So I’m sitting here wrapping up book packages and getting caught up on the email, and were_gopher sends me this link. (Thanks Om!) And now my birthday is complete before it’s barely started.
But only because all you nice people keep asking. (If you don’t want to read a few paragraphs of what my mother used to refer to, in other people, as “the organ recital”, for Ghu’s sake look away now.)
Short version: I’m ok, and improving as we get control of the situation. I am no longer incapacitated / bedridden / completely useless.
Longer version: Tom Lehrer was right to call the gall bladder “one of the more important technological advances since the invention of the joy buzzer and the dribble glass.” Especially in its predictability once it starts acting up.
It’s pretty much a given, now, that I’ve got gallstones, and that my gall bladder is having trouble with them. The ultrasound and Xray to determine how many / how big the stones are is still a week off. Right now the situation is being managed with rigid diet control (particularly of fats) and drugs for pain relief. (Nothing fancy, fortunately.) While I sit around being alternately amused and annoyed at myself for having spent the last year or year and a half thinking that this was a recurrent back problem which would go away by itself, or (sometimes) after taking an aspirin.
If there’s an ongoing frustration, it’s that it is sometimes hard to tell what’ll set off an attack (which involves 6-10 hours of extreme internal discomfort, accompanied by bloating, cramps and other minor joys). I am, as it were, my own test tube: put something in, hold your breath and see what hapens. What can’t I put in? Oh, nothing much, just most of the foods I really like. Any significant amount of butter, full-fat cheese or sour cream. [Which I couldn’t have anyway until I get some Lactaid in here, as I am now also at least lactose-maldigestive if not entirely intolerant.] Chocolate. Eggs. Some red meats. Yes, but which ones? Argh, there goes another 6-10 hours. And so on.)
(sigh) Enough of that. I’m getting caught up on book shipping (for those of you who’re curious, I’ll be mailing you today / tomorrow with tracking numbers, etc) and other work (yes, The Big Meow) and all the things I ought to be doing rather than lying in bed groaning.
Anyway, folks, thanks for your concern, it’s been much appreciated.
(An afterthought: Peter Murray would have been amused by both of these…)
Tinky Winky speaks out on Jerry Falwell
From GoApe (T-)Shirts: ATAT Walker in Veterinary Collar
The Young Wizards discussion forums have lost a steadfast moderator and a good friend. Peter Murray died yesterday in hospital in the UK.
He is going to be so missed by the many Forum members to whom he was guide, mentor and fellow jokester in chat, an endless source of useful advice on the Forums, and an constant bringer-of-order-out-of chaos generally — especially as regards his ongoing work on the timeline of the Young Wizards universe (which at least he knew was in the early stages of being revised, with his work being significant in the upcoming revisions to the first three volumes).
Rest well, cousin: see you around.
Thanks for your concern, everybody. I’m a little better. Won’t be able to get the ultrasound till next week, though. (mutter) I will be sorting out those last book requests today and tomorrow, though, so if you haven’t heard from me, you will shortly.
Meanwhile, though, there’s this to laugh about.
To those folks who have outstanding requests for books that still need to be dealt with: Please bear with me for a day or so. I spent most of yesterday and some of today dealing with what I now discover was a gall bladder attack… and frankly I’m not in the best of shape right now.
(mutter) More shortly, after the ultrasound. Apologies for the interruption in service.
Authors’ copies of my books have started piling up around here again, so I thought I’d offer some of them here for those of you who might like signed copies of this or that before we start restructuring / restocking our offsite storage. Also, I’ve been able to acquire some good-quality copies of earlier stuff (the early Young Wizards hardcovers in particular), and as a result I now have some copies available to be let go.
If you’re interested, please see the full list here.
Thanks!
[tags]Diane, Duane, books, novels, used, new, Young Wizards, Star Trek, Spider-Man[/tags]
Something worth noticing.
European national railways [are creating] an international partnership modelled after the Star Alliance airline network to compete with the discount airlines. According to the paper, the railways from Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium along with the British train operator Eurostar are planning to kick off their partnership in December.
The group, which is referred to internally as “Railteam,” plans to offer the equivalent to Star Alliance frequent-flyer miles, a program that German rail company Deutsche Bahn already offers its customers. Other perks will include seamless connections at stations, through ticketing and fares, accessible information on booking and journey information, and on-train Internet access, a press release from Eurostar says.
Yay!
I mentioned this place in passing in a post some while back, and it really needs to have something more said about it, as there’s not nearly enough information online.
There are a lot of nice estaminets and bars in Brussels, but this one’s a favorite one for both Peter and me. Other such places will have more beers, or more food, or both; but none will so perfectly give you that “timeslip” feeling of having stumbled into another century. And there’s a cat. (And she’s a nice one.)
Le Cirio is the last remainder of a whole chain of restaurants founded by Francesco Cirio, a food entrepreneur who started the industrial farming and production of tomatoes for canning purposes in the mid-1800’s: the direct descendant of his company, now a multinational, still cans and ships GM-free tomatoes worldwide.
This branch of the cafe/restaurant was built in 1886, possibly one of the last in a series of eighteen establishments meant to serve as “tasting gateways” for Cirio’s products (there was always an industrial warehouse for the products nearby, and such alliances of Cirio-shop-and-warehouse existed as far away as New York, Berlin, Paris and London). All the others are gone now, but this one has resisted anything but the most minuscule changes since it was built. It is famous as the home of the half en half, which (for North American readers) has nothing whatsoever to do with dairy: it’s white wine and sparkling wine mixed one-to-one, a combination that may sound weird at first, but actually works very well.
The cafe itself is a splendid den of perfectly preserved Art Nouveau: stained glass, ornamental brass, carved wood and marble-topped, iron-legged tables, with toilet facilities that are also gorgeously antique. Some of the wall hangings or tapestries are a little faded, the old mirrors a touch spotty: no one cares. The pace is leisurely. The music is — if not exactly 1890’s — also of an earlier time, more likely to be Piaf if anything else. People sit, have a coffee, drink, read their newspapers, chat, have a sandwich, gaze out the windows at the old Bourse building outside.
The first time I stopped in here, it was because Minou was doing that very thing. I mean, of course, “le Chat Minou,” the official Le Cirio cat, who lives in the apartment upstairs. Minou (it’s a French word for “kitty”) was tucked up in meatloaf mode on top of the espresso machine — plainly a smart move on a cold wet day — looking out at the pouring rain, eyes half closed. I was out and about looking for a cafe to write in, and I saw Minou and thought, “Why am I not in there?”
I went in and spent some happy, relaxed hours writing. I’ve been fairly often since. It’s not a big food place: mostly they have little sandwiches and such. (I like the croque monsieur.) Waiters in the traditional long white aprons patrol the room in a calm and alert way. Little old ladies drink the classic Belgian beers like Duvel. No one pays attention to one more writer working on a movie or whatever: they get that kind of thing all the time. The place fills, empties, fills again, all in an overarching sense of calm.
At quiet times, Minou appears to check the spaces underneath the tables and see if anyone’s dropped anything nice. She is not one of those in-your-face, demonstrative cats: she is willing to be friendly if you feel like paying attention to her, but otherwise entirely willing to let you be. On a cold day, she’ll jump up behind the espresso machine again to take advantage of the uninterrupted view out the window. It’s all very sedate, just a short walk away from the noise and expense and tourist-trampling of the Grand Place.
So recommended. Stop in and have yourself a beer.
Le Cirio | 20 Rue de la Bourse | Brussels / Bruxelles | Open: daily, 10am-midnight.
No credit cards
(link to Google map at Wallonie Tourism website)
A side issue: just outside the front of the restaurant/bar, a little off to the right as you look out,are the glassed-in foundations of a medieval church and convent, unearthed by archeologists in the 1980s.
(Also: Probably I shouldn’t be surprised that the only comprehensive article on the Web about Le Cirio is in Italian, at their version of the Slow Food site.)