Doctor Nikola

I've got hold of a copy of Farewell, Nikola, the fifth and last Doctor Nikola novel by Guy Boothby. Nikola, for those who don't know him, is the prototypical "evil genius with cat" character, in novels from 1895-1901, and in this example the cat is visible on the cover and spine. Unfortunately a previous owner of the book glued the cover and spine pictures inside the front cover, and both are a bit damaged, but here's Dr. Nikola if you haven't already met him.

Xmas shopping phase 2 - and mouse control continued.

Got work gifts out of the way fairly painlessly last week and earlier this week (we did a Secret Santa so I bought one present for that, and additionally gave the other technicians calendars and gift vouchers). Today I started on the main haul up to Xmas (and my brother-in-law's birthday shortly thereafter).

This year's pound shop bargains were torches - I got a load of 9-LED torches at a pound a shot, they will be my main stocking-filler for family gifts. These aren't the ones I saw last week that came with zinc batteries, but seem to be otherwise identical (I think I said they were 7 LED last week, but I was wrong). it just happens I have a box of 40 AAA alkali batteries here, so that's an easy little gift for everyone.

I also got some presents for my older grand-nephew at the Sue Ryder charity shop, which had some quite nice new toys - got a 1/32nd scale tractor for £3.99, a fairly realistic model elephant that looks to be around the same scale for £2.99, and a "robot arm" gripper thingy (like this), also at £2.99



I'm not 100% sure about the arm, it may be a little too big for him, in which case I'll probably get him a book instead. But apart from that he's sorted, which means I won't have to venture anywhere near Hamleys or any other big toy store, thank Cthulhu. I also want something for the younger grand-nephew, but he's only just over six months so it'll be clothing or something relatively simple. Also ordered something on eBay for bro-in-law; may not arrive in time for Xmas, but hopefully will get here for his birthday.

Monday I will get out some cash and hopefully take care of the main run of presents pretty quickly. Vouchers mainly, and some more small gifts.

In other news I set up four ultrasonic mouse scarers (which my bat detector says make a lot of noise, but of course I have no real way of knowing how bad it is to a mouse), and put some peppermint oil (the type used in incense burners etc.) down around the edges of counter tops etc, it's supposed to deter them. At the moment my kitchen smells like a sweet factory, but I can live with that if it works...

Question for linguists

Anyone able to translate this (allegedly Schiller) into English?

Noch niemand entfloh dem verhangten Geschick

I think it's some reasonably well-known quote, but unfortunately it isn't one I know and the automatic translators are as always useless.

later: Thanks, this will be added to the notes for the etext.