Not quite as intended...

 ...although it did make us laugh!

A few weeks back, my friend X and I had a 'Movie Night.' Now to many of you, this would seem perfectly normal. Well, it is...only we usually end up causing a bit of chaos!

One time we borrowed X's son's laptop and (despite me being GOOD with technology) we could NOT get the DVD to play without having to phone her son and husband!

Another time, we borrowed a mini DVD player from my Mum...sounds fine. Yes, but the screen is TINY and the sound soooo quiet that we needed to get a portable speaker that I have, prop it between us and listen super carefully....

You get the idea. Anyway, this time I decide that we should use Prime to watch something on a larger screen that we can actually hear.

If you've read my post about us loving a (what we now call) 'investigation walk' you know we have us down as Marple n Poirot. Therefore, we wanted something in the mystery genre that we could solve.

We found a couple of films (I'm a total chicken and was asking "Do you think that'd be scary?") and then found one that sounded PERFECT... A female that investigates a murder at an Italian hotel (even more perfect as X went on holiday there this year).

So, we start the film and quickly realise that we can't understand a word of it! I whizzed it forward to see if it would change...nope! I pressed subtitles and they were quite fast. We laughed, said it was typical of us.

We didn't fancy reading a film, so returned back to the menu. From the name of the actors/actresses the film mentioned, I think we should've guessed it was not English. But we're not that sensible!

I think it was in French (despite it being an Italian hotel) and talking of places other than England, check my blog posts throughout December - each Tuesday - for a mini series of what happened when my parents went away recently! No wonder things happen to me too - it clearly runs in the family!

Oh, if you're wondering, the next film that X and I selected was fine. Together, we solved the murder - although it was more X than me as I was convinced by the wrong person most of the way through. X said she thought it was a man, then I named which one. So I helped, sort of!

All good fun!

Have you listened to these?

The Villa by Ruth Kelly - YouTube

Book review The Final Party by A A Chaudhuri - YouTube

Book review Rainbow's Orange book of Poetry by Lily Lawson - YouTube

 

The long wait...

 Typical me!

If you have read my September blog post about a parcel delivery not going to plan, this won't surprise you. If you haven't, let's just say that lots of things don't go to plan with me...and here's another example.

The other week, I was waiting for a delivery - some rechargeable, USB lights that are movement activated to put in the conservatory to save turning the lights on all the time. There's others around the house and they do a great job.

It shows as leaving depot just before midday, says I am third delivery - BONUS! 12:15-2:15...

Nope...the tracking map changes to ‘driver has a few more deliveries to make first’ and time updates to 2:45 cut off.

Nope...changes to: ‘arriving by 10pm’ and says, ‘sorry we didn’t make the slot’.

 

At this point, it was showing as having been in a specific location (about fifteen minutes away) for hours! I think the tracker must have got stuck! 

I kept my eye on the tracking map all day, no change. I listened out for door by changing what I was going to do (not making a noise etc) so that I would hear door.

At 5:30pm van was about five minutes away... Then, at about 5:45 it gets PUT THROUGH LETTERBOX!

All that waiting for them to put it through... The box was long and flat - not what I expected. I thought it would be bulkier and require a knock at the door! Wrong!

AND...they were meant to be optional cool white or warm white but are only cool 😕 

Typical me, hey?

Sunday Snippet - Accidental Death by Louise Wilford

Originally written for a group Halloween competition, the winner of the competition (author, Louise Wilford) has allowed me to share with you one of her other entries. Enjoy...

Accidental Death

‘Bit of all right, this, sir!’

‘How the other half live, Bridges.’

It was a routine case. Homeowner electrocuted in his living room. Accidental death. Sad, but we see this sort of thing all the time.

The facts that made it exceptional were that it happened on Halloween, the dead man was Miles Tessell, CEO of the biggest IT company in Cambridge, and the person who found him next morning was his new, much younger, glamour-model girlfriend, Tricia Makepeace.

The fallen lamp that had killed Mr Tessell lay beside his corpse on the Turkish rug.

Ms Makepeace was sitting on the upmarket sofa, sniffling into a tissue, still drop-dead gorgeous. When my old woman cries, her face looks like she’s done four rounds with Tyson Fury, but Ms Makepeace’s mascara was unsmudged.

Detective Bridges could barely keep his eyes off her – at least when he wasn’t staring round the gaff as if he’d never seen the inside of a posh house before. Personally, I find these techy modern mansions a bit unnerving. I mean, they had those Alexa things in every room. Ms Makepeace had already demonstrated by telling Alexa to open the blinds, and – whoosh! – they slid open like magic. How the other half live, indeed.

Weird, though. You’d think an electronics genius like Miles Tessell would know better than to get himself electrocuted by a desk lamp.

I thought I’d try something.

‘Alexa, turn on the lamp.’

There was a pause that was just a bit too long.

‘Do it yourself,’ said Alexa, in a nasty voice.

We all stared at the squat little machine on the coffee table in shock.

Then we heard a quiet click.

‘She’s locked us in!’ cried Tricia, just as the lamp burst into flames…

You can read other stories from Louise in:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CN9MV328/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2BX6PFAOS82IZ&keywords=words+from+wonderland&qid=1699981164&sprefix=words+from+wonderland%2Caps%2C77&sr=8-1

Or, find Louise's blog at: Lou's Writing News, Cues and Reviews 

Here you will see the other competition entries alongside Lou's winning one! 

Rainbow's Orange Book of Poetry by Lily Lawson

My review of this fantastic poetry collection can be found at: https://youtu.be/5yBdn8eO8S8

 

Written review coming soon...

 

Did you see the Sunday Snippet from Lily Lawson?

Argh!

 The lesser of the two evils...

The other week when storm Ciaran hit, it was set to be a noisy night's sleep. I decided, as I was home alone, to sleep on the sofa as it would be quieter down there, and more sheltered from the noise of the wind and rain.

Now, it's important to point out that I have slept down there before when poorly - wanting a warmer room etc - and on the occasions where I am (again) home alone and I have fallen asleep with the TV on - yes, I am getting old!

Anyway, on this occasion, I bedded down with the sofa throw over me and the night light on for my house rabbit as she's used to this now. I DIDN'T put the light on under my parrot's cage as (a) it would make room brighter for me and (b) it actually needed new batteries having refused to turn on when I left for work earlier that day! Side note: When I leave and it's dark, I put that one on for just a little while as it has a remote with a timer as the parrot is scared of the dark! 

I had barely turned off the light when the parrot started making his loudest, most annoying squawking noise. So I decided to go and get some new batteries and thought that her night light perhaps wasn't enough as he's so used to having his on. Next side note: She's only had hers since the summer as I noticed she was quite active of a night still and she's getting older, so I wanted to be sure that she can see. Plus, when I have slept downstairs, he had his light on. If TV on, main light still on.

New batteries in. Attempt two...

I had barely closed my eyes when he then was at the bottom of his cage and started banging one of his monkey nuts (thrown from food bowl earlier) against the bottom cage - it's a fully metal surround so you can imagine the noise.

I told him to stop. Nope! He was NOT listening and just kept doing it... He usually likes to bang his toy as in photo) against the side of his cage, but he's not done this before.

I decided to that wind and rain were the lesser of the two evils and, thankfully, fell asleep there quite quickly - and stayed asleep - until my alarm went off the next morning!

Quite funny really, I suppose!

A Sunday Snippet from Orange by Lily Lawson

 

Poetry is Alive

I am a poet

It’s what I do.

I convey

my words to you

in dancing fire,

in beating drum.

I’ve finished

before you’ve begun.

The novelist

of whom you’ve likely heard

may find

my brevity absurd.

There is space

for a weighty tome,

when you find yourself

at home.

Poetry dances

in the air,

it has the skill

of Fred Astaire.

It finds its way

through tiny nooks,

to people with no time

for books.

It lives and breathes

and can be found

even on the

underground,

graffitied

with a can of paint

or in collections

oh, how quaint.

It is recited oft

by heart

in entirety 

or part.

I must insist

we put to bed

the thought of

poetry being dead.

When I asked Lily to tell me a bit more about this poem, she said:

 

"I was inspired by the poetry is not dead hashtags on Instagram."

You can read the other poems in Orange at:

Rainbows Orange Book of Poetry (Rainbow series 2) eBook : Lawson, Lily: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

On Thursday, I will be providing my review of these wonderful poems...

Lily's bio: 

Lily Lawson is a poet, children’s and short story writer living in the UK. In addition to her books, she has published poetry, short stories, and creative non-fiction in anthologies and online.

Find out about Lily and read more of her work on her website: lilyswritinglife.com. where you can also subscribe to her newsletter, Life with Lily. 

Follow Lily on  Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, Bookbub, Goodreads and allauthor.

Book review - Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

 

I REALLY enjoyed this! Although I am going to give some 'even better if' opinions here, I genuinely did enjoy it... It was a slow, and detailed read with careful plotting obviously carried out by Hunter. I can only imagine the planning than went into it...

I did have a few issues with my Kindle Paperwhite (as other readers have mentioned too) but it was fine on the Kindle app –  so that's a tip for anyone wanting to read it digitally.

The use of a ‘script’ for the TV show format of the book, I think is effective. Perhaps I am biased having used a script for a murder mystery event in between the main prose for my dissertation of my MA with the OU.

Sometimes when I am deep into the action of a book, I find the descriptions of a mountain/the sea etc a distraction and I end up skimming through to get to the juicy parts - this happened in particular with the climax of Lucy Clarke's One Of The Girls. Whereas, that doesn't happen here as all that is included is needed and this, for me, was a strength. Any description or things the reader needs to know either comes up within the speech or as italics (as sort of stage direction) in between the speech in an omniscient style.

I also really like the inclusion of newspaper cuttings and text messages. I wasn’t so keen on the TV review page that was before each new chapter as I felt it summarised what I had read then made predictions of what might come next. This could be useful for readers who find it difficult to retain all the information (there is lots) but I am not sure about the exposition uses.

I DID, however, struggle to remember everything and flicked forward and back (I actually wish I had read it as a paperback) and sometimes struggled to recall which of the specialists was what/who. Although, for some reason, I remembered Laila – maybe as she is the only female on the specialist team.

The interactions between them work well, and the way that the story/what happens unfolds is also effective once you have remembered who, what, why, when and where. I suppose I can see WHY the TV recaps were included as so much happens…and is it too much? Possibly, yes.

I totally forgot some of the family links and 'who was who' the more other people get involved (you will see what I mean on reading, I’m sure) and the inclusion of a page of family trees/links/bios would have been useful.

Just as you think you are onto something (along with the detectives) then something changes the course and the story takes a different direction –  this is more effective nearer the end than the red herrings in the middle that started to frustrate me. 

It was also interesting to know that there was likely to be an imposter within the team – from the hints given and this made it more important to know who was who in my opinion.

But, did I still love it overall? Yes. Did I guess who was guilty? Yes – but only right at the very end point! So, not really… It was very well hidden and a great twist.

For previous book reviews (as I then put these onto Amazon) I have given all my other post books five stars. This one will be a four for the flaws that I have mentioned. It’s still GREAT though and VERY worth a read.

I want to say that even though I know the outcome of the book, I am pleased that it’s being made into a TV show, although the unique aspect and presentation of the book will then be lost, potentially. 

I enjoyed its originality of concept, and hopefully one of many that will pop up like this (my own work included). But, I think I am looking forward to the TV show more than I have with other adaptations as I think it will SHOW characters and this should mean it's easier to follow. Sometimes I avoid books as a TV show (T.M. Logan’s The Holiday on C5 I didn’t watch as I knew and loved the book) but this one, is something I am really looking forward to!

Available at: Murder in the Family: The #7 Sunday Times... by Hunter, Cara (amazon.co.uk)

I just knew what he was going to say!

 Never in forty years...

The other week, my Dad had to go to the dentist about an issue that he's been having with one of his front teeth. The plan was (as it was painful and needed work) to bond it to the other front teeth with a type of brace. This was the cheaper alternative to a fake one and also enabled him to keep his own tooth without need for an implant, or root work being done to his one.

Anyway, he went to the next appointment and later that evening, I was on the phone to my Mum when he returned from the dentist.

He told us that during this appointment (she was due to to the 'brace') that she was cleaning all around it and told him - from looking at the X-ray that he'd had done previously that it was an unusually short root. TEMPTING FATE!

I just knew what he was going to say...

During the cleaning part of the teeth, she accidentally managed to suck his tooth up the air pipe! She said that 'never in forty years of dentistry' had she had that happen!

It took fifteen minutes to retrieve it from the machine and he had to leave there that night with the tooth left behind in a sterilising solution. 

Thankfully, she was able to find him a slot just over a day later and the tooth is now clean, back in and 'braced' to the other ones!

How funny!

My response: "Thanks for another blog post!" He, he!

A Sunday Snippet...on a Monday!

If you've read my blog post about curve balls, then you will realise that life has taken a few twists and turns of late. That has included being able to stick to my schedule on here of Sunday - Snippet, Tuesday - Blog post and Thursday - Book review.

Well, hopefully things are nearly back to normal!

So, here's a Sunday Snippet on a Monday:

IT WAS A CASE THAT GRIPPED THE NATION

LUKE RYDER’S MURDER HAS NEVER BEEN SOLVED

In October 2003, Luke Ryder was found dead in the garden of the family home in London, leaving behind a wealthy older widow and three stepchildren. Nobody saw anything.

Now, secrets will be revealed – live on camera.

Years later a group of experts re-examine the evidence on Infamous, a true-crime show – with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?

Or does the truth lie closer to home?

Can you solve the case before they do?

The truth will blow your mind.

Source - Amazon: 

Murder in the Family: The #7 Sunday Times... by Hunter, Cara (amazon.co.uk)

My book review will be up at 6pm on Thursday.