Daylight Saving

Hi there

30 September

Well, it's daylight savings time today.  Summer is around the corner (well, 1st December).

Clocks have been put forward.  I thought I was such a smartie-pants remembering to change the clocks and watches.  However I forgot the car clock with the consequence that I was an hour behind all day.


Ten swims at the beach this month.

Quest ... book by A.J.Ponder

Hi there

A friend, A.J. Ponder, has a new book out.  It's a fantasy quest novel about a raggle-taggle group going on a (wait for it)... quest!   Sylvalla is a princess in search of adventure.  She finds it, and more.

AJ tells me that "the book has everything, heroes, monsters, chases, escapes and a complete lack of true love ...  It's written in the tradition of The Princess Bride."

If anyone is interested in ordering it at the library, purchasing it via Kindle, or buying it in a shop,  the book is published by Phantom Feather Press.   Age of reader, probably from early teens right on up to oldies-no-no-I-mean-mature people.

You may remember AJ's children's book, "A Wizard's Guide to Wellington", also published by Phantom Feather.

I feel pretty...... Yeah, right

Hi there

The other morning I suddenly realised I hadn't put out my rubbish bin.

No time to waste.  I stumbled out of bed, hastily flung my grungy Sylvester Cat bathrobe over equally-as-grungy matching  pyjamas, stuffed my feet into panda slippers, and rushed outside to lug my bin to the footpath edge.   It was 8.30 a.m.  There wouldn't be anyone around to see me, surely?

The two kids from the house over the road scooter-ed and skate-boarded out of their front gate. They couldn't take their eyes off me.

A neighbour, putting out her washing, coo-eed across the fence.  Another neighbour waved at me from behind her front window.

The bin men rolled up before I could rush back inside the house.  I tried to get out of my horrendous morning fashion mistake by channelling Dame Maggie Smith.  I held my head high,  raised myself up to my full height of just over 5ft, and grandly accepted my bin back from the rubbish man (really, did the guy have to wink at me?).

Back in the house, I glanced into the hall mirror.  OMG, I had bed-head!

Dame Maggie would be appalled -

Romantic Book Endings

Hi there
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Yes, okay, it's easy to guess the ending of most romance books.  The heroine meets the hero in chapter 1 and by the epilogue, the pair are married and probably have a couple of kiddies splashing around in a swimming pool whilst the lovebirds watch the scene indulgently from patio loungers while sipping cocktails.

But if a plot is slightly unusual, I am a whizz at guessing who's going to marry who.  My friends marvel at my romantic insight.

After the fourth Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire -  I was conducting a Harry Potter quiz at a national science fiction and fantasy convention.  I confided to the room that even though we were only up to book four with three more books to go,  I thought that Harry would end up marrying Ron's kid sister, Ginny. ( I didn't like to reveal that I'd decided on this by the end of  book 1)

"No, No!" shouted the horrified quiz winner.  "Harry loves Cho Chang-"

There were nods of agreement from the others in the room-

So, a pat on the back for me because Harry did marry Ginny.   I guess romance fans know just what signs to look for ...

Pssst, it's all Secret Squirrel and please don't tell anybody,  but for the first time in several years I really had trouble thinking up a subject for this week's blog.   Shhhhhh....

Pellets vs Pallets

Hi there

I was power walking along Tahi Street, past the back gates of Palmers Garden Centre in Miramar.  There was a load of pallets there with a notice saying they were free for the taking.  Only one problem:  the notice called them 'Pellets'.  Whoops.

Reading in Bed

Hi there

I love to read in bed.  For hours.  It's essential that I have a light that shines down on my book, pamphlet, newspaper, crossword, or Kindle.

It's surprising how few hotels or motels allow me to do this.  Hotels in Las Vegas, in particular, are horrendous for a reader.

All of the seven Strip hotels I've stayed at in Vegas have big lamps on side tables (see above photo from an LV holiday).  The lampshades force the bulb to shine directly downward.  Reading is hopeless because there aren't any ceiling lights either.  I can't even move the lamps closer toward the bed because most are glued onto the tables ...

But I guess in Vegas I should be out kicking up my heels, dancing the night away,drinking out of golden slippers, and gambling to infinity and beyond.  Oh dear, I am such a waste in Sin City.