Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
Another Bank Holiday Monday in May and another blog for your reading pleasure, lol! Back with more reading updates and progress on the Ongoing Concerns, plus news of an award for my mum, some themes for June in my journals, a positive ending to the footy season and a bit more from my recent short break in Bergen.
This manhole cover, for instance. Isn’t that fab? This was near the Bryggen area, with the wooden buildings, and it would look fab as a print on a t-shirt or a tote bag. In fact it reminded me of the Raubdruckerin account on Instagram – based in Berlin, they’re a bunch of Germans who make prints from the urban landscape and often from manhole covers and suchlike, so if they haven’t already been to Bergen, maybe they should go there!
Last week was quite busy. On the Tuesday evening, 21st May, Mum, Ellie and I went to the Lowry Theatre to see “Jesus Christ, Superstar” which was a great night out. I have seen this musical before, but not for donkey’s years, and it includes “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” which I sung as a solo in a concert in Salford back when I was 16 and I also chose it for my audition song for the choir when I officially became a member of the Mancunian Singers last year.
The following day, Mum and I were at the Sheridan Hotel in town as Mum was receiving her award from the NHS Blood and Transplant Service for having given 100 pints of her A positive! She has actually given one more pint, so it’s 101 Donations, lol! It was a great do, with recognition for all those who have given 100 blood donations or 250 platelet donations, with fab canapés and lots of cakes, plus musical entertainment. A very nice afternoon.
From blood to books… I think we should get on with some reading news, particularly as I finished Unofficial Britain, by Gareth E. Rees, at the weekend so I have read 14 books so far this year, 2 in May. I have now started Car Park Life and you will find out how far on I am with that one shortly.
Before that, though, I have news that my current ebook, About Britain, by Tim Cole, is 75% read! Yay! I am aiming to get that finished this week so that I will have at least 3 books read this month which will maintain the 3 books a month stats so far this year. I would actually like a month where I manage more than three finishes, though.
The previous 4 years, 2020 to 2023, have seen me manage either 60 or 70 books in those years, but unless things pick up, this year’s total is gonna be nowhere near that amount. My lowest total in recent times was 20 in 2019, but then I had been in a book slump since November 2018, and then the loss of my dad in January 2019 meant I didn’t feel like reading until mid April, just before my birthday.
Now playing: English Folk Song Suite, 1st movement (Seventeen Come Sunday) – Ralph Vaughan-Williams, currently playing on Classic FM. We used to play this when I was in the City of Salford Youth Concert Band, so I have fond memories of this music!
After the Tim Cole book, next up is Abroad in Japan, by Chris Broad, which is currently 36% read, but I intend to get it to at least 50% later after this blog. Not far behind, on 33% read, is Car Park Life, by Gareth E. Rees, which I only started today!
In it, he also mentions Parking Mad, by Kevin Beresford, so I might check that one out as well. I think it’s a fairly short book and mostly photos but it may be a good accompaniment to Gareth’s books as both have featured car parks. In Unofficial Britain, he also mentioned Concretopia, by John Grindrod, which is on the bookshelves in the conservatory, my office, so that is one I am considering in the near future once some of the current OCs come off the list.
The other OCs have not progressed since the previous blog when Tales From the Cafe joined the 10% read club, so I will leave those for now. Would like to get some progress made on those, but I will see if I can get one or two more finished off first.
Time for some of my journalling creations now, though, and my themes for June, starting with Baguettes, I’ve Had a Few! This cafe theme is in my general journal and I am sticking with the sort of layout I did for May’s Up Up and Away hot air balloons theme.
As I think I mentioned in the previous blog, from July, there will only be the one theme per month as I will set up the pink journal with the coffee cup motif on it to be both a reading and general journal.
Each month would have a calendar and title spread, dashboard page, happy mail tracker page, Ongoing Concerns progress and reading tracker spread, weekly pages with OC charts, review page and playlist spread. This would give a total of 14 pages per month, 7 spreads worth of themed setup.
You’ve seen the general journal theme, so now for the book journal theme for June, which is also food-related…
I Can Make You Peel Good! The bananas were an Oops a Daisy theme from last year, but I felt the time of year for a fruity theme had been and gone by that point, so I’ve been saving it for this summer! I think it works well and there’s space on the weekly pages for book progress. If I find there’s not enough space, I’ll have to adjust, or just abbreviate book titles.
No choir this coming Thursday, so may sort out my choir journal for June, and set up my “coffee cup” journal a bit more. We also might be having a break during July so the committee can recruit a new conductor. Judy won’t be joining us due to her other committments, so we still need a conductor so that Tyran can go back to singing.
We also need new members in most pitch ranges, especially tenors, so if you’re a fella with a high singing voice and you can get to Monton Unitarian Church Hall on Thursday evenings from 8:15pm to 10pm, please consider joining us! We sing a wide range of stuff, the repertoire is quite extensive!
That’s almost all for this blog, except to wrap up with the footy news. My lads might have had a pretty rubbish season in the Premier League, but at least we ended the season on a high note on Saturday by getting one over on the “noisy neighbours” by beating City 2-1 in the FA Cup Final to win the trophy for the 13th time in United’s history! Only one behind Arsenal now in terms of FA Cup wins, and our goalscorers were both teenagers and products of our youth team, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo!
So much for Alan Hansen saying you can’t win anything with kids, lol! He’s been proved wrong on many occasions about that, though, and he has taken it in good heart when he’s been reminded!
In the playoff final, the following day, Southampton beat Leeds United, so it’s the Saints that will be joining Leicester City and Ipswich Town in returning to the Premier League for the 2024-25 season, replacing the relegated teams who were Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United.
I think that’s about it for now, but I’ll be back on Friday, all being well, for the monthly review blog. Until then, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- Unofficial Britain – Gareth E. Rees
- Car Park Life – Gareth E. Rees
- About Britain – Tim Cole
- Abroad in Japan – Chris Broad
- Parking Mad – Kevin Beresford
- Concretopia – John Grindrod
- Tales From the Cafe – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Joanne's Bookshelf 