Book reviews (part 2)

Here are a few more reviews of books I've recently been reading.

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith – 4.9 / 5.0

The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was a book which had never really appealed to me, but I eventually picked it up as the third book in a multi-book discount deal. I’m extremely glad I did as I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely be searching out the follow-up books in the series.

The book tells the story of Precious Ramotswe and her investigative adventures after she uses her inheritance to set up the first and only female detective agency in Botswana. Some of the chapters could almost be read individually as self-contained short stories, but there are also a few ongoing story-lines and themes running throughout the book. Its style will appeal to a wide audience and several moments in the book will bring a smile to your face. Overall, the No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency is a thoroughly enjoyable and heart-warming book which I would enthusiastically recommend.

Hidden jigsaw puzzle found on British coins

A tricky and complicated jigsaw puzzle found on the back of British coins.

As a quick follow up to last week's Easter egg themed blog post, I thought I would also mention a hidden jigsaw puzzle from the Royal Mint found on the back of British coins. Anyone who uses cash a lot might already be familiar with this, but those who prefer to pay by card may not be aware of it yet.

The pieces of the puzzle can be found on the back of recent editions of British coins from 1p up to 50p, i.e. 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p and 50p, and when put together the coins display the image of a shield. If you’re struggling to complete the jigsaw puzzle then you can also find the solution on the back of recent editions of the British pound coin, i.e. it shows how the shield should look when the correct coins are in place. Although to be fair, you shouldn’t really need the solution to complete the puzzle as it only involves six pieces!

10 more cool internet Easter eggs ... the sequel!

Another list of weird hidden features (or 'Easter eggs' as they’re known) from around the web.

 

Another batch of internet Easter Eggs.

One of my personal favourite posts on this blog was my '10 cool internet Easter eggs' post which lists hidden features and tricks found on the internet such as the YouTube snake, the Nyanit cat and even an update on the end of the world. There are many more hidden Easter eggs found on the internet though, so I thought it was about time I listed another ten cool internet Easter eggs in a post creatively entitled '10 more cool internet Easter eggs ... the sequel!'

1) ASCII Star Wars

Any Star Wars fans should definitely check out this first Easter egg. If you open up DOS (click on the Windows ‘Start’ button, then Run, then type ‘cmd’) then type:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

…you get to watch the entire Star Wars movie illustrated with ASCII text symbols!

10 cool Swedish words and expressions (part 1)

Fart bumps, poison marriage and eating barbed wire.

Caution: Posionous marriage!

I'm a big fan of the Swedish language, so I thought it would be fun to write a post on ten of my favourite Swedish words and expressions, starting with a word seemingly invented by an apparent love cynic.

1) Poisonous marriage

In Swedish, the word for married is 'gift' and this is also the word for poison.  Whoever invented Swedish can’t have had the most optimistic outlook on marriage.

2) Black sickness

‘Svartsjuk’ is the Swedish word for jealous and this literally translates as ‘black sickness’ which is an interesting way to describe jealousy.

The fire skipping rope ... on crutches!

Partying above and beyond the call of duty.

Attempting the fire skipping rope ... on crutches!

As mentioned in my earlier post entitled, 'The fire skipping rope', one of the late night attractions on Haad Rin Sunrise Beach is that at various points throughout the night, the bar staff set a skipping rope on fire and then drunken backpackers foolishly risk life and limb by attempting to skip through the flames.

The fire skipping rope has been the cause of many an accident in Thailand, so I personally wouldn't recommend participating (especially not while drunk), but to help people get an idea of what it’s all about I uploaded a few fire skipping videos in the aforementioned post entitled, 'The fire skipping rope'.

Funny football quotes (part 1)

"Matches don’t come any bigger than FA Cup quarter finals.”

A new season of Premier League football is on its way.

Any sports fans sick of all the good sportsmanship on display during the Olympic Games will be pleased to know that the Premier League starts again this weekend, so you should be able to enjoy diving and cheating once again very soon! To celebrate the new football season, I’ve collected together a list of amusing football themed quotes by managers, commentators and players over the years.

To make things a bit more interesting though, I’ve slipped in a made-up quote. All except one of the following quotes are real, so it’s tricky, but see if you can guess which is the made-up quote.

1) “You can’t play with a one armed goalkeeper - not at this level.”
…Kevin Keegan


2) “If Glenn Hoddle had been any other nationality, he would have had 70 or 80 caps for England.”
…John Barnes


3) “We didn’t underestimate them. They were just a lot better than we thought.”
…Sir Bobby Robson

More Olympic quotes

Katherine Copeland achieved her lifetime ambition of being on a stamp!
Oh ... and she also won an Olympic gold medal as well.

Please note, that's not Katherine pictured on the above stamps. That's the Queen.

I think all sports fans can agree that we’ve just witnessed a brilliantly exciting and amazingly entertaining Olympics, with perhaps the only disappointment being marathon gold medal winner, Stephen Kiprotich, letting his fans down by refusing to do a lap of honour.

That one small blemish aside though, it’s been a memorable and exciting Olympics, so to celebrate here are a few of my favourite quotes from the games, together with a few Olympic themed quotes from years gone by.

1) “We’ve just won the Olympics! We’re going to be on a stamp!”
…The first thing Katherine Copeland said after winning her gold medal in the women's lightweight double sculls.