Books to Read Poster No 49

 

My photos of the little pictures do not improve, although some of it is to do with the light in the room where the poster now lives. 

Anyway this one was Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian. I hadn't read it before and was dreading having to as I had got the impression that it was horribly sentimental and had a sad end. 

Despite the fact that it is sentimental in places and does have several sad things happen in it I loved it. It was funny and touching and sad and uplifting and optimistic and I wish I'd been able to read it when I was young because I would have loved it even more. 

We have had a run of hits, but I suspect it is about to come crashing to an untimely end. 

Meanwhile although this didn't get me to the half way mark, by careful ordering from the library I have achieved one noteworthy goal - 

finally! one complete vertical line.

A Glasgow Weekend with Good Friends Day One

A while back - well, pre-Covid! - my Dorothy Dunnett reading friends in the north of England had suggested that for once, instead of me trailing down to Yorkshire or wherever to meet up, they might come to Glasgow for a change. Covid put the plans on hold but they were revived last year,  we managed to find a date that suited us all, and they finally made it over the border in May. 

They had decided that they wanted to theme their stay around Charles Rennie Mackintosh, which is easily done as Glasgow now celebrates one of its most famous sons in a big way, despite being largely indifferent to him, and his equally talented wife,  while he was alive.

We'd scouted out places to go way back at the beginning of the year and put together a flexible itinerary and, despite one of the party having to drop out at the last minute for sad family reasons, the rest made it in good order.

We met up at Kelvingrove Art Gallery which has a fairly recently redeveloped gallery featuring CRM and the Glasgow Style. Naturally we started  with coffee and a catch up then visited the gallery. When we had done with CRM we split up to follow our own artistic tastes, which meant a trip to the Scottish Colourists gallery for me and Dutch and French art for some of the others. We reconvened at the restaurant for lunch, after which the visitors decided to catch a Big Red Hop-On Hop Off  Glasgow Tour Bus and I think the OH and I went to Marks and Spencer to do some clothes shopping. It's a bit of a blur, but I do know we did go to M and S and I can't think when else we might have fitted it in, so let's say that's when we did it. Then back to the flat for a shower , a change of clothes, and to pick up Son no 2 who was joining us for the evening's festivities. 

When we had made the plans for the weekend the others had expressed an interest in going to the opera if there was anything on and happily there was, and even more happily it was Carmen, which is very accessible for people who aren't committed opera goers. The OH and I were a bit concerned because it was a new production  and,  although  heaven knows SO were desperately in need of a new  Carmen, we  weren't sure that this actual production was the one they needed. For a start it was in English translation, and of all the languages opera is translated from French is probably the trickiest to manage to fit sensibly to the music. Plus they had added a sort of framing narrative to the  opera which involved a female detective investigating Carmen's murder. Quite why they felt they needed this at all begs a question, especially in view of the fact that Jose declares at the end of the opera - and in this version also right at the very beginning - that he killed Carmen and begs to be taken away, so the whole investigation story is all a but redundant. Not to mention the fact that I can't imagine a Spanish regime until very recently that would have bothered to investigate the violent killing of a gypsy - but you know I could be doing them a disservice. In the event everyone enjoyed it which was a relief. I know it's had some rave reviews in the papers; personally I wouldn't give it a 5 star review but there you go. The singing was generally good and the singer we support through the  Emerging Artist scheme sang quite a large role in it - and was, naturally very good. I'd say I wouldn't rush to see it again, except that it is, you know Carmen, and the music is fabulous. 

We had an early dinner before the performance at Pieno which the OH and I go to sometimes when we're in Glasgow and we have pictures of that. 

This is their Tiramisu, which is fabulous, and below a rather overexposed group shot. 

I Have No Pictures for Day 1

 of my time away, sadly.

We went over to Stirling and had lunch with a friend, which I completely failed to photograph, she gave us a guided tour of the area around the city then took us to her home for a cup of tea and a biscuit. It was a bit of a scouting exercise in preparation for an anticipated, but not imminent,  move away from Orkney. Obviously after such a long time here it will be a bit of a wrench and we also need to make sure we get the right place to move to; one that 'ticks all our boxes' as Phil and Kirsty would say and where we will both be happy. The main criterion is that it should be within an hour's train journey of Glasgow and we have checked out various places including Perth, Lanark and Falkirk.  None of them hit the spot, but I'm happy to say that Stirling did, so when the time comes we'll be concentrating on that area. Meanwhile we are doing various things to the house to make it more saleable. While I was away the OH gave the outside a new coat of paint so it's looking quite smart and I do have a photo of that. 

I Am Back

 

I have returned, after a really hectic, not-quite-two weeks. I have had the most fabulous time; the occasional frazzle and train related worry but generally it was amazing and I can't wait to start sharing it all on the blog. Except that I have to wait, because two weeks away from home equates to a lot of unpacking, tidying, post and laundry to deal with on your return. 

Books to Read poster No 48

 

Yet another example of 'why on earth did they choose this picture for that book?' because it was  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsen . Now, colour me obvious if you like, but if I'd been choosing an image for the book I'd have chosen a picture of a tattoo of a dragon. Or a tattoo of the Chinese symbol for dragon. I wouldn't have chosen a picture of a light motorbike which gets mentioned like twice in the book. But hey-ho, I'm not the marketing genius who came up with the idea of the poster in the first place so I have to bow to the choices of whoever was. 

As far as the book goes, I have read it before and didn't particularly want to tackle it again but I did. And my verdict was much the same as before; good plot, badly written. Well maybe not badly, more pedestrian. Too much tell not show, and the journalism background comes through in the style big time. 

And another one not in the plan

 was this

When I had finished my Bee Happy cross stitch I went to look at what other small Shepherds Bush cross stitch kits I had because I thought I had a few. I found this one and started doing it without realising quite how small the design was - about 3 1/2 inches by 2 1/2. I was a bit dismayed when I realised as it was far too small to be worth getting expensively framed, and then I had a bright idea and yesterday I turned the completed piece into this

a 70th birthday card for a good friend who I shall be seeing shortly. 

Talking of which there will hopefully be a couple of blog entries before Thursday, but on Thursday we are off south and my life is going to go super crazy busy. It will be quite like pre-Covid times except that I find myself less able to contemplate all the stuff quite as calmly as I used to. I'm convinced  I am going to forget important things like tickets, passport, where I'm supposed to be and with whom,  I used to take all these things in my stride but I'm just not used to doing so much in such a small period of time anymore.

On the upside there will be lots of exciting things to write about when I get back; it won't all be poster books, craft and jigsaw puzzles for a while!  

Books to Read Poster No 47

 

It's getting harder and harder to rub the silver cover off the little pictures without damaging them, I think the silver stuff must get stickier with age. I should obviously have read faster. 

This was another free to members Audible offering - there will be several more of those to come over the next few months, although not the ones that come in at over forty hours. I think, free or not, I'll have to buy or borrow those and read them off the page. 

Anyway it was The Time Machine by H G Wells. I've never read it, never wanted to read it, and now that I've listened to it I don't want to read anything else he penned either, which is a huge shame as he has another title on the poster. 

I think the best I can say of this is that it is of its time. All the genres it dabbles its toes in i.e. sci-fi, adventure story , political prophecy, sociological analysis, psychoanalysis and even, in an icky and roundabout way, romance, have all come a very long way since this was written. This is a mercy for which we should all be grateful.