7. QI: The Noticeably Stouter Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd & John Mitchinson

[Paid For section of my Kindle]

This was the very first book I paid for for my Kindle, soon after I purchased the Kindle itself. It was on a very cheap offer on Amazon if I remember correctly.

The book is a compilation of a great number of very short chapters, the titles of which are a variety of questions which have been asked in the TV show QI (a great favourite of mine). The answers range from about 2-4 pages long, of ‘Quite Interesting’ information. Every few chapters there is a short excerpt quoted from when the same question was asked on the show.

It’s the sort of book you don’t read from cover to cover all in one sitting, but dip into every now and again, which might explain why it’s taken me 18 months to finish it! I found each individual chapter interesting, but taken as a whole it was a bit tedious without the banter we’re normally used to on the television. I’m not sorry I’ve finally moved it to my ‘Read’ folder. I do like the fact it has a hyper linked index at the back, meaning I can look up particular subjects if I want to in the future, without having to plough through the whole thing again!

Disconnected snippets (again)

- Dear advertisers on the TV, radio, billboards, via email, all telling me to treat my dad on Father’s Day: Shut the **** up and go away. And don’t come back next year. No love, me.

- Still absolutely loving my job. I love the child I work with; I love the school; I love the staff; I love shrieking with laughter in the staffroom at lunchtime. I still can’t believe I’m actually employed. I still can’t believe I’m in such a perfect situation for myself. I still don’t take going to work every day even one tiny bit slightly for granted. Doesn’t mean I don’t get frustrated, exhausted and look forward to weekends and holidays – but even with the knackeredness and the inevitable flies in the ointment here and there, I am just so bloody, bloody lucky to be there and I love it.

- It was parents evening this week for Three. I noticed the usual facebook status updates among local parents lauding their amazing children with their wonderful reports and excellent work and behaviour. That’s brilliant (and I know it’s been me in the past!). This year I’m heading up the army of parents who didn’t post their children’s achievements on facebook. My child: has great potential but worries too much, is distracted and not concentrating much of the time; we’re really quite worried about her, oh and by the way did you get the letter about headlice? We think she’s got them…. (It’s ok: I’m now very much on the case on both counts!).

- It’s the weekend! Hurrah. I planned a barbecue for today’s main meal, and am now looking rather skeptically at the weather. (sceptic or skeptic?) skeptic looks wrong to me, but sceptic has a red wiggly line under it.

- The house is a total tip again and once I’ve finished this blog post (which many would say is clearly displacement activity – they would be quite right) I’m going to get off my backside and do something about it so we’re not living in squalor for the whole weekend (squalor? squalour? The curse of the red wiggly line again – I was sure I could spell! Is the spellchecker American or am I losing the plot?)

- Two came home from school on Wednesday with curry from lunchtime all down his uniform polo top. I spent ages attacking it to get the lovely yellow stains out and was very proud of my efforts. Sent him off to school the next day in his (almost dry) beautifully clean shirt. He returned that afternoon having had a leaky pen thrown at him. The dark blue mess was incredible. I cried. (It’s almost all come out but there is a small blue stain right in the middle which I think is there for ever). Wouldn’t be so bad but this is a replacement shirt given to him by the pastoral manager because his previous one was so full of unwashable pen stains that he got into trouble for looking scruffy.

- I’m not likely to win any Mother of the Year awards any time soon from either of my kids’ schools, am I?

- I’m so busy and tired at the moment that I’m finding real life social interaction quite difficult. I’ve stopped answering the phone altogether, even to my mum. Texting, email and instant messaging is all I can manage right now. I’m ok during work and can chatter away to everyone at breaktimes, but at home I’m finding being a parent is taking up every single ounce of the energy I possess and I just have no resources left for anyone else. This is normal for a single parent, right? It won’t last for ever? And how come everyone else seems to have it all together and be able to do amazing things like go out to meetings in the evening or volunteer with guides/scouts/at church etc? (on reflection, maybe I need to stop reading facebook status updates altogether for a while…!)

- This blog post is brought to you by honesty and imperfection. None of it is meant as a moan. I’m really happy and content with life at the moment. But I think it’s really important to keep it real. No picture perfect snapshots here. Just life, warts and all.

Have I ever mentioned I love my workplace?

This morning on the school gate, I was standing with a colleague when a parent asked us the date of the end of term.

Immediately I said ‘well I know we’ve only got six more Monday mornings left’, and my colleague said ‘I know it’s 32 more get ups’!

In entirely unrelated news, all this sunshine is very good for my mental health. Long may it continue, and I must make sure I get outside in it as much as possible.

6. One For The Money by Janet Evanovich

[Janet Evanovich section of my Kindle]

This is my first introduction to this author, having had her recommended by a couple of people, and I was not disappointed! I warmed to Stephanie Plum straight away, and the way she fell into a job as a bounty hunter – prime victim being a man she has had previous history with! The story unfolded well; I believed in all the characters and liked the way the author managed to combine humour with some quite difficult topics. Some of the violent imagery was horrifying but it was tempered with enough humour and interest for me to keep reading without question. I’m looking forward to reading the next instalment of Stephanie’s life when this category in my Kindle Challenge comes around again!

5. The Aunt Sally Team by Flick Merauld

[Random section of my Kindle]

At last a book I could get properly into! I loved this. The story of an eclectic bunch of people who turn up at a pub one evening to respond to a request for members of a new Aunt Sally team – and Oxfordshire pub sport. Their lives become inevitably intertwined and the book follows their fortunes, good and bad. The characters are very realistically drawn, in fact I recognised most of them; one or two almost painfully so! This is a book I would return to and read again and again.

4. Pieces of Heaven by Becca Fisher

[Romance section of my Kindle]

Amish romance. Badly edited and full of errors in typing, punctuation and spelling (e.g. ‘effected’ when it should have been ‘affected’). Over simplistic and extremely predictable. This is a free taster for the full set of short stories about the Bieler family and it does NOT induce me to buy the full version!

3. The Key To Rebecca by Ken Follett

[Ken Follett section of my Kindle]

I found this by turns tedious and confusing, and compelling and wanting to read on to find out what happened next. The details of the story, told from the points of view of the various characters, were good and exciting, but I couldn’t give you a synopsis of the plot as a whole and am totally not sure of exactly what happened in the end or why – or indeed who anyone really was! I enjoyed parts of this book but I’m glad I’ve made it to the end and wouldn’t read it again. A disappointment after The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End; both of which I love dearly. The Pillars of the Earth has been my favourite book since I was about 19. This one doesn’t even compare.