One down, fifty one to go...

I can't quite believe that the first week of January 2012 is almost over.  It's gone past in a blur and I feel like I haven't really done anything - but hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have finished AT LEAST one of the books I've started over the past week and a half.  I've been in a reading funk, I want to read, but don't know exactly what I feel like, so I've started a few different books, but none have hit the spot. 

What has everyone else been reading?  Have you found that magical book to kick off the new year with?  What ever the case may be, I hope that the weekend gives you time to relax, kick back and enjoy this lovely summer weather, (unless of course it's Winter where you are, then look on the bright side - you have snow!).

C.

Posts on the fly

Just a lil' update, I'm all excited as I can now blog via email.  Fingers crossed this makes it a litte easier to post.

C.

When life gets in the way...

I can't believe it is now July, over halfway through the year.  I remember, when  I was younger it seemed like it took ages for the year to come to a close - granted my events for marking the year were birthdays, Easter and Christmas.  But now, it seems like the years pass quicker, blink and you miss it!  Something I'm not entirely happy with.

I've been absent for the last couple of months, pretty much everywhere - okay not everywhere, I'm still chained to my desk at work, (not literally, that would be bad OH&S), but I've been busy with that, with uni, my Mum's been unwell and my cat, the lovely Sloppy Jones, has gone missing and by missing I think she's gone to that big catnip filled field in the sky.  She had been sick, with something that the vet couldn't identify, thus couldn't treat.  Which was frustrating to no end.  But I sure do miss her little quacking sneezing, which heralded her entry into a room.  She was an awesome cat.

I've now kinda depressed myself.  So quick - subject change - what else have I been doing - reading the first six books in the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh.  Which I am loving so far.  Great writing, I love the world building, the characters, the smexy times, where the author is taking the series, I've got four books until I'm up to date.  I love the whole damn angsty, sweaty, sexy world.  I'm a bit behind the ball on reading this series, it's been around for awhile and I was always going to read them, just later.  But I met Nalini at ARRC2011 and thought she's awesome, I'm going to read her books.  Now.  And I'm so glad I did.

Apart from that, not a lot has been going down, just life in general, which always gets in the way of all the stuff I want to do.  Hopefully I can juggle work, uni and the blog, I'm behind on reviews I need to do at the moment,  too bad life isn't an episode of I Dream of Jeanie - it would make it all so much easier!

Have a great weekend guys, get out and play in the sun while you can.

C.

Monday Madness

I had big plans for bloggish stuff over the weekend, but between some kid wrangling and me not feeling my shiny best I didn't get to do anything - which is usually the way when I get my planning on.  But what did I find when I checked in this morning, some fantastic new followers - welcome, enjoy, feel free to comment and generally have a good time.

Beautiful things arrived in the post last Thursday, perfect for the mood I've been in the last few weeks.  The cute has come from Pretty Whimsical on Etsy.  The pendants are made using wooden scrabble pieces from the 40's and 50's.  I'm in lust at the moment, they're just so darn cute! 

I've been watching lots of period drama - the latest being the 2008 itv version of Wuthering Heights, with Tom Hardy portraying Heathcliff, he was so good, to me he nailed the character, thank goodness I was lying down - there was swoonage.  Today Wide Sargasso Sea came in for me so I'll get to snuggle on down with that tonight.  I've seen the '93 version before, but not the lastest version.  I'm so looking forward to Jane Eyre, which is coming out this month.  Hence me watching Wide Sargasso and hopefully I can get our bookclub to read Jane Eyre this month.

Here's the trailer...I just hope that it gets released in Australia the same time it does in the US.  It looks deliciously menacing.

So what's your favourite period drama?  Which adaption do you like the best?

All links are from IMDb

C.

Hello Autumn!

As I woke up this morning, I was greeted with seasonally appropriate weather.  The tiny pitter patter of rain and somber grey skies.  Summer this year was a non event really, not that I'm complaining, as much as I love the beach, my favorite time of year is Winter.  I love the cold and there is nothing better than snuggling down in bed with a good book and a cup of milo, Sloppy purring at my shoulder.

Now is the time I love visiting my Cuj, okay I love visiting anytime, but there something about sitting in her garden in the Adelaide Hills, drinking tea all afternoon, eating tiny gingerbread men that my niece, Josie, has decorated.  Then you get to go inside and sit in front of a toasty fire, with more cups of tea.  Tea is a thing in my family, well that and nibbling, do very well.  I think it's ingrained and what a tasty trait to have.  How cute are the gingerbread men :)

Time to bust out the scarves methinks, it's layering time :)

C.

Changes to the blog

While I should've been leaving work on time and 'getting things done', I did some procrastinating instead - so technically I did DO something, just not the thing I was supposed to.

Like the new look? It's got some more colour, I liked the brown, but this are more my style, and I love the flowers. Now I just have to organise some tabs, since this blog isn't just devoted to books, I thought tabs would be a good way to separate the topics I write about. Now there's no way I'm getting time to do anything before book club, until next time stay classy Adelaide. It's time to discuss The Road.

C.

Blogging on my phone! Cept I can't get curser 2 go in main box dammit! So while this will be longest ever post title - I'll have to do rest @ work.

As promised here's the actual post, I played around a bit, but still couldn't get the cursor into this part, I also noticed I missed a couple of words in the excitement, but anywho, I loves my phone anyway. No buyers remorse for me - and yes, I did get an iPhone3Gs. Besides, I couldn't fit anymore words in there. I'm a little afraid to see how much data I used over the weekend, I got it friday night and was on it al over the weekend, putting apps on it - (seriously addicted to the bubblewrap game and toobs), good thing it was Independence Day in US, otherwise I never would have got off twitter, I'd be too busy chatting. So my guess is that I'll be stuck to it for some time to come, not only cause got a little lust happening for it, but cause I'm also still trying to work the damn thing out.

I was also going to add to my books to read list (which were photo's in my old phone - that I can't get to. Oh, it's a long and complicated road I travel). Anyway, here's what I remember, with clicky bits from Amazon cause I'm a lazy bitch:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - Teen horror/action, part of series.
Generation Dead: Kiss of Life by Daniel Waters - Teen horror/romance with zombies YAY!!
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan - I saw this at work and liked the cover (yes I'm one of those people :)) AND...more zombies (it's also a teen title).
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - Another teen, I just saw this when looking for the titles to the next two books.
Untamed (House of Night, Book 4) and Hunted (House of Night, Book 5) - Vampires this time, I've just finished the first one and quite enjoyed it, there are a few things that annoy me about the writing, hopefully it's fixed as the series goes on.

I had a bunch of others, but can't remember them, which is going to annoy me. But they'll turn up eventually I'm sure. But for now it's goodnight from me to you.

C.

Slackarse? Moi? Well okay yes!

I've been as usual, negelectful in my bloggy duties and I'm really beginning to think that having that new fangled interwebs at home would be a bonus! I've got limited Twitter & Facebook on mah phone, but beyond that, I can't easily acess the net from it & as previously discussed my trials at blogging from said phone resulted in an epic fail. So I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet & get connected @ home, or get an iPhone so I can do me some tethering...on that front, I'm actually going to try do that tonight with my phone now - so fingers crossed. Although I'm not holding my breath. It would def. make life a hell of a lot easier, on the down side - I'd turn into a total mouse potatoe - cause hell, I'm so damn active now. lol.

Planning for the holiday is coming along, slowly, but still moving along, Ash & I are now officially delegates, with our conference fees paid for, along with flights, insurance & accomodation in Milan. Sweet!! We've found a couple of places to stay in Spain & a nice place (if photo's can be trusted in Paris & Berlin), plus quite a few scary backpackers that I hope never to set foot into. It's only 57 days til we touch down in Milan & it's all very citing!!

I'm thinking of getting an iPhone, so I can organise some ebooks to put on there, (this is where I conveniently forget that I already have an iPod that has lots of space for audio books), I'm not sure exactly how to overcome the whole away for 6 weeks when I would probably read around 30 books in that time. One good think is that Ash & I read the same thing, so we can swap books, but still taking 60 or so books away isn't an option. Obviously there is the swap box factor, but I like to keep my books, as I tend to read them more than once. Ideas people are always welcome. I could always seamail some over, as they would get over there in time for the 2nd half of holiday, but that seems silly as I'd have to send them back also. Who knows!

Talking bout books, some of my presents from amazon arrived today, so I have 4 new books to read. Huzzah! They are all sexy books, I got the 3rd in the Magnus Pack series by Shelly Laurenston and the first in her Mane series, (the 2nd & 3rd in that series are still coming), plus two Maya Banks ones & I've got 3 more to look forward too. So sorry book club book, I'm putting you on the back burner!! Okay it's half 7 and I've got elsewhere to be, enjoy the rest of your am/pm :)

C.

Cadbury Eyebrows = The Devil?!

WTF is up with Cadbury's latest add campaign?? Eyebrows? Huh? I got my stick on eyebrows a couple of months ago in a magazine and was all I don't get it? Then the other day I was on the Empire website and saw the add with the two kids, all I can say is - Mummy! That shizz freaked me out bad. One thing it didn't do was make me want chocolate. Then I was in target on the weekend and they had the eyebrow mirror and I was all ahh...*lightbulb* I still don't like it tho.

My thoughts are if your add's that elaborate it takes me months to 'get it' and doesn't make me want to eat chocolate, there's something wrong with your advertising. At least the gorilla playing drums was funny, instead they decided to reanimate the evil spawn from Children of the Corn and slap some wiggly eyebrows on 'em - NOT FUNNY.

It was a weird weekend I tell you. There were The Eyebrows and then there was The Customer. I had to work on the weekend and has the displeasure of serving a customer that thinks romance/sci-fi/horror paberback novels are for imbeciles (sadly I can't slap our customers. Sigh.) Let me start by saying, I'm unashamedly a reader of romance novels, have been for years. Me loves the 'lady porn' as it's often called (no I don't take offence at that). Back when I was a young lass, I used to read the good old Mills & Boon (a company that's still going strong btw), I also added a healthy dose of Virginia Henley (historical romance). These of course were quite daring when I was younger, I don't really read these anymore. Now I'm more into Lora Leigh, Lori Foster, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Maya Banks & Shelly Laurenston (to name a few), decidedly not writing about giving a good hand holding and if there is any its so the hot boy can firmly guide his lady love to his sexy bits.

To be honest the old M & B no longer cut the mustard, I like my sexy books full of steamy sex, alpha hot boys and no beating about the bush...well maybe a little :P. Lora Leigh - you ruined me for M & B! Along with my sexy bits I like a good story and that's why I choose the authors I do, they so successfully meld romance with suspense, the paranormal, action, science fiction or fantasy. Which was something that the lady I was speaking to couldn't understand. The brilliant thing is they make me laugh, Lori Foster, Shelly Laurenston and Sandra Hill have on numerous occasions caused me to laugh out loud, howl at a situation so funny that I forget my place and have to try and pretend I'm normal so all the other people on the bus don't think I'm a lunatic.

I just don't get the stigma that sexy books have. A book is a book is a book people! Regardless of the content, if it touches the reader, makes them laugh, cry or grab their other half and give 'em a good seeing to, the book has successfully reached it's audience. Not all books have to be 'literary', win a Miles Franklin and be touted as the next great thing. Cause lets be honest...some of those books are boring as all shit and nobody wants to to be bored with what they're reading - what's the point, it's supposed to be fun. Unless of course you're reading something for uni, in that case, chances are you might be a little bored - but that's why the sexy book was created, to distract you from all the boring stuff.

As far as I'm concerned reading is for everyone, not for the few. So lady - you're a wanker! Go read a romance and then come see me when you've seen the error of your ways. Silly Woman.

Here endeth the rant...:)

C.

It's like a cloud for your mouth...

I've pimped my blog, adding a picture to the title thingy, sexy ja? Of course if you go into any library this is how we're all dressed...no really...would I lie to you. Never. I'm going to Adelaide this weekend which should be lovely and as luck would have it skivving off work early too. Ah the joys of council work. (Contrary to popular belief all of us don't really lean on shovels all day...some of us are lucky enough to have chairs!!

Listening to Gym Class Heroes - As Cruel As School Children at the moment, I'm quite liking it. It's sort of hip hop, rock, R&B and funk. I love their version of Good Vibrations, which is on the One Tree Hill Soundtrack, Vol. 3. It's very easy to listen to, plus they have funny talky bits which is always amusing. I've just discovered that Track 14. Cupid's Chokehold is another some I've heard before and love - just not knowing what I was listening too. I love it when that happens. I've also been listening to Lupe Fiasco's The Cool, which is hip hop, funk and also very (rather appropriately) cool, his song I Gotcha, which I loves is also on the OTH soundtrack.

Well, I'm done for the night at work, so I'm going to finish this post off and try and find my other list of stuff to add, wish me luck, my desk, as usual, looks like a bombs hit it. Organised chaos baby, organised chaos, I know where everything is. Well, almost everything.

C.