Total Eclipse of the Blog!

Hello fellow Bookworms!

Guess who’s back? Back again? Shady’s back, tell some friends! Oops, sorry! That was a bit of Eminem, lol, but it’s really Chief Bookworm who is back after a brief break last month. Have to admit I was struggling in March, and hadn’t really got going this year compared to the last few years.

OK, I get it, I got a lot read in 2020 and 2021 because there wasn’t much else to do at certain times in those years due to Coronavirus lockdowns, but things got back to something resembling normal in 2022 and so that year and last year I was back to going on holiday, and to gigs and football matches… and still got a lot of books read. Today I finished my 10th book for 2024. It has taken me to 9th April.

In March, when I published that previous blog, I hadn’t finished any books that month at that stage. After publishing the blog, I decided I would give the Ongoing Concerns a break and just read something light and quick, so I got some poetry read and managed to read three books by focusing on that.

Cuppa and an Eccles Cake from Eccles. Hope I’ve not made you too hungry, lol! However, I do hope I’ve made you hungry for some equally-local verse.

Anyway, poetry… first up was It Never Rains, by Roger McGough, who has been one of my favourite poets since I was a kid. I think I was ten when I found my dad’s copy of Watchwords and “borrowed” it! I say borrowed in the sense of long-term borrowing, ha ha!

Another favourite of mine, and a local lad in fact, is up next… John Cooper Clarke. I bought his anthology What at the same time as the Roger McGough one, and that was my second finish for March. My third finish was a re-read of Let the Light Pour In by Lemn Sissay. Actually, Lemn is also fairly local, an adopted Manc so to speak and has been the Chancellor of the University of Manchester. With Roger McGough being a Liverpudlian, it was a trio of north-west poets.

So, that’s my first quarter spread complete in my book journal.

Obviously, with only one blog last month, which didn’t mention books or other events, I’ve got spare lightbulbs in my blog logs, but who knows? One month I might want to blog a lot. I’m just trying to get back into it tonight, though, as I was feeling down last time I published a blog.

I was frustrated with my reading progress, upset that I don’t get feedback on Jet Pack (although I do on Facebook where I also share this blog) and am thus still no wiser as to why some of my blog entries are popular while others get no likes.

I was also frustrated about waiting for an important item I had renewed and those responsible for authorising it and sending it off for me hadn’t done it when they should have done in February, so I had to chase it up, but that eventually arrived in late March and had been backdated a bit as well, so that was a weight off my mind.

Post box topper to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the RNLI, which was early last month. Two hundred years of saving lives at sea around the coast of Britain and Ireland! An awesome achievement, and a cause that my Nana and Grandad, Dad’s parents, used to support. They lived in Malahide, a coastal town near Dublin, so supporting the lifeboats was a logical choice of cause.

This actually brings me on to the fact that my tenth finish for the year, which I polished off earlier today, was Heroes of the RNLI, by Martyn R. Beardsley, and it mentioned our old friend Henry Blogg – you may recall that I mentioned him in one of my blogs a few years ago.

It was the entry published on 23rd January 2021, Wooden Logs and Henry Blogg… and it was because he was mentioned in a book I was reading at the time, The Wrong Kind of Snow, by Antony Woodward and Robert Penn, and it gave a history of his rescuing heroics. I think the entry was for 9th January. You can find that blog entry in the January 2021 archives.

With this being early April and the cherry blossom (sakura) season in Japan, my book journal theme for April is Big in Japan, with plenty of cherry blossoms, plus sushi, origami and Hello Kitty, lol! The playlist is on a travel theme.

A couple of my Ongoing Concerns, one fact one fiction, are set in Japan, but I need to get on with those. However, I have read a bit more of Rambling Man, by Sir Billy Connolly, today so that is now 29% read and I’m aiming to get it to at least 33% before tonight is out. Let’s get the OCs progressing again!

I do have another couple of setups, my general journal and my choir journal, so if they don’t feature in this blog, I hope to remember to show them in the next one.

That is my choir journal setup for April, inspired by the song “‘Cross the Wide Missouri” and also the week by week charts for May through to August. That song is one of my favourites that we sing in the Mancunian Singers.

We have had a lot of changes since the end of last year, and we are still looking for a new conductor, although Tyran, one of our basses, is conducting us at the moment, but we do have a new pianist, although she is not new to me as I knew her back in the late 1990s when I was in the Salford Community Choir!

That was conducted by Julie Parker, but Helen Whitehead was our pianist, so when it was her first rehearsal a couple of weeks ago, I was thinking “I’m sure I know the piano player from somewhere” and during our break we had a chat and discovered that I did know her from a previous choir I was in!

We could do with some more tenors, by the way, so if you’re a fella with a higher pitch range, you fancy a sing, and you can get to Monton Unitarian Church Hall on Thursdays from 8:15 to 10pm, that would be fab! For those who don’t already know, I’m an alto, so I can reach some pretty low notes for a lass. It’s the high ones I have trouble with, lol!

I have got all my monthly spreads on now as that is April in my general journal… Pen Pals! A stationery theme with some very 80s decor and an 80s music playlist!

Didn’t see the eclipse yesterday – here in my part of the UK it was far too cloudy. It has to be at least a bit sunny in order to see the moon getting in the way of the sun! Online friends in the US and Canada got some pretty impressive photos though. I had to make do with listening to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler instead, ha ha!

That is probably about it for now, I think I have covered all my news about books, stationery, lifeboats, music and other stuff, so until next time, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• It Never Rains – Roger McGough
• Watchwords – Roger McGough
• What – John Cooper Clarke
• Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay
• Heroes of the RNLI – Martyn R. Beardsley
• The Wrong Kind of Snow – Antony Woodward & Robert Penn
• Rambling Man – Sir Billy Connolly

Lanzarote, Superb Owl Sunday and Dragons!

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Wishing all my followers happiness, prosperity and plenty of good books in the Year of the Dragon! Chief Bookworm has returned, and she has been on her jollies, getting some winter sun, so prepare for a bit of waffle about that, lol!

Also, I believe it’s Superb Owl Sunday today, or something like that… oh, hang on… Super Bowl Sunday! Ah, right! Anyway, those are some superb owls on that meme, ha ha!

For those of you who are into it, enjoy the game! My Dad used to enjoy the Super Bowl. When I was a kid and Channel 4 started at the end of 1982, they started showing American Football and Dad got into it, so he would stay up each year for the Super Bowl, often taking the Monday off work as the time difference could be huge sometimes due to the venue of the event and how far away that was from the UK.

I think the Super Bowl is on one of the Sky Sports channels tonight, they’ve been responsible for some years now for bringing British fans action from across the Atlantic, but Channel 4 were the originals here.

Anyway, as I mentioned, I’ve been away, which is why last month’s review was done a few days early and why this first blog of February is coming to you 11 days into the month. Following last year’s holiday in Tenerife in late February to early March 2023, Mum and I decided we liked this going away early in the year malarkey and we booked a holiday for late January into early February and jetted off to the Canary Islands again, but this time to Lanzarote.

These little fat round cacti were everywhere! Sure, they still had the taller ones, but there were a lot of these short prickly balls around!

Just before we jetted off, though, I got And Did Those Feet, by Charlie Connelly, finished, so I read three books in January and that brings last month up to date. No finishes yet this month, but I will go through the Ongoing Concerns in a bit. Total number of books bought in January was 9, including one bought at W H Smith’s in the departure lounge at Manchester Airport on 30th January!

That book was Me vs Brain, by Hayley Morris, and it sounded very funny, especially for those of us whose brains frequently have far too many tabs open! I know my brain is like that on a regular basis, especially late at night when I really could do with getting some zeds! Always wanting me to think about stuff, causing me to want to ask “Seriously, Brain… I’ve got work to get up for in the morning! Would you mind letting me get some kip?!”

Mum and I stayed a week at the Hotel Beatriz Playa and Spa in Matagorda, Puerto del Carmen, in Lanzarote. Saw this bookshelf while we were there but most of the books were in other languages, there weren’t many in English, and at one point, the only English book I saw on there was Rambling Man, by Sir Billy Connolly, but that was the book I’d brought with me on my jollies anyway, lol!

I started Billy’s book while I was away, and it is 10% read. I also started Hey Hi Hello! by Annie Nightingale on my Kindle while I was away. That got up to 25% while I was on my jollies and has since reached the 33% milestone. In fact, it is currently 40% read so I am hoping to get it to the halfway stage this evening after I finish this blog.

I had got up to the chapter, earlier this evening, where she writes about the request show, and there was a lot I didn’t know. For instance, that Dave Lee Travis originally hosted a request show on BBC Radio 1 before Annie. However, DLT was then given a different slot on the airwaves, and Annie was asked if she’d like to host a request show on a Sunday evening at 7pm after the charts. Originally, it was only going to be temporary, for three months, but it ended up running for years!

So, I didn’t actually discover any books at the hotel to read or even bring home, but I did end up buying a couple of books on one of our two excursions! They were Discover La Geria With Nico, by Ismael Lozano Latorre, and Lanzarote & Wine, by Rubén Acosta and Mario Ferrer. I think I will be reading the first of those in the coming week. It will be a short book and I’ll be able to get a book read for February.

On the wine book for more grown-up readers, lol, you can see a lot of round holes. This is how the vines are grown in Lanzarote due to the winds on the island. There is also a small wall part-way around each hole. Appropriately given the volcanoes on the island, each of these holes is like a crater. They have to dig down to reach fertile soil, but the ash, the lapillus, covers it up so that, along with the sun, it can retain night time humidity and turn into moisture, as Lanzarote hardly gets much rain each year.

The crescent-shaped stone walls around part of each crater protect the vine leaves from the strong winds. This gives Lanzarote a very unusual, probably unique, way of growing grapes and producing wines! Having been wine tasting when Mum and I went to Gran Canaria in 2022, those vineyards were much more like you would see in mainland Europe, rows and rows of much taller vines.

As far as I’m concerned, they’re doing it right! That looks like a super bowl to me, lol! Could probably do with some squirty cream, sauces, and chopped nuts, though, and maybe a wafer or two, but that looks like an epic sundae!

Anyway, need to do a recap of the books that didn’t come to Lanzarote with me, but are Ongoing Concerns. We had Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, at 33% read, which has now been overtaken by the Annie Nightingale book, but all the others are at 10% and they are The Almost Nearly Perfect People, by Michael Booth, Abroad in Japan, by Chris Broad, Dark, Salt, Clear, by Lamorna Ash, and The Lost Rainforests of Britain, by Guy Shrubsole. Billy Connolly is also at 10%, but I started that book on my jollies.

Mum read T.V. by Peter Kay while we were in Lanzarote and said it was very funny, so I’ve got that one to look forward to!

I will also need to get on with setting up March in my journals. I had to do a pretty quick setup for February in my choir journal after I got home, but I can take a bit more time with March and I have made a start on it in my book journal. There will be ducks in that one and sloths in the general journal. That is all the spoilers I am prepared to give!

Well, that’s about it for now. This coming Wednesday will be Valentine’s Day and also the 40th anniversary of one of my favourite sporting moments from when I was a kid, so there may well be a blog, even though it will only be a few days since this one!

That’s about everything for now, but I’ll be back again soon enough with more waffle. Until then, take care, and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• And Did Those Feet – Charlie Connelly
• Me vs Brain – Hayley Morris
• Rambling Man – Sir Billy Connolly
• Hey Hi Hello! – Annie Nightingale
• Discover La Geria With Nico – Ismael Lozano Latorre
• Lanzarote & Wine – Rubén Acosta & Mario Ferrer
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Michael Booth
• Abroad in Japan – Chris Broad
• Dark, Salt, Clear – Lamorna Ash
• The Lost Rainforests of Britain – Guy Shrubsole
• T.V. – Peter Kay

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

Badger’s Arse, Assembly Songs, Annie Nightingale and Glue Dot Rollers…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Welcome to another blog and some news of a finished book and another Ongoing Concern nearing completion coming up later, but how are you all? Unfortunately, the Badger’s Arse struck on Thursday and I needed a couple of days off work, but I am a lot better now and will be OK to return to normal tomorrow.

On some of my FB groups, there’s been a lot of reminiscing about the hymns sung in assemblies during our schooldays, and even the comedian Jason Manford got some “assembly bangers” going during one of his stand-up shows! I have to say, though, that I have some concerns about the lyrics in some of these things we were singing back in the day in school halls, as some of them seem a bit irresponsible to me…

Take “If I Had a Hammer” for instance… If I had a hammer, the songwriter opines, I’d hammer in the morning, I’d hammer in the evening… Imagine being one of his neighbours! Especially if you lived in a block of flats near Salford Precinct or something? He’s hammering in the morning and evening and it’s costing you a fortune in painkillers due to all the headaches he’s giving you! You’d be phoning the council or the housing association, wouldn’t you?! Put in a complaint, get the Anti-Social Behaviour Officer to come round and have a word with the incessant hammerer!

At this point, it’s worth mentioning Anti-Social, by Nick Pettigrew, which I read a couple of years ago and absolutely loved! He was an ASB Officer, so he’d have had to deal with noise nuisances such as the person in our school assembly hymn! So, let’s say that one of Mr Pettigrew’s colleagues has had a word with the hammerer, reminded him of his tenancy conditions and asked him to warn his neighbours before any further DIY is done…

So, he’s stopped hammering… but now he’s got a bell! And, guess what? Yep, that’s right… he rings it in the morning, he rings it in the evening… and his poor neighbours in the block of flats are getting more headaches and ringing the council again! “Hello, is that the housing department? I’d like to speak to the ASB officer again about our neighbour. The one who had the hammer, yes, that’s right. Well, now he’s got a bell and he’s just as much a nuisance with that as he was with that bloody hammer!”

So, yeah, I don’t really think they thought things through terribly well at times when hymns were chosen for primary school assemblies. There’s also “When I Needed a Neighbour” which has some dubious lyrics in it, too. I was cold, I was naked, were you there, were you there? You’re expecting primary school kids to handle lyrics about being starkers with a level of maturity?! Really? When I was at primary school, kids had to be reminded not to shout the third “Oh come let us adore Him” bit in the chorus of “O Come All Ye Faithful” in the run-up to Christmas every year, lol!

Anyway, I’d better get on with some book news, especially as Canary Island Dreaming, by Ron Weatherby, is my first finish of 2024! Yay! Terrifying Tudors, by Terry Deary, a Horrible Histories book, is currently 75% read, so that one is looking a good bet for my second book of the year! I do love the Horrible Histories books and will read one every now and then, as regular followers of my blog will know.

Having finished the Canary Islands one, that also meant that my 24 in 2024 travel reading challenge is up and running and I have got a travel book on that list as well as my main virtual bookshelves in my journal.

Before we get on with the remaining Ongoing Concerns, need to bring a bit of sad news from this week, as the football world mourned the loss of the legendary German, the “Kaiser”, Franz Beckenbauer, who passed away on Monday aged 78, and then on Friday came the sad news that the legendary BBC Radio 1 DJ, Annie Nightingale, had died, aged 83. Part of my teenage years gone.

Anyone who has followed my blog for a few years at least might remember when I was blogging a lot on the topic of radio, summer of 2021 if I’m not mistaken, and I was reading the likes of Last Train to Hilversum, by Charlie Connelly and Radio Waves, a poetry anthology edited by Seán Street. During this blogging period, I was also wiffling on about my own radio listening from being a little girl up to the present day.

In fact, the vast majority of my childhood, apart from the six months in Switzerland in 1978, I listened to Radio 1, and would always have the charts on, the UK Top 40 singles charts, on a Sunday afternoon, and tape songs I liked from it, as most of us from my generation did, ha ha! Anyway, we get to my teenage years in the latter half of the 1980s and I think this would have been some time around 1987 or 1988 so I would have been 14 or 15 at the time…

The Top 40 had been on and had finished, that week’s number one had been revealed and played, but I’d left the radio on, possibly getting myself something to drink, and the next show started… first song on was the Disco Mix (12” version) of “It’s a Sin” by the Pet Shop Boys, so I was well-chuffed at this excellent choice of tune and carried on listening to the show. That show was the Annie Nightingale Request Show and I was now a fan!

That photo above was posted on FB not long ago by a friend of mine, but it’s in keeping with the radio theme and includes the Charlie Connelly book I mentioned. I have that book on my Kindle, but I need to get hold of that other book in the photo, Radio Broadcasting, by Gordon Bathgate, as it sounds like it would be of interest to me.

Back to Annie Nightingale’s Request Show, though, for a moment, as that became part of my teenage life and Radio 1 would stay on after the charts from that point onwards to hear the weird and wonderful songs people had asked Annie to play, including the really quirky stuff like “The Laughing Gnome” by David Bowie, and a song I completely associate with Annie’s request show… “Fish Heads” by Barnes & Barnes!

So, Rest in Peace, Annie, and thank you so much for all the entertainment you brought me during my teenage years! Even though I never wrote in for a request myself, I have many fond memories of tuning in during the late 80s and early 90s!

Before we get on to the weather and another recent TV anniversary, let’s do the remaining Ongoing Concerns! We’ve mentioned the finished book and the book at 75% read, but next up is Before the Coffee Gets Cold, by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which is 33% read. Then we have four books at 10% read making up the remaining OCs…

The Almost Nearly Perfect People, by Michael Booth, Abroad in Japan, by Chris Broad, Dark, Salt, Clear, by Lamorna Ash, and And Did Those Feet, by Charlie Connelly are all at the same stage and ready to be progressed further. Having finished the Canary Islands book, which was on my Kindle, I started the re-read of Charlie Connelly’s book because I had thought I would be going to the match today.

However, that thought was before I came down with the lurgy on Thursday and thus there was a change of plan because being outside in the cold for a few hours in January is NOT conducive to getting rid of the Badger’s Arse!

The weather photo, from back in the 70s when weather symbol magnets were stuck on the map of the UK, is to celebrate 70 years of weather forecasting on BBC television, the anniversary of which was earlier this week. I used to want to stick those clouds and suns on the map when I was a kid! Never got to do it, though, sadly. Then forecasting became more advanced, which was a good thing, but it did mean losing the charm of those old forecasts where the weatherman or weatherwoman would put the clouds on the map, only for one of them to fall off occasionally, lol!

Perhaps we need a song to celebrate the anniversary? How about “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls, or “John Kettley is a Weatherman” by A Tribe of Toffs?!

* sings * John Kettley is a weatherman, a weatherman, a weatherman. John Kettley is a weatherman and so is Michael Fish!

I’ve started seeing these on Facebook. Bert’s Books is a book shop in Swindon, Wiltshire, which is a bit far away from my neck of the woods, but if I ever find myself in Swindon in the future, for whatever reason, I’ll have to pop in and pay a visit!

Ever put something in a safe place and it’s so bloody safe you can’t find it? I had some glue dot rollers, which I use for my journalling. Little blue things (well, most of mine are) that you retract the cover of and roll the tape along paper and it leaves a trail of tiny sticky glue dots. I was using one recently and it ran out on me. I thought I had some more but couldn’t find them, so then I wondered if I’d actually used them all up, so erring on the side of caution, I ordered a few more and they arrived on Wednesday.

Wednesday evening, I pick up a see-through pencil case and unzip it to get some pens out, and what do I see in there?! Yep, that’s right… a load of glue dot rollers! Typical! So, I added the three new ones to the mix and I now have an absolute stash of them! Providing my brain lets me remember where they are, I won’t be running out for a while!

Anyway, that’s about it for now, so I’ll be back soon with another helping of complete and utter waffle with some book news thrown in for good measure, lol! Until then, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Anti-Social – Nick Pettigrew
• Canary Island Dreaming – Ron Weatherby
• Terrifying Tudors – Terry Deary
• Last Train to Hilversum – Charlie Connelly
• Radio Waves – Seán Street (Ed)
• Radio Broadcasting – Gordon Bathgate
• Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• The Almost Nearly Perfect People – Michael Booth
• Abroad in Japan – Chris Broad
• Dark, Salt, Clear – Lamorna Ash
• And Did Those Feet – Charlie Connelly

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

Trees, Wheelie Bins, Poetry, Band Names, Fergie Time and Lifeboats…

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Welcome to October, and the weather here has been unusually warm and sunny, I was nearly tempted to say my “Greetings from the Costa del Salford” that I often use to start a blog if we’re having a heatwave, lol! I believe we’re due another couple of days of this nice weather before it realises it’s meant to be autumn and goes back to cold, dark and peeing down with rain, ha ha!

That topper is a tribute to the sycamore tree in Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall, which was senselessly chopped down recently for reasons unknown. This topper is in Hexham so it’s not too far from that part of the wall.

I’ve been to Hadrian’s Wall, but it was absolutely donkey’s years ago now, back in the late 1980s, as I was at high school at the time and we were studying Roman Britain for GCSE History and had a field trip to that part of the country to see the remains of the wall.

A pun for Sunday pun day! Enjoy!

Got some news of a couple of finishes, one from the Ongoing Concerns and one that wasn’t on the list. First up, Moderate Becoming Good Later is now finished! My first finish for October and 52nd for the year, and the other book is The Colour Monster, by Anna Llenas, which I can now mention on here as it was a present for Reuben for his birthday, but I had a read of it before I wrapped it up the other day! So, two books read so far this month and 53 for the year.

I had a notification earlier this week that I’ve had 1,337 likes on my blog! Dunno why they chose to tell me that, it’s a bit of a random milestone, isn’t it?! I thought I was the random one round here, not my blog host, ha ha! I currently have 173 followers, so thanks to each and every one of you!

Oh, and I had to do the Wheelie Bin Slalom again on Thursday when I was on my way to choir! Why do people leave their damn bins in the middle of the pavement? It’s not big and it’s not clever!

Time for the Ongoing Concerns, methinks! With Moderate Becoming Good Later having been finished, we move on to Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, which is now 77% read. It was World Poetry Day on Thursday, which reminds me that I need to get hold of Let the Light Pour In, by Lemn Sissay, and that Brian Bilston has an anthology of Christmas poems coming out soon! And So This is Christmas, an anthology of 51 seasonally-adjusted poems, is expected in bookshops this coming Thursday, 12th October! Yay!

There are two books on 50% read, the first of which is Summit for the Weekend, by Pete May, which has amused me yet again. I was reading a bit where he was in the Lakes in 2021 so the Delta Variant of coronavirus was in the news at the time, and one of the writer’s friends on Facebook had suggested that Delta Variants would be a cool name for a 1980s synth band! It would, actually, lol!

I have added it to my list of Good Imaginary Band Names, along with Transient Ridge, which is something I heard mentioned on the Shipping Forecast one night a few months ago and thought it would make a great name for an 80s or 90s indie band! The sort of band with a jangly guitar sound, like on “This Charming Man” by The Smiths, for instance.

The other book at 50% is Nightwalking, by John Lewis-Stempel, and it is four journeys into Britain after dark and should not be confused with “Nightswimming” which deserves a quiet night according to R.E.M, and is on the classic album “Automatic for the People” which was released 31 years ago, back in October 1992, and reminds me fondly of my student days, lol!

Sir Alex with Erik ten Hag in February when we won the League Cup at Wembley against Newcastle. Sadly, Lady Cathy Ferguson passed away earlier this week, aged 84, so the flags at Old Trafford were at half-mast yesterday and the players wore black armbands for the game against Brentford, in which we appropriately won in Fergie Time, and with goals by a Scot, a brace by Scott McTominay, to equalise for us in the third minute of time added on, and then head home our winner four minutes later with pretty much the last move of the game!

Lady Cathy is best remembered for getting Sir Alex to do a u-turn when he was going to retire in 2002. She told him he was too young to retire and she didn’t want him at home, getting under her feet! When word got round that Sir Alex had shelved his plans and wasn’t retiring after all because his wife wouldn’t let him, we Reds sung “Every single one of us loves Cathy Ferguson!”

Some other sports news from this week concerns the Paralympics and the fact that, from next year’s Games in Paris, the flame will be created at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and then taken via torch relay to the opening ceremony in a similar way to the Olympic flame being created in Olympia, Greece, and being taken to the opening ceremony. It recognises that Stoke Mandeville is the origin of the Paralympic movement.

Back in 1948, when London hosted the first post-war Olympics, Dr Ludwig Guttmann organised a sports event for patients at Stoke Mandeville as he felt it would help them in their rehab from their injuries – they were all WWII veterans. This sports day sowed the seeds of the Paralympics!

Back to the OCs briefly, and one more book with some progress made, that being Blood, Iron & Gold, by Christian Wolmar, which is now 33% read. In the coming week, I hope to make more progress, and also need to start a new book as I finished Moderate Becoming Good Later.

As I just mentioned a book about kayaking the sea areas of the Shipping Forecast, it brings me on to things at sea, and I have included the photo of a crocheted RNLI lifeboat crew because next year will be the 200th anniversary of the establishing of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution! Therefore, one of my books for 2024 will be Heroes of the RNLI, by Martyn R. Beardsley.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned in previous blogs over the years, particularly in 2021 when I was reading a lot of books about the sea and related matters, that my Nana and Grandad, Dad’s parents, always used to support the lifeboats and buy notecards and Christmas cards from the RNLI. They lived in Malahide, a coastal town near Dublin, so supporting rescuers who save lives at sea made sense.

Well, I think that’s probably about all for now, I think I’ve covered pretty much everything and you now know one of my planned books to be read in 2024! I’ll be back again soon enough with more random musings, lol, 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
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• Let the Light Pour In – Lemn Sissay
• And So This is Christmas – Brian Bilston
• Summit for the Weekend – Pete May
• Nightwalking – John Lewis-Stempel
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Heroes of the RNLI – Martyn R. Beardsley

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

Rickrolled At the Donor Centre!

Good evening, fellow Bookworms!

Greetings from the Costa del Salford! We’ve actually had a bit of rain today, but the temperature has still been decidedly above average for September! Chief Bookworm has had several nights of sleeping on top of her bed and with a fan on as it has been far too boiling to get under the duvet!

Was in town yesterday and it was absolutely roasting! I had gone to give a pint of my finest O positive to the vampires, and to get a bit of shopping in, and it was so damn hot! Did manage to give blood this time, though, unlike back in June where I was a tad short on the haemoglobin front.

I was actually attended to by a member of staff with the same birthday as me! Alejandro said he’d been waiting to assist a donor with the same birthday as him and he’d had some 22nd and 24th April ones, but finally got to assist a fellow birthday person. I asked him his year, which was 1988, so I was 15 when he was born.

They have the radio on at the donor centre on Norfolk Street. Dunno which station it is, probably something like Smooth FM or whatever, but it does play a fair bit of 80s music, so I was reclining in my chair, reading my Kindle as an armful of O positive was collected from me, and what comes on the radio? “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley! Seriousy! Rickrolled at the donor centre!

I came up with that last weekend. It’s in my general journal after the October stuff, so I thought I should put it in as my nod to Halloweeny stuff, before I moved on to my November setup, which is coming up in a bit, but firstly, we need to have an update on some of the Ongoing Concerns…

Lost in the Lakes is now 75% read so I will be looking to get that one finished off. Days Like These, by Brian Bilston, is currently 69% read, but that is an ongoing project as most of you probably know, and the next milestone will be reached in early October. After that, we have 36 Islands, by Robert Twigger, which is 59% read, so I will be looking to get that to the 67% mark fairly soon. I want those two finished this month.

As this is the first blog in September, I should let you know that I recently started Blood, Iron & Gold, by Christian Wolmar, on my Kindle and that one is currently 17% read, and Really Saying Something, by Bananarama, was also started this month and that one is 10% read. Sara Dallin even mentions her love of books and trips to the library when she was a kid in the 60s, so it’s good to know of another bookworm in the music world!

Blood, Iron & Gold is about the history of the world’s railways, but it seemed appropriate enough to read a book with blood in the title when I was giving a pint of mine yesterday, and I’ve since read a bit more of it today. I want to get it up to at least 20%, but preferably 25% as that would be the next milestone as an Ongoing Concern.

I did promise you my November setup in my general journal, so here it is, and the theme is Snail Mail! A postal theme with added snails, lol! I have made a start on November’s setup in my book journal, but that one needs more work, so it’s not ready to appear on here yet.

As it will be November, that will be the month where the Ongoing Concerns are put to bed at the end of that month to be resumed in January. I will therefore be getting books off the list and not replacing them so that I only have three or four books to pick up again in the new year. The only OC staying up late, so to speak, will be Days Like These, as I will be finishing that one off before we let in 2024.

November has also seen me continue what I started with October’s autumnal “As Seen on TV” setup – the self-care corner and the “watched this week” box for my You Tube viewing. I watch quite a variety of stuff, including other journalers, and there’s a couple from the southern hemisphere which makes it very interesting when it comes to seasonal themes! I’m setting up autumnal themes, but Erin Smith and Jashii Corrin are setting up spring themes as Erin is from Australia and Jashii is from New Zealand.

Back to this month, though, and my current reading, I would like to finish off the “Lake District Books”, so that’s Lost in the Lakes, 36 Islands and Summit for the Weekend. While two of those are at an advanced stage, the Pete May book is only 10% read, so I’ll need to get on with that.

The latest Big One from Oops a Daisy, “Wild Journaling” hence the leopard print pattern on some of the stuff! I’ve used the pouch to store the Koi brush pens that I’ve had with mini ones and big ones. I also have a theme in mind, possibly for early in the new year, which will include the leopard print stuff. Weirdly enough, my Kindle has a leopard print patterned holder, but I’ve had that for ages! When I bought a previous Kindle from a colleague, it came with that holder included.

By the way, the Haribo mug, with the cherries on, which is at the top of this blog, was bought from the Haribo shop at Cheshire Oaks when Mum and I had been in Chester on our short break and went to Cheshire Oaks before heading home.

Had a very quick delivery today, considering I only made the purchase on Amazon yesterday evening – The Radium Girls, by Kate Moore. You may remember that it had been recommended by Rebecca Struthers in her excellent book, Hands of Time, about timekeeping and watch-making. These were the ladies who painted the glow in the dark green dots on the dials of clocks and watches in the early twentieth-century during and after World War I.

It was a fun job for them at the time, and very well-paid for the day, but as the years passed, the ladies started suffering from mysterious and crippling illnesses – the radium paint from their job was slowly killing them.

I think that’s probably about all for now. Hope to have more book updates next time, maybe even a finished book or two, and possibly the November theme for my book journal. I will say that it’s a theme about books, appropriately enough! Until the next time, though, take care and Happy Reading!

Joanne x x x

Books mentioned in this blog entry…

• Lost in the Lakes – Tom Chesshyre
• Days Like These – Brian Bilston
• 36 Islands – Robert Twigger
• Blood, Iron & Gold – Christian Wolmar
• Really Saying Something – Bananarama
• Summit for the Weekend – Pete May
• The Radium Girls – Kate Moore
• Hands of Time – Rebecca Struthers

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