During my...

...sojourn in the armchair in July/August, I did quite a bit of online shopping.

Lots of it was fantasy shopping, filling up baskets and then emptying them again.

Most of the real shopping was things for Megan.

A little of it was for me.

One book I bought was a journal. The Q & A a Day: 5 Year Journal to be precise.

I wasn't sure when I was actually going to start filling it out, I liked the fact that you don't have to start on the 1st of January, you can start whenever in the year you are.

So I started on the 23rd of September 2012, the fifth anniversary of my fathers death. When it reaches the 10th anniversary, I'll have a whole book full of daily thoughts to look through.

Hopefully.

Anyway, as part of my plan for blogging more frequently, I'm hoping to post every Sunday with the questions (and my answers) from the previous week.

But to get the ball rolling, here is today's question and today's answer.

January 1 - What is your mission?

"To boldly go where no man...." oh hang on, that's someone elses mission.

My mission is to be the best that I can. At mothering. At loving. At being me.

-----

What about you?

Floor plans...

...are my new bestest friends.

Now these aren't as amazing and all-singing-all-dancing as I would like them to be. In fact, they're not properly to scale in any way, shape, or form. But they're working, so that will do for now.

Living room before.

Living room afterwards (eventually)

(the radiator isn't new, it was just hidden behind the sofa and not heating the room at all, the sofa will now be in front of the fireplace we never use)

Now the scale is so very off because our living room is nowhere near that wide. But I sketched out its previous layout onto graph paper and gave everything approximate sizes. Then we measured the important bits.

Then I just made sure that everything that needed to be on the second plan was the same size as on the first one.

The sofa is not going to be flat against the wall, but coming out from it slightly at the right hand side, probably slightly in front of that bookcase. The left hand chair will be a lot tighter in against the bookcase there, and the right hand chair will end up somewhere near that position but it really depends on where it looks best!

My main plan isn't actually for furniture.

It's for the books. (but you guessed that)

Before, the bottom left bookcase had Pratchett on the top three shelves, then some cookery and craft books, then craft boxes. A real mix of stuff that mostly ended up there because that was the easiest one to change about.

Now I'm planning to move the Pratchett books to one of the bookcases on the right, and to fill the rest of it with the non-Discworld Pratchett (that had been on the other side of the room) and other fantasy fiction.

Instead of three different bookcases all having non-fiction on, I'm going to group it all together. Depending on where I'm most likely to sit to sew, the boxes of sewing stuff will be on the closest bookcase. The two bookcases on the top right will be filled with fiction books, and the bottom three or four shelves will all be double packed with paperbacks.

I know how I want it, kinda. But it really will take the actual moving things in for me be to be able to get it right.

I may be messy...

...but I'm not disorganised. Yes, 99% of the time the computer desk will have piles of paper all round the keyboard, but 99% of that time I can find exactly what I'm looking for (the 1% being if Anthony has been hurling stuff around).

But at the moment I am both messy and disorganised. I hate it. It makes me itch.

There'd been a strange lumpy bit in our living room floor for a very long time. It wasn't a major problem, we just stuck a chair over it. But then one day I moved the chair and realised that the lumpiness had spread to the wall...

So when Anthony's folks came round the following Sunday bringing a builder with them to look at fixing up the utility room to make it more weatherproof and secure, we got him to have a look at the floor instead.

Turns out that the heating pipes that run the length of that wall had been bodged together by the previous owner, and so one of the joints had been very very slowly leaking.

Just a case of patching that bit of floor and wall, yes?
No.
The area where the pipe had leaked was also where the bodger had pulled up the old hearth area, so none of that area was any good.

So a case of patching the hearth area of floor?
No.
The way the rest of the floor surface was breaking up made the builder suggest that we needed the whole sub-floor ripping up and a new concrete floor laid.

Since this was two weeks before Christmas, and the weekend before my 12 week scan, I was hoping for "we'll get rid of all the loose stuff, then do it properly after Christmas."

Not my decision to make apparently. (Not Anthony's either)

So the work actually started on the day of my 12 week scan. A week and a half's worth of no heating, lots of dust and noise, just when I'd started to be less stressed.

They did the floor in three sections in the end.

Each section was done about three days apart, to allow for the concrete to go off enough so that they could then use that surface when working on the next chunk.

For most of the time I got to keep a couple of bookcases in there. The rest are all out in the conservatory. I get extra itchy when I can't get at my books.

The next decision taken was to get the room redecorated while it was empty. A quote was obtained and a decision taken. (again, not by either of us)

Which is why I spent the week I was supposed to be on holiday with Anthony, staying with my mother while he and his dad decorated.

To be continued...

Remember...

...this post about the amazingly gorgeous illustrations that tanaudel is doing for The Dalek Game?



Well when I woke up this morning and discovered Neil Gaiman had been tweeting about it, I might have had a little bit of a squee.

Oh yes indeedy.

Check out the hashtag #dalekbooks. I'm in love with this tweet from daibhidc.

The Booker Prize...

...is not something that I choose books based on. In fact, having looked at this list, I have read exactly zero of the winners, and exactly three (Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988) by David Lodge, and Astonishing Splashes of Colour (2003) by Clare Morrall) of the shortlisted titles. (and the David Lodge ones were read because my parents had them and one of the covers appealed, exactly how I ended up reading Animal Farm and 1984 before I'd started senior school).

Basically, that type of writing is not my type of reading.

But this kind of thinking is my kind of thinking.

Julian Barnes, in his acceptance speech, said: "I'd like to thank the judges - whom I won't hear a word against - for their wisdom. And the sponsors for their cheque."

Thanking the book's designer, Suzanne Dean, he added: "Those of you who've seen my book - whatever you may think of its contents - will probably agree that it is a beautiful object.

"And if the physical book, as we've come to call it, is to resist the challenge of the e-book, it has to look like something worth buying and worth keeping."

Can I get a HELL YEAH!

I will freely admit to buying books based on their looks. There have been countless books where I have read a proof copy and known I wanted to buy the book, then not bought it because it just isn't nice enough to be worth the money when I've already got a proof copy. There have also been quite a few where I've made myself wait for the paperback to be released, only to be disappointed by it, and instead buy the hardback before it gets sent back to the publishers.

One year, darling Miss Emily bought me this beautiful hardback, quarter leather bound edition of The Colour of Magic from a second-hand bookshop.

Later, I discovered that the mail-order book club I was a member of had started producing these editions and I added to my set. Sadly they only ever produced up to book 18, but I do keep my eyes peeled in case one day, they decide to complete the series.

When I went down to London at the beginning of September, Mama and I spent a nice couple of hours at the British Library, and she practically had to forcibly remove me from the shop due to all the beautiful Folio Society editions that they keep in stock there. Warning; if you follow that link, prepare to be scared by the prices. Instead, I had a quick look on eBay when I got home, and Folio Society editions do turn up on there quite often.

I treated myself to this totally gorgeous slipcased edition of I Capture the Castle, for a barginous price of £8.50 (inc shipping). (the edition on the right is my original second printing copy)

Now I just need some kind person to be selling off these editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion at sensible prices, and I'll be a mostly happy bunny.

Mostly happy, because I'll still be lusting after this, and this, and this, and this, and this. Ooh, and these.

Anyone won the lottery recently?

PS: I'm experimenting by having set all of the above links to open in new windows/tabs. Let me know if this majorly narks you, and I'll get rid of it.

Before the new DiscWorld book...

...comes out on the 13th of October, I am attempting to reread all the previous ones. All thirty eight of them, plus the three Science of DiscWorld books (people miss these out, but if you don't at least read the story sections you are missing out on vast chunks of Rincewind and The Wizards).

I am partly reading, and partly listening to the unabridged audiobooks. This way even when I decide to have a reading break and go and do some jigsaw or some WoW or some stitching, I'm still getting through the books.

I might have to speed up a little though, I spent Sunday finishing off Reaper Man, which is book eleven.


DiscWorld Reading Guide

PAD Week 8...

...20/02/11 to 26/02/11.

PAD Week 7...

...13/02/11 to 19/02/11.

PAD Week 5...

...30/01/11 to 05/02/11.

PAD Week 1...

...01/01/11 to 08/01/11.

Musical...

...meme.

Make your band's album cover!

1. Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop (or something like picnik.com) to put it all together.

Here's mine:



and just in case anyone wants to know more about the Minakshisundaram-Pleijel zeta function...just click on the name. (then nod and smile like you understand it. If you do understand it...stop reading my blog and go and invent time-travel or something.)

Last night...

...I found myself on the horns of a dilemma. (A beast a little like a gnu).

I'd finished reading The Canon at lunchtime and really, really enjoyed it. This meant that I needed to pick myself a book to read in the very hot bath that I planned to take.

But what to read?

I looked through all 6 bookshelves (and all the piles on the floor) and managed to whittle myself down to a shortlist of 6 titles.





All of them, bar Mr Toppit, were just the right length for me to read in the bath. So therefore Mr Toppit got put aside for being too long. (It only made the shortlist cos it's my newest proof (although quite why we had the proof arrive in store at the same time as the book I do not know)).

Being aware that I'm on holiday in a week, I put aside The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency to take with me (and all the rest of the series too).

I put Marianne aside because she'll start me on a Sheri S. Tepper kick and I'm not quite in the mood for that at the moment.

Decider got kicked to the curb because I decided I wanted some fantasy rather than people blowing up racecourses.

That left a hard choice between The Valley of Secrets and The Pinhoe Egg.

Since by this time the bath had run I took them both in there and decided to read the first chapter of each and then choose.

By the time I remembered I was going to do this...I was already halfway through The Pinhoe Egg. I shall read Valley of Secrets tonight instead.

Yesterday was supposed to be...

...Blue Monday.

(At least it was according to some strange formula which made the news full of it)

The most depressing day of the year.

It could very easily have been.

It was the day before my payday - which used to mean 19p toast for lunch (except that the Tesco Value sliced loaf has rocketed up to 40p since I last bought it) - but as we had thought ahead I had lovely galettes filled with cheese and ham instead.

The shop was very very quiet - which could have meant us all worrying about our jobs - but instead we wrote reviews, pulled returns and made suggestions for Richie Fingers' display of adult picture books (sick puppies, this kind of book, not that kind of book).

I got incredibly broody over an adorable little girl - which could have ruined my whole afternoon - but instead I thought that although I don't have that right now, I will in the future and so it's something to look forward to, like a holiday is.

Oh yeah, did I mention? I'M GOING TO MONZA!!!!!

*ahem*

Today is also going to be a very good day.

I have just slathered Marilyn all over my hair so that it currently smells gorgeous, and in 5 minutes it will look gorgeous too (once dried anyway).

I have two houses to go and view just up the road. I still want to move and even if they're no good I like looking at houses.

I plan to do some nesting things and some bookish things and with any luck Keris might have Joe while I'm at home to read the updates! (although not looking promising so far)

I've gone online to do all my banking and remembered that I don't have to pay any Council Tax this month! That makes me £71 richer than I thought I was. I'm going to be good too and not just go straight to Etsy with it...I shall pay off my book club instead.

And Nie is posting again.

Life is good.

My dragon...

...is on the TV.

When we went wandering about London in September to take pictures of the statues from Stoneheart/Ironhand/Silvertongue, one of the statues I needed to find was the Temple Bar City Dragon.

Here it is as photographed by me.



Here it is in the rather fabulous BBC trailer for... City Season. (Pause it right at the beginning to see the same shot)



Too much to hope that some sensible person had chosen to televise Stoneheart. One day maybe...

This evening...

...I had to work some unpaid overtime in order to get out on display the 13 big new titles that are being published tomorrow. This way as soon as we open in the morning people can start buying them.

One of the books was the new Jacqueline Wilson book, Cookie.

It's in a very nice pink tin (for you to keep your cookies in) which was easier to stack that I thought it would be.

Ahhh...Jacqueline Wilson, a signatory on this statement against age-banding on children's books.

Hang on a sec, what's this on the back, just next to the price and the bar code...

9+

Yup.

Jacqueline Wilson has been age-banded.

I am not a happy bunny.

Update: Wilson's Cookie age-banded (and yes, I know it's What Katy Did rather than Katie - I was typing fast.)

I fully intended...

...to blog tonight.

I was going to blog about my holiday week, statues, flooding, Lewis Hamiltwunt and my new passion for Cranberry & Raspberry Tea.

But I went back to work today and the first book I saw when I walked in the door was this. (and then I bought this one too).

So tonight, this is me...














You can always read my sister's insightful piece about Lewis instead.