Time for a good Read ...

It's with excited and great pleasure I introduce you to an old and dear friend - Jacq aka 'Book worm' aka 'Hit the Road Jacq'.  As I have had some requests about 'talking' books and book clubs I asked Jacq to get our 'book worm' juices flowing with some book suggestions. Thinking most of you like me are juggling many different hats some don't want to waste precious time on crappy books. 

This Mama is trying to read something other than books about toilet training, toddler tantrums and enrolment packs for school, thank you Jacq for your time your blog was a 'great read' and the beginning of reading 'wonderful' and 'fabulous' and not shades of Grey...

It’s every compulsive reader’s dream, to nab a job in a bookshop… And after selling my soul to media for fifteen years it was pure papered bliss!

BUT - When it comes to recommending great reads, I just don’t know where to start! So how about I ramble, I’m sure if you take a wander with me, you’ll find something on the shelves that will intrigue and enable an escape into something wonderful!

Romance: This section in the bookshop is strictly for what is termed as the ‘Bodice rippers’ although on the bottom shelf (now moved to the top) you’ll find your erotica…. The Fifty Shades phenomenon, and let’s face it… The now highest selling paperback ever released on to the market is paving the way for similar reads like Destined to Play, Haven of Obedience, Bared to You and Eighty Yellow Days. Romance is in almost every book from SciFi to Literature, so for myself, I prefer just a really good read.

Top on the list of really good reads are Cutting for Stone, The Dovekeepers, The Housemaid’s Daughter and A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar. All are beautifully written, tick all the boxes and I’ve yet to hear a negative remark about them.

Mystery and Crime is another brilliant genre that has so many different facets… Good mystery could be Goddard’s Into The Blue, or if you like something a little more immersed in history CJ Samson’s Dissolution. If you want something of a faster pace try At Risk from MI5’s very own Stella Rimmington… and don’t get me started on the amazing Scandinavian Crime that’s available, that’s only scraping the surface!

For girlie light reading, I’m a bit over the whole ‘girl leaves everything behind and yet all falls into place including a gorgeous new guy’ blarney – as if! Janet Evanovich, however, has Stephanie Plum: An accident prone Bounty Hunter by default, just trying to make a buck – and that to me is a sweeter story than some of the saccharine on the shelves, though if you do like girly reads Monica McInerney, Jane Green, Lucy Diamond, Marion Keyes and Cathy Kelly are all still turning them out!

Non-fiction: Well I ought to go on about the amazing Boy Who Wouldn’t Die, or the incredible tale in Marching Powder… But for me the flavour of the month is Japanese Papercraft! Seriously, trying to settle down with the Grott Monsters and do origami was more like committing hara kiri (seppuku)! This book, not only has the right paper in the back, at the right size, but at last instructions that even I can follow – It gets this month’s two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

And as for a favourite...? Well do you know your Austen, Dickens and Shakespeare? Would you like to have your mind twisted and taken for a ride? It’s not to everyone’s taste, so if you’re brave try your luck with Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair and you’ll never look at books, or dodos, the same way again.

      

You can follow Jacq on her website www.hittheroadjacq.com.au or her facebook page  http://www.facebook.com/HitTheRoadJacq

We love sharing so please comment with your favourite book of all time.

FH

Living out of the clean laundry basket...

Night time - Kids in bed - Dinner done - Dishes done - Curled up on the couch sipping my tea and watching Offspring.  
It's chilli so I have my warm daggy red socks on and my nanna robe feeling lusciously cosy. 
Ad break comes on and my brain kicks back in, should I be doing something? 
Oh what is it? 
Hurry up ads life is catching up, so I flick. I secretly know what it is I should be doing but need this denial to last a little longer.  
It was such a long day, the rain poured and my boys got more and more restless which therefore resulted in wrestling - tears - nagging!  

Tonight I am sick of my voice, sick of my brain and sick of looking at my clean washing basketS! 
Is that what I SHOULD be doing, folding washing? 
So what do I do?
I put them in the other room and close the door!
What's wrong with living out of the clean washing basket anyway.
Back into denial land I go with Offspring and my cup of tea.  
Ain't life grand when you make decisions to just please yourself!


FH

Learning the language of love is still on track!

From our fabulous friend - Mama Bec:

Ciao A tutti

Well it has been 2 weeks since I first got it out there that I want to study Italian and I have made a little progress.  Admittedly I am still in revision stage – but to be honest I am amazed I’ve even got this far!  (I seriously don’t know where I found the time to organize a wonderful wedding in just 10 weeks – where did all that ‘spare’ time come from – I certainly can’t find it now) But I have managed to squeeze in a bit of study here and there.  In fact I have just completed Unit 1 – that’s 6 lessons people!

So how IS she doing it? I hear you ask!  Don’t leave us in suspense a minute longer!!! Have you ever heard of an online learning tool called Livemocha – probably not!!  I stumbled across it via some group deal, which I thought would be a cheap and non – committal way of getting the ball rolling with this language learning idea.   And it is actually quite a fun way of doing it.  It’s a little like the ABC Reading egg for kids only there are no animated creatures singing to me after each level.  But I do get very encouraging words like Well Done and Share you progress with your friends!!  And I have lots of messages from people wanting to be my friend!  Not sure yet but it seems suspiciously like some kind of international dating and chat line so I haven’t yet braved responding to any requests to chat.  Think I need to work on my Italian conversational skills before I attempt to converse and possibly ward off potential suitors!  Each lesson has 4 sections.  

The learning bit with 40 sentences about the topic in question, the reviewing bit where you answer questions about what you have learned, and then a written exercise and an oral exercise that you record and send off into livemocha land to be judged and reviewed.  Haven’t figured out my mic yet so my recordings are all blank, but at least I do practice the spoken word, even if no-one can actually hear me!! And then I can review other peoples submissions which I think earns me more time, or mocha money or something.  I am too time poor at the moment to find out but once I become more confident with this system Ill try to help other people with their English study.

It’s very exciting! And now that I am at the next level I feel very encouraged.  I do need to be more persistent however.  Perhaps set a goal of a lesson a day, or perhaps 5 a week, or a level a week.  Something obtainable, but consistent.  This is what I will work on before the next installment of this blog.  And I’ve got some other ideas up my sleeve too, including an inspiring  Italian dinner at Il Solito Posto with some close friends… So stay tuned!

   

Oh and thanks to Andrea for the CIS tip - sounds perfect for Stage 2 of my Great Italian Project.  Might see you there in the (hopefully) not too distant future...

 

Bec

A cup of tea should be relaxing...

The rain pours outside, the kids snuggle in with a movie 
and this Mama has a second to herself.

As the kettle boils I start to think about all the things I need to do, 

from a peaceful moment of making a cup of tea it quickly turns into heart racing stress.

As I was recently faced with an 'inconvenience' that has left us in transition with our living circumstances it feels as though (in the last 2 months) I have lost some of the simple things that kept my household running smoothly.
I never realised how I was dependant of those things, until now. I'm talking small things like doing the washing on particular days so I don't have a tonne to do over the weekend, or having a meal planner on the fridge as a guide for when I am stuck, having a stock of frozen meals for the daycare days and I'm rushing home from work or getting a gym session in.
In life I believe we all have our routines of some sort and mine were small but very BIG in keeping my world at a level that when I make a cuppa I don't go into heart palpation and anxiety about all the things falling a part.  
There are some things I need to get back, simple things like organising my only bookcase at the moment, getting a meal planner up, allocating gym time.
All these things were in steady flow until everything was 'washed' away.
'Mama is gonna try' one by one and get these things back.
1. Organise bookcase to be work and home friendly - Shouldn't take long and I'm sure half the stuff in there is junk mail, bills to be filed and scrap bits of paper. There will be after shots so I am accountable.
2. Meal planner - 10 meals to rotate that EVERYONE will eat (mm is that another challenge?)
3. Home roster for cooking, cleaning, gym etc  - excel document
4. Gym Time - needs to be added to roster / calendar so there are no excuses.


Sipping my tea now with a lot more ease and calmness - 'really a cup of tea should be relaxing'...
I would love to see your meal planners, images of your organised bookcases/office or your rosters/calendars.. it always helps to have a guide, plus it's also nice to know that other people are doing similar things to keep their heads above water.




For those that have been asking - Yes I am still on the skate board 'my first challenge'.
I jump on when I can and love it, I will definitely be adding that to my roster/calendar.


thank you for your support.
FH