Serial pest

Calm your farm, people. New blog posts are on their way.

But if you want to know what I'm up to in the meantime. It's this.

Serial. The podcast.

So. Addictive.

Get on it.

I'm only up to episode two and I'm hooked. A friend from work and my dear friend Alice have been raving about it and I was a sceptic, I must admit. It all sounded a bit geeky.

But it's not, it's cool. And it's so engaging.

(Is this where I admit I didn't know how to download a podcast on my phone? Amateur.)

Read more about it here and prepare to be sucked in.

Oh, and happy new year folks!

xx

Scaly fun

I posted this pic on Instagram and was so surprised by the response I got from it!

I have a lot of phobias, and I thought I was scared of snakes, but apparently not as much as most of my friends! One mate even threatened to disown me (yes, Sally!)

It got me thinking, what am I scared of?

Birds, yes, to a degree.

The dark. Yep, I talk myself into an absolute frenzy. Thank goodness for the torch function on iPhones these days.

Heights. Only since we climbed Ayers Rock when I was in Year 7 and I cried the whole way down.

And yes, mice, spiders and the like. Cats even.

But nothing too dramatic.

Oh hang on. I am scared I'm going to die alone and be eating by alsatians, Bridget Jones style. 

Yes, now THAT is a real fear.

I'm reading the third book in the series now and LOVING it. She speaks to me. 

TGIF friends!

Off the shelf

One of the best bits about a holiday is choosing a book to get lost in.

I picked this one up because a) I liked the cover (shallow of me, I know) and b) I trusted the testimonials on the front and back (good use of the word 'feisty', Mia)

I'm LOVING it. I'm about halfway and have had really strong reactions to the choices of the main characters. It's really real and raw and I love the London element. 

Unfinished love is an interesting topic and I find myself getting really angry with the main characters.

The grass isn't always greener.

I love a book that can evoke so many strong emotions in a reader. Having said that, I'm nervous to find out what happens in the end.

I don't want it to finish! Oh well, there's always the excitement of discovering another great read.

Any suggestions?

*** Stop the press! I scheduled this post last week when I was about half way through the book. I've since finished it and am so disappointed, so angry about the ending. It was devastating, I feel so betrayed and let down! I feel so disillusioned, like all hope for happy endings has gone. A dear friend and I were talking about this the other night - are our expectations too high? Is the real world not all it's cracked up to be? Please don't let it be true! And don't read this book if you prefer to look at the world through rose coloured glasses - like me!

Zoe The Cool

I'd just like to put it on the record that I was a fan of Zoe Foster even before Hamish Blake won the Gold Logie.

She oozes cool and sophistication and the fact she's dating the very funny and charming Hamish definitely upped her stocks, I have to admit.

But in her own right, I think she's fabulous!

I am currently reading her latest novel 'The Younger Man' and I love it! The characters in are friends that I want and she paints a picture of a very cool Sydney - I can admit in the company of close friends (that's you, dear readers) that I even checked out the price of rentals in Paddington where her heroine Abby lives! I want what she's having!

It's such a fun book that I'm having trouble putting it down, so need something else to transition to as soon as I flick the last page.

What's on your bedtime reading list at the moment? 

Quiet on the home front

So, I've been quiet on the blog front this last week.

And this is why . . .

The Hunger Games.

I am no sci-fi or fantasy fan, I'm definitely not in the teenage target market and I'm squirmish when it comes to war.

But I'm hooked.

I feel like a giddy 12 year old who hides under the quiltcover with their torch at all hours of the night, desperate to read just one more chapter . . . maybe another, just a few more pages, nearly finished!

Comparisons to Twilight or Harry Potter are unfair - perhaps all they have in common is the fact they're a cultural phenomenon - but their stories, themes and concepts are worlds apart.

I grew up in the Tomorrow When The War Began generation and The Hunger Games reminds me of that series. Brave female heroine, confused love, loyalty and friendship. Oh, and war.

In a matter of a week, I've read the first book, seen the movie and am now halfway through the second book. It's all consuming. I'm giving up my usual Sunrise viewing in the morning to stay in bed that bit longer and read a new chapter.

I even stopped reading a Nicholas Sparks lovey dovey novel in favour of The Games.

What has become of me?! I'll be wearing cargo pants soon. Ergh.

It's not a movie - or book - you feel good about, you don't really enjoy it - in fact, I cried a number of times throughout the movie - but it pulls you in and gets you thinking. It's clever, it's action-packed and it's confronting.

Okay, enough of rediscovering my teenage self (hello Tencel jeans and Canterbury rugby tops!). I'll be back to posting all things bright and happy next week. It's about time for a recipe methinks. And some more pink.

Until then . . . may the odds be ever in your favour.

PS. Have you visited Tina yet? She's a cracker, that one!

The Kite Runner

I love holidays because they give me a license to lose myself in books.

I picked up The Kite Runner from the airport on the way to Palm Cove after I'd heard so many rave reviews from my friends.

It was ah-mazing. I couldn't put it down. I get terrible motion sickness and even risked vomiting on the plane to read the whole way up to Cairns.

I've never read a book before where my jaw has literally dropped with shock. I was sometimes scared to read to the end of the chapter, completely affected by what I was reading.

The worst bit was finishing it so early into my trip that I was stuck with nothing left to read for the rest of the holiday!

Here's the synopsis from author Khaled Hosseini's website. If you haven't read it, you simply must. It's a moving history lesson if nothing else, really puts life into perspective.

Can't wait to hire the movie this weekend - just don't watch the trailer before you've read the book though, it gives too much away.

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable, beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan nonetheless grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara, member of a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When the Soviets invade and Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship, betrayal, and the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of their lies. Written against a history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But with the devastation, Khaled Hosseini also gives us hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows for redemption.

One Day

Is anyone as excited as me about this movie? Read the book, and LOVED it!

I do have to put it out there though - I'm completely devastated about the choice of Anne Hathaway as Emma. It needed to have been a British actress. Her accent is shocking. Perhaps a Kate Winslet?

And Dex looks okay, but how fabulous would Jude Law have been in the role?

Yes, I'm excited xo

Roll up, roll up!

Just finished 'Water for Elephants'.

Am thinking of running off to join the circus - minus the scary equestrian director, thanks.

Pic from weheartit

On the topic of fab friends . . .

I've hit the jackpot in the friends stakes this year - we've laughed, we've cried, we've indulged in fine foods (and lots of it!), some have moved home, others have moved afar (providing great holiday destinations!) and all in all, I've been spoilt rotten.

The darling Kimberlee of Brown Button fame is one of these friends that brightens my world. She was over for my slow cooked lamb on the weekend and on arrival, she presented this unsuspecting host with a gift (in brown paper with beautiful string of course!) for my birthday.

How thrilled I was to find one of Jane Mount's Ideal Bookshelves grinning up at me from a beautiful white frame.

(Oh and the roses were from her too, isn't she divine?!)

Gorgeous Kim paid tribute to my love of food and obsession with cookbooks and gave me one of Jane's cooking inspired collections.

It is beautiful - great colours, variation in height with some AWESOME titles in the mix.

Wouldn't it make the perfect present for someone who has everything?

Perhaps someone in your book club, or a librarian landing their first job out of uni?

This is a recent one she did - how perfect for teenage girls.

I first came across Jane's work through the ever inspiring Kelly Green. She found a great pic of a room dedicated to framed Ideal Bookshelf prints.

Check it out here.

Love a gift that's from the heart - snaps to Kimbo and Em (see her perfectly pink pressie here) for making my birfday so spesh this year xo