Book Club - 15.01.14

First book club of the new year! Jennie kindly had us all round to her beautiful house this time where we tried to resist the cookies and nibbles but failed miserably.  We were discussing 'Tiny Sunbirds Far Away' by Christie Watson which although we went off tangent a few times we ended up in quite a deep discussion about religion, marriage and traditions of death.  It was a really interesting evening and I think everyone enjoyed the book although it had a sadness through it there was also hope.  The writer described the characters in such a way that you had a clear picture in your mind of what they looked like, and they were certainly larger than life characters. 

The main premise of the story was about a young girl called Blessing and her brother Ezekiel.  Blessing tells their story of initially living with their mother and father in a rich part of Nigeria in a house with air conditioning, and her memories are of a happy loving family.  Then things turn sour when her father has an affair with another woman and leaves them with not enough money to keep their house and so they are forced to move to live with her Grandma and Grandad in a poor village.  Here there is no air conditioning, there is no fridge, there is not even any running water.  After struggling to get used to this new life Blessing finds her place in this world and begins to learn Grandmas trade, to be a midwife.  She is only twelve years old, but it is fascinating how she takes on this responsibility and soaks up Grandma's knowledge and advice.  The birth scenes in the book are a mixture of beautiful and harrowing, describing the conditions in which these women gave birth in their village and how the traditions of female genital mutilation can cause so many shocking problems for women giving birth in later life.

Meanwhile her older brother Ezekiel has gone from aspiring to be a doctor to joining a rebel gang in the village and begins to go off the rails. Blessings mother falls in love with a white man and is determined to marry him much to the confusion and disapproval of many, leaving Blessing eventually with the decision of whether to leave her home to go and live in England with her mother.  Grandma was my favourite character because she seemed to be in control of the family (even though Alhaji the granddad thought he was).  She was always calm and wise, she was mother to everyone even when Alhaji brought home a second wife she took her under her wing, she believed everything happened for a reason, and was always content with her life.  Alhaji was a proud man who thought he was the head of the household even though he never actually worked and spent their money keeping up appearances he did appear to have a good heart, he was maybe just a little eccentric, always coming up with bizarre schemes like snail farming and had a crazy believe in the medicinal properties of marmite.

If you didn't get a chance to read this book for book club, I would recommend reading it sometime as its an interesting insight into a different side of the world and it is a well written heart-warming story with believable characters. 

Next months book was decided...'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel

I am particular excited about this because I put this book on the list about a year ago and have been hoping it would come up.  I have seen the film but have been told by many that the book is fantastic so I have high hopes for this one.

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'One boy, one boat, one tiger . . .

After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan ? and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. The scene is set for one of the most extraordinary and best-loved works of fiction in recent years'





Next Book Club

Date: 19th February
Time: 7.30pm
Location: TBC

2013 - A Snapshot

2013 has had lots of ups and downs, the hardest part was losing my Grandad, but he lives on in my memories and we will continue to celebrate his life, he meant so much to so many people.  You are forever in our hearts Grandad x x x

 

Achievements

Passing my Driving Test & Pass Plus thanks to the patience of Chris Aston

Completing beginners Sign Language with Rachael & Sasha

Raising money for the South East Cancer Help Centre with an immense amount of tea, cakes and support from family and friends

 

Passing PTLLS Level 4 Qualification (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector)

Getting promoted to Senior Support and Training Officer at work

Some Memorable Moments of 2013

Pretending to be posh during afternoon tea at Harrods

 

London Duck Tour (before one caught fire and plunged into the Thames)

Dirty Dancing at Kellermans – dressing up, hula hooping, dancing & beach ball fights

Harry Potter Studio Tours – sets, props, creatures, magic & butter beer

 

Going to my first classical concert by the London philharmonic orchestra

Being hypnotised by the sign language performer during The Bodyguard show

Watching the magical Charlie & Chocolate Factory from the second row

Giggling at the Milton Jones stand up gig 

Go ape – swinging and climbing through the tree tops

Learning to make Jewellery for the day

 

Baking with the never ending supply of apples

 

11 fantastic Book Clubs including the unforgettable sparklers

 

Ice skating with Letty & Michael at Alexandra Palace

Skating and bowling for my birthday at Guildford spectrum

 

Purple birthday hair and giant tea cups in the garden

 

Strolling around Richmond with Kibble with our cameras at the ready

Many awesome games nights

 

Winning the Dragon Quiz Night with the 'A' Team - Paul, Janine, Robbie & Lauren!

Being on the winning team and coming second at the ICT bowling night (major fluke)

 

Seeing the World

Cruising around the Med exploring some extraordinary cities:

 

Palma

 

Corsica

 

Rome

 

Florence

 

Pisa

 

Monaco

 

Monte Carlo

 

Barcelona

 

A snowy Christmas weekend in Tallinn, Estonia

 

 

Photography

Trees and flowers galore at Nyman's, Kew and Sheffield Park

 

 

 

 

 

Photographing Vicki & Dan’s wedding at High Rocks, Tunbridge Wells

 

Photographing the Burl family rocking it in onesies and climbing trees in Coombe Gardens

Big Birthdays

Kathy's 50th Birthday curry, fun and games

 

Eve’s 30th with French fancy taste testing, mah-jong and birthday tea 

 

Tracey’s 30^th  where peter pan made an appearance

Phil’s 50^th party where mum shouted surprise before everyone else

Colin’s 60^th party of fun & games including dead ants, wink murder and some serious jazz hands

 

Weddings

Jodi’s wedding at High Rocks, Tunbridge Wells

 

Claire & Nick’s wedding at Langshott Manor

 

Uncle Phil’s wedding in Westerham

 

Danny’s cousin Karen’s wedding with the awesome live band and three scary minions

 

2013 flew by but looking back quite a lot happened!! I'm looking forward to new adventures and experiences in 2014 bring it on!

 

 

Book Club - 04/12/13

I seem to have neglected my book club blog this month, what with the Christmas shindigs and jetting off to Estonia for the weekend!  Apologies I'm back on it!! We met up on the 4^th Dec for Book Club and had a tasty dinner at Apatura in South Croydon to celebrate Christmas.  The book on everyone’s mind was ‘The Woman in Black’ and this had mixed reviews although personally I really enjoyed reading it.  Everyone had seen a mixture of the film adaptation and/or the play in the west end and so had different expectations of the book.  Some were not impressed at all…I think because it wasn’t scary enough and not a typical horror book because nothing hideous and gory happened.  But I thought it was gripping and suspenseful, had an eerie edge to it and I sped through it quite happily.  The book was quite different to the film but very similar to the play which I saw about 12 years ago and I'd like to go back and see the play again as it was such a long time ago. Parts in the book I could visualise in the show, like the Woman in her rocking chair in the child's play room which perhaps made me feel the spookiness of it a bit more.  The others were all somewhere in-between enjoying it but not loving it, giving it a wide ranging score from 2-7 out of 10. 

To be honest there wasn’t much talk about the book this time - I know its disgraceful, but we pulled our Christmas crackers, told silly jokes and stuffed our faces most of the evening.  The next book it was decided we would not vote out of three, and instead just pull one completely at random and the result was…

‘Tiny Sunbirds Far Away’ by Christie Watson

'Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman. Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel - only married women can work there - and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta. Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos. Told in Blessing's own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything. At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.'

 

Next Book Club:

 

Date: 15th Jan 2014

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: TBC (as always) One day we will find the perfect venue!

 

Enjoy and look forward to seeing you all then x 

Book Club - 06/11/13

This months Book club was held at my house as it was the day after firework night we decided to do some sparklers in the garden.  After attempting to spell out book club I couldn't believe how well it came out and it was so much fun! Thank you for coming guys and girls, it was one to remember!

Amongst gobbling sausage rolls and marshmallows we talked about 11.22.63 by Stephen King.  This is a hefty book, I was impressed that most people finished it as if you didn't start it straight away it would have been difficult to find enough time! I think everyone really enjoyed reading this, it had the odd chapter that wasn't as gripping as the rest but generally it kept you on tender hooks wanting more and took us on a journey through time. 

After getting over the fact that Jake readily agrees to believe and take on a challenge of going back in time to stop the assignation of JFK (which he does seem to do without much question) you are taken back to 1950's America, where Stephen King describes the music, the people, the clothes as if he was really there himself.  An epic amount of research must have gone into writing this.  Because the rabbit hole can only take him back to a date in 1958, he actually has 5 years to wait until the assignation, so the first chunk of the book doesn't really mention much about JFK as he finds many other things to occupy his time, such as saving a family from a murderous father and a girl from a life changing accident.  Once he's been the hero he settles down and actually begins to fall in love with a librarian whilst working at a school.  In fact he really falls in love with the 1950's and the people around him.

Things don't however always go his way he does not have an easy ride of it as the past does not like to be changed (as we are often reminded) and always tries to throw a spanner in the works.  This was a great book to talk about as there was so much going on, Jakes relationships with the different characters and the periods in which it was set.  When Jake considers taking his new love back to the future with him we all agreed that he was crazy to think she would like the future as it would be totally overwhelming, thinking about the way the world is now to back in the 50's there have been so many changes in the way people speak and behave.  Could you imagine living in the 50's with the limited technology they had and coming back to now seeing the internet, mobile phones the lot, you wouldn't think it was only 50 years in the future, you'd think we are all aliens from a space age.

The only bit of the book that I wasn't so keen on was later on when he came back to the future and saw what had happened in relation to what he had changed in the past.  I felt this chapter was so rushed, I'm not sure why in a book that was so hefty you would only save one chapter to describe an entire world and all the things that had changed in its history over 50 years.  The things that had changed were also extremely dramatic and unbelievable when compared with what effect Jake really had on the past, could it really have made that much difference? I guess we will never know.

I don't think we rated it, but the general consensus was that this is definitely worth reading! For quite a few this was their first Stephen King so I think he has made a good impression.

Right the next book for our December meeting (Cannot believe Christmas will almost be upon us) is...'The Woman In Black' by Susan Hill.  This one is a tiny book so no excuses for not getting this one finished after last months epic!  I have seen the play (amazing) and the film (not so great...) but I reckon the books going to be quite good, lets see if its scary as I am very easily spooked!

'Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is summoned to attend the funeral of Mrs Alice Drablow, the sole inhabitant of Eel Marsh House, unaware of the tragic secrets which lie hidden behind the shuttered windows.  The house stands at the end of a causeway, wreathed in fog and mystery, but it is not until Arthur glimpses a wasted young woman, dressed all in black, at the funeral that a creeping sense of unease begins to take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to speak of the woman in black and her terrible purpose.'

Oooooh spooky! Get reading!!

 

Next Book Club:

 

Date: Wednesday 4th December

Time: 7.30pm

Location: TBC (as usual)

 

Just to show we aren't too sensible...

 

 

The Joys of Secondary School

Secondary school was a strange and unnerving experience, and not one I'd like to repeat but looking back makes for some interesting memories.

As prefects in our final year we strolled to the front of the dinner line as other people pushed and shoved each other out of the way to avoid the queue .  My lunch varied quite considerably from chips with cheese, to chips with cheese and beans almost certainly followed by a sugar coated doughnut filled with an oozy chocolate centre.  We were very healthy.  I can't imagine what its like to go to school now where you are encouraged to eat fruit and vegetables.  If that had been the case back then I would have been very skinny.

It was always a race to get out of school first before my brother Rob, as whoever got there first got to give their friends a lift home.  Although I have many memories of all of us piling in, sometimes the two of us plus Steven, Colette, Jenny and last but not least little Ian who got severely squashed once when I saw a spider on my side of the window.  I doubt he's ever got over the trauma.  This was all in the back of my mums mini metro which groaned as it pulled up the hill with the weight of too many teenagers.  Sometimes I'd walk home with Jenny as we both did a paper round after school on a Wednesday evening.  Jenny walked so fast I remember panting to keep up with her but the upside was that we were home in a bout 10 minutes, probably quicker than getting a lift with all the drop offs on the way home. Other times big groups of us would dawdle home down Shirley road, past the sweet shop where there was always a momentary stop to buy ice poles (no matter what time of year).  I remember eating a blue raspberry ice pole with gloves on in winter, they were just so good and only 15p.

No matter what school you went to everyone remembers their teachers who always seem to be extraordinary characters.  Our teachers at Shirley were no exception and particularly in Science had fantastic names, you can't even make this stuff up. Our Physics teacher was called Mr Bean and for Chemistry Mr Sentence.  Its such a shame he wasn't an English teacher I think he missed his calling.  Mr Bean was forever taking his glasses off and Shuva and I used to do a tally chart of how many times he took them off and put them back on again.  I can't remember the final result but I know it was alarmingly high.  Mrs Grant was our Biology teacher a Scottish lady with a fiery temperament who always seemed to amuse the class by accident.  She once walked around with a piece of string attached to the back of her skirt for an entire day.  Jenny and I tried to advise her that at the front of the class Rory had set the bin on fire by putting in a lit splint but she didn't believe us and instead stood there shouting at us and wagging her finger.  She loved us really.  She used to bring in various animal specimens for us to dissect, the pigs eyeballs that she pulled casually out of her handbag one morning caused a particular stir... I'm sure the photosynthesis experiment lasted for an entire term as all I remember about Biology is Lisa continually cutting up potato's.  We didn't appear to be as well prepared for our GCSE Biology exam as we thought as none of us had a clue how to artificially inseminate a cow.  We must has missed that lesson.  Mr Sowen another Chemistry teacher pretty much lived in the library (at least these were the rumours).  He was perhaps the most interesting character of all, speaking Icelandic, jumping around doing helium impressions and putting mysterious powders into students hands before explaining their high levels of toxicity.  Sitting in his lab amongst a collection of pickled hedgehogs and embryos whilst he threw reactive substances into a Bunsen burner was quite an experience. 

Languages...I have to be honest as soon as my options allowed it French became a distant memory, however who could forget the French teacher Mrs Loy who had an unhealthy obsession with Barbie and Ken.  I remember she had a mini plastic Eiffel tower on her desk and taught me for 3 years which resulted in her still not knowing my name.  Karen and Laura used to start Mexican waves around the classroom when her back was turned.  She had no idea.  I really enjoyed German and did quite well but our German teacher Mr Muldoon was Irish, I don't think much more need be said about that.

For one of my options I chose Design & Tech Graphics, which I later discovered was the class which everyone that didn't want to do anything else also chose.  Because of this I became Mrs Miller's teachers pet which was not a bad thing in her class as you did not want to get on the wrong side of her scary shouting episodes.  She once accused someone of cheating and after a full blown row he just walked out of the school.  I remember designing my own fast food chain outlet and designing a pager, I was also the only person to sit their GCSE exam in this subject out of my class.

Home economics was my absolute worse subject (aside from P.E) and Mrs Graham my most feared teacher.  I think I actually used to 'quake in my boots' before her lessons.  Mrs Graham used to use myself and Karen as examples of what not to do.  Karen used to run over to me to check what my food looked like before making food as bad as I did.  Some people never bought ingredient's so they could sit in detention and others bought pre-chopped food so they looked like they knew what they were doing, but they always got found out and disgraced.  My mum used to ring Karen's mum in the morning to swap and share ingredients.  The Teddy shaped jam sandwich fiasco still gives me nightmares, the foul pepper scones and the dreaded tasting sessions.  My biggest problem (apart from not being able to cook anything) was that I never knew how long to leave something in the oven.  So I'd trail behind Mrs Miller trying to get her attention, who would just snap 'I'll be there in a minute' and by the time she came over to my bench (last) whatever it was would be burnt and she'd say 'Why didn't you take it out of the oven?' it was a vicious circle.  

I actually really enjoyed History at school.  The first year we had Mr Evans who used to swear in class to make us giggle and confiscate peoples cigs which he was later seen smoking.  The rest of the time I had Mrs Harker all the way up to GCSE.  She used to put on a documentary and tell the 'fellas' to quiet down.  Shuva and I used to challenge ourselves by bringing in a selection of sweets which were hard to eat quietly.  The best ones were individually wrapped Murray mints as they were impossible to open without rustling.  Strawberry laces were also quite amusing as they always attracted attention.  Shuva and I always sat together in front of Eve and Becki.  Shuva made me laugh so much during our mock exam when she decided that the NLA was the National Lawnmowers Association.  Mrs Harker didn't find it quite so amusing.

For some reason the teachers always thought I was good at Maths until year ten when someone finally realised I wasn't and moved me down a set.  When we first started school we had Mr Parker who we thought was really cool as he played electric guitar in the school concert.  Later on I had Mr Cloves who had an obsession with Jestive biscuits.  Lots of the girls fancied him (not I, I'd like to add) but he was funny especially the mix up with the 'Crutch of the matter'.

P.E was pretty awful at school (for me) apart from the last year when we got to go offsite and do things like aerobics and aqua.  I did enjoy Mrs Francis aerobics session which concluded with 10 minutes of relaxation lying on the floor (that was my favourite part) and trampolining was good fun trying to do as many swivel hips as you could in a row.  Mr Box was a stereotypical P.E. teacher, I have a not so nice memory of him making a chubby former self attempt to climb out of the pool without the using the steps, to an audience.  It was always best to have P.E. at the end of the day because then you could try and sneak out of school without getting changed back into your school uniform.  If you forgot your P.E. kit you had to wear something from lost property which essentially meant a smelly item of clothing left behind by a random. I suppose it was a good incentive to remember your kit.  Cross country was hideous, it always seemed to be freezing and I couldn't run, at all.  I think I actually only ran (walked) it once possibly twice as I used to beg my mum to write me a note to get out of it.  My memories  of Netball consist of standing in the middle of a cold winter playground 'blocking' the girl of my nightmares (the tom boy with more muscles in her arms than I had in my whole body) and lamely waving my hands in the air while the teacher screamed at me from the side lines 'BLOCK!!!' What happened to junior school P.E. where you just ran and jumped about in your pants to music.  They've just got it all wrong.

My favourite lesson was Music, in fact I think this kept me sane.  As well as taking music for GCSE I had drum lessons which usually took place during other lessons (bonus) .  The worst thing about this was that you couldn't hear the bell in the practice room and so when I came out of my drum lesson I quite often ending up walking into the wrong class.  Mr Hart was quite strict and would sometimes do a playful drumroll on my head with his drumsticks if I wasn't paying attention, but my favourite lessons were the jamming sessions where he'd play piano and I'd play along on the drums.  Mr and Mrs Aston were our music teachers and also used to run the concerts and drama productions.  Our music room was at the very top of the building so when we set up for school concerts we had great fun carrying the drum kit down all the stairs to the school hall...

I remember in year 9 Mrs Aston always used to make Colette and I put our blazers on which were by then 2 sizes too small and we composed an awesome little tune entitled 'We are Warnock and Harvey' (Colette will remember that one).  When Eve and I joined the orchestra we would wait for Mrs Aston to hand out all the music to the various instruments and then tell us to make something up to go with it.  I always used to mime in the choir which now makes me laugh because I am always singing.  I played my GCSE drum solo at a school concert which was nerve racking mainly because it sounded so loud echoing around the school hall, and I'll never forget Dad winning the raffle prize at the school concert because he was wearing lary bright red shorts and Rob and I pretended we didn't know whose dad he was.  The drama productions were brilliant, I had small parts in a few of the early ones and in the last few years played the drums for the music.  There was an excitement about rehearsals and performance nights. Having a program with your name in it.  Something funny always used to happen during rehearsals, like when Mr Aston ripped his trousers on the piano and when Rob used to blow Fish's music off his stand when he was about to start playing the Tuba.  The orchestra would get smoked out by the dry ice machine and I swear the music for the Fame Game got faster and faster every night to the point where I thought my arms might fall off.   I was definitely not sad to leave school in year 11 but I was sad to leave music.

I have a limited selection of school photographs most of which are terrible and thankfully blurry but I do love this pic of my music class which sums up the best of Shirley for me and there's some faces in there that are still a part of my life including Jamie (who would have thought back then that we would be together), Charlotte, Eve and Mr Aston who recently taught me to drive! Couldn't have predicted that one either!! 

 

So many memories these are but a few, add yours in the comments I would love to hear funny stories I've forgotten all about!!

 







  

Book Club - 02/10/13

I cannot believe it is October already.  This month we went to the Slug and Lettuce in Croydon, which was nice but too loud so we still haven't found our perfect venue yet!! We were discussing 'Everything's Cool' by Justin Carroll.  Its quite a short book so most people had finished it and the verdict was that it was actually quite gripping...until the disappointing ending.  We all agreed that it was so abrupt that we were all expecting to read the next chapter.  I'm all for leaving us wanting a bit more but this did really feel like the last chapter had gone missing. 

Nevertheless it was an interesting read, which took quite a twist towards the second half making most of us speed through it.  Its a bit of strange one really I felt like I couldn't put it down but I didn't really like it that much.  The story is about a guy called Stan who has some very strange behavioural issues.   He lives to a rigid routine, eating and drinking only specific brands and foods he considers safe for consumption and has extreme paranoia that the world is going to end and he is the only person who can stop this from happening.  He doesn't really seem to like life or other people but is intent on saving the world.  Unfortunately he convinces himself that the people around him are against him, one in particular his new boss who has genuine feelings for him and tries desperately to get to know him, not knowing that all along Stan suspects her of being a spy.  Lets say things start to take a turn for the worse.  

I actually pictured Stan as a young guy in his early twenties but a few people at book club pointed out that he was actually supposed to be an older man.  His behaviour and interaction with other people made him appear much younger, which might have been part of his mental illness.  I like the fact that Stan's character was so well described through his actions and thoughts, it made you feel tense and anxious like he felt himself, but I didn't think we knew enough about his background, why he was the way he was and how he had come to these conspiracy conclusions.

Overall the book got between 5 and 6 out of 10, as it wasn't a bad read it certainly kept your attention but it seemed unfinished and there were so many things that could have been expanded on to make it more interesting.      

The new way of choosing the next book seemed to work well last month so I got people to pick 3 bits of paper, read the blurbs and then we voted on which book we'd like to read out of the 3.  The result was...

'11.22.63' by Stephen King

What if you could go back in time and change the course of history?  What if the watershed moment you could change was the assassination of JFK...11.22.63 the day that Kennedy was shot.

In 2011 Jake Epping, an English teacher from Maine, sets out on an insane and insanely possible mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination.  Leaving behind a world of computers and mobile phones he goes back to a time of big American cars and diners, of lindy hopping, the sound of Elvis and the taste of Root Beer.

In this haunting world Jake falls in love with Sadie, a beautiful high school librarian and as the ominous date of 11.22.63 approaches, he encounters a troubled loner name Lee Harvey Oswald...

I have already started it, be warned it is a hefty book so if you want to get through it before we meet then get reading!!  I have a feeling this is going to be a great book with lots to talk about!

Next Book Club Meet:

Date: Wed 6th November 2013
Time: 7.30pm

Location: As usual I'm undecided - but if there happen to be any local firework displays maybe go to that first and then back to mine for some munchies and discussion! We shall see!

For those who missed last weeks meet up or left a bit early, we came up with the idea of having a Thanksgiving Book Club dinner (mainly so we eat loads of pie and naughty food, wear silly jumpers and be generally jolly)  This is probably going to be at Laura's house on the 29th November but more details to follow at the next meet up...

Portrait Project - Fletcher

It's taken me a while to get going but officially this is my first portrait!

 

 'The Man Who Loves Fantastic Sandwiches' 

 

Thank you Fletch for letting me post this on my blog its a bit scary drawing pictures of your friends and you're the first to brave it!! Who's next?