Kell

What a difference 5 years makes! I'm still a tea girl, but my tastes have definitely changed. Tetley no longer cuts the mustard for me (although it'll do in a pinch), now I'm a Twining's girl, all the way! I especially love their floral teas - Blossom Earl Grey, Rose Garden, Jasmin Earl Grey, Lavendar Earl Grey - along with some of their regulars - Earl Grey, Breakfast and Afternoon blends. I also love their Mulled Spice blend which is wonderfully warming now the colder nights are drawling in. This is my little collection of Twinings tin caddies, all of which are kept topped up - once I start getting low (the last half dozen bags in each caddy) I have to re-order from the Twinings website, as our local supermarkets don't stock the floral teas at all - shocking! Dale complains that my tea caddies are taking over the kitchen, but I don't care - I couldn't do without several good cuppas a day - obviously the morning and traditional afternoon blends are used for breakfast and some time around lunch, but I alternate between the others for another one or two cuppas in the evening. All are enjoyed with just the teeniest drop of skimmed milk, except for the mulled spice tea, which also has half a teaspoon of sugar (it really brings out the flavour of the spices!). The only one I take with a squeeze of lemon is the Lady Grey tea, which I drink very rarely - usually in the summer though. It's worth mentioning, I also love Twining's hot chocolate - delicious!

The other thing that always bothers me excessively is to do with travel. If I have to go somewhere on a bus or train alone for the first time, even if I've been there before by another method of travel, it makes me very panicky. I remember the first time I got the bus from Kirkcaldy to Edinburgh. I'd got on the train there many times before with others and alone, but I'd never gone by bus. I was terrified. I wasn't exactly sure where the bus station was in relation to other places and I was petrified I'd get lost as I didn't (and still don't!) know Edinburgh particularly well (basically Prince's Street, Cockburn Street and The Royal Mile are about the only areas I'm confident about - that and the two train stations). I was nearly in tears the whole journey and by the time I got off the bus I was shaking like a leaf. Even a very short journey to an unfamiliar place is fraught with tension in case I get on the wrong bus/train or get off at the wrong stop. I'm better if I'm with the kids, because I tend to be braver with them than I am alone (putting on a brave face for my kids is a life saver for me sometimes - it's even led to my partially conquering my very severe arachnophobia!). Once I've done it that first time, it gets easier, but that first journey is always a nightmare. If I've done it even once before with someone else, even if that person is traveling there for the first time themselves, I feel quite safe and almost completely unconcerned.

I get anxious about time - I cannot stand the thought of being late or of other people being late - it can actually make me physically sick on occasion. It's a big part of my OCD and it can stop me enjoying an event if I think there's even a chance I might be even half a second late. If I'm meeting someone and they're running late but don't let me know that they're running behind time and give me a new ETA, I get very panicky, especially if I'm waiting for them so that we can go some other place together. Before we had mobile phones, friends who were late would find me either shaking like aq leaf when they arrived, or, in extreme cases, puking in the bathroom. I actually dumped a very nice guy because of his chronically bad time keeping, As it was, he was more than 40 minutes late for the date I had set up to finish it with him and I ended up having to do it on the phone because I couldn't face waiting any longer! That's how I ended up with Dale - he's always on time - LOL! It's funny, because when I fell pregnant with Xan, everyone said, "Oh, once you have kids, you'll start being late for things all the time and you'll learn to stress less about it," but the truth is, I got even worse. Even now, with a 6 year old and a 1 year old, I've never yet been late for anything and I feel dreadful if I feel we might be falling behind schedule. One example is that we currently live a 40 minute walk from Xan's school, although if we really motored, we could make it in little over 30 minutes (but we'd be very out of breath when we got there!), so we leave for school little over an hour before school is due to start. I know, I know - it means we have 20 minutes or more waiting time at school before he goes in, but I cannot help it, and even leaving the house a few minutes later than usual makes me feel anxious and ill. Fortunately, we'll be moving in the next few weeks, to a house that is only a few minutes from school (I timed it already - it's exactly 4 minutes from the front door to the school gate, and that's walking at my regular pace), but you can bet we'll still leave the house a minimum of 15 minutes before the school bell! I've been known to show up to job interviews more than 30 minutes early (actually, anything up to an hour early is standard for me!), and pace up and down the pavement for a good 20 minutes or so before going in and sitting down to wait the rest of the time inside. When I was working at a Bookies in Aberdeen, I lived a 20 minute walk away from our branch. I would leave the house an hour before I had to be at work, then have a cuppa in the cafe directly across the road for 30 minutes, before going into work 10-15 minutes before my start time. There was one time Dale was home late from work and had to give me a lift into town (there was nobody to leave Xan with, so I couldn't go till he got home!), and I arrived at work 5 minutes before my start time. My colleagues had been on the verge of calling me to make sure I wasn't ill, even though I wasn't late, because I NEVER cut it that close to time! The last couple of years, we've had Xmas at home with just me, Dale and the kid(s), as it means we don't have to run to anyone else's schedule, we don't have to be any other place at a given time, and we don't have to expect any visitors at a particular time. Any visiting is left till Boxing Day. It means I actually get to enjoy Xmas with my family, and the kids get to play with their toys without being torn away to visit someone when they're just getting into their games. I find it next to impossible to work without a schedule, and make a loose plan of attack for every day, with a to-do list. I fell a lot better if I can cross things off a physical list - it helps me feel more in control!

I'm gutted we have to wait till next April for episode 9!!! They've done really well casting the show and keeping true to the spirit of the book. Yes, there are a few changes, but the changes made enhance the TV experience of the story. And I am totally in love with Sam Heughan (who plays Jamie Fraser) - he is just GORGEOUS!!!

At long last, we now own a house. We get our keys tomorrow. The process has taken twelve full weeks of nail-bitingly slow and frustrating waiting since our offer was accepted, but now it's finally over! As of tomorrow, we will be able to start the renovations we'll need to complete before we can move in - starting with the new kitchen, then all the flooring throughout and decorating. We've been buying furniture and fixtures and we're all set to go. So, it's going to be a very busy month or so (mostly for hubby who will be doing most of the work, along with my Pop and a little help from my Uncle and a pal who are a plumber and a plasterer), but I'll be packing things up here and selling on stuff we're not keeping - it's almost all new stuff for our new forever home. After our disappointment last year when the purchase of a house we loved fell through, we've been just about ending ourselves with worry when this one was taking so long, but our wait is finally over, and as this one desperately needs some love and attentions, we can really put our own stamp on it right away. We can hardly wait to get it all done and move in!!! It'll take at least a month, but at least we'll be all settled in before Xmas!

Most days. I try to get here every day, but don't always make it. When I'm here, I don't always post, but I get caught up on as much that is going on in the forum as possible and sometimes leave a comment if I feel I have something to add. I don't get as much time as I used to, when I was able to visit multiple times in a day - Xan might be growing up (at the grand old age of 6 years - LOL!), but Josh just turned a year and it into EVERYTHING, so I'm kept very busy - LOL!

Then why bother going at all? The whole point in a book group is to read and discuss books, not to spout off someone elses opinions of a book you haven't read, just so you can sound "clever", because it's NOT clever - it's lazy.

It's the whole "If you eat cheese before going to bed you'll have bad dreams" thing - LOL!

I love Barter Books in Alnwick (shown in the first link). It's the most beautiful place - totally magical. You can spend an entire day in there and feel like time has stood still the whole time as you get totally lost in the books. And there are lovely little rooms to one side which have fires burning in the hearths, where you can sit and read. It's the most delightful little place and I'm so glad I now love pretty close to it (I'm in Blyth - it's about a 40 minute drive at most, depending on traffic - we always seem to hit some, hence the 40 minutes - LOL!). I used to visit almost every time we came down to visit, but I haven't had a chance to go since we moved down a year ago. I suppose because I know it's right there... I really must go soon though! I would LOVE to own a little book shop. If I ever win the lottery, that's exactly whatI'll do - and it shall be called Books of Kell.

You can buy the complete DVD box set for around £48 from Amazon. I used to have them on video too - not all of them though, I think I somehow missed the last season (possibly two!) and have never seen those later episodes. Tell you what though, they repeat Sex and the City over and over again on the telly - I wish they would repeat NE!

Scary books and films have never bothered me. In fact, I've spent my entire adult life trying to find a book or film that will totally creep me out and give me the heebiejeebies. It's not happened yet. I can watch/read alone, in the dark, no bother and have absolutely no recollection of having ANY dreams, not even if I eat cheese before bed.

Finally getting somewhere in our quest to buy a house - signed some papers last night and hopefully we'll hear something regarding a date for completion and exchange of contracts/getting the keys some time in the next week or so.

The Stand is one of my all-time favourite novels, but please make sure you read the complete and unabridged version. It's longer, at over 1000 pages, but it's so much richer and more satisfying.

Ira Levin is awesome - his books have a real chill factor.

I don't remember ever not liking "scary" stuff - I was brought up watching Dracula and Frankenstein (Hammer Horrors) from being 6 or 7 years old. Even books like Funny Bones, when I was just starting to read, tickled me pink by being about a family of skeletons. I quickly moved onto Point Horror (well before I hit my teens), and then started borrowing my Mam's Stephen King and Dean Koontz books by the time I was 12 or so. Richard Laymon was maybe by the time I was 15 or 16, because he tended to feature more sexual horror, but I read Dracula and Frankenstein before my teens too. Today, I don't tend to be keen on zombies or Mummies (which I think are basically gift-wrapped zombies), but on occasion I'll read and enjoy one. I love vampires, but they tend to be sexy rather than sinister these days, which is a shame. I love post-apocalyptic novels, especially as we live in a time when so many man-made horrors could spell the end of the world as we know it - nuclear war and man-made diseases are just as likely to wipe us out as a natural disaster. Psychological horror where people's minds are played with gives me more of a thrill than blood and guts. I like a really sinister story...

I don't mind a bit of blood and gore (especially where vampires are involved), but I don't find those scary. I'm more inclined to get a shiver down my spine from clever mind games and psychological terror.

I think Castle Rock has to be the scariest town to live in - many of Stephen King's novels take place there or make mention of things that have happened there!

My eldest son, Xander, who just turned six, is spending this month doing a sponsored read-a-thon for Sendacow.org.uk through his school - he's very enthusiastic and has vowed to read his first book of the month this evening. Hubby has sponsored him 50p per book, and I am sponsoring him 5p per page. Very proud of him!

OMGs! I read loads of her books when I was a kid. I might have to get a few of them for my Kindle and re-read them as an adult. Favourites were Iggie's House; Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret; and Starring Sally J Freeman As Herself. I remember a battered copy of Forever dong the rounds when I was in my mid-teens, because it featured a sex scene. I laughed and laughed at everyone's reactions, because I had already read it a few years before - my own Mum bought it for me! I think she approved of the portrayal of Cath and Mike being in love before making love - it's definitely a positive view of being ready before you commit yourself to a physical relationship, and I think all young people need to know about that kind of thing, and to learn to respect their own bodies as well as each others. I was also really touched by Deenie, and Blubber, both of which I thought were great at showing how kids try desperately to fit in.

I cannot believe this book would be banned! It's a beautifully written book that is incredibly real, speaking of young love, loss, and the realisation that we are none of us immortal. It's a tactful portrayal, but it doesn't pretty things up or condescend. It's exactly the kind of book teens SHOULD be reading!

I think it's a lovely idea - it's a concept that's certainly growing in popularity. There are social places that have book swap shelves, where you can take a book for free and/or leave a book they've finished with.

Updated to reflect another arrival and a move to England.

I LOVED that show! I still have fond memories of episodes like the one where Chris wants to fling a cow, or where Holling hasn't had a poo at 7am sharp like he has done every day since he was tiny, and he thinks something must be horribly wrong - LOL! The whole will-they/won't-they of Joel and Maggie was way better than the Ross and Rachel one in Friends (and predated it by quite some time too!), and Ed's sweet innocence was so refreshing. I really must go back and watch it all again - I haven't done so in well over a decade and it's long overdue!

Currently enjoying the new series Outlander, based on the book of the same name by Diana Gabaldon. Totally swooning over the delicious Jamie!

This constitutes almost my entire unread collection at the moment. Our place is so tiny that all my permanent collection is still in storage till we get a moving date for our new house (please, soon!). I do have others on my Kindle, but these are the few actual books I have to hand. They're not even on a shelf - they live on the hearth in the living room, as I don't actually even have a bookcase/shelf here. This is why this flat will never feel like a home to me.