A birthday DAY!

Hello there!

I hope you are well!

It was my birthday this week and I had a lovely day!

The snow meant that I had the day off work.  It HONESTLY was the best surprise to wake up feeling dreadful after getting home SO late after orchestra because of engineering works with a headache, to discover a text message from school saying it was closed!

I woke up some point later after going back to sleep and saw the newly fitted wardrobes (doors to be fitted in a few weeks) properly in daylight when I was awake!
We had leisurely showers and then headed downstairs.  CBC headed out to sweep and shovel some snow from the car and then as he returned the tools to the summerhouse, he decided to give being a snow angel a go!

I made us breakfast- beans on toast with melted cheese and chives on top! SO nice to have the time for a proper breakfast on a school day! We realised it was the first meal we had eaten together at the new kitchen table.  We are STILL waiting for our dining room table from Harveys which is delayed We are worried that it is too big for our titchy dining room and wish we had ordered one from John Lewis which we could have returned if too big!
I opened the 4 or 5 cards I had received in the post and received a nice present from my Mum- the cotton pads I wrote about in my last post as well as some money. My Godmother had sent me some money too with her card and there was a lovely present from Melanie with her card, a cute Dalek delicate charm bookmark. There was also a parcel from Katie which turned out not to be a birthday present but a copy of some Charles Dickens she thought I might like. Good timing!

Later, we traipsed slowly to the train station to meet CBC's HoD for lunch in a pub in town.

We had a fair walk from the station but it was very pretty!

It was also CBC's HoD's birthday too!  CBC had a go on one of the other people's sledge.  I am a bonefide snow wuss so I refused a go. I did spend most of the Winter Olympics saying, "Nooo, that looks sooooooooo dangerous!"

After returning home for a while, we headed back to the train station and headed to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see The Winter's Tale ballet.  We had booked to see it with CBC's Mum and sister but neither of those were able to attend for various reasons. We had very good tickets in the Grand Circle Stalls.  We had booked to see this particular show not because it was my birthday, but because the conductor of our orchestra was conducting this performance of the Ballet.  He sent me a lovely text message an hour before the show saying Happy Birthday and hoping we would enjoy the show. SO exciting to see him conduct for the Royal Ballet. He has done other shows for them including Alice in Wonderland and been on tour with them but I've never seen him in this context and felt very proud of him. He is an exceptional conductor and I feel very glad he is so loyal to our orchestra.  We will also be going to watch him in April for the Bernstein ballet at the Opera House.

The show was beautiful and very creatively performed.  Joby Talbot is a very talented composer and his music is very approachable. Tom was as delightful and charming yet clear and authoritative as the conductor. The choreography by Christopher Wheeldon was clever and imaginative and the dancers, such as Lauren Cuthbertson were strong and full of excellent characterisation.

During the interval, we saw some other friends from the orchestra who went to watch. CBC's Brother came in place of his Mum and we had a lovely time. I did scoff (apparently too loudly-CBC says the Bartender scowled at me exclaiming over the price twice!) at the price of £12 for a plate of 8 triangle sandwiches in the interval but I was reminded that we are not the normal clientele of the  Opera House and those who buy expensive tickets would think nothing of this.

During the second interval, CBC bought me a cup of Earl Grey and a very crunchy chocolate brownie item.  At the end, we would have liked to go and see Tom at the Stage Door but because of the snow, we needed to get to the train station to get back to Essex as soon as possible.

We arrived at Liverpool Street hoping to catch the 22:45 train but it was delayed by 45minutes so it was, again, an incredibly late night.

It was truly a wonderful birthday!

x

Swanlake

Has to be seen to be believed!!! How oh how oh how is this even possible?!!?!?!!?!!



From http://www.nzwide.com/swanlake.htm

Ballet and beasts

Suddenly aware that since it is the new year, I should finally publish this book review blog that I have been prevaricating about since the beginning of December, adding the final reads of the year!   There are one or two real corkers here that have been an absolute pleasure to read.  And then some Dickens...

58.  Lorna Hill Rosanna joins the Wells

Once again, I find myself being lured into reading kiddie books.  Helen my friend has slowly been bringing these to orchestra for me to borrow.  I loved the start of this book, set in Italy in a lovely village- I could just sense the heat and beauty of the old place- Ms Hill writes wonderfully evocative setting descriptions that warm the very reaches of your heart.  There was an interesting sort of Cinderella perspective to this book as Rosanna, Italian girl who has just begun to learn to dance and discovers she is good, gets sent to live in the North of England due to the death of the priest who was her guardian.  We meet old favourite characters from Hill's previous 8 Wells books, including the now-exiled King of Slavonia who unexpectedly met Ella Rosetti- heroine of the previous book and now is following her to pursue her in love.  Again, you can kind of guess how this book is going to end, but I am a creature of habit and I like formulas!

59.   Lorna Hill Principal Role

Aha, the younger sister of the King of Slavonia begins this book, in exile staying in Switzerland whilst there are threats against her life from republican elements who fear a return of the royal family to Slavonia.  It transpires she is good at dance and because of her Brother's love for Ella Rosetti (unrequited), she is sent to the Wells school to study.  So basically, a Princess at the Wells. There is certainly a sad ending to this book but one that is refreshingly surprising, except that if anyone knows my views on Phantom of the Opera, this is an ending that does ultimately make me cross!

60.  Philip Ridley Krindlekrax
Aha, this book is brilliant!  It's the book I've been reading with my top-group for Guided reading at School.  I've managed to get across to them, and helped them to recognise, be able to explain and identify examples of the following:  Suspense, (through the use of grammar- short sentences, paragraphing and the holding back of information, Cliffhangers, Idiosyncrasies, and be able to analyse how exactly the writer achieves the effect of writing excitingly.  This story is a sort of modern-day David and Goliath type idea- where Ruskin, a red-haired, scrawny with dreams of being an actor, faces the trials of Elvis, a bullying, violent thug.  However, in order to become a hero and defeat Elvis, it is only through his conquering of a fearsome giant lizard that lurks in the sewer called Krindlekrax with his friend Corky, the caretaker, that he can achieve this.  It deals with the issues of friendship, bullying, anti-social behaviour, consequences of actions and trying to be popular, not judging a book by its cover  It deals with death of characters in a sensitive way also.  As a teacher, (or parent also, if you're keen), it is a wonderful book for drawing out the assessment focuses in reading. I might actually put up my questions for guided reading up here sometime if anyone might want to use them? Parent or teacher? Let me know in the comments)

61.  Sally Odgers and John Bennett Timothy Whuffenpuffen
This book regards beast of the more friendlier variety.  The named character is in fact an inherited dragon belonging to a family.  Marcus, the main character, is a bit of a wuss, dominated by a bossy girl who lives near by who wants him to be her friend.  He lives with his Mum in a nasty old flat with a mean landlord and bully son.  When Marcus inherits Timothy from his enigmatic Uncle who runs a circus, it appears his uncle is dead- but all is not as it seems and Marcus, reluctant hero, goes off with a strange young lady who is supposedly the Uncle's fiance to find him.  Bit of a cliched story considering, but a harmless enough book for kids to read!

62.  Angela Brazil  The Jolliest term on record.
 When I went to Hay-on-Wye during August, CBC and I were most excited to find a 1920's first edition of this book.  It's totally Jolly Hockey sticks and of the Malory towers ilk but I adored this public boarding school book and can't wait to read more of Angela Brazil's books! Trouble is, they're rather expensive!!!! It tells the story of 2 sisters who end up at a rather lovely boarding school.  If you've read any Enid Blyton school book, you know what to expect! This book is special to CBC and I! 
(It's at CBC's house, so I hope http://www.stellabooks.com/ doesn't mind using their image- they seem to have loads of Angela Brazil books so go there if you want to buy one!)

63.  Charles Dickens  The Christmas books:  A Christmas carol, The Chimes, The cricket on the hearth
Like Gemma, I wanted to read some Christmas books and with the exception of a Christmas Carol, I've never read any Dickens and this edition had been on my shelf for years (like since Penguin did their £1 classics- bought in my 2nd year at Uni!)  So I persevered with these.  I've not met anyone else who has read the latter two stories, everyone looks bemused when I mention them.  Have you read them?  All of them have a moral tale at the Christmas time and show the plight of poor people .   The Chimes, follows the tale of a Porter called Trotty who lives with his daughter Meg.  The Church bells ring every day of his life and after being drawn by their ringing to the church cellar soon after Christmas, fairies take him to discover the fate of his family in the future!  The cricket on the hearth was hard going at first.  I had no idea what the point of the story was and found it rather dull until somewhere near the end, it suddenly clicked and a lovely message came from the book.  Again, it involves fairies and showing people how things really are and I confess to shedding a tear at the end (in Durham cathedral!).  I don't want to say more otherwise I ruin it, but they are worth a read as they're not too long although don't be despondent at the start, they get more interesting towards the end!

64.  Carola Dunn Death at Wentwater court

I bought CBC's mother these for Christmas last year as they seemed like fun looking books she might enjoy.  I didn't think any more of it until I read Dino-Princess Char's review of one of the Daisy Dalyrimple books a while back and suddenly realised I would LOVE to read that type of book and I knew someone who had 7 of them!!!!  So, rather inwardly sheepishly, I asked to borrow them this Christmas whilst we were up there!  Oh and what a GREAT range of books they are!  I adore both Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie and these are like a combination of the two.  There's a mystery to solve, lovely 1920's references, rather cracking Blyton-esque exclamations and a touch of romance! This first in the series tells of a murder that seems to involve an early morning ice-skating accident to a rather nasty piece of work!  Of course, it doesn't pan out like that and the Honourable Miss Daisy Dalyrimple, newspaper reporter and photographer is on the chase, much to the reluctant yet admiring attempts by a Scotland yard inspector!

65.  Carola Dunn The winter garden mystery.

I demolished this one on the train journey home- Daisy is off to write another article but visits a real battleaxe who is the mother of an old school friend.  Death soons shows its face as Daisy discovers a boy in the flower beds and has to track back to find out who the murderer is!  Wonderful again, all I could think is, "WHY oh why haven't you interrogated that person!!!!"

66. Carola Dunn Requiem for a mezzo.

Another wonderful Daisy Dalyrimple book- we see the relationship developing between her and Chief-inspector Alec Fletcher. I liked the musical setting of this one at the Royal Albert Hall and Verdi's requiem!  I quite like poisonings in murder books- they are always very exciting working out who could have done what and I guessed right!!!!! Hurrah!!!

 

67. Keri Smith How to be an Explorer of the World

I actually finished this after midnight on New year's eve (A party animal me-ya?) but since I'd read the majority before Big Ben chimed, I counted it as a 2011 book!  CBC received this for Christmas from his sister and it is a book that TOTALLY could have been written by me (in the sense that I've done lots of the tasks involved - not that I am clever like Ms Smith).  It is a book full of tasks to get you to look at the world in a different way- to scrutinize, ponder, organise, appreciate, draw, write, classify.  It involves thinking skills and awe and wonder.  Each task offers you the chance to be an artist in some way- to look at things you have never noticed before- to slow down and regard the mundane as something enchanting!  Adults who are young at heart and kids will appreciate this.  The tasks include something like finding 30 found objects on your way to work/school/somewhere- classify them- describe them, describe differences; draw a sound map of all the sounds in relation to you as you sit on a park bench; collect pebbles and lay them out in formations; make a sculpture from materials you find; draw character profiles of people around you and much more!  This is the type of thing that I love to spend time doing.  A lovely book!

Have you read any of these?  Have I tempted you in any way?!!!

What have I read? Marathon catch-up!

Hallo all! Thank you for recent loveliness regarding posts- and a big hello to all the explorers who found their way here and let me know! Pleasure to meet you mi hearties!

Where oh where is my camera!!!!??? I cannot find ANYTHING in my house at the moment! Everything is buried, missing, AWOL, hiding, AHRGH! I've wanted to post for a couple of days to no avail so I finally caught up with book catch up! DO let me know if you have read any of these, like them, think they're awful, want more info, or are thinking of reading them- I'd love to know if my reviews are useful as well being an opportunity for me to discipline myself in the art of saying my preferences!
34. Vikram Seth An equal music.
As a classical musician who has played in String quartets, I had a lot of knowledge pertaining to the context of this story. It is a love story- the story of Michael (violinist) and Julia (pianist). A mystery unravels from the beginning- just why did they split up when he is obviously still in love with her but having no idea where she now is since he left her. The story continues with a chance sighting of Julia and what happens when their lives cross again. All is not as it seems. We are party to Michael's thoughts, regrets and hopes and rejoice and commiserate with him as he faces the challenges of his life. This is not a simple story and it's one of 'those book's that doesn't end the way I want it to but it is beatiful. You gain a wonderful flavour of places, a good understanding of the music world and your heart beats with Michael's. There are some strange moments, but this author is very clever- he really gets into your mind.

35. Christina Jordis Bali Java in my dreams
Dull and not engaging I should like this considering my link to Indonesia but I must confess I have abandoned this half way. Will return to this when I finally persuade myself to pick it up again, as a dear relative bought it for me (and find the carrier bag it is in!). I will not be defeated!

36. Lorna Hill Masquerade at the Wells

I adored the first two books in the 'Sadler Wells school for ballet' series. My sister, who once upon a time wanted to be a ballet dancer (she was very good) was bought these. I had no idea there were more in the series. I found these (3 all in all) in the Barter Books secondhand shop in Alnwick quite by chance as I was hovering by the children's paperback classics whilst waiting for CBC to finish browsing. How could I resist the opportunity to hark back to my childhood, read books in a series that I had never read? (I am a little obsessive over reading ALL the books in a series or by an author if I love them. Enid Blyton hello, you are still amazing me!)

All these books follow a formula. Beware if you want a mystery or something less predictable, this might not happen for you. The books are rather lovely in that they are nearly all set in Northumberland at the beginning and places I know are featured. They follow the trials, dilemmas, delights and successes of young girls who have a gift and penchant for ballet and how they end up at Sadlers Wells ballet school. Familiar characters from the earlier books, Veronica Weston, Sebastian and others (depending on the book you read) all crop up, establishing her own world.

In this book, Jane and Mariella, cousins, are stuck with the opposite situations to what they want- Jane's mum loves horse-riding and her life is one long Gymkhana (which she detests) and Mariella's is ballet, ballet, ballet (her mum was a famous dancer). When they meet and spend time together, they learn from each other. It isn't until Jane comes to stay in London 2 years after their first meeting, now an accomplished dancer, that they conceive the daring idea of Jane taking Mariella's place in an audition for the Sadler's wells ballet school. Predictably, Jane gets in and then proves herself! A lovely nostalgic read!

One for girls who love dancing!

37. Lorna Hill Return to the Wells
Further on in the series, we meet Ella, who has spent some years at the Wells school. However, we also meet previous characters Mariella and others and it is all about them forming loves and relationships as well as Ella, meeting someone who loves her and her fight to come back from illness. Interestingly, a large section of this book is set in Switzerland with her convalescence time which has some interestingly far-fetched events! Again, a lovely, nostalic read.

38. Gillian Cross Facing the demon headmaster
More nostalgic reading. I love Gillian Cross. As a child, I read and reread The Demon Headmaster and The Primeminister's brain and LONGED for sequels. She obliged many years later in my adult life. This is the last one I hadn't read, purchased in Richard Booth books in Hay-on-Wye, last month. Dinah Hunter and SPLAT face another 'craze' where children are really getting into some trend or other (quite formulaic, but children love formulas in book writing! And I confess, me too!) . In this case, it's a club called Purple and a masked man called DJ Pardoman. Interestingly, it touches a little on Dinah Hunter's past before living with the Hunters, which made for an interesting read, and I wasn't sure where this one was going. We also saw the Headmaster being a vindictive and revengeful towards the children proving he does have SOME emotions! A great read!
39. Alexander McCall Smith Love over Scotland. (44 Scotland street series)
Oh if only you were 30 and not married, I would love you Mr McCall Smith. I LOVE his writing so much! The book touches upon the lives of regulars in his previous books- Pat, Matthew, Dominica, Stuart, Irene and Bertie Pollock, Big Mo, Angus and Cyril the dog (who gets his own misadventure) and introduces new regular, Antonia. Bertie has a wonderful adventure in Paris, Irene is mother is as toxic, insensitive and overbearing as ever and one-off criminal from the 2nd book, Lard O'Connor makes an interesting, amusing and somewhat foreboding appearance. I hate to tell you anything more about this as I want you to find out for yourself by reading it!!! Sheer brilliance. Can be read in one fell swoop or put down and picked up!

I learnt 2 new words in this book (saddo I am, who looks words up in the dictionary and writes them down to remember in future books and to use at a later date)

retrousse (adj): turned up at the tip (nose)
lambent (adj): (of flame or light) playing on a surface without burning it, with soft radiance, softly radiant, lightly brilliant. (love this meaning!!!!!)

This book didn't fail to disappoint and it had a new romance in it which I was hoping would happen. I love books which meet my expectations/wants!
40. Robert Mandelburg The Case of the Curious Campaign - a whodunit of many mini-mysteries.
This is sheer genius! If your child has issues with comprehension, I would say this is a great book for getting them to read for clues in the story to infer things. It is split into 16 mini chapters which have a little mystery for you the reader to fathom, turning detective (us wannabee Poirots! I guessed many of them right!) before the denouement in the final chapter unravelling the whole mystery! Fun and fab I think for children! Give it a go! I've recommended it to my headteacher for her children's bookclub!
41. Lorna Hill Ella at the Wells.
I loved this one- definitely a real Cinderella story. Another in the Sadlers wells series, which preceeds Return to the Wells. I love the real insight into a poorer but respectable household in vintage Nortumberland! Very exciting and I loved Mariella realising what a total meanie her cousin Nigel is!

I think I enjoyed this one most out of the Wells books. Definitely a Cinderella book! (and if you have read any of the books that I have read in past years- you will notice a certain propensity towards Cinderella stories!)
42. Piers Moore Ede Honey and Dust: Travels in Search of Sweetness
I bought this as my Grandfather is a bee-keeper and despite my not really liking honey, I am fascinated by the whole process. It was a wonderfully interesting read, plotting the exploits of this man after he had a horrific cycling accident and travelled round the world seeking wild honey and coming to terms with his new self. You gain a wonderful flavour of some very remote parts of the world, a fascinating insight into the production of honey and a very appealing author. Well worth reading despite it being non-fiction (not my usual liking).

Images are from www.amazon.co.uk thank you for them!