The Book Club

Remember last week I was discussing my love of books? Well, I finished the Louis Drax book last night and it was fantastic, such a page turner. I'd definately recommend it to anyone.

I got to thinking about some of the books I'd enjoyed lately and remembered this post by my blog friend Kim at the beginning of the year. I loved that she did a list of her favourite books. Since then, I've read 2 off the list (one I'd already read) and really enjoyed them and have just ordered another one from Amazon.

Anyhoo, I thought it may be a good idea to do as Kim did and list some of my favourite books. I always find recommendations are so much better than reviews! So here's some that I can remember:

Behind The Scenes At The Museum by Kate Atkinson - full of wit and humour and a brilliant main character. I love Kate Atkinson stuff anyway but this has to be my favourite and I must read it again soon!

The Ship Of Brides by Jojo Moyes - I loved this book so much that I bought it for both my mum and mother-in-law for Christmas. A story about a ship crossing from Australia to England post war, containing women that had married English service men who had been stationed in Australia. I've read everything else Jojo Moyes has done since and her novels are fantastic, but this will always be my favourite.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - There are so many emotions you go through with this book but that is the appeal of it, you get so involved that it's a bit of a rollercoaster. It's the story of a Jewish girl in Nazi Germany and all the things a child had to go through at that time. A brilliant story but also a big eye opener about what the Jews went through.

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters - I think this was the book that made me love WW2 fiction. The story of what it was like to go through the bombing raids in London in WW2. Beautifully written with great characters.

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver - A shocking and controversial book about a school shooting. If you have kids it will scare the cr*p out of you but is probably also a must read. A jaw dropping ending too.

Notes From An Exhibition by Patrick Gale - I so related to the character in this. An artistic woman that is struggling with all the emotions in life. I loved how Gale unravels the tale bit by bit to keep you guessing.

Random Acts Of Heroic Love by Danny Schienmann - Not some chick lit book like it may sound. It follows the stories of 2 men, one has just lost his girlfriend in a bus crash and is struggling to come to terms with it; the other is a soldier in WW2 (you see, that war obsession again!) who is thinking of his love back home and what he'd do to see her again. The story is amazing, then you read the author's notes at the end and you realise just how extraordinary it is.

Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes - I read this for my English GCSE and it's been one of my all time favourites ever since. It tells the story of a scientific experiment performed on a retarded man to make him intelligent. What I love is it's told by the man himself and is written how you'd expect him to write so can be quite challenging at first (think about trying to read a young kids work with all that phonetic spelling!), but as the experiment takes place the writing becomes better and finally quite academic. Brilliantly written!

And for a bit of fun:

The Dirt by Neil Strauss - The official biography of Motley Crue, brilliant if you're a fan but such a good read to non-fans who ever wondered whether all those rock star stories were true. Shocking and not for the easily offended but I've reread it a few times, just to check I wasn't seeing things first time round!

Mort by Terry Prachett - Reread this recently and still loved it! The character of Death has to be one of the best and funniest characters ever written!

Right, that's it for now (until I suddenly remember more!). Let me know if you've read anything you think I'll enjoy, always on the look out for a new read! Oh and thanks Kim for the blog inspiration on this one!

Counting Your Blessings - Part 4

Do you know, I've had a crappy day! The apple of my eye, favourite man in my life has been a little sod and I'm stuck in the house on my own on a day that should be for rest and he's driven me crazy! So, for our final count your blessing, I thought it would be important (and good for my sanity!) to do an offspring based post.

There may be those that disagree, but I do think that being a mother has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. I don't think it matters whether you go out to work or stay at home with them, I've done both and both sides are equally as difficult. It's a 24/7 payless, no holidays (OK, you can physically go on holiday, but your job goes with you for 18 years running!) career and the clients are whiny, temperamental and a lot of the time, unappreciative.

So why on earth do people keep doing it? Why has the population not ground to a halt? I know everyone else goes through it as I have other mothers out there who talk me down when the kids are driving me up the wall (like the other mother of a 3 year old who has listened to me text whinge all day! You know who you are! ;))

Well, this week I've had one of the perks of the job. OK, it ain't free gym membership, private health cover (LOL, like any company would ever give me that anyway), a Christmas bonus etc, but there's not much that can beat motherly pride! Whilst my youngest has spent the week polishing his horns and forked tail with pride, my eldest has been busy putting a smile on mummy and daddy's faces.

Last Saturday, Emily finally got enrolled at Brownies - she was ecstatic. I'm not sure what it's like at other brownie packs, but Emily's Brown Owl makes you work for your enrolment. So Em has done her homework every week and been practising the Brownie promise until she's saying it in her sleep. The only down side was they did it on a Brownie trip so we couldn't go and see her, but she got enrolled on a steam train which is much cooler than a church hall! However, I did have an hour or 2 afterwards of mummy pride sewing all her badges on her sash:

Then this week, we got Emily's school report home. Every year it's the same, we sit back with a huge sigh of relief that we seem to have done it right. Her marks are very good, but the main thing is the comments about her hard work and enthusiasm. I could deal with poorer marks as long as she was trying her damndest but we're so lucky that the marks are there too.

Then yesterday we had one of those 'first letting go' moments with her. It was so weird, Rob and I were discussing the school holidays and I was saying I was considering letting her start and call for her friend Shiwone who lives round the corner. Emily's now 8 1/2 and we need to start with just a bit of freedom. Low and behold, yesterday teatime there's a knock at the door and there's stood Shiwone "Can Emily play out?". Doo doo doo do! So, we said Shiwone could come and play in the back garden but she had to phone her mum to say she was staying for a while. But the phone was engaged so the girls asked if they could walk round and let her mum know...ON THEIR OWN!!! Luckily I'd just made a cocktail so, big gulp and I said yes before I could think about it! Longest 5 minutes of my life!!! But, back they came and I just knew they'd been sensible (crossed the roads in the safe places, not stopped to chat etc etc), mummy pride yet again!

So, today I'm thankful for those proud moments where you think "Ah, so that's why I had them"!

The boy? Well, anyone who has had a 3 year old boy will know they're a breed unto themselves so he's a work in progress until we manage to find the instruction manual on eBay! But, he has his moments and hopefully he'll be giving the girl a run for her money soon!

Counting Your Blessings - Part 3

Today, we are being thankful for literature, or more specifically FREE literature (or at least very cheap!).

I was sat in bed last night with my latest book which I just love (you know the kind when you're really angry with yourself for letting your eyes droop 3 pages before the end of the chapter? In fact, you actually resent sleep on the whole as that's 8 hours you can't read!),

and was thinking how great it was that, in this world where you get nothing for free, you can still read books FOR FREE! And actually, unless the only book shop within 100 miles is WH Smiths you can actually buy books pretty cheaply, especially if you live in a town like I do where every other shop is a charity shop.Even if you do pay WHS prices, when you think of pence per hour of entertainment, even that's cheap.

So today I am counting the blessing that I can indulge in something that I love for very little outlay. I am also keeping everything crossed that, after last week's budget, my local library stays free for a long time to come!

Counting Your Blessings - Part 2

Today we are thanking whoever it was that invented the good old scanner. Without which I would not have had hours of fun the other night looking through 20-year-old photos, then scanning them and uploading to Facebook!

I don't care whatever anyone says, I loved how I looked back as a teenager and I'm thankful I had the stubborness to pursue it no matter what anyone said! I showed Emily these pics and she said 'Wow Mum, you looked cool. Can I dress like that when I'm 16?'. That's all the approval I need!

So today's blessing counting is for the ability to stick to your guns and the technology to relive it 20 years on!

Counting Your Blessings - Part 1

You know, we live in a crap world at the moment. The whole economy's gone down the pan and we're all going to be on bread and water soon, there's oil gushing out into the sea and they don't seem to be able to stop it, we've still got soldiers dying over in Afghanistan, and for god's sake we have bloody Jordan!

However, this week the Garlics is going to cheer everyone up by looking at the good things in life. No matter how bad things get we all have positives, things that make life worth living, so this week we're going to blooming well celebrate them!

Now, I wasn't exactly on the ball when they were dishing things out 36 years ago. Back of the queue for finances, slept in for health and got the complete wrong day for flat stomachs! However, I think I must have been bright and breezy and up at the crack of dawn when they dished out friends.

Obviously, the most important thing in anyone's life is family, nothing beats that. But family is the sort of unconditional love where you get stuck with each other warts and all. Friends takes a lot of work. So why do we bother? Well, to me, friends is what makes me work, they are my sanctuary, my salvation, what ultimately makes me me. When the kids are driving me up the wall, I NEED to get on the email to Marie and scream, my sanity depends on it! And when I'm feeling old I need to go to Ally Andbag's, have a glass of wine and dance around her living room to some good old 80s Lita Ford, remembering my youth! Friends make you function as a human being.

I'm so fortunate with my friends, I have quite a few. I've met them in various situations: through my kids, from years ago when I went out clubbing, from being fat! Something can just click in any situation and they get stuck with me for life!

Yesterday I had a group of friends round for a BBQ. These are the girls I used to work with at a company I left 6 years ago now. However, amidst all those 'oh yes, keep in touch won't you's that you get when you move on that never happen, these girls and I have stuck. It takes effort yes, we all now work in completely different places and had big changes in situation, but we still get together because we want to see each other, because we work well together.

So todays's blog is dedicated to all my wonderful friends. Thank you all for being part of my life and making me me!

Steward's Enquiry!

Well, you've got to love a tryer in life, and my son certainly tried at his first ever school sports day!

I was very excited to see this. I remember Emily's first sports day when she was in nursery, she looked so cute doing all the little events. Out trots Xander at the front of the line, holding Mrs Ainley's hand (at first I thought it was a priveledge, but as the afternoon progressed I realised it was more Mrs Ainley keeping an eye on him!). And pretty soon it was Xander's first race, a nice simple running race.

So, my son, apparently doesn't need to wait for whistles:

Ahem, well he won...

Next up was a jumping race...now keep that word 'JUMPING' in mind. Remember, we're JUMPING...




OK, by this point I'm very grateful it's a sunny day as I have a big hat and big sunglasses disguising me!

Next up, the 'balance a bean bag on your head' race. What could possibly go wrong with balancing a simple bean bag on one's head. All they had to do was remember to keep their hands by their sides...you guessed it:

So, imagine the cringing that went on inside me when they announced that next up was the egg & spoon race; that notorious cheat's paradise. You can sneakily balance it with your thumb, slyly stick a bit of chewing gum under it when no-one's looking...or quite simply just hold the spoon in one hand and the egg in the other:

So at my son's first ever sports day he won most of his races...but I now can't show my face in the playground ever again! May have to start calling him Zola not Xander!

Holidays - Credit Crunch Styleee!

So, this time last year we were busy packing to go here:

(***SNIFF*** Love that place!)

This year, er, not so much! Today's financial climate doesn't exactly bode well for yearly Carribbean holidays, but when you're given lemons, make lemonade! As regular readers to my blog will know, I am THE bargain queen; I love to sniff out a good deal. So when the holiday problem posed itself, I came up with a plan.

I always shop at Tesco, mainly for these. I see it as my way of gaining something back from a company who earn billions out of us every year and I even paid my tuition fees for my degree with them. Anyhoo, I sent off for some vouchers to Whipsnade Zoo so last week we headed down south. A quick stop to see Rob's Grandad on the way, then we booked in to a Travelodge on their £29 a night deals (FYI, go for Premier Inn's deal instead, much nicer). After staying there the night we headed to the local Tesco for some sandwiches and other pic-er-nic stuff (and to earn more points! ;) and then went to the zoo...FOR FREE!

Not sure this guy was impressed with us invading his space though:

After the zoo, we headed into London to stay for a few days with Rob's sister (thanks for having us Zo!). Zoe had to work the first day so we headed into 'the smoke' and did all the free sightseeing stuff it had to offer. We even got free sunshine!

For lunch, more Tesco vouchers, this time eating at Pizza Express, and blooming yummy it was too. The kids love PE as they get grown up 'Bambiccinos'!

More pics to come later, I need to do a slide show as there's so many.

So, when we got home I got to thinking about just what I'm going to do with those little angels of mine over the summer holidays; that's 6 very long weeks if you have nowhere to go! I looked at a caravan for a week - £750! :o I looked at our beloved Center Parcs - a 4 night break was £950! :o :o I'm sorry but there's absolutely no way I'm spending that much to stay in this country!

So, I did what I always said I'd never do, and went out and bought this:

That's right, we now own a tent; you know those bits of material with no bath, loo etc?!

Do you know what's even more disturbing? I've got a bit excited about it! Just this morning I was out buying tent peg mallets and camping toasters!

You can just picture the scene now can't you:

Watch this space....