Notes of Life

Yesterday was pretty non-stop from the moment I got up until I went to bed. I went shopping in Birmingham with a friend and then we caught an evening showing of Sex in the City 2 at the cinema in Shrewsbury. So I left the house at 8.20am and got home at 11.30pm! I’m now aching from all the walking we did yesterday (though I must say, shopping is a great form of exercise!). I didn’t spend much – I just bought myself some goodies from Lush and a little toy for my niece. Oh, and the good people from Barclays (who I don’t actually bank with) were giving away some nice blue canvas bags, so I grabbed myself one (though Mum already has her eye on it!).

Today I’m off for a family meal to celebrate my grandparents wedding anniversary (last week) and my birthday (next weekend). There will be 4 generations of the family there, so I’m hoping to get some nice photos.

I’ve finished reading Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper, so I’m hoping to get a review posted this week (when I have a moment to sit down and write it!). The next book I’ll be reading is Hunted by the Others by Jess Haines. She’s currently running a competition to celebrate the release of the book and so I decided I just had to enter (see my entry below). Jess has included my entry in her latest competition update (Thanks Jess!), but there’s still time for you to enter as the deadline for the contest is midnight 30ths June (Contest Rules & Regulations here).

Anyway, I’d better get going!

A couple of months ago I posted a review about GoodReads.com. In it I mentioned that I’d won a book from their “Giveaways” section within a month of being a member. Well, it’s now about 3 months since I’ve joined and I’ve won another book!

This time I’ve won “Angelology” by Danielle Trussoni in hardback format. It’s release date is 1st April 2010, so I’ve had my copy early. However, I’m already in the middle of reading a book so I’m not sure when I’ll be starting this new one. At over 450 pages, it’s quite a hefty book, so I’m not sure how long it will take me!

The book is published by Michael Joseph and Penguin. They kindly included a bookmark as well as a bookplate signed by the author.

So, I’ve got yet another book added to my ever growing pile to read, but this one was free!

Are you reading a book at the moment? If so, what are you reading?

I’m currently in the middle of At My Mother’s Knee … And Other Low Joints, Paul O’Grady’s auto-biography (you might know him as his alter-ego ‘Lily Savage’). As expected with Paul, it’s an interesting and funny read so far!

I spent this past weekend in London and had a great time! It was a 4 day weekend for me (Friday – Monday) and I met up with friends. We spent Saturday morning at Portobello Road Market (and a great deal of time getting there due to engineering work on the tube network!)… and spent Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon & evening in the company of James Marsters. Saturday evening he did concert at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill and then on Sunday it was the “Love Hearts” event (same venue) in which there were photo sessions, autographs, a performance of “Love Letters” with James & an actress called Robyn Isaac, a Q & A session and another concert in the evening.

James Marsters in concert at The Tabernacle, Notting Hill, London.

A great time was had by all and it was great to meet up with friends and fellow James Marsters fans again. (And for those of you wondering where you’ve seen his face before… James is best known for playing Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, but has also been in Torchwood, Moonshot, Lie To Me, Numb3rs, Smallville, Without A Trace, to name but a few.)

More of my photos from the weekend can be found at
JM – Concert at The Tabernacle
and
JM – Love Hearts.

The bad weather continues, making it difficult to get to work. Yesterday morning I worked from home and finally made it in at lunchtime. However, we had a lot more snow last night and this morning, meaning going to work wasn’t advisable today (especially as our county council is running low on grit and have decided not to grit minor roads and some main ones – despite the county being a rural, hilly one!).

Yesterday morning Dad ended up nursing a little robin. It had flown into the living room window and dropped into the snow dazed. So Dad rushed outside and brought the robin back into the warm, making sure neither of the 2 cats were in the room! We gave it some food and within half an hour or so the robin felt well enough to fly off, which was good to see.

It’s expected to freeze tonight, so tomorrow morning could be fun…….

Happy New Year to you! I hope you’ve had a great start to the 2010. My start to the year hasn’t been brilliant and we’re only a few hours in. It’s a long story, but suffice to say the messenger got shot… repeatedly… and I was the messenger! Nevermind…

My migraine has reared it’s ugly head again (I suspect that’s due to me getting wound up!), so I went out for a walk earlier. It froze last night so the snow is now crunchy and anything wet has turned to ice, so it was a bit treacherous underfoot. The walk turned out to be a good idea though. Not only did it clear my head a bit, but something also made me smile… This one-eyed snowman!

Before I go, I’d like to recommend a visit to Lorrie’s Illusio Creative blog. Lorrie is a visual artist and she is doing a blog giveaway. So get yourself over there and you could be in the running to win FOUR FREE A5 PRINTS, AND a set of FOUR FREE POSTCARDS! As you’ll see from Lorrie’s work, she’s a wonderful artist and a generous one at that!

Happy New Year!