Kell
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Posts posted by Kell
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I quite like the look of it. I like both Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen (love him, in fact!), and when I read the book, Bathsheba struck me almost as a woman out of her own time, and certainly ahead of it. I'm interested in seeing it.
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I missed the 60th anniversary special, well most of it anyway. I was ill and exhausted and fell asleep on the sofa - LOL!
I've been hearing our entry for this year a few times lately, and despite not being overly fond of it at first, it's definitely growing on me. It's a lot catchier and more upbeat than pretty much all the other entries I've heard so far, which will make it stand out a bit amongst them, and make it more memorable. It's good to be the catchy tune in a sea of dirge - LOL! -
Quite a lot, actually. We have three or four favourites from at least each year Dale and I have been together (15 years now) on our iPod and computer play lists. Some years there are only maybe two or three that make the play list, but there have been a couple of good years, where we might have seven or eight from one competition on the list.
We have very eclectic tastes.A few examples of some of our favourites (and not just winners, either!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Xl9tBWt54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFciOb0diQE
And those were just the first few I thought of off the top of my head. Of course, we have the recorded versions from the official Eurovision albums. Yes, we get hold of the albums - we're big fans. To be honest, if the UK ever won it again now, I'd be trying to get hold of tickets for the final, and if I couldn't get for that, I'd be trying for one of the semi finals! Even Xan knows the words to several foreign language songs and sings along with them. And both the kids dance whenever they hear them.
Only the first couple of vids are embedded, but it you follow the links, you'll see the others too. -
So, yesterday I bit the bullet and went along to a Slimming World class for the first time. My sister has been going to one in Aberdeen for a few months and has had great success, so I thought it can't hurt to try it too. I've already dropped 21lbs myself, but was kind of stalling a bit, and I usually find that if I try something completely new, it kicks me out of the boredom circle and kick starts things for me again, so I went along.
First thing that happened was I found out just how far out of whack my scales at home are - I am 4lbs lighter than I thought I was. This was a nice boost to begin with, as I was worried it would be the other way around! Anyway, I have now ditched my own scales and will only be weighted once a week at the classes. I was also astonished at how much we can eat on the plan. There are loads of "free" foods, which you can eat as much as you like. Now, I expected it to be all veg, and. to an extent, fruit, but it also includes meat! Honestly, I can eat as much chicken and fish and beef and pork as I like - even bacon, providing I cut off the fat and skin. This is AWESOME!
So this lunchtime, I am having homemade Boston baked beans (done in the slow cooker - they're just thickening up now and smell delicious), which work out at 1 "syn", with eggs and homemade chunky chips (which are both FREE!!!), and then tonight I'm making a chicken curry with rice and a side salad.
My ballroom and Latin American dance class restarts tonight, and I am SO excited it's ridiculous! Having been away through the holidays and then being ill when we returned, I haven't been able to get to the gym in a couple of weeks, but I will be going on Saturday and I will also be doing the aquafit class on Sunday night, then I'll be back to my 2-3 gym sessions a week as of next week, plus the dance class and aquafit class. Should get me all toned up, fit and healthy in good fashion!
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My Grom always used to give us paper doilies to colour - they were so intricate it would take forever to finish even a smaller one, but we loved it. Actually, a childhood friend of mine recently said that was one of her fondest memories - sitting at the kitchen table with us, with a stack of doilies and an entire rainbow of felt tipped pens and colouring pencils.
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I'm not impressed with ANY of the entries this year. I heard ours before most of the others and didn't like it much at all, but on hearing al the others that are out now, I have to say, I think ours, bad as it is, is one of the better ones. At least it's catchy, and so many of the others are just dirges. For the first year since they started, I won't be bothering with the semi-finals, and I will only be watching the final out of a sense of tradition, as I've only missed one since 1987 (and it was the one Dana International won - I was doing a show that week and missed the whole thing).
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There's a new Art Therapy weekly "magazine" that also builds an art set for the subscriber that recently started too - I think it's about 3 issues in at the moment. I bought the first one because it was only 99p and I'm cheeky like that - LOL!
I actually own a couple of colouring books too - Awesome Arty Colouring and Pretty Pattern Colouring - both of which I got for about a quid in Wilkinsons.
For me, though, I love doing Zentangle - and sometimes I use colour on the pieces I create, although mostly I prefer to work in black and white, sometimes with a little shading.
I find this kind of colouring and creativity very relaxing, and it certainly puts me in a better temper if I can zone out for a while doing something like this.
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That is nice news, I hope you two can meet up! Have you ever met her before?
I hope you enjoy your dinner with your extended family
.Nope - we only "met" online a few months ago - we're both members of the same Outlander fan/penpal group.
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Got some lovely news this morning - one of my favourite Canadian penpals may be moving to Scotland next year, so we might actually be able to meet when we go north at Easter as she plans to move to Inverness, which isn't too far from Aberdeen.
And my Grom is coming for Sunday dinner today, so I've been doing beef in gravy in the slow cooker ready for lunch. -
That is just awesome! I will certainly look out for it when it's published, as I always loved school stories (I'm re-reading the Malory Towers and St. Clare's books by Enid Blyton - including the additional books by Pamela Cox)
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I'm still waiting for someone to make a really good live action mini series of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It would be so awesome! There have been countless rumours over the years, and a radio play adaptation too, but no live action TV series or movie (I'd shy away from a film adaptation, as I'd rather they went into all the intricacies, and lots would be lost in a movie).
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I used to use it a lot, but I suppose rising postage costs have made it cost-prohibitive for members to use - I certainly haven't used it in some time. Also, there was sometimes unreliability with people sending books or they came in a much poorer condition than listed, because I suppose it's all subjective. To me, an as-new copy would look like it had literally just been bought and looked completely unread, and if I listed a book as being as-new, that's how it was. If there was a slight mark anywhere on it, then it would be listed as excellent, with a note on why it wasn't as-new, etc. Not all members were so conscientious though, although I only ever had one or two problems that way personally. It's a shame if it's closing though.
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My immediate thought was, "OMGs! Those books are all going to get RUINED by the steam!" LOL!
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It was quite cloudy here, but I managed to get lucky with a couple of photographs when there was a slight break in the clouds - don't worry, I didn't look - I just pointed, clicked and hoped for the best (I have a whole load of photos that just didn't work at all - LOL).
The middle picture is at the zenith of the eclipse
A few minutes after the third picture, the clouds broke for a minute or so, and I was able to use my little homemade pinhole viewer.
An hour later, just after the eclipse had completely finished, the clouds cleared and we now have a beautiful spring day. Typical.
Pagans all over the country were going wild though, as the eclipse occurred on the spring equinox, which is one of the quarter days.
I don't know if the kids at Xan's school were being allowed to watch, but I made him his own pinhole viewer to take with him, in case they got to watch the "solar ecliption" as he's been calling it - LOL!
The next one here won't be for another eleven years, and the one after that will be in 2090!
There will, however, be one in America in 2017...
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Will anyone else be watching the almost-total eclipse tomorrow morning? In the UK we'll have anywhere between 85% (in the south west) to 98% (in the Faroe Islands) at the height of the eclipse, with the height being between around 9.25 and 9.35, depending on where you are in the country.
I've just made pinhole viewers for Xan and myself, as it's the only completely safe way to watch the eclipse.
If you have eclipse viewing specs, make sure you don't look for long periods, and if you don't, please don't look directly at the sun at all, even during the eclipse, as you can seriously damage your sight or even go blind!
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Oooh, are there? I will have to look these out! I'm just busy introducing Xan to the series, so it'll be nice to have even more of them to read. He dressed up as Quint on World Book Day this year.
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You look lovely, Kell.
I've always wanted to put my hair up in a 40s style but it's so fine that clips, combs and even hair bands just fall out, so I always have to wear my hair loose.Thank you. My hair is incredibly fine and slippy - I have to back comb it all and then spray it solid, and even so, by the end of the night, it's all falling down anyway - LOL!
What you can't see in the picture is the massive red dahlia fixed to the back above my loose chignon - it was half the size of my head - LOL!
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The 1940s evening of entertainment was a resounding success. I had loads of people come up to me saying the loveliest things after I'd been on, and I may have landed a paying gig off the back of it too - yay!
And here's a pic of me all dolled up 1940s stylee:
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I was singing at a night of 1940s entertainment tonight, in aid of Blyth Battery (a local war museum). Not only did I get LOADS of wonderful comments, I may have landed a paying gig too - some very nice ladies took my number as they are very keen for me to come and sing at a nursing home to entertain the folk staying there with songs from their youth. Am chuffed to ribbons! And I had such a wonderful time this evening too - the Battery folk are all lovely and a real pleasure to work with. I'm really looking forward to singing at the WWII re-enactment in May.
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Well, they quite throroughly covered the first 42% of the first book in the first season. Plus they've stopped in mid event, so they'll have to cover at least part of the second half of the first book in the second season. I wonder if they will continue to be as throrough.
I think there are 8 books, so far, so that's 16 seasons
. Honestly I don't see how that is logistically possible.That wasn't the whole first season - the first season was cut in half by a six month long break, but the episode that will air in April will be episode 9 of season 1. Season 1 will cover the first book and the second season with cover Dragonfly in Amber. It is unclear yet if there will be another huge break in the middle though. I hate the break in the middle. Fans are calling it Droughtlander - LOL!
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The UK will only be able to watch it on Amazon Prime apparently, which is pretty sucky - it should totally be on a proper TV channel.
It's been picked up for a second season of at least 13 episodes, which will be based on Dragonfly In Amber (the second book in the series). If they get commissioned to continue, it looks like they'll most likely do a book per season, and as there are 8 books so far, that's 8 seasons right there, which I, for one, would be very pleased with! (I'm currently half way through the 4th book and loving it!)
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Totally gutted. Sir Terry was well loved and will be sorely missed.
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Got a busy week ahead!
Today - Grom coming round for Sunday dinner, and my aquafit class this evening
Monday afternoon - rehearsals for the 1940s show
Tuesday afternoon - School Governors' meeting (where I'll present a report on what I saw last week when I sat in on classes)
Friday night - final rehearsal for the show
Saturday night - the actual show! *bites nails*
Got to fit a couple of visits to the gym in there too, and possibly one extra rehearsal depending on availability! My head's in such a spin!
I really enjoyed going into the classrooms last week - I went into all the classes where they were teaching maths (and a couple of others too), and it was great seeing the teachers and kids in action. The teachers really engage well with the children, and the kids, in turn, respond really well to them and really work hard to produce the goods. Not only that, but they all work in individual groups based on ability, so nobody gets left behind or made to feel stupid. I was surprised how much the kids all seemed to enjoy doing maths - it's a subject I always dreaded at school (although I only remember hating it at secondary level - LOL!). The teachers made the lessons fun and informative. I'll look forward to doing it again at some point in the future.
I also may be getting roped into helping with the school Xmas shows this year, as the headmistress has now discovered I used to be an actor and am performing semi-regularly again now - LOL!
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From what I've heard, Australia can vote in BOTH the semi finals, which is pretty awesome! I'm guessing they'll also be allowed to vote (and be voted for!) in the final too. I, for one, would LOVE it if Australia won and then they hosted and stayed in the competition for years to come. If Israel can take part, then why not Australia? And perhaps it would pave the way for other countries to join in too - New Zealand next, maybe?
Dystopian novels, somewhat like 1984 by Orwell?
in Book Search and Reading Recommendations
Posted
I was going to suggest Brave New World and The Handmaid's Tale, but others got in ahead of me.
John Wyndham has several novels that might appeal - Day of the Triffids is one of my favourites, but there's also The Chrysalids, and Trouble With Lichen. The Midwich Cuckoos is good, but more sci-fi than dystopian future.