Good evening, fellow Bookworms!
Trying to keep cool in hot weather, and watching Croatia v Italy on the telly. The other game is Albania v Spain. Was going to say that both games were 0-0 but Spain have now scored. Scotland were unfortunate last night. Should definitely have had a penalty but it wasn’t given. As we often sing, “Fergie’s right, the refs are shite!” – that ref definitely was yesterday!
However, some good news was received as Alan Hansen is on the mend. I brought you the news a couple of blogs ago that he’d been admitted to hospital. He was discharged at the weekend to continue his recovery at home.
It’s the day between birthdays here, Mum’s yesterday and Ellie’s tomorrow, so I’m blogging today. As well as it being Mum’s birthday, it was also Charlotte’s Anthem show, so we went over to the other side of town for that, and then had La Turka takeaway when we got back. Was a bit too tired and stuffed to blog. At least the postcode I Googled was right and was accepted by our satnav. No problems with getting lost and having to ask a cop like what happened in December when we were trying to find our way to the Christmas gig!
Something that has puzzled me for a while is Trustpilot. Well, more to the point, their ratings. We only ever hear companies boast on their adverts if they were rated “excellent” on Trustpilot, but what are the other ratings? The ones that companies aren’t too keen for us to know about? Is anyone ever rated “bog standard” or “bang average”? Could you imagine a firm being rated “a bit meh” on Trustpilot?!
The other thing that has puzzled me, and it’s pretty timely with the General Election coming up, is why are Party Political Broadcasts still on telly? Why were they ever on? Is there anyone who is NOT a MP or a member of an MP’s family who watches that boring shite?!
When I was a kid, and we only had three channels before Channel 4 came along in 1982, a Party Political Broadcast, for the same party, would be on all three channels at the same bloody time!
This would cause the vast majority of us, up and down the country, from John O’Groats to Land’s End, to either pop up to the loo, or nip in the kitchen and put the kettle on for a brew! There would be a huge spike in the National Grid with all the cuppas being made, lol!
Got my voting pack on Friday and completed my postal ballot yesterday, so it will be heading back to the civic centre so it can be counted when polling closes late at night on 4th July.
Before I get on to the actual book news, and I have a fair bit of that to bring you, I’ve been acquiring some more French crisps from Wandering Palate with unusal flavours. Not tried it yet, but that Tartiflette one sounds intriguing! I was wondering what on earth a tartiflette was, and my first thought was some sort of savoury tart, a bit like a quiche, but then I had the good sense to resort to our old mate, Google…
The illustration on the bag of crisps shows some cheese, a spud, an onion and some bacon bits, which is possibly why I thought it was a quiche, but it is actually a popular après-ski dish from the Savoy region of the French Alps! A creamy dish with potatoes, Reblochon cheese, onions and bacon bits (lardons) and some people also add white wine.
This is a tartiflette. Looks rather yummy, actually! Apparently, the Reblochon is not easy to come by outside France, but any semi-soft cheese like a brie or camembert, which melts easily, will work well as a replacement. Will let you know when I try the crisps.
It’s half-time in the footy. 0-0 between Croatia and Italy, and Spain are 1-0 up vs Albania.
It’s also about time I got on with the book news, and the big news is that I have now finished The Lost Rainforests of Britain, by Guy Shrubsole, which I would definitely recommend! Would also suggest looking up videos of the UK’s temperate rainforests on YouTube to get a really good look at them! I also mentioned Guy’s book to Robin Ince on Threads the other day as the writer was on a “save nature” march, so I applauded him for it and asked if he’d read the book about rainforests. Got a very nice reply to say no he hadn’t but needed to get around to taking it down from his shelf!
That takes me to 6 books for June, level with May so far with just under a week left to go, so you never know… there may be another finish by the time of Sunday’s monthly review blog! I certainly aim to get some reading done this week so that, even if I don’t finish any more this month, there will be books with a good chance of being polished off early in July.
One of my infamous playlists! The capybara is from the latest monthly themed box from Oops a Daisy and when it said Capy Says Relax, it just made me think of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, lol, so it inspired this playlist of 80s tunes, with an emphasis on summery vibes.
Anyway, Ongoing Concerns time, and Concretopia, by John Grindrod, is now 50% read, which I am chuffed about. Got a couple that are at least a third read. How Not to Fit In, by Jess Joy and Charlotte Mia, is 38% read. Those who follow my blog regularly will know that I often read books which are first-hand lived experiences of other people with various disabilities and/or neurological differences, and this comes into the brains on different operating systems category.
Not too far behind Jess and Charlotte is Toshikazu Kawaguchi with Tales From the Cafe, which is 33% read, the second book in the series which starts with Before the Coffee Gets Cold about the Tokyo cafe where time travel is possible.
Ooh, we might have a penalty for Croatia here… handball… yep. Ref has been over to look at the VAR screen and has come back and given Croatia a spot kick. Luka Modric to take… and it’s saved!!! Still 0-0!
Might not have scored from the spot, but Croatia HAVE got a goal now! Croatia 1 Italy 0. I always liked the red and white checkered shirts they had when they made their debut at Euro ‘96 here in England! Italy do have one of my favourite national anthem tunes, though!
Some absolute bangers in that top 10 from 40 years ago!
Ooh! Italy came close to an equaliser just now.
Right, before Croatia scored, I was going through the Ongoing Concerns and next up is A Poem for Every Summer Day, edited by Allie Esiri which is now 25% read as of today! Woo hoo! It will reach the 33% mark on 2nd July.
We then have three books at 10% read, but they are recent starts, and those are Believe Me, by Eddie Izzard, Dear Bill Bryson, by Ben Aitken and Do Not Pass Go, by Tim Moore.
Dear Bill Bryson is a retracing of Bryson’s footsteps from when he wrote Notes From a Small Island in 1994, and Ben Aitken is doing this 20 years later in 2014. Of course, I am now reading it in 2024 so the 30th anniversary year! When Bryson was going around my country, I was celebrating my 21st birthday, watching United do their first Double and graduating from university!
It should mean, though, that when Ben Aitken gets to Manchester, the Arndale Centre looks a damn sight more architecturally pleasant than it did for Bryson. It still had the lavatorial yellow tiles when poor ol’ Bill set foot in town as it was two years before the IRA bomb of June 1996 which forced a fair bit of urban renewal.
This is the Arndale, or part of it, as it looks these days. A huge contrast to how it looked as I was growing up. It was built and opened in the 70s and while it is a bloody good idea to have a covered shopping centre in a rainy city like ours, lol, there were some issues with it. It was hot and stuffy inside. You would be outside and it’d be cold and pissing down with rain, then you would go in the Arndale and it would be boiling! Specs would steam up sometimes! It was also quite dimly-lit in places, too, when I was growing up.
Don’t even start me on the exterior appearance and those bloody awful yellow tiles! It looked like a toilet block rather than a shopping centre!
I will be in town at the weekend, but that’s for Stationery Fest which is at the G Mex.
Do Not Pass Go, by Tim Moore, is a trip around London visiting the locations on the Monopoly board! It’s the fourth book of his that I’ve picked up, following French Revolutions, Nul Points and Spanish Steps. My copy of Do Not Pass Go is a charity shop bargain from some years ago, and only cost me £1. I think it was one of the British Heart Foundation shops, either in Eccles or Salford Precinct.
Well, I think that’s about all for now. Pretty sure I have covered nearly everything I noted down in my blog logs. Croatia are still 1-0 up vs Italy and Spain are still 1-0 up vs Albania. The games are now in Fergie Time.
Spain have beaten Albania and go through as group winners, Albania are home before the postcards, as the cliché goes. Albania losing also means that England are through to the knockout stages no matter what happens tomorrow evening.
Italy have equalised deep in Fergie Time! It finishes 1-1. Croatia have 2 points so they are not sure if they get one of the 3rd place spots or they go out. Sadly, I don’t think it’ll be enough for them.
I plan to be back on Sunday as that will be 30th June so it will be the monthly review and a look at the year so far on the book front as we reach the halfway point. Until that time, take care and Happy Reading!
Joanne x x x
Books mentioned in this blog entry…
- The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
- Concretopia – John Grindrod
- How Not to Fit In – Jess Joy & Charlotte Mia
- Tales From the Cafe – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- A Poem for Every Summer Day – Allie Esiri (Ed.)
- Believe Me – Eddie Izzard
- Dear Bill Bryson – Ben Aitken
- Do Not Pass Go – Tim Moore
- Notes From a Small Island – Bill Bryson
- French Rovolutions – Tim Moore
- Nul Points – Tim Moore
- Spanish Steps – Tim Moore
Joanne's Bookshelf 