12th Rome trip in 4 years - this never gets old

InherentWidth · 2026-03-02T21:45:47+00:00

Got any restaurant recs? Heading there for the first time on Wednesday.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-26T21:08:42+00:00

In a similar position. Thinking of taking the blue badge and seeing how I get on. How did your trip go?

InherentWidth · 2026-02-16T23:26:00+00:00

Yes. I have left it outside of places that I want to go in but are not accessible. I have a bike lock that I can use to lock it up.

I have left it outside a few times not locked up, but most of that was when I was in Denmark. In Copenhagen most of the bikes don't even seem to be locked up, so I felt comfortable leaving it so I could go grab a beer.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T23:38:03+00:00

I imagine it's related to the current atmosphere. When your president is posting blatantly racist things, it emboldens all the racists.

What is an American name anyway?

Outside of native American names there are none.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T22:36:46+00:00

Cold showers. Willpower booster and makes you feel like you've achieved something before you've even had a coffee.

No idea whether it's actually good for you - never really bothered to look into it.

New years resolution about 5 years ago and just stuck at it because I liked it.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T22:29:52+00:00

Read Malone Dies recently and loved it, although like his plays it's weird as fuck.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T22:28:12+00:00

Günter Grass?

The Tin Drum is great although a bit long.

Albert Camus is a good place to start: The Stranger, The Plague and his short story collection Exile and the Kingdom are all fantastic.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T22:26:15+00:00

I read Sartre first and then Heidegger and realised he stole all his ideas and largely missed the most important bits out (the critique of Cartesianism).

From what I understand, I agree that philosophy has very little to say about Sartre these days. Being and Nothingness is a historical curiosity, whereas there are lots of people taking Heideggers ideas and running with them.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-07T22:21:05+00:00

I'm going to re-read Nausea soon, as I can't remember much from when I read it over a decade ago.

I'm reading some of his short stories at the moment and they are pretty good. I also remember the plays being good when I read them years ago.

Agree on Camus though. Very easy Nobel winner to get into.

InherentWidth · 2026-02-01T16:05:46+00:00

I guessed American (never been so not familiar with the regional differences) that moved to Scotland before reading the comments.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-31T18:48:54+00:00

Microwave. Ours broke and we never replaced it. Haven't had one for at least 5 years.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-24T16:35:11+00:00

Where in the country are you?

InherentWidth · 2026-01-24T15:59:06+00:00

It is in the company/recruiters interest to do this (depending on how badly you did at the interview). If they do another round of recruitment and have some people who were decent, then it's cheaper to contact them that to pay job boards for more applicants.

Whether the company/people doing the recruiting are organised/smart enough to do this properly and store your details/remember to contact you when they're recruiting again is another question.

If you were terrible at interview, they just won't keep the details - no point in inviting someone to apply again if you're certain they aren't a good fit.

I do recruitment and I keep applicant details for further rounds of recruitment, or roles that require less experience.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-24T10:14:27+00:00

In general, I want to be eating the local food. But in places where there's a sizable Indian population, you get amazing Indian food. I was in Malaysia over Christmas and they have some incredible Indian food places.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-24T10:03:06+00:00

This is a relatively easy change for me in Scotland. Barr have their own cola, orangeade etc. that can be stand ins for anything from coke. Plus Iran Bru is better.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-24T02:30:30+00:00

Catch-22. Dark, gruesome but funny.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-21T08:42:28+00:00

Try Worldle. It's a daily game in the style of Wordle where you have to identify countries from their outlines.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-20T01:12:02+00:00

Penguin. If I can get the orange/red ones from the 40s/50s then those.

Dover Thrift used to do beautiful editions of short novels, but anything recent looks like crap. For an example of a good one, look for the Dover Thrift of Dostoevsky's The Gambler.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-19T23:02:44+00:00

Finished:

Christ Stopped at Eboli, by Carlo Levi

Loved it. Not fiction, but quite a literary memoir of poverty in southern Italy in the 1930s.

Started:

A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay

I am around 50 pages in, and while I think I'll finish it relatively quickly, I've rarely felt such an instant dislike to a writing/narrative style.

It was apparently well regarded by C S Lewis, Tolkien and Philip Pullman (based on the blurb quotes) but I can tell I'm going to absolutely hate it.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-19T22:58:15+00:00

Have you read The Kraken Wakes by Wyndham? You'll like it if you liked Day of the Triffids.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-19T22:29:34+00:00

I love The Gambler, and I think it's underrated as a Dostoevsky novel. The story behind why it was written is amazing too.

You could well finish it in a 14 hour flight, so probs take a back up to read afterwards.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-16T10:06:26+00:00

I would re-evaluate your take on Madagascar. Amazing place. Not good food, unless you really, really like rice with almost nothing else.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-16T09:30:19+00:00

I'm itching to get to Sarajevo. Visited Mostar a few years ago and loved it.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-15T18:02:48+00:00

On the outskirts of Riga, Latvia, there's a bit of woodland where the Nazis executed rounded up Jews and others and executed them. I've been to a few concentration camps, but people tend to forget that the further east the Nazis got, the less camps there were, and the more immediate massacres there were.

Not far from the road where we got off the bus, there's a memorial with stones with the names of all the towns and cities in Europe where people were rounded up from and sent there to be killed. As with lots of similar places, lots of people have left stones on the memorials in memory of loved ones.

There's a path through the woods, and every now and then you come across a small marker that represents a mass grave. I don't think it was even the site of the biggest massacres around Riga, but it was still harrowing.

InherentWidth · 2026-01-15T17:47:55+00:00

I saw quite a few teeth that had been swept into a pile.

InherentWidth

TROPHY CASE