Tom Womack

I haven't updated properly in ages. Basically, my life is: work, ice hockey, occasionally seeing my spouse and children, indoor cricket, more ice hockey, weight training. I am thoroughly in my jock era.

I now have on-ice training three times a week: Mondays with Huskies (mixed uni), Tue/Wed on alternating weeks with Kodiaks (women), Fridays with Warbirds (mixed rec). Plus games at the weekends, and the aforementioned weights and cricket for a little variety. Oh, and one of my hockey buddies pointed me at free Modern Irish lessons for staff and students of the university (funded by the Irish government). Tá sé iontach ag stáidear arís.

An anecdote from last week. I had a game with Warbirds on Saturday afternoon, but discovered as I was changing that I had failed to pack my skates! Disaster! I called Tony and ordered him an Uber, and got changed with the team while watching the cab's progress across Cambridge on the app. It arrived just as the warmup started, and I went out to meet it fully kitted up apart from my socked feet. The cab arrived, I got my skates from wonderful spouse, and jogged back in and around the rink to the bench just as warmup was finishing. I was third line so I just about had enough time to lace up my skates and get my gloves back on ready for my line change. I went over the boards with my line - and promptly discovered I had one skate guard still on, when I went sprawling on the ice. I sat up, pulled the guard off, threw it onto the bench (narrowly missing a teammate), got up and hared across the ice and managed to do something vaguely useful with the rest of my shift.

(We lost the game quite badly but apart from that dramatic start I didn't do anything too terrible, and I'm always happy to be playing.)

Books on pre-order:

1. Platform Decay (Murderbot 8) by Martha Wells (5 May 2025)

Books acquired in October:

• and read:
  1. The Mirror & The Maze (Wrath & the Dawn) by Renée Ahdieh
  2. The Crown & The Arrow (Wrath & the Dawn) by Renée Ahdieh
  3. The Moth & The Flame (Wrath & the Dawn) by Renée Ahdieh
  4. On The Fly (Portland Storm 2) by Catherine Gayle
  5. Taking A Shot (Portland Storm 3) by Catherine Gayle
  6. Light The Lamp (Portland Storm 4) by Catherine Gayle
  7. The O Zone by Kelly Jamieson [7]
  8. Hockey Halloween: A Charity Anthology
• and unread:
  1. Queen Demon (Rising World 2) by Martha Wells [1]

Books acquired previously and read in October:

1. The Element of Fire by Martha Wells [Sep]
2. The Death of the Necromancer by Martha Wells [Sep]

Borrowed books read in October:

1. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown (Baby Ganesha 2) by Vaseem Khan [3]
2. The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star (Baby Ganesha 3) by Vaseem Khan [3]

Much of the month's reading has been alternating between hockey romance and Mumbai private detective stories, along with a complete failure to read my long-awaited pre-order of the latest Martha Wells. (but I did read different new-to-me Martha Wells, so yay?)

[1] Pre-order
[2] Audiobook
[3] Physical book
[4] Crowdfunding
[5] Goodbye read
[6] Cambridgeshire Reads/Listens
[7] FaRoFeb / FaRoCation / Bookmas / HRBC
[8] Prime Reading / Kindle Unlimited