A few months ago I heard a love song and thought "this captures how I feel about ice hockey" and thus was a playlist born:

three-plus years in love (with hockey)

Additional suggestions always welcome :-)

( full list, with exemplar lyrics )

(previous playlists, titles hopefully self-explanatory:

first game feels
second season:stepping up

I have completely normal feelings about this sport.)

The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
This is something like 14th in the ongoing Penric+Desdemona books. You don't want to start here, it's a satisfying enough instalment in the series if you are already invested in the characters and the family. If I have a criticism I think that like the last two books I found the progress of the book a bit predictable and not very surprising. But I still read it in two solid bites (only separated by the tedious matter of needing to sleep).

The Arctic Curry Club by Dani Redd
This was on the "free paperbacks" shelf at Cambridge North and I picked it up on a whim, and used some of my free time to give it a try. A bit like the previous book, I didn't find it especially surprising but I did find it very engaging, and some very mouthwatering descriptions of food. Our protagonist Maya moves to Svalbard with her partner, who is taking up a research post there, and who turns out to not actually be as supportive and perfect in the arctic night as he seemed in London. When Maya makes a flying trip to Bangalore for her father's remarriage, she reconnects with a childhood friend and starts to dig up old family history. On her return to Svalbard she makes new friends and new culinary adventures.

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan
A retiring police inspector in Mumbai inherits a baby elephant on his last day in the job, and finds himself investigating one last murder case in his retirement, with occasional assistance from the elephant Ganesha. This was both charming and surprising and I enjoyed it very much.

I joined the university open practice last night, after encouragement from my friend who is actually part of CUIHC (I was in the club, I dropped out two years ago, I plan to rejoin again this October but right now I'm in a weird limbo - eligible to play, lots of friends among the players, but not on any of the membership mailing lists or groupchats). 15 minutes or so warmup and then a scrimmage, with a spanking pace set by the Men's Blues players. It was enormous fun and a reminder of why I do these mad late nights etc. And I got a goal! Put myself by the back door and picked up a rebound, absolutely textbook stuff, very happy with it.

So my count is now:

• 2 goals in scrimmage
• 1 goal (actually an own goal by the opposition) and 3 assists in formal games

I'd love to reach the point where a goal in scrimmage is just another Tuesday, but maybe it's time to start a spreadsheet while I still remember each one individually.

(Other good things that happened yesterday: a coffee with lnr, lunch at the Dishoom Permit Room with Mick and Joye, book shopping with Charles, having the time to just sit and read a couple of books, skating lesson and seeing my friend E briefly afterward. Basically, it was a really lovely day of leave.)