According to a 2012 study from San Francisco State University, true happiness comes from buying experiences—not more stuff. So instead of spending your paycheck on a new watch, use that money to take a trip and make some memories to last a lifetime.
Thomas Caine seems to be an ex CIA agent with PTSD, which gives the book a roller-coaster ride of twists and turns. Some of the scenes of a monster truck and an attacking crane are a bit far fetched. The book starts with Caine out for revenge and when the book finishes, after a large stack of bodies, he is still on the same route.
I have read most of the Det. Banks series and was probably expecting this book to be of the same quality. It is basically a story relate by the three main characters, the starlet, the stalker and the policeman. Each gives a vivid description of their depressing lives. The love angle was predictable and early on it takes the appearance of a teen age love story. The final interview with the supposed killer was tedious.
A penny hang was an establishment common in port cities, and located in a cellar or basement. It featured hooks in the walls, with ropes strung in parallel from one side to another at about shoulder height. In the late evening, drunk and exhausted "clients", who had spent all their money, or were too boisterous to be allowed anywhere else, would enter the penny hang, after paying a penny, and then drape themselves over a rope, and attempt to sleep as best they could. As a crowning flourish to the glories of this place, the proprietor could come down in the morning and untie one end of the ropes, so that the clientele who had not managed to wake up and stagger out already would collapse together in a heap on the floor. In 1933, a London sleeping establishment, known as the Twopenny Hangover In 1933, a London sleeping establishment had just such an arrangement. At the Twopenny Hangover the lodgers sat in a row on a bench; with a rope in front of them, and they lean on this as though leaning over a a fence. A man, humorously called the valet, cuts the rope at five in the morning. There are similar shelters in Paris, but the charge there is only twenty-five centimes (a halfpenny) instead of twopence. There are suggestions that the word 'hangover' and the expression 'sleep tight' originated from this.
When I went outside the other day and hopped into my van, I noticed a bit of snow on the windshield. Not thinking too much about it, I started up the engine and 'crack ', the wipers went across the glass and one kept going out onto the driveway. It seems that the day before I had neglected to turn off the wipers all the way. Under the snow was a bit of ice that froze the wipers to the glass. Hence the loud crack when the wipers broke free from the ice. My son came out, found the parts and put it back together. So, lesson learned, at least for that day.
The Golden Rendezvous is a modern tale of pirates. A tramp steamer, with the absurd idea of having A1+ cabins for the ultra rich, meanders from port to port. It is hijacked by some of its own passengers and sails on with murder and mayhem to an expected destination. After a slow start, it is fast paced with excitement reminiscent of James Bond.
Once in awhile I read a western just to keep in touch with the genre. This a story of a western town where the town's elite decide that they don't need the state's judicial system and set up there own court. Of course these are just vigilantes who mete out their own sort of justice. Most of the story is the give and take to get the town back on track. I thought it was a slow starter with the fight scenes dragging on. I pushed on and found it a good story and enjoyed the battle for supremacy at the end.
My T.V. remote was working too well, volume wasn't working, hard to change channels, etc. So I took it apart and wiped it all down with alcohol. What happens is, oil from our fingers gets inside and gums up the buttons. After that, I put it all back together and all is well.