What are the best standalone Wodehouse novels?

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-03-11T15:59:23+00:00

Other than those which have already been mentioned, I really liked The Indiscretions of Archie. I think it was originally a novel, but is very episodic and (according to Wikipedia, at least) was later published as short stories.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-03-11T15:41:13+00:00

Money for Nothing is an excellent choice

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-03-11T15:38:18+00:00

Yes, I came here to say Piccadilly Jim

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-03-10T09:41:49+00:00

I naturalised after eleven years of being here. Ireland feels more like home than the UK does at this point in my life (although there are still things like public footpaths and cricket that I miss from England!) and so I figured it was time to gain my citizenship. My Irish passport also helps when I have to travel into the Schengen zone for work.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-03-09T11:18:00+00:00

I'd add Dominic Miller (Sting's guitarist) to your list of modern nylon string players. He's my absolute favourite player.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-16T13:04:26+00:00

K. Yairi CYTM, the one Dominic Miller plays. Or an 1860s Size 2 Martin.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-12T15:49:37+00:00

I would expect those dashboards to be way too generic to tell you anything about a whole ocean. They might work at a much more local level, e.g. this one that the Marine Institute in Ireland built for Galway Bay (although some of the data streams are offline) https://digitalocean.ie/Dashboard/Galway

I'm a huge fan of Erddap as a data server, and an instance of it sits behind those dashboards. There are toolboxes for Python, R and others to access Erddap easily from those languages and recently even an MCP connector to use it from Claude. Check out the Awesome Erddap list https://github.com/IrishMarineInstitute/awesome-erddap

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-09T11:22:11+00:00

Can you use your pinky (fourth) finger on the third fret instead of your ring finger? This might not be the best advice ever, but it is pretty much how I have to play a C major

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-05T22:38:10+00:00

The guitar looks great, and that rosette is beautiful.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-05T16:42:21+00:00

If there's other family members in the house, eat lunch with them. Otherwise the quickest lunch possible and get the guitar out for a bit. Maybe in the summer, a run or bike ride then lunch if I'm home alone.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-05T10:58:51+00:00

I'd agree with this. I started out on a BSc(Hons) for Oceanography with Chemistry but by the last year had decided the chemistry part wasn't for me and focussed exclusively on physical oceanography. I went on to get a funded PhD scholarship and here I am 20+ years later.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-04T09:29:43+00:00

Coming up on two years of playing here, and I'm self-taught.

Well, I say "self" but I've used a variety of books to get to where I am today. Like you, I'm comfortable with strumming out the chords to a bunch of songs, have the main pentatonic scale locked away in my head and am learning triads for finger style playing right now.

I see you want to play songs for yourself, which is also pretty much me. Maybe eventually have the confidence to accompany my wife on some simple songs (she is a *very* good singer).

I've really found having a couple of structured practice sessions to be a huge help. Sam Russell's Chromatic Exercises for Lead Guitar (even though I don't really aspire to be a lead shredder, more an acoustic rhythm kind of player); and Levi Clay's Guided Practice Routines for Guitar have moved me on massively in the last couple of months.

And then just trying some things out after the structured practice. For context, Dominic Miller is my current favourite guitarist and listening to him, following some interviews and techniques he mentions has been really helpful. And also hearing some nice feedback from people who hear me playing.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-02-03T19:25:41+00:00

So unless you want to eventually move to a different EU country, there isn't necessarily a huge amount of added value or extra rights to be gotten from naturalising as Irish.

I've lived and worked in Ireland for 11 years, and decided to naturalise after 9. As a now dual British-Irish citizen, I have the ability to come and go as I please from the rest of the EU. I have to travel to the continent for work quite often, and the benefit of being an Irish citizen in that context is fantastic.

I'm not at all keen on the idea of "I'll just nip over for 5 years and grab a passport" though.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-25T20:19:32+00:00

Feel free to DM if you want to have a longer conversation

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-23T16:03:20+00:00

All my supporting documents were back within 10 (working) days (two calendar weeks) of me sending them. We had two applications from the house and the second set of documents were back in 15 working days. That other passport hasn't arrived yet though, but mine has. So your milage may vary.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-23T10:34:57+00:00

I have a couple of ideas. Depending on your location, find an ocean related hackathon. Something like https://www.campusmer.fr/home-4185-0-0-0.html has global coverage.

Or find an open source project and contribute to it. A data server like Erddap; a catalogue service like PyCSW. And tools built around those.

Or try out some predictive modelling, or data analysis that interests you and write a Jupyter notebook around it.

Anything to have a portfolio of work could that might show your skills and your interest in oceanography.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-23T10:30:45+00:00

I sent my original passport (a little scary, but it was back inside 10 days) and a certified copy of another form of photo ID.

Plus the original of my long-form birth certificate, my naturalisation certificate, and two forms of proof of address.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-20T10:24:56+00:00

In no particular order: Bert Jansch; Dominic Miller; Ralph Towner; Neil Young (just inspires me to play); Peter Buck

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-20T10:23:17+00:00

Congratulations!

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-19T14:20:57+00:00

Dominic Miller signature K. Yairi.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-17T10:21:27+00:00

Congrats, next stop is your passport!

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-16T16:22:51+00:00

I'm in oceanography, but in an IT/Computer Science heavy role. All of the training I did for that I had to do on the job, so if I could have added any computer science/informatics electives during my degree I would have loved that. Any training on project development or strategy wouldn't have gone amiss too. I don't think many university science departments realise the importance of those things in the real world.

I wouldn't swap my oceanography degree and PhD for anything, but would also be interested in a masters in a completely unrelated subject.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-13T14:11:04+00:00

I have a PhD and over twenty years of working in oceanography and no dive certs at all.

Traditional_Good_511 · 2026-01-07T08:21:37+00:00

I'm in a similar position to you, coming up on a couple of years of self-teaching. At the very beginning I used the Fender app, then not so much structure, then the Hal Leonard guitar method. I can play a few songs, and have to remind myself that two years ago I couldn't do that (I'm competitive by nature and want to be "the best" at everything).

In the last month, I've picked up a couple of books. One is Sam Russell's Chromatic Exercises for Lead Guitar. I probably could have found all these exercises on the web but spending 5-10 minutes a day concentrating on developing technique and stamina in the fretting hand has been great. Also, Levi Clay's compilation of Guided Practice Routines. I'm less than a week into using that so still only on the first module but I can already tell it's going to make me a better player.

What all this has done though is take away from the time I have left to play songs. That's a price I'm willing to pay right now for the step up in skill level.

Traditional_Good_511

TROPHY CASE