Wordless Wednesday: Alive

Book 49 of 2014: The Bromeliad (Truckers, Diggers & Wings) by Terry Pratchett

After I’d finished working my way through all the Discworld books, I turned my attention to the non-Discworld Terry Pratchett novels, one of those in my collection was The Bromeliad which is the name given to the trilogy of Truckers, Diggers and Wings. I gave this copy of the book as a gift, which found its way back to me and it’s been sitting on my shelf ever since.

This book tells the story of a race of teeny tiny people, called Nomes, who are completely unknown to us. The story begins with a diminishing tribe of them who live a hard life outside, who one day hop on a truck and find themselves in a supermarket, which is inhabited by more Nomes than they’ve ever seen before. Unfortunately for them all, the supermarket is closing down and very soon will be demolished, unless they leave. And leaving the supermarket is just the beginning.

My edition is three books in one, clocking in at just over 500 pages, so I expected it to take me a while to get through. It took me five days, which really surprised me. I managed the first two in two days each, while the third took me a single day to get through. I just didn’t want to put it down.

I’m fairly certain that I started reading Truckers before because I recognised bits of it. The only bits that were really familiar to me were the quotes from The Book of Nome, everything else in the story seemed brand new. Speaking of The Book of Nome, some of those quotes were my favourite bits in the book. They were a brilliant play on religious texts, if religious texts were written by tiny people who believe that their gods are responsible for the supermarket that they live in.

Obviously there were a lot of really funny quotes throughout the book. In true Terry Pratchett style, there were loads that ran over several pages, with the punch line falling some time after the quote initially started. Even in the legalise at the beginning of the book there are funny bits, like this quote from the beginning of Wings:

No character in this book is intended to resemble any living creature of whatever size on any continent, especially if they’ve got lawyers.

I suspect that this is because one of the human characters in Wings very closely resembles Richard Branson.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud frequently through the book, as well as reading chunks to Mr Click. I think it’s the sort of book that he would probably quite enjoy and he has agreed to try it at some point. It’d make a good introduction to Terry Pratchett for someone who’s not quite ready for visiting Discworld yet but who would like to see what all the fuss is about.

Terry Pratchett did a fantastic job of creating the world of the Nomes. I guess he honed his teeth for this on The Carpet People, with the idea of writing about how very small people would see our world and explain away different things that happen in it. I think anyone who ever read or watched The Borrowers has wondered about whether there might be little people living in our walls, just beyond our sight. Pratchett really nailed what their life might be like.

Reading this book has reminded me that I don’t currently own a copy of The Carpet People so I guess that’ll be one I’ll have to get my hands on and reread at some point. It’s one of the only non-Discworld ones I still have left to get and it’s been about eighteen years since I last read it, so I’d say it’s really about time I remedy that.

Click's Clan on Facebook

Click's Clan is now on Facebook.
Here.

I’ve had my blog linked to Twitter for a while but I’ve avoided linking it to my Facebook page for a couple of reasons; firstly, I’m not hugely active on Facebook and secondly, I wanted to keep my blog sort of separate from myself. After all, I’m friends with my colleagues on Facebook, did I really want them reading my blog?

But people I know read my blog anyway. I’ve mentioned it in conversation, people have found it through my Twitter and Instagram, and some have just googled their way there.

And you know what? It doesn’t really bother me. I know that this blog is open to anyone with an internet connection to read, and write accordingly; there’s nothing I say on here that I wouldn’t share in real life. I know I’ve shared quite a bit, especially during the A to Z Challenge, but it’s all stuff I’m happy to say out in the open.

People mentioned enjoying my posts during the A to Z Challenge and finding them interesting, plus I got lots of retweets on Twitter, so I though that setting up a Facebook page for my blog would be another way for people to share posts that might be useful or interesting. Of course I hesitated for a while because I was worried that no one would like the page, no one wants to be the kid who doesn’t get anyone showing up to their party, but then I figured it I didn’t take the chance, I’d never know.


So I’ve gone for it. And I've got a few likes already, which I'm a bit pleased about. I've set myself the target of getting 30 likes by the end of May, just to see if I can. At the moment it's set up to display most of my new posts as they go up (I'm just doing one a day so I don't spam anyone) along with little updates about things I'm getting up to which will feature on the blog in the future. Kind of like a 'you saw it here first'.

If you’ve got a Facebook page and you’re into that sort of thing, then go ahead and like it. If you know someone who might be interested in a post share it. I’m still working out other ways to use my page, but hey, I’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Weekly Rundown: The Post-Birthday Post

I had a pretty wonderful birthday. I mentioned our trip to Oban last week which was the start of my birthday weekend. In our house you don't just get a birthday, you get a whole week (at least) of being spoiled, culminating in your big day when you get presents. It's an arrangement which works well for us.

I received quite a few cards, including my personal favourite, a 9th birthday card from my Mum. Why? Because despite turning twenty-nine, one of my requests was far more in keeping with a nine-year-old's birthday gifts:

Yup, I asked for, and received, a couple of colouring books. I've been getting on very well with them as well, as you can see. Last night I sat down with the intention of making a start on the Gardens one as well, but we'd had a busy day yesterday so I ended up feeling way too tired to concentrate on any serious colouring in. Maybe tonight.

I did also receive a slightly more grown up gift as well. A beautiful bag with the quote You can't buy happiness but you can buy books and that's kind of the same thing. Very true words!

I love that the lining has this helpful alphabet print on it. Perfect for those moments in bookshops or libraries where you suddenly forget whether S is before or after R, so you can double check!

This photo shows most of my other presents, thereby proving just what a spoilt brat I've been this year. The beautiful leather-bound notebook is a reproduction of Bilbo's book in The Hobbit (complete with the film sketch of Martin Freeman as Bilbo inside), it came with my box set of The Hobbit films which you can see up on the right.

It's not really so visible in this picture, but the green backdrop I've used it actually a really pretty scarf from my Nan. The other things were from Mr Click; the box set of MASH is something I've been asking for since about three years ago, and a lovely little special edition Moleskine notebook with Tolkien's own illustrations from The Hobbit inside.

My problem with both of my two new notebooks is that they're both so pretty that I don't know just what to use them for. Whatever it is, they need to be something special. The reproduction of Bilbo's book I suspect will have to be used as a travel journal of some kind; the Moleskine Hobbit book, I have no idea about.

This was my other gift from Mr Click; a three-piece jewellery set of bracelet, necklace and earrings. I don't often wear earrings so this is kind of weird because they're quite heavy and when I turn my head my earlobes wobble. I've taken to wearing the bracelet most of the time and the necklace every couple of days. They're rose quartz for fertility (hey, it might help!) and also represent love and happiness.

My colleagues gave me a £15 voucher as a contribution towards the Canon lens I've been lusting after for some time. I've been dying for a 50mm lens virtually since I got my DSLR and kept on putting off getting it. I finally ordered it yesterday and it's due to arrive at some point from the end of next week. Expect to see lots of photos as I learn to use it.

You can probably guess that I had a great day and I'm really enjoying all of my gifts. I'm also starting to get the hang of the photo editing software that I picked up in a charity shop in Oban. I can't wait to get my new lens and start playing with that as well.

Film Review: The Lion King, Part 3

This is our final instalment of Disney’s The Lion King, which I reviewed as I watched it in order to write a kind of ‘live blog’ through the film. Though not quite, since I don’t have the kind of internet connection to actually live blog my way through a film, I do it in my own special way here on my blog.

Last week we saw Simba’s father dying and Simba running away to join Timon and Pumbaa, while Scar took over Pride Rock and everything went to ruin. Now we’ll see how it all ends.

59. I love the moment of recognition on Simba’s face when Nala pins him. And her reaction when she realises who he is. They way they dance around one another reminds me of when you get two playful cats together… which I guess makes sense considering they’re just big cats really.

60. Timon’s reaction is also pretty funny, telling Nala she’s got her ‘lions crossed’.

61. Aww, lions in love. Get ready… CAAAAAAAAN YOOOOOUUU FEEEEEEEEEEEL THE LOOOOOOOVVVE TOOOOONNIIIIIIGHT!

62. Only Disney could make two lions prancing around together look like they’re flirting.

63. Come on! This is practically a lion sex scene! Disney! I’m shocked!

64. Timon and Pumbaa are really a lot more cartoony than the lion characters. I’m not sure that I’ve ever noticed that before.

65. It’s probably just as well that Simba has grown up away from Scar. Surely if Simba had stayed, as his uncle Scar would have been his guardian and he could have pushed the impressionable Simba into his way of thinking. At least Simba’s grown up outside of the influence of his evil uncle. Wow, I’ve never thought about this film so deeply before.

66. My brother used to have one of those books with the buttons that make noises or say phrases for The Lion King. The Rafiki button used to say ‘asante sana, squash banana’ and if you pressed it a lot you could make it sound like he was rapping.

67. I can’t help but think that Rafiki is a little bit crazy. I mean, he’s useful and he does speak the truth and help Simba out, but he’s a bit loopy.

68. I feel kind of sorry for Simba. He’s totally expecting to see his dad and Rafiki leads him to a reflection. I get what he’s trying to tell him, but it’s still a bit of a let down. Even if it is one of those big turning point moments in the film.

69. It’s also very clever how they manage to make two male lions look both similar and different, so you can recognise who they are.

70. This next bit is Mustafa doing the whole departed Jedi thing. He learnt it from Obi Wan.

71. I love the way Rafiki teaches Simba lessons. Like whacking him on the head to help him see that the past can hurt but you can learn from it. I guess that helps it sink in more than just telling him, but still, ouch!

72. Rafiki: ‘The king has returned.’ Looks like I’m not the only one who is obsessed with The Lord of the Rings.

73. Ooh, more pretty animation. Watch the lion run. Who ever thought a lion running through a desert could be so beautiful?

74. The old neighbourhood has changed a bit since Simba was there last. This is one of those ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ things. If he’d never been born this is what the Pridelands would look like. Simba not being around has turned the place into a wasteland!

75. Are those dark clouds gathering because it’s going to rain or is it just helping to set the atmosphere? Bit of both?

76. Love that the sing along song feature includes Timon’s ‘Big Pig’ song. I’ve always wondered exactly what Timon was saying there.

77. Scar’s attitude to being king is kind of the same as Simba’s during ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’. He’s king and he can do what he wants.

78. Sign of a guilty conscience: Scar thinks Simba is Mustafa, the lion he killed.

79. Sign of a noble lion: Simba gives Scar the choice to step down and Scar declines, thereby signing his own death warrant.

80. Poor Simba, he still believes he killed his father. Luckily Scar’s going to do a bit of monologuing, revealing what really happened and allowing the truth to come out once and for all.

81. The lions don’t take kindly to this as all. I also love that Timon and Pumbaa run right into the fight and none of the hungry lions get distracted by this convenient meal.

82. Rafiki has mad ninja skillz.

83. The hyenas are not impressed at Scar trying to pass the blame onto them.

84. Yay for Simba finally realising just how bad his uncle is. And then turning the tables on him and giving him the same order that Scar once gave him. Unfortunately Scar still isn’t ready to play fair and there’s only one way this slow motion fight is going to end. And that’s not well for Scar.

85. The hyenas are really unimpressed at Scar passing the blame onto them. And they’re hungry.

86. And because Simba’s back it’s finally raining. That conveniently puts out the fire which was raging during all the drama. Symbolism, innit?

87. After a quick smooch with Nala it’s time for Simba to go take his rightful place at the head of Pride Rock. And he knows exactly what he needs to do, despite having run away from home as a child and missing out on all the training his father would’ve given him had he lived.

88. Oh look, everything’s back to the way it was at the beginning because Simba’s home now.

89. And just to demonstrate that this whole thing is a big circle of life and all that jazz, there’s a new baby lion being presented to the assembled animals.

90. All together now, ‘IIIIITTT’S THE CIIIIIIRCLE! THE CIIIIIRRCLLE OF LIIIIIFE!’


And that’s where it all ends. Unless you go on and watch the sequel, which we might do next week. Check back next Saturday and we’ll see.

Chapter-by-Chapter: A Series of Unfortunate Events, Summary

It’s now been a week since we finished reading A Series of Unfortunate Events and I thought it would be interesting to write a follow up post to share my thoughts on the series as a whole before we move on to the next book I’ve chosen to read and review.

Favourite book?

The very first book, The Bad Beginning, is easily my favourite. It kicks off the story and sets everything up in the way that it’s going to go on. I like how uncomplicated everything is in this one. It’s basically the kids against Olaf and you know who’s the good guys and who the bad guy is, unlike later in the series when things get a lot more sketchy.

Favourite character?

Sunny. Without a doubt. I like the fact that almost everything she says has some sort of double meaning (which occasionally you have to Google to figure out). I also like that although her brother and sister are very much on the good side (at least in the earlier books), Sunny often leans more to the darker side. She’s the one who suggests burning down the hotel and pushing Olaf overboard. She also quite often says the things I’m thinking. I guess I can relate to her.

Least favourite book?

I didn’t enjoy some of the later books as much as the earlier ones mainly because of how complicated things became, with more questions being raised than answered. That said, I still enjoyed the overall stories so I’d say my least favourite is probably The Carnivorous Carnival which I found so memorable that I had to actually go and look at the book to remember what it was called.

Least favourite character?

I suppose you’re supposed to say Count Olaf because he is the bad guy through the series, though I found him quite interesting. You can’t help but notice all the references to things in his past and so know that that there’s so much more to him than what we see. Carmelita Spatts would probably be the worst character in the whole book series. She’s such a little brat that I can’t help but hate her. I understand that that’s the point, but she’s a heavily exaggerated version of the sort of person you can meet in real life.

Who is the Beatrice of the dedications?

I’m 99% certain that the Beatrice in the dedications is Mrs Baudelaire, who Lemony Snicket was in love with before she hooked up with Mr Baudelaire. There are lots of little nods all the way through the book series that seem to point that way, with the big reveal of Mrs Baudelaire being named Beatrice in The End.

Repetition throughout stories? Yes or No?

Yes, most of the time. In many of the books it serves some purpose, like in The Bad Beginning where it kept on reminding us that Violet is right-handed. In others it gets a little tiresome, like the constant repetition of the children’s talents.

Definitions of random words? Yes or No?

Yes. I know that these really bug some people, but I love them. I think it’s a cool and kooky little touch to the story and I love that quite often the ‘X here means…’ quite often defines the word is some unexpected way which emphasises some point about the scene. It’s funny and I think a lot of the time it’s there for the benefit of adults who might be sharing the book with children, or older readers who are reading the series.

What was in the sugar bowl? Where did it go?

I’m going to say it was a cure for the Medusoid Mycelium and I can’t help but wonder if perhaps Lemony Snicket was the taxi driver who took it away. I’ve heard that theory online and I like it, so I’m going to go with that.

What happens to the Baudelaires next?

I have no idea, though I think that some of the linked books shed some light on what might have happened next. I like to think that Violet and Quigley were reunited and that perhaps things got better for all four children who left the island. Perhaps Snicket stopped writing the books because that was the end of the Unfortunate Events that befell them all.

Fun Snicket-related websites:

TV Tropes A Series of Unfortunate Events page
Lemony Snicket Site
Snicket Wikipedia Site
Goodreads Snicket reviews


I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my Chapter-by-Chapter posts. Feel free to answer the above questions in the comments and share your thoughts.

#AtoZChallenge: Reflections

Well, the A to Z Challenge is over for another year and it’s now customary to write a Reflections post on your thoughts and feelings on the event through April.

I actually started writing this post way back on the 5th of April so that I could make sure I got all of my thoughts and feelings about the challenge down while they were fresh in my mind. I added to this post throughout the month so that it could go live today and would be a true reflection on my 2015 A to Z experience.

This year was a very successful challenge for me and saw me get record numbers of visitors to my blog. Out of curiosity I compared notes between now and my first year of taking part. During A to Z 2013 I received 1,949 page views, a year later saw me hit 3,745 and this year I got over 5,000! By the 5th of April I had breached 1,311!

I think that one of the reasons for my spike in views this year was because of my level of activity. In the past I’ve struggled with visiting blogs on the list because of a lack of an internet connection. The combination of car trouble (causing us to spend a week at my in-laws’) and Easter falling at the beginning of April, gave me plenty of opportunity to visit far more than just the recommended five blogs a day.

Obviously commenting on those blogs brought them to mine and in turn I would reply to their comments, then visit their blog back to leave another message. I managed to strike up some new friendships and find some blogs that I wouldn’t otherwise have found that way.

I think another thing that helped was leaving an HTML link back to my blog in the comments. It was very simple, just ‘Cait @ Click’s Clan’ by way of a comment signature, but clearly it saved people a lot of the hassle of clicking on a profile and then trying to find their way through to the blog. Some people had several blogs in their lists, or Google+ with no clear blog link, or worse, their profiles were private so I couldn’t find them!

One thing that did bug me, perhaps because I was looking through so many blogs in such a short space of time in the beginning, was the fact that there were some people who were obviously just copy+pasting their comments. I’d see the same names cropping up with ‘interesting post’ or words to that effect. I couldn’t help but wonder if they were actually reading the posts they were commenting on, especially as for many of them there was so much more you could say than just that it was interesting.

I tried to tailor my comments to what the poster was blogging about. It wasn’t always easy, sometimes I was reading about things that didn’t interest me that much or which I didn’t fully understand, but it seemed like common courtesy as I was leaving a link back to myself on their blog. If I’m drumming up readers for my blog on theirs, the least I can do it say something positive or informative about what they’ve written.

What worked for me:

• Short posts. I picked a very personal topic which I could have written very long posts about, but I tried to keep each one as close to 500 words as possible. As you can see from this post, that was very hard for me.
• Scheduling posts. I had planned to get my posts all written before the start of the month. I failed at this. I tried to stay a week ahead of myself all the way through. I mostly succeeded at this.
• Following a theme. I found following a theme helped give my posts structure, though it made it trickier to come up with posts for a couple of letters. It helped to tie all the posts together and to raise awareness about the IVF process.
• Leaving a return link in my comment to save the blogger from clicking onto a profile, hunting through a Google+ page, strolling down a website in search of a blog link, etc. Next year, if I take part I think I will include a mention of my theme in my link as well.

Other thoughts on the challenge:

• Short posts are definitely easier to read during the challenge than long ones, short and sweet means quick to read and probably more comments.
• Don’t just work down the list from beginning to end. Pempi at Pempi’s Palace mentioned that she started off working down the list finding all the bloggers who’d tagged themselves as Education or Craft. I tend to work through in order (as I use different devices and it makes it easier to remember the number I last got to), but her method makes sure that people lower down the list get visits, rather than all the people at the top.
• Drop outs are inevitable but at the beginning I always tried to leave a comment for them if they’d started the challenge, in case they decided to pick it up later in the month. By midway through the month I adopted a five-day policy; if they’d gone five days without posting I assumed they were out and moved on to the next blog.