Mad about Bridget

I wrote a couple of Bridget Jones’s style diaries about a month ago, yet I was writing as me to tell you about my holiday. (Links at bottom of page). I promised to also write the beginning (of what I think) the new Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will be. (After doing a little research, I am dead excited that the book comes out next month; didn’t realise it was so soon!) We know that Bridget is older, still living in London and has a child by Daniel Cleaver! What about Mark Darcy? Still boy (or man obsessed) we assume, Bridget will have a male related packed diary. I am choosing for the ‘Mad about the boy’ notion to mean, her child. Her son.

Saturday 1st January  2013

New Year’s Resolutions

• This year am not going to be selfish – as have a child to think about. Will be mother of year, doing educational games and thought provoking activities. Mothers will come round to learn my excellent parenting skills.
• Stop smoking (after this last one of course – no one starts new year resolutions on first day of year!)
• Stick to 1600 calories a day (start using My fitness Pal app – oh and figure out how to use said app)
• Become techno savvy- using fitness app will lead to great world wide web Bridget genius and can be manager of Twitter and Facebook… as well as becoming a top follower and can then work from home and become a millionaire….
• Stop day dreaming. Much better use of time.
• WILL NOT sleep with Daniel Cleaver again – does not matter that he is father of son. Never again.
• If I do sleep with Daniel… will use contraception – as now know what happens as result!
• Will be perfect daughter and friend  – all will come to me for brilliant advice and shoulder to cry on (hope said shoulder isn’t covered in baby spit at time)

Calories 4000 – had soak up booze and being honest as some still be in system. Times glared at Vile Richard, 47 (progress!), Times missed Damien, 2 – is good have time as being woman, not just mother. Facebook messages, 13 wall posts – feel popular with new year messages (must reply tomorrow!), Twitter followers, 24. (v.g).

11.00am at home

Took little nap after wrote the resolutions. Needed to rest my hung-over head. Great party at Shazza’s last night to see in, what will be an amazing, new year. Jude and Vile Richard had yet another falling out. Not sure they will make it to end of year.. or maybe even February. Just because Jude wanted that second bottle of wine – must remind Jude of latest blog Women in Power as feel she being pushed about by the Vile Dick (not literally of course). I, on other hand was angel. Had 3 bloody Marys and 10 cigs. Oh and just the one champagne at midnight. And one after whilst fireworks went off. Oh and the shots for the I have never game we played. But not as much of a hangover as other years. Great progress. Must be growing up. Shit! Am late to pick up Damien! Am terrible mother…must go!

2pm home again

Was good of Mum and Dad to have Damien. Me and Daniel have been taking it in turns to have him for important holidays and weekends etc. but we both had fabulous parties for New Year’s Eve so luckily grand parents to the rescue! They love him though and sometimes fear he prefers them to me. First word keeps popping out his mouth ‘Grr..’ so am thinking it’s for ‘Gran’ or ‘Granddad’ or perhaps ‘grrr’ in protest to me?! or ‘Grabbing breasts’ if takes after his father. Right. Am off to play with my son as then he may say ‘Mum’ before anything else. Or perhaps ‘mother ‘and be child genius. Will just check Facebook first.

Sunday 2nd January

Calories: 3000 at least – need more when lack of sleep! Twitter followers 34 (v.g progress), Facebook status updates 23 – not much else to do at 2am when child screaming! Cigarettes 7 (not good), Phone calls from father of son/ex/loser/, sex maniac 4.

10.00 am kitchen

Coffee. Needed this morning. Damien would not blurry stop crying last night. Feel terrible mother. He asleep now (just checked he wasn’t dead) and will leave him for while. Perhaps he has temperature. I would have if spent day and evening with my mother. Calpol should do trick. Will phone Daniel to get some. We agreed to have a grown-up relationship when comes to Damien and communicate and one will fetch things for other as both have very busy lives.

11.30am

Finally got through to Daniel and is in London. Says has double hang over from New Year’s party and won’t be back til tonight! Reminded him he has a son and has responsibilities and ill son at that. He sounded half asleep and heard mutterings of a woman. Hung up. Am mad. And lonely, single mother. Must get Calpol.

5.00pm

Ahh have great friends and family. And neighbours! Simon from upstairs went to chemist for me. Damien has slept a lot today but seems ok. Still no progress on ‘Mum’ though. Will have in depth teaching speech lesson when he better. Shazza popped round – and Jude actually, thought I think that was just to moan about Vile Richard. Mum and Dad also phoned too to see how I was and if sorted childcare for when back at work tomorrow. Said not heard off Daniel yet – as his mum sometimes has him Mondays. if not they agreed have him. Hurrah!

Me, Jude and Shazza have lovely afternoon anyway. With tea and Milk Tray and spent time looking at old school friends on Facebook. Hairy Harry has lost weight – not lost any hair though (well some off head)! Much fun. And gained another few Twitter followers. Yay! The girls also helped me set-up My Fitness Pal app and put in today’s calories. Milk Tray let me down. Will need do 3 hour walk to work it all off. Just don’t have time as single working mother. Will just  start tomorrow.

10.00pm in bed

Had a drunken phone call off Daniel. Said he couldn’t shake hangover so went for hair of dog. Says feels bad about Damien and promises be better Dad in future. Is going to get me stock of calpol. Agreed to this and his Mum is picking up Damien at 7am tomorrow so can get ready for work. Doh work. Being mother is big enough job. Do I have be TV journalist as well!?

Midnight

Had 3 more phone calls off Daniel. Think must have kept having more dog hair drinks. Says he loves me and should be a family. Says can’t stop thinking about me. Told him that he is a drunken sex maniac and only boy am mad about is our son. And hope he doesn’t inherit anything from him! Daniel then started crying on phone. Does he not understand that am working mother who does not have time for silly, emotional phone calls on a work night?!

XSXS

https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/samantha-gray-the-edge-of-cornwall-part-1/

https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/samantha-gray-the-edge-of-cornwall-part-2/

Samantha Gray: The Edge of Cornwall Part 1

I have recently re-read Bridget Jones’s Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. I was a big fan when the books came out and was equally excited when the films came out (yet, I have realised how different the 2nd film is to the book after re-reading it years later!) I felt the urge to read them again as there is a third book and film in the pipeline and all ‘big pant’ wearing Bridget fans are probably just as eager as me! The idea was to write, what I thought the first chapter would be of the 3rd book, in the style of Bridget. I saw this idea in a Sunday magazine, where lots of writers have done just this. I still plan to do this – BUT, this post is a holiday diary about my recent holiday, written by me, as me but in the style of the Bridget Jones’s books.

 

Friday 2nd August

Cars to destination 3, Trains to destination 1 (London friend), CDs played in car 4. CDs that wouldn’t play in car 9 (no Britney Spears or Spice Girls for us grrrr!) Bags –  too many! Rooms in mansion 12, Potential Calories in car after food shop 2 million

12 noon. The house in Cornwall. Lovely journey really. Love my lovely friends. In our car there was me, Kenny and my friend, Kath. Lots of fun singing to silly songs and we met the rest of gang for a full English on the motorway (not actually on the road – but you know what I mean!) Service station prices are a complete rip off though! Calories consumed so far: must be over a 1000 (but now officially not counting as on holiday – hurrah!

House we are staying in is wonderful. 12 rooms which include 4 bedrooms, my dream kitchen and a hot tub! Wonder if me and Kenny could buy a house like that one day… mmmm. The girls did the first food shop when we arrived, which was v. amusing. We had to fit about 23 carrier bags in the car, plus 4 boxes of alcohol, luggage and our actual friend, Neil,  who we picked up from the station on route! With sea gull poo on the car too, we felt right at home in Cornwall.

12 midnight Great first night. Girls cooked dinner of pasta and salad – with beer and wine of course. The boys sat in hot tub whilst we cooked, seemed studying Feminism at Uni didn’t pay off mmmmm. Will make sure boys cook tomorrow. Lots of fun and drinks in hot tub after. Yippie.

Saturday 3rd August

Amount of sun burnt bodies 8/8, well-hung horses 1, weird food choice 1 (basil ice-cream – strangely nice!), amount of sand grains returned to house 3 million. Ice-creams consumed 1 (just me – we didn’t all share just 1!)

2pm The beach. Lovely day at the beach. Bit of a goose chase on the way though as had to find beach. Walked for miles, all 8 of us, round a potato field and many other fields! I was regretting wearing flip-flops for this façade but when we got to the beach it was all worth it. Massive waves for us to jump about in and gorgeous sun for us to sit in.  We then all had lunch by the beach – paninis and salad that kept flying about in the sea breeze. Kind of a side of sun burn with our meal, as well felt a bit sore as returned to the house.

3pm back at the house. Turns out the others, who took the scenic route back, saw a very well-hung horse! Photographic evidence was hilarious – you can take the girl out of swad….. talk about seeing the sights of Cornwall!

10.30pm Local restaurant. V. sophisticated meal out – made less so with our oohs and ouches and flinches at our sun burn! My red arm is on fire honestly. It is burning and could have cooked the boys’ steaks on. Ouch. Must remember lots of sun-cream tomorrow.

Sunday 4th August

Times fainted 1. Ambulances called 1, Paramedics 2, souvenirs bought 0, sun rays 0, calories consumed – oh thousands (need to keep strength up!)

8am the house. It’s raining. No need to worry about sun cream or getting burnt today. Doh.

4pm the house. Cannot believe what has just happened. Been a crappy day weather wise, so we have all done our own thing. The lads have hung out together and us girls decided to do some souvenir shopping in town – after a tea and cake of course! Love souvenir shopping! Unfortunately, we didn’t get that far. I fainted in the first shop. Sparked right out on the floor. Was reading quote signs as I collect them. Hadn’t been feeling great all day but put down to lack of sleep and sun stroke.

Ambulance was called and 2 paramedics did some tests on me. Friends were bloody brilliant. Turns out when they heard the crash they exclaimed, ‘Bet that’s Sam, being clumsy again!’ Know me so well They all dropped souvenirs and ran to my side. Tahlee, who is a nurse, gave her expertise first aid and Kath held my legs in air. Was like a dramatic scene out of a soap. Woman even offered close shop! Paramedics said I need go Doctors when return home but seemed fine from the tests. The choc cake I had had helped to raise my blood sugars – hurrah! Always knew choc cake would save my life one day!

Monday 5th August

Times fainted 0 (progress!), animals seen 24, Cornish pasties consumed 1, whales seen 0

11am the last/first house. Went to Land’s End today. Great day and we had a coffee in the ‘last’ (or first) house. Is sweet, as no one will let me go off on my own in case I faint again. Lovely friends. May get a bit annoying after a few days though, being the independent woman that I am! We all thought we saw a whale in the sea. V excited we were too! Lads found it hilarious when we realised was just a rock. I wasn’t convinced for a long while after as was sure it was moving. Mmmm.

5pm went to a little farm at Land’s End too – very cute guinea pigs, sheep, pigs, hens etc. Do love animals, as long as they don’t get too close or smell! We also went to a 4D cinema and was scary. Seat jerked aside and water sprayed in our faces as part of the films. Weird.

11pm Starting to feel back to normal now – as normal as I get anyway (hurrah!) Had some wine tonight and lovely BBQ in garden.

Tuesday 6th August

Mounts belonging to St. Michael seen 1, fish eaten by sea 1 (plus many chips!), dates with Kenny 1, man seen with Lidl tattoo (by friends in scary pirate themed club) 1

11pm the house Realised people of Penzance are weird. My friends saw a man with a lidl tattoo tonight, my first thought was ‘that can’t be real!’ But then I thought… why would you even buy a fake one?! There was a v. annoying woman on the causeway leading to St. Michael’s Mount too. Was on our way back to the shore and the tide had started coming in. She started shouting at everyone coming the other way ‘Don’t you know the tide is coming in?! You’ll get trapped!’ Felt most embarrassed for her, as there is a boat for people to catch back. Ha!

The mount was good, seen it before but always nice to see with friends. Was lot culture and old things. Great views, but had be careful not to faint, as is long way down. Had fish and chips on the beach after. V. good. Me and Kenny went on a date tonight, whilst the others went on  a mad, pirate night out. Date was good. Lovely cosmopolitan and Guinness at a local pub then a meal and a pirate related restaurant. Huge fish pie and Kenny gave me his mushrooms – hurrah! Another weird woman said to me ‘You look nice and feminine in that dress!’ Strange. Does she think I am a man in a girly dress?!

Seemed the others mainly had a good time…. Lidl tattoo and gay club people hitting on them aside. One the lads also took Kath’s duvet. She was not happy. May have something to do with us girls hiding the boys’ beer last night. Oops. Must think of suitable revenge.

To be continued……

XSXS

Moral to the story

There is a moral to every story, they say. I believe this and that a part of life is learning from things. From childhood, we learn in fairy tales that the baddies don’t come off good and that everything will be alright in the end. (We also may learn that this a bit unrealistic too 😉 ) The point is, we learn that what goes around comes around and that their are consequences to actions.

I mentioned a while ago that I have a Nook. I acted even more like a crazy book lady the other night and downloaded a load of ‘classic’ reads. Amongst them was Aesop’s Fables. I remember reading some of them as a child, having a beautiful coloured version littered with pictures. But I didn’t realise until adulthood, that Aesop was a slave believed to have lived in ancient Greece. Amazing, that they are still so well-known and relevant today. I’m sure, we have all heard of The Boy who cried Wolf and The Tortoise and the Hare? Well, there are loads more and I want to share with you, a less well-known one (well at least to me) with you today:

The Fox and The Stork
A fox one day invited a stork to dine with him and, wishing to be amused at his expense, put the soup which he had for dinner in a large flat dish, so that, while he himself could lap it up easily, the stork could only dip in the tips of his long bill. Stork, bearing his treatment in mind, invited the fox to take dinner with him. He, in his turn, put some minced meat in a long and narrow-necked vessel, into which he could easily put his bill, whilst Master Fox was forced to be content with licking what ran down the sides of the vessel. The fox then remembered his old trick, and could not but only admit that the stork had well paid him out.

The moral at the end of this one says: ‘A joke is often returned with interest.’ I think it can signify others though, like; ‘What goes around, comes around.’ Or ‘treat people as you are treated’… or we could argue that the stork was wrong to act like that as ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ Alternatively, we can think about the actual moral and link it to the simplicity of the story and think it how it reflects life. People play jokes; they take the ‘piss’. People then return this and ‘get their own back’. That’s life. I’m sure ,we have all been the fox at some point and also the stork 😉

I’ll keep reading the fables… I love thinking about them on a simple and then a deeper level. Fun, childhood bedtime stories, yet also so much more 🙂

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Celebrate this 23rd April!

Today is a day of celebration. It is:

St. George’s Day

William Shakespeare’s Birthday

World Book Night

And I think they all tie in nicely with us here in the UK. St. George’s Day means we should generally feel proud to be British today. Yes, people complain that there aren’t as many celebrations for that, as there are St. Patrick’s Day for example – well to those people I say, ‘Don’t complain – Do!’ Arrange something to celebrate if you feel you should. Me? I’ve just read a good work of fiction, in the British summer time, drinking a glass of Pimms and lemonade – very English and also ties in with World Book Night too 😉

So, that’s St. George’s Day taken care of. And I think you all know how I feel about books and I celebrate them very regularly anyway. (Take a look at A Book Lover’s Post in my ‘Love of Books’ section at the top, if you need reminding). That leaves Mr William Shakespeare to discuss. I am sitting here writing this drinking tea out of my Shakespeare quote mug, bought for me, funnily enough, by my friend from France. It has many quotes from his works that are well-known phrases today. It is amazing really, how much he has influenced our language. I know it is argued that many others helped him write his plays, so it is uncertain how much of the words are his own – but there is enough evidence to show he had a brilliant way with words, I think 🙂

Before I share with you some Shakespearian words of wisdom  – straight from my tea mug (nobody can say I don’t plan for these blog posts 😉 – I just want to exclaim my fascination with his actual birth date. Even though, his birth date is actually unknown – it is estimated that he was born on the 23rd since his baptism was the 26th April and this normally occurred 3 days after the birth. He then died on the 23rd April too.   I love how he died on his birthday, therefore. I just  think it made his life completely rounded off , complete, like one of his plays 🙂

Today he would have been 449 . Amazing really that we still study work of someone who was born centuries ago.  It is also the 397th anniversary of his death, as he died at the age of 52. They say his greatest achievement  was surviving his first year in the harsh, cruel Tudor period – where many new borns didn’t survive. I think some of his great words can challenge this achievement:

‘A fool’s paradise’ ‘Rhyme nor reason’ ‘A dish fit for the gods’ ‘The Queen’s English’ ‘It’s all Greek to me’ ‘in stitches’ ‘heart upon my sleeve’ ‘a green eyed monster’ ‘star crossed lovers’ ‘wild goose chase’ ‘all that glitters is not gold’ ‘fair play’ ‘make your hair stand on end’ ‘vanish into thin air’ ‘fancy free’ ‘love is blind’ ‘lie low’ ‘for ever and a day’ ‘in a pickle’

and my personal favourite, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

‘The course of true love did never run smooth’

Too true Bill!

The kids at school complain; ‘Why do we have to learn this old language?!’ I tell them, that to understand it (and they don’t need to understand it all), they need good analytical and communication skills. It is also interesting, yet they may not think that until years later. You must admit that you use a lot of the above phrases, or at least have heard of them.  Meaning, his words are still relevant today in their modern context.

Here’s to William Shakespeare, much-loved Bard and playwright  – then, now and forever 🙂

p.s – I guiltily admit that I have never been to Shakespeare’s birth place, but I am going in a few weeks and I’m very excited 😀

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Numbers 3: Inifinity

Thought I should share my views on the third and final book in Rachel Ward’s trilogy Numbers. Numbers 3: Infinity did the trilogy justice and did a great job in tying up the stories. It was action packed and I must admit, I read it in the space of 4-5 hours in just 2 sittings (would have been one if sleep and eating easter eggs hadn’t got in the way!)

This book, like book 2, has Adam and Sarah as the protagonists. Adam is now famous, like his mother Jem was in book 1, for seeing the death-date numbers in people’s eyes and saving them from the ‘chaos’ in book 2. He is living with Sarah, her daughter Mia (the result of incest from book 1) and Sarah’s two brothers sort of on the run. Or definitely, in the rough as the ‘chaos’ destroyed most homes. The government want Adam’s help in order to look at people’s numbers so they know when people are going to die i.e. where not to waste the country’s precious resources. Nice.

We have Saul in this book; a baddie. Something we haven’t really experienced in the books yet. The drama has originally come from circumstance and results  of the predicted numbers. This book still has all that, but it has this extra villain to add to the mix. Saul is working for the government and after impatiently realising Adam won’t come nicely, he forces him (and Mia and Sarah) to go with him. To a prison like place in the hillside. But it isn’t just Adam that Saul is interested in…… and it isn’t just Adam that has an interesting gift. We discover that Saul can ‘steal’ people’s numbers in order to live forever. We also know that Mia, whether intentionally or not, can do this. She took Nan’s number in the ‘chaos’ and survived instead. Mia didn’t just inherit Nan’s number though, she can also see people’s auras and colours, just like Nan did. So there is some special gifts floating about – but will they be used for good or evil?

Without giving anymore away, we learn in this book that the numbers aren’t as factual as numbers should be. It isn’t as clear-cut. Adam thought he know how it all worked but now people’s lives are at risk. Can he keep his little, dysfunctional family alive? And can they escape the number-sucking grip of Saul?

I truly recommend these books: to adults and teenagaers alike. They are a fantastic and dramatic read. It has as many twists and turns as there are numbers on this world. I don’t think I have ever been fascinated by something that was dominated by numbers  – as we all know, I am more of a words kind of girl 😉

So, One, two and three: read them all!

Happy reading this weekend!

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Miserable Cinderellas

‘There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren’t any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.’

I saw two productions over half term. The Burton Operatic Society did a production of Cinderella at a local school. (I have discussed a production in a previous blog: https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/good-vs-evil/) I also saw Les Miserables (finally!) at  the cinema. Both productions were fantastic but naturally they are every different in terms of context and plot. But in this case, they are both musicals and me being me, I wanted to draw some comparisons from the characters. (Call me lazy if you like for not writing two separate reviews!)

I must confess that I didn’t really know the story of Les Mis. before I went. I know, I know, English graduate who has not read it or seen a version of it. Reasons, or excuses being, well for starters the book is reallllly long! I have since downloaded it to my Nook and it is a worryingly long 4000 pages! (You may not see so many blogs lately 😉 ) Also, I just never saw a production through reasons such as money, opportunity and I never particularly studied it. It was worth the wait though!

I loved the film of Les Mis. and recommend anyone who has not seen it, to go. Or wait for the DVD 😉 It was a brilliant portrayal of Paris after the French Revolution. It focuses on the poor – or as ‘les miserables’ can be translated as ‘the poor ones,’ ‘the miserables,’ or ‘the victims.’ Then there is the juicy part of the plot of the June Rebellion also known as The Paris Uprising of 1832. This was good viewing and really gave a depiction of this battle between the rich and the poor man. I don’t want to go too much into the story because that isn’t the purpose of this blog. But just a few more thoughts of mine about the latest film version: the singing was good overall. I was well aware it was a musical and was fine with the characters singing when there was a vital part to the plot, when they had to sing their own thoughts or sing as a group  – fine. I wasn’t so sure about them ‘singing’ conversations to each other. That was a bit odd! I know that that is the case with all productions of Les Miserables but it just seemed a little odd to me. Russel Crowe singing seriously was even odder – he was the only one that I cringed in my seat a little when he let the notes escape his mouth. My other main point that comes to mind, is the children. They were fantastic little actors and really did the characters justice. Brilliant.

Cinderella I would think we all know a little about. It was a great production by Burton Operatics and an old story with a new twist, yet it still kept the original magic. I laughed out loud when the mice came out though – as they were played by children, they were nearly as big as Cinders herself! The actress playing Cinderella was amazing and had that inner happiness to her that only resurfaced when she was with the mice, or day dreaming or when she meets the prince. She played the miserable and slave side to the character equally as well. (The other actors and everyone involved did a fantastic job too – to risk a shout out!)

I started to see the old fairy tale in a new light though last week. Possible because it was the first time I had seen it as an adult. It really is about a poor orphan girl, treated badly because of the times and bad luck of being left with an awful family. We are talking 17th century when this first was written, reflecting the role of women at the time. If women had no family or husband then they were worth nothing really. It isn’t until she meets her Prince Charming that her life becomes livable. The feminist in me, sobs at this.

This is what got me thinking when I saw Les Mis. Cosette is a lot like Cinderella. Think about it. They are both;

• orphans and are left in terrible circumstances because of this.
• slave like characters who like to dream and hope. The song at the top is from Les Mis. and sung by Cosette but it also reminded me of Cinderella.
• young and beautiful
• women in society who are not able to help themselves
• (in the end) married to their heart’s desire who happen to rescue them from their misfortune. (I will admit Cosette was already saved early on by Jean Valjean – but again saved by a man)

So whether fairy tales or historical dramas, women were still depicted and were indeed treated in the same, awful way years ago. In terms of fairy tales, I do sometimes think why didn’t Cinderella (or Snow White, or any other) put the broom down, go out get a job, fend for herself and forget about men? But as Les Mis. shows, it wasn’t as simple as that indeed in France or England or anywhere. I was horrified by Cosette’s Mum in the film (played by Ann Hathaway) and how she had to have her head shaved to sell her hair and have her teeth pulled out for money. Definitely showing the hardships of the time. Poor women then had to resort to prostitution if they weren’t lucky to get rescued by the Jean Valjeans or the Prince Charmings of the world.

I suppose, though, the Valjean character does show us just how hard it was for men too. He wouldn’t have been able to turn his life around (well firstly if he didn’t steal a lot of silver!) if he hadn’t the run and under cover, carving and scraping a life for himself along the way. But being a hero of a story, he still managed to save Cosette on the way also. Like fairy tales, there is some sort of happy ending.

So how many Miserable Cinderellas are out there today? Women that have nowhere to turn or are so desperate that they turn to a horrible way of life. Because, unlike fairy takes, there isn’t always a happy ending in life. 😦

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Numbers 2: Chaos

The second book in Rachel Ward’s fantastic trilogy doesn’t disappoint. It is just as exciting, if not more, than the first. I must say though, if you haven’t read the first book yet – then click off this page now until you have. As it may spoil some of the plot from the debut. 😉

Half of this book is from the perspective of Adam, the son of Jem and Spider. The other half is from Sarah’s point of view – one of Adam’s school colleagues, who first knows him from her nightmares. She can see the future, you see, in her nightmares. And Adam, you’ve guessed it, has his Mum’s gift and can see the numbers in people’s eyes. Yet, the gift seems to be developing with each generation and Adam can see and feel how the person is going to die too.

Spider and Jem aren’t in this book – you’ll see why at the end of the first book 😉 We are left with Adam, his great-nan from the first book and Sarah to try and help save London from the looming disaster. Adam keeps seeing the same number: 1st Jan 2027.  He sees it in people everywhere he does and knows something terrible is going to happen. This is no London Eye incident from the first book, this is going to affect thousands of people.

Adam starts to record the numbers, the people he saw them in, the place he saw them and the kind of death they will have. He starts to notice a pattern: fire, water and tumbling rubble. If people aren’t going to die on New Year’s Day then a lot of them are predicted to die days after. So what is going to happen? And can Adam change the future by warning people? Is anyone actually going to believe him?

Sarah has the same nightmare every night and her days are filled with a nightmare too  – her Dad rapes her on a regular basis. Up to this point, I thought these books would be great for teenagers in schools to study, but it does has very adult themes like this. Something good comes out of her horrible ordeal though. A child. Which to me, seems a bit odd. I mean, I get why it happened, as a result of incest. But she seems absolutely fine with bringing up her Dad’s baby and doesn’t seem emotionally torn in how to love the baby or now – I just thought that may have been more of an issue. And what will happen when the baby asks about her Dad one day? But Ward does do a great job with Sarah and her love/hatred/fear of her father. And the story running parallel to the first book : means she also runs away. She is also partly running away from Adam, he may have met her at school, but she has known him for years from her nightmares! She is terrified of him but doesn’t know why and as much as she runs, she finds that she always runs into him.

Together, will they figure out a solution to the looming New Year’s Day? Will they all survive? And since the gift has now changed through the generations – can Adam now change the numbers?

My only issue with the book (apart from the baby issue that I have already mentioned) is technology. I like how the book is set in the future and people get chipped and there are these palm computer gadgets that every school pupil has. There are TV screens all over London giving safety info. That all seems quite believable. Yet, Adam doesn’t know how to use the internet. Whaaat? Ward claims, Jem always kept Adam away from the internet because it is full of rubbish. But would we seriously believe that a teenage boy, even these days, would do as his Mum says and avoid the internet completely? Let alone in 14 years time! Teenagers can’t avoid the internet, yet Adam doesn’t even know how to warn people of 1.1.2027 through forums or blogs or anything. I find this to be unrealistic, as I imagine people will pretty much use the internet to survive in the future! Adam would have grown up with it.

This book is aptly named ‘Chaos’ as there is nothing but that from beginning to end. It isn’t a particularly happy book,  but as I say about things like that, it will always make you feel better about your own life 😉 I did get a bit freaked out though by the 1st Jan 2027 date – because could something happen on that day?  Could Ward be right? But I guess you always get that with books set in the future – and George Orwell wasn’t right with 1984 was he?! 😉

Happy reading,

XSXS

Numbers

I have never had a head for numbers. You may have realised that I am more of a words kind of girl. 😉 That doesn’t mean that I am not fascinated by numbers though – even if I can’t always add them together very well 😉 For this reason, I would like to say that is why I was drawn to reading the book Numbers by Rachel Ward. But I was bought it randomly by my sister and her boyfriend for Christmas – random, just as numbers can be.

Numbers is a trilogy  – Numbers 2 Chaos and Numbers 3 Infinity completing the trio. So far, I have read the first two. And they are fantastic. Full of drama and twists and turns. And, I know we shouldn’t judge a book by the cover and all – but they are pretty ace too. Numbers also litter the pages and I swear I could see numbers along the closed pages when the book is shut – but I wasn’t sure if I was going a little crazy like the characters and thinking I could see numbers 😉

The first in the fantastic series….

But I haven’t told you enough to make you want to pick up a copy yet. In the first book, Jem is a troubled teenage girl and she can see numbers. In people’s eyes. It is a date. Of when they are going to die. As soon as I read that on the blurb, I was intrigued. I like psychological plots and I knew this would be one. Like, would she ever tell someone their number? Could she save lives? Will she find out her own number? It is compelling stuff because if you think about it, we all have a number. A death number. Without being too morbid, we are all going to die some day. But we don’t think about it because there is no point. We don’t know when it will be. Even if we have a terminal illness, we don’t know the exact day. Would you want to know? I sure as hell wouldn’t. I would be terrified of that day getting nearer. We all like to believe that we have a long stretch of life in front of us and maybe that’s what gets us from day-to-day.

But Jem does know. She sees a number each time she looks at someone, meaning that a lot of the time she doesn’t want to look people in the eye. She is a typical teenage girl in that she avoids eye contact and is awkward in social situations. She is not so typical for the reasons though: She not only sees the date that will end a person’s existence but she has lost her mum to drug addiction, she has no other family and gets shoved from foster home to foster home and she has no friend in the world. Depressing yes – so maybe not get it your teenager to help cheer them up 😉

It is however action packed and this begins when she meets Spider. Jem is a small, delicate, white girl. Spider in strong contrast is a tall, black, gangly bloke. They are opposites, yet find that one thing in common. They are both outcasts and both lonely.

The plot thickens when Jem and Spider are out for the day. Hanging out in London like teenagers do, they want to go on the London Eye but realise it’s too expensive. Jem quickly realises this is meant to be, as all the people around them, have the same death number. The date of that day. She manages to convince Spider, without telling him why, that they need to go. Minutes later, the London Eye explodes. Taking lives and reinforcing the fact that the numbers must be true! But they are seen running from the London Eye just before the explosion and the police think they are responsible for it. So they go on the run.

I won’t give more away but it all gets very intense as these two naive teenagers go on the run. Spider steals cars yet he has never driven one before. The whole country knows their faces so they have to keep hidden. And remember, as soon as Jem looked Spider in the eye, she knew his number. And she knows his fateful day is going to be soon. So it’s all about can she change his number? Can they stay hidden from the police and the press? Or is she going to have to come clean about her number visions?

It really is an amazing story and they are believable characters. Spider’s gran adds a lot of humour and wackiness to the story, whereas Karen, Jem’s foster Mum brings in the realistic and sensible elements – and tries to bring in some stability for Jem.

I’ll discuss the second book in a separate post – but if you like drama, action and romance, then this book is a great combination of all three! 🙂

XSXS

A Book Lover’s Post

I think it is safe to say that everyone who writes, loves to read. Yet,  I am not sure if this is the same vice versa. My collection of books keeps growing and growing and I have just noticed that my new Xmas reads will not fit on the book shelves. My boyfriend has tried to aid this problem by buying me a Nook this year. I love it and it is a modern gadget that can make searching for books and reading them exciting. It is also just plain easier at times as you can hold it with one hand… it holds hundreds of books so you don’t have to carry them. However, I have told him, and I will tell you that I will not stop buying real books by my favourite authors. I love to look at them on the shelf and love the process of selecting one to read. Buying books is also a hobby, as I love to search old book shops and charity shops for books I have not heard of or ones I have not read by favourite authors. I love the smells of old books (and new books), the different covers (I have 4 different versions of Pride and Prejudice) and I just feel my house is not a home without a multitude of bookshelves… even though, I am not sure my boyfriend agrees with this!

I have a book diary. As I mentioned yesterday (https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/12/29/scared-of-a-word), I love notebooks and writing thoughts in them. Well, I also like diaries. As a teenager, I used to write in a diary on a daily basis with all my thoughts and observations of the day. (See my post: https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/to-my-14-year-old-self/). As, you have gathered, I also love books. So to have a diary to record my thoughts about books is just genius. My friend bought it for me a couple of years ago and I love it! I record various lists of books I have read in my life so far, that year, need to read, want to read and books I should read before I die. Only a true book lover will understand the use of the verb should. How can you call yourself a book lover if you haven’t read the works of Austen, Shakespeare or Dickens? Some may disagree and think that reading should be about what you want to read. I agree in a way and I do, mostly. But there are these works of fiction that I just feel I need to have an opinion on  – can’t believe I’m about to mention this in the same paragraph as Dickens and co, but that is why I read 50 Shades. I wanted to know what all the hype was. So, some of these famous (or infamous) books may be on my ‘to read list’ for many years to come (for example War and Peace –  I mean, it’s just so long isn’t it?!) But hopefully I will get there one day.

This is the copy I own… a beautiful way to record your passion for reading….

I definitely recommend a book diary. You can also record notes about the books you have read, who recommended it to you and who you then recommended it to. You can note down good book sites, shops and reading groups. In mine there is an A-Z of books you have read so you can add to it from year to year. It is also full of quotes about reading and books and I read them again and again whenever I come to use it.

Here is one of my favourite quotes from The Book Lover’s Diary:

‘There are 10,000 books in my library, and it will keep on growing until I die. This has exasperated my daughters, amused my friends and baffled my accountant. If I had not picked up this habit in the library long ago, I would have much more money in the bank today; but I would not be richer.’

(Pete Hamill, D’artagnan on Ninth Street: A Brooklyn boy at the library.)

This is me… or it will be one day! Long live books in all forms! Happy reading… and recording!

XSXS

My Final 50 Shades of Freed Opinion

Well guys, I have read the third and final book in the 50 Shades trilogy. 50 Shades Freed, I enjoyed. I am trying to work out if it was a good book, though, or if I really enjoyed it because it was the first book I read on my Nook (I’m loving how Nook rhymes with book by the way!) I think it is part novelty factor that I was excited to read it each time. I kept joking that ‘I was going to bed with my Nook!’ You can’t deny it doesn’t automatically remind you of nooky! Haha.

Anyway, to the book itself… in its fine ebook form. I enjoyed the story of this one, as predictable as it was. It had a happy ending, which i do admit, for the characters in it I wasn’t expecting but it is a generic ending overall. There was some twists and turns, which I admit did keep me page turning (with a flick of the finger on my Nook) and yearning to read on.

I hate to say this though… I got bored with the sex! For starters, they do it far too often. How often can it be physically possible?! And one point they do it again 5 minutes after… I mean I know Mr. Grey is young but he isn’t 18 anymore! And as for Ana, surely she would get sore, thrush or something with the amount of times they do it?! You never hear the words ‘sorry love, I’m not in the mood/I have a headache/let’s just cuddle.’ Ana says at times when they have had arguments that they need to have sex because ‘it is what they do.’ It is almost like sex is a barometer in their relationship and tells them that all is okay. When you think of it like that then maybe all our relationships are like that. So, yes I felt myself skimming across the sex scenes because I felt there could be no news way for them to do it and the author was certainly not going to bust out that thesaurus to write it in different ways (I discovered this after book 1).

But, as ever, I did enjoy the depths of Christian and finding out why he is the way he is. I really liked him as a character in the end and in this book it was Ana I was more frequently annoyed with. Sunbathing topless, driving a jet ski, going out drinking without calling him when her husband is so needy, clingy and paranoid. It was like she was deliberately trying to piss him off. At least we understand why he is like that. I enjoyed finding out more about his past and I also thought it was a nice touch how the book started and ended with Christian’s perspective (rather than Ana’s like the rest of the book) as it showed both sides to the two characters we had come to know.

So if you have read the first two books, then this is worth a read to complete your sexy trilogy. If you enjoy the sex parts then definitely read this one as it has a lot of raunchy bits – much more then the second book. It isn’t amazing writing; it isn’t portrayed to be. But a holiday read, a sunday afternoon read or a new Nook read.. Yes.

Now which book to read on my Nook…. I must remember that you do actually buy the books. It is easy to forget when a book is on your screen ready to read within seconds of a few touches and clicks.

XSXS

Goldilocks and the Three Pigs

Sunday afternoon should be story time…. I hope to read a little more of some books on my new Nook later. In the meanwhile, I thought I would share with you a story I have started to write. My boyfriend’s sister is always talking about fan fiction on the internet and how it mixes two well known stories or characters together. She likes reading about Harry Potter mixed with the world of Percy Jackson. I decided to mix two well known children’s stories together. I became fascinted by this at Uni actually when we studied Angela Carter and she created more adult versions of certain fairy tales. I haven’t decided how sinister mine is going to get yet. See what you think… any suggestions welcome:

Goldilocks and the Three Pigs

With her blonde, curly hair blowing in the breeze, Goldilocks strolled down the lane leading from the bottom of her garden. She was finally allowed out again. She had been grounded since the bear incident. She was a curious, inquisitive girl and it always got her into trouble. She had only wanted to see the three bears’ house and exploring their various chairs and beds had been fun! The porridge had been disgusting though!  Yes, her parents hadn’t been happy with her and she hadn’t been allowed to leave the house on her own, until that moment.

She had permission to walk into town and buy some sweets from the local, traditional sweet shop. All children saved their pocket money in order to buy a small bag of sweets from there at the weekend. They tasted great and were brilliant value for money. Goldilocks had been warned, though, to steer clear of the local wolf. The wolf was a nasty creature, who came after animals and humans. Under no circumstances should Goldilocks talk to the wolf, her parents ordered. The wolf tended to focus on certain groups or families at a time and make their lives a misery. A while ago it had been a local family who had a daughter with a red cape. That hadn’t ended well. Goldilocks wasn’t scared though and the town was busy so surely nothing could happen?

As she came close to the main high street, she realised she had forgotten her pocket money! How could she buy sweets without any money? She felt very upset and froze on the spot and started to cry a little. She also felt annoyed at herself and very sad that she couldn’t get her sweets. Then, she saw a flash of dark, grey fur out of the corner of her left eye. It was the wolf! He had crept around the corner and was now stood next to her on the pavement. Goldilocks quickly hit her running tears away  with the back of her hand and obediently turned away as not to speak to the wolf.

            ‘Little girl, stay and listen to me,’ the wolf purred.

            ‘I have to go. I have no money and my Mum and Dad said I can’t talk to you’, Goldilocks babbled.

            ‘Well, I don’t know your parents and I don’t think they know me, so it seems a little unfair for them to say that, don’t you think?’ he said in a sickly, sweet voice.

            ‘That is true’, Goldilocks agreed ‘but I don’t know you either and I shouldn’t speak to people I don’t know.’

This girl was cleverer than the wolf has anticipated. He would have to be extra sneaky to gain her trust and win her over.

            ‘Shame about your money,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘The sweets are amazing from that shop at the end of the road.’

            ‘Yes, that’s what I was meant to be getting,’ Goldilocks said glumly.

            ‘Well, what would you say if I bought you all the sweets you could eat? If you do a little job for me?’ the wolf was almost whispering by this point.

The little girl’s face had lit up when he said this but by the end of his suggestion, her expression was just full of confusion.

            ‘Let me explain,’ he spoke calmly, ‘there are three pigs, who have been spreading rumours about me. They are three brothers and the rumours are probably the reason your parents warned you against me. The Hamsons, they are called. I want to teach them a lesson but they always keep a good look out for me. They would never suspect you. The youngest brother, Porky, has just made himself a house of straw. I want to destroy it.’

The curly haired girl trembled and fear came into her eyes. ‘I can’t do anything bad, I’ll get into trouble.’ She mumbled.

            ‘Your parents would never know and neither would anyone else.’ The wolf soothed.

            ‘Then why don’t you do it if no one will know? You just said, they won’t recognise me so you must be thinking they will see me!’ Exclaimed the fearful girl, who wished she had ran home for her money the moment she had realised. At the exact same moment, the wolf was feeling rather irritated at the girl’s intelligence and wished that he had approached someone a little more naive like the Jones’ girl who lives near the woods. Another girl in a red hood, like the one he had captured last month, would have been ideal too.

‘Well they would know it was you about the house, but they wouldn’t know you had done anything wrong. I can’t even go near their houses without them calling the town police.’ He said as calmly as ever.

‘Oh right,’ she said, still seeming a little unsure. ‘What would I have to do?’ She looked very nervous that the wolf would have felt sympathy, if he was capable of that feeling that is. ‘Would I have to set the house on fire?’ She asked. The wolf’s eyes lit up as the fire would. He hadn’t even thought of that!

‘Well yes, I think that would be the best way. I would try and blow it over but I’m getting old now and don’t have a lot of puff.’

 

….. that is as far as I have got. It is written in child-like form really. I may make it more adult like and think of a sinister ending. Any thoughts?

XSXS

Feeling the Presents…

Well my first post as a 27 year old!! I had a lovely birthday and the meal and drinks outing with friends last night was great. Lots of food (too much – I stupidly had a starter, which I should learn is a no no at an Indian!) The bottle of wine to myself though was a very good idea! Haha, not actually suffering today either, maybe I am finally immune to alcohol now that I am 27! Not that I wasn’t feeling a little tipsy last night….

I know I said that presents weren’t the main reason I get excited for my birthday, but thought i would briefly share with you how lucky I was. My boyfriend bought me a Nook…. like a Kindle but a different brand… ( I keep getting told off for calling it a kindle!) I have been in two minds as to whether these are a good thing or not. I mean, they can’t replace books surely? It is sad if people won’t read proper books anymore with the pretty covers, old or new smell and put then onto lovely book shelves. Sometimes I just go and look at my books. They are in alphabetical order by the author’s surname. I love to see which books I have enjoyed and which ones I need to read still. I had to say to my boyfriend that even though I was excited by the Nook that I wouldn’t be getting rid of my books! He looked a little disappointed as I think he is fearful that one day we will have a room where the walls are lined with books (it is not far off this now to be honest!) So, I have never been sure about these e-book readers just because I couldn’t work out how one, plus my normal books, would fit into my life. But I have figured that it will be great to download the old classics for free and use it for magazines and newspapers…. and of course it will be great for the train and when on holiday etc. I have also realised it is quite handy for reading those books you don’t want others to see you reading (like 50 Shades of Grey and a book I currently want called Why is the Penis Shaped Like That?) They are books you just wouldn’t want on the shelf aren’t they?! So, I am quite excited about it and currently waiting for it to charge so I can play with it! One thing, I found ironic though, is that in order to use it you need to read the instruction book! I guess books will never completely go………….

In terms of other presents, I have had lovely real books, bags, jewellery and some quote plaques! With my love of words I want to start a quote wall with lots of quote plaques!! I also had some photo albums… another passion of mine as you will know! So people know me very well and I am very lucky! A very good birthday…. not sure it quite matches up to my 25th though!

Of course the real gift is feeling the presence of people around you. I have had so many texts, cards and facebook messages and to be around my closest friends last night was great!

See my previous related posts: https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/50-shades-of-opinion-by-miss-gray/    https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/fifty-darker-shades-of-opinion-by-miss-gray/

https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/photographic-memories/

https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/a-day-of-birth/

Formal rowing dinner tonight with my boyfriend and our parents.. and lots of other rowing people! I’ll also call it birthday part 2!

XSXS

 

This is interesting and ties in nicely with my post on another horror of Jekyll and Hyde in https://samanthagray9.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/good-vs-evil/ 🙂

the.soft.anonymous

When it comes to horror stories, Frankenstein is probably the most famous of them all. Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece has sent shivers of fear through generations of readers, inspired countless adaptations, and become the gold standard for tales of terror and suspense. It’s a story that becomes even more unsettling, though, when you realise it was inspired by twitching corpses, violent volcanoes and disturbing nightmares…

Mary Shelley’s famous novel barely needs an introduction. Its protagonist, Dr Victor Frankenstein, is fiction’s original ‘mad’ scientist, dedicating himself to chemistry at university so that he can learn how to create life out of inanimate matter. The being he cooks up, however, is repulsive:

“His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness; but these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, ……

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Writing in Progress

Hi guys,just a quick post to show you a link to my new facebook page called ‘Writing in Progress.’ It is handy to jump to older blogs linked with their pics and also to see other extracts of my writing that I will be posting.

https://www.facebook.com/writinginprogresssamanthagray9

Cheers,

XSXS

Good Vs Evil

Last night, I went to see Jekyll and Hyde, a production put on by the Burton Operatic Society, and it was fantastic! This is not really a review but I will encourage any of you that live in the midlands to go and see it. The leads were amazing with very strong singing voices and the portrayal of the story was brilliant. All the cast, band and people backstage did a wonderful job. I always enjoy these shows and it is great to see one of my good friends come alive on stage… not that she doesn’t seem alive the rest of the time, but you know what I mean 😉

I loved the depiction of good and evil within the production like where Dr. Jekyll’s fiancée was up high getting ready for bed in her angel like nightie and in contrast at the same time, Lucy was down below being amorous with a man…very devil like. And Jekyll himself, at the end, was torn between his two selves and kept rapidly turning his head from ‘Jekyll’ to ‘Hyde’ and this was shown by his change of hair (half up for Jekyll and down for Hyde, which I thought was very clever!) and the colours of light blue/red. The language too… when Jekyll says to his fiancée ‘Night, my angel.’ and she replies ‘Night, my devil,’ very good hint at the future!

The production got me thinking about the idea of there being Good and Bad within all of us. Do we agree with this? Nobody is perfect so we all have good points and faults. But would we go as far to say that there is evil within us? If the evil within you became a person in their own right then would they be as sinister as Mr Hyde in the story? Would they go around killing people? It is an interesting thought that there are two sides to us. But I am not sure it as simple as that because like we are all different then surely we have different amounts of good and bad too.

Do we get murderers, rapists and paedophiles because they have more evil in them than good? I think probably so. I think it is a battle between the angel and devil we always see on TV but not literally. We have these two urges in our mind that represent good and evil and one will win. This explains why bad things get done and whilst some people are mostly ‘good’ but have their moments of nastiness…. human nature I guess. To back up with a little solid psychology theory: Freud’s structural model of the psyche can help us a little here. He believes that there are three parts to our brain to make up our personality structure; the Id, the Ego and the Super-Ego. The Id is what controls our instant gratification driven by what Freud calls the ‘Pleasure principal’. So when you just ‘need’ that chocolate bar then it is your Id that is winning the battle there….. I wish mine was a little more strong-willed! The Ego is based in reality (Reality Principle) and what should happen according to the situation but still getting what you want in the end. The Super-Ego is related to our morals, fighting the Id and acting on what is right for what we believe in. That is very simple summarising of it and I’m sure there is more to it. But if we take this and think of a situation where we really dislike someone and want to shove the ice-cream they are eating into their face… the Id will be all for this and doing it there and then, the Ego would want to punish the woman but maybe through another way? Or nick her ice-cream when she goes to the loo? The Super-Ego would then rationalise it all and think there could be a better way to deal with it as shoving food in her face would be wrong. So imagine these three battling it out and depending on who we are, how we have been brought up and what morals we have then who knows who will win? Someone with a bigger Id could be more evil maybe, every nasty, negative thought is acted on impulsively. This is just a thought of mine anyway, it could explain a lot.

I also think, that as humans, we are all capable of killing someone. This thought first came to me years ago when I studied Shakespeare’s Othello and Othello is a calm, gentle man and is driven to kill his own wife because doubts and rumours are planted his mind by the villain Iago that his wife has been unfaithful. Can we all be driven to killing someone? I’m not saying that if our mates tell us our partners are cheating when we will go and murder them but this example made me think about it and how a calm, gentle man was pushed to the limit. If we had family members who were killed, would we not want to kill the killer? We could all be in a situation where we want revenge and could be pushed and driven to acting in this evil way.

And yes we all have some good in us too… as hard as it to believe with some people as they keep it very well hidden! Tell their Id to go away 😉

A nice topic that ties in nicely with Halloween! Happy Halloween everyone… hope you get treated and not tricked this evening!

XSXS

A Little Magic at the Weekend…..

I don’t know if there are any Harry Potter fans out there? But yesterday I was Harry Potter. My boyfriend’s sister had a Harry Potter themed party (well it was actually Harry Potter, Merlin, Disney, Percy Jackson and randomness but let’s stick with Harry Potter to keep it simple!) I painted some house banners, you know of Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin to decorate the house and I wore a Daniel Radcliffe mask….. that I had to add a red lightning scar to make it authentic….. a wand, a cloak, a scarf and tie. Very funny.

Me in my Harry Potter gear………….Expelliarmus!

There was lot of activities supplied by my boyfriend’s Mum. We had to go and do a treasure hunt yesterday. This involved looking round our local town for random things such as flowers, bus tickets, leaflets, newspapers etc and ticking them off as we went! Bear in mind that I was dressed as above (though I must confess that I left the wand and mask at the house and in my long, black winter coat I looked quite normal… well for me!), my boyfriend’s sister and her mates were dressed as random Harry Potter students and Bellatrix Lestrange and my boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend was dressed brightly as Luna Lovegood! So yes, we looked a right sight and it made me think that it could be real. Like in the books where the wizards visit the muggle world. That is what it could have been! A group of people at one point were getting into a car dressed as witches (for a Halloween party I assume!) and they said,’Oh look, we aren’t the only weirdos about!’ I said to my boyfriend’s sister that it would have been really funny if they had exclaimed, ‘Err we aren’t in fancy dress… we are actually witches and just visiting your muggle world for the afternoon!’ That would have been really funny and an attempt to bring Harry Potter and the world of Hogwarts to life for the afternoon!

Anyway, the treasure hunt went well. The other team consisted of my boyfriend, his twin, their brother and his mate. So girls vs boys. They boys won, sadly, but I was really pleased with how we did because we didn’t spend a penny (on getting items like Macdonald’s wrappers… we hunted the floor…. or a bus ticket…. one of us charmed the bus driver to give us a stub.) We also went on foot, whereas the boys went in the car. This meant we were slower but not by much! So I think we did very well in that case. Shame we didn’t have actual broomsticks to use like in the film!

I want to end this post byexpressing my ultimate envy for J.K Rowling. Not for the money and the fame. If i was going to be famous, I would want it to be for writing a book and she just has it so good having written a great series of books that have appealed for years to all ages. And then eight great films get made too! It is just such an original idea (even though there was some controversy over her getting the idea from another book about wizards or something?) She not only created great characters but a whole new world, language and culture. I am in awe. I would love to come up with such an idea that I could write seven books about. Maybe it is in me somewhere!

Have a magical evening!

XSXS

50 Darker Shades of Opinion (by Miss Gray)

Evening guys, thought I would finally share with you my thoughts on the second book in this famous trilogy. I summed up the first one as ‘bad writing, good sex.’ If I have to sum this one up in the same way, I will say, ‘Less sex, more plot.’ I preferred this one a lot more. I suppose people will be drawn in to read the trilogy by the sex and by the second book they are engrossed and want to know what happens in the actual story.

I still stand by my first review as I am trying to look at them as separate books. The writing is similar but I can happily get used to that. The characters do seem a bit more developed and I start to find them believable in this book. In fact, I like them quite a lot. Ana seems to come to terms with who Christian is and takes on, not only her first ever relationship, but a very complicated and high maintenance one. She starts to accept him for who he is, which brings out favourable qualities in her. She seems to be tipped over the edge a bit too often for my liking though and I don’t get the fact that she can handle his screwed up past but can’t handle him giving his mentally disturbed ex-submissive a bath? Guess she has a lot to deal with though…. Christian, we found out a lot more about and it becomes very interesting why he is like how he is. Power, control are the only things he has ever understood and the only way he has learnt how to be. As Ana learns to deal with more about this for their relationship, he also learns the other side; ‘hearts and flowers’. There is more romance in this book to balance out with the sex.

One theme that I have discovered runs through the book is ‘hunger’. That’s what I would write about if I wrote an essay about it. Yes, I think about that sometimes being the English writing geek that I am! Christian spent his childhood being ‘hungry’ for food, which is why we discover he is obsessed with Ana eating regular meals so that she is not hungry. Ana is always ‘hungry’ for information. Constantly asking him about his past, the Room of Pain, ‘Mrs Robinson’, his ex submissives, his real mother etc etc etc. She is like an inquisitive child, pushing her luck really with someone who doesn’t really like being open and talking. And of course they are both, quite frequently, ‘hungry’ for each other. For sex. Ana often responds to the, ‘Are you hungry?’ question with the response, ‘Yes, but not for food..’ Ooooh how saucy.

‘Mrs Robinson’ features in this book. Obviously I give her name in quotation marks, as that is not her real name. For some reason, I picture her to be that actress who plays Stifler’s Mum in American Pie. I think it’s because she, too, goes for the younger man and the song Mrs. Robinson plays in the first American Pie film when Finch first sleeps with her. I think the character in 50 Shades is meant to be more sophisticated and more beautiful (no offense to the actress!) but that is how I picture her at the minute. So, yes we neet her and that definitely adds some action to the plot. As does, his ex-submissive Leila and Anna’s boss, Jack. We are talking, thrown drinks, arguments, sexual assault, guns and break-ins. But I won’t give anything away 😉

When we read we like to escape don’t we? Escape our reality and to know that anything could happen. This is why I quite enjoy the whole ‘rich lifestyle’ of it all. Ana gets to fly in helicopters, visit fancy restaurants, view mansion style houses that are then bought, sail on amazing boats and drink expensive white wine and Champagne all the time! Jealous, much?! The thing I am jealous the most of all is that Christian has his own library in his own flat. He must be the person who has a Red Room of Pain full of whips, nipple clamps and handcuffs and also a room full of shelves of great literature. Of course, the most endearing thing about it all is that Ana isn’t impressed by money. She enjoys all he has to offer yes but that isn’t why she is involved. I guess it helps though! It’s almost like she has to ‘learn’ to be rich and get used to having whatever she wants. Mmm… hard life.  I found the part when she bid on the auction at the masked ball hilarious. Not very often I laugh at books but that was funny, as she had no such money but got swept along with the moment.

So yes, I enjoyed the second book and it has a great cliff hanger at the end too 😉 The question now bugging me is – ‘Who is going to play Ana and Christian in the film?!?!’ Everyone seems to have views. Will Ana be beautiful? It seems to say she is nothing special, physically. But we have to remember that it is from her perspective and she doesn’t have a lot of confidence in herself. So, will she be more beautiful that she lets on?? Christian, naturally, has to be a god in human form. Brilliant opportunity for some actor out there, they are going to be loved by all women! I imagine him as Neil Patrick Harris in his role as Barney Stinson from How I met you Mother. But a bit more rugged and less cheesy. Maybe no man exists? Truth is, whoever is chosen, someone is going to be disappointed because we all have our own visions of who the dark, handsome millionaire will be. I look forward to finding out….

So, on to the third book…..

See you tomorrow,

XSXS

50 Shades of Opinion… by Miss Gray

Hi guys, Iim back! Had a lovely holiday but thought my first post back would be a review of 50 Shades of Grey since I know you’re all dying to know what I thought…..

My first thought, funnily enough, was finding it odd to see ‘Grey’ with an ‘e’ written as a name and the colour written ‘gray’ with an ‘a’. I know, with all the sex.. why is this my first thought?! Well it’s annoying since I spend most of my life telling people that my name is Gray with an ‘a’. Damn Americans confusing things!

Before I read the book I was told it was badly written… do I agree with this? Yes I do. Thank god I do really. I would have been a bit concerned if I couldn’t tell the bad writing what with me having an English degree and all. It was readable yes and no worse than your average chick lit but the things that annoyed me the most: the repetition of phrases… I lost count of how many times Grey had a ‘ghost of a smile’ or the ‘trace of a smile’ and whenever Ana had an orgasm… ‘I shattered into a thousand/million pieces.’ E L James… heard of a thesaurus?? Get it out and vary how you write! There were also a few sentences that didn’t make sense and had poor expression. The characters were poorly developed too. I know Grey is meant to have so many levels and have ’50 shades’ but a lot of the time his moods just didn’t seem believable and I doubt anyone would be quite that changeable unless they had bi-polar disorder.

Ana also annoyed me because she seemed to confident within herself and her studies. She was a university student who seemed quite ‘normal’ and hung around with popular, outgoing people, yet she had never touched alcohol or had sex. I know, I know, it could be true but in the way she told the story it just wasn’t convincing. She was willing to drive a long distance to a town and interview a complete stranger yet became a blubbering wreck when she see’s him. Then all of a sudden he likes her ‘fast mouth’ but she blushes all the time and before we know it she is sex-mad minx who is willing to try bondage. I just didn’t really get who she was really meant to be. She was oh so confident to write to him on email and as I said, used fast comebacks in person but she couldn’t voice her concerns to him at any given point. She had been studying English and was going into publishing, so shouldn’t she be verbal and articulate? Yet, she can’t seem to tell him that she is not sure if she wants to be hit indeed for pleasure or pain. Weird.

It is the fastest selling paperback of all time. I find this depressing. I can see why people want to read it, yes. But is this what people seem to look for and need from a good book; good sex and bad writing? It’s such a shame because it could have been so much better. Will I be reading the next one? Sadly, yes I will. I want to see how it turns out. I don’t think the same reasons keep me turning the page though as they did for most people. People seem obsessed with the sex in it. It is very descriptive, if not too repetitve at times, interesting and shocking. But to be honest, sex takes up about a half of the book and after the first five or so times, I’m a bit like ‘Oh here we go again.’ Even with his ‘Room of Pain’ I don’t think there are enough different ways to talk about sex as it is mentioned. I was more interested in seeing how their relationship developed and I kept turning those pages to discover more about Christian Grey, who we discover had a lot of pain and lack of love in his life. So, it’s the psychological side I’m the most interested in… yeh yeh the sex is good too but like I say there is just too much of it…. I like them to talk so we can discover more about the characters and I was secretly hoping that they developed further…. I’m still waiting.

I also liked Kate and Elliot. They seem to be a constant contrast of what a ‘normal’ relationship is like and makes us think of Grey and Ana; ‘god their relationship is messed up!’ The parents of Ana and Christian are all interesting characters but we don’t really see them enough for them to fully develop. I think there was one part where Ana phoned her Mum and we got a little history about her and then before we know it, she is phoning her Step-Dad and we hear about him… and I’m thinking Sloowww down, I was just digesting the new information about the mother.

It is worth a read yes but if you take away the sex then you are left with a boy meets girl, boy doesn’t want to commit scenario and let’s face it, that’s been done 50 million times before. But if you are like me, you will want your own opinion on the fast ever selling paperback. And I’ll keep you posted when I have read the other two books 😉

Hope you all had a good week and let me know if you have been reading or have read the 50 Shades books too!

See you tomorrow,

XSXS

Off with your Head!

Hey people…

Since my day so far has been pretty boring and I just feel I am waiting to go on holiday now… I thought I would share with you one of my interests. I am a little bit obsessed by Henry VIII and his six wives… no it’s not boring! I, for one, hated history at school. But now that I have matured (a little!) and the learning of the subject is not forced upon me, I actually quite like certain eras quite a lot. It fits it quite nicely with English and Literature you see… and the Tudor period is the same time as Shakespeare. But that isn’t why I am fascinated by good old Hezza… it’s the fact that he seemed to be so attractively challenged yet managed to get six women to marry him. Six!

I started thinking about the old womaniser last night when the Olympic  closing ceremony was on. Not because he was such a budding athlete… even though I do believe he was pretty good at jousting and hunting and even tennis…. it was because they called our current Prince Harry, Henry. The Facebook updates were quite funny as they cried out that the BBC had made such a mistake and called our young prince by the wrong name! It’s like everyone was looking for something to go wrong or be said wrong! It is of course, his actual name. It then made me think of the Tudor king because people often referred to him as ‘Harry’ in his younger years at least. And I started thinking why? Why are Henrys called Harry and vice versa? There must be an actual reason out there, which I’ve not bothered to go out and research just yet… I’ll save it for a quiet evening when I have nothing better to do. It doesn’t make sense though does it? The name doesn’t even shorten by doing that? Hezza is much better… haha even though that doesn’t shorten either to be fair.. but definitely a more modern name for our current prince.

Back to Henry the VIII…. I was thinking that if he was a man living in today’s society then he would surely be on Jeremy Kyle. I can see the headline of the show now; ‘Man married six women… killed two, ditched two and one died having his baby!’ (His current beau.. good old Katherine Parr would be a guest on the show also!) I guess we have a lot to thank Henry for. There would be no D.I.V.O.R.CE song, would there? Would are population be dire? Think about it… if people were stuck with one person and never there was an option to get divorced then maybe they wouldn’t want to procreate? Then again there is always affairs… and that’s something else we learned from the saucy Tudors!

Who could resist that??

 My main fascination with his wives, lies with Anne Boleyn. She seemed such a rebel for the time and is painted in such a horrible light. Beheaded for many reasons.. one being incest… but what’s a bit of brotherly and sisterly love between family? I guess that’s the point! But the thing is, women were under so much pressure in those times to marry someone in order to support their family.. especially if they were poor. She was told to ‘seduce’ lucky Henry by her father and uncle and would have had no choice in the matter. Women were pawns in the market of marriage and wealth. She then had to produce a son to keep Henry’s love and interest. So even if she did succumb to her brother then it would have been to double her chances of falling pregnant and with a son. Very weird and slightly disgusting but if it is true then it shows how desperate she felt. Witch craft was another apparent offence…. because she had some miscarriages and they thought she was cursed. I tell ya, us women need to breathe sighs of relief that we don’t live in that era. She was also accused of having affairs.. yet Henry had them openly. Men were allowed to though *sarcastic eyebrow raised look*. It seemed six women in a lifetime wasn’t enough.

The six lucky ladies….

 I won’t go into all the wives but what I find so amusing about the whole story…. is that Henry’s one goal in life (apart from abolishing the catholic church)seemed to be to obtain a son to take over the throne. Yet who reigned for 45 years after his death? Elizabeth. A woman. His daughter. And Anne Boleyn’s daughter at that. His son? Edward VI managed a sickly six years. I’m not on my feminist high horse or anything here… poor Eddy can’t help the fact that he died so soon but I’m just saying that Henry had nothing to worry about because the one thing he wanted he didn’t need. A queen filled that gap just fine.

The much wanted son  

(Not bad for the daughter of an ‘incestuous witch’ eh??)

Anyway, I want to share a poem with you that I have written….see what you think…

Another One

Spain in my bed every night,

Such passion, such morals,

Loved by all.

But no boy. No boy. No son.

Out with the old, in with Boleyn,

Dangerous, excitable,

Hated by all.

And no boy, no boy, so no head.

See more, I need a new love,

A not so plain Jane,

Gentle, kind and loving,

And a boy! A boy!

But exchanged for death.

Tears make a river to the next,

Yet I like her not! I like her not!

Picture tells a different tale,

I judge the book by the cover.

Don’t read the full story.

 

How… I move for….ward,

Light and easy.  Young.

Unlike me.

Lots of boys.

But in her bed.

So off with her head!

Finally, last chance at love.

As I near the end.

Someone to care,

Like a daughter.

I can die now, it’s done.

I have a son.

(I did have this in six separate stanzas but couldn’t get it to stay like that on the post.. I was also wondering if it worked better like this though, as in, it doesnt stop; like Henry’s search for a wife doesn’t stop. What do you think?)

So remember ladies…. make sure you get knickerless or you could end up headless 😉

If any of you are interested in reading about the Tudor period; Alison Weir’s Six Wives is a good read. Also for you fiction lovers… Phillipa Gregory’s The Constant Princess, The Other Boleyn Girl and  The Boleyn Inheritance are a good historical-fiction trilogy.

See you tomorrow,

XSXS

A Hole lot of Digging!

Afternoon folks, To link to my post from last Saturday, Adding Fuel to the Feminist Fire…which seems to have provoked quite a debate so check it out… I have been doing what some would call ‘manly’ chores/jobs/roles or whatever you want to call it. If you see the comments on that previous post, I think the conclusion seemed to be that there are no rules for what jobs people do in a household… but it comes down to the individual and what their skills are. Well I am not brilliantly able at gardening, physical lifting or anything manual to be honest but I had a go! Today, I was sawing branches off trees (I got a bit saw happy actually!), digging roots up and lifting huge slabs and any other junk that seem to be left by the previous owners…

I turned into a teenage boy for an hour actually… No my voice didn’t get hoarse and deep and I didn’t suddenly develop certain male parts or the urge to look at women in bikinis (I could have just put Club land on if that was the case!)… I just quite enjoyed digging holes! I told myself I needed to get the roots up from the plant we have taken up and that I needed the turn the earth over and also check what was under there (still no dead bodies!) BUT really I was just enjoying seeing how far I could dig down. The memories of making mud pies as a small child returned to me. I have never understood why I ever chose to make mud pies. In most ways I am such an indoor girl and always have been. I loved Barbies, reading, dressing-up and all of that but it seems there is this grubby, outdoorsy type in me that resurfaces every so often!

I think, today, I was also influenced by my current read. Remember how I said on Wednesday (in my post That Stinging Feeling) that everyday things can remind of us of  literature?  Well, currently I am reading Holes by Louis Sachar. The pupils in year 8 at school study it and I haven’t read it yet so thought I would over summer. Yes, I’m lucky that as a teaching assistant that is as far as my summer work and preparation goes really! In the book, which I am very much enjoying, a group of teenage boys are at a juvenile detention camp and have to dig holes everyday, five foot deep and five foot wide. So I am not sure if me digging today was influenced by me reading the book or by doing that it made me think of the book! Such a circle of life and literature isn’t it??

The kids in the book have to get up at 4.30 am everyday and once they start digging their hole, they don’t stop – only for a quick lunch break and for drinks – it is in a desert setting and the sooner they finish their hole, the sooner they can get out of the blazing orange rays.  The book has a lot more to it than that with themes of teenage rebellion, families, racism, religion so do take a look! I haven’t finished it yet… I was hoping to today but the garden has made a bigger hole in my day than planned 😉

Anyway, as I was doing the garden, I pictured these fictional teenage boys and how they had to keep going in sandy, dry, boiling, strict and thirst desperation conditions and it helped me to keep going! My small garden of a semi-detached property had no comparison to the setting of the book but still… I thought if they can manage that for a full day everyday then I can clear this corner of the garden! And I did it! Yay! It’s looking more like an actual garden each day!

Digging ‘holes’ also got me thinking about when we say it to people or we say it ourselves. The metaphor we use for basically saying things we shouldn’t!! Haha. We end up digging further than planned or we have to talk the talk and butter people up by digging ourselves out of the hole! I had to do that last night. I told you, I went to see the friend who got engaged. She loved my post about it (Two hearts, Two rings) but we were afraid that her fiancé wouldn’t approve of me writing about it. Last night, I decided to apologise to him for the post and explain. Turns out he didn’t know about it anyway.. as my friend so subtlety told me as I started talking…. TOO late. I was in a hole. I then had to explain about my blog and the fact I had written the post. Then I said how I agreed with her choice on it – then I thought; ‘Dammit, he will think I was insulting him if I was on her side!’ So I ended up digging a little further!  To dig myself  out of that one. I had to say that I also used lots of examples and I looked at the male opinion and everything. Argh. To climb out of the hole completely… I even offered to delete the post… and stop writing my blog and keep my pen and typing fingers prisoner forever more (Ok that last bit was an exaggeration!) he said he was  fine about it.. But I don’t think he has read it yet! Eek… and now I’ve told you all this, I may have more holes to dig out of tomorrow haha!

So people, be careful what you say and if you need to take out your frustration… then dig a real hole (it also comes in handy for hiding in!)

If I have offended anyone then please comment at the end and I’ll happily ‘dig’ myself out of it!

See you tomorrow (I hope!)

P.S – you’ll be glad to know that I have stood up to the cats. I have taking back my butt (of the water kind 😉 ) and I scared away the horrible hisser cat.. with some of the advice from yesterday, so thank you!

XSXS