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Dear Mum
Although I don’t usually take much notice of them, I keep an eye on the Daily Post from WordPress which aims to give you blog inspiration for when you’re stuck what to write. Today’s is ‘Dear Mom‘, a prompt to write a letter to your mum to tell her what you have always wanted to say but haven’t been able to, and I knew immediately that I wanted to write something. The first thing that came to mind was my favourite Il Divo song, called Mama. Extracts from the song below, and video at the bottom of the post.
Mama, thank you for who I am
Thank you for all the things I’m not
Forgive me for the words unsaid
For the times I forgotMama remember all my life
You showed me love, you sacrificed
Think of those young and early days
How I’ve changed along the way
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Mama forgive the times you cried
Forgive me for not making right
All of the storms I may have caused
And I’ve been wrong, Dry your eyes
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Mama I hope this makes you smile
I hope you’re happy with my life
At peace with every choice I made
How I’ve changed along the wayCause I know you believed in all of my dreams
And I owe it all to you, MamaBut although the songs seems perfect, I guess it’s not really in the spirit of what was meant, so here’s the letter I want to write.
Dear Mum,
Firstly, and most importantly, I love you (even if I don’t say it as often as I should any more). I’d like to say thank you for everything that you’ve done for me over the last 23 years and for being so supportive of everything that I’ve done. I know that we fight more often than we used to and I wish we didn’t, I hate when we’re not getting on and I’m sorry that I can be so grumpy with you. We don’t spend as much time together as we used to because I work during the day and you work in the evenings and I miss that, all the girly days out we used to have, just me, you and Vicky and lots of laughs.
You worked so hard when we were younger to raise a young family with very little money, and you’ve brought us up to understand the value of money and that there are definitely more important things in life than having the most expensive pair of trainers; like family and health and love. I think that’s the best gift you could have given us.
The day you had the stroke was the scariest day of my life, seeing you lying on the floor in the garden with no idea what was happening was terrifying, and then you being taken off in the ambulance and sitting at home waiting for news, that was the longest morning I’ve ever experienced. An angel must have been watching over you that day because it could have been so much worse. Thankfully, everything turned out okay and you’re better, but I’ve not really learnt the lesson that I should have done from that day, to take no moments for granted and spend every day living, laughing and loving. Just thinking back to that is making me cry, so I really need to work harder to live in the moment with you and make every day special.
I guess what I’m trying to say is thank you and I love you and I always will. You’re an amazing mum and I’m sure Vicky and Frank will agree that we couldn’t have asked for anyone better.
Love, love, love, love, love,
Louise xx
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Review: Charles Dickens – A Christmas Carol
I’m quite ashamed to say that I have never read this book before – the only way I actually knew this story was from watching The Muppet’s Christmas Carol film each Christmas, but I’d never actually read the proper story. Somewhat more embarrassingly, I’ve never read a single Dickens book.I’m going to rectify that situation next year, I’ve downloaded a lot of Dickens books onto my tablet so that I can catch up on what I have most definitely missed out on. If you’re a Dickens fan and you have any suggestions for which book I should read first, leave me a comment below and let me know – I’ll happily take any suggestions!
We all know the story of A Christmas Carol so I’m not going to delve too deep into that, but it’s a brilliant tale of redemption and how it’s never too late to change our ways. What I will say is that I loved the writing. This strange Victorian world so different from ours was brought to life so vibrantly on the page that you were just drawn into the book and I couldn’t stop reading.
The main disappointment for me was that the book was so short. Before I started reading (and having never read Dickens before) I had presumed that all Dickens books were long and beastly books, but I was very pleasantly surprised that, although short, the book was such a joy to read.
If you’ve never read this book and only ever heard the story through the films, I would strongly recommend that you pick up this book and give it a try this Christmas.
4 out of 5, but only because I wish it had been longer!
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Leeds German Market in Millennium Square
I’ve been having a tough couple of weeks at work, so when I had a day off yesterday (although not the original 2 and a half that I had planned), Cameron took me into Leeds for lunch and some Christmas shopping. I’ve never been to the German Market before, so that was our first stop. I’m not sure why I’ve never been as it sets up in Millennium Square every year, but I really loved it. I had to reign myself in to stop from spending all my money, but I could seriously have spent a fortune. I did buy a couple of lovely presents for my Mum, although I’m not sure how authentically German they are.
After we’d been around the market, we had lunch at the Cuthbert Broderick (Wetherspoons) in Millennium Square before setting off into the centre of Leeds to do some last bits of Christmas shopping. I’d already bought all my presents so it was mainly for Cameron, but I still ended up spending way too much money! It was extremely windy and very cold, but thankfully there was no rain or snow, so it was a really awesome day. It really helped take my mind off everything for a little while.
Anyway, here’s a few snaps of the German Market, only iPhone pics as I didn’t even think to take my camera with me.
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Review: Olivia Goldsmith – Uptown Girl
This is another kindle book, read on my phone whenever I’ve had a spare few minutes. It takes quite a while to read books this way, but it’s better than the crap I would be reading if I was just checking Facebook in those spare few minutes (sorry if any of you are my Facebook friends – I don’t mean you).This book was definitely a typical chick-lit book, although the storyline didn’t go in quite the direction I expected when I first started reading it. In my opinion, the book wasn’t particularly well written, which would have been okay if the book had a strong storyline, but I found it a bit boring to be honest. When I read chick-lit books, I enjoy them most when I can relate to the character, or if I can at least feel some kind of connection with them, but Kate seemed to be like a spoilt posh girl with too high an opinion of herself, and it really didn’t endear me to want the story to finish off in her favour. But of course, in typical chick-lit fashion, it did.
A quick overview of the story in case you were still thinking of reading the book: Kate’s a youngish woman from Brooklyn, coming from a broken childhood to make it good in Manhattan. She’s got a new set of friends (all very stereotypical characters) and a good job, and what she thinks is a great boyfriend. But then her old and new lives collide rather dramatically and there’s nothing Kate can do to stop it from unravelling.
Her best friend Bina thought she was going to be proposed to by her boyfriend Jack, but instead he ran off abroad without her. But then Kate’s friends notice that there’s a guy charmingly nicknamed ‘Dumping Billy’ who has a reputation that every girl he goes out with is proposed to straight away after he dumps them. So of course Kate’s friends create this master plan for Bina to go out with Billy so that she can win Jack back and get the ring that she has always wanted. Of course, this doesn’t seem like such a great plan when Kate realises that she has fallen for Billy, and there’s a lot of scheming and moping while Kate figures everything out.
There was a nice little twist at the end which saved the book from being too predictable, but I still don’t think I would recommend it.
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Vicky’s Graduation – Very Proud Big Sister!
It seems like a long time since my little sister Vicky graduated from Sheffield Hallam University (2:1 in Business), but today was finally her graduation.We all took way too many pictures (which Vicky wasn’t happy about), but I’ve picked a few of my favourites to upload for now. I can’t wait to see the official photos – it’s the only family portrait we’ve ever had done!
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Review: Eowyn Ivey – The Snow Child
I almost have no words for this book, but here’s a few that spring to mind: beautiful, enchanting, haunting and captivating.The book is set in 1920’s Alaska. Jack and Mabel moved to Alaska with the dream of setting up a cosy homestead with just the two of them, away from the constant reminders that they have remained childless. They did have a child once, many years ago, but the child was stillborn and this has haunted Mabel ever since.
Times are hard in Alaska, Jack is not a young man so it’s hard for him to tend the land, and the isolation is not good for Mabel, leading to depression and a feeling of desperation: the book starts with Mabel taking herself off to the frozen river in the hopes of falling through the ice into the blackness below.
One winter night during the first snowfall of the season, Jack and Mabel experience a rare moment of togetherness and have a snowball fight and make a beautiful little snow girl, giving her mittens and a scarf, adorning her with straw for hair and making little pink lips with berry juice. The next morning, the snow girl has disappeared, which wouldn’t be so strange, if the mittens and scarf hadn’t disappeared too.
Then, mysteriously, Jack starts to see a little girl in the forest around their house. He thinks he may be going mad until Mabel sees her too. Now during this time, Mabel and Jack have (unwillingly at first), made friends with their neighbours George and Esther and their children. When Esther hears Mabel talk about this little girl, she thinks she is going crazy with the isolation.
But after a while, Mabel and Jack manage to coax the little girl into their house, and discover that her name is Faina. She’s wild and unpredictable, but seems at one with the forest, never staying for long with Jack and Mabel before she runs off to her forest home.
The story follows Mabel, Jack, Faina and their neighbours over the next 6 years as Faina grows up and gradually becomes a daughter to Mabel and Jack. But each time winter ends and spring comes around, Faina disappears, leaving Mabel heartbroken. Mabel is reminded of an old Russian fairy tale that her father used to read to her. Needless to say this doesn’t have a good ending, and it worries Mabel, even when Faina is around, and especially when it looks like Faina is falling in love with George and Esther’s son Garrett, who has also become a great help on the farm with Jack and Mabel.
The ending of the story was beautiful and tragic, and I’m not ashamed to say it made me cry. It didn’t end quite how I expected it to, but it was a true fairy tale.
As well as being a fabulously well told story, the book portrayed a beautiful picture of the Alaskan wilderness, but also a very realistic picture of the harsh realities of the ice-cold winter and the loneliness and isolation that families in the 1920’s experienced, before they all had cars and modern technology like computers and phones to stay in contact with the rest of the world.
When I reached the end of the book, I was shocked to learn that this was a debut novel, so enthralling and perfectly written to make sure that you just can’t put it down. Definitely recommended!
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Golden Acre Park – A Very Autumnal Walk
I felt like I needed some fresh air this morning after being inside for most of the week, so I went up to one of my favourite places, Golden Acre Park in Leeds. I went a bit later than I normally go and it was quite busy with pushchairs and dogs, but not so busy that it wasn’t enjoyable. The paths were still very icy, but straying off the path was extremely muddy – glad I wore my big winter boots.
Half way round we saw a lovely little squirrel, and it was coming quite close to us until a dog came running up and scared it away up a tree. Autumn is my favourite time of year, so it was lovely to be out and about with some fresh air and autumn sunshine.
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Review: Charlaine Harris – Deadlocked
I’d somehow managed to convince myself that I’d already read this book, so every time I’ve seen it in Waterstones I’ve just ignored it. But last week I realised that I’d not actually read it yet, so I had to buy it and read it straight away – the Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) series is my favourite set of books.Once again, Harris has written a book that keeps you enthralled from beginning to end, I just couldn’t put it down. Like all books by Charlaine Harris, there’s a bit of repetition at the start of the book as she re-introduces the main characters and gets you up to speed on what has already happened in the past 12 books(!). It would be good if you’d picked up this book without reading any of the others, but it does get a tad annoying when you just want to dive straight in to the story.
Speaking of stories, this one packed a punch! There’s trouble all around for Sookie, with her vampire husband Eric supposedly now betrothed to another (very powerful) vampire as the last wish of his now-deceased maker, with no apparent way of getting out of it. Then Sookie is summoned to Eric’s house to meet the vampire King Felipe of Nevada and his entourage, expecting punishment for killing Victor, regent of Louisiana. But Sookie is (without her knowledge) told to arrive late to the party, and turns up just in time to see Eric feeding off another two-natured woman, who has apparently used fairy blood to make herself irresistible. And when this woman turns up dead on Eric’s lawn a short while later, there are no shortage of suspects.
Add into this the fact that Sookie is now part owner of Merlotte’s grill, dealing with her fairy relatives living in her house, and also trying to conceal the presence of the magical Cluviel d’Or that she was left by her grandmother and she’s not having an easy time. And it all takes a big twist when she realises that her fairy cousin Claude may not be quite as loving as he may seem.
As with all of Harris’ books, the drama starts about 3 pages into the book and builds up and up and up until it finally explodes with a bang in a dramatic finale. The Cluviel d’Or (a magical object that grants the owner one wish) is used in the most unexpected way, which saves one of Sookie’s loved ones but also creates a new worry for another, who was maybe expecting that Sookie would use it for him. So the book (as usual) ends up on a bit of a cliffhanger, which is quite frustrating as the next one doesn’t come out for another 6 months!
If you like True Blood or any kind of supernatural/fantasy, then I’d really recommend this series of books – but if you’re expecting sparkly vampires like Twilight, you’ll be disappointed (or enlightened).
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Review: Pittacus Lore – I Am Number Four
I’d watched this film last year, ashamedly for no other reason than I liked the main actor, Alex Pettyfer. But when I watched it with my brother and my dad, I realised that I really liked it and I wanted to read the book it was based on. Admittedly it has taken me quite a while to get round to it, but I’m glad that I finally did!The book is about a race of people from the planet Lorien. When their planet is invaded and destroyed by the Mogadorians, they send a ship with nine children to earth to wait it out and return to re-populate the planet. Unfortunately, the mogadorians have followed them to Earth and are now hunting down the nine. Before they left, one of the Loric elders put a charm on them which means that as long as they are never in the same place, they can only be killed in the correct order.
‘John Smith’, as he is currently known, finds out that number three is dead, he is number four. He’s been on the run with Henri, his cepan (guardian) since he arrived on earth, and he’s now ended up in Paradise, Ohio. He has been warned by Henri not to get too attached to a place or too close to a person, but in Paradise he meets a girl called Sarah, who he quickly falls in love with.
As luck would have it, the place he finally wants to stay is the place where it is most dangerous, the mogadorians are getting closer and putting John and his friends in danger.
Throughout the book, John is developing his Legacies, a unique set of skills that will help him in his battles. It almost looks like they won’t come through in time, but with help from Henri, he grows into the skills that he will need very shortly to save all those dear to him.
The book concludes with a 70+ page battle between John and his friends and the Mogadorian soldiers. He’s aided by the appearance of Number Six, which is a help, but also a dangerous hinderance, breaking the charm that protects the other Loriens. I won’t spoil the ending too much, but I cried, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading the sequel to tie up all the loose ends of the story.
I loved the pace of the story and the never ending (and sometimes frenetic) action that kept me turning the pages so I almost couldn’t put the book down.
But I found the ‘romance’ between John and Sarah quite distracting from the story. I can see why it was needed, but it all felt quite superificial and immature. But then with the terrible things that were happening, it was easy to forget that John is only 15. And I guess the book is really aimed at young teenagers, so the romance is aimed at that age too.
My favourite quote from the book is this:
“It’s the last thing to go, when you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope”
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Review: David H. Martinez – The Book of Baseball Literacy
This book was quite a change from my last one and I was undecided about whether to include it in my ‘100 books’ as it most definitely a non-fiction book rather than a novel. But, I am 25 books behind on the challenge, with no chance of making it to the end, so I guess it doesn’t harm to include it.The book was a guide to all things baseball, including some of the basic terms (like single, double, walk-off etc), along with a great big chunk of baseball history. That’s something that I’ve never really looked into before, so I found it all very interesting. Of course, any baseball fan has heard of Jackie Robinson and the breaking of the ‘color-barrier’, but I was very interested to learn more of the history behind it and to learn more about the negro-leagues. In fact, I found it so interesting that I’ve added a few books to my Amazon wishlist in the hopes that I may get them for Christmas.
A large percentage of the book was the statistics behind the game. For example, when describing each of the more basic baseball terms, we find out about the career and individual season records for each of those things. Rather than just feeling like a list of statistics, they were integrated so well into the rest of the book that it flowed seamlessly from fact to story.
The book also contained a lot of personal opinion from the author, although he does let you know that this will be the case from the start. And I liked that, it made it more of an easy read than if it was just fact after fact after fact. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I whizzed through it in 3 days, and I’m very excited to learn more about the history of a sport that interests me so much.
I have a couple of favourite quotes from the book. The first one comes from Ford Frick when he was confronted with the rumour that the St Louis Cardinals would rather go on strike than play a game against Jackie Robinson, the league’s first coloured player.
“I don’t care if half the league strikes. Those who do will be suspended, and I do not care if it wrecks the NL for five years. This is the United States of America, and one citizen has as much right to play as another.”
My other favourite quote is from the author when describing an old team called the Cleveland Spiders, which he describes as:
“A solid if unspectacular team for its first decade of existence, featuring Hall of Famers Cy Young and Jesse Burkett, the Cleveland Spiders in 1899 reached a level of crappitude unmatched in baseball history.”
I really enjoyed this book, so I’m giving it a solid 5 stars. I’d highly recommend it to anyone that wants to learn more about baseball, baseball statistics and baseball history.
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 