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I also have the bad habit of letting ratings/reviews pile up from March to October/November/December each year... classic Tortoise & the Hare situation :D

I am glad here in Portugal I don't have to do taxes while in employment. I am definitely procrastinating on exchanging my driving licence for Portuguese one and getting permanent residency here lol... I mean I am pregnant and has to start the process until end of June (at which point I am also giving birth) but no rush 🙄
I hate procrastinating, so much unnecessary stress in my life...

Timelord Iain wrote: "I also have the bad habit of letting ratings/reviews pile up from March to October/November/December each year... classic Tortoise & the Hare situation :D"

Reviews? Don't know them lol. I used to review regularly for a while but now I cannot be bothered. Started giving quarter star ratings as a review instead... I am sure people noticed I procrastinate on contributing to discussions for books I have finished long time ago tho 😬

I do my taxes the easy way in the UK - it's called PAYE (Pay as you earn).

Amazingly, we still have over and under payments despite it being calculated from your tax code every month. Clearly a perfect system..... 😁

Thought I'd share the happy news with you all and the reason I might be a bit behind on some buddy reads -

I welcomed my second baby into the world on Thurs 10th April! A baby girl who we've named Mina, born at 15:22 weighing 8lbs 5oz (3.78kg). 🥰🩷

Congrats... didn't realize a 2nd was in the works :)

Congratulations!

Congratulations Siobhan!

Congratulations, Siobhan!

Timelord Iain wrote: "For some reason I thought you lived in the UK... I blame your pfp of Shiva :D"

What does Shiva have to do with the UK? lol. That image is from Final Fantasy X

I’m in New Jersey. Previously from Chicago. Previously from the former Soviet Union. Definitely no UK.

Timelord Iain wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "Procrastinating is almost nostalgic for me... it's how I got through K-12, and they always said it wouldn't work in college, but it did... lucky me...."

Sounds ADHDish to me 😅

Congrats Marie on the pregnancy and Siobhan on the birth!

Siobhan wrote: "Thought I'd share the happy news with you all and the reason I might be a bit behind on some buddy reads -

I welcomed my second baby into the world on Thurs 10th April! A baby girl who we've named..."

Congratulations!

Congrats Siobhan!

Congratulations Siobhan!

Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "For some reason I thought you lived in the UK... I blame your pfp of Shiva :D"

What does Shiva have to do with the UK? lol. That image is from Final Fantasy X

I’m in New Jer..."

Just me free associating... altho, now that you mention it, I think I remember you talking about New Jersey with Ann-Marie somewhere...

Timelord Iain wrote: "Diana Stormblessed wrote: "Timelord Iain wrote: "For some reason I thought you lived in the UK... I blame your pfp of Shiva :D"

What does Shiva have to do with the UK? lol. That image is from Fina..."

She lives in Jersey Devil land lol

All the baby grats-ing!!! I hope you all have peaceful babies who let you get good sleep at night.

Siobhan wrote: "Thought I'd share the happy news with you all and the reason I might be a bit behind on some buddy reads -

I welcomed my second baby into the world on Thurs 10th April! A baby girl who we've named..."

Aw yay! Congrats on baby girl Mina! =D

I can assure you, I’m not on top of anything…except my taxes.

Siobhan wrote: "Thought I'd share the happy news with you all and the reason I might be...

Congratulations, Siobhan!! ❤️

Thank you all!! 🥰

Congrats, Siobhan :)

Congratulations Siobhan!! I hope you and the little one are healthy and well <3

So Portugal (and Spain and parts of France) was without electricity today for about 9 hours. No internet or mobile network either. It was quite weird not being able to call anyone...
We had water at least the whole time but now it finally run out, hopefully it's back by morning.

Yeah, it was crazy, I also worried about water but it hold up the whole time and now we have excess of water bottles. And I agree on the weirdness. I felt incommunicated with the world.

!!! What happened? I haven't seen any news in.... be honest, months... I've been avoiding news...

Nobody knows the cause yet, from my quick news search

Yikes!

So far there is talk of huge fail on main connection between Spain and France or rare atmospheric phenomena in Spain where temperature fluctuation caused lines to expand and contract rapidly...

Obviously first news we were able to catch from radio talked about possible cyber attack and that whole Europe was affected and that it could take up to 72 hours to fix... I think cans of sausages, fish and beans were never before sold in such quantities here, even during COVID... Food stands had long lines as people tried to secure warm lunch... It was quite a chaos. Personally we raided our local mini market and got some cans to last at least three days since we were quite out of stockpile. We ate our lunch cold knowing we need to make use of what we had in fridge before it goes bad. I am not fan of cold meat to begin with and eating meat loaf with cheese and baked potatoes cold when pregnant was a bit challenging but food is food... On our way back from work (transporting special needs kids from school) we stopped by husband's parents to check on them and found out they warmed dinner for everyone on churrasceira so at least we had warm dinner and then the power went back. I was happy to go home and take shower after hot and sweaty day just to find out there is no water 😅

But it could have been worse. Can't imagine what chaos would erupt if it continued onto next day. Then we would be living without running water too.

You are from Spain Paula? (Just guessing by the shelf names.) How was the situation there? Here at least in afternoon was talk about cutting our network from EU to recover faster as we can be self sufficient with electricity. So they talked about recovering within hours at that point.

Whew. Thank goodness power and some functionality is back. That's scary, having such a huge swath completely out!!

Those 2 theories/facts are wheat I saw on 2nd check 2hrs ago��

Forgot to say that water is back so we are back to normal, I hope. There might still be some residual chaos. Like supermarkets not having cool stuff if they didn't have back up power last the whole time... Have to be careful where to buy those in the next days. At least I had no raw meat in fridge and other stuff is probably fine. Just tossed the smoked salmon to be safe. Freezer was not even opened so all that is ok.

I just hope there won't be any recurrences and that the electrical network is stable now.

One thing that was really annoying is that the major mobile operator that I have, Vodafone, didn't have any back up power (or not enough) to be up while one of the other operators was up all the time or most of it anyways... Would have been so much easier on everyone if the communication stayed on.

@Marie, yeah, I am from Spain. Here people were buying candles, flashlights and radios. The power went on in stages. Like in my city some areas had electricity after only 3 hours out. And other cities had all the electricity back on early as well.

Same. The generator of Vodafone only had like one hour of electricity before it run out and then it was goodbye Internet. And probably the other companies since people were buying radios.

Here it also went back in stages but like within one hour or two, so everyone was without for at least 7 hours I think.

I heard in Spain some parts were still without power this morning...

Yeah, in some towns the electricity took longer to be back on. Its still fast for a complete shut down, but it could happen again if we don't know the cause.

I’m glad power is coming back on in most places. I was watching the story yesterday and thinking how scared I’d be if in situation.

Thank goodness it's not midwinter or midsummer....

With all the new requests coming in I almost forgot to post May's Buddy Read Buffet! Here we go!

May 1, 2025 Brothers of the Wind (The Last King of Osten Ard #0) by Tad Williams
May 1, 2025 Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower #5) by Stephen King
May 1, 2025 Chimera (Parasitology #3) by Mira Grant
May 2, 2025 For a Few Demons More (Hollows #5) by Kim Harrison
May 3, 2025 Archangel's Storm (Guild Hunter #5) by Nalini Singh
May 3, 2025 How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi #1) by Django Wexler
May 3, 2025 Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass #6) by Sarah J. Maas
May 3, 2025 What Happened in London (DI Adams #0.5) by Kim M. Watt
May 4, 2025 The Reluctant Demon (Circles in Hell #4) by Mark Cain
May 5, 2025 Imaginary Numbers (InCryptid #9) by Seanan McGuire
May 5, 2025 Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy
May 5, 2025 The Chosen and the Beautiful (#1) by Nghi Vo
May 6, 2025 The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
May 7, 2025 Lone Wolf (Orphan X #9) by Gregg Hurwitz
May 7, 2025 Planetside (#1) by Michael Mammay
May 8, 2025 The Empty Grave (Lockwood & Co. #5) by Jonathan Stroud
May 8, 2025 Regeneration (Species Imperative, #3) by Julie E. Czerneda
May 9, 2025 The Comorant (Miriam Black #3) by Chuck Wendig
May 10, 2025 When Darkness Falls (The Obsidian Trilogy #3) by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
May 10, 2025 Navigators of Dune (Schools of Dune #3) by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
May 10, 2025 Beguilement (Sharing Knife #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold
May 10, 2025 Deathstalker Rebellion (Deathstalker #2) by Simon R. Green
May 11, 2025 Scorched Heart (Firebrand #4) (Supernatural London) by Helen Harper
May 11, 2025 Shadow Games (Black Company #4) by Glen Cook
May 12, 2025 Deceiver (Foreigner #11)vC.J. Cherryh
May 13, 2025 The Devils by Joe Abercrombie
May 13, 2025 Shadows and Light (Tir Alainn #2) by Anne Bishop
May 15, 2025 Long Way Down (Daniel Faust #1) + The White Gold Score (#1.5) (First Story Universe) by Craig Schaefer
May 15, 2025 The Eye of Zoltar (Last Dragonslayer #3) by Jasper Fforde
May 15, 2025 The Rose and Thorn (Riyria Chronicles #2) by Michael J. Sullivan
May 15, 2025 Bloodmarked (Legendborn #2) by Tracy Deonn
May 16, 2025 Crown of Slaves (Honorverse: Wages of Sin #1) by David Weber & Eric Flint
May 17, 2025 The Whispering Night (Luminaries #3) by Susan Dennard
May 17, 2025 Last of the Dragorn (Echoes Saga #8) by Philip C. Quaintrell
May 18, 2025 Naamah's Blessing (Kushiel's Legacy: Moirin #3) by Jacqueline Carey
May 18, 2025 Skyforged (Steamborn #5) by Eric R. Asher
May 18, 2025 Dead Tired III (#3) by RavensDagger
May 19, 2025 Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1) by Steven Erikson
May 19, 2025 Fulgrim (Horus Heresy #5) by Graham McNeill
May 20, 2025 Dragons of the Highlord Skies (Dragonlance: Lost Chronicles #2) by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
May 20, 2025 Faithbreaker (Fallen Gods #3) by Hannah Kaner
May 21, 2025 The Incandescent by Emily Tesh
May 21, 2025 Blood of Tyrants (Temeraire #8) by Naomi Novik
May 22, 2025 Jingo (Discworld #21) by Terry Pratchett
May 22, 2025 Drysine Legacy (Spiral Wars #2) by Joel Shepherd
May 23, 2025 Deadly Assessments (Fred, the Vampire Accountant #5) by Drew Hayes
May 24, 2025 Screw the Galaxy (Hard Luck Hank #1) by Steven Campbell
May 25, 2025 Everything (Full Murderhobo #3) by Dakota Krout
May 27, 2025 Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time #4) by Kelley Armstrong
May 27, 2025 He Who Fights With Monsters 7 (HWFWM #7) by Shirtaloon
May 28, 2025 Dead Man's Hand (Unorthodox Chronicles #1) by James J. Butcher
May 29, 2025 Strange New World (Greta Helsing #4) by Vivian Shaw
May 29, 2025 The Malevolent Eight (Malevolent Seven #2) by Sebastien de Castell