Plans for 2016

You notice that these are plans, not resolutions.
Resolutions are usually good intentions that run out of steam very quickly.
If you read my blog, you'll know that I have reason to be making changes in my life.  So....here goes.....
Plans!
Obviously I am going to find another way of making money, I might find conventional employment, or I might be working for myself, however things pan out, my life will be different in a few months.

I will still be knitting, reading, cross stitching, sewing, baking......but I have other ideas I want to explore and possibly follow up. I'll keep you updated as things develop, when I explore my ideas.

My reading plans.
1. Read a "classic" book.
2. Read a translated book.
3. Read a "classic children's book", that I haven't yet read.
4. Read some poetry.
5. Read a Shakespeare play that I haven't previously.

One of my exploring "ideas" involves me writing, perhaps the urge to write will return properly, it feels like it is beginning to already, as I have been blogging more in the last couple of weeks.  I'll try to post every day, however briefly, just to keep me going.

I'll also try to keep up my weekly kitchen challenge, and try out an "unknown" recipe every week.  The one I tried this week  was Turkish Delight, not the strangest thing I have ever created in my kitchen, but it's in the top ten.

Catching up

Am slowly but surely catching up with things on the blogs I contribute towards.
Have just posted about the books that kept me occupied whilst without my pc. Now have to take photos of the knitting I have done so I can post them on Fidgetty Fingers.
This weekend is the sandcastle weekend. I hope to get some pictures of those, must put the software for my new camera on the pc, then I can use that to take the pictures, they should be better quality. :)

"sigh"

So, I had problems getting out of bed this morning, the pain had gone worse.
After a couple of hours I rung our out of hours doctor.
After a quick visit to the out of hours doctor I have had confirmed, yes, it's sciatica, and could take up to 6 weeks to clear. CRIPES!!!!!!
Pass me another book and some needlecraft of some type to do please?
Have got some very strong painkillers, hope these work well. From what I remember, last time I took these ones, they almost knocked me out.

Gadgets!

Well, tonight on the news they did a "filler" story.
CUE DRAMATIC MUSIC......" Books are on the way out"

Sorry, the way they presented the story was funny. They gave the example of videos giving way to DVD's, Walkmans to mp3 players and i pods. Apparently books will be superseded by e-books, these wonderful machines can store up to 160 full length novels. Sounds good you might think, you can take this e-book with you wherever you go. It is only the size of a standard paperback, and ...if you finished your book, well it can store 160, so you wouldn't run out of reading material, ever again, or would you?
These are what I see as the drawbacks. The experts say that you should take a est from working at a PC, handheld games, etc, so surely the same applies to the e-book. And something else, it must work on some kind of battery. So, you are just getting to a really interesting part of the book..........
and the battery fails. Wouldn't that just annoy you? It would me.

I think it would be a nice "gadget"to have, but I'll stick with the real thing. After all, there are still orchestras, and musicians, even though there is a huge range of recorded music. And despite digital cameras people still use "real" cameras. And I do like to have a book, and as the presenter pointed out, you would serious damage your e-book if you read in the bath, and accidentally dropped it in.

And another last thought to leave you with, wouldn't it take the pleasure out of having a good old browse in a bookshop, carefully picking your next book?

Well Read, or just short of something to do?

I saw a list of top 100 books on another blog. I thought it was the BBC Big Read list, but not. Never mind, the one below is.
The list was compiled by the British public voting for their favourite book, then books were eliminated. There is a list of 200, but that is far too long for here.
You can find it http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/
It is reference only now though.

I have coloured the books I have read in red, and the one's I have but not read as yet in green, the one's I haven't read are black.


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

I did colour one red and green..I just couldn't finish Middlemarch. The vote was open to all ages. There is one thing that annoyed me. All Douglas Adams books were lumped together, as were His Dark Materials, whilst the Harry Potter books were all listed separately. (I do have all those, but have only read the first one.)

Last day of the holidays

This was an unexpected day.
I had other plans, won't discuss here, but I ended up having this day extra to do things I was going to put off until weekend.
So after a swim, and walking the dogs. Edwin and I went into Lancaster.
The school uniform includes a blazer, as from tomorrow. As Edwin never wore his sweatshirt, I wasn't going to bother, and he wasn't bothered. We had decided that if he ever needs a blazer for school we were going to buy a plain one, and not one of the ones provided by the school supplier. The simple reason being, there is no way he would wear a blazer with the school logo on it anywhere but school, whereas one without could be worn any time he needs to "dress up".
He also pointed out, as there is a six form dress code in operation now, he would be able to use it for sixth form as well. (So, potential 4 years use at school instead of 2.)
I got wadding for the quilt I am making, two books from the bookshop, and various stationery things.
On the way back I stopped at the discount shop, and got loads of fruit and veg, and other bits we needed.
Made spagheti bolognese for tea, so I gained lots of brownie points today, and now I'm worn out.