poppyshake

Oh ... difficult one Claire Hope you enjoy it this time around .. but at least it helps you on with the challenge if not. I love it and never fail to think of it when driving through the Slad valley. I loved it on his first day at school when he was told to 'just sit there for the present' and then he was outraged that he didn't get one and was refusing to go back Am currently reading One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde and also Replay by Ken Grimwood .. both excellent

No disrespect to Roger and Nole but please .. tennis Gods .. can we have someone else in the final

Very disappointing He was looking so good leading up but just wasn't there yesterday. All credit to Dimitrov though .. hope he goes all the way. I wonder if Andy will stick with Amelie? There hasn't really been time yet for her to have an impact but you have to wonder what it is that he thinks she can bring to his game. Time will tell I guess but it's a shame he split from Lendl. That back surgery also has played a huge part in his dip in form ... takes a while to get back to where you were and in the meantime all the young guys are making huge progress .. very tricky.

Hope you're feeling better Claire and that it hasn't developed into something more serious I had a sore throat a few days ago but it wasn't too bad and it disappeared after a couple of days. Hope yours does the same. Sadly the tennis hasn't given you much to smile about (from a British POV) .. well at least you won't have made your throat worse by excessive cheering

Thanks Gaia Hope you enjoy both books. No .. I don't think we will .. though who knows what inventions they will come up with in the future but how amazing that there is a whole world down there that we know nothing of .. 99% of it is unexplored apparently. It wasn't that long ago that we believed that nothing could live down there yet the ocean floor teems with life. We've only managed to scratch the surface.

Kindle gives you a scary percentage though doesn't it? I've only read a couple of books on mine but I remember being disgusted when it said 4% after I'd been battling with it for what seemed like a year .. I think it was also quoting hours at me .. how many it would take me to finish the book etc and I remember going for a sandwich and thinking 'well .. it'll have to re-calculate now' I've just looked (or I should say squinted because I didn't want to see any key words which might have given the plot away) at the last page of The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden and it has 419 pages which is not exactly a doorstep or anything It was the biggest of the three though and that carried more weight ( ) than it should have. As a self professed avid reader .. it's shameful of me to be picking books according to their (small) size. It's a bit like tempting invalids with little bites of food though ... I wasn't quite up to roast beef and all the trimmings

I did enjoy The 100 Year Old Man ... so I'm sure I'll get along fine with it My mojo is picking up again too so big books aren't scaring me so much

Spent a few days on the Isle of Wight last week and couldn't leave without taking the obligatory pic of my feet with a book Feel I'm running out of innovative ideas now .. maybe skis next? Good book but maybe a little too in depth for me. I remember buying this when reading Moby Dick .. or just after. I suddenly was into all things nautical but then .. just as suddenly I wasn't again and it sat on the shelf for ages The sad thing is .. I don't think I'll ever be a deep sea trawler man .. so some of what I've learnt here will be wasted. Also some went way over my head What I did learn was that there are some extremely weird creatures living down in the depths .. most of which we know little or nothing about. We get quite caught up in wondering about (and researching into) life on other planets but we have no idea about the majority of creatures living in our oceans .. especially the deep sea dwellers .. it's a whole other world. Anyway, ideal place to read about it with the waves crashing all around me etc (except they weren't crashing .. they were rolling in and out very politely as British waves mostly do )

Oh dear poppy .. I am so behind now with my reviews I've read both Perfect and The Ocean at the End of the Lane and enjoyed them both .. especially the latter one. One of the reasons (I'm ashamed to say) that I haven't picked up The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden yet is that it is a bit of a tome .. not huge but bigger than the other two and somehow that played a part when I chose books to read last month as I was slightly struggling. Is it worth the effort poppy?

It was quite harrowing .. but fairly true to life I imagine and it was uplifting to read about those people who were trying (and succeeding) to bring about change.

Thanks Alexi Good idea to borrow it .. I wish I had thought of it You will know quite soon whether it's your cup of tea or not ... it doesn't alter much in style.

Thanks Gaia You can't enjoy all books I suppose .. it's just that I thought I would enjoy it and did for at least a chapter .. that made it more of a disappointment than those that I've hated from the off. It's not a bad book by any means though. It was wasn't it? Diet went out the window though (perhaps he should have made more of an obstacle course out of it .. made me work for the choccy etc )

The knock out stages have been disappointing compared to the group stage. Nobody seems to be on fire .. yet.

Not necessarily though I have heard Mac opine about it. Possibly you have some good players coming through though. Sloane and Madison are both excellent and young .. they're bound to feature in the coming years.

Rafa out Maria out ... this is shaping up to be very interesting .. especially in the ladies half. Amazing play by Kyrgios today .. he's a force to be reckoned with isn't he? Keeping everything crossed for Andy tomorrow .. hope he plays well. Hope there are no rain breaks either. Strange goings on with Serena today ... she should never have come out for that match .. she was all over the place (even I could have beaten her ) Hope she's okay.

Yes .. well done Andy Watched Sabine's match .. good to see her looking confident (sorry Steve ) .. I thought she played well but Ana is her own worst enemy sometimes. It was a great victory for style and beauty though I do like to see nice dresses and more importantly .. I hate it when a nice dress is ruined by hefty bra straps at the back .. both these gorgeous girls managed to avoid that. I know this is not very important in the scheme of things .. but I can't help being distracted by it. Just for balance Feliciano Lopez looked very well indeed I'm glad Serena is out (hope Sharapova follows) .. she is just too aggressive for me and I don't like her on court demeanour. Would have liked to see Venus progress further though. Novak looks awesome rather worryingly and Nadal and Federer also looking good. It's going to be tough now for Andy but he can do it I hate rain delays .. it always messes with the result. Players have a chance to talk to their coaches and often come back fighting .. it ruins momentum (of course .. sometimes this is a good thing .. it all depends on who I want to win .. I've been known to do a rain dance before now ) I've not forgotten the Wimbledon final before last when Roger benefitted royally from a rain delay Good job we had a heatwave last year Saw some good vintage matches on the red button on Saturday. Chris Evert vs Martina Navratilova in the final of '78 and Jana Novotna vs Steffi Graf in '93. Have now seen last years final in highlights about a million times .. which is awesome of course but hope Andy triumphs again or they'll be running that footage for ever. It is an improvement on the old grainy images of Fred Perry we used to get shown occasionally. I was tickled to see that a British lady called Kay Stammers won the ladies doubles in the same year that Fred (last) won the men's singles (along with Freda James) .. now why have I only just heard of her? There are so few sporty Kays .. indeed I've never heard of one before. What a shame I didn't get to cheer her on but then I'd be dead or ancient now so every cloud and all that. I found a pic though .. it's in the National Portrait Gallery .. she looks awesome

Ah ... not to be. Germany sailed through. Interesting matches as any one of the remaining three teams could have gone through but that early 4-0 defeat to Germany put paid to Portugal's chances and Ghana couldn't quite do enough. Well done to the USA for advancing ... Belgium next I think.

I love it at Hidcote and those photos are amazing Claire .. what a beautiful day for it too

Actually I sound like a total stalker in your dream. 'I am coming to visit regularly' (blimey .. time to change the locks ) I think your dream self took it very well We will go to the astronomical observatory .. straight after I've eaten a Karelian pie

It really was my fault. I knew what I meant but I didn't write it down correctly One of the reasons I gave How to be Good such a good rating was that it was such an easy read at a time when I've been struggling. I took it over to the park most days and I didn't have to wrestle with it or anything .. which is not really a recommendation to anyone but me Also I thought he'd made a better job of women at a crossroads than say Sue Townsend did with The Woman Who Went to Bed For a Year. It was still far fetched and unbelievable but I find him so readable and that's a blessing at the moment (though since him .. I've improved .. which I'm very generously attributing to him ) It's not my favourite Hornby either .. that would probably be High Fidelity though I haven't read them all yet. A good rule of thumb might be to avoid anywhere with 'town' in the name

Toast carnage Lots of people tell me they think of me when they see a piece of toast which is marvellous (but if they eat it as often as I do then they must be sick of me ) What could be nicer than being associated with toast? It's better than being Bill Clinton and being associated with cigars etc I am going to read a book about a woman who wins the lottery and buys her dream home by the sea with a fantastic library and a fridge full of Magnums in it. It has it's own separate annexe which her Finnish friend uses whenever she comes to visit .. WHICH IS OFTEN

Sorry Sari I just read my post and it was totally confusing .. I did indeed make it sound like they were referencing different Jonestowns but they weren't they were referencing the same one (the one with the cult .. where 900 or so people drank cyanide in a mass suicide) .. all I meant was that it was weird .. that two such different stories .. set in different countries and not alike in any other way .. should reference Jonestown at all and that I should read them on the same day. Apologies though .. I made a right hash of explaining it .. I sometimes think the keyboard is not my friend because surely I'm not as dim as all that

Really enjoying Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles .. though it's making me anxious Also enjoying Trawler by Redmond O Hanlon. Hopefully going to the seaside for a couple of days next week so trying to decide which books to take. I'll still be reading Trawler I expect .. and I think I might take Captain Corelli's Mandolin with me as well as that seems like a good book to read in the sunshine (hope I haven't put a jinx on the weather ) It's long been on the shelf so it's about time I gave it a go. Hope the book is better than the film

Yes ... fancy letting other nations play .. what numpties .. we should have banned the use of a football (or soccer ball as some would have it) outside of the UK .. wouldn't have made much of a tournament but our chances of winning would dramatically increase Yay! Go Finnish baseball Yes *sob* We are out after just two games played which is unprecedented I think though we've failed to qualify before so not total disaster. It's very sunny here though and that's not to be underestimated .. the nation will fire up their BBQs and burn some sacrificial sausages

We are terrible losers .. you'd think we'd have got used to it I think we're annoyed that others are excelling at a game we invented We are a footballing nation and it's tough never to get any reward .. 1966 was such a long time ago Hey ho .. not long until Euro 2016