Book Swap

A few months ago I took part in a book swap organised by Jocelyn at   thereadingresidence.com. I was paired with Sarah,   boobellina.blogspot.co.uk and she sent me a book by Maggie O'Farrell called After You'd Gone. 

This is not the type of book I'd normally be drawn to.  I'd have classified it as 'Chick-Lit' and walked on by.  However once I started I realised that it wasn't like that at all.  It was a beautifully crafted book with some very interesting and realistic characters.  It's also a terrible weepy and as I'm a terrible weeper it needed several tissues and pauses to remember to breathe!

I sent Sarah The Gift of Stones by Jim Crace.  He's an author I've loved for many years.  The first book of his I read was Being Dead which is terrific with a really unusual narrative style.  Since than I've read all his books except Harvest which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize - I'm saving that one up for a treat!  Why do I do that?  If I want to read a book and I'm excited about it why put off reading it?  Just read the darn thing and enjoy it!  Right, that's my next read sorted out!

So when I saw that Jocelyn was running another book swap I emailed her at once.  I'm already looking forward to seeing what I get in the swap.  Now, which book should I send this time?  

Word of the Week

Today's word is ... drum roll please ...

This week, despite having a myriad (good word, eh?) of projects I want to get stuck into I've actually achieved very little.

The problem is that I can't make up my mind what to do first - I've got 2 knitting projects on the go and I should finis one of them off but I keep flipping between them.  I've got some writing to do but I'm moving the book around rather than concentrate on it.  I've got some sewing to do but the machine is heavy to lift onto the table ...

You get the picture?

So next week is a new week, I promise to be more focused and get something done.  The Word of next Week will be Accomplishment - I hope, please, maybe, hopefully, fingers crossed ...

Word of the Week

Well, hello there little blog!  It's been a while but perhaps this will explain it ...

This week the word is ...

A lovely, sunny relaxing week on Zakinthos was just what the doctor ordered!

Batteries are now fully recharged and I'm hoping to plough all my new found energy into a variety of projects over the next few months.

Also - many apologies to Little Sis for not telling her I was going - sorry! Hope a gossipy chat on the phone will make up for it (or a large helping of humble pie is she prefers!)

Good Intentions

Well I managed to miss the last day of #BEDM!  Well done me!  I don't think I made every day but I did as well as I hoped.  The prompts were helpful but I went my own way some of the time, especially after I re-vamped the blog.

Today I hope to get myself organised  and have a productive day.  I have some writing to do which I hope will prove to be good enough for publication on an educational website I've written for in the past.  So bring on Anita & Me!

I'm also doing some writing for my other blog using a writing prompt.  This is a new departure for me as I've never tried to do a piece of writing daily using a prompt.  I'm hoping that my writing muscles will get a good workout and this will propel me on to greater things.  Good grief that sounds pretentious!  You know what I mean though, right?

I'm heading to the gym again this evening to work on my new training programme.  I'm not a natural gym bunny bot I do know the value of getting fitter, so I soldier on.  It's always nice to stop though!

By the end of this week I hope the new organised state will be feeling normal and routine.  Then I can have a positive word for Word of the Week for the second week running.  At this rate I won't recognise myself by the end of June!