Brummie Blogger

Brrrr!

It was so cold this morning! I think I need to sort myself out a warmer coat. My uniform fleece just isn't cosy enough for these temperatures. Especially not at the time of day that I go out to work. Mind you, it was still freezing when I finished work, with a bitter wind that went right through me. It's enough to make you want to spend the day in bed with a coffee and a good book.

We, and by we I mean Stephen, have put the radiator back on the wall in the living room. I did want to get it sanded down ready for painting first but it's just too cold downstairs without it. Ah well, it'll be easier to sand now. I just have to be careful not to get dust all over the newly painted walls.

I've realised that I haven't been uploading many layouts recently. It's not that I haven't been scrapping, I have, and now have a backlog of layouts both on the computer and waiting to be photographed. I think perhaps I should make a start on uploading so without further ado, here is one from September.

The photo is Disney Photopass from this year. This was my first play with my bejeweller and also my Doodlebug stickers and glitter. The paper is MME Bohemia. TFL

A busy week

I don't know where the past week has gone. It seems to have flown past. I've read books, met friends and cropped and somehow never managed to make time to update my blog.

Books, then. I finished A turn of the screw by Henry James. It was ok, but I had expected it to be a bit more scary. Perhaps books these days are so graphic that it spoils you for more subtle ones. The next book to be finished was Wild Swans. That was a lovely chunky book that lasted me several days. It was fascinating to read with all the details of life in China under communism. I'd highly recommend that one.

After Wild Swans, I fancied something quick and light so I read a Charlaine Harris that had recently arrived - Shakespeare's christmas. I do love her books, and this one did not disappoint. Then onto one that I've borrowed from Ang - Kate Atkinson's Human croquet. That was excellent and has made me want to read more of hers. I'm now reading Margaret Atwood's Blind assassin. It's a bookring book that arrived in the week. So far I'm enjoying it. It's another thick one so it should last me a few days.

On Tuesday Ang arrived in Birmingham so I went over for a cuppa and a chat when she got in. She'd bought me a gorgeous, gorgeous mug for my birthday. It has Brum is Bostin' on it. So appropriate for me and I love it. I did stay out rather later than I should have so I was very weary on Wednesday and was in bed by 6pm. I did have a migraine brewing that resulted in my staying in bed pretty much all day on Thursday.

Luckily I was fine on Friday as Ang and I were heading down to Paperarts for the day to crop. We were the first ones there and although there wasn't an awful lot of scrapping done, we did have a brilliant time. Chris very kindly bought me some Hotel Chocolat goodies for my birthday so they've been put safely away until I can have them. I'm now half way through the 'no-cow's milk' trial so not long before I can sample them. Fiona made some delicious muffins with soya milk so that I could have some.

Yesterday I met Ang in town for coffee and Ang helped me spend my gift card for Borders that Jo and Kan had given me for my birthday. I did get some wonderful birthday gifts this year! I managed to get enough books to make my wee book bag very heavy so my 'to be read' shelf has now expanded into two shelves. We had a great time wandering round town, looking in book shops and drinking coffee.

Today I'm trying to catch up with the weekends chores before going back to work tomorrow, and next weekend the fun starts again.

Skin privilege

I finished this book a couple of days ago. I love Karin Slaughter's books, and have read all of the Grant County ones. I like books that keep the same characters in a series. You know what to expect without it spoiling any of the plot. This one was as good as the others in the series and rattled along quite nicely, tying up all the loose ends in the penultimate chapter. So far so good. The final chapter, however, was something unexpected.

If you're planning to read this book, do not read on. Major spoiler ahead.

Now, I don't mind unexpected. I rather like it, in fact. A surprise ending gives you something to mull over after the book is finished. I love a book that makes me stop dead in my tracks and forces me to re-read the last paragraph to make sure it said what I thought it did. My sister's keeper did that, and I loved that book.

What bothered me about this ending was that the book seemed to have finished. Then, the main character goes to fetch some mail from his mailbox. The mailbox explodes and within a couple of pages, he's dead. That's it. It was as if it had just been grafted onto the end of a perfectly good book. I have read the author's explanation of why he had to die, and it does make sense. It just didn't make any sense when I read it. I put the book down feeling cheated, and very unsatisfied.

I've now started Wild Swans by Jung Chang. So far I'm really enjoying it. I won't get much more read today, though. It's the final Grand Prix of the season today, and I'll be rooting for Hamilton for the championship title. I shall probably spend the entire race on the edge of my seat, biting my nails down to the quicks.

A day in Wales

This morning we set off in the car for a nice day out. We were heading to somewhere that I've wanted to visit for a very long time. 

Hard to believe that I'd never been there considering how much of a bookaholic I am. We set out about 9am following the directions on the Hay website. It looked a nice simple route and it would have been, had the last road not been closed for some roadworks. We ended up following a diversion that mysteriously vanished and went via Hereford in the end. Still, it was a lovely drive with the sun shining, blue skies and gorgeous autumn colours all along the route. It was very nice to see the above sign telling us we'd arrived though.

As we entered Hay, I spotted a bookshop. Then another. And another. After a while Stephen threatened to throttle me if I said "Oooh, look! A bookshop!" once more. That man has no sense of humour *grin*

We found the car park easily enough. There aren't many roads in Hay and I did have a map that the info centre had very kindly sent me. First stop was the craft centre cafe next to the car park, for some refreshments. From our table we could see these signs across the road.

Exciting, eh? Once we'd finished our snack we followed the sign on the right and visited The Hay Cinema Bookshop. Oh my! I have never seen so many books in one place. It was huge! I had my filofax with me, with my 'want list' in alphabetical order inside. Using that, I managed to find several of the books that I wanted. I was restricting myself to paperbacks on the list, mainly to give myself something to focus on but also to stop myself from going berserk in there. Oh there were some lovely old smelly books in there. All beautifully bound with shiny spines. They even had a whole section for Folio Society books. I have a few of those from the year I spent as a member and they are just gorgeous.

I tore myself away from there and we took my haul back to the car and fetched a new bag. Hay is pretty much carrier bag free. They'll sell you a re-usable bag but they don't give out bags, which I think is very sensible. We'd taken our Tesco re-usable bags. They're big and strong enough for lots of books!

Next we wandered down the hill towards the castle. On the way we passed The Corner bookshop. I say passed, you might know I had to go in. It was much smaller than the Cinema bookshop but so much better in it's layout. I found quite a few books in there including Catch-22 which is one I was particularly hoping to get and a gorgeous leather bound edition of Kafka's The Trial which the nice man let me have for £3.

Next stop was the Castle bookshop.

 I was expecting great things from this place but it was actually the only shop I came out of without any books. Oh there were some lovely books there, but not much in the way of interesting paperbacks. Nice view from up there though.

 Next stop was the Richard Booth bookshop. Booth is the chap that made Hay into a booklovers's paradise. It was a very nice shop indeed and more purchases were made in there. Then we had to run back to the car to get a fresh bag and put another pay and display ticket on the car.

We only spent another hour there, but got a few more books. Addyman's bookshop was particularly nice. One thing I noticed. I'd got a lot of Terry Pratchets on my list as I've only read about five and would like to read the rest. In all those shops I only managed to pick up two books. It was easier to find rare out-of-print books than Pratchetts. I may have to buy those new...

We stopped off in Hereford again on the way home, to refuel both us and the car and made it home just after 8pm. A very long and tiring day, but I had a great time. Stephen pretty much let me go wild and buy all the books that I wanted, but then this was my birthday treat.

This was the resulting haul. About forty books in all. I think I was fairly restrained, don't you?