Talisman

There is really nothing at all on TV at the moment that I am even remotely interested in, except perhaps some of the current affairs programmes, but even they are getting boring. Since I got back from Croatia Coran and I have been having a Game of Thrones fest instead - I am halfway through season 5 already and don't know what I will do when we get to the end of season 6 - probably start all over again!

I should finish no. 78 later on today, so am on target to easily reach 90 again this year - probably a few more.

Your tastes must be different to mine, as there wasn't an awful lot I liked this time around other than the hat. That's okay though, as there wasn't anything else I needed anyway!

Coran and I are having the usual quiet weekend. We went to Sainsbury's for the weekly food shop this morning and then went to Polesden Lacey, one of the nearby National Trust estates for lunch and a walk around the grounds. It was such a nice day that it seemed a waste to sit indoors. The clocks go back tonight so we won't be able to sit outdoors and read for too much longer after all. Sainsbury's have 25 percent off their clothes this weekend so I bought myself a lovely flame coloured hat for the trip to Iceland at the end of the year, as I needed a new one. It is hard to believe that this time last month I was visiting Croatia in 23 degree sunshine.

That looks lovely Gaia - and happy birthday for tomorrow!

Yes we had that too. It got really dark as well - almost like when there's an eclipse. I wish I had taken pictures of it now.

That's a bit late - I suppose better late than never though!

That looks beautiful Muggle. I love lobster - it's expensive here though and considered a luxury.

I have managed to get through a few more countries these past 6 months, but forgot to write them on here: Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou for Zaire The Scroll of Seduction by Gioconda Belli for Nicaragua The Jive Talker by Samson Kambalu for Malawi A Tunisian Tale by Hassouna Mosbani for Tunisia

That just about sums it up really Madeline. Complete and utter madness.

I am even worse Brian. I am going to Iceland on Boxing Day at 3.30 in the afternoon and flying back again on 28th, arriving back home at 22.45pm. I am back to work the following morning at 7.30am! It will be a quiet time at work though with not many people around so I have told my boss not to expect me before 9am. I will work through lunch and finish at the normal time I expect - around 3.30/4pmish. I then have another 3 days off to recover. I am settling back into work after my trip to Croatia, which was amazingly brilliant and fantastic. I loved every minute of my time there and will definitely be going back, as there is so much to see. It is not that far from Montenegro and Bosnia either, which I hear are both nice. First things first though, I have to pay for the trip to Iceland - and Spain in February/March next year.

I got back from Croatia a couple of hours ago - I landed just after 3pm, and it was BRILLIANT. I am so glad I went. It is an amazing country and not expensive - the whole trip flights, accommodation and spending money cost about £65 per day and that includes eating our almost every day. I stayed in 2 beautiful apartments as well, all to myself. Both lovely places, quiet but central and perfect for me. It is hard to say which of the two cities I preferred - Split or Dubrovnik. Split is less touristy, as although some areas of the city were used for Game of Thrones, Dubrovnik is the big draw. Split is more laid back and a lot more compact with more of a Mediterranean feel. Dubrovnik on the other hand is just beautiful. I spent most of my time of course exploring the old city but also ventured further afield to Trsteno where the Kings Landing garden scenes were filmed and Cavtat which is a nice little seaside resort for relaxing and chilling out. I also managed to see the fortress at Klis which was where a lot of the Mereen scenes were filmed, and Trogir and Lokrum both of which were used as Qarth. I am going to have another GOT fest now so I can recognise all the different places I have been to and boast about it! It is though all back to normality - whatever that is. The weather was beautiful during my time there - 25 degrees every day until last night when the temperature started to drop and we had torrential downpours. That seems to be a theme for me though that I always get the good weather and it starts raining when it's time to leave!

Glad your grandmother is okay Gaia and that you managed to sort out your finances Noll. I have finished work for the next 11 days and am off to Croatia in the morning, which I am really looking forward to. I said morning, but the flight isn't until 1pm, which is nice timing as it means I don't have to be at the airport until 11am. We only live half an hour away so I can still get a lie in. I wondered if I had made a mistake travelling hand luggage only, but I have just about managed to squeeze it all in. By the time all my gluten free bread is eaten there will be more space to bring a few things home, not that I usually bother.

Hope your grandfather is okay Athena, and I hope you have fun with the rest of the family. Sigur Ros were absolutely brilliant but very loud! Poor Coran was sitting there at one point with her fingers in her ears, and we were right at the back, so goodness knows what it would have been like for those nearer the front. They played a couple of new songs from their forthcoming album and of course plenty of old favourites that right at the end saw everyone on their feet. It was a great venue though - I used to go to a lot of concerts at the Apollo at one time but hadn't been up there for years. The crowd was pretty loud as well - mostly of around our age, as they tend to appeal to older people, having been around for quite some time (I think they first got together in 1994). So, Reykjavik here I come. Croatia first though. This time next week I will probably be enjoying a nice lunch somewhere in Split.

Hope you manage to get your bank all sorted out Noll. Reading what you wrote about the busses makes me glad I don't have to worry about that anymore - I am lucky in that I can drive to work in less than 20 minutes and there is hardly ever any traffic at all. Because I start at 7.30am I don't have to worry about school traffic either - I get it on the way home instead though. As for those damned self service checkouts - they are great if you are buying just a few items, but most of the time it's quicker to go a basket only till, by the time you wait for someone to come and find out what your unknown item is that you have placed in the bagging area! Coran and I are going to see Sigur Ros tonight at the Hammersmith Apollo and I can't wait. I am a HUGE fan of their music and they are always really, really good to see live. In such a small venue (approx. 3000 people) it will be just brilliant. When I see them in Iceland at the end of the year it will be even better, as the venue is smaller still and I am right near the front. We are staying up in London tonight at the nearby Premier Inn so we don't have to miss the end of the show. By the time we would have got home on the train it would be close to 1am and getting up for work again at 6am didn't seem such a good idea. I had half a day's holiday today then and have the whole day off tomorrow, which makes it a nice long weekend.

I am so sorry to hear that you are considering not coming here Gaia - while I understand why you would feel that way (anxiety is a very real condition and very frightening) you really cannot let it control you. I am sure you know that though anyway. I would really encourage you not to cancel your plans. So much can happen in 6 months. These attacks are random and cannot be predicted and you have to get the risks into perspective. There is probably more chance of getting run over by a bus than of being involved in something like this. I am certainly not going to let it stop me from going up to London next week to see my favourite band. I am 99.99 percent certain that both of us will be absolutely fine in doing so, as I will also be fine in Croatia and in Iceland in December and in Spain and anywhere else I decide to go next year. I am glad though that you got to spend time with your sister yesterday and happy to hear that she is now engaged. I know it is tiring for you but family are so important so I am sure it was worth it.

Glad you managed to escape the storms Virginia. It must have been pretty scary. As for me, I have some time off soon. Coran and I are going to see our favourite Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros on Thursday (I am seeing them in their native Iceland too just after Christmas), so I have a half day off to travel up there and the day off afterwards so we can stay up there overnight rather than rushing home. A week after that, on 28th I am off to Croatia. It will very soon come round. I must admit though that I am not relishing the thought of the journey up to London next week. The bomb that went off yesterday was on the same underground line that we need to use, although a different stretch. It is still scary though. One of my colleagues wives works up in Hammersmith and could have been on that train had she not taken the day off. You can't let this sort of thing stop you from doing things though, and we Brits are made of strong stuff. We will carry on then as normal but just be more vigilant. It has though been another busy week, but nothing I can't cope with. I managed to get our rotas sorted for the next month with the minimum of overtime, which is somewhat of a minor miracle. It is important to get all this sorted out though before I go on holiday so that people know what they are doing. Our lady cleaner seems to be settling back into work, although I have to watch her as she has a tendency to overdo things. She seems okay though and is happy to be back.

Goodness I don't know where to even start. I must have read over 1000 books during my lifetime which is far from over (at least I hope not). These books include children's classics, mind, body and spirit, alternative history, popular science, political and economics, religious books and texts, general fiction, travel books and of course the odd biography (and some of them have been very odd). I suppose the books that have most changed the way I view things are the mind, body and spirit books. Books such A Course in Miracles, which I spent close to year studying, the Conversations with God books by Neale Donald and of course Eckhart Tolle. Some of the political and economics books have changed the way I view things as well - in particular Owen Jones 2 books Chavs and The Establishment. My politics are very different to Owen's but I still find myself agreeing with a lot of what he talks about. One of the things I have been doing for the last 4 or 5 years is the Around the World Reading Challenge and this has introduced me to a lot of world literature and authors from countries that a lot of people have probably never even heard of. I have read a lot of books as part of this challenge on different wars and conditions for both men and women in refugee zones and so on. Three books that really stand out for me though have been one on the Rwandan/Burundian genocide by American author Tracey Kidder entitled Strength in What Remains, one by another American Dave Eggers on the so-called lost boys of South Sudan called What is the What (Eggers other fictional work The Circle is also really good) and one from the small west African country of Togo called Do they Hear You When you Cry. This was written by an exceptionally brave young woman called Fauziya Kassindja whose case made legal history as the first woman to successfully claim asylum to the US on the grounds of FGM and forced marriage.

I will be wearing mine for at least another few weeks Madeline - I have an active job so I guess this makes a difference, and I don't feel the cold like a lot of others. To me it isn't really cold until the temperature drops below 5 degrees and it won't be doing that until a lot nearer Christmas with any luck.

Sadly Amazon are not the only ones - a lot of large corporations do this sort of thing - Vodafone, Boots, Starbucks just to name a few. We all though buy from them (I know I do) and so I guess we are all at least partly to blame. I admit that I use Amazon a lot, and not just for books. I buy mostly Kindle books which of course you to have to get from Amazon, but I also download music from them, buy DVD's and recently I also got a phone from them. The reason I guess is convenience, but also because I do a lot of online surveys for which I am paid in Amazon vouchers. I don't think I could afford to read as much as I do if I didn't do this. The truth is though that book sellers have been in trouble for a long time because of many different factors - including the practise of discounting. No one pays full price for books anymore and when everything is so heavily discounted that is bound to affect sellers profit margins. Perhaps the only real solution is just to pay everyone more so that we have more money to spend in the first place, but I suspect that wouldn't work either as now matter how much you have you still want more!

Getting chilly in the mornings now (it was 8 degrees this morning) but still warm enough for shorts!

It hasn't been too bad here - it is still warm enough to wear my shorts to work and I managed to sit outside for lunch. We had some rain showers this morning and it has been a bit blustery, but I love this kind of weather, so for me it's great. You can feel autumn in the air now.

It was a great day but I am tired from it as it meant I didn't get my usual lie in. I estimate there were at least 3000 Lib Dems there - about 2 1/2 percent of our membership and anything up to 50,000 people in total. That is what the media reckons anyway. They were all very noisy - especially on the walk past Downing Street, and there some great speeches at the rally in Parliament Square afterwards. It can be a bit of a drag going to these things, especially if like me you don't really like London, but it is worth it.

I do hope you and your family are all okay Virginia - I have never experienced a storm like that and it must be pretty scary. My friends daughter was in Haiti when the hurricane hit so I hope she is okay too. I am knackered after a long week with a lot going on, but am getting up early again tomorrow to go on another anti Brexit march in London with what is expected to be a record turnout of over 10,000 people. I am meeting up with the other Lib Dems also taking part at Hyde Park at 10am tomorrow - the forecast is good so it should be another interesting day. I expect you will read all about it on the news - unless of course you read The Daily Mail!

I think you are doing the right thing - eyes are so important.