One of our (older) borrowers came into the library this morning. The terrible fires raging in Victoria had reminded him of a childhood memory and he'd decided to get back in touch with some cousins that he hadn't seen, or heard from, in almost 70 years.

In January 1939 he was staying with his cousins, on their property on the outskirts of Melbourne as the Black Friday fires raged around them. He was little more than a baby and the cousins wrapped him in wet blankets and kept him in the bathtub until the last possible moment. When they were forced to evacuate they put him, still wrapped in the wet blankets, in a culvert on the side of the road.

The fire destroyed the house and property but the family were unharmed. They decided not to rebuild and moved to Tasmania.

Our borrower hadn't had any contact with them since.

It was so long ago, and he was so young, that although he remembered their surname he wasn't sure how to spell it.

Luckily they'd moved to a smallish settlement in Tas, and luckily the surname wasn't that common, so using whitepages.com.au we were able to get a phone number. He was rapt and headed off home to ring them and renew old acquaintances.

He has attended a couple of our internet demos and uses google to look up the answers to the Age crossword that stump him. He didn't realise that he could look up a phone number online.

Calling all word nerds

Bibliophile Bullpen tipped me off to what is quickly becoming my favourite website.

Save the words.

Sponsored by Oxford University Press this site is dedicated to saving underused English words and keeping them in the dictionary (the OED).

The way coolest bit is after you've registered for the site you can adopt underused words - and they email you a certificate of adoption.

Just click on the word you're thinking of adopting and a window pops up telling you the word, the part of speech (noun, verb, adj. etc) and it's use in a sentence.

And once you've adopted the word - well you'll just have to try it yourself...

So far I've adopted 2 words -

Tortiloquy - a noun meaning dishonest or immoral speech.

Sam the mosquito was already a blood sucking parasite. All he needed was a well-rehearsed tortiloquy to begin his legal career.

Ingordigious - adjective meaning greedy.

His ingordigious girlfriend wasn't satisified with the 7 carat engagement ring, so he's back working nightshift for another year.

This is so much fun...

Wanders off to adopt more words...

I've been tagged...

Dieter @ the bfh blog has tagged me with a meme - name the seven blogs that inspire you most.

Egad - that's a toughie - I'm following 471 blogs - most of which inspire me at some point or another.

Hmmm so here goes: (divided into subjects)

Crime fiction blogs:

Eurocrime

Mysteries in Paradise

The Rap Sheet

Shotsmag

Scandinavian crime fiction

Poe's deadly daughters

Crime always pays

Next up Library related blogs...

In Noise

I have gone and bought a pair of cordless headphones so I can actually hear the tv without disturbing the extremely sharp eared neighbour from below.

They are taking a bit of getting used to (the headphones that is) and are not that comfy in this extrememly hot weather.

Still we do what we must to maintain the peace.

In Library and/or in Work

My boss has been on leave for the past week so I have been 'acting up' (as in higher duties, not as in doing evil).

This has meant that I have been busy (yessssss) and, because I have had plenty to do, my brain has been working and I have been thinking.(uh oh)

I now have a blog dashboard full of draft 'idea' posts about things I could be doing, about things my library could be doing, about things I'd like to investigate doing, and so on and so forth.

Most of you will be able to guess what the most challenging thing will be (or what will be the biggest obstacle for me to overcome!)

With the exception of Wednesday (I received an email that upset my equilibrium somewhat) I have been thriving on the challenge of lots to do.

I have seldom been so organised, so productive (Polyxena - ignore this sentence!) - my flat has never been so tidy - it's great.

So what happens next?

Hopefully I can maintain the enthusiasm and the drive and enjoy the challenges.

Whatever happens I should point out that I have started watercolour painting lessons - and I am absolutely crap. It's fun and I'm enjoying it but it's fairly obvious to everyone that I won't be giving up my day job to become a painter.

Libraries & the Community

Last week I had an epiphany (or a nightmare) - I woke up in the middle of the night and decided I wanted to learn watercolour painting. (I should point out that I have the artistic talent of an old boot). I let the thought sit there for a few days -reminding myself I failed painting by numbers - before addressing it once again. Yes I am still keen.

Next step was to finds somewhere to take lesons. I, of course, first turned to 'expanding your horizons' a six monthly guide to what's on at the local neighbourhood houses, put out by the City of Boroondara.

As I was reading through the course offerings I came across one, at the Canterbury Neighbourhood Centre:

"Calling all bookworms.
A friendly group that meets the first Tuesday of the month, 2 pm - 3.30 pm. Books supplied by the local library when possible. No cost." (Emphasis is mine).

Now I suspect I work at their 'local library' and I know nothing about them. If indeed they do get their books from us (informally obviously) then it seems to me that there's a community partnership waiting to happen.

A simple phone call from us -along the lines of - we've heard about the book group, how can we help?

I'm not envisaging or intending that we take over the group or anything like that. I'm thinking more along the lines of helping suggest books that we have multiple copies of, or maybe even go so far as to set up a 'bookclub in a bag program' with them.

I think this is a great community opportunity and (sticking my neck out here) I'd be prepared to take it on.

What do others think?

P.S. I've narrowed the watercolour classes down to either Balwyn Community Centre or Camberwell Community Centre.

New Years Resolutions

"New Year's Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."

Mark Twain (via the quote on my literary calendar for Jan 1.)


I will be making NYR's - I won't be blogging about them!