January Review: Pigs in Blankets, Windy Weather, Canary Islands and Radio Memories…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms! Welcome to the first monthly review of 2024, and it is coming a few days early, but as I said in my previous blog, things are getting busy chez Chief Bookworm, so the January review is here now and we might be a way into February before next month’s first blog.

I am hoping to get And Did Those Feet, by Charlie Connelly, finished before the month is out. It is currently 85% read so there’s a good chance even though things are set to get busy, and it will be my third finish for the month and the year. I will shortly be going over the two books I have already read this month as my book journal got up and running and there are some coloured-in books on the virtual shelves.

Those crisps (potato chips for my Transatlantic followers) were from the hamper our Ellie made up for Mum and I at Christmas and they’re Pigs in Blankets flavour crisps, or rather they were as I have now polished them off, lol! They were very yummy and definitely tasted of sausage and bacon.

So, what have we had this month? Seventy years of televised weather forecasts here in the UK, for one thing, so I was celebrating that anniversary, and saying that I missed the old days, when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, and weather forecasters used to stick magnetic weather symbols, mostly rainclouds, ha ha, on a map of Britain! Especially when some of the symbols had lost a bit of their magnetism and fell off the map, lol!

Makes me think of Sir Billy Connolly. In “An Audience With…” he said that weather forecasters talk to you like you’re about six years old.

“And here is the weather… This is the country where you live! And this is a wee cloud!”

My first finish for the year wasn’t about the weather, well not about British climate anyway, as the book was Canary Island Dreaming, by Ron Weatherby, which was a good, if short, read on my Kindle about the four main Canary Islands, although mostly Fuerteventura really. That was the first one Mum and I went to, back in 2009, so that was a while ago.

Then came Lanzarote in 2012, then a bit of a gap before Gran Canaria in 2022 and Tenerife last year, although we were of course due to go to Gran Canaria in 2020 originally, but coronavirus happened so loads of stuff got postponed by two years. It was worth the wait, though – the hotel was amazing, the Cordiál Mogán Playa, particularly the bowling alley and Los Guayres, the Michelin-starred restaurant.

Last year’s holiday in Tenerife included the butter machine, though! Can’t forget that!

Some of the Canaries can be a bit windy, although there’s been plenty of wind right here of late with a couple of winter storms. Due to this, there are now a lot of wheelie bins needing to attend speed awareness courses, lol! Talking of wheelie bins, it seems that it must have been a local new year’s resolution to take bins in, or something, because I only had to navigate the wheelie bin slalom once on the way to choir and I’ve been back since 4th January!

I did have the lurgy one week, but as too many others were also ill, choir got cancelled on 11th January and I didn’t miss anything.

My second book finish of the month and year was Terrifying Tudors, by Terry Deary, a book from the Horrible Histories series, which I enjoy and they are books I will read every now and then. They’re a quick read and they’re pretty funny.

I also gave a pint of my O positive to the Vampires this month, my 53rd donation, and that blood has since been given to St James’ Hospital in Leeds. I love the fact that they let you know where your pint went to. Usually they send a text, but they emailed me this time.

Took my niece to her singing lesson on Tuesday, first time this year actually. I like this arrangement. I walk with Charlotte to her lesson and when she goes in, I go next door to Wandering Palate and have a coffee and a read for half an hour, then collect Charlotte and we walk back home. I also got some bags of my favourite ham-flavoured crisps while I was at Wandering Palate. Means I have to catch up with the last bit of Pointless later, but that’s not a problem.

We’ve already lost some notable people, though… Glynis Johns, who played Mrs Banks in “Mary Poppins”, actor and singer David Soul, best known for starring in “Starsky and Hutch”, German football legend Franz Beckenbauer (Der Kaiser), and disc jockey and presenter Annie Nightingale (photo above) who was a big part of my teenage years back in the late 80s and early 90s when I would listen to her request show on Sunday nights after the Top 40 on Radio 1.

Due to this, I am thinking that when I finish And Did Those Feet, I will read her autobiography, Hey Hi Hello, which is on my Kindle, and there are at least a couple more Charlie Connelly books I want to re-read, those being Last Train to Hilversum, which is about the history of radio, and one of my big favourites – Attention All Shipping, which is a journey around the Shipping Forecast. That one is actually a paperback, which I brought home from Mexico in 2013!

I did say I would show you some of my journaling, didn’t I? Pretty sure I mentioned in the last blog that I had started February’s theme in my general journal. Well, I have now finished “Enter the Dragon” so you can see pictures (above) of the theme – it will be Chinese New Year on 10th February, the Year of the Dragon, hence the oriental designs! Stencils from Oops a Daisy as usual, but a lot of the stickers and some washi was from Hubman and Chubgirl, and there’s also a bit from Under the Rowan Trees.

Had some happy mail the other day from Lellybean Studios, which included a sheet of baking puns stickers – muffin compares to you, have a loafly day, etc… I think quite a few of us who are into stationery also seem to appreciate puns and wordplay! Some of you may even recall that I read a book the other year called The Pun Also Rises, by John Pollack, about puns and wordplay and their impact on human history.

I have still not started any of the autobiographies I mentioned in the previous blog, and none of the Ongoing Concerns have been progressed other than And Did Those Feet, so the others are at the percentages they were on Monday. There may be some change, though, when I blog next month, but I think that’s all for now. Until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• And Did Those Feet – Charlie Connelly
• Canary Island Dreaming – Ron Weatherby
• Terrifying Tudors – Terry Deary
• Hey Hi Hello – Annie Nightingale
• Last Train to Hilversum – Charlie Connelly
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• The Pun Also Rises – John Pollack

It’s a Small World, But I Wouldn’t Like to Have to Paint It!

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Welcome to another blog entry, and more stationery, lol! The above photo is of the order that arrived on Saturday, and is currently being put in use in my general journal for my February theme. It’s not quite finished yet, just a little bit more to work on but I will probably be able to show you in the next blog. As you can tell, there is an oriental feel… that is all the clue I am giving you…

I’m not saying it’s been windy overnight, but I’ll just say that there are several wheelie bins that need to take a speed awareness course! At least it’s not too cold. This time last week it just felt absolutely freezing and I lost count of how often I needed the loo! It was absolutely brass monkeys out there!

It was also, apparently, Blue Monday last Monday, so I listened to the New Order song of that name, because that just had to be done! Then we went from a Blue Monday to a White Tuesday, as we had snow here! Thankfully, it didn’t last too long!

Topsy and Tim books! Found this picture on Facebook last week and it took me back! Pretty sure I must have read one or two of those when I was a kid. The series is by Jean and Gareth Anderson, and I notice the top one is Topsy and Tim Go Hill-Walking, so I wonder which hills they were walking in? Were they in the Lake District? If so, how many Wainwrights did they bag?! I think we ought to be told, lol!

Actually, mention of the Lake District brings me on to a news item I chanced upon this Thursday just gone, after I’d got home from choir. It was on our north-west regional news and was about the fact that we have temperate rainforests in the Lake District! They talked to Guy Shrubsole, who actually writes about them in his book, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, which I actually bought during the course of last year, and so I have made a start on it. The book is 10% read, so it is an Ongoing Concern.

My late Dad often used to say “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t like to have to paint it”, which gives us our blog title for tonight, and I thought about this saying on Thursday, as we had some new members at choir, and one of them, Claire, a fellow alto, happens to be a teacher at the primary school my nephew goes to! She taught our Reuben when he was in reception, and a bit further back, she taught Charlotte when she was in the juniors, and she is also the choir conductor for the juniors – Charlotte was in the choir when she was at primary school and performed at a couple of the Young Voices concerts at the Manchester Arena!

By now, I’m sure you’re used to completely random subject matters being brought up on here, so for your entertainment, we give you the latest random subject matter that I noticed elsewhere on social media in the last day or two… antimacassars! It just cropped up on a thread, and I was able to confirm that I knew what they were and what their use is!

They date back to Victorian times and they are the covers that go on the headrest, and sometimes the arms, of sofas and armchairs, and they came about because of a gentleman’s grooming product from back in the day, Macassar hair oil, which originated from the port of Makassar in what were then the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, well-to-do fellas put this oil on their hair back in Victorian times.

This was then starting to cause oily, greasy stains on furniture, which the ladies were none too chuffed about, so they created these covers, antimacassars, to go over headrests so the men’s hair oil would go on those and not the armchairs, and the covers could be taken off and washed, and fresh ones put on the furniture!

They are actually most commonly seen these days on headrests of public transport, particularly trains and planes, with rail network or airline logos on them.

Before we get on to the books, just thought I would let you know that I had an email last week from the Vampires to inform me that my most recent pint of O positive has been given to St James’ Hospital in Leeds.

Talking of donations, I had an absolute load of books given to me last week for the stall at the church fair! They belonged to my mum’s friend, Joyce, who passed away in 2019, and she had a call during the week from Joyce’s husband, Paul, asking if he could come round and bring a load of books. So, he and daughter Amanda, came round and brought about three large bags of books, mostly by Wilbur Smith plus a few others!

We really should get onto the books now, shouldn’t we? I have mentioned one of the Ongoing Concerns already, but we need to let you know of a finished book and how the others are doing. Also, I need to start another new one this week.

We have a second finish for the month and year. Terrifying Tudors, by Terry Deary, was polished off last week. And Did Those Feet, by Charlie Connelly, which is a reread of one of my Kindle books, is currently 52% read, so just over halfway. I am aiming to get at least that one finished before January is over, so that there are at least three finished books, if not more. I will probably be reading more of it after I finish blogging.

By the way, the next blog will be the monthly review and will come before 31st January, probably 28th or 29th at the latest, as in late January and early February, Chief Bookworm will be otherwise occupied and won’t be blogging. That’s your advanced warning.

Next up on the Ongoing Concerns is Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi on 33% read, and then we have four books at 10% read. The Almost Nearly Perfect People, by Michael Booth, Abroad in Japan, by Chris Broad, Dark, Salt, Clear, by Lamorna Ash, and, as mentioned earlier, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, by Guy Shrubsole.

The rainforests here in the UK, are to be found in the west of these shores, some in Cornwall, some in Wales, some in the Lake District, as I mentioned earlier, and some up in Scotland. It is our “rainforest zone”. I bought the book last year, but chancing on that news item last week really left me gobsmacked that there are rainforests right here in my own neck of the woods. Like many other people, I suspect, I thought rainforests were all in other far-flung corners of the globe, such as Brazil and Indonesia, but no, we actually have some small examples of rainforest right here in Britain!

The Lake District. It also has rainforests!

Anyway, as I finished a book last week, I have room for a new book to join the Ongoing Concerns! I did think perhaps Heroes of the RNLI, by Martyn R. Beardsley, but the 200th anniversary of the RNLI is in March, I think, so I might start that book in February after my busy spell. It definitely should be read to mark the occasion.

However, I was thinking of leaning towards an autobiography, and I have a few physical ones to choose from, and if I finish the Charlie Connelly book this week, which is possible, I have at least one on my Kindle. In fact, it’s the autobiography of the late Annie Nightingale, who sadly passed away recently, Hey Hi Hello.

In terms of the physical autobiographies that I can see nearby, we have At My Mother’s Knee and Other Low Joints, by Paul O’Grady, Making It So, by Sir Patrick Stewart, Karma, by Boy George, T.V, by Peter Kay, and Rambling Man, by Sir Billy Connolly, so there’s quite a choice! I’ll let you know what I end up reading when I do my next blog!

For now, though, that is pretty much everything covered, so until the next blog, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Topsy and Tim Go Hill-Walking – Jean and Gareth Anderson
• The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
• Terrifying Tudors – Terry Deary
• And Did Those Feet – Charlie Connelly
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Michael Booth
• Abroad in Japan – Chris Broad
• Dark, Salt, Clear – Lamorna Ash
• Heroes of the RNLI – Martyn R. Beardsley
• Hey Hi Hello – Annie Nightingale
• At My Mother’s Knee and Other Low Joints – Paul O’Grady
• Making It So – Sir Patrick Stewart
• Karma – Boy George
• T.V. – Peter Kay
• Rambling Man – Sir Billy Connolly

That Was 2023 Part 4: December and Quiz Answers

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Welcome to the final blog of 2023! Time to wrap things up for the year with a look back at December’s events and books read, the books I bought people for Christmas and some books I bought the other day at the Trafford Centre and putting my Waterstone’s gift card towards their acquisition! I also have the answers to the 1973 quiz that I set in the run-up to the festive season, so you can see how well you did!

Six books were finished this month, taking my final total of books read in 2023 up to 70 books! Very chuffed with that, it equals my tally from 2021. I also started the month shifting a few books as it was the Christmas Fair at St Thomas’s Church in Pendleton, where Mum and I made £95 on our stall and the church, as a whole, made over a grand from the event.

Also had an extra bonus after the fair as Mum was contacted by text one evening by Helen Hardy, who had bought a fair bit of stationery from my part of our stall on the day. She was asking if she could buy some more stickers off me! Certainly! She’s a teacher and wanted them to treat her year 11 kids in the run-up to Christmas. She came round and ended up buying a tenner’s worth of stickers! So that’s £10 already for our stall for the summer fair! Epic win!

Before I get on to the books, this is Mum giving her 100th blood donation! She gave her pint to the Vampires on 10th December and will be invited to an awards event in 2024 to celebrate her 100th pint of A positive! Well done, Mum! Her pint has since been given to Middlesbrough University Hospital. I love that the blood donor service send texts to tell you where your donation has gone. I will be going to the Vampires early in the new year actually, got an appointment for Sunday 7th January.

Need to get my arse in gear and tell you about the books I read this month, lol, so first up was And So This is Christmas, by Brian Bilston, the first of two poetry books by Mr B to be finished in December and an anthology of 51 seasonally-adjusted poems, ha ha! Staying on the festive theme, the next book I finished was a re-read of A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.

Talking of which, I managed to see FOUR adaptations of A Christmas Carol on TV during Advent! The musical version “Scrooge” with Albert Finney as Ebenezer (my favourite version, actually), then the Patrick Stewart version, then Alastair Sim, then George C Scott!

I meant to put that in the previous blog, but it will have to do in this one… Blackpool Illuminations celebrating the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who with the TARDIS and some Daleks! Illuminate! Illuminate!

Third book of the year was essentially a quiz book, and the final book read on my Kindle this year… it was A Pointless History of the World, by Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman. I then decided on another re-read and this one was Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson, a book I have owned since I was about 9 years old and in the juniors at primary school! I am sure I have some other Moomin books somewhere! There was an animated version on Children’s ITV when I was a kid in the 80s and I discovered that it was based on books, so I have a few in the series which I have owned for just over 40 years by now!

Talking of things that have been around for a very long time, since I was a kid back in the 80s, that brings us very neatly onto this year’s festive charts and the UK’s Christmas Number One for 2023 was “Last Christmas” by Wham! 39 years after its original release in 1984, George and Andrew’s seasonal hit finally made it to the top of the Christmas charts! It had been number one before, back at the start of 2021, but this year it finally achieved the status of seasonal chart-topper!

Maybe, one day, “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl might eventually get to be Christmas number one?!

Actually, in this Christmas top ten from 1985, six of the ten songs listed here have been number ones at some point in UK chart history! Shakin’ Stevens was the current chart-topper at that time, replacing Whitney Houston. Band Aid had been number one in 1984, the Pet Shop Boys would get to number one early in 1986 with “West End Girls”, and the two Wham! songs have topped the charts, “I’m Your Man” earlier in 1985 before Whitney and Shaky, and, as I mentioned previously, “Last Christmas” in 2021 and it is still the current number one.

I can also round up the books finished this year with the two I polished off earlier, which were Notebook, by Tom Cox, and Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, which I have finished a day early but never mind, ha ha! I will need to see which books need adding to the List Challenges list for the books mentioned on this year’s blogs, so it might be early January when that gets published and you can see which ones you have read from the list of books I have mentioned. I’ll let you know when it’s available!

Actually, before I tell you about the books I bought for others, and some books I bought the other day in my post-Christmas retail therapy at Waterstone’s, I think we should have the answers to the Half Century Quiz that I set in the previous blog…

Half Century Quiz Answers…

1 Breakfast of Champions, 2 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 3 Sydney Opera House, 4 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, 5 Noddy Holder, 6 Dark Side of the Moon, 7 Ryan Giggs, 8 Tubular Bells, 9 Ole Oak Tree, 10 I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day, 11 Princess Anne, 12 Three Day Week, 13 Red Rum, 14 Sunderland, 15 Toronto, 16 Pablo Picasso, 17 Jackie Stewart, 18 Van der Valk, 19 Judy Blume, 20 Open University.

How did you get on? Hope you did well!

Right, so, now Christmas is over and people have opened their pressies, I can let you know which books I bought for people. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, by Suzanne Collins, was for Charlotte, and The Flat Stanley Collection, by Jeff Brown, was for Reuben. With You Every Step, by Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield, was for my friend Sarah. I did also get Charlotte another book, that was piano music from the Harry Potter films. It said the pieces were intermediate level, but she did get a distinction on her Grade 2 in the summer, so I’m sure she’ll be able to play some of them.

I didn’t receive any books, but did get a Waterstone’s gift card with £20 on it, so that was used on Thursday to assist in my retail therapy at the Trafford Centre! I had to go as I had an eye test at Boots Opticians, so some other shopping was done while I was there, and books were purchased to the surprise of absolutely nobody at all, lol!

I bought National Dish, by Anya von Bremzen, which is travel and food writing, Abroad in Japan, by Chris Broad, which is more travel writing, and The Curtain and the Wall, by Timothy Phillips, which is a combo of travel writing and history as he goes on a modern journey along what was the border between eastern and western Europe during the “Iron Curtain” days of the Cold War! Towards the end of 2024, it will be 35 years since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, so probably quite a relevant read for some point in the coming year!

I also bought a book called Murdle, by G. T. Karber, which is a puzzle book – it’s a combination of logic puzzles and murder mysteries, so it sounded interesting!

This is halfway through the Oops a Daisy 12 Days of Planning box! So far, I have had a wirebound notebook, personalised stencil, upper case font stencil, notecard and stickers, metallic pens and lower case font stencil. Pretty sure the item for New Year’s Eve is washi tape! I just won’t know the design of it yet until tomorrow!

The notecard, envelope and stickers are for writing a note to your future self to open on New Year’s Eve 2024. I’ve made mine a note about books and some reading aims for the coming year, as you might expect. It will go in the flap at the back of my book journal and will be opened around this time next year and I will see if I got any of the suggestions read!

I decided to add some washi “stamps” and draw a bookworm, but the rest of the stuff is what came in that day’s midnight blue envelope in the box.

Not too much more to add really, most of what I needed to type has been done and this year has been rounded up, except for the hawk which decided to open up and munch on a pigeon in our back garden this afternoon! Mum and I were gobsmacked! Thanks to all my Facebook friends who confirmed that it was a hawk, as I’m not all that well up on ornithology, could have done with Mrs Lloyd, my class teacher from when I was in first year juniors at primary school, as she knew her birds very well!

Mum was not happy about the mess the hawk was making in the garden, feathers everywhere as you can tell, but we were both fascinated and it was quite a rarity to be getting a wildlife documentary in our own backyard, minus the voiceover from the National Treasure that is Sir David Attenborough, lol!

Well, that is absolutely everything for this year! There may be some journaling photos in my early blogs for 2024 to round up some 2023 stats, but that is all my news for now and seventy books read during the course of this year! I will be back soon enough in the new year to start another 12 months of waffle and book mentions, but until next year, take care, Happy Reading and All the Best for 2024!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• And So This is Christmas – Brian Bilston
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• A Pointless History of the World – Alexander Armstrong & Richard Osman
• Finn Family Moomintroll – Tove Jansson
• Notebook – Tom Cox
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Suzanne Collins
• The Flat Stanley Collection – Jeff Brown
• With You Every Step – Rob Burrow & Kevin Sinfield
• National Dish – Anya von Bremzen
• Abroad in Japan – Chris Broad
• The Curtain and the Wall – Timothy Phillips
• Murdle – G. T. Karber

October Review: 8 Finishes, Fuzzy Felt and Chief Bookworm’s Spooky Artwork!

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Happy Halloween! Welcome to the October Review as yours truly tucks into leftover trick or treat sweets, lol! Putting the “boo” in books as we look back on this past month and what has happened in it!

We actually started the month with some unseasonably warm weather, a bit of a heatwave occurred, but you will not be surprised to learn that most of the rest of this month has been the usual meteorological fare for October in the UK… cold, dark and pissing down with rain. In other words, that well-known technical term of shite!

I have read eight books this month, taking the total for 2023 so far to 59 and thus I only have one space left on the original virtual bookshelves in my book journal! Good job I created some more at the back as it looks like those will be needed.

That last one looks like a Dalek, doesn’t it?! Apparently, it’s supposed to be a shower, but it looks suspiciously like a Dalek to me, lol! That brings me neatly on to British TV shows celebrating big birthdays this year. We have already had Blue Peter’s 65th birthday which led me to mention Fuzzy Felt and get some likes for that, but we also have another BBC series that started quite some time ago, although not quite as old as Blue Peter.

Yes, Doctor Who will be 60 towards the end of next month, having first been broadcast on 23rd November 1963! So, there’ll have to be some wiffling on about that in a few weeks’ time, ha ha!

I need to get the hell on with some book mentions, though, as I polished off eight items of reading matter in October, and the first one of those was Moderate Becoming Good Later, by Toby and Katie Carr, the account of Toby’s efforts to kayak the sea areas of the Shipping Forecast. Sadly, he had a life-limiting condition and passed away in early 2022, with his sister finishing off the book and challenge for him.

My nephew celebrated his seventh birthday early in the month and one of the pressies I bought him was The Colour Monster, by Anna Llenas, which I had a sneaky read of before I wrapped it up for Reuben.

This postbox topper was made and put on display in Hexham as a tribute to the tree in Sycamore Gap, along Hadrian’s Wall, which was inexplicably chopped down by some mindless knobhead early this month. I’ve still yet to hear what the apparent motive was behind this senseless act.

The third book to be polished off this month was the brilliant Summit for the Weekend, by Pete May, one of several books I have read this year about the Lake District. Funnily enough, there was an item on the BBC North West News this evening about an elderly gentleman who was a friend and biographer of Alfred Wainwright’s, who was helped by mountain rescue staff to fulfil his ambition of climbing the hill where Wainwright’s ashes were scattered.

Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team helped Andrew Nichol, aged 91, to climb to the summit of Innominate Tarn on Sunday to pay his respects to his old friend. Mr Nichol had helped to publish Wainwright’s fell-walking guides up to Mr Wainwright’s passing in 1991.

Next book to be finished was a re-read of 50 Ways to Score a Goal, by Brian Bilston, a fairly quick read of the anthology of football poems which came out in 2021. I felt it deserved a re-read having previously enjoyed it two years ago not long after it was published.

We then celebrated the 65th birthday of Blue Peter by naming a blog after their catchphrase of “And here’s one we made earlier” and I blathered on about bring and buy sales at my primary school and how I managed to bag a few bargain sets of Fuzzy Felt in one of those events! That set me reminiscing about stuff from my childhood in the 70s and 80s and it doesn’t take much to set me off on that as regular followers will know, lol!

Talking of which, it won’t be too long now until that time of the year when I recall old-style festive decorations and my dad’s annual muttering of some choice four-letter words under his breath as the fairy lights fail to light up at the first time of asking, ha ha!

That, and those legendary Cadbury’s Dairy Milk dispensers…

Nightwalking, by John Lewis-Stempel, was the next book to be finished and that was followed by Brilliant Isles, by James Hawes, about art that made the UK.

For the first time since early March, I did have a day when no reading got done, but then it did coincide with the sad news that Sir Bobby Charlton had passed away at the age of 86, so I was busy watching tributes to Sir Bobby and books fell by the wayside for the day.

The 7th and 8th books to be finished in October were both poetry books, with book 7 being another re-read – this one being Radio Waves, an anthology by various poets but edited by Seán Street. Book 8 was Let the Light Pour In, by Lemn Sissay, which is a very recently published book and is a selection of the four line verses he has been coming up with at dawn for the last ten years. It is actually a good one to dip into and one I think some of my fellow journalers might like as they might find something which resonates with them and can be used for one of their journal spreads.

Now we have covered the books read, we need to look at the Ongoing Concerns, as we have only one more month before most of them are put to bed until January. I say most, because Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, which is currently 82% read, will be finished off in December, and Blood, Iron & Gold, by Christian Wolmar, which is currently 52% read, is my current ebook on my Kindle, so that might still get a little bit more read in December on the way home from footy if Ellie and I are stuck in traffic.

That one is definitely a Chunky Monkey – looked it up on Goodreads the other day and in its physical form it is over 400 pages long, with some editions over 500 pages, so no wonder it’s taking me a while to read, lol!

A selection of pages created recently in my journals. Tears in Heaven is in the choir journal. Not sorted December yet in my general journal. Well, I’ve made a start on it, but I had been waiting for some items of stationery, hence the delay. It’s a very sweet-toothed theme, that is all I will say, and obviously very festive. I’ve already shown you P-Pick up a Penguin in my book journal, I think.

At the top of tonight’s blog, you’ll see a photo of two drawings and a box of spooky cake bars. The drawings were my entries for my niece and nephew’s Halloween competitions, with Charlotte asking for ghosts (but not just plain white ones) and Reuben asking for skeletons. I won Charlotte’s competition with that ghost and autumn leaves, and the cake bars were my prize!

The ghost was actually stuck onto a background that had been part of some Amazon packaging from one of my online orders! I think it was from the poetry books I bought recently! I gave my ghost a carpet of leaves thanks to some wide washi tape I received in a recent box from Under the Rowan Trees, and the big leaves were from the Oops a Daisy “Autumn Leaves” monthly box and I used distress oxide inks and dabbers for those.

Back to the Ongoing Concerns, anyway, as I’ve still got some more to mention. Curious Scotland is currently 75% read, so I hope to get that finished off in early November. It could well be my 60th book of the year!

Making It, by Jay Blades, is 33% read, and The Almost Nearly Perfect People, by Michael Booth, is 10% read. Also at 10% read is Unmasked, by Ellie Middleton, which I bought yesterday evening at the Trafford Centre. That one is about neurological differences. I have also started some fiction, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, but that has not quite reached OC stage yet.

I’d actually needed to head out shopping after work as I needed a new plug for my iPad, but obviously a few other things ended up being purchased too, including catarrh pastilles and a couple of books. As well as Unmasked, I also bought Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann, and I nearly thought it wasn’t there as I was looking in the history section but then I thought it might come under true crime instead, and it did.

I’ve never put maths books in the horror section, but I did once put a couple of copies of a certain politician’s autobiography in the true crime section at Waterstone’s in the Trafford Centre some years ago now! I’ll just say he was a former prime minister.

I think my niece WOULD put maths books under horror, though, lol! It’s not Charlotte’s favourite subject! She’s definitely more into literacy than numeracy. Her brother is the numbers guy!

I was alright at maths. Didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it either. Got enough of it right to get a good grade and I was happy with that. I reserved my loathing for PE as I was absolutely pants at nearly every sport I had to do, with the exception of swimming at primary school, and trampolining, badminton and weight training at high school. The few sports at which I didn’t completely suck!

Music and foreign languages were my best subjects, plus also history and literature, which were what I got my degree in.

Well, I think that’s about it for now. Time for me to get this finished and published, then get some more reading done! I’ll be back again soon with the usual helping of book news and utter waffle, but until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Moderate Becoming Good Later – Toby & Katie Carr
• The Colour Monster – Anna Llenas
• Summit for the Weekend – Pete May
• 50 Ways to Score a Goal – Brian Bilston
• Nightwalking – John Lewis-Stempel
• Brilliant Isles – James Hawes
• Radio Waves – Various (Ed. Seán Street)
• Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Curious Scotland – George Rosie
• Making It – Jay Blades
• The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Michael Booth
• Unmasked – Ellie Middleton
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann

September Review: Blood, Books, Bananarama and Other Random Waffle…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Chief Bookworm blogging on a soggy Saturday in September, lol, as it is time for yet another monthly roundup of what on earth’s been mentioned on here during the course of 30 days. Those are not my books, by the way, just a picture I found on t’internet, but I do like the pompom bookmarks!

So, what have I read this month? Four books – two about the Lake District, one poetry anthology and a music memoir. My current total for the number of books read this year is 51 so only nine more to fill up the virtual bookshelves in volume 1 of this year’s book journals! As I think I may have mentioned, though, I do have a spare spread at the back of my purple “Penny Doodles” journal for more virtual bookshelves should I need to create some with my stencils, so it’s not the end of the world if I get to 60 before the year is out.

I also went into town and gave a pint of my O positive to the Vampires this month, and was Rickrolled while I was reclining there at the donor centre, lol! My pint of blood was given to Hull Royal Infirmary, as I was notified by text a week or so later.

First book finished off in September was Lost in the Lakes, by Tom Chesshyre and that was followed by 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, so with two books about the Lake District finished I thought we’d have a picture of Bowness on Windermere on this blog to mark the occasion! I do have another book about the Lake District, but that one is still one of the Ongoing Concerns, so I will give you an update later as there has been progress made.

Third finish for the month, and fiftieth for the year, was Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, by John Cooper Clarke, so that increases the poetry quota for 2023, lol! There’s been a bit of poetry this year, and let’s not forget that my year-long project is a poetry book, again an update coming later when I do the OCs. I actually have his autobiography, I Wanna Be Yours, so might start that soon, or it might, at least, be one of my new starts in 2024.

Last, but by no means least, in my finished books for September, we have Really Saying Something, by Bananarama, which I would definitely recommend, especially to fellow fans of 80s music! Appropriately enough, being finished this month meant that the Bananarama book was listed on my banana-themed gonk bookmark from Oops a Daisy! The forthcoming bookmark for October’s finishes is the autumn leaves one.

Right, before I get on to the Ongoing Concerns, it’s stationery time, and the above photos are from the Rowan Berry Box I couldn’t show you in the previous blog as it was too soon. I can now show the contents of the “Stationery” box and I plan on doing a stationery-themed setup sometime early in the new year in one of the journals, book or general, I’ve not decided which yet.

I’ve had a fair bit of stationery this week, actually, with happy mail from Lellybean Studio, Stationery Pal, Hubman & Chubgirl, and Kellylou. The Stationery Pal stuff came in a pretty big box, ha ha! Mind you, it did have a couple of stationery “mystery bags” and for one of those, the contents came in a lovely tote bag!

Tote bag and contents shown below. Really nice, eh?!

Right, guess I’d better get on with the Ongoing Concerns, then, starting with Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, which is 74% read and will reach its next OC milestone on 2nd October when it will be three-quarters read! After that, the only milestone left will be when I finish the book, which I plan to do between Christmas and New Year.

Moderate Becoming Good Later, by Toby and Katie Carr, is now 67% read, so I am aiming for an early October finish for that one – this is the book where Toby is kayaking the sea areas of the Shipping Forecast, although the book was finished off by his sister Katie as Toby had a life-limiting medical condition and sadly passed away while doing his project.

Next up, we have our other Lake District book, the one that didn’t get finished off this month. That book is Summit for the Weekend, by Pete May, which is now 34% read, and is also responsible for sending me down the hurdy-gurdy rabbit hole the other day!

You can’t say you don’t get unusual subject matters on this blog, can you?! The things that have cropped up on here… Economics for Babies, barometers, pomanders, carboys and now hurdy-gurdies! And all because Pete May met up with a repairer of medieval musical instruments who had repaired a hurdy-gurdy for Pete Townshend of The Who! Fascinating instrument, actually, but I might be a biased musician, lol!

I’m pretty sure I own a novel called Hurdy Gurdy, actually! It’s either in the book case in the conservatory or it’s in the Book Chest in the garage. Maybe I should try to find it and give it a read. The author is Christopher Wilson.

Back to the OCs now, and Blood, Iron & Gold, by Christian Wolmar, is currently 26% read, as I did manage to read a little bit of it when we were coming home from the match earlier. Crap result, crap weather. Actually, to use that well-known technical term, it was shite! At least I had a book to read on my Kindle when I got back to the car. I plan to get a bit more of it read after I’ve finished this blog and published it.

Still wondering what the Bookworm of Bramall Lane was reading last weekend when her team were stuffed 8-0 at home by Newcastle. If anyone finds out what the book was, please let us know! You can always comment on the blog to tell me the answer!

Two books remaining on the OC List, both at 10%. One is Curious Scotland, by George Rosie, and the other is Brilliant Isles, by James Hawes, and that is the latest addition to the OC list, only started yesterday, and it is about the history of the UK as revealed through various art forms.

As I finished the Bananarama book this week, there is now a vacancy on the Ongoing Concerns list, so I will have to make another decision on what to read next, lol!

I think that’s probably everything covered now and this month is done and dusted. We’re into October tomorrow and I can’t believe how quickly 2023 is whizzing by! My nephew will be seven soon, and, no, I can’t believe that either! I will be back with the usual waffle soon enough, but until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Lost in the Lakes – Tom Chesshyre
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt – John Cooper Clarke
• I Wanna Be Yours – John Cooper Clarke
• Really Saying Something – Bananarama
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Moderate Becoming Good Later – Toby & Katie Carr
• Summit for the Weekend – Pete May
• Economics for Babies – Jonathan Litton
• Hurdy Gurdy – Christopher Wilson
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Curious Scotland – George Rosie
• Brilliant Isles – James Hawes

Down Around the Corner, Half a Mile from Here…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Chief Bookworm here again with another blog full of the usual waffle and book news. I last blogged on 10th September, so got a week and a bit to catch up on since then, including a few curries and a couple of finished books! Yay!

The photo above was taken earlier when I was at Wandering Palate having a coffee and a read of Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, by John Cooper Clarke, which is a new addition to the Ongoing Concerns, but as it’s a fairly slim poetry anthology, I have read 35% of it already! Don’t think it’s gonna take too long to finish that one, so there is a very good chance that it will be my 50th finish for the year!

So, which books have become Chief Bookworm’s 48th and 49th finishes for 2023? Well, they’re two of the Lake District books that were on the OC list. Lost in the Lakes, by Tom Chesshyre, was my first finish for September and my 48th book of the year, thus book number 49 was 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger. I still have Summit for the Weekend, by Pete May, on the OC list and I need to get on with that one, but as the late great Meatloaf would put it, two outta three ain’t bad, lol!

Before we get on to the other Ongoing Concerns, this arrived today in plenty of time for Halloween, ha ha! It’s a countdown to Halloween with spooky-themed stationery stuff from Sugar & Sloth, so you’ll get to hear a bit more about that in October. I could do with a token “Halloween” book, actually. You know I’m a wuss and don’t do horror, so I want something that’s vaguely linked to 31st October and a bit of spookiness, but something interesting or funny rather than scary.

In previous years, I have read Funnybones, by Janet & Allan Ahlberg, and A Tomb With a View, by Peter Ross, so as I hinted, something amusing or interesting that is Halloweeny but that is not going to scare the shit out of me!

Right, before we get back to the Ongoing Concerns, some stuff from last week, including the above photos of my November setup in my book journal… Just One More Chapter! I picked this for November as that is when my Ongoing Concerns go to bed for a month or so, to be resumed in the new year, although obviously a certain poetry book is being finished off in December so I will get the OC list down from 7 books to just four or five and then most of them will hibernate in December while the year-long poetry book is finished off.

Last week also saw me enjoy three curries in one week! Two of them were microwave meals here at home, but the third was a Nepalese Fish Curry at Deurali in Swinton as I went out with my workmates on Friday evening!

I also saw the fattest pigeon ever! No word of a lie it was a chonky bird, lol! It was perched on our back wall and I had to wonder how it could even fly as it was so massive! In true footy fan style, I serenaded this epic pigeon with a chorus of “Who ate all the pies?” – it had to be done, lol!

My latest Mini One from Oops a Daisy also came, but due to the no spoilers rule, I can’t show the contents of that on here just yet as it was only dispatched on Thursday so I will probably show it if I blog at the weekend. I can show the Halloween box from Sugar & Sloth in this blog as you can’t see what’s in the packets, that’s still a surprise.

Remember earlier in the year when members of Pulp met their yarn-based lookalikes on a post box topper? Well, now Kylie Minogue has met her yarn-alike too! She was performing in Leicester at a Radio 2 event and someone had made a topper to mark the occasion!

Well, better stop wittering on about knitted pop stars and start talking about the Ongoing Concerns, hadn’t I?! Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, is now 72% read, it won’t be long until it reaches another milestone – 2nd October will be the day it reaches 75% so there’s a date for your diaries!

As mentioned before, Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt, by Salford poet John Cooper Clarke, is now 35% read, and not far behind, on 33% read, is Moderate Becoming Good Later, by Toby and Katie Carr, about Toby’s quest to kayak his way around the sea areas of the Shipping Forecast.

Actually, there is a significant anniversary coming up in 2024 for the Shipping Forecast, and I think it’s possibly 100 years of the forecast being on BBC Radio, so I am thinking I might have a re-read of Attention All Shipping, by Charlie Connelly, next year to celebrate the centenary.

Next up on the Ongoing Concerns is Blood, Iron & Gold, by Christian Wolmar, about the history of trains and rail travel. That is now 25% read, and it is the reason for my blog title. I had been reading the part about trains in the USA and railroads (as they call railways over there), and Wolmar happened to mention the Illinois Central. As I’m sure many other music buffs might know, the Illinois Central, along with the Southern Central Freight, is mentioned in the lyrics of “Long Train Runnin’” by the Doobie Brothers, so tonight’s blog title is the opening lines of that song.

* sings * Down around the corner, half a mile from here, you see those long trains runnin’ and you watch them disappear… Without love, where would you be now? Without love…

To complete our Ongoing Concerns, we have three books on 10% read, those being Summit for the Weekend, by Pete May, Really Saying Something, by Bananarama, and Curious Scotland, by George Rosie. I actually started that one in 2021 but only read the intro, so the book was just 5% read. It is now 10% so it has become an OC now. It was a book I bought in Wigtown from the shop run by Shaun Bythell!

I think that is probably about all for now. I have pretty much covered everything and you now know what November looks like in my book journal! Very bookish, actually, lol! Just December to go in my book and general journals now, and then I can do some sort of reviews for 2023 and get new journals ready for 2024. I do need to think about October in my choir journal, though, which song I am going to have as my theme for that month… so far we’ve had “Seasons of Love” (from the musical “Rent”) and “From a Distance” which is probably best known as a Bette Midler song.

I’ll be back again soon enough with yet more random waffle and book news, lol, but until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Ten Years in an Open Necked Shirt – John Cooper Clarke
• Lost in the Lakes – Tom Chesshyre
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• Summit for the Weekend – Pete May
• Funnybones – Janet & Allan Ahlberg
• A Tomb With a View – Peter Ross
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Moderate Becoming Good Later – Toby & Katie Carr
• Attention All Shipping – Charlie Connelly
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Really Saying Something – Bananarama
• Curious Scotland – George Rosie

August Review: Bowness, Chester and Quiz Buff Ex-Colleagues On Telly…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Can you believe how quickly 2023 is whizzing by? We’re on 31st August already, only four more months to go this year, and it’s time for yet another monthly review as we look back at the books and events of August 2023, a month that has seen me polish off five books and take the total for the year so far up to 47 books now!

Not only have I finished five books, but one of the Ongoing Concerns, my year-long “project” of reading Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, has reached a milestone today as I am now two thirds of the way through that book and have been able to colour in my 67% read square on my progress chart! Yay! The next milestone, which will be 75% read, will be attained on 2nd October. After that, it’s a matter of reading the rest of it and finishing it off between Christmas and New Year. I intend to read ahead a bit so that it is finished before 31st December and mentioned in a post-Christmas blog.

It has been a month in which I have enjoyed two short breaks, to the Lake District and to Chester respectively, and my turquoise Kenji travel journal is now completely full! Well, a few pages left but hardly enough for another short break setup, so my next trip away will see me taking the orange “Into the Wild” journal with me as my travel diary!

First finish for August, right at the start of the month, was the poetry anthology Safety in Numbers, by Roger McGough, who has pretty much been my favourite poet for around 40 years now, as I’m pretty sure I was around 10 years old when I discovered Dad’s copy of Watchwords in a cabinet in our dining room and took an instant liking to it!

I also managed to finish Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford, before Mum and I headed off for a few days in Bowness on Windermere, enjoying a trip to Kendal while we were in the Lakes, and stocking up on chocolate, fudge, and plenty of Kendal Mint Cake! We even got to the Romney’s factory and I bought some supplies from their gift shop!

After getting back from the Lake District, I polished off Kendal History Tour, by Billy F. K. Howorth. This one was not an OC as it was just a quick read – books I can read in a day or two do not need to become Ongoing Concerns!

August was also the month where I set up a choir journal to record songs sung week by week, which is a tad ironic as we only had three weeks of rehearsals this month as too many people have been away last week and this so we have had two weeks off, including tonight!

August’s theme is “Seasons of Love” from the musical “Rent” and I’ve also set up September, which is “From a Distance” which I guess many people know best as a Bette Midler song.

There was also the 13th Blogiversary, which I celebrated a day early as I was at work and a match on 14th August when this blog actually became a teenager, lol! I started this book blog in 2010 not long after I’d become an auntie, and my niece Charlotte became a teenager last month, this month it was the blog’s turn to enter adolescence, so to speak!

Tonight’s blog means that in my blog logs I will have completed my second spread of six lightbulbs. I have two spreads left, 12 bulbs, so that would actually take me up to the end of November if I maintain my usual rate of four blogs per month. I will be able to fit December in this journal, but what I might do for that month is have a string of four Christmas tree lights as part of that month’s festive setup – December’s blog logs! In future journals, I will aim for two journals a year, six months in each. Now I have my format, I know I’ll be able to fit 6 months in each and not run out of space after five as I did earlier this year, lol!

During the most recent short break, last week’s trip to Chester, I finished off Itchy Feet & Bucket Lists by Emma Scattergood, which was on my Kindle. I have just started Blood, Iron and Gold, by Christian Wolmar, about the history and development of the world’s railways, and that is now 10% read so it has become an Ongoing Concern.

Since returning from Chester, I finished off Wham! George & Me, by Andrew Ridgeley, which means we’ve covered the five books I read this month and it also completes the whole sequence of autobiographies from members of Spandau Ballet, Pepsi & Shirlie and Wham!

Not the best photo but I took it off a paused image on my TV. This was Tuesday’s “Pointless” and those two gents are Colin Daffern and Steve Hoar, two of my colleagues from the days when I worked in town at Manchester DBC! Not only were they on Pointless, they won the jackpot AND the extra bonus for getting three pointless answers in the final! They won £1,750 between them. Both are quiz buffs and have been on other quiz shows before now. Colin has been on “Mastermind” at least twice to my knowledge.

Back to the books again, and not all that much to report on the Ongoing Concerns, except for 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, which I was reading earlier, and I aim to get that one to 50% read before tonight is over. I want that one and Lost in the Lakes polished off fairly soon so I will focus on those so that I’ve got them finished in early September. I’ll also be starting Really Saying Something, by Sara Dallin & Keren Woodward from Bananarama and getting that to Ongoing Concern status soon.

You have already seen a lot of my stationery stuff in this month’s blogs but I am now able to show you the “Deserted Dreams” Rowan Berry Box from Under the Rowan Trees which has a very Moroccan feel to it! Combined with some of last year’s Marrakesh stuff from Oops a Daisy there is potential for a good summer theme for next year! Just because it’s not the right time of year when I get the box does not mean it won’t be put into use, it may come in handy later… there’s something I have in mind for November in my general journal and it will include something from one of last year’s Mini Ones!

That is probably it for now, think I’ve covered everything. I’m off to get on with that Robert Twigger book and get it to the halfway stage, so until next time take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Safety in Numbers – Roger McGough
• Watchwords – Roger McGough
• Treasure Islands – Alec Crawford
• Kendal History Tour – Billy F. K. Howorth
• Itchy Feet & Bucket Lists – Emma Scattergood
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Wham! George & Me – Andrew Ridgeley
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• Lost in the Lakes – Tom Chesshyre
• Really Saying Something – Sara Dallin & Keren Woodward

July Review: Life, the Universe and Everything…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

It’s that time again! End of another month! So, here I am doing the end of the month blog and reviewing a very book-filled July which has included finishing a book on the first day and one on the last, and managing to polish off eight others in between! Yep, a whopping TEN books have been read during these last 31 days!

Also, if you are wondering about the title, that refers to the number of books I have read so far this year and, if you have ever read The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by the late great Douglas Adams, you will know that the answer to the question of Life, the Universe and Everything is 42, so now you know how many books have been polished off in 2023, correct as of the wee small hours of this morning!

So, we shall get through the ten books finished, then look at the remaining Ongoing Concerns, including a new one today, and the books which have been started but not reached 10% read yet and a book about to be started.

July started with the Monton Festival and my first actual concert as part of the Mancunian Singers, hence the photo above. Charlotte was also performing, in her case with Anthem Music School, and sang a couple of numbers. I still managed to get a book finished, though, that being Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, by Will Ferguson, which was an appropriate book to finish on Canada Day!

The first full week of July brought about three finishes on the book front. Those were Sea Fever, by Meg and Chris Clothier, Prince Philip’s Century, by Robert Jobson, and the excellent novel, The Perfect Golden Circle, by Benjamin Myers, about the crop circles in the summer of 1989.

The following week, we had two more finishes. Slow Trains Around Spain, by Tom Chesshyre, which I was reading on my Kindle, was finished, followed by the poetry anthology Gold from the Stone, by the adopted Manc, Lemn Sissay.

Hickory dickory dock, lots of mice are running up this clock! Given one of my books was about watches and clocks, this post box topper seemed totally relevant to this month’s blogging!

The week which included my niece’s 13th birthday didn’t have any book finishes, but a lot of progress was made, and there was also the infamous Wheelie Bin Slalom on my way to choir, lol, and there was some free wine! Yay!

First bottle of free plonk was courtesy of choir that Thursday night, 20th July. As you may know, this time of year is when schools in England finish for the long summer holidays, and there are a few teachers and teaching assistants in our choir. Teachers often get pressies from the kids’ parents at the end of the school year – one of our ladies was given rather a lot of wine, but she doesn’t drink, so she brought it in for the rest of us, so I took a bottle of rosé home for me and Mum.

Second bottle came on the Saturday evening when I went to collect and pay for our takeaway from La Turka. Manageress asked if I liked a drink and if so, what did I like, so I said I liked wine, particularly white or rosé, so they gave us a free bottle of white wine!

So, that was Free Wine Week! We have now polished off the rosé I brought home from choir, but we still have the white wine from La Turka to start on.

Fairtrade chocolate from Hilary’s stall at the church fair on Saturday.

Right then, last week, which included the church fair, and also included another three books being finished off. It’s All in Black and White, by Pepsi and Shirlie, was followed by Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, and it was the watchmaker’s history of time that became my 40th finish for this year! Slow Trains to Venice, by Tom Chesshyre, another ebook about train travel from a writer who has now joined the list of favourite travel writers, was the third finish last week.

There were no fairtrade biscuits (cookies) this time, but Hilary hoped there might be some when it comes to the Christmas fair in November or December. Mum and I did OK on our stall. It was quiet at first, but picked up later and I felt a decent amount of books, CDs and DVDs were bought, especially by a lady called Siobhan who bought an absolute LOAD of crime thrillers! Definitely my best customer on Saturday!

I was absolutely knackered afterwards, though, especially as I have an ear infection in my left ear, which doesn’t help matters, so I had a right old snooze! Getting to see a GP these days is a faff, but thankfully you can now see a pharmacist for stuff like that, and this is what I had done on Friday afternoon, so I got a diagnosis and a spray to squirt in my left ear.

If it wasn’t a printer, it would be a photocopier! I have dealt with some right dodgy copiers in all my years of office work, some of which would jam up if you so much as looked at them in a funny way! When I worked in Chorlton from 2009 to 2012, there was one particular copier/printer combo machine that was so temperamental that we admins nicknamed it Bob in honour of Bob Marley because it was always jammin’!

Anyway, enough about copiers that jam more than reggae bands, ha ha, and on to the tenth and final finish for this month, which was Bizarre England, by David Long, one of those miscellany books that was a fairly quick read. It included some interesting facts, such as the fact that the advertising slogan “A Mars a day helps you work rest and play” was coined by the legendary sports commentator, the late great Murray Walker! He worked in advertising before he became a commentator.

As I have polished off a lot of books, there aren’t that many Ongoing Concerns right now. Days Like These is 59% read, that one will reach its next milestone in a month’s time. We then have our latest addition, Safety in Numbers, a poetry anthology by Roger McGough, which is already 35% read even though I only started it today! Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford, is 33% read now, and 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, is now 16% read.

That is my latest After Dark Box from Under the Rowan Trees. It was the one the now-retired postie brought to me on my niece’s birthday, his last parcel for me as he was hanging up his Royal Mail sack, so to speak! I couldn’t show it for a bit as there’s a “no spoilers” rule, which is standard practice for subscription boxes from a lot of companies, but enough days have passed now so I can show you the contents of the travel-themed “Wander” box. It will be handy for my travel journals.

The pen is lovely, but I’ll have to figure out how to use it as I’m not all that used to fountain pens. The notebook is refillable. I do have travel journals already, as you know, for recording my time away on my jollies, but I will use this one for the planning of holidays, for things like hotel bookings, prices, flight times if going abroad, etc.

Back to the books, though, and there are some vacancies on the OC list, but I intend to fill those shortly. Wham! George & Me, by Andrew Ridgeley, is definitely one I will be reading. For my ebook, I have chosen Itchy Feet & Bucket Lists, by Emma Scattergood, and I will be starting Lost in the Lakes, by Tom Chesshyre, which I have in hardback – most of his books that I have read have been ebooks, but I actually own a physical copy of this one!

Just thought I would add another post box topper before I bring this blog to a close. There have been quite a few lately on the theme of “chippy tea” and I quite like the gull with the chip in its mouth! Quite a good yarn-based interpretation of mushy peas in the little tub.

Not sure how many blogs there’ll be in August, got a bit of a busy time ahead, but will still try to fit some in. New footy season starts soon, too, so I will be back to going to Old Trafford, at least for Premier League fixtures anyway. In my journals, August is “Absolutely Buzzin’, Mate!” in my book journal, so expect bees, and we are going “Beyond the Sea” in my general journal with a lot of aquatic life forms – sharks, whales, fishes and other denizens of the deep…

I think that is pretty much it for now, so until the next blog entry, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
• Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw – Will Ferguson
• Sea Fever – Meg and Chris Clothier
• Prince Philip’s Century – Robert Jobson
• The Perfect Golden Circle – Benjamin Myers
• Slow Trains Around Spain – Tom Chesshyre
• Gold from the Stone – Lemn Sissay
• It’s All in Black and White – Pepsi & Shirlie
• Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers
• Slow Trains to Venice – Tom Chesshyre
• Bizarre England – David Long
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Safety in Numbers – Roger McGough
• Treasure Islands – Alec Crawford
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• Wham! George & Me – Andrew Ridgeley
• Itchy Feet & Bucket Lists – Emma Scattergood
• Lost in the Lakes – Tom Chesshyre

Lightbulbs, Bananas, John Cooper Clarke and Wheelie Bins…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Have got back from taking my niece to a rescheduled piano lesson on Monton Road, during which I was next door at Wandering Palate, enjoying a coffee, a bit of a read and some mint tunes! The staff in there have got great taste in music!

Shame about the weather though, it’s absolutely pissing it down out there, so, to use that well-known technical term, it is utter shite! Glad to be in for the night, now, and it’s time to blog as I’ve got a fair bit of news for you, and you can also see how my Blog Logs work in my current journal as a full two-page spread has been completed.

I make notes, writing down little memory-joggers for stuff I might blog about, and when that particular blog is published, I write the date on the lightbulb and put some rays around it to make it look like it’s lit up, lol!

The main book news, I guess, is that I have another finish, my 7th for July and 39th for 2023 so far, as I polished off It’s All in Black and White, by Pepsi & Shirlie, yesterday! A really good read, especially if you share my love of 1980s music! This now means that I will be starting Wham! George & Me, by Andrew Ridgeley as one of my next Ongoing Concerns, and that will probably happen on Monday.

Monday just gone I was actually back in the office for the day, the first time I had commuted to work and spent a full day in the office since 20th March 2020! I had been in briefly at times to pick up fresh stationery and drop off notes for confidential waste, but we had the gas man in and power was going off for a bit at home, so I went to Swinton for the wifi.

Quite a bit of sad news on Monday, though, a few departures at young ages. The former BBC newsreader, George Alagiah, lost his battle with bowel cancer at the age of just 67, and, not much older at 69, we lost former footballer and manager, Trevor Francis, who had become this country’s first £1m player back in the late 70s when I was little. We also lost former footballer, Chris Bart-Williams at just 49 – a year younger than me. May they all rest in peace.

I think that topper is in Exmouth, but I have included it as it features lifeboats and thus ties in with quite a few books I’ve read and mentioned on here in the last two or three years.

I’ve probably also mentioned John Cooper Clarke on here, too. Pretty sure I have, particularly the anthology The Luckiest Guy Alive, and his autobiography, I Wanna Be Yours, which I need to get around to reading. Anyway, he was recently given the Freedom of the City of Salford so, if my late Dad was right about that, it means he can lead sheep over a bridge and is also allowed to piss in horse troughs, lol!

I don’t think there are all that many sheep, let alone horse troughs, anywhere near here, though, as this is very much an urban area! Salford may be quite green and have a lot of parks but it is still a city so I don’t really know what privileges or perks Mr Cooper Clarke gets for being a Freeman of Salford.

Going to go bananas now, lol, as I can show you the recent Mini One from Oops a Daisy featuring Eric the Banana, named after the superhero in the cartoon “Bananaman” – I have ideas for this, but they will probably appear in one of my journals at some point next year, as I think a fruity theme is more suited to spring or summer and I have set up my themes already for this year. The next month I will need to do is October, and I don’t really think bananas are an autumnal thing.

Oh, and I’m sorry about this, and I know this blog has already reported on a few people popping their clogs, but it has been on the news just around ten minutes ago now that singer Sinead O’Connor, best known for her cover of the Prince song “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990, has died at the age of just 56. No age, is it? Just 6 years older than me.

At least Tony Bennett, who also passed away recently, had a good innings – he was 96.

Right, enough sad news, we need to get on with some more books, don’t we?

Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, is currently 76% read, and while I was reading it in Wandering Palate earlier, she got onto the bit about the workers who put dots of radium on clocks and watches back in the day, and mentioned the book The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore. I’m pretty sure I have that book somewhere, so will need to find it and consider it for an Ongoing Concern in the near future.

Slow Trains to Venice is 67% read so that’s next in line to be finished after I have finished with Hands of Time. A lot of mention of trains and transport in the book about time – transport on a grand scale would not have been possible without the ready availability of accurate and affordable timekeeping devices.

Days Like These is currently 57% read, and today’s poetic offering from Brian Bilston is Common Language, which can actually be sung to the tune of “Common People” by Pulp! Funnily enough, while I was at Wandering Palate earlier, enjoying coffee and a read under a big lightbulb with a spiral filament, one of the songs played was “Common People”!

Bizarre England, by David Long, is 25% read, Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford, is now 16% read and 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, is 10% read, so that’s the Ongoing Concerns and their current state of play done.

Choir night tomorrow, which reminds me of heading to choir last Thursday… as I was making my way down our street, there was a wheelie bin right in the middle of the pavement! I mean, seriously! What kind of absolutely inconsiderate weapons-grade numpty leaves a wheelie bin slap bang in the middle of the bloody pavement?!

It had been Bin Day, so they should have taken the damn bin back in! Good job no-one needed to get past in a wheelchair or anything like that. Shouldn’t have to take part in an obstacle course or the Wheelie Bin Slalom just to get down the road and on my way to choir!

I think the previous time I blogged was 18th July, so my niece was still 12 at that time. Charlotte is now a teenager, it was her birthday at the weekend. One of the pressies I got her was the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. She has already read The Hunger Games, and is part-way through the second book, Catching Fire, so I bought her Mockingjay to complete the set. As she’s on school holidays now, until September, she’ll probably have the time to read more stuff for fun.

Couldn’t resist the picture – those axolotls are cute!

On Saturday, my After Dark box from Under the Rowan Trees came, and it was the last parcel brought to me by our former postman as he has retired. Wonder if he’s let his successor know that he or she will be bringing Chief Bookworm boxes of stationery on a regular basis?! Had some today, actually, film and TV themed stuff from Oops a Daisy.

Anyway, I think that is probably about it for now until the review of the month blog, which will be on Monday. Oops, before I forget… it’s the summer fair at St Thomas’ Church in Pendleton, Salford, this Saturday, 29th July, from 11am to 2pm, so if you are anywhere near my neck of the woods, feel free to pop in. Mum and I will be having our usual stall, fancy goods on Mum’s bit and books, CDs and DVDs on mine.

Right, that definitely is about it for now until the review blog next week, so, as I’ve got some TV themed stuff today, I will say that brings us to the end of broadcasting for today, so take care, Happy Reading, and don’t forget to switch off your set, lol! * cue drum roll, national anthem, and then blank screen, or that test card with the girl and the half-finished game of noughts and crosses *

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• It’s All in Black and White – Pepsi & Shirlie
• Wham! George & Me – Andrew Ridgeley
• The Luckiest Guy Alive – John Cooper Clarke
• I Wanna Be Yours – John Cooper Clarke
• Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers
• The Radium Girls – Kate Moore
• Slow Trains to Venice – Tom Chesshyre
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Bizarre England – David Long
• Treasure Islands – Alec Crawford
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins

Time (Clock of the Heart)

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

* sings * Ninety years without slumbering, tick tock tick tock, his life seconds numbering, tick tock tick tock…

Oops, sorry! Couldn’t help it! Just had to have a bit of a sing and it’s all the fault of one of my Ongoing Concerns, lol, but we will return to that matter in a bit…

Who else had one of those toy clocks when they were a kid, though?! I bet loads of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s had them and learned to tell the time with them. Fisher Price launched the toy onto the market in the 60s so I reckon it’s definitely a Generation X thing to have had one of those clocks when you were little! When you wind it up at the back, it plays the chorus bit from My Grandfather’s Clock, hence that’s what I was singing!

Also learned to tell the time thanks to the TV show “Play School” which was on the Beeb when I was growing up. I think it was actually the first show on BBC2 when it came on air in April 1964, so it had been going a while by the time I was watching it. They used to vary the time on their clock each show.

“Well, the big hand is pointing to the number 12 so that means it’s something o’clock, and the little hand is pointing to the number 1, so that means it’s one o’clock” – typical time learning with Play School, but they mixed it up, they didn’t stick to times that were on the hour, you’d get half past, quarter past, quarter to, etc.

My nephew Reuben is learning to tell the time. I imagine he will be fine at that, he’s very good with his numbers! While Charlotte’s speciality is literacy, Reuben is more about numeracy.

(Charlotte has won an award at her school and gets another badge for her blazer. Her year 8 “Inspire” award can join the badges she has earned for music and for being a star reader.)

Before I move on, the title of tonight’s blog is a suitably time-themed hit from the 1980s, but do you know which band had a hit with “Time (Clock of the Heart)”? Answer at the end of the blog.

Oh look! Someone has cleverly recreated a Fishy Friday chippy tea in yarn on top of a post box! Not sure where in the UK this is, but yet another talented knitter or crocheter at work there!

Onto some books, though, as we have had another two finished books since the previous blog, taking July’s total up to six books read so far and 38 books read so far this year! Slow Trains Around Spain, by Tom Chesshyre, which I read on my Kindle, was the first of those two books to be polished off. I really like his stuff, so there’s another of his on my current list of OCs!

The other book to have been finished was Gold from the Stone, by Lemn Sissay, and it was an enjoyable anthology, some good poems in there worth returning to. In one or two poems he even mentioned broken clay pipes and mudlarks, so we have a link back to Mudlarking, by Lara Maiklem, one of last year’s reads, and in a way, with mentioning mudlarks and clay, to Thrown, by Sara Cox, which was another of my favourites from 2022’s finished books!

This arrived yesterday from Notebook Therapy, a washi tape set called “Our Stories” so it is book-themed and absolutely perfect for my reading journal and for mentioning on this very blog! Got a bit more journaling to show you, but we’d better crack on with the Ongoing Concerns first, hadn’t we?

Days Like These, by Brian Bilston was 55% read as of Sunday, got a couple of days of poems to catch up with, ha ha, but I will do that after I’ve blogged. Hands of Time, by Rebecca Struthers, is now 52% read and it was this book that set me off down the time-themed rabbit hole which led me to “My Grandfather’s Clock” and all the stuff at the start of this blog! Those clocks, with their distinctive pendulums, are actually longcase clocks, but the popularity of the song led to them being nicknamed grandfather clocks and the name stuck.

Next up, at 34% read, is It’s All in Black and White, by Pepsi & Shirlie, and I was reading the bit, the other night, where Shirlie mentions tucker boots and ra-ra skirts! Took me right back to being about 8 or 9 and wearing that very attire to junior discos at primary school, lol! Yep, that’s what Chief Bookworm was wearing circa 1981-82!

I said I had another Tom Chesshyre book on the go, and this one is another ebook about slow trains, except these ones are not going around Spain, they’re going across various parts of Europe in Slow Trains to Venice. This book is currently 33% read, and when he was in Germany, he was actually finding it hard to find a slow train. German trains are mostly fast. They don’t tend to do slow. Well, it wouldn’t be Ruthless German Efficiency if the trains were slow, would it?!

Bizarre England, by David Long, is 25% read. That one actually mentions the Pencil Museum in Keswick, Cumbria, so that ties in with quite a few of my blogs from 2021, and Bring Me Sunshine, by Charlie Connelly. It was that book, which was one of my first finishes from two years ago, which led me to find out about the Derwent Pencil Museum, which Mum and I visited in August 2021 when we were having our usual annual short break in the Lake District! (See photo above.)

Treasure Islands, by Alec Crawford, is 13% read, and the newest book to be started is 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, where he goes in search of the hidden wonders of the Lake District, but I have only just started this book earlier today and it hasn’t reached the 10% stage yet. That matter will be rectified later.

He actually admits that sometimes he uses imperial measurements in his book and sometimes metric. He’s older than me, born in the 60s, but I also grew up using both. I would use metric for maths and science at school, but weighed out food in imperial, pounds and ounces, for home economics, and measured myself in feet and inches – I’m a 5ft 1” shortarse, if you need to know, lol!

A lot of things around me were in imperial. The swimming pools at Eccles Baths, for instance. The smaller pool was 3ft deep throughout, and the main pool was 3ft deep at the shallow end and 6ft deep at the deep end. Vinyl records were 7” in diameter for singles, and 12” for albums (and also 12” remix singles), and there were also the height charts for the rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, also in feet and inches back in those days!

So, I did promise some more journaling stuff, and this is it… my September setup in my general journal. Power Up – a retro video games theme with a 70s and 80s synthpop playlist to go with it. I think the instrumental hit “Popcorn” by Hot Butter goes particularly well with this theme! So ahead of its time. It may sound 80s, but was actually composed in 1969 and was a chart hit in 1972!

My latest mini one from Oops a Daisy came on Saturday, but can’t show it yet, still too soon, no spoilers until a week after dispatch. I will just say it’s fruity and funny! Will probably show you next time I blog, if I remember.

Some footy news today, quite a bit of news for us Reds, with Giggsy cleared and no retrial, veteran defender Jonny Evans returning to United for at least a short spell, legendary goalie Edwin van der Sar is out of intensive care now, so that’s excellent news. Talking of goalies, André Onana has signed for us from Inter Milan, and home-grown striker, Marcus Rashford MBE, has signed to stay for another five years! Woo hoo! We do need some more strikers, though, to help Rashy out on the goalscoring front in the coming season!

That’s about all for now, except to give you the answer to the teaser I set earlier on in the blog. I asked who had a hit with “Time (Clock of the Heart)” in the 80s, and the correct answer is Culture Club. How did you do?

So, with all my news done, that wraps things up until the next blog, when, hopefully, I will remember to show you the Mini One, as well as providing you with plenty of the usual waffle, ha ha! Until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Slow Trains Around Spain – Tom Chesshyre
• Gold from the Stone – Lemn Sissay
• Mudlarking – Lara Maiklem
• Thrown – Sara Cox
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers
• It’s All in Black and White – Pepsi & Shirlie
• Slow Trains to Venice – Tom Chesshyre
• Bizarre England – David Long
• Bring Me Sunshine – Charlie Connelly
• Treasure Islands – Alec Crawford
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger