SandDune's 2015 Reading - Part 4

Welcome everyone to my third thread of 2015, and to my fourth year doing the 75 Book Challenge. I'm a 54 year old accountant working part-time as the Finance Manager of a local charity, after spending most of my career in the City of London. I live about thirty miles north of London with my husband (aka Mr SandDune), who is Assistant Principal at a local secondary school, and our 15 year old son (aka J), who attends the same school. There's also our 3 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier Daisy, and 12 year old cat Sweep, who have an uneasy relationship in which Sweep permanently has the upper hand. I'm originally from Wales rather than England, so I do have an interest in all things Welsh (although I can't speak the language - at least only a few words) and I tend to get huffy if people call me English rather than Welsh! I read mainly literary fiction, classics, science-fiction and fantasy and tend to avoid horror, detective fiction, chick-lit and thrillers. All the family are avid readers, although Mr SandDune doesn't get time to read as much as he would like: J has inherited a love of reading science-fiction and fantasy from me and a love of reading history from Mr SandDune so our books are increasingly shared. I read hardbacks, paperbacks, on kindle and listen to audio books particularly when driving or walking the dog. Apart from reading I love travelling, eating out, going to the theatre (not so often as I'd like but I've made a resolution to remedy that this year) and I'm doing a part-time degree with the Open University which keeps me pretty busy.

This month's picture is by Gustave Courbet(1819 - 1877) 'The Cliffs at Etretat 1869. Another picture of northern France, chosen mainly because I have been watching the Tour de France this evening, and they were cycling past these cliffs.

My reading plans for 2015 are quite structured. I intend to participate in Paul's British Author Challenge as well as Mark's American Author Challenge. I belong to a RL reading group which meets monthly, as well as reading the Booker shortlist sometime in the spring. I'm also doing an Open University (OU) course in Twentieth Century Literature.

In between that I want to read rather more non-fiction than I've been doing of late, and of course keeping up with the science-fiction and fantasy. Here are my tentative choices for the various challenges a well as my OU reading:

British Author Challenge

January : Penelope Lively Ammonites and Leaping Fish
January : Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day
February : Sarah Waters The Paying Guest
February : Evelyn Waugh Decline and Fall
March : Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca
March : China Mieville Embassytown
April : Angela Carter Heroes and Villains
April : W. Somerset Maugham The Painted Veil
May : Margaret Drabble The Pure Gold Baby
May : Martin Amis Lionel Asbo: State of England
June : Beryl Bainbridge An Awfully Big Adventure
June: Anthony Burgess Earthy Powers
July : Virginia Woolf Orlando
July : B.S. Johnson Christie Marley's own Double-Entry
August : Iris Murdoch The Bell
August : Graham Greene Our man in Havana
September : Andrea Levy The Long Song
September : Salman Rushdie The Enchantress of Florence
October : Helen Dunmore The Siege
October : David Mitchell Cloud Atlas
November : Muriel Spark Memento Mori
November : William Boyd The Blue Afternoon
December : Bernice Rubens A Five Year Sentence
December : P.G. Wodehouse The Inimitable Jeeves

American Author Challenge

Carson McCullers- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Henry James- The Turn of the Screw
Richard Ford- Canada
Louise Erdrich- The Plague of Doves
Sinclair Lewis- Babbitt
Wallace Stegner- Crossing to Safety
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Wizard of Earthsea
Larry McMurtry- Lonesome Dove
Flannery O' Connor- A Good Man is Hard to Find and other stories
Ray Bradbury- Farenheit 451
Barbara Kingsolver- Flight Behaviour
E.L. Doctorow- Ragtime

Open University Set Books

Pat Barker The Ghost Road
Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot
Bertolt Brecht Life of Galileo
Anton Chekov Five Plays
Philip K Dick Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca
TS Eliot Prufrock and Other Observations
Lewis Grassic Gibbon Sunset Song
Allen Ginsberg Howl and other poems
Abdulrazak Gurnah Paradise
Seamus Heaney New Selected Poems, 1966-1987
Katherine Mansfield Selected Stories
Manuel Puig Kiss of the Spider Woman
Poetry of the Thirties
Virginia Woolf Orlando: a Biography

Books Read in 2015:
1. Ammonites and Leaping Fish Penelope Lively ****
2. The Life of Galileo Bertolt Brecht ****
3. Orlando Virginia Woolf. ****
4. Why Be happy when you Could be normal? Jeanette Winterson ****1/2
5. Please Mister Postman Alan Johnson ***1/2
6. Where I'm reading From Tim Parks ****
7. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers ***1/2
8. The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro *****
9. To Rise at a Decent Hour Joshua Ferris **
10. Trouble with Lichen John Wyndham ***
11. The Turn of the Screw Henry James
12. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Philip K. Dick ****1/2
13. Rebecca Daphne du Maurier ****1/2
14. Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh ***
15. The Paying Guests Sarah Waters ****1/2
16. How to be both Ali Smith ****
17. Embassytown China Mieville ****
18. Touch Clare North ****
19. Mort Terry Pratchett ***1/2
20. Canada Richard Ford ***
21. Phoenix Steven Brust ***1/2
22. The Aftermath Rhidian Brook ***
23. The Plague of Doves Louise Edrich***1/2
23. Heroes and villains Angela Carter ***
24. The Painted Veil Somerset Maugham ****1/2
25. The Year of reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved my Life Andy Miller ***1/2
26. Etta and Otto and Russell and James Emma Hooper ****1/2
27. Old Man's War John Scalzi ***
28. Miss Ranskill Comes Home Barbara Euphan Todd ***
29. Jane and Prudence Barbara Pym ***1/2
30. Lionel Asbo: State of England Martin Amis **
31. The Pure Gold Baby Margaret Drabble ***
32. Broken Homes Ben Aaronovitch ***1/2
33. The Small House at Allington Anthony Trollope ***1/2
34. Ethan of Athos Lois McMaster Bujold ***1/2
35. Babbitt Sinclair Lewis ***
36. The Bell Iris Murdoch ****
37. Just one Damned thing after another Jodi Taylor ***
38. Crossing to Safety Wallace Stegner ****1/2
39. An Awfully Big Adventure Beryl Bainbridge ***1/2
40. Athyra Steven Brust ****
41. Agent of change Sharon Lee ***1/2
42. Carpe Diem Sharon Lee ***1/2
43. Reaper Man Terry Pratchett ****
44. The Scythe of heaven Ursula K.le Guin ****
45. Girl in the Dark Anna Lyndsey *****
46. The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett ***
47. Brothers in Arms Lois McMaster Bujold ****
48. Nora Webster Colm Toibin ***1/2
49. Where Memories Go Sally Magnusson *****
50. The Sense of Style Steven Pinker ****
51. The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world Michael Marmot ****1/2
52. The Spire William Golding *****
53. The Undertaking Audrey Magee ****1/2
54. Our Man in Havana Graham Greene ****
55. The Violent Bear it Away Flannery O'Connor ***

Discovered I can't count and don't need this one after all. Feel free to jump in now!

Hi, Rhian! I like the Courbet painting at the top of your new thread.

Have you seen any plays yet this year?

Hey Rhian! Nice new thread. I haven't kept up with you very well this year but you have a good first-half of reading under your belt. I'm glad you liked Crossing to Safety, which I read many years ago and liked a lot.
I still need to read an Iris Murdoch.

Happy New Thread, Rhian. I love the topoer. I'm a huge Brecht fan so I'm glad to see that you liked this play.

Happy new thread and a lovely cliff view.
I didn't realise that a picture of that title existed (I know, should have googled). It features in an episode of the West Wing, where you never see the picture, but it is seen hanging in the White House by a woman who recognises it as having belonged to her father and it was looted by the Nazis. It is also described in scathing terms by the very snobish (and hilarious) antiquities expert "So here it hangs, like a gym sock on a shower rail". He may have been doing it down, I quite like it (not that that means anything, of course).

Happy new thread, Rhian!

Great topper! Happy new thread, Rhian.

>5 kidzdoc: We haven't see anything in London or Cambridge, but we've seen a couple of things put on by our local theatre company: 'Stones in their pockets' and 'Season's Greetings'. But we've booked to see 'The Red Lion' at the NT at the beginning of August.

>6 EBT1002: Hi Ellen. I'll certainly be reading some more Wallace Stegner.

>7 Ameise1: Barbara, I haven't come across any other Brecht (although I'm sure I should have done).

>8 Helenliz: It may not have been this specific painting. There seems to have been loads of them on the same theme , particularly by Monet. It was obviously a fashionable spot in the nineteenth century:

http://linesandcolors.com/2014/01/29/painters-of-the-cliffs-of-tretat/

>9 scaifea: >10 Familyhistorian: Hi Amber, Meg.

Weren't the helicopter shots of those cliffs just wonderful on the Tour? Thoroughly enjoyed that stage.

I'm desperately behind with my British Author Challenge. You seem to be doing splendidly.

Happy Sunday, Rhian.

The Courbet is lovely!

We are now ensconced in our holiday cottage on Skye, having travelled up here on Friday and Saturday for our two weeks in Scotland. A week here on Skye, then Gairloch a bit further north on the West coast, then Speyside, then Edinburgh and back home two weeks today.

The cottage is lovely, and manages to combine being incredibly quiet with a fairly convenient location for getting around. I always mean to take photos of our cottages in their pristine condition before we manage to dishevel them, but I always forget, and they never look quite the same after a few hours of occupation.

Rhian, I wish you a most wonderful holiday.

Same here, always when we move into a cottage we forget too to take pics before it looks different because of us. :-)

Oh lovely holiday. Skye is on my list of places to go someday.

Have a great time in Scotland! I look forward to photos and descriptions of your holiday.

I'll be awaiting your take on 'The Red Lion'. I almost saw it at the NT last month, and I think it's still on in September, when I hope to return to London.

Pea green with envy over your cottages on Skye. Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing/Onward! the sailors cry...

Scotland Holiday Day 1

This is the view from our cottage, with the River Snizort in the distance:



We did a walk to the end of the Trotternish peninsular, at the north-western tip of Skye. I stayed at the top of the cliff while J and Mr SandDune scrambled down to explore the flatter land below. It's not quite as difficult to do as it looks in this picture! In the past the lower land on the left hand side was considered good agricultural land, and you can still see the remains of the lazy beds where potatoes were cultivated. Potatoes which presumably then had to be hauled back up the cliff to where the people lived!



And finally here is the brooding remains of Duntulm castle on our return trip. Actually, in reality not quite so brooding as the photo makes it look, as I was taking it straight into the sun, but fairly brooding nonetheless!

Scotland Holiday Day 2

This morning a walk to the 'coral' beach near Dunvegan (not real coral of course):



All the cows seemed to have some very hungry calves, this one particularly so. We'd passed its father on the path a few minutes previously, but luckily it seemed a peaceable animal.



Then this afternoon Dunvegan Castle gardens which were lovely.

Your photos are so beautiful. Thanks for sharing them.

>14 sibylline: Thanks Lucy.

>16 Ameise1: >17 nittnut: >19 tiffin: It's years since we've been to Scotland, although it was a frequent destination for us once. Something I've noticed is proportionately how many more non-British tourists there are here. For a lot of British people Scotland isn't a popular holiday destination but the rest of the word seems to appreciate it!

>18 kidzdoc: We try and pick theatre trips that J will also appreciate, and so we thought 'Red Lion's sporting theme might appeal. He does enjoy going to the theatre if we pick the right play, but we've got to chose carefully.

Agreed, Rhian. Lovely photos. Thank you for sharing them.

Have a great holiday, Rhian. Thanks for the beautiful photos.

Your holiday looks wonderful Rhian. Scotland gets a lot of tourism publicity here specifically advertising during televised golf tournaments. We watched the Scottish Open over the weekend and it was all I could do not to book flights. And with St Andrews this weekend the temptation will continue.

Great photos, Rhian! Thanks for sharing them with us, and I'd love to see more of them.

Scotland Holiday Day 3

J and Mr SandDune went walking in the Cuillin today, which are a sharp, pointy mountain range in the middle of Skye that I had no intention of trying to climb. So I had a brief look around Portree, the capital of the island:



And then braved the single track road and suicidal sheep to go over to the other side of the island, where I found Mor Books (http://morbooks.co.uk), where they had very nice coffee and cake as well.

Of course, I couldn't go away without buying something:

Requiem Shizuko Go
Wylder's Hand Sheridan Le Fanu
Wild Harbour Ian MacPherson
The Unfortunates B.S. Johnson

Scotland Holiday Day 4

Took a boat trip to Loch Coruisk, a loch surrounded by the mountains of the Cuillin that can only easily be reached by sea:



A little cold for paddling though!



The walk along Loch Coruisk was cut short for me by the fact that the sole of one of my walking boots chose that moment to decide to nearly fall off! So I had to sit on a nice sunny rock while the others went exploring - not too much hardship there.

Lovely, lovely, lovely!

>24 jnwelch: >25 BLBera: >27 kidzdoc: >30 tiffin: Thanks - I thought if I had a little travelogue it would be nice for me to look back in as much as anything.

>26 lauralkeet: Scotland holidays seem normal to me, as my parents loved Scotland and my earliest holidays with Mr SandDune were spent there. But most people head for the sun.

>28 SandDune: A steep climb vs books and cake...I think you made the right decision, Rhian :-) The photos are great!

Rhian - You should get paid for being an ambassador. This is definitely going on my "to visit" list.

Hi Rhian, lovely painting by Courbet. Love your photos of Scotland. Oh my, the flora is just beautiful.

Scotland Holiday Day 5

Today we walked through the Quirang, an area of outstanding rock formations in the north of Skye. You can see the path we walked along in the lower picture: we then looped through the gap in the rocks on the skyline and climbed up into the ridge on the left for the return trip. It's only a little hill, Mr SandDune and J kept saying, but I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to the top. My fitbit recorded 105 flights of stairs, which seemed a very high hill to me. Most amazing of all, I managed to get my nose sunburnt!

Well done, Rhian! And lovely pics once again.

Great photos, Rhian! I hope that you're having an equally enjoyable day today.

Rhian, you are in Scotland! (I know, you already knew this, of course, but I was out of touch).
We visited Skye on our first trip to the country, in 2002, and I recall it being windswept and gorgeous. And the path you walked in >35 SandDune: brings back wonderful memories of our West Highland Way trek last year.
Enjoy!!

Wow, such wonderful photos!!! And of course they re-awakened my old dream of travelling to Scotland... *sigh*
Happy Holiday and keep enjoying!! :)))

Travelogue on hold because of dodgy wi-fi!

Loving the photos of your holiday. Someday. Nice book haul too! It looks like a nice little book shop. :)

Love the photos of Skye Rhian. We found it incredibly beautiful when we were there last year and also enjoyed discovering Mor Books.

Back home! After having good wi-fi on Skye, wi-fi on Gairloch never lasted more than a few minutes and there was no 3G reception. And in Boat of Garten near the Cairngorms we had a very chatty B&B owner which didn't leave much time for posting. But a good holiday was had by all, and J and Mr SandDune did some good hill walking, on particular in the Cairngorms where they did an eight hour walk and climbed up Britain's second highest mountain.

glad you had a good time, the pictures look enticing. The hills are OK from a distance, but I admit to being less keen on the idea of walking up them.

What a lovely holiday, Rhian. So glad that all of you enjoyed.

I love your Scotland photos! My ancestors hailed from Bangor Wales. I really want to go there some day.

Great Scotland photos, Rhian. One day I'll make to Scotland too.

Wonderful photos, and it sounds like a good time was had by all!

Lovely photos! Funny coincidence, I just learned a tune called Portree Bay that my spousal unit plays on the small pipes, and then something else I was reading mentioned the Snizort. Memorable name! Something between a sneeze and a snort!

I lost your thread. Sorry!

Gorgeous photos of Skye. I am hoping to be in Scotland at the end of the week, family permitting, but unlikely to see anything wilder than the Pentlands. Re the Scottish international tourism, the Scottish govt had worked really hard on 'homecoming' events which seemed to make an impact on some people with family histories in Scotland wanting to visit. There are so many breathtakingly beautiful places, but on the flip side there are also midges (!)

I've been catching up this week after getting back from holiday, so apologies for not getting back to everyone individually.

Yesterday we went into London to see The Red Lion at the National Theatre, a play about greed and ambition in non-league semi-professional football. Very good, but not exactly a cheerful production! And we met up with my sister for lunch beforehand as she has a flat just around the corner.

I've always wanted to travel to Scotland. Thanks for posting photos!

Driving home from work today I had a beautiful view of a red kite swooping over the road. When I was a child they were extinct in England and Scotland and there were only 20 pairs left in Wales. Today, they're gradually moving eastwards, not got quite as far as our house yet, but nearly.

>53 SandDune: That image is incredible!!!!

>53 SandDune: Beautiful! They are gorgeous birds.

I enjoyed your wonderful travelogue, Rhian. At least I will get to see Skye through your photos this year. Good on you for finding a bookstore in Portree. I don't remember finding one when I was there but I didn't take much time to explore the town as I was hunting down ancestors and only had a short amount of time.

They're regularly over our house - I always mean to try and take a picture like that, but I tend to get a small dot in an expanse of sky!
They are huge! If you see them on them on or very near the ground they are scarily large.

>54 Whisper1: >55 nittnut: >57 Helenliz: I need to make clear that I didn't take that photo - it's from the RSPB website. But I did see it in almost that level of detail. I see them quite often on the way home but usually a lot further away.

>56 Familyhistorian: The bookshop wasn't in Portree - it was right over on the western side of the island. There was a shop selling books in Portree but calling it a 'bookshop' would be going a bit too far!

Very little reading has been going on recently. It wasn't the sort of holiday where there was much reading time, and being a lot more active than I usually am I was rather too sleepy to do much reading in the evening. I have read these ones:

Agent of Change Sharon Lee Steve Miller
Carpe Diem Sharon Lee Steve Miller
Reaper Man Terry Pratchett

>53 SandDune: Beautiful! Makes me think of H is for Hawk.

I hope you're enjoying the Liaden books, Rhian. I'm having a great time re-reading them, and also reading all the short stories I missed the first time around.

>53 SandDune: Whoa, what a fabulous photograph, Rhian! So beautiful!

Your holiday sounds very restful.

>58 SandDune: I did think it was odd that I missed the bookstore in Portree! Good to know that I wasn't being totally oblivious.

Woken up at 1.30am this morning by J complaining that there was a 'flying thing' in his bedroom, and he wanted to go and sleep on the sofa in the sitting room instead. But apparently, there was a large spider in the sitting room which he was also unhappy about and wanted moving (our spare bedroom is full of boxes at the moment as we have been sorting out the loft). After attempts to get him to go back to bed and stop making a fuss, Mr SandDune had to go and sort the spider out, being the easiest thing to catch. This morning we found a note on the living room door: not the usual 'Do not disturb' but the rather more enigmatic 'Stop. There was a flying thing!' I've been trying to persuade him this morning that he has to get over this extreme dislike of flying insects if he wants to travel as much as he is intending to!

Going back to the red kite sighting, Mr SandDune saw one yesterday over our home town - first one ever. They've obviously moved that little bit further east.

I'm laughing at your description of your nighttime disturbance. We once had problems with bats, and my daughters screams still echo.

LOL - wonderful describtion. Could be my teenager daughter and what a gorgeous lecture.

A lovely day out today to Orford - a very pretty village on the Suffolk coast, with a medieval castle, a quay, nice pubs, and strolls along the salt marshes after lunch to walk it all off. Oh, and the weather was perfect. Only downside was that the tide was out exposing quite a lot of very silty mud, and Daisy was hot and desperate to go for a little swim in the water which meant going across the mud ... end result one very muddy dog.

Bath time when we get home goes something like this:

1 - bribe a clearly suspicious Daisy to come into the bathroom with promises of biscuits.
2 - chase Daisy around bathroom for several minutes while attempting to get her into a position where she can be picked up.
3 - pick up dog and attempt to put her in bath, making sure to tuck in all wildly flailing legs
4 - shampoo, while at the same time bodily preventing any escape attempts
5 - attempt to rinse dog, while avoiding small tidal waves caused by dog's continued struggling.
6 - breath a sigh of relief that it is over and let go of dog, who them proceeds to make bathers even wetter than they were already by shaking herself dry all over bathroom before towel can be produced.

We don't bathe Daisy very often!

Orford's lovely. I have a thing for castles and that's a corker. The stone was quarried in Northamtonshire and sailed to the construction site. I know that East Anglia's short of solid construction material, but that strikes me as an awfully long way to ferry that amount of stone even now.

oops, poor Daisy...

>67 SandDune: - Aww, poor Daisy! I'm sure she would say the romp in the mud and the ocean was worth the indignity of the bath, though ;-)

We only wash Louis outside - otherwise our routine would look much like yours!

>67 SandDune: This is why I have a cat. One with short hair.

Sounds like quite the adventure to bath Daisy! ;-)

My parents used to have a small Yorkshire Terrior they 'acquired' when a friend made a move to the Middle East and the idea of trying to move an already over the hill dog with the quarantine requirements seemed just too much to put the dog through. The good news is that at that time we had a large cement washing basin in a screened in area of the house with a cement floor where we could wash the little guy. He was pretty good about being bathed. What was fun to watch was how the dog would dry himself by rolling on the towel we would lay on the floor for him. Seriously, this dog would towel himself off! if you placed him on the floor away from the towel, he would run to the towel and roll around on it.

Much to smile about here of late: flying things, bathing Miss Daisy. There are some flying things I don't mind at all, like dragonflies, because I know they are both harmless to me and good for the environment. I used to dislike moths as a child because I never knew where they were going to go next. But flying things with malicious intent such as yellow jackets, well, I'm with J. Daisy is making me appreciate a wonderful old standard poodle who would reluctantly but resignedly step into the bath on her own, just to get it over with.

>67 SandDune: HI Rhian. We have a pet store near our house. For $10 I take Lilly there and bathe her. They supply towels, a very large tub with a grate that slips in groves to keep the dog inside the tub, hot and cold water shower hose, and all the shampoo the dog can use.

It is well worth the expense.

I love your image of an idyllic day in Orford..

>67 SandDune: In the past I've had several dog wash days like this. For a long while we booked a regular mobile dog wash service for our labrador retriever which included a wash and blow dry and was well worth the cost. She also checked and clipped the dog's claws.

We are woefully bad at bathing our dogs, preferring to do so outside on a hot summer day! As a result it doesn't happen nearly as often as it should.

I like the mobile dog wash idea and have seen them around here. Might have to look into it.

Got such a chuckle out of your adventures in bathing Daisy. Could be a short story: Bathing Miss Daisy.

>64 SandDune: I’m not so keen on unidentified nighttime flying things either. Though avoiding them does constrain the travel options. How does J feel about very cold places?

>69 katiekrug: >70 PawsforThought: >71 lkernagh: >72 tiffin: >73 Whisper1: >74 avatiakh: >75 lauralkeet: >76 lit_chick: Being very short-haired Daisy doesn't need too many baths. Most mud will come off with a damp cloth and a brush. But this was very fine silty estuarine mud which was clearly going to hang on for grim death. We do take her to the dog groomers to be bathed occasionally, as they'll do her claws and anal glands as part of the package. But the cheapest price locally is around £25 (about $40) as it includes grooming, and it always seems a bit of a waste of money for Daisy, who doesn't really need grooming at all.

I really don't know why she hates baths so much! She likes any other sort of water, and adores swimming. But she really does try everything she can think of (in a non-aggressive way that is) to escape. And she's so strong for her size that it is a real struggle.

>65 BLBera: >66 Ameise1: >77 qebo: I don't know what it is with the flying insects - it seems to be quite a recent issue. We've certainly been to plenty of places where mosquitoes are rife, and he's managed ok. It only seems to a problem if he is bed with the light off, so he was fine when we in Malaysia as they had mosquito nets anywhere where the mosquitoes were likely to get in. And it's not as if any flying insect in the UK is going to do him any damage at all. But I'm not really speaking from the moral high ground here, having an irrational fear of spiders myself.

>68 Helenliz: Orford is lovely isn't it? We haven't been there for ages, mainly because at two hours away it is further away then Mr SandDune considers suitable for a day out! I l really like all that Suffolk coast.

Neither Tuppence nor Mario care for baths, I'm afraid, which makes it a frustrating task for Tomm, although Charlie and I can barely suppress the giggles while it's happening...

I should mention, lest anyone think I live with three filthy dogs, we found an excellent place to board them when we go away that offers loads of outdoor exercise and play, and -- to my delight -- if the dogs stay 3 nights baths are included. It's almost an incentive to take more vacations.

>79 SandDune: Rhian, there is no such thing as an irrational fear of spiders...

Beautiful photos--I wish we had been able to go to Skye. But I loved Iona and St. Kilda's. Want to get back there sometime. Of course you're vacations are much more active than mine. I'm not up to a whole lot of hiking.

And the painting at top is lovely. Etretat was one of the places we went when we were in Normandy last fall. It is a lovely small town.

Very late to the party to add that I hate moths, so if J's gor a spare sign I'll take it. I'm sure when I was a kid there were less of the big ones with the fat bodies. Urgh.

>64 SandDune: Oh my goodness. I cry. My 6'4" 200 pound 16 year old is a quivering jelly baby when it comes to "flying things." It's the funniest thing ever.

As someone who barely survived an ant invasion, my sympathies about the flying things! The rumpus always seems to have to happen in the middle of the night, why is that?

Thrilling that your kites are making a comeback.

HUGELY enjoyed yr. description of bathing time. We have an outdoor shower and I begged and begged and the spousal unit until he attached a hose element to it that has hot and cold and I can use the gardening table that is conveniently right near the shower (which is what gave me the idea). I still don't bathe Miss Po as often as I could or should (she needs it right now, in fact) but it is sooooo much easier. And she isn't even a large dog!

She still always knows, somehow, when it is going to happen. No matter how casually I collect her shampoo and towels etc. She just knows. How is that???

Well, as people will have gathered, there's not much reading going on at the moment. It's always the same over the summer holidays when both Mr SandDune and J are around for a lot of the time. But I have next week to myself, as they are going to Snowdonia for another fix of hill walking, so there will definitely be some reading going on.

But I have finished one book which I am going to give five stars: Girl in the Dark: A Memoir by Anna Lindsey. Review to follow shortly.

>86 sibylline: still always knows
Oh, they do. I set out the cat carrier days in advance of a trip to the vet, I go through the usual routine in the hours before, I don’t put on shoes, I sit at the computer, I act as though I have no thought of leaving the house, and as soon as I hint at approaching the cat she dashes off to hide.

5.Girl in the Dark: A Memoir Anna Lindsey *****

What would you do if you were allergic to light? Any light? That is what the author of Girl in the Dark: a Memoir has had to come to terms with over the last ten years. Starting as a vague burning sensation when she sat in front of her computer screen, the pain she felt grew more and more acute until she had to give up her job as a successful civil servant. Gradually, the level of her reaction increases until her skin reacts to any form of light no matter how low a level. Her days are spent in the spare bedroom of her boyfriend's house which she has turned into a light-proof box:

It is extraordinarily difficult to blackout a room.

First I Iine the curtains with blackout material, a heavy, plasticky, fabric, strange flesh-like magnolia in colour, not actually black. But the light slips in easily, up and over the gaps between the rail and the wall, and at the bottom through the loops made by the hanging folds.

So I add a blackout roller blind, inside the window alcove. But the light creeps in around the sides, and shimmies through the slit at the top.

So I tackle the panes themselves. I cut sheets of cooking foil, press them against the glass, tape them to the window frames. But the foil wrinkles and rips, refuses to lie flat. Gaps persist around the edges, pinpricks and tears across the middle. I tape and tape, tape over tape, foil over foil, layer upon layer. ... The day beyond my window is an ocean, pressing and pulsing at my protecting walls, and I must plug a leaky dike perpetually against its power.

At last, I think I may have done enough. I lower the blind on my crazy patchwork of foil, pull the curtains, place a rolled-up towel along the crack at the bottom of the door. I sit quietly in the bed, and wait for my eyes to adjust.

And I have it. Finally I have it. I have blackness.

I lie back inside my box of darkness, the new container for my life. I am overwhelmed with exhaustion and relief.

When Anna's symptoms are at their most extreme she can only make brief forays to the remainder of the (very dimly lit) house, before returning to her sanctuary before her reaction becomes too painful. With such a rare condition medicine is unable to offer any answers, and so Anna must discover how to live a meaningful life in almost total darkness.

Despite the seemingly depressing nature of Anna's condition, and her anguish at times in coming to terms with it, this book is a surprisingly uplifting read. Highly recommended.

J and Mr SandDune have gone to North Wales for a few days' walking. So a power struggle has broken out between the animals about who gets to sit on my lap. Daisy, needless to say, is losing!

>90 SandDune: That made me laugh. Sounds very cozy.

>90 SandDune: it's so nice to be wanted. Even just as a cushion.

Poor old Daisy.

Hopefully you will not be injured during the internecine conflict between Daisy and Sweep.

>91 Familyhistorian: >92 Helenliz: >93 tiffin: >94 kidzdoc: Well, there is no actual violence going on thank goodness, so no chance of injury. Daisy's usually ensconced on my lap earlier in the evening, and then Sweep comes along, realises mr SandDune is missing, and proceeds to employ her best psychological warfare techniques until Daisy moves, and she can take over her position. It usually takes less than a minute!

I have just a small message with my proud mother hat on. J received his GCSE exam results today for the two subjects that he's sitting a year early (Maths and German) and got an A* in both of them, which is the highest grade. He's very pleased.

>96 SandDune: congratulations J!! that's wonderful news.
The Daisy/Sweep antics are most amusing.

>96 SandDune: Wow - well done J! I think the proud mother hat is deserved :-)

>96 SandDune: Congrats to J!

Wow, well done, J.!

Congratulations to J and his parents!

>96 SandDune: proud mother hat obligatory after that news. Congratulations to J. I don't envy anyone waiting on exam results, awful sensation.

Congrats to J!

Congrats to J. Was he home to receive his grades?

>89 SandDune: That sounds interesting. What an awful thing it would be - to be allergic to light.

>96 SandDune: Hooray for J!! That's great news.

Well done J!!! Happy Weekend, Rhian.

>97 lauralkeet: >98 souloftherose: >99 qebo: >100 scaifea: >101 kidzdoc: >102 Helenliz: >103 drneutron: >104 Familyhistorian: > 105 >106 Ameise1: Thanks everyone! I had to go and collect the results as he was still in Snowdonia, but they got back yesterday.

Mr SandDune was happy with the results overall (he is in charge of Teaching & Learning at J's school) but he is not happy with the government's decision to take i(nternational) GCSE's out of the league tables. The government decided (last year I think) that iGCSE's would no longer be counted for school league tables, but no notice was given, so it was far too late for any pupils to change syllabus. So J is doing iGCEs in languages and science, none of which will count towards the schools ranking.

A major dispute in Go Outdoors (an outdoor activity supplies shop) this afternoon when Mr SandDune attempted to take J's new walking boots back. They were bought about ten days ago and started to fall apart on their second day of walking. The manager agreed to replace them, but only on condition that they were completely clean and dry first - they had some dried mud on them. So he wanted us to go home (an hour's round trip) and spend time cleaning and drying boots that were only fit for the rubbish bin. Health and safety reasons apparently - according to the manager we could spread Foot and Mouth or Mad Cow disease.

Firstly, I don't think there is any Foot and Mouth Disease at the moment, and if there was I think you need some sort of disinfectant to get rid of it not just soap and water.

Secondly, I'm pretty much 100% sure that it is impossible to catch mad cow disease from any form of footwear unless you decide to eat it.

Thirdly, he would have been quite happy for us to put the boots on and traipse around the store wearing them, but once they were separated from feet they became some sort of major biohazard.

I suggested that under supervision, we put them in the rubbish bin outside the store entrance, which I felt was probably licensed to cope with such hazardous material, but he wasn't having any of it!

To say Mr SandDune was not happy about this approach is a major understatement. It was completely unacceptable that the boots gave up so quickly, and expecting purchasers to spend any more time on them than was absolutely necessary was not on. I think the manager eventually got the idea that we weren't going anywhere until we got our money back, and gave in. I don't think we'll be going back there in a hurry!

>88 qebo: Our old cat used to be like that. She usually used to bury herself under the double bed in the spare bedroom, whenever a trip to the vet or the cautery beckoned. As there was quite a lot of other stuff under there as well it was quite difficult to ferret her out. We usually ended up sending J under the bed to coax her out.

Rhian, congratulations to J! Two down, how many to go next year?

That manager sounds like a nightmare. I wonder what he'd have said if you'd just set them on fire in the carpark?! There is no foot and mouth or mad cow at the moment (also I thought people got mad cow from eating diseased meat, not walking in rural areas!).

That store manager is nuts! What a hassle.

Glad you and Mr SD held your own with an out of line store manager, Rhian. Hassle, indeed!

Love the cat story, and J having to go under the bed to get her/hiim out!

Can't believe that a store manager is aloud to do so. Here the customer is 'king' and the problem would be solved without discussion.

>110 susanj67: >111 lauralkeet: >112 lit_chick: >113 Ameise1: I couldn't believe it either! I can see that the shop might have internal procedures that say muddy boots cannot be sent back to suppliers. But as the customer I don't think that's really my problem. He could have asked us to bag up the boots securely and then disposed of them, or we could have disposed of them under supervision, or to be honest he could have let us take the faulty boots home again as they clearly weren't wearable. Our view was that he had clearly sold us faulty goods and we wanted our money back.

The last time I has to ask for a replacement or a refund so quickly couldn't have been dealt with more differently. We'd bought J a huge beanbag for Christmas and the seam split on Christmas Day. I phoned them up the first working day after Christmas, spoke to a very apologetic person, and two days later a new bean bag shell arrived with a huge amount of extra beans. Nothing had to be sent back for investigation, the company accepted that they had sold something that was beneath their usual standards and they just wanted to put it right as soon as possible.

>108 SandDune: I might consider sending a letter to the company describing your experience and why you won't be darkening their door anytime soon. Doesn't hurt.

>110 susanj67: He'll be doing another eight GCSE's next year: Maths, English Language, English Literature, Italian, History, RE, Chemistry, Physics, Biology. He'll also be doing some more intermediate qualifications in maths and German in preparation for sixth form. We're expecting that he will stay in the same school for sixth form to do the International Baccalaureate, and that seems to be his assumption as well, but he wants to look around other schools as well just to be sure. So we'll be doing the round of sixth form open evenings at the local schools in the autumn.

>115 nittnut: To be honest, now we've got our money back I don't think I've got the energy. But we won't be shopping there again any time soon!

Some reading is going on. Having decided for years that I didn't like Terry Pratchett (I'd read The Colour of magic and decided it wasn't for me) I've discovered that I actually enjoyed Mort and Reaper Man a lot. So I went back to The Colour of Magic to see what I would make of it now. And I can see why I didn't like it - much more rushing around from one set piece to another than the other books that I've read - was OK but it still wouldn't encourage me to embark on a multi volume series. So thanks to Souloftherose (I think) who mentioned on her thread that it was better to start elsewhere.

Also listening to Nora Webster, my next RL bookclub choice, but it's not grabbing me so far.

Mort is still my favourite of all TP's books. It was my first and I'm still incredibly grateful to the friend that bought it for me for my birthday (16 rather a long time ago!).
Good on you for giving him another go.

Whew, just managed to catch up.
1) LOL on the Daisy/Sweep lap tussle
2) Hooray and congratulations to J for scoring As in his GSCEs
3) Booo on iGSCE subjects not counting in school ranking
4) Hooray to Mr SandDune and you for standing your ground with the store manager and getting your money back from the defective boots. Quite ridiculous that he would say you needed to clean and dry them first before he could give you a refund. it's not as if you purchased them, wore them and then changed your mind about keeping them. But I'm with >115 nittnut: on this, perhaps you should write to the company to complain about the manager. Or if not, then a review on the company's Facebook page. If anything it would warn other innocent shoppers.

I am a huge TP fan, but I recognize that his style isn't for everyone. So I thank you for giving him another chance. Have you read Good Omens :The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman? No rushing around, but really fun collaboration between the 2 authors.

Ah, the difficult return! I'm glad you stood firm and prevailed!

Congratulations to J for good scores although it is a shame they won't count later.

Home alone with three pets in this house gets very interesting sometimes.... you end up draped in them.

>120 sibylline: The scores will count for J - they just don't count for the school if that makes sense. There is much competition between schools here over the percentage of students who get 5 A* - C grades for their GCSEs, and schools can't count iGCSE's in those figures. All the percentages are published in league tables, which are used to judge the school's performance. It leads to the very strange effect of some particularly academic private schools getting 0% in the league tankes as their students only do iGCSE's at 16.

Well done, J! And well done Mr. & Ms. Dune for standing up to the power tripping store manager who was just making up rubbish excuses not to honour his product. Glad you went for the money back.

Happy Sunday, Rhian.

Hi Rhian! Just catching up on the threads, and wanted to thank you for your holiday photos in Scotland! Really beautiful, and it sounds like such a nice break for you all.

Well done J!

Catching up a little Rhian and it was good to see your photos of Scotland which is a place I have always loved visiting.

Must say that after the GE, I was quite despondent given that the Labour Party which I had always supported seemed to have lost its way and most of its principles. Perceived wisdom was that Labour lost because of fears of its economic competence whereas I always thought they lost for trying to out Tory the Tories via austerity-lite. The labour party should be radical, it should care for those in need, it should be anti-austerity. The popularity of Jeremy Corbyn's alternative should not surprise people given the huge popularity for the SNP in Scotland as they out-Laboured Labour. I was convinced that I would have to give up my old party after the election but there is a little faith left now! It is now perceived wisdom that he is un-electable - let's see.

>125 PaulCranswick: Paul I'm hugely behind here myself! Just getting back into the normal routine with J and Mr SandDune going back up school last week. (To be honest Mr SandDune has been back at school for several weeks, but it's a little more relaxed when it's voluntary.)

I'm not convinced about Jeremy Corbyn to be honest. It's great that so many people are engaging with politics because of his candidacy, and there are quite a few of his domestic policies that I would support. However, I'm not convinced about his foreign and defence policies at all, and he seems very ambiguous about Europe, of which I am a strong supporter.

>118 Helenliz: >119 cameling: Based on Caro's recommendation I went out and bought Good Omens straight away, as I really liked the look of it. Haven't read it as yet though, as I have been on a Family History binge which has been cutting down on my reading (and LT) time drastically.

Those not interested in Family History please feel free to skip the next paragraph, but this is what I have found. Several of my great- great uncles were known by family tradition to have gone to Australia back in the middle of the nineteenth century and this story was told by my aunts about the wife of one of the Australian branch of the family:

The wife (May) came to visit the UK from some remote spot in the globe where she was living with her husband, who was there in conjunction with his work in mining. She travelled with her two sons, one of whom died on voyage, and came to visit her husband's relatives in South Wales. What my aunts remembered eighty years later was the excitement and consternation that was felt when she was discovered to be carrying a gun in her handbag (might be normal in Texas but definitely not in a South Wales mining village), and even more consternation when she announced that she had been about to shoot the man walking behind her on the local station platform if he had come any closer. The family tradition was that on her return the marriage broke down, as her husband blamed her for the death of her younger son, who he had not wanted to be taken on the voyage , as his health was not good.

What I managed to discover was the documentary proof of all this. I tracked down the person who had emigrated to Australia in the first place, found his son (a mining engineer) working in Nicaragua, found his wife and two sons (later one only) travelling around the globe in 1915, and best of all found an account in the Australia press of the divorce case (which mentioned the trip to the U.K.), with her divorcing him on grounds of desertion and pursuing him for more alimony (which she got). All in all, very pleased with myself.

>127 SandDune: that's absolutely fascinating, Rhian. It's a great story, and I'm mighty impressed with your sleuthing as well!

>127 SandDune: Cool! Not at the time to the people involved, but to have pieced it together a century later.

>127 SandDune: Great detective work bringing the story of the gun-totting mamma to light, Rhian.

>127 SandDune: Very interesting family story. Neat that you could verify it.

>127 SandDune: Fascinating stuff. Amazing how many people were globe trotting hundreds of years ago.

Great detective work, Rhian. What an interesting piece of family history you managed to uncover. Have you reached out to these relatives? Is a trip in the future for you with a family meet up?

>129 qebo: yeah, that's what I meant, too.

I find it really interesting that the family legend evolved blaming the woman for the divorce (because she went against her husband's wishes, bad bad mother/wife), when in reality she divorced him for desertion.

Fascinating family history, Rhian.

What fascinating information you found regarding your family.

>128 lauralkeet: >129 qebo: >130 Familyhistorian: >131 Oberon: >132 charl08: >135 lit_chick: >136 Whisper1: Thanks! One of things I found most interesting was the money involved. The wife was suing for £50 a month alimony for herself and her son, which would have been far, far more than my grandfather's income to maintain his wife and six children (he was a stonemason working at a local colliery). The husband (my grandfather's first cousin) was earning £300 a month. I have a feeling that I was told that it was gold mining that he was involved in, I'm going to see if I can find more evidence for that!

>132 charl08: What I've found surprising in my researches is how many people seem to come home again after emigrating. I'd always assumed that, once people had moved with their families to the US or Australia or wherever, they stayed there. But that's not necessarily the case!

>133 cameling: I haven't tracked down any living relatives as yet. I'm quite new to Australian records so it's more difficult.

>134 lauralkeet: I find it really interesting that the family legend evolved blaming the woman for the divorce The way it was told to me didn't really blame the wife for the breakdown, it was just said that the husband did. To be honest, I'm not sure that the newspaper report is particularly unbiased - it's very much reported from the wife's perspective. Her lawyers talk about her travelling to England with her son to arrange his education, but the younger son isn't mentioned at all, you'd assume by reading it that there had only ever been one son which seems a little strange to me.

>137 SandDune: Sorry, I misinterpreted the telling of the story. Yes, that is a bit strange that they fail to mention the younger son. Quite a tragic situation, actually.

>137 SandDune: Have you come across Emigrant Homecomings? The NLS should have a copy if you're there for your researches.

>127 SandDune: Rhian, how great that you managed to find all those records! Like you, I've been amazed at the people who've returned from emigrating, particularly in the books I've read about early America. I would have thought that people who survived the crossing in those tiny wooden ships wouldn't ever want to do it again, but even back in the 1600s they seemed to. My family went out to NZ and stayed, and I was always surrounded by the descendants of others who'd been out and stayed, so it never really occurred to me to think about the people who went back. But even after steamships became common, it took six weeks to get out to NZ/Australia. My grandmother emigrated with her family in 1908 and told me a bit about the trip (how I wish I'd paid more attention). It's hard to imagine spending another six weeks getting all the way back again.

>139 charl08: Charlotte, that looks like something I would *love* to read!

>138 lauralkeet: >139 charl08: It's a shame that none of the aunts that told me the story are still alive to hear what I've found. The youngest one died six years ago aged 96.

>139 charl08: I'm probably being really stupid here, but what is the NHS (apart from the health service that is)?

>140 susanj67: I've found several examples of people emigrating (to the States mainly) and then coming back to South Wales. I suppose some people just missed home.

>127 SandDune: Cool Family history stuff. Good work! :) My mother does tons of family history research. I find the stories so fascinating. I will have to get more involved sometime.

Rhian, actually a lot of our early immigrants ended up packing up and going home - sometimes they came with overly romanticised ideas that didn't pan out, or they came out on the promise of a business deal that fell through, or they found life just too hard (climate, terrain, natural disasters, distances), or they simply hated it once they got here - a lot of British immigrants were very uncomfortable with the absence of the social and cultural constructs they were used to (though for other people that was the attraction). Quite often there was the situation of a family's breadwinner dying in accident (or, sadly, running off) and the wife and children going back because they couldn't support themselves.

It's interesting to compare the early situation with the post-WWII arrangement of the Assisted Passage Migration Scheme (the Ten-Pound Poms, as they were known), where immigrants had their passage out subsidised by our government. In that case they could get here but couldn't afford to go back. So they stayed and complained. :)

>143 lyzard: With my family there's probably the language issue as well. I can't be certain, as the information wasn't collected in the census at the time, but I would make an educated guess that the ones who emigrated mid-century didn't speak much English at all, only Welsh.

Talking about censuses I've found it interesting the different information that was collected by different countries. Welsh censuses collect whether people speak Welsh or English, US ones collect what race the person is, and Irish ones collect religion.

One of Mr SandDune's uncles emigrated to Australia via that scheme, and from what I can gather the wife complained a lot in Australia and they moved back, when it was the husband's turn to complain and they emigrated again a couple of years later! But Mr SandDune's relatives are a moany lot in general!

>141 SandDune: Not stupidity, my typo: National Library of Scotland
It's a copyright library in Edinburgh. You fill out a slip and the books are with you to read in a beautiful, near silent reading room in anything from an hour. I miss it greatly!

I must also aplogise for the random link to Scotland: I think I've got Scottish family history in my head because that is my own background, and they were great travellers, not from your thread. Would guess the British library should also have a copy to loan on interlibrary loan.

(I'm saying loan because online the price seems to be 50 quid!!)

>126 SandDune: Watched the Labour leadership contest announcements and speeches just now. I am pleased for Jeremy Corbyn but it will certainly be interesting to see how (if he is able) he holds the party together. The Labour Party really has to grasp the enthusiasm that his candidature has generated. Not everyone will agree with his views on every subject but at least we will now have the alternative to the Tories that so many have wanted for so long.

I was particularly impressed by Tom Watson.

I am less pro-Europe than you are whilst being an internationalist for sure. I don't see how the cause for Europe has been helped by the migrant/refugee crisis which has seen whole swathes of the "union" turn its back on those in need. I am not sure what we have in common with Hungary and Macedonia. Sweden and Germany and others have given some lead but I am not convinced that our voice is not more distinct if we are separate from that club. It is such a shame that euro-skepticism seems to have been ambushed by the right-wing little Englanders when the debate should be about much more. I haven't made up my mind for sure but Europe as it is isn't working and I am not convinced on the argument that it is needful for employment in UK as the our trading relationships within and without Europe are not necessarily dependent upon membership. I do not want a UK that closes its borders and turns in upon itself and if the price to make sure that that doesn't happen is EU membership I would reluctantly accept it, I suppose, but couldn't things be so much better?

Have a lovely weekend, Rhian.

But Mr SandDune's relatives are a moany lot in general!f Oh Rhian, I got such a chuckle from this line. Had to set my coffee down ...

There's an interesting book by Australian author Henry Handel Richardson, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, about an emigrant to the mining fields who becomes fabulously wealthy. After years in Australia, when he tries to move back to England he finds himself not fitting in and missing the "freer" life in Australia. I read it a long time ago, but I really liked it, and found the theme of the contrasts between British attitudes and Australian attitudes fascinating.

This was originally a trilogy of novels by Richardson, based upon her own father's experiences - Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925) and Ultima Thule (1929). They were merged together in 1930 as The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony. It's sometimes still easier to find the standalones, though.

(Come to think of it, these are looming up on my series list reading...)

>127 SandDune:: she sounds like a woman not to be crossed!
>137 SandDune:: I'm not surprised the deceased son wasn't mentioned. I think people were much more circumspect than we are now, with our tell-all, confess-all social media behaviour. Certain things just weren't mentioned out of delicacy, if my grandparents are any indication.

>150 tiffin:

Outright lying about things wasn't uncommon either, if my family is anything to go by. :)

>151 lyzard:: *snort*

Yeah, I have one of those families too. :)

Happy weekend, Rhian.

Just passing through with a wave. Hope you've had a good weekend.

Been so, so busy over the last week. I was attending a conference last week and returned to chaos at home! Computer had died so spent most of the weekend trying to sort that out. And we have water pouring out of our overflow pipe again, which we're trying to sort out.

I'm meeting up with Darryl this evening so I'll try and get back to people to tomorrow.

I'd say it never rains but it pours, but that would likely be in poor taste right now. Sounds like "it's the wars" would be more appropriate. Poor you!

ETA: thought of you when I saw this, Rhian: https://ca.screen.yahoo.com/epic-wins/weatherman-nails-village-pronunciation-123...

*waves cast*

Hi Rhian, hope things get back to an even keel for you soon. Are you still keeping up with your reading or has RL been intruding too much?

Happy Sunday, Rhian.

*waves*

Hope you are getting caught up with things there.

Hope things have calmed down a bit...

Missing you, Rhian

*waving*

I miss you too. Hope things are well with you and yours.

Hi, RHian.

Dropping by to reassure everyone that I am still alive, and have not been kidnapped or been suffering from any very serious disease. I have just been very, very busy in RL, both at work and at home, and have had serious computer problems. It's culminated in me officially working full-time between now and the end of the year (rather than doing it in an unofficial capacity) although it may well go on longer. And evenings have been hectic as well for a number of different reasons. Our main computer gave up the ghost over a month ago, and because we've been so busy, and also the shop messed up our order, it had not yet been replaced. Oh and I've been away, twice, once down to Cornwall and once to see my mother, and in neither place was there good mobile reception to post on my phone. And I've been trying not to use my phone anyway as the battery has been dying after about 20 minutes use.

>167 SandDune: Good to see that you are still here, Rhian. RL does take over sometimes. I hope you get your new computer up and running soon so that you can post regularly again.

>167 SandDune: That's a relief; I was starting to wonder. I suppose working officially means you get paid for it? I hope your trips were fun, and a nice break in your busy lives.

By jove, it moves, it breathes, it speaks! Thank goodness it's just overwork and problems with technology, Rhian. So very glad to see you raise an eyebrow above the battlements.

I'm also very glad to see you here Rhian!

This has been my first week of working full time and now that it has been agreed (and yes I do get paid) I feel a lot more in control. We were away in Cornwall for a week as I said (got back a week today) and before that I was getting quite stressed to be honest, as I just thought I was running to stay still all the time. But now at work I feel I have a chance of getting something done.

The Cornwall break really did me good. We all had a very relaxing time and J showed that he's not too old to spend the afternoon on the beach constructing dams. Daisy showed her true colours as a proper little water baby - she was in and out of the waves all the time. She's not ideally designed for the aquatic life - far too solid - but she's very enthusiastic!

Glad you're popping in and hope life stays under control. It's very easy to get into a tailspin and it can be very difficult to see how to get out of it. Holiday sounds like just what you needed.

I have been doing some decent reading in my absence, with two five star reads in The Spire and Where Memories Go.

The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett ***
Brothers in Arms Lois McMaster Bujold ****
Nora Webster Colm Toibin ***1/2
Where Memories Go Sally Magnusson *****
The Sense of Style Steven Pinker ****
The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world Michael Marmot ****1/2
The Spire William Golding *****
The Undertaking Audrey Magee ****1/2
Our Man in Havana Graham Greene ****
The Violent Bear it Away Flannery O'Connor ***

>174 SandDune: I read Pinker's The Sense of Style for a writing course this year. It was an interesting book until we had to analyze each chapter and do presentations on them. What did you think of it?

Woot! Great to see you, Rhian, and what a wonderful bunch of reading! 5* for Golding's The Spire. You make me want to pick that one up … haven't reading Golding since university, I don't think, but for Lord of the Flies, which is one of our Gr 11 English novels. Oh, and I love Colm Toibin, and ...

>173 Helenliz: Great to see you back and in full-time employment, Rhian. Some very good reads there and I am especially pleased to see you rate The Spire so highly as William Golding just got himself onto BAC next year.

Have a lovely weekend.

Good to hear from you, Rhian. I'm glad that you had a fantastic time at Cornwall. I love this corner of England.
Sorry to hear about your computer and phone problem. It isn't easy when they don't work nicely. So good you got a full-time employment which is payed. That makes life much easier.

>175 Familyhistorian: I thought Pinker's book was interesting too - it particularly resonated with me because we have problems with the style in much of the material that is produced at work. I did get completely lost in the chapter called 'The Web, the Tree, and the String' though. It started badly with the comment 'Kids aren't taught to diagram sentences anymore' (not only was I not taught to diagram sentences, I had no idea what diagramming sentences might be) and it went downhill from there. (After reading the chapter I came to the conclusion that diagramming sentences was something that just wasn't ever done in British schools). Clauses, and noun phrases, and verb phrases, and prepositional phrases, had passed me by completely up until now as well: I decided that as I had reached the age of 54 without them I could probably continue without them!

>176 lit_chick: >177 PaulCranswick: I did find The Spire a wonderful read. And I had the audio version which was read by Benedict Cumberbatch who was very good indeed!

>178 Ameise1: The computer woes continue but we are making some progress. We had ordered a computer originally about three weeks ago, but for one reason and another it was not available, and so now, after spending an hour and a half in PC world this evening, I have ordered a different one. Hopefully it might have arrived and been set up by the weekend.

I kepp my fingers crossed.

>179 SandDune: That was my least favourite chapter as well, Rhian. I definitely didn't volunteer to do the presentation on that - I think that the group that ended up with it weren't in class that day so they got what was left. In my opinion, the ability to diagram sentences has no bearing on whether or not you can write good sentences so you are fine without the knowledge.

Computer woes continue - the saga so far...

Tuesday 20th October we ordered new computer and screen, and as I was really busy, we paid for PC World to install software and set up accounts. They said it would be ready by the Friday 23rd. On Friday 23rd we tried to contact store to ensure computer was ready to be collected, but the only number provided was a central number who promised to get the store to get back to us. They didn't. Not too worried at that point as we were off on holiday the next day and so decided to get computer on our return.

So on Sunday 1st November we go back to the store expecting everything to collect our computer. "Oh, did nobody phone you?" say PC World. Turns out the computer that we had ordered, and which was supposedly in stock, had not been in stock and could now not be obtained at all. So we went away to choose another model. Last Sunday I phoned them to order new computer but was told I had to go into the store to sort out the price differential. So Monday evening I spent 1hr 40 minutes in store ordering the new computer while they tried to deal with the difference in price. This computer was listed on their website as being available for next day collection in store so I was expecting them to have received it in store by the Wednesday at the latest. They said they would phone up as soon as they received it. By yesterday I had heard nothing and so I phoned up ... only to be told that not only did they not have the new computer but they had no idea when it would arrive. At which point I lost it rather and said I was going to cancel the order completely, but I was put through to a very apologetic manager who said she would personally sort it out. So she phoned back, said she had tracked down the computer, was going to get it set up straight away and we should have it today. And sure enough I got a phone call this morning saying that computer was ready for collection. So we troop off to PC World to pick it up. "You've chose a model that's a lot cheaper, haven't you?" says the guy behind the counter. "No" says I. "This one's £500 cheaper than your first one" says the guy looking at his paperwork. "It can't be" says I. Turns out that while they have indeed set up a computer for us, it is not the right one. And while they insist that the right one is in stock 'somewhere' it cannot actually be tracked down. So after another hour and a half we came away having cancelled our order completely.

I've calculated that over the last few weeks I've probably spent at least six hours in PC World altogether, not to mention the time taken to get there. The irritating thing is that although PC World are clearly being incredibly incompetent as a company, everyone I have spoken to has been helpful and very apologetic and clearly tried their best to sort out the problem. So you can't get too annoyed with them...

>183 SandDune: Yeesh. Are you starting from scratch with another store?

Wow that's an awful experience Rhian! Can you order direct from a manufacturer like DELL or Apple? Theirs often come preconfigured with the software you need.

Oh no! that's so ... frustrating, to say the very least. I hope you got all your money back, from both orders. You could fire off a strongly worded letter to the management and get everything off your chest.

Or there's the Stabbity thread, and we can all come and commiserate. :0)

Best of luck getting a computer - finally.

So sorry to hear about the computer debacle, Rhian. Hope you can find somewhere else that can get it right.

Fingers crossed that you find a new computer and have it installed really, really soon, Rhian.

Good grief, there is not much that is more frustrating than a) computer trouble; and b) complete incompetence. Hope you soon have a new machine that is just what you want, Rhian.

Yikes. I never order computers, laptops or tablets from a retail store, and I purchase them online instead. My company has a discount program with Lenovo, and the new laptop I ordered last week should be coming any day now.

>185 lauralkeet: Can you order direct from a manufacturer like DELL or Apple?

Unfortunately, DELL is another company that we wouldn't touch with a barge pole! Maybe I'm just jinxed with computers! We had huge problems with Dell when we ordered a computer a few weeks before going on holiday - we told them this before placing the order and they ensured us that it would be no problem and we would have the computer on time or they would deliver when we got back - but of course once it was ordered it suddenly became a huge problem. We couldn't seem to get through to them that it was no point them trying to deliver the computer on a Friday afternoon when we were going away at 8.00am Friday morning. When we were away they bombarded us with emails about failed deliveries (they tried to deliver four times in the period that we had told them we were away) and then tried to charge us £50 extra to redeliver when we got back. Each problem seemed to involve hour long phone calls to someone who seemed completely incapable of understanding the situation. We ended up cancelling that order too! To add insult to injury six months later they tried to take us to court for payment of the computer, despite the fact that we'd never actually received it!

That's a tale of woe on both accounts! I cheat and hand the problem to the geek I married and it all miraculously arrives. My lappie's a Lenovo, no idea of they're any good or not, but it does what it needs to. >:-)

>191 SandDune: well that's pretty awful, I completely understand!

So sorry to hear about your computer frustrations, Rhian! That would drive me crazy! I can't imagine!

>190 kidzdoc: >192 Helenliz: Well the second one we ordered was a Lenovo - not a make I'd heard of before. We're now thinking of getting one from Chillblast - anyone had any dealings with them?

>195 SandDune: Lenovo is the company based in China that assumed production of IBM personal computers 10 years ago.

Computers. Sigh. This is why we have a dead desktop and two laptops that are just creeping along and we don't do anything about replacing them. So. Much. Work. Good luck.

>197 nittnut: And even once you do replace it, all the paraphernalia lurks in the corner. I think we still have a heap of cables, though we may have managed to get ried of the monitor. What do you do with it all?

Hope that computer gets sorted soon Rhian, miss your regular presence here.

Hi Rhian, I finally find time to do some weekend greetings. Wishing you a most lovely weekend.

Still haven't got around to ordering the new computer! We have been engrossed in the question of what subjects J should do in the sixth form as sixth form applications have to be in over the next few days.

If he stays where he is (pretty likely) he will do the International Baccalaureate which means he has to do the following:
- Maths,
- English (language or literature),
- Foreign language (probably German but thinking about Italian)
- a humanity (definitely History)
- a science (that's where the problem lies, could be either Chemistry or Biology)
- final option - could be either another humanity (he's looking at Geography or Cultural and Social Anthropology) or whichever science he didn't choose first.

If he moves then he'll do A levels so that means choosing four subjects. At the moment he's thinking about History, either Chemistry or Biology, Geography and maybe English, but he's finding the choice difficult.

>201 SandDune: This makes me want to go back to school. Well, sort of. :-)

>202 EBT1002: If we could study the subjects without having to worry about midterm or final exams I would agree with you.

>202 EBT1002: >203 kidzdoc: Well the first application has been done, and in the end he applied for History, English, Chemistry and Biology. The application didn't take long but ages was spent agonising over what subjects to take.

Wishing you a lovely weekend, Rhian.

Merry Christmas, Rhian! Hope it's full of family and books!

Wishing a very happy Christmas to all visitors!

I've really been missing in action for the latter part of this year but I hope to do better in 2016. Lots of reading plans already!

Lovely tree above, Rhian!



For my Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/Holiday image this year (we are so diverse!), I've chosen this photograph by local photographer Mark Lenoce of the pier at Pacific Beach to express my holiday wishes to you: Peace on Earth and Good Will toward All!

Dear Rhian, sometimes RL is too busy. I hope seeing you in 2016. I wish you and yours Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Rhian. I hope you can get in some good walks in the virtually tropical weather :-)

Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas, Rhian!

Have a lovely holiday, Rhian and to Mr. Sanddune and J.

Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season, Rhian!

Warm wishes for a magical holiday season, Rhian!

>207 SandDune: That's such a lovely tree. A very merry Christmas to you and your family, Rhian!

Merry Christmas, Rhian! I hope you're having a lovely day.

Best wishes for the holiday season, Rhian!

Happy Holidays to you and your family, Rhian.

Happy Holidays to you and yours, Rhian. I look forward to following your reading in 2016.

Happy Holidays, Rhian!

Hope you've been having a good holiday break.

Merry Christmas and wishing you and your family (and computers) the very best for 2016, Rhian!

Is that your Christmas tree? It looks nice and cozy tucked into the conservatory there. The presents keeping its toes warm look good, too. :0)

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Books to you Rhian!

Happy New Year, Rhian! I hope you leave a trail of bread crumbs so I can find your 2016 thread.