's an example of what I'm doing (the easily-bored may look away now):

When Major Smith goes into the Bier Keller, he is wearing an officer's peaked cap. He takes it off and places it on the table and we never see it again. (Apparently, it was stolen from the set during the lunch break.)

     This is the stuff!  Yes, I do intend to watch the film again and check for ALL these flaws, just you see if I don't.

"But - but - but - I get killed?"

And there we have it.  Getting on for 900 words and I would pontificate further if I didn't have to make lunch for tomorrow and leave for Pub Quiz at 9.

Toodle-ooh!

* A process I dub "The George Orwell Effect"
** Actually, given the weather, more like terra aqua.
*** I realise this has nothing to do with my novel but time is tight