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Chaliepud's Reading and Recreation in 2016


chaliepud

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Is that Jojo in your avatar? 

 

I love cattle dogs, I love their eyes.  I have Luka, a Kerry Blue Terrier.  I don't think I would ever have a terrier again!  They are crazy!

 

Do you show too, or just agility?

No sadly, I have tried to have my dogs as my avatar but it always says the file is too big, need to get my brother on the case as he has all the photo editing programmes.  These are my two Cattle Dogs, Obi is the handsome chunky one and Jojo is the petite live wire doing agility! :D The avatar is a Grey/Timber Wolf. 

 

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Kerry Blue Terriers are great, they are pretty rare over here and yes I think they are one of the more stubborn terriers! It would be lovely to see a pic! :)

Edited by chaliepud
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I didn't find that at all! I'm super interested in US history and politics so I might have noticed it less than others I guess, but it's interesting others found that. I hope you do enjoy it when you give it a go :)

 

It's long, but very readable IMO.

 

I've also read The Shining and Different Seasons. All three are so different but I loved them all.

Hmm, I have very little interest in politics, of any type, but I am a bit interested in conspiracy theories and history so that might see me through! :D I'm not sure I could read The Shining, I'm a bit of wuss when it comes to horror! I haven't heard of Different Seasons, I'll look it up. 

Thanks Alexi. :)

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Good luck on your reading this year, Chalie!  I look forward to getting some recommendations :)

 

The Shining is one of my top 3 books of all time so maybe you should give it a go someday ;).  I also loved Different Seasons.  It's a book of 4 short stories, one of them being 'The Body' which is the story that the film on which Stand By Me was based, as well as another story, 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.'  You can probably guess what film that was made into, lol.

 

I would also highly recommend Joyland :D.

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Hmm, I have very little interest in politics, of any type, but I am a bit interested in conspiracy theories and history so that might see me through! :D

 

I have very little interest in politics as well, and I was worried that 11.22.63 would cover a lot of things I wasn't familiar with, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. I don't recall struggling at all with it because the story just sucks you in. :smile:

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No sadly, I have tried to have my dogs as my avatar but it always says the file is too big, need to get my brother on the case as he has all the photo editing programmes.  These are my two Cattle Dogs, Obi is the handsome chunky one and Jojo is the petite live wire doing agility! :D The avatar is a Grey/Timber Wolf. 

 

Do you have a computer program called Paint on your computer? If you do, just open the picture you'd like to use as your avatar on it, and then there's this 'resize' option in the row of icons, and then just change the 100 and 100 to maybe 50% and save the picture, and then try if it's small enough to use as an avatar. If not, you could try reducing the size again. 

 

If you ain't got any time for that, I'd be more than happy to do it for you if you want! :smile2: Just send me the picture you'd like to use :smile2: 

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Happy Reading in 2016 Hayley! :hug: 

 

I need to get back to start eating more healthily. I feel so unfit!! A trip up to the attic (two flights of stairs) is causing me to puff a bit  :blush2:  :blush2: I'm thinking longingly of things like steamed chicken and salmon and wholegrain rice etc (alas .. it's probably temporary!) Anyways, I look to you for inspiration. I haven't got a dog to walk or to take training so I'll just have to find the incentive to exercise elsewhere. Probably just looking in the mirror will do  :blush2: Good luck anyway. Hope you have a great year xx

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Do you have a computer program called Paint on your computer? If you do, just open the picture you'd like to use as your avatar on it, and then there's this 'resize' option in the row of icons, and then just change the 100 and 100 to maybe 50% and save the picture, and then try if it's small enough to use as an avatar. If not, you could try reducing the size again. 

 

If you ain't got any time for that, I'd be more than happy to do it for you if you want! :smile2: Just send me the picture you'd like to use :smile2:

Thanks Sari but I managed it with a little help from google! I'm on an Apple Macbook so can't resize on iPhoto but was able to change it when exporting to somewhere else on the laptop. That's a skill learnt today, I can relax now!  :P

 

Happy Reading in 2016 Hayley! :hug: 

 

I need to get back to start eating more healthily. I feel so unfit!! A trip up to the attic (two flights of stairs) is causing me to puff a bit  :blush2:  :blush2: I'm thinking longingly of things like steamed chicken and salmon and wholegrain rice etc (alas .. it's probably temporary!) Anyways, I look to you for inspiration. I haven't got a dog to walk or to take training so I'll just have to find the incentive to exercise elsewhere. Probably just looking in the mirror will do  :blush2: Good luck anyway. Hope you have a great year xx

Thanks Kay! I'm lucky, my life is pretty active so I can't avoid exercise, even in this horris weather, I am rather jealous of those dog owners who say their dog refuses to go out in the rain..mine couldn't care less what it's doing out there, and Jojo is a water demon so find EVERY puddle and body of water!  :blush2:  :D

 

I love eating healthily and don't find it too hard as I don't have much of a sweet tooth, and when I do fancy something sweet it is normally sated with a square of quality dark chocolate, although I have a hankering for some rice pudding so may make some this weaken, but with coconut sugar which makes it a little less bad, at least that's what I'll tell myself!  :giggle:  My weekness is crisps, I would walk over hot coals, well warm ones at least, for a pack of Tyrell's Lightly Salted, Oh and good quality Pork Scratchings, the worst thing I did was source gluten free PS's!!  :blush2:

 

I hope you have a wonderful year of reading too, and of life of course but I think that should go without saying, may you read lots of wonderful books, spend lots of time with your wonderful husband and eat occasional wonderful cakes, make those calories count and don't regret one morsel! Such a waste to treat yourself and then kick yourself over it after!  :smile:  :smile: Rather like book buying!  :giggle2:

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OUR ENDLESS NUMBERED DAYS - CLAIRE FULLER

 

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Goodreads synopsis - 1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.

Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. And so her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
Peggy is not seen again for another nine years.
1985: Peggy has returned to the family home. But what happened to her in the forest? And why has she come back now?

 

My thoughts - I have decided this year to try and write some thoughts on books I feel are worth the effort so bear with me as they don't come as naturally to me as they do to others. Apparently there is a book in everybody, I'm pretty sure there isn't in me!

 

Our Endless Numbered Days was a book I put on my wish list purely because it looked a little different to anything I had read for a while, my lovely brother bought it for me for Christmas and since one of my 2016 resolutions is to read all the books on my shelves that I have been gifted or lent I thought there was no time like the present for this one.

 

It is a first person fictional account, switching between Peggy as an 8 year old to present time as a 17 year old. For any child there are huge developments made both physically and psychologically in that time but for Peggy it is something she has to deal with in the isolation of the hut where her Father has decided to take her, away from everyone and anything she knows.

 

This book comes across as a very simple tale to begin with and I sometimes felt jealous of the simplicity in which they lived their lives. They are living off the land, making do, at one with nature, totally immersed in the circle of life but it becomes more intense the older Peggy gets, rather as life does to any hormonal child but ten or hundred fold.

 

The time frames were perfectly balanced, slowly giving scraps of information to enable the reader to piece together the truth of her life during the 9 years she is away from real life, it is a very psychological book, emotional, traumatic, uplifting and cleverly written, not giving too much at any one time yet never losing my interest along the way.

 

Highly recommended -10/10

Edited by chaliepud
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Great review of Our Endless Numbered Days Hayley :) I'm so glad you loved it .. I did too. I read it last year and it's still playing on my mind. I listened to it read and I'll definitely listen again (or read it) .. though of course I'll be viewing it all differently in hindsight (that'll be so interesting actually.) 

Well done you for starting the year off with such a great book :) 

 

You've just reminded me about pork scratchings :D I had some sort of pork scratching twigs at Christmas .. party food from M&S I think. Anyway, naughty but delicious! Yes, I'm going to go careful but I never regret the treats etc ... life is for living and all that. Just need to get some power walks in and would do .. if the weather would stop being wet!! (I need a dog to drag me out :D) Today was lovely actually .. more of the same please weatherGods! 

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Great review of Our Endless Numbered Days Hayley :) I'm so glad you loved it .. I did too. I read it last year and it's still playing on my mind. I listened to it read and I'll definitely listen again (or read it) .. though of course I'll be viewing it all differently in hindsight (that'll be so interesting actually.) 

Well done you for starting the year off with such a great book :) 

 

You've just reminded me about pork scratchings :D I had some sort of pork scratching twigs at Christmas .. party food from M&S I think. Anyway, naughty but delicious! Yes, I'm going to go careful but I never regret the treats etc ... life is for living and all that. Just need to get some power walks in and would do .. if the weather would stop being wet!! (I need a dog to drag me out :D) Today was lovely actually .. more of the same please weatherGods! 

Thanks Kay, I think I saw somewhere that it is on Richard and Judy's list so will not doubt be popular.

 

We had the pork twigs this Christmas too, my Mum always brings them down (she has lifetime discount at M&S) and we generally scoff them all whilst preparing the Christmas dinner, washed down with wine (for me) and Vodka and tonic for her.  :P

Great review! I remember reading Poppyshake's review of it last year. For some reason I didn't add it to my wishlist at the time, but I'll certainly add it now. :)

Thanks Kylie, I don't think you'll be disappointed, it isn't a big book but it packs a punch. 

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Thanks Sari but I managed it with a little help from google! I'm on an Apple Macbook so can't resize on iPhoto but was able to change it when exporting to somewhere else on the laptop. That's a skill learnt today, I can relax now!  

 

Yay! :D Well done for mastering a new useful skill :D 

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Great review. I've had it on my wishlist since I saw it being talked about, but I might have to get hold of it and bump it up the list :)

I'm sure it would be right up your street Noll. :)

Yay! :D Well done for mastering a new useful skill :D

It doesn't happen often!  :blush2:  :P

I'll have to bump Our Endless Numbered Days up my wishlist....it sounds fantastic. Great review! :smile:

Thanks BB, I hope you like (love!) it too, I'm a bit nervous that I may have over recommended..  :o  :smile:

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Can I just say I love your (Chalie) avatar with the two dogs jumping :).

Thanks Gaia, we had to have it pretty low for Obi bless him. My brother took some more pics of Jojo at agility, I'll have to download them from his Flickr page and put a few on here. :)

Great review of Our Endless Numbered Days!

 

Onto my wishlist now :)

Oops, there goes another! I hope you like it Alexi! :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey everyone, I had a spare few minutes so I thought I would put on a few pics of Jojo at an agility class, I am very lucky that my brother is a keen amateur photographer and likes taking pictures of fast moving objects! He usually photographs military aircraft from WWII but I think Jojo is faster than them! ;) Or at least it feels that way when I'm trying to keep up with her! :D

 

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