I never did get to chill out like I wanted to. The joy of genuinely choosing when I went to bed, rather than feeling the need to keep someone company or wait for someone to fall asleep, was somewhat lost as on the Monday dd2 wanted to watch tv downstairs until later than I would have liked, and on the Tuesday she was ill and I was cleaning, tidying and packing until later than I would have been if she'd been fit to help me. Also discovering that my bedding was damp in the dryer when I was intending to go to bed didn't help. There was much more cleaning and tidying to be done than I had thought and it didn't all get done, not by a long shot.
We got away safely on the Wednesday morning to catch our train. We had plenty of time in the end so I wished I hadn't rushed quite so much at home, as I accidentally shut a cat in my bedroom, doh. They had all been seen outside shortly before, but I'd gone back in to sort out an order. Thankfully she was found the next day so we didn't come home to a disaster. Meanwhile, as my Facebook friends will know, our first train of two was late, and we missed our connection by a bare handful of minutes. This was doubly frustrating as the platforms were back-to-back, we could have simply stepped off one and more or less onto the other without having to cross any tracks. (By the way, if anyone needs to know for some reason which platform a train is arriving at or departing from, try the National Rail website, though not all stations give platform information.) We waited for the next direct train, which was two hours later, in the Costa coffee shop (I do like Costa...) which at York station is in the old waiting room, a brilliantly-situated space at the end of the bridge, with a good view across the station. Fantastic for people-watching!
By missing our connection we also lost our reserved seats, and the next train was quite busy. We got two seats together, though not at a table, and also we were between windows, and settled in. At Newcastle we had a delightful addition to the carriage, a woman who proceeded to announce loudly over the phone that she was on the train with a can of beer and then spend most of the journey swearing down her phone. Thankfully that was the limit of her obnoxiousness so I read, and dd2 occupied herself, and we occasionally looked out of the bits of window that we could see. The view of Alnmouth in full sun from the train is stunning.
We did a lot of the same stuff we did last year at the same place but some was different... In the couple of days before we joined them, dh had taken the kids to shiver on North Berwick beach, and to pick fruit at Belhaven Fruit Farm but they mostly seem to have enjoyed the Burns' wii and trampoline, and the unfamiliar toys in the house.
Posting this now before I go away again! Will come and post some more another time...
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ramblings. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Monday, 20 July 2009
ahhhh...
Dh has gone today to Scotland with 3 of 4 offspring. Dd2 and I are travelling up by train on Wednesday, which gives me a couple of days of not having to cater for small people's demands, being able to do jobs and tidy up without interruption or it being undone as fast as I can do it, and having a bit of genuine help. I've been looking forward to this for ages now, this is my holiday.
Since they left I've tidied a bit, made tea, walked to the shop because I didn't have any breakfast cereal, watched Twilight with dd2 (I really need to watch it by myself, or perhaps with someone who won't start commenting on the bits that don't mesh up with the book, lol, to properly let myself get into it and enjoy it, I think, but it was still nice) and sat and listend to 1 and a half (so far) Muse albums.
Tomorrow I plan to do as much cleaning as I can, do some reading, maybe play Lips or Singstar with dd2, watch some more telly.
Since they left I've tidied a bit, made tea, walked to the shop because I didn't have any breakfast cereal, watched Twilight with dd2 (I really need to watch it by myself, or perhaps with someone who won't start commenting on the bits that don't mesh up with the book, lol, to properly let myself get into it and enjoy it, I think, but it was still nice) and sat and listend to 1 and a half (so far) Muse albums.
Tomorrow I plan to do as much cleaning as I can, do some reading, maybe play Lips or Singstar with dd2, watch some more telly.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
toooooo hoooooottttt
Melting. Brain is melting.
Reminded myself to blog by following link on my twitter page (I'm trogglicious on there)
Not sure what I'm going to blog about, other than being too bloomin' hot to think. Heartily sick of small people whining at each other today, a general air of niggle going on... dd2 being greedy and using xbox and my laptop, which she needs for the walkthrough. Apparently.
I should talk about fun stuff like booking tickets to see Muse in November but it's such a long time away... I did just book tix for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, on the Thursday rather than the opening Wednesday because the premier seats are all gone (well, there was one left, not much good when there are three of us going) for the 8pm showing. And also I've booked train tickets for our housesitting holiday in Dunbar, dh is taking dd1, 3 and 4 up in the car on the Sunday and I'm going with dd2 on the Wednesday, giving me a couple of days of relative quiet at home and saving the massive sum of £4 on the train fare, getting a little bit of use out of the free Family-and-Friends Railcard. Must remember to get the half-price offer this time.
I've been posting on TwilightMoms, enjoying the analysis of the books (oddly enough, as I'm not usually that keen on analysing art, it's too personal a thing IMO, but discussion with enthusiasts for the fun of it is decidedly better than having to do it for grades!) and making new friends, I hope :-) There doesn't seem to be anyone very local to me, which is a shame because really I'm looking for someone to go to see New Moon with who won't be surprised if I'm a weeping mess throughout.
Right I must away, to let dd4 use a puter before she explodes, and to make good on my promise to myself that I would make a start on my dress this afternoon. Need to clear a patch of floor first!
Reminded myself to blog by following link on my twitter page (I'm trogglicious on there)
Not sure what I'm going to blog about, other than being too bloomin' hot to think. Heartily sick of small people whining at each other today, a general air of niggle going on... dd2 being greedy and using xbox and my laptop, which she needs for the walkthrough. Apparently.
I should talk about fun stuff like booking tickets to see Muse in November but it's such a long time away... I did just book tix for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, on the Thursday rather than the opening Wednesday because the premier seats are all gone (well, there was one left, not much good when there are three of us going) for the 8pm showing. And also I've booked train tickets for our housesitting holiday in Dunbar, dh is taking dd1, 3 and 4 up in the car on the Sunday and I'm going with dd2 on the Wednesday, giving me a couple of days of relative quiet at home and saving the massive sum of £4 on the train fare, getting a little bit of use out of the free Family-and-Friends Railcard. Must remember to get the half-price offer this time.
I've been posting on TwilightMoms, enjoying the analysis of the books (oddly enough, as I'm not usually that keen on analysing art, it's too personal a thing IMO, but discussion with enthusiasts for the fun of it is decidedly better than having to do it for grades!) and making new friends, I hope :-) There doesn't seem to be anyone very local to me, which is a shame because really I'm looking for someone to go to see New Moon with who won't be surprised if I'm a weeping mess throughout.
Right I must away, to let dd4 use a puter before she explodes, and to make good on my promise to myself that I would make a start on my dress this afternoon. Need to clear a patch of floor first!
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
accept, adapt, move on?
I woke up early this morning, it was about half past 6 when I was conscious enough to remember to check the time. I'd had a dream, and it's stuck with me, unlike most dreams. Well really it's just the ending that I remember. I'm guessing the dream was sparked off to a degree by reading Rosalie's story in Eclipse, as I was part of some royalty and there was a big do, I think it was my wedding, so there were loads of guests and preparation and it was all really weird (well duh, it's a dream! but anyway...) I was going to wear a certain outfit, it was a bit Barbarella I guess, or perhaps original series Star Trek (hm, could I be Spock's bride, the new Spock that is? That would work for me, oh yes.) but when I came to wear it, it was too small as I had put on weight since I wore it last, and I had the court dressmakers fussing around me trying to sort it out.
And then I woke up, so I never got to see the finished article. But a mantra's been stuck in my head all day, the title of this post. On the surface it sounds healthy, to accept the current situation as being how it is, how it's going to be, adapt to it to make the best of it and move on from stressing/obsessing about it. But that unfinished dress is bugging me too. If I accept the status quo, will it all come back to bite me on the arse the next time I lose the plot like I have this Winter? And what part of the status quo was the dream about? My size? My home-life? My marriage? All of it?
If the thing that's really bugging me right now, which is my lack of time at home alone, is just how it's going to be, am I letting dh off? Can I really accept it or is the resentment going to build up and explode later on? I guess it feels more like admitting defeat than accepting the inevitable.
*sigh*
And then I woke up, so I never got to see the finished article. But a mantra's been stuck in my head all day, the title of this post. On the surface it sounds healthy, to accept the current situation as being how it is, how it's going to be, adapt to it to make the best of it and move on from stressing/obsessing about it. But that unfinished dress is bugging me too. If I accept the status quo, will it all come back to bite me on the arse the next time I lose the plot like I have this Winter? And what part of the status quo was the dream about? My size? My home-life? My marriage? All of it?
If the thing that's really bugging me right now, which is my lack of time at home alone, is just how it's going to be, am I letting dh off? Can I really accept it or is the resentment going to build up and explode later on? I guess it feels more like admitting defeat than accepting the inevitable.
*sigh*
Sunday, 26 April 2009
another week...
So Gloucester have crashed and burned in the past few weeks, gods know what they're thinking. If they're thinking. Ugh.
And yesterday was yet another focusless Saturday morning, but I'll let dh off a bit this time as he has hayfever pretty bad and I didn't want to wake him. But being woken up almost an hour before the time my alarm was set to go off by dd3 shouting, "Pye! Pye! Pye! Pye! *whistle* *whistle* Pye! Pye!" and this was about 40 mins after I'd already woken up for some other random reason, meant that I wasn't in much of a fit state to do anything anyway. *sigh* Our wedding anniversary is next Saturday, we're planning to go out for a meal, seems a bit unfair to hijack that for a 'meaningful discussion' but it's probably the only way, and fairly fitting really.
I haven't even looked at my fanfic this week. Maybe that means I'm in a better mood overall, it's pretty dark stuff and I need to be in the right frame of mind for it to flow. Makes one wonder how crime novelists and scriptwriters do it all the time.
I got round to getting my bass from my mum's but I can't find the lead now, doh. I don't often get into town or go anywhere near a music shop, though actually there is one quite near an alterations shop that I didn't know about until I was dropping dd1 off at St John's Ambulance Cadets last week. I could go and see if they might have the right sized press-stud machine for my faulty jackets, and go get a new lead and a tuning fork or something, and talk to them about the piano too. It's a shame the excellent fishmonger round the corner from there is long gone.
Speaking of fish, must dash, going to Sainsburys to see if they still do tuna fishcakes, if not I'm getting salmon for tea. And this afternoon I'm going for a walk.
And yesterday was yet another focusless Saturday morning, but I'll let dh off a bit this time as he has hayfever pretty bad and I didn't want to wake him. But being woken up almost an hour before the time my alarm was set to go off by dd3 shouting, "Pye! Pye! Pye! Pye! *whistle* *whistle* Pye! Pye!" and this was about 40 mins after I'd already woken up for some other random reason, meant that I wasn't in much of a fit state to do anything anyway. *sigh* Our wedding anniversary is next Saturday, we're planning to go out for a meal, seems a bit unfair to hijack that for a 'meaningful discussion' but it's probably the only way, and fairly fitting really.
I haven't even looked at my fanfic this week. Maybe that means I'm in a better mood overall, it's pretty dark stuff and I need to be in the right frame of mind for it to flow. Makes one wonder how crime novelists and scriptwriters do it all the time.
I got round to getting my bass from my mum's but I can't find the lead now, doh. I don't often get into town or go anywhere near a music shop, though actually there is one quite near an alterations shop that I didn't know about until I was dropping dd1 off at St John's Ambulance Cadets last week. I could go and see if they might have the right sized press-stud machine for my faulty jackets, and go get a new lead and a tuning fork or something, and talk to them about the piano too. It's a shame the excellent fishmonger round the corner from there is long gone.
Speaking of fish, must dash, going to Sainsburys to see if they still do tuna fishcakes, if not I'm getting salmon for tea. And this afternoon I'm going for a walk.
Saturday, 18 April 2009
another day...
Another Saturday morning goes by without me being able to say 'this is my working time.' I really need to figure out how to nail this down with dh without it turning into a row, which could happen, or the conversation being about him, which is what usually happens when I try to go in empathetically. I don't want to lay down the law either, but the way things are isn't really working for me, something's got to change, and not drift back like it often does when we try to change stuff. It's not like there's the excuse of a dodgy back any more, dh shouldn't have to lift dd4 at all unless she throws a strop I suppose. Ah well, will brace myself to sort it out soon...
Meanwhile, it's the EDF cup this afternoon, come on Gloucester! When I get my head on right and stop overeating I might be able to fit the shirt that dh got me for Christmas or birthday or whenever it was, lol.
Meanwhile, it's the EDF cup this afternoon, come on Gloucester! When I get my head on right and stop overeating I might be able to fit the shirt that dh got me for Christmas or birthday or whenever it was, lol.
Monday, 13 April 2009
that's another fine mess...
Not blogged for a few days, though I have been writing. I finished the chapter I was on and started a new one, but the first still needs editing. I still haven't transferred the doing impulse to work though.
I may be appearing to be invisible on msn/wlm as I have a new friend, who is male, who doesn't yet know that I can't really play on msn in the same way I might elsewhere. I'm sure he's just having a laugh, I'm also sure that dh wouldn't remotely see it that way if he happened to see flirting in an individual message box :-|
Back to Midnight Sun, or writing, or reading New Moon news... anything to keep me away from kids' tv...
I may be appearing to be invisible on msn/wlm as I have a new friend, who is male, who doesn't yet know that I can't really play on msn in the same way I might elsewhere. I'm sure he's just having a laugh, I'm also sure that dh wouldn't remotely see it that way if he happened to see flirting in an individual message box :-|
Back to Midnight Sun, or writing, or reading New Moon news... anything to keep me away from kids' tv...
Monday, 6 April 2009
blergh
I feel like a worn-out dishrag today. Not that I actually know what a worn-out dishrag feels like, but hopefully you get the idea. I got woken up in the middle of a dream, which I can't remember apart from the vague idea that there was a man I didn't know in it, by a delivery dude. He had the order of two new mice and a new dvd drive for the kids' puter, which hopefully should reduce the level of frustration in the house somewhat, but banging on the door when I'm sound asleep hasn't helped me at all. It's probably not the only cause of my malaise today, period day 3 is most likely more to do with it. But there's something about that kind of disturbance-induced brainfog that's hard to shift.
The end result though is that I'm lurking in my room (again) hoping that I'll get left alone with my blergh. Vain hope.
I've had more of a go at my fanfic, I think I need to pull it to bits and start again somewhat though *sigh* as I've managed to contradict myself and I hate that. It's not flowing all that well but I'm not expecting it to really, the subject matter isn't one that I know that much about other than from tv and films and I'm not throwing myself into research for this! Though the little bits I have googled have been interesting... My playlist is just right though I think, if I can add a few more tracks it will help set the tone for when I do have the headspace for writing.
Think I need to make one or two for work now, lol. Not sure what works best for writing about baby stuff, or for pulling website code to pieces, or for doing accounts...
The end result though is that I'm lurking in my room (again) hoping that I'll get left alone with my blergh. Vain hope.
I've had more of a go at my fanfic, I think I need to pull it to bits and start again somewhat though *sigh* as I've managed to contradict myself and I hate that. It's not flowing all that well but I'm not expecting it to really, the subject matter isn't one that I know that much about other than from tv and films and I'm not throwing myself into research for this! Though the little bits I have googled have been interesting... My playlist is just right though I think, if I can add a few more tracks it will help set the tone for when I do have the headspace for writing.
Think I need to make one or two for work now, lol. Not sure what works best for writing about baby stuff, or for pulling website code to pieces, or for doing accounts...
Sunday, 5 April 2009
once again I'm doing a 'long time no blog' post...
So. Hm...
Well see it's like this. I'm writing a piece of fanfic. Which isn't something I've ever done before. I do write quite a lot but it's mostly chat, forum posts, facebook and the like. Sometimes I write for work. Actually I need to do a lot more of that than I have been, but maybe this whole process will help with that too. Anyway I was sort of in the mood for writing but not really in the right place mentally for my fanfic thing, it doesn't really go with tennis on the tv and I don't have headphones for my themed playlist right now, so I thought that maybe if I come and blog I might get more into the habit of writing stuff.
I had a thought about blogging, a week or so ago, that I'm grasping at the remnants of right now. It was about how I've never really got into it, because even with regular commenters and that kind of feedback it's pretty narcissistic (clicks spellcheck, yeah that's right) if you see it as *publishing* yourself, I'm not even much of a thread-starter on forums, but perhaps if I see it as just having a space to write stuff down it might go a bit better. And as long as I don't expect anyone else to be reading it and then get disappointed when I don't get comments, lol.
But hm, what am I blogging about? See this is my other problem. Do I rabbit on about the kids and dh, essentially invading their privacy unless I write solely about my thoughts about them, which is still exposing them in a way? I'm not going to write about business stuff here, I have another blog for that, and I'm woefully underblogging there too. I have a few minor niggles that I could share... I might go there later. I could go for the entertainment review thing, but anyone who has me as a friend on facebook or reads CosyNostra will know I'm pretty much obsessed with the Twilight saga right now, in fact I'm rereading Twilight for the 5th time. So that could get a little bit tedious... Oh hang on, I'm not blogging for you am I? I'm blogging for me.
Well let's go with that then.
Twilight, for anyone who doesn't know, is a romance. With a twist. If you aren't aware of it at all (oh come on who am I kidding? How can you be on the internet and not be aware, somehow, of Twilight? I'll ditch that thought then. Hm but then how much do I say about the plot? Oh well, it'll work out I guess.) So, scratch that.
OK so if you don't know already it's utterly incredible but it's a romance between a human and a vampire. The vampire happens to be part of a family who don't hunt humans, and has an extra talent, he can read minds. The girl is a normal human girl, ridiculously clumsy (really, I'm surprised no-one mentions dyspraxia in the books) and the only person who the vampire can't mind-read in any way. She is also the most delicious thing he's ever smelled, to the verge of breaking his fast, so to speak. So it's a classic 'boy meets girl, boy runs away to avoid killing girl, boy comes back but avoids girl, boy and girl obsess over each other without the other knowing, boy rescues girl, they figure out they're in love, things get a bit hairy...' type story.
I saw the film first, with fairly low expectations as I was taking dd2 and her friends to see it for dd2's birthday treat. And was completely blown away by it. It's an atmospheric production, the two leads are intense, the vampires are beautiful, the story is powerful... It all added up, possibly along with the pre-teen oestrogen hit, to an intense overwhelming slam of emotion. I was dragged along with the intrigue, the tension, the power of the first love/lust thing. And then we went shopping, a couple of weeks later, and dd2 bought the books with her Christmas/birthday money. Oh and the soundtrack album.
So I read the first one, and as is usually the case with books, and why I generally prefer to see the film or tv production first, there was so much more in the book than the film. Certain pertinent points were in different places but I wasn't so bothered about that. I read it again. And played the soundtrack lots and lots. And we went to see the film again, and for some reason I wasn't quite so taken with it, not so swept away of a wave of emotion. Well fair enough, the timing might have been off, and maybe I underestimated the power of 5 10 to 13 year olds in an enclosed space beforehand, and though I'd tried to not compare the book to the film I couldn't help myself. And, of course, I knew how it was going to work out.
I had thought I might not read the rest of the series until after those films came out. I really should have known better, lol. I picked New Moon up while at a loose end and rattled through it, and then the next one. And then I had to wait for the last instalment, Breaking Dawn. Dh gave it to me for Valentine's Day, bless him. I spent the evening and the next day reading, finishing this humongous monster of a book in around 18 reading hours I think. Damaged my hand in the process. And like I said, I'm rereading Twilight for the 5th time, I've read the others 3 times each, and the partial draft of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from the boy's side (it's written in first person so you really only see what Bella sees. Midnight Sun fleshes the whole thing out so much more, I really hope it gets finished, properly and in the spirit of Twilight.)
Anyway... So I know the books pretty much inside and out. I've done a bit of the fangirl thing, facebook quizzes, the odd youtube vid, listening to the same music as the author, finding the soundtrack artists on last.fm... and pre-ordering the dvd. Which is officially released here tomorrow, but arrived here yesterday. I enjoyed the 'making-of' bits and the music vids, haven't quite watched all the extras yet. And I hustled dd3 and 4 upstairs after tea so that we could watch it before they had supper, I figured I had a better chance of watching it uninterrupted that way than later going by recent form. But dh was a bit oblivious to what I was doing, and for one reason or another I'm a bit lacking patience for repeatedly explaining myself to him right now, so I was narked by the time we got round to watching.
So I don't know if that was it, if it was too light outside, if I'm going to have to be really in the mood (or ovulating!) to really 'get' the film or what but I was pretty disappointed. I wasn't gripped, the tension didn't get to me, some of it seemed pretty cheesy, some of the effects looked lame... I don't know. Perhaps it just has too much to live up to now. When I read the book I see and hear the actors and some of the locations, so I basically have the film playing in my head, but more of it. And I really love the books, they don't fail to make my breath catch, my eyes start, my heart race and my lips lift at the corners in all the right place whenever I read them.
I'm glad I saw the film, I might not have got so sucked in to this wonderful alternate reality otherwise. But I don't know when I'll be able to watch it again now without this disappointment and sense of lacking.
Well see it's like this. I'm writing a piece of fanfic. Which isn't something I've ever done before. I do write quite a lot but it's mostly chat, forum posts, facebook and the like. Sometimes I write for work. Actually I need to do a lot more of that than I have been, but maybe this whole process will help with that too. Anyway I was sort of in the mood for writing but not really in the right place mentally for my fanfic thing, it doesn't really go with tennis on the tv and I don't have headphones for my themed playlist right now, so I thought that maybe if I come and blog I might get more into the habit of writing stuff.
I had a thought about blogging, a week or so ago, that I'm grasping at the remnants of right now. It was about how I've never really got into it, because even with regular commenters and that kind of feedback it's pretty narcissistic (clicks spellcheck, yeah that's right) if you see it as *publishing* yourself, I'm not even much of a thread-starter on forums, but perhaps if I see it as just having a space to write stuff down it might go a bit better. And as long as I don't expect anyone else to be reading it and then get disappointed when I don't get comments, lol.
But hm, what am I blogging about? See this is my other problem. Do I rabbit on about the kids and dh, essentially invading their privacy unless I write solely about my thoughts about them, which is still exposing them in a way? I'm not going to write about business stuff here, I have another blog for that, and I'm woefully underblogging there too. I have a few minor niggles that I could share... I might go there later. I could go for the entertainment review thing, but anyone who has me as a friend on facebook or reads CosyNostra will know I'm pretty much obsessed with the Twilight saga right now, in fact I'm rereading Twilight for the 5th time. So that could get a little bit tedious... Oh hang on, I'm not blogging for you am I? I'm blogging for me.
Well let's go with that then.
Twilight, for anyone who doesn't know, is a romance. With a twist. If you aren't aware of it at all (oh come on who am I kidding? How can you be on the internet and not be aware, somehow, of Twilight? I'll ditch that thought then. Hm but then how much do I say about the plot? Oh well, it'll work out I guess.) So, scratch that.
OK so if you don't know already it's utterly incredible but it's a romance between a human and a vampire. The vampire happens to be part of a family who don't hunt humans, and has an extra talent, he can read minds. The girl is a normal human girl, ridiculously clumsy (really, I'm surprised no-one mentions dyspraxia in the books) and the only person who the vampire can't mind-read in any way. She is also the most delicious thing he's ever smelled, to the verge of breaking his fast, so to speak. So it's a classic 'boy meets girl, boy runs away to avoid killing girl, boy comes back but avoids girl, boy and girl obsess over each other without the other knowing, boy rescues girl, they figure out they're in love, things get a bit hairy...' type story.
I saw the film first, with fairly low expectations as I was taking dd2 and her friends to see it for dd2's birthday treat. And was completely blown away by it. It's an atmospheric production, the two leads are intense, the vampires are beautiful, the story is powerful... It all added up, possibly along with the pre-teen oestrogen hit, to an intense overwhelming slam of emotion. I was dragged along with the intrigue, the tension, the power of the first love/lust thing. And then we went shopping, a couple of weeks later, and dd2 bought the books with her Christmas/birthday money. Oh and the soundtrack album.
So I read the first one, and as is usually the case with books, and why I generally prefer to see the film or tv production first, there was so much more in the book than the film. Certain pertinent points were in different places but I wasn't so bothered about that. I read it again. And played the soundtrack lots and lots. And we went to see the film again, and for some reason I wasn't quite so taken with it, not so swept away of a wave of emotion. Well fair enough, the timing might have been off, and maybe I underestimated the power of 5 10 to 13 year olds in an enclosed space beforehand, and though I'd tried to not compare the book to the film I couldn't help myself. And, of course, I knew how it was going to work out.
I had thought I might not read the rest of the series until after those films came out. I really should have known better, lol. I picked New Moon up while at a loose end and rattled through it, and then the next one. And then I had to wait for the last instalment, Breaking Dawn. Dh gave it to me for Valentine's Day, bless him. I spent the evening and the next day reading, finishing this humongous monster of a book in around 18 reading hours I think. Damaged my hand in the process. And like I said, I'm rereading Twilight for the 5th time, I've read the others 3 times each, and the partial draft of Midnight Sun, which is Twilight from the boy's side (it's written in first person so you really only see what Bella sees. Midnight Sun fleshes the whole thing out so much more, I really hope it gets finished, properly and in the spirit of Twilight.)
Anyway... So I know the books pretty much inside and out. I've done a bit of the fangirl thing, facebook quizzes, the odd youtube vid, listening to the same music as the author, finding the soundtrack artists on last.fm... and pre-ordering the dvd. Which is officially released here tomorrow, but arrived here yesterday. I enjoyed the 'making-of' bits and the music vids, haven't quite watched all the extras yet. And I hustled dd3 and 4 upstairs after tea so that we could watch it before they had supper, I figured I had a better chance of watching it uninterrupted that way than later going by recent form. But dh was a bit oblivious to what I was doing, and for one reason or another I'm a bit lacking patience for repeatedly explaining myself to him right now, so I was narked by the time we got round to watching.
So I don't know if that was it, if it was too light outside, if I'm going to have to be really in the mood (or ovulating!) to really 'get' the film or what but I was pretty disappointed. I wasn't gripped, the tension didn't get to me, some of it seemed pretty cheesy, some of the effects looked lame... I don't know. Perhaps it just has too much to live up to now. When I read the book I see and hear the actors and some of the locations, so I basically have the film playing in my head, but more of it. And I really love the books, they don't fail to make my breath catch, my eyes start, my heart race and my lips lift at the corners in all the right place whenever I read them.
I'm glad I saw the film, I might not have got so sucked in to this wonderful alternate reality otherwise. But I don't know when I'll be able to watch it again now without this disappointment and sense of lacking.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Very very belated holiday blog...
So the last saved draft of this was at the end of July. I am such a slack blogger that I've only just got round to finishing this! Oh well. I'm trying to get more of a pattern to my life so hopefully I'll be able to slot in a regular bit of blogging...
So, picking up as of 20somethingth of July...
We've been away, and back a couple of weeks now, but due to complications which I will most likely go into later, I've only just got round to blogging. We went up to Scotland, house sitting for Lucy while they went to France. So here's a bit of travelogue and pics...
I'll start with a bit of a rant (rant? moi? never...) about online train ticket booking. I'd thought about dh and I travelling separately, like we've done before to Filey, one of us driving and the other on the train with the children. SO... I looked up ticket prices on a couple of sites and discovered that there was an 'advance' ticket available. But it wasn't showing me the advance price when I selected more than 1 traveller at a time. Being Yorkshire born and bred ;-) I didn't want to have to pay 4 booking fees, also I didn't want to have to faff around with getting the seat reservations and being the proud owner of the Family Railcard from the special offer in the Daily Mail (must get the follow-up offer sorted out actually) I looked up the conditions on Advance tickets and Family and Friends Railcard discounts are applied. So I think 'right, I'll ring up and see what I can do' and of course by the time I ring up the advance tickets are all gone.
All because the online systems don't work in accordance with the ticketing rules. Twonks.
Anyway... so we drove up together on the Saturday (because £90 was too much extra) and actually it was really nice, even though we were late setting off due to the usual faffery with laundry and packing. Stopped at the services outside Durham as we'd checked it out and there was a Costa, lol. Ooo'd at the Angel of the North, waved at Ikea, drove into Alnwick seeking somewhere reasonable and family-friendly-looking to have tea and drove out again. Wandered off the A1 into Belford where we found The Belford which despite being a golf club (sorry, dh's prejudice is seeping through) was family-friendly without being patronising and reasonably priced. We were forewarned that they were busy and we might be waiting a while, and we were, but when the food came it was top quality and very well cooked (as in they'd done a good job, not a euphemism for burnt, lol.) Definitely recommended.
Got to Lucy's to find out that her 3 bedroom house woud fit at least 1 and a half of my 3-bed house in it. It's just as full of stuff though, lol.
So on to the pics :-) They're all taken on dh's or my phone because I hadn't, and still haven't, got round to getting my camera sorted out.
Taken at some point by someone who had been given my phone to take pictures with to keep them occupied in the car. It worked, for the most part. That and playing Worms on it...
The Forth Bridges. Thanks so much to Jayne (mummybuttons) for hunting online for a postcode for a Pizza Hut so that we could find a relatively child-friendly and reliable place for a very late tea after our trip into Edinburgh. We didn't take many photos as really we were there shopping. And bizarre (and saddening really) as it is that there are so many mobile phone shops, and 3 branches of Boots, on the same road, we didn't really feel the need to record it.
Hermit crabs at North Berwick
North Berwick is a lovely place and would be fab for a seaside holiday, nice little town centre, nice sandy beach...
with fab rockpools...
Oh phooey I thought I'd taken more photos of the rockpools. Oh well, this one gives you an idea...
and this nifty man-made lagoon thingummy...
The rockpools were well populated with hermit crabs, fish and shrimps, which was cool. We picked a really nice day to go and the two ice-cream vans by the beach were doing well, the bigger, flasher 'whippy' van got more trade than the small, old, less ornate local icecream van (M Luca of Musselbrough) so I figured I'd give the local dairy some trade, it was really nice. Not quite a Dixon's Milk Ice but still good. The one thing I was surprised I didn't find was the kind of beach tat shop that Filey has several of, with flipflops and buckets and spades and hats and kites and cheap, naff sunglasses and bats and balls and all that, I ended up buying buckets and spades from the RNLI shop, which is fine of course, it's a very good cause and I'm happy to support them, but there wasn't much choice and it's not the same. But then we were there on a beautiful day in the middle of the first week of Scottish schools' Summer holidays and it was surprisingly not-busy so maybe there just isn't the trade to sustain it. But then where do people go? Were they all abroad? Or just not gone to the beach that day?
East Link Family Park was fun (and sunny, am glad all mine are old enough now to say 'you stay here' to one and 'you watch these' to another, lol, while I dash back to the car for hats and suncream...) Lots and lots of photos on flickr of this so I'll just post a couple here:
What else did we do while we were away? We mooched round the local shops in Dunbar, which apparently has the most sunshine hours in the UK. It lived up to it that week, we did get rained on but not as much as the rest of the country I think! There's a PYO strawberries place (with the strawbs in growbags on stilts, very odd but much easier on the back!) and a smokehouse just off the A1 outside Dunbar so we went there, oh and we had locally-caught langoustines bought in Dunbar for tea one day. When Lucy's cooker decided to cook them for us. On the Saturday, before coming home on Sunday, we drove to Bamburgh to look at the castle (and found a nice little deli, impressive range for such a tiny shop!) then to Lindisfarne for the fun of driving over the causeway and back, though it was too early to watch the tide rise over it. And then to Berwick-upon-Tweed where we got totally soaked and didn't find a replacement for dd2's worn-out-at-the-sleeve-cuffs zip-up hoodie but still felt like we'd had a good day.
Home the next day via Alnwick to look at the castle, where, in case there was anyone who wasn't aware, some scenes in the early Harry Potter films were filmed.
From there we went straight home apart from calling at Durham services again, for Costa and a 'win every time' £1 teddypicker machine that dd3 had been promised a go on if we didn't find another while we were away. Which we didn't.
Never did get round to sorting out that half price railcard offer.
So, picking up as of 20somethingth of July...
We've been away, and back a couple of weeks now, but due to complications which I will most likely go into later, I've only just got round to blogging. We went up to Scotland, house sitting for Lucy while they went to France. So here's a bit of travelogue and pics...
I'll start with a bit of a rant (rant? moi? never...) about online train ticket booking. I'd thought about dh and I travelling separately, like we've done before to Filey, one of us driving and the other on the train with the children. SO... I looked up ticket prices on a couple of sites and discovered that there was an 'advance' ticket available. But it wasn't showing me the advance price when I selected more than 1 traveller at a time. Being Yorkshire born and bred ;-) I didn't want to have to pay 4 booking fees, also I didn't want to have to faff around with getting the seat reservations and being the proud owner of the Family Railcard from the special offer in the Daily Mail (must get the follow-up offer sorted out actually) I looked up the conditions on Advance tickets and Family and Friends Railcard discounts are applied. So I think 'right, I'll ring up and see what I can do' and of course by the time I ring up the advance tickets are all gone.
All because the online systems don't work in accordance with the ticketing rules. Twonks.
Anyway... so we drove up together on the Saturday (because £90 was too much extra) and actually it was really nice, even though we were late setting off due to the usual faffery with laundry and packing. Stopped at the services outside Durham as we'd checked it out and there was a Costa, lol. Ooo'd at the Angel of the North, waved at Ikea, drove into Alnwick seeking somewhere reasonable and family-friendly-looking to have tea and drove out again. Wandered off the A1 into Belford where we found The Belford which despite being a golf club (sorry, dh's prejudice is seeping through) was family-friendly without being patronising and reasonably priced. We were forewarned that they were busy and we might be waiting a while, and we were, but when the food came it was top quality and very well cooked (as in they'd done a good job, not a euphemism for burnt, lol.) Definitely recommended.
Got to Lucy's to find out that her 3 bedroom house woud fit at least 1 and a half of my 3-bed house in it. It's just as full of stuff though, lol.
So on to the pics :-) They're all taken on dh's or my phone because I hadn't, and still haven't, got round to getting my camera sorted out.
Taken at some point by someone who had been given my phone to take pictures with to keep them occupied in the car. It worked, for the most part. That and playing Worms on it...
The Forth Bridges. Thanks so much to Jayne (mummybuttons) for hunting online for a postcode for a Pizza Hut so that we could find a relatively child-friendly and reliable place for a very late tea after our trip into Edinburgh. We didn't take many photos as really we were there shopping. And bizarre (and saddening really) as it is that there are so many mobile phone shops, and 3 branches of Boots, on the same road, we didn't really feel the need to record it.
Hermit crabs at North Berwick
North Berwick is a lovely place and would be fab for a seaside holiday, nice little town centre, nice sandy beach...
with fab rockpools...
Oh phooey I thought I'd taken more photos of the rockpools. Oh well, this one gives you an idea...
and this nifty man-made lagoon thingummy...
The rockpools were well populated with hermit crabs, fish and shrimps, which was cool. We picked a really nice day to go and the two ice-cream vans by the beach were doing well, the bigger, flasher 'whippy' van got more trade than the small, old, less ornate local icecream van (M Luca of Musselbrough) so I figured I'd give the local dairy some trade, it was really nice. Not quite a Dixon's Milk Ice but still good. The one thing I was surprised I didn't find was the kind of beach tat shop that Filey has several of, with flipflops and buckets and spades and hats and kites and cheap, naff sunglasses and bats and balls and all that, I ended up buying buckets and spades from the RNLI shop, which is fine of course, it's a very good cause and I'm happy to support them, but there wasn't much choice and it's not the same. But then we were there on a beautiful day in the middle of the first week of Scottish schools' Summer holidays and it was surprisingly not-busy so maybe there just isn't the trade to sustain it. But then where do people go? Were they all abroad? Or just not gone to the beach that day?
East Link Family Park was fun (and sunny, am glad all mine are old enough now to say 'you stay here' to one and 'you watch these' to another, lol, while I dash back to the car for hats and suncream...) Lots and lots of photos on flickr of this so I'll just post a couple here:
What else did we do while we were away? We mooched round the local shops in Dunbar, which apparently has the most sunshine hours in the UK. It lived up to it that week, we did get rained on but not as much as the rest of the country I think! There's a PYO strawberries place (with the strawbs in growbags on stilts, very odd but much easier on the back!) and a smokehouse just off the A1 outside Dunbar so we went there, oh and we had locally-caught langoustines bought in Dunbar for tea one day. When Lucy's cooker decided to cook them for us. On the Saturday, before coming home on Sunday, we drove to Bamburgh to look at the castle (and found a nice little deli, impressive range for such a tiny shop!) then to Lindisfarne for the fun of driving over the causeway and back, though it was too early to watch the tide rise over it. And then to Berwick-upon-Tweed where we got totally soaked and didn't find a replacement for dd2's worn-out-at-the-sleeve-cuffs zip-up hoodie but still felt like we'd had a good day.
Home the next day via Alnwick to look at the castle, where, in case there was anyone who wasn't aware, some scenes in the early Harry Potter films were filmed.
From there we went straight home apart from calling at Durham services again, for Costa and a 'win every time' £1 teddypicker machine that dd3 had been promised a go on if we didn't find another while we were away. Which we didn't.
Never did get round to sorting out that half price railcard offer.
Monday, 21 April 2008
It's only a game...
Huge apologies to Deb for giving her the impression I was really really pissed off with her when it was more like mild pique and annoyance, coupled with amusement for 'n00b'-ness.
Also apologies to anyone who is fed up of the repeated invitations to play Packrat, I get bonuses for inviting friends and more when they accept.
And now the back-story. There's this game, on facebook, that Becky of bigmamaslings was kind enough to suck me into :-| Someone on a forum described it as being like collecting Panini stickers, lol. Now the outward premise of the game is to make your collection *at any cost* by stealing the cards from your friends. Everyone has 10 rats in their game friend list, along with any of their facebook friends that have the game installed, and one steals cards by swapping them with something from one's own pack. You can also buy cards, and get them as pop-up bonuses. Certain cards can only be found by making them with combinations of other cards, these tend to be the higher value, harder to find or make ones. Oh and the pack size is limited so you can't just collect credits and buy stuff up, you have to trade and make and vault to get what you need.
Generally speaking, whenever someone new to the game starts playing, they go round the packs in their friend list and steal what looks interesting or high value, it bumps up the player's level which gives access to other things. It's fine, totally understood etc. But most people, IME, play co-operatively, finding or buying things that their friends are collecting, not stealing things their friends need for their collections, and it's actually good fun finding random things for other people's collections in the rat pack or the markets, and dropping them in their packs as a surprise or a trade. It's addictive and absorbing and is eating up far too much of my time at the moment, lol.
So anyway. Yes it's a game, yes there are bigger problems in the world and in individuals' lives right now, and no I didn't mean to come over as distraught as perhaps I did. Just... don't mess with my pack, alright? ;-)
Also apologies to anyone who is fed up of the repeated invitations to play Packrat, I get bonuses for inviting friends and more when they accept.
And now the back-story. There's this game, on facebook, that Becky of bigmamaslings was kind enough to suck me into :-| Someone on a forum described it as being like collecting Panini stickers, lol. Now the outward premise of the game is to make your collection *at any cost* by stealing the cards from your friends. Everyone has 10 rats in their game friend list, along with any of their facebook friends that have the game installed, and one steals cards by swapping them with something from one's own pack. You can also buy cards, and get them as pop-up bonuses. Certain cards can only be found by making them with combinations of other cards, these tend to be the higher value, harder to find or make ones. Oh and the pack size is limited so you can't just collect credits and buy stuff up, you have to trade and make and vault to get what you need.
Generally speaking, whenever someone new to the game starts playing, they go round the packs in their friend list and steal what looks interesting or high value, it bumps up the player's level which gives access to other things. It's fine, totally understood etc. But most people, IME, play co-operatively, finding or buying things that their friends are collecting, not stealing things their friends need for their collections, and it's actually good fun finding random things for other people's collections in the rat pack or the markets, and dropping them in their packs as a surprise or a trade. It's addictive and absorbing and is eating up far too much of my time at the moment, lol.
So anyway. Yes it's a game, yes there are bigger problems in the world and in individuals' lives right now, and no I didn't mean to come over as distraught as perhaps I did. Just... don't mess with my pack, alright? ;-)
Friday, 7 March 2008
oo summat I forgot...
in my last blog. I've joined a gym. Not just any old gym, mind you. When have you known me to do things by halves? No... 'dillo is paying me wages by funding this: Club Titanic And I have my first spa treatment next week. Yum!
Friday, 22 February 2008
more from the hopeless blogger...
I just posted over on BabyArmadillo News that I got reminded last night what a hopeless blogger I am. Well, yeah, hands up, fair cop, I'll go quietly... (yeah right!!)
So what's going on in the land of Trog? Hmmm... same ol' same ol' mostly. House is the same crap'ole that hasn't had owt done at it for ages, the neighbours are trying to sell and one of their viewers has said something about our garden being too scruffy *rolls eyes* Dh restrained himself from pointing out that we didn't want anyone that up-themselves for neighbours...
The kids are still growing like weeds (dd1 is a good 3in taller than me now I'm sure and dd4 is shaping up nicely as a prop...)
Am just grr-ing at a garage for being numpties. Car has a recall, we book in for recall (for Monday) rang today to ask how long it would take and it turns out they need to look at it to order the part in. Fine, no problem... except that the nearest Fiat dealerships to us aren't in our nearest town any more, oh no, one's in a village a couple of miles outside Wakefield and the other is in Cleckheaton. So it's not a case of popping down, it's a good 1&1/2hr round trip. For them to decide on the parts for something that's a standard recall. And if the woman on the phone said 'I'm not a technician' one more time...
Maybe Lucy can prod me to blog more regularly and you might get me commenting on other blogs too. I still prefer the flow of forums better though. And of course I can often (though, slacky! not atm) on one of the various IM networks that Trillian lets me connect to ;-)
So what's going on in the land of Trog? Hmmm... same ol' same ol' mostly. House is the same crap'ole that hasn't had owt done at it for ages, the neighbours are trying to sell and one of their viewers has said something about our garden being too scruffy *rolls eyes* Dh restrained himself from pointing out that we didn't want anyone that up-themselves for neighbours...
The kids are still growing like weeds (dd1 is a good 3in taller than me now I'm sure and dd4 is shaping up nicely as a prop...)
Am just grr-ing at a garage for being numpties. Car has a recall, we book in for recall (for Monday) rang today to ask how long it would take and it turns out they need to look at it to order the part in. Fine, no problem... except that the nearest Fiat dealerships to us aren't in our nearest town any more, oh no, one's in a village a couple of miles outside Wakefield and the other is in Cleckheaton. So it's not a case of popping down, it's a good 1&1/2hr round trip. For them to decide on the parts for something that's a standard recall. And if the woman on the phone said 'I'm not a technician' one more time...
Maybe Lucy can prod me to blog more regularly and you might get me commenting on other blogs too. I still prefer the flow of forums better though. And of course I can often (though, slacky! not atm) on one of the various IM networks that Trillian lets me connect to ;-)
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
100 Books
Nicked from Lucy's blog
Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicise the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Look at the list of (100) books below.
Bold the ones you’ve read.
Italicise the ones you want to read.
Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in.
Movies don’t count.
1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Did I say sane??
I blogged a couple of weeks ago about not being able to find a tankini without bra support. Well today I went to Meadowhall, to meet a friend and continue the hunt for the elusive support-less cossie. The plan, roughly speaking, was for us to meet there then go on to Decathlon, she'd looked when I ranted before and said there were several, and then we were going to go back to Meadowhall for coffee at Costa and a chat, both of us feeling the need for some RL conversation without children present (slung older babies notwithstanding :) ) J was going to text me with her phone number and I was going to ring when I set off, since she's in the neighbourhood, relatively speaking. So I kept checking my phone, no message. Looked on YahooIM and she's not online, so I pinged a mutual friend to ask if she had her number, which said friend duly gave. So I texted to say I was on my way...
When I arrived, 10 mins after I'd said, which I don't think is too bad for someone used to running on home-ed time, J wasn't there, so I looked round, no sign, I headed off to M&S to look at cossies and tried to ring. 'This number is temporarily unavailable...' hmmmm... Back to Costa, still no sign. I had a good look at the number, there's an extra digit :|
So I rang dh to ask him to check if I've saved the number to my phone properly, and yes... so then can he sign in to Trillian and see if anyone's online who would have had it, he pings a couple of people but no reply. So then can he find out where the Decathlon store is in Sheffield, which he does, and explains to me, and I know roughly where it is so I set off...
And here's where it gets fun...
I was going from Meadowhall (the black circle here) to Bramhall Lane (just about where the red circle is)
On leaving Meadowhall I saw signs for the ring road, so, naturally enough since I knew that I wanted to be on the ring road, I followed them. The thing is, Sheffield has an inner ring road and an outer ring road. You can see on the map of the outer ring road that it's not actually a ring, more like a quarter of an oval. So perhaps there's some explanation somewhere for me ending up in Derbyshire, turning round at the junction where I've drawn a circle on this pic:
Quite a long way away... There's obviously something wrong with stating 'Outer Ring Road' on a road sign when 'ring road' will suffice to confuse the incomers. It seems like Sheffield don't want the supporters of teams visiting Sheffield United to find Bramhall Lane either, going by the lack of signage when I found my way back towards Sheffield itself. Driving through Woodseats reminded me of Bishopston, where Born are based, so if there's anyone in that area, it might well be a good place for a natural/ethical baby products shop *grin*
I got to the *inner* ring road and spotted a sign saying Bramhall Lane, finally. So I made it to Decathlon, which is big, but there weren't any tankinis at all, only triangle and balconette tops and different styles of bottoms. It obviously shows though that people want tankinis without support, since they'd obviously sold out! I had a wander round while I was there, and bought a float belt to help dd3 when learning swimming strokes (she can swim, in as much as she can propel herself through the water, but I thought it would be good if she didn't have to worry about sinking when figuring out how the arms and legs go together for breaststroke...) I had a look at the bike seats while I was there too, but I still want a Wee Ride and while there was mention of front-mounted seats on the bike seat blurb, there wasn't a slot for one.
So from Decathlon back to Meadowhall then, back to M&S to buy the tankini I'd seen there and loved, even though it not only has a support shelf it has sculpted cups, eurgh! I got there and updated dh, who told me that he now had J's phone number, so I rang, and we met up. Turned out J had my number from before I swapped the shop number to my new phone, so when she texted me it was lost in the ether, along with mine to her. She'd been to M'hall and hung around, mooched about feeling bored and eventually left. We'd even hung around in the same bookshop and missed each other, doh! Anyway it was about 4pm, so she made arrangements and came and met me, we had coffee and cake and chatted, it was lovely :) Her son is a little charmer too.
Will blog about the cossie itself in a few when I've taken pics of it...
When I arrived, 10 mins after I'd said, which I don't think is too bad for someone used to running on home-ed time, J wasn't there, so I looked round, no sign, I headed off to M&S to look at cossies and tried to ring. 'This number is temporarily unavailable...' hmmmm... Back to Costa, still no sign. I had a good look at the number, there's an extra digit :|
So I rang dh to ask him to check if I've saved the number to my phone properly, and yes... so then can he sign in to Trillian and see if anyone's online who would have had it, he pings a couple of people but no reply. So then can he find out where the Decathlon store is in Sheffield, which he does, and explains to me, and I know roughly where it is so I set off...
And here's where it gets fun...
I was going from Meadowhall (the black circle here) to Bramhall Lane (just about where the red circle is)
On leaving Meadowhall I saw signs for the ring road, so, naturally enough since I knew that I wanted to be on the ring road, I followed them. The thing is, Sheffield has an inner ring road and an outer ring road. You can see on the map of the outer ring road that it's not actually a ring, more like a quarter of an oval. So perhaps there's some explanation somewhere for me ending up in Derbyshire, turning round at the junction where I've drawn a circle on this pic:
Quite a long way away... There's obviously something wrong with stating 'Outer Ring Road' on a road sign when 'ring road' will suffice to confuse the incomers. It seems like Sheffield don't want the supporters of teams visiting Sheffield United to find Bramhall Lane either, going by the lack of signage when I found my way back towards Sheffield itself. Driving through Woodseats reminded me of Bishopston, where Born are based, so if there's anyone in that area, it might well be a good place for a natural/ethical baby products shop *grin*
I got to the *inner* ring road and spotted a sign saying Bramhall Lane, finally. So I made it to Decathlon, which is big, but there weren't any tankinis at all, only triangle and balconette tops and different styles of bottoms. It obviously shows though that people want tankinis without support, since they'd obviously sold out! I had a wander round while I was there, and bought a float belt to help dd3 when learning swimming strokes (she can swim, in as much as she can propel herself through the water, but I thought it would be good if she didn't have to worry about sinking when figuring out how the arms and legs go together for breaststroke...) I had a look at the bike seats while I was there too, but I still want a Wee Ride and while there was mention of front-mounted seats on the bike seat blurb, there wasn't a slot for one.
So from Decathlon back to Meadowhall then, back to M&S to buy the tankini I'd seen there and loved, even though it not only has a support shelf it has sculpted cups, eurgh! I got there and updated dh, who told me that he now had J's phone number, so I rang, and we met up. Turned out J had my number from before I swapped the shop number to my new phone, so when she texted me it was lost in the ether, along with mine to her. She'd been to M'hall and hung around, mooched about feeling bored and eventually left. We'd even hung around in the same bookshop and missed each other, doh! Anyway it was about 4pm, so she made arrangements and came and met me, we had coffee and cake and chatted, it was lovely :) Her son is a little charmer too.
Will blog about the cossie itself in a few when I've taken pics of it...
Monday, 16 April 2007
evidence for the LEA
Warning, bit of a jumping-about stream of consciousness ramble, this one. LMK if it's utterly intelligable and I'll see if I can clarify. But don't expect miracles ;)
Late last night, much later than I 'should' have done, cos I was sleepy at midnight, ahem, I was reading Gill's blog and came across the stuff about home-ed blogging = evidence for the LEA and the idea that it looked bad for those who don't blog. There's the obvious parallel here, for those who know home-ed politics, with the home visit issue. Except for a couple of things.
People blog because they want to. They provide evidence for the LEA because they are compelled to by law when the LEA make informal enquiries.
I'm not a fan of home visits, or, in fact, of any kind of regular monitoring. But if you're in a situation where you find yourself needing to meet the LEA's informal enquiries, and the most appropriate way for you is a home visit, then that's what you do, isn't it? The problems arise when LEA officials *insist* on home visits and don't accept other forms of evidence. I really can't see the day when blogging becomes the favoured form of evidence in that way!
So... why do home-edders blog?
For me it's because I like being on the 'net, and I have good friends who blog, and I'm trying to be in with the in-crowd, lol. And also because I like having a good old soapbox. But then I guess I can't be accused here of providing evidence for the LEA.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, nothing really. Just that I hoped it might provide a less-well-travelled space to generate a bit of clarity on the issue. kwim?
Late last night, much later than I 'should' have done, cos I was sleepy at midnight, ahem, I was reading Gill's blog and came across the stuff about home-ed blogging = evidence for the LEA and the idea that it looked bad for those who don't blog. There's the obvious parallel here, for those who know home-ed politics, with the home visit issue. Except for a couple of things.
People blog because they want to. They provide evidence for the LEA because they are compelled to by law when the LEA make informal enquiries.
I'm not a fan of home visits, or, in fact, of any kind of regular monitoring. But if you're in a situation where you find yourself needing to meet the LEA's informal enquiries, and the most appropriate way for you is a home visit, then that's what you do, isn't it? The problems arise when LEA officials *insist* on home visits and don't accept other forms of evidence. I really can't see the day when blogging becomes the favoured form of evidence in that way!
So... why do home-edders blog?
For me it's because I like being on the 'net, and I have good friends who blog, and I'm trying to be in with the in-crowd, lol. And also because I like having a good old soapbox. But then I guess I can't be accused here of providing evidence for the LEA.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, nothing really. Just that I hoped it might provide a less-well-travelled space to generate a bit of clarity on the issue. kwim?
Sunday, 8 April 2007
Happy Easter!
However and whatever you celebrate around now, I hope it brings Spring-like new beginnings :-) I've been really happy to hang out and be domestic this past week, but now I'll have to knuckle down and get a ton of shop work done. Tomorrow promises to be pleasantly warm and chocolate-laden for the children, and hopefully sleep-laden for me!
K took herself to bed at 7pm earlier. Which in other households might be fine, but seeing as she didn't wake up 'til around 11am, when I came back to bed (I'd booked myself in for a leg-waxing at 9am, I wanted to get it done with enough time for my legs to settle down in time for the show next Friday and Saturday and when the woman said '9am?' I thought it was alright because I'd be taking M to drama class at 9am, so I said 'well it will be a few minutes after nine,' which was fine, of course, but then dh said on Thursday evening 'but there isn't any drama class this weekend' and we were out at Cannon Hall and the farm park next door all day Friday so I didn't get chance to rearrange it. So I went to bed about 2.30, leaving dh watching baseball on the MLB website, set my alarm, and as is usual at the moment I don't seem to sleep well when I know I have to get up, though H said she woke up at the same time I did so perhaps there was something particularly noisy going on at 7am? Anyway, I got up, and had a bit of time, and decided to play Lego Star Wars II which is really good fun :-) until I had to go, but I didn't finish the bit of story I was playing and it doesn't save mid section, so naturally when I came back I had to carry on playing. Actually it was really nice to have a bit of daytime alone-time to just mong out and do my own thing, even if I did have to do it quietly! In the end it took me 'til just before 11am to finish the bit I was doing, so that was when I went back to bed. Are you still with me?? LOL) it's Not a Good Thing here. As the fact that she's still here at nearly 3am shows. *sigh* Goodness knows what time we'll be up tomorrow, but as long as she doesn't fall asleep on the way home from MIL's it'll be alright I guess.
Oh bother, what else was I going to blog? Hmmm. Must have been really important...
K took herself to bed at 7pm earlier. Which in other households might be fine, but seeing as she didn't wake up 'til around 11am, when I came back to bed (I'd booked myself in for a leg-waxing at 9am, I wanted to get it done with enough time for my legs to settle down in time for the show next Friday and Saturday and when the woman said '9am?' I thought it was alright because I'd be taking M to drama class at 9am, so I said 'well it will be a few minutes after nine,' which was fine, of course, but then dh said on Thursday evening 'but there isn't any drama class this weekend' and we were out at Cannon Hall and the farm park next door all day Friday so I didn't get chance to rearrange it. So I went to bed about 2.30, leaving dh watching baseball on the MLB website, set my alarm, and as is usual at the moment I don't seem to sleep well when I know I have to get up, though H said she woke up at the same time I did so perhaps there was something particularly noisy going on at 7am? Anyway, I got up, and had a bit of time, and decided to play Lego Star Wars II which is really good fun :-) until I had to go, but I didn't finish the bit of story I was playing and it doesn't save mid section, so naturally when I came back I had to carry on playing. Actually it was really nice to have a bit of daytime alone-time to just mong out and do my own thing, even if I did have to do it quietly! In the end it took me 'til just before 11am to finish the bit I was doing, so that was when I went back to bed. Are you still with me?? LOL) it's Not a Good Thing here. As the fact that she's still here at nearly 3am shows. *sigh* Goodness knows what time we'll be up tomorrow, but as long as she doesn't fall asleep on the way home from MIL's it'll be alright I guess.
Oh bother, what else was I going to blog? Hmmm. Must have been really important...
Sunday, 11 March 2007
My ears are still ringing
went to a gig this afternoon to see a friend's band, they're called HD7 and they were playing at Marsden Band Club. They do 'classic rock,' the sets ranged from Pink Floyd through the Who to ACDC with a bit of Ocean Colour Scene and they're pretty good for hammer-chewers *grin* But I think I was sat a little too close as I can still hear whistling :S Dd1 enjoyed it but didn't recognise most of the music, I must dust off the albums and rescue the turntable from under the laundry...
Friday, 9 March 2007
Lucy the Multipla's Adventures
Lucy the Multipla has many adventures. It comes of being an MPV I suppose, she gets used for various purposes other than your usual taxi-ing and shopping. Today she's carried doors. Interior house doors. This was acheived by folding the back seats forward, the middle front seat forward and the passenger-side front seat back as far as it would go. The doors were put in through the boot, shoved under the boot cover flap thingy and wedged in place by the headrest on the front passenger-side seat. Dh drove from the door shop in town to Brighouse to a meeting and back home again, with his very sore rib* and then we rang for chinese takeaway from our lovely local where they write down the order in sinography and know us because we order meals with beansprouts in place of the onions. Really who likes that much onion?? So a phone-call, a 'discussion' with dd4, I forget what about, a trip to the co-op to use the cash machine and buy essential supplies (milk, beer, viennese whirls...) while swearing at the sloppy parking in one of the village car-parks here meaning that I had to walk another 40 feet, lol, and then up to the lovely takeaway. Another lovely thing they do is pack big-ish orders in boxes. V handy. Except when the only place you have to put said box is on a flat door. From the takeaway to home it's 3 or 4 lefts and 3 or 4 rights, great fun stopping the box from sliding into the boot, heh. And she's back to being the family bus now, with the seats back up and the doors inside ready for the joiner to call tomorrow.
*Dh in his infinite wisdom was sawing up some bits of MDF that have been in our house for 2 and a half years waiting to be used for skirting and doorframing. Don't get me started on offgassing, really. He did one piece, then turned and somehow fell on the pile and we think he cracked a rib, or at least badly bruised it. I do keep shoving him where the arnica and symphytum tablets live...
*Dh in his infinite wisdom was sawing up some bits of MDF that have been in our house for 2 and a half years waiting to be used for skirting and doorframing. Don't get me started on offgassing, really. He did one piece, then turned and somehow fell on the pile and we think he cracked a rib, or at least badly bruised it. I do keep shoving him where the arnica and symphytum tablets live...
Happiest town in the North
Happiest town in the North
Not sure how long the link will stay active, they only used to stay for a day. BBC Dorset have their crow about Bournemouth.
Funny thing, happiness, and 6,000 people doesn't seem like there would be enough people in each town to make it representative. Still, I like it here :-)
Not sure how long the link will stay active, they only used to stay for a day. BBC Dorset have their crow about Bournemouth.
Funny thing, happiness, and 6,000 people doesn't seem like there would be enough people in each town to make it representative. Still, I like it here :-)
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