January in Books

January was pretty good for reading methinks; at the moment I've read 8 towards my GoodReads challenge of 52 in 2015, 4 ahead of schedule according to the site.

 

I managed to give 4 of the books back to the library before realising I hadn't actually taken a picture yet...

England Observed: John Gay by Andrew Sargeant
Anything containing old pictures of Britain is interesting to me and John Gay was prolific photographer who shot all sorts of railway heritage, industrial landscapes and countryside scenes. Andrew Sargeant looks at his photographs and discusses each one with just the right amount of text to picture ratio to make it really interesting.


Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth

I always thought I'd already read this; I remember it being popular when I first starting working in the library back in 2005 and just assumed I'd had it out at some point. Looking at my GoodReads list though, I couldn't see it on there and came to the conclusion I must have dreamt reading it. I love the TV show and we went to see Jennifer's husband, Philip Worth do a talk last year as part of the Bath Literature Festival so it was fascinating to read the original stories and see the similarities. I know it's only the first three series of the TV show that the book is based on but still, it's a strange sort of book. On the one hand the author goes into quite a lot of detail with each story and you can see how the TV show followed that closely; on the other hand, there's an awful lot of stuff on TV which you can tell has been well, not exactly made up, more just extrapolated from the stories in the book. Still a  good read though.


Mr Chartwell by Rebecca Hunt
It took me a while to get into this one and even now, I wouldn't say it's one of my favourites. It tells the tale of Mr Chartwell, a large black dog who decides to move in with Esther (a librarian in Westminster) and who also has a job, visiting and plaguing Winston Churchill during his final days in politics. Andrew's suffered with depression in the past but I never have so I thought this would be an interesting take on it and well, it was okay. I just felt as if there should have been more to the storyline, I kept expecting something else to happen and it never did. I am claiming this one as Middlesex for my Read Around the UK challenge though (Middlesex includes Westminster according to the Association of British Counties website).


Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan
This has been sitting on my 'to read' shelves since November 2013 and it's taken me two Christmas seasons to get round to reading it. It's a nice enjoyable read all about a girl who runs a cake café and her boyfriend who gets a job over in New York. Will she stay with her friends and business in London or follow her heart across the ocean? The chapters are interspersed with recipes from her shop which make a lovely addition to the storyline; I ended up photocopying most of them to try at home. The one thing this book did though, was make me want to open up my own cake café!


The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
The sequel to The Rosie Project (which I read last August and loved), the story's moved on a year and Don starts on The Baby Project when Rosie announces she's expecting. I did like this one but not quite as much as the first book, there's quite a few storylines and some of it felt a bit well, formulaic is probably the best word for it. Although it might just be the fact that living up to the first book was always going to be a hard job!


The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty
I read this for the Blogger Book Club last week (which if you haven't signed to yet, pop over to Jenny's site, the next book we'll be discussing in April) and it was quite good, although some of the characters seem a bit weak. At the book club I think we all ended up talking a lot more in depth about the storyline than the author had ever imagined, dissecting murder, affairs, secrets and a whole lot more.


Picture Me Gone by Meg Rosoff
I've read quite a few of Meg Rosoff's books and I didn't think this was one of her best. It tells the story of Mila, a young girl who's apparently able to sense hidden facts and unspoken emotions and Matthew (a friend of her dad's) who goes missing. Mila and her dad set off to look for Matthew but the clues Mila keeps getting are confusing and misleading. The thing is, by the end of the book I didn't feel as the storyline was really resolved, we still don't find out what happens to several characters and the whole thing about Mila's 'secret gifts' isn't really developed. It's okay but nowhere near as good as some of the author's other books.


Maidens' Trip by Emma Smith
This was Emma Smith's debut novel, first published in 1948 and telling the tales of her life working on the Grand Union Canal with several other girls during the Second World War. I found this a little bit hard going, not due to the stories or age but instead because of all the boating terminology which I'm not exactly au fait with. It meant that although I could understand what was happening, I didn't feel as if I really got into the book. I have read one of her other books though, The Great Western Beach set in Newquay and I enjoyed that one much more, probably because I know a lot more about that area than about boating!


Have you read anything good recently?
 

BBC Broadcasting House Tour

One of the places we visited when we went to London for my birthday last year was BBC Broadcasting House. I didn't even know they did tours of the iconic building until Jane wrote all about her trip there last year but it looked like a really interesting and fun thing to do so I booked tickets for the Saturday of our trip (which was my birthday itself). We're big fans of the BBC2 programme W1A as well (the one which sends up the Beeb) so half of me was fully expecting to see the whole place looking exactly like it does on the show.

 

 

 

The tour isn't too expensive, £13.75 for an adult tickets and the tours last about an hour and a half. The first thing we had to do was find our way there, I had initially planned to get a bus to Piccadilly and walk up Regent Street but what with still being on crutches, that wasn't really an option. Luckily I worked out a bus route that took us directly alongside Broadcasting House and then all we had to do was find our way in (which was actually harder than we thought, the entrance for the tours was a bit hidden with no signs).

 

 

 

One we'd checked in, the waiting area was on the same floor as the news studio and weather presenting area. Being a Saturday in December, it was fairly quiet and there wasn't anything particularly newsworthy happening although we did get to see presenter Stav Danaos doing the weather forecast (cold and chilly was the prediction).

 

 

 

The tour is quite good, you get to see inside The One Show's studio (it's tiny!) and the BBC Radio Theatre (I now want to go and watch a show there) plus there's a couple of audience participation bits: you get to put together your own news and weather broadcast and take part in a radio show.

 

 

 

Our favourite bit though was being taken in through what used to be the main entrance, full of art deco lights and fittings and heaps of history. Me and Andrew even got to see behind the scenes a bit as at one point in the tour you have to go up a flight of steps to get to the next floor; with crutches it was far easier to use the lift and the very helpful lady running the tour took us up in that, except she stopped at the wrong floor and we ended up trawling through offices (which looked no different to any other office elsewhere in the UK).

 

 

 

What was also interesting was all the little titbits and anecdotes about the building, for example the coffee shop opposite The One Show studio is actually owned by Costa but they're not allowed to have any branding on display (due to product placement rules) and when they were installed, the lifts inside the main entrance to the building were the fastest lifts in London.

 

 

 

All in all, an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours. Other BBC buildings around the UK also do tours so if it's something you fancy, it's worth checking out their website. I noticed that BBC Bristol do tours so I think me and Andrew will have to investigate that at some point!

 

 

Update 26/7/16: I've been informed that as of 30th April 2016, the Broadcasting House tour is no longer running. There's lots of other tours around other BBC buildings though so pop over to the BBC Tours page to take a look.

Here Is The News #30

 

Blogland Brilliance

One I forgot to include last week, Sarah's been putting together these awesome photobooks for the last few years. I love this idea and it's something I'm fully intending on pilfering and doing myself.

If you're in or around the Cardiff area on 7th Feb, join Gemma and hundreds of other people for a mass 'read in' protest to try and save Cardiff's library service. If you're not in the area, visit your own local library anyway as 7th Feb happens to be National Libraries Day.

Annie had a brilliantly sunny weekend in Dorset (and I love the sound of the Hive Beach Café!)

Lou visited Edinburgh Zoo, somewhere I haven't been for almost 20 years but I'm dragging Andrew there this August for a trip to see the penguins and pandas.

How gorgeous is this picture of Michelle? (and despite what she says, I've met her and she is cool and sophisticated)

Leona wrote a very honest post all about her first smear test experience - something very important that all us ladies should make sure we have.

You can sign up for a free beginners online course in crochet with Kate - I have 'learn to crochet' on my 33 before 33 list so I'm doing this for sure.

And Danielle is hosting what must be the best giveaway ever - mainly because of how you have to enter! It'll certainly make you put your thinking caps on, I haven't done my entry yet as I'm still choosing what to do.


 

Food Porn

For a taste of summer how about Izzy's Strawberry, Lemon and Blood Orange Pancakes?

For snackage, try Rosie's Dark Chocolate-dipped Lemon Shortbread and Clare's Key Lime Meringue Brownies - both look delicious!

And three dinners I want to try - Gemma's Smoked Paprika and Red Onion Chicken, Debs' Creamy Chicken Pasta and Kerri's Hungarian Style Chicken (I didn't actually realise until I wrote this post that they're all chicken based!)

 

Interesting Info

The National Fish and Chip awards were announced the other day and here's a list of the winners (plus some battered fish porn). I'm off now to organise my holiday to the Shetland Isles...

This handy flowchart will tell you if you need to and also how to credit photos accurately.

The BBC looked at the Kodak Brownie camera and shared some vintage snaps that readers had sent in.

James Wallman's book, Stuffocation is on my 'to read' list so it was interesting to see him interviewed all about the hazards of having too much stuff.

How smart do you think you are? Here's 20 jokes that apparently only "very smart people" will get.
 

Blogs I've followed this week...

The Lost Girl's Playbook

Uncia and Tigris

And thanks to Elise's excellent blog round-ups:

Paperbagblog

Girl with a Duck Jumper

Bless the Weather
 

What's new with you?
 

The Big Blogger Clothes Swap

You might already have seen this floating round blogworld but if you haven't, here's what it's all about.

 

 

Janet from over at Words That Can Only Be Your Own and Steph from over The Wardrobe Angel are organising a big blog internet clothes swap.

The idea is that people sign up by sending in their details and then Janet and Steph will pair people up to swap some things - clothes, shoes, accessories, bags or any variation of the above really.

I love going to swishing events (if only there were more of them locally) and this year I'm doing the whole 'buy nothing from the high street' thingy so taking part in an online clothes swap sounds like a fabulous idea.

Here's what Janet has to say...

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I've wanted to run a clothes swap for ages but was intimidated by the amount of work I'd potentially have to put in - and the fear that, after all the work, no-one would turn up. So I put the idea to the back of my mind, until I was chatting to my soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Steph, on Twitter recently and had a brainwave: what would happen if we tried to organise an internet clothes swap?

I'd seen Steph in her guise as The Wardrobe Angel, run individual swaps for her own clothes, and looked on in envy at Donna's regular frock swaps (envy because none of her dresses would fit me) and I started to think about trying to do the same thing, but on a bigger scale. Gathering together as many bloggers, and blog readers as possible, pairing them up according to clothes or shoe size, and letting the swapping commence.

And so her it is: the big blog clothes swap!

Want to take part? To sign up, all we need is the following, emailed to either jbistheinital@gmail.com or info@wardrobeangel.co.uk, by the 9th February:

Name:

Address:

Blog address and/or social media:

Clothes size (if you need to split this for tops/bottoms, do):

Shoe size:

Swapping preferences (for example, Do you want to swap only one item or more? Do you have specific clothes preferences, e.g. dresses only? Would you be willing, or prefer, to swap shoes, bags, accessories, etc?):

Steph and I will wade through the responses and pair you with someone of the same size. You can, if you wish, then use social media to get to know your partner and their style, or you can just hope for the best!
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Sounds like fun? Pop your details over to Janet or Steph and who knows what you'll end up with... :-)

 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

Celebrating – the world of silent comedy at the Silent Comedy Gala held as part of Bristol's Slapstick Festival. It was Andrew's Christmas present from me; Chris Addison was hosting the night and one of the films was going to be scored by Rick Wakeman (who we've seen play before and he's spectacular). They screened three films: Charlie Chaplin's 'The Immigrant' from 1917, Laurel and Hardy's 'Big Business' from 1929 and Buster Keaton's 'Seven Chances' from 1925. They were all pretty good but I particularly liked the Buster Keaton one, I've not seen many of his films but I'm definitely going to look them out now.

 

 

Munching - on a brilliant bagel from Bagel Boy in Bristol (try saying that fast – lots of B's!). I had one called a Naughty Boy – chicken, bacon, cheese coleslaw and BBQ sauce – which was, as always, delicious.

Baking – a Strawberry and Cinnamon Torte cake. I’m trying to empty out one of our freezers at the moment so we can defrost it and that means constantly shuffling frozen things from one freezer or drawer to another. One particular drawer seems to be three quarters full of strawberries, and although I like strawberries a lot, I also like a nice clean defrosted freezer even more. This recipe used up 450g of strawberries, or one and half boxes from the freezer.

Sorting – out yet more clothes, stuff and associated junk. We still seem to have a backlog of stuff that never got put away when I was in plaster (there wasn’t really a lot of stuff I could do whilst in plaster) and like everything else, the paperwork and general clutter seems to have reproduced over and over several times since.

 

 

Painting – the bedroom we were clearing out the other weekend. Andrew managed to do the skirting boards and ceiling on Saturday and then put the first coat of paint on the walls on Sunday. I think the grey we've chosen has ended up not quite as distinctive as we'd hoped but it still looks fairly nice (and to be fair, anything would look better than the peachy orange colour it was before).

 

 

 

Realising – that if I want to manage one of my 33 Before 33 things (do one outfit post a month), I only have til Saturday left to make a start!



What did you get up to at the weekend?

Tunnocks Teacakes Coasters

Despite saying I don't think I'm that creative, a few weeks ago I did go and think of an actual creative-crafty-type-thing.

 

It all started from the fact that we've had various cork and wooden coasters in our living room for the last few years; they never seem to last very long, the pattern always wears off and you end up with them looking all naff and manky.

 

I've always liked the pattern on a Tunnocks teacake wrapper (and the teacake itself), my grandmother used to buy them and being given one from her cupboard always felt like a real treat when I was young.

 

Then it occurred to me, why not put the wrapper inside some of those clear plastic coasters you can buy? I reckoned it would look pretty retro, be easy to clean and would certainly last a lot longer than the coasters we've had before. Plus we’d get the added bonus of eating lots of teacakes.

 

 

This make is so easy it shouldn’t even need a tutorial. All you need is:

 

Tunnocks Teacakes

Clear plastic coasters (we bought this pack of 10 for £5.20 from a seller on Amazon, Hobbycraft also sell them but at a more expensive price)

 

1. Unwrap the teacake carefully, making sure not to rip the wrapper. If you do, oh dear, you’ll just have to eat some more, what a shame.

2. Eat said teacakes.

3. Flatten the wrappers out carefully and then place them in the pages of a big and heavy book.

4. Chuck big book at the bottom of a pile of big books and leave there for a while (we left ours for a few weeks because we were lazy and didn’t get round to making the coasters but as long as it's had a couple of days, it probably doesn't matter how long really).

5. Carefully take the wrapper from the book and place in the middle of the coaster top (the clear bit). We had to turn it over and look at it a few times to make sure it was fairly central.

6. Place the back of the coaster (the opaque bit) into the coaster top and press down firmly.
7. You should be left with excess foil around the edges; take a knife, pair of scissors or other sharp implement and carefully score around the edges to remove the extra bits.

7. Repeat until you have as many coasters as you want (we made eight).

8. Place on table, brew up a cup of cha and sit back and admire your handiwork, preferably with yet another teacake.   

9. Exaggerate to everyone who comes to visit how much time and effort it took to make them.

 

 

 

All I need now is one of Nikki McWilliams' cushions and one of Gillian Kyle's cups to match!

 

10 Things I'm Already Good At

Back at the beginning of January, the always-insightful Sarah wrote this great post about looking at your resolutions in a different light. Instead of simply listing all the things you need to do better (i.e. lose weight, be healthier, eat better, etc, etc) and by default making yourself think you’re no good at anything, she suggested looking at all the things you already do well and putting a more positive spin on it.

The only relevance the pic has to any of the following is that I found the dress in a charity shop...

 

So shamelessly stealing from Sarah's idea, here’s 10 things I'm already good at...

 

 

Following instructions

This was the first one I thought of and it doesn't matter what it is, I can follow a recipe, pattern, dance routine, route or anything else pretty darn well. I've been told I have a fairly logical mind so following a set of instructions seems natural to me. The only downside to this skill is that I don't class myself as particularly creative; if I had to make something from scratch, be it a story, drawing or cake, I have to think quite a lot to even know where to start.

 

Fertility treatment

Okay so I know neither of our attempts have been successful but the doctors have said that apparently I'm quite good at it. I don't get massive amounts of side effects, I respond well to the medication and I recover pretty well afterwards. The positive result is just the final part of the jigsaw – the one bit I'm not good at!

 

Map reading, directions and finding my way around

This fascinated Andrew when I first met him, he (like a lot of men) thought I wouldn't know how to read a map. If someone asks me for directions I can usually tell them quite well using all the right A and B roads to describe the way. If you combine the memory skills with directions and map reading, it means I can remember routes and roads we visited years ago and even recall what the places looked like along the way.

 

Organising stuff and project planning

I like lists, I like planning and I like nothing more than organising something, whether that's a holiday, party or whatever. Our annual trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is planned out using spreadsheets and GANTT charts and between me, Andrew and my sister in law, we've managed to pull off two large surprise parties for the in-laws over the last five years. I use Google calendar for everything and I'm the sort of person who meal plans, although I do build a bit of flexibility into our schedules.

 

Sorting stuff out and tidying

This was Andrew's first contribution. I thought he'd dug himself into a hole saying I was good at tidying but nope, what he meant was that I was good at running a home, having a full time job and solving problems. We do divide the housework up fairly equally (we each do the bits the other one doesn't like) and I think we work as a pretty good team but he reckons it's more down to my organising and tidying skills than anything he does.

 

Putting things in A-Z

Yup, I can do this fairly quickly. Mainly because of all the years spent working in libraries.

 

Finding gems in charity shops

Another one of Andrew's contributions but I think this one is more down to chance than any particular skill of mine. Although I do seem to own quite a lot of thrifted stuff and people are quite often surprised when I say whatever I'm wearing is from a charity shop.

 

Tuning things out and not listening

I am good at this although I'm not really sure how useful it is. What it means in practice is that Andrew gets frustrated with me on long car journeys because he's heard something on the radio and wants to talk to me whereas I've not heard a single word. It does come in quite useful at parties and in my office sometimes although I suppose it would more accurately be described as being good at daydreaming.

 

Remembering random stuff

Want to know where the best chip shop is on the Isle of Harris? The dialling code for Weymouth? Who the artistic director was of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the 1990s? I’m your gal. (answers below)

 

Research

I've been told a couple of times (once by a Careers Advisor) that I should be a private detective. I like learning stuff and this translates into liking finding stuff out. What this also translates into though is spending far too much time researching an assignment for my degree and far too little time actually writing!

 

 

What things are you already good at?

 

 

 

 (Isle of Harris Chip Shop - the best one (possibly the only one) is in Tarbert, called Ad's Takeaway run by (surprisingly enough) a man called Ad, it's all tasty but I'd recommend the Smoked Sausage Supper – just for the comic value of watching Ad chop the sausage in half. Weymouth's dialling code is 01305 and Jude Kelly is your director, she left the theatre in 2002.)

Here Is The News #29

 

Blogland Brilliance

Beccy's put together two excellent posts in the form of lists - more things it's acceptable to do and the thoughts we all have whilst reading Facebook (or Faceache as it's more accurately described).

Rachel has some excellent tips for living with someone and I'd completely agree with her that it's all about compromise in the end.

Do you need a wardrobe declutter? SJ has five easy tips to help you on your way.

Jane wrote a letter to the brilliant author (and distant relative of mine - but that's another story), Shirley Hughes and actually received a proper reply back!

Food porn this week includes Michelle's Blackberry and Apple Crumble (a proper winter warmer if ever I saw one) and Laura's Toblerone Shortbread Cookies (I'm working on the other half to give me his bar so I can make them, so far though he's not playing ball).

Jenny knitted these adorable owl hats and she's even included her pattern (I keep wanting to say recipe for some inexplicable reason) so we can all have a go. Once I get to a wool shop, I'm making this my next project.

And finally, look at Chelsea's book proposal! Isn't it fabulous? She's going to ace her degree, I'm sure of it.


 

Exciting Events

The world's first ever National Readathon Day is taking place this Saturday with the hashtag #timetoread - basically just do what it says on the tin and curl up with a good book this weekend!
 

 

Interesting Info

One TV series I'd thoroughly recommend is Hinterland, a sort of crime noir set in and around Aberystwyth. The characters slip easily between English and Welsh (with English subtitles) and the storylines are pretty dramatic. The first series was shown buried late at night on BBC4 last year but they're repeating it from this Saturday on BBC2 Wales (which apparently you can get in the rest of the UK on Sky or Freesat channel 971. If you're like me and only have Freeview, there's always trusty old iPlayer). I do like Aberystwyth so I'm kind of biased but even so, it's definitely worth watching.

We visited Churchill's War Rooms just before Christmas so these old pictures are really interesting.

You've probably all seen (or heard about) the 'This Girl Can' campaign by now. I've spotted quite a few differing viewpoints - Siobhan loves it, Miss Smidge isn't quite so keen and some academics at my workplace have put together a rather controversial take on it. I can't make my mind up; on the one hand I think the general aim of it is fab; on the other hand there's lots of things they haven't really addressed in the advert (the age range of ladies featured, the negative connotations of the wording, far too much reliance on paid-for exercise (instead of being more active within everyday life), and the fact that it doesn't tell you how to overcome that fear of being judged). Personally it doesn't motivate me to get out there (yes, it may be okay to jiggle and sweat like a pig but it doesn't mean I want to) but if it encourages some people, then that's great.

If you're struggling to come up with blog post titles this title generator might give you some ideas (or just leave you wondering what on earth some of them are supposed to mean).

I'm not a huge fan of Hugh Grant but fair play to him for volunteering his time and working alongside a theatre company for people with learning disabilities.

And thanks to Rachael and Michelle, most of my office managed to waste 15 minutes of work time all working out what our penguin names would be - mine's Honkers von Peckington :-)

 

Blogs I've followed this week...

Beak Up Crafts

Suzie 81 Speaks

Those Words She Wrote

Fall For DIY

 

What's your penguin name? :-)
 

A Photo Every Hour - Saturday 17th January

For the first Photo an Hour challenge for 2015, I chose Saturday 17th January as the day. We had nothing exciting planned, just a normal day at home - which by the end of it, seemed to have included lots of washing, tidying and sorting.


9am - Despite the forecast of snow overnight, we woke up to gorgeous sunshine instead.

 

10am - Breakfast that morning was a cheese, ham and onion omelette served up with buttered toast and a mug of hot tea (incidentally, can anyone actually say "can I have an omelette" without hearing the voice of Gavin and Stacey's Gwen in their head?)

11am - The cleaning and tidying begins...

12pm - One hour and a rainstorm later, the kitchen's gleaming and the sun is shining.

1pm - Friday night we popped out to the library to collect some books; all I did on Friday was leave them on the bottom of the stairs so I put them away neatly on my (rather full) 'to be read' shelf.

2pm - Next up with the tidying was our old bedroom (note the delightful shade of orange the previous owners painted it). We're planning to do it up in a grey and pink colour scheme which hopefully will be a lot nicer than what it is now.

3pm - At the same time as cleaning the place up, I also had the washing machine on full pelt trying to make a dent on the huge amount that'd built up since the beginning of January.

4pm - One of the jobs in our old bedroom is to repurpose this chest of drawers. It used to house Andrew's clothes but it's going to get slightly repainted and used instead to store duvets and sheets. Andrew made a start on seeing what needed to be done to it.

5pm - I decided to use up the last of the mincemeat and made some Mincemeat and Marzipan Teabread - food for the hungry male worker upstairs!

6pm - Then it was time to start preparing dinner, using up another bit leftover from Christmas, a box of turkey which had been sat in the freezer - Turkey and Gammon Pie (substituting the gammon for Spam as we had some spare).

7pm - Whilst the pie was in the oven we tried the cake, which I'm happy to report was pretty tasty (and even better spread with butter).

8pm - Dinner time! Pie complete with carrots, roast parsnips and roast potatoes.

9pm - Andrew decided to scroll and flick to try and decide what to watch on TV (if you've ever seen Seann Walsh, he does a great sketch about modern life just being "scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, flicking, flicking, scrolling...").

10pm - Eventually he settled on BBC4's Everyday Miracles programme which although marginally interesting to me, it was much more a programme for him. I read some blogs whilst keeping one eye on the TV.

11pm - We finished off the day with hot chocolate, perfect for the freezing cold weather outside!

For 2015 myself and Jane will be sharing the hosting duties and I think this month it's her turn to round up the usual suspects (and any new faces over) on her blog. She'll also be setting the date for February so pop on over there to see when it'll be!
 

 

Also, check out what I was up to in...

January 2014