@Jaiden, wow, peanut punch under a coconut tree? To me that sounds hugely exotic, though I suppose we could go outside and have a glass of wine under our apple tree in the back garden, or at least we could if the weather decides to behave ;D.
You don't usually see Roti in supermarkets. I don't imagine Turtle Bay's are as good as anyone's individual recipe, but they were nice enough.
@Dark eagle,Whilst your slightly true about English people not handling spices, at the same time it depends upon where you go. With such a large Indian and Pakistani influence in the country, and a lot of younger people growing up with more multinational food available, things are changing rather from say my grandparents' generation who couldn't handle even a small amount of spice, especially if you can find indian food cooked by actual Indian chefs, or those who've trained under Indian chefs.
Things over here are a bit crazy, but oddly enough my lady and I are doing okay, making sure not to leave the house and doing a lot of things like shopping online, albeit we did stock up on tins and frozen stuff. a few weeks ago.
Actually, in a lot of ways we're coping pretty well since if anyone can stand being inside for months on end, it's a pair of introverts like us, and with my lady on the at risk list due to her cancer, we don't want to take chances.
Ironically, I'm personally feeling pretty good about things. I've got work done on the db, there's some of my own writing to work on (I'm also looking at becoming a builder for Erion which would be cool). My lady and I are continuing with Tad Williams' memory sorrow and thorn, taking the odd time out to watch an audio described film or two along the way. I'm watching a couple of episodes of Picard now I've got Amazon video working, and I'm liking so far, I've also started up zombies run again, which is actually doiing some great things for keeping people fit during the corona crisis (see new releases), also I'm glad the new mini trampoline I bought is working out.
Books wise, I'm doing the graphic audio white sands by brandon sanderson. This is something I've been looking forward to for a while, since with white sands being a graphic novel, it's a part of the cosmir universe that I haven't been able to explore.
the problem though, is that it's just not grabbing me.
The male character has less powers than everyone else, but oh look, he's trained himself to be an awesome warrior and take charge when needed.
The female character is a scholar who is interested in everything, who has a mission concerned with her family, and bickers constantly with the male character and with old fuddy duddy other schollars.
The problem is, that all of this just feels like stuff we've seen before. The male character is like a meld of Kaladin from Stormlight, with the protagonists of both the reckoners and the rhythmetist, whilst the female character is yet again another nosy schollarly type a little like Shalon.
There's nothing wrong with them as characters, but at this point, I've read so much sanderson that I'm just used to what he writes and these characters just aren't interesting me. Heck, even the plot is slightly predictable, since of course we are introduced to the magic system (this time using sand), and of course, all of the other mages who don't like the main character get themselves slaughtered in a mysterious attack.
Again, there's nothing wrong with it, and had I not read Sanderson previously I probably would love the idea, but as it is it just feels recycled.
Then again, I'll admit graphic audio's way of doing things has always seemed a bit odd to me, since being not quite an audio drama and not quite a book always feels slightly wrong footed. Heck, even the companion chronicles from big finish, which told doctor who stories from the perspective of the companion read like audio drama monologues.
It also doesn't help that some of the accents used in the story are just plane strange! I mean, I get that the people from the dark side of the planet are supposed to speak a different language from the light siders, but why they should hthen have these sort of vaguely russian, vaguely Italian, vaguely arobic accents even when they're talking to each other in their native language!
Hopefully though, things will pick up as I get more into the story, though i confess at the moment when I've wanted to sit down and read by myself, I've usually ended up watching Picard instead, which I'm definitely liking, although I'll wait to discuss that until I've caught up to speed with the latest episodes since the last thing I want is spoilers.
With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)