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Holiday Day 4 – All over the Yorkshire Dales
Well we had no idea what we wanted to do today, and since Cameron turned off the alarm and went back to sleep without waking me up, we didn’t leave the caravan until about 12. We decided to go for a drive around the dales, and pretty much spent all afternoon driving round, Grassington, Kettlewell, Leyburn, Kirkby Stephen, Hawes, everywhere. We drove past a lot of sheep, took way too many photos, and realised that sheep do not like the sound of a camera shutter. Unfortunately the holiday is almost over now, lots of cleaning and tidying up tomorrow and cooking a meal for Julie and David.
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Holiday Day 3 – Bolton Abbey and Aysgarth Falls
Bolton Abbey was our destination for today, only £7 to get in (per car, not each), and only 20 minutes from the caravan. When we set off, the weather was cloudy and a little bit cold, but after about 20 minutes of walking down to the priory ruins, the sun was back and shining brighter than ever – I think I may have got a little sunburned today. We walked just over 4km, with a picnic about halfway along, and then went for a little drive through the dales up to Aysgarth Falls. I’d been there before when we went on holiday with my Grandma and Grandad, but that was over 10 years ago, and Cameron had never been. It was great; the sound was so peaceful, and there were two spaniels playing in the water and absolutely loving it, although they were more interested in picking up stones than playing fetch with the sticks.
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Holiday Day 2 – Skipton Castle
Today we decided to invite my parents and my grandma up to Skipton to take them out for lunch, so that my grandma could enjoy the sunshine. Then Vicky decided to come home from Sheffield for a few days so she came along too and it was a nice family day out. As they didn’t arrive until lunch time, Cameron and I decided to go to Skipton Castle in the morning. Neither of us could remember going there before and it was actually quite interesting. It’s 900 years old, and one of the oldest castles with the roof still intact. It cost £7 to get in, which I think was a bit steep, but it was a very enjoyable couple of hours, even if we did feel like we were going to fall down the spiral staircases, and even if Cameron forgot how tall he was and banged his head on a low door.
After the castle, we met my family for lunch at the Devonshire Arms in Skipton (a Wetherspoons pub), and then after a walk along Skipton high street, we all came back to the caravan to sit for a drink in the sunshine. Perfect.
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Holiday Day 1 – Trip to Hawes Creamery and the Yorkshire Dales
Today was the first proper day of our holiday to Cameron’s Aunt and Uncle’s caravan in Skipton. We decided that we’d take a drive out into the dales and visit the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes. We were a bit disappointed that they weren’t actually making cheese that day so we couldn’t see the live demonstration, but we went round the rest of the museum and found out how they make it. We then took a trip around the tasting room and tried many different varieties of Wensleydale, including Kit Calvert (made with proper animal rennet instead of artificial), Smoky, Hot and Spicy, Sheep’s milk and just plain old Wensleydale. We bought a few samples, and headed on our way for a drive round the dales, heading back to Skipton via Kirkby Lonsdale and Settle. It’s been a wonderful day weather-wise and the scenery was just plain awesome! Excuse the quality of some of the pictures, they may have been taken out of the car window!
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Review: Jane Costello – All The Single Ladies
This book was read in Kindle format over many quick lunch breaks at work, usually during the 20 minutes it takes me to eat my lunch before I’m back at work again. As you can probably tell from the title, it’s typical chick-lit, but I can’t seem to help myself.Samantha Brook’s boyfriend Jamie has just decided that he’s booked a one way flight to South America, leaving their relationship behind because he needs some space. His flight doesn’t leave for a good few months, and Sam’s friends convince her that she can try to win him back before he goes.
Once she gets over the initial moping and crying and leaving sobbing messages on his answerphone stage, she concocts a plan to make him jealous by joining an online dating website and parading the dates around in front of him in the hopes of him seeing what he’s missing. But things never turn out right in these books, and predictably, Sam ends up falling for one of the decoy-blokes. So when Jamie decides that he can’t go to South America after all, what will Sam do? And when Jamie drops a bombshell on her which turns her world upside down, does she even want to be with him anymore?
All the while, Sam is also dealing with an adopted sister who’s trying to get in contact with her real parents, and an alcoholic best friend who just doesn’t realise it, and doesn’t appreciate it being pointed out to her. But in the end, Sam was always going to do things her way, with a result that I definitely didn’t expect, and which was definitely not a stereotypical chick-lit ending.
I liked the book, but I didn’t feel any compulsion to keep reading it, or like I was missing out when I was reading my other ‘proper books’ and leaving my kindle neglected. I’d probably give Costello’s other books a try, as I loved the writing, I just didn’t gel with the plot.
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Review: Liam Perrin – Sir Thomas the Hesitant and the Table of Less Valued Knights
This book was won through the Goodreads First Reads program. I have to say when I entered it, I was unsure whether I would like it or not. The title seemed odd to me, most likely because I’d never read anything King Arthur-ish before. I’d even steered clear of the program called Merlin when it was on BBC, convinced that I wouldn’t like it.So I started this book with a completely blank slate, not knowing what to expect, but excited to try something knew. It took me a good few chapters to get into the story, but once I got to know Thomas I felt like I was along on his journey with him.
The story starts in a village called Fogbottom, a village besieged by terrible famine, slowly wasting away. We meet Thomas, a guy living under the shadow of his older brother William. William is convinced that Baron Fogbottom is hiding a shed-load of food, even though his villagers are starving and struggling for food. He decides to go up to plead with the Baron to give the village some food, but he is thrown in the dungeons for his efforts.
While Thomas is in the village a herald arrives pronouncing the marriage of King Arthur to Lady Guinevere. As part of his marriage celebrations, he is allowing one member of each family to go and ask him for one request. It is decided that Thomas should go and ask for help for his brother.
While he is on his journey to Camelot, Thomas runs into an old wizard named Pyralis. He agrees to help Thomas as long as Thomas agrees to one thing, to go fetch a giant’s tears. Despite how ridiculous this sounds, Thomas actually succeeds, and is rewarded with: a stinking sword with a stench of fetid cheese.
After making it to Camelot, Thomas joins the queue of other requestors, making friends with Philip, soon to become Sir Philip the Disadvantaged. He persuades Thomas that it’s no good asking for help for his brother, but that he should ask to become a knight so that he can save his whole village. And so is born Sir Thomas The Hesitant.
Sir Thomas gets himself into all sorts of trouble and makes an unlikely bunch of friends, and eventually gets into a position where he can fight for the future of his village. But with the backup of his misfit friends against the Baron and all his guards, can he possibly succeed? Well I’m not going to tell you.
I absolutely loved this book, like I said earlier, once I’d read the first few chapters I felt like I was on this quest along with Thomas. The world of Camelot was so perfectly described that even though I’d never read anything about it before, I could picture it vividly in my mind.
I loved the idea of the underdog being capable of so many things. No matter if you’re on the ‘table of the less-valued’, if you believe in something and you have the gumption to change it, you can accomplish it. Never discount the ‘less-valued’, and in the case of Bane, never expect to be classed as top dog before you’ve earnt the right.
So I guess there’s only one thing left to say: Somnia, Salvebis. *
*Nonsense, You’ll be fine.
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Review: Maureen Nicholl – Into The Darkness
I won this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads giveaways and before I started reading I already knew I was going to be disappointed with it. It’s a novella, meaning that it’s only 57 pages long. So either the story was going to be terrible and I’d hate it, or the story would be amazing and I’d be disappointed that it was so short.And yep, the story was great, but I got to the end wanting so much more. The story revolves around a lonely and socially awkward mall security guard named Duncan and a rebellious teenager named Calvin. They’ve met many times in the past, usually in the mall where Calvin and all his friends make Duncan’s life horrible, taunting him with names like Officer Doughnuts. Ironically, the first place we meet Duncan is in the doughnut shop, where he is ordering his usual order of not one, not two, but six doughnuts, his usual nightly order, to cover up his feelings of emptiness.
As Duncan heads home from work, he drives past an abandoned car at the side of the road by the old abandoned mental hospital and stops to investigate. He finds the circumstances highly suspicious, but when he calls the ‘real cops’, they’re not interested. He decides that he will take matters into his own hands and find out what has happened.
But Duncan doesn’t have any friends and he doesn’t know the layout of Brookfield, so he’s nervous about going there. On a whim, he decides that Calvin could maybe help him. After all, he’s always hanging round there with his friends, drinking and causing trouble. Duncan has recently pulled Calvin in for underage drinking, so he knows his number and gives him a call to see if he is willing to help. Calvin agrees, but only with conditions. Duncan is so intent of finding out what is going on that he agrees to meet Calvin the same night.
When Calvin and Duncan get to Brookfield, Calvin goes in first to see if he can find any of his friends to see if they have heard anything. While he’s gone, Duncan wonders a short way into the woods and gets himself into the same trouble that the poor owner of the car found herself in. It’s then up to Calvin to get them free, leading to almost disastrous circumstances. Although it’s Duncan that instigates the ‘adventure’, it’s Calvin that finds out the most about himself, and seems to metamorphosize from his old delinquent self over the course of one short night. And happily, it looks like Duncan may have finally found the friend he always wanted, and got himself his dream job which was denied to him so many years ago.
I really enjoyed this book, it was fast paced and I couldn’t put it down. Of course, it was only 57 pages, so it didn’t take long for me to reach the end and be left wanting so much more. I would have loved the book more if it had been longer, maybe more back story to the characters, or more of what happened after. Looking on Goodreads, it looks like this author only has one book, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for more.
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Review: Helen Warner – RSVP
This book was a bit of an impulse buy; I knew I wanted to buy Drive, but it was three books for a fiver, so I had to make a pretty quick decision about which other two to pick. So, I’m not ashamed to say that I reverted to my old tactic of picking the books with the nicest covers, and I loved the pale blue colour on this one.As the cover says: Four women, One Wedding, Who will say yes? Which turns out to be a good question. There’s Rachel, the bride to be. Anna, the heartbroken ex who has never truly let go. Ella, the scheming ex-friend who hasn’t really changed. And good old Clare, Anna’s best friend, and the only one not vowing for Toby’s love.
As you can probably guess, the eventual bride is not poor Rachel, although she seems to get over him pretty quickly in the end. The course of true love doesn’t run smoothly for Anna or Clare either, although you never feel annoyed by them, they’re not whiny or pathetic (for the most part). The only character I didn’t warm to was Ella. She wasn’t good at uni, and she seemingly hasn’t changed.
I loved the layout of the book; in the beginning we are jumping around over the last 15 or so years, but each time jump is clearly marked in the book so it never feels like you’re losing track of where you are. And then when we get to the big day, everything comes together, and the book then continues in the present tense. Even though the book flipped between the four women, it was still easy to get involved in the story and the characters, and there was no loss of connection.
I was very pleased with how the book ended; in typical chick-lit style, it seemed like everyone got their happy ending, although I won’t spoil it for you by telling you who the lucky bride was. Definitely enjoyed this book, and it was read much faster by the bank holiday sunshine and sitting out in the garden.
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Review: James Sallis – Drive
I had been wanting to read this book since I saw the film last year and found out it was based on a book by James Sallis. When I saw it in the shop and realised how short it was, it didn’t really surprise me, since Ryan Gosling seemed to say about 10 words during the whole film. I was expecting the book to be quite graphically violent, but it wasn’t as bad as the film. Although I didn’t seem to find the film as shocking as most people either. Since I’d already seen the film, I couldn’t help but read the book with the image of Ryan Gosling as Driver (not that that’s a bad thing, I should say). But in hindsight, I do wish I’d read the book before I watched the film, because I think it spoilt the experience for me.
Even though Driver is not exactly a model member of society, you can’t help but feel a connection to him right from the get go, this was definitely helped by the writing style of Sallis, very gritty and close. The fact that the book was less than 200 pages was a bit of a disappointment, but it made for a very fast-paced read – perfect for sitting out in the garden on this sunny Sunday. Three out of five, but only because my expectations were set high by the film.
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Review: Sophie Kinsella – I’ve Got Your Number
I’ve always been a fan of Sophie Kinsella, her ‘shopaholic’ series was fantastic, and I’ve read a couple of other books from her (and her alter-ego Madeleine Wickham) which kept me very entertained.I found the storyline of this book quite far-fetched. I know chick-lit is supposed to be escapist and a little bit fantastical, but the idea that you could find someone’s phone in a bin, and then they would agree to let you continue using it, as long as you promise to forward on all emails and texts that are meant for them is unbelievable to say the least. But once I got past this and carried on reading, I was pulled into the story and the constant drama that seemed to unfold in Poppy’s life.
The book starts off with her losing her wedding ring, then in the panic to find it, she is mugged and has her phone stolen. It’s at this point when Poppy finds the phone in a bin in the hotel lobby. After she agrees with Sam that she can keep the phone on a temporary basis, she decides to read through the emails on the phone, and since she can’t quite believe how brusque Sam is in his emails (that is, when he can even bother to reply), she decides to meddle and reply on his behalf, from sending an e-card with condolences for a dead pet, signing him up for a fun run, to registering him for a charity trip to Guatemala. Needless to say, Sam is furious when he finds out.
But when a crisis threatens to destroy Sam’s job, Poppy’s knowledge of Sam’s phone turns into the ultimate life-saver. And it turns out that Sam can help Poppy too, giving her confidence to stand up to her fiancé Magnus and the wedding planner from hell.
Despite the obvious ludicrousness of the story, I did enjoy this book; twice finding myself lying in a bath of cold water having become so immersed in the book that I lost track of time. If you’re a fan of Sophie Kinsella, you’ll love this book.
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 