TWO books!!!! what a piss poor effort for March!!!! & if I’m honest I didn’t even finish one of them!!!!
First up is Victoria Line, Central Line by Maeve Binchy. hmmmmm short stories, just not my bag really & I didn’t realise it was a book of short stories when I bought it, never the less I thought I’d give it a go. The stories were fine, well some were much better than others actually, but I’m just not a short story fan. I like something I can get my teeth into, with a short story you’re just getting to know someone & they’re gone. I’m guessing it’s a bit like speed dating, you meet someone you’d like to chat to & the bell rings & you’re stuck with some boring twat, lol. I’ve never actually tried speed dating, we did the old fashioned way in the 70’s, you know you hung out at the disco for hours & 10 mins before closing some loser would come over & try & chat you up without having to buy you drinks all night. Luckily I met dh through mutual friends so it was much more civilized than the disco meat market. Now where was I, oh yes the book, ok, but I needed a longer relationship with the people so I gave up after about 2/3 of the book.
Next, well I had a taste for Maeve Binchy so decided on Tara Road, which I’d certainly heard about for years, but never read & had no idea of the plot. I REALLY enjoyed it, lots of interesting characters & an interesting plot. It would make a great film.
So why the lack of books this month, hmm, so much is going on at the moment & my concentration levels are low, I’m also very tired & I only read late at night & haven’t been able to keep my eyes open to read much more. I’ll try & give a brief summary of what’s been happening in my life & what caused me also be absent from my blog. A friendly nudge from a reader has me back here & I’m so glad Marion nudged me. I just have so many balls in the air & I dropped my blog one, which is a shame coz I love blogging & it is one of the few positive things going on for me at the moment.
Cue cute picture of Molly, she looks quite sad but really doesn’t mind her bath. She especially loves running around like a maniac afterwards & drying herself on the carpet.
Now for the crap stuff:
You may remember, I had big plans for this year, I was going to make over 1 room a month but here we are in April & not one room done. There have been several interruptions to my life, the first being the sudden death of an aunt last September, we weren't close physically or emotionally, she lived in Perth & I hadn't seen her for over 20 years, Xmas cards only & news through family. Anyway, although large searches were made no will was found, here the circus began. By default I am the proposed Administrator of my aunt's estate, her remaining sister is 87 & in poor health & my sister lives in the UK, we are the only remaining blood relatives. If you're never had anything to do with applying for Letters of Administration, lucky you & I hope it stays that way, what a kerfuffle. Hoops way to high, & way to small to jump through, & some with flames. Ugh, as they say, where there's a will there's a relative, & as I say, where there's no will there's some VERY greedy relatives with attitude, & very greedy nobodies who think they are entitled to a piece of the pie. Ugly stuff & very upsetting at times as people you have been close to all your life turn out to be very nasty, it certainly has an impact. The process is still dragging on & I just hope that it will all soon be over & life will return to normal.
On top of this, we had word that my mother in law had died early December & we were informed weeks after the event. My dh no longer has contact with his brother or sister, for VERY good reasons, & this just proved he was right not to. Obviously this was a very stressful time & dh had a lot to deal with. Just for the record, my mil was the nastiest person I’ve ever met in my life, followed very closely by her daughter, my sil. They very nearly succeeded in ending our marriage, so to have them out of our lives is a joy. OK enough about the crap, they don’t deserve anymore airtime!!!!
On the upside I have been buying like a crazy women so I will hopefully have lot’s of fun stuff to stock my vintage stall when one finally becomes available. We’ve bought a lot of lovely old furniture & are busy, sanding, undercoating & painting. Our back deck is absolutely chockers with furniture, our loungeroom looks like, well I’m not sure what it looks like, every surface is covered with stuff, the floor is covered in bags & boxes of stuff waiting to be unpacked, cleaned, photographed & listed, then packed up again ready for the stall. I try & do the stuff the day I buy it but I’m way behind & there just isn’t enough days. The weather was great last week so we concentrated on painting, this week not so good so I may catch up on the inside stuff. I love going on the hunt, it’s such a thrill when you find a treasure. I just want to throw myself headfirst into getting all this organised but with all the phone calls & form filling for my aunt’s estate it’s hard to stay focused on the fun stuff. My blog was looking totally boring with all this writing so I’ve added some pics.
I bought the leadlight cupboard just yesterday & it’s already been given a good scrub & is in my bedroom, this one’s a keeper, I couldn’t resist it. I’ve been taking lots of ‘before’ pictures of the furniture & will be able to take some afters very soon, so normal blogging will resume & I will be posting progress.
Oh I have a question to those of you who buy vintage stuff, do you like it sparkling clean or do you like it a bit grotty to clean up yourself???
If you’ve made it this far, thanks, if you didn’t, I don’t mind, but you don’t know that, lol. :-D
Well I couldn’t include Molly & not Zaphod, don’t you love the way they just fit whatever is available to sleep in.
