Bertie Bloomer Update

I know I only shared him last week, but I thought perhaps you'd like to see how Bertie is looking this week. He looked something like this:

By the end of last week I'd successfully got Bertie's legs knitted and progressed up to his body. Now I'm onto his head:

I didn't get quite as much done as I would've liked because towards the end of the week I was getting my Bullet Journal lined up for the week ahead (and designing a spread for keeping track of FET #2). I've taken to taking my knitting to bed with me and working on it while we watch Dad's Army; a couple of episodes gives me a good ten or so rows.

Coming up is the big seam up, which shouldn't take too long now I've mastered mattress stitch. Hopefully next week he'll be looking a little more finished.

Wordless Wednesday: Blink

Books 39 & 40 of 2015: The Island by Victoria Hislop & The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel

The first of this week's two books is a Reading Challenge book, Week 21 called for a book your mum loves. My Mum gave me two suggestions and I picked up The Island by Victoria Hislop on my Kindle.

It's the story of two communities; a small Greek town and the island not far from its shore which houses a leper colony. It follows four generations of women from the Petrakis family; beginning with Alexis Fielding's trip to Crete as she wishes to learn something of her family's past; travelling back to the life of her great-grandmother, Eleni, and the events that tore the family apart.

I can see why my Mum loves this book. It's one of those fairly gentle stories which ebbs and flows as it documents the lives of the Petrakis women. It makes for one of those books that you just don't really want to put down. I'd be reading a chapter or two and everything was gently plodding along, then suddenly a spanner would fall into the works for them and it'd be another three chapters before I could turn the light off.

I really did feel sorry for the Petrakis family. They seriously had nothing but bad luck. It seemed like every time there was some turn up; like a change in the treatment for leprosy, things didn't quite work out for them. Of course, things do work out for them in the end, but it took an awfully long time to get there and that's not much of a consolation given all the bad stuff that happened.

The setting of Spinalonga was really interesting, more so for knowing it was a real place. I love books that you can read and then clearly picture the place it was set. Because Spinalonga is a real place, I was able to then go and look up photos of it online and it was cool to see that the way I was imagining the jetty and the streets was very similar to the way it really looked.

At the end of my copy of this book there is a preview of another Victoria Hislop book; this one also has a Greek setting, this time a hotel and it did sound good, though it didn't grab me the way that the beginning of The Island did. I can definitely see myself going back and rereading The Island and I'll probably pick up more Victoria Hislop books if I see them.

I think that this week's challenge was one of my favourite ones of the whole year as well, along with the book recommended by friend, because it gave me an opportunity to talk books with my Mum and find out which books are among my Mum's favourites. I'm yet to read the other one she suggested (The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks) but it's on my list to pick up some time.

After reading The Island I returned to my reread of the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel, going on to the third one in the series; The Mammoth Hunters. This one sees Ayla and Jondalar meeting the people of Lion Camp and spending time with them. This enables Ayla to learn a little about the culture of her own people and to teach them a little about the Clan people she lived with before. But the experience leaves her torn between a life with Jondalar or a life with the first tribe to accept her.

It took me a while to get through this book, so I was a bit late starting my following week's challenge. I've still not made it on to the next book, The Plains of Passage, though it's about two or three along my current To-Read list. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it; I think after The Clan of the Cave-Bear this is my favourite one. Like the first book in the series it's introducing the reader to a new culture and I enjoy that.

I find the Lion Camp really interesting and I liked the way that they accepted Ayla, despite all of Jondalar's fears about what they'd think of her past. It made Jondalar look pretty shallow and I found the Jondalar/Ayla/Ranec love triangle a little bit tiresome. Jondalar annoyed me so much that a fair way through the book I was just wanting Ayla and Ranec to get together.

I think that perhaps a more interesting turn of the story would be for Ayla and Ranec to hook up and then perhaps in a future book go off to meet his mother's people; they could maybe have run into some Clan people along the way. Jondalar could've returned to his own people and perhaps taken a member of the Lion Clan back with him if Auel was that desperate to continue writing the character. Ayla and Jondalar could've been reunited in the future somehow and just been friends or hooked up once Jondalar had grown up a little.

I suspect my feelings towards Jondalar are the reason I keep on putting off reading the next book.

I'd also really like to know what's going on with Durc back at the Clan. I liked the link between Rydag and the Clan but it made me wonder how Durc was getting on amongst the people Ayla left behind. I would really like to know how Durc got on growing up.

'Let Me Go' - An Ode to Leaving Vodafone

I've been trying to come up with a way of sharing our ongoing issues with Vodafone (our mobile phone provider) and I have decided that the best way of doing this is through the medium of song. Specifically, a butchered version of a Frozen song.

I've already been over the whole story multiple times with Vodafone (read: every time they transfer you to someone else you have to go through the whole damn issue all over again) and I have neither the energy nor the inclination to post all that here. The incredibly short potted version is that I missed an important voicemail from the hospital regarding my upcoming Frozen Embryo Transfer; this was the final straw (especially as we were still waiting for the manager call we had been promised five weeks ago).

And as complaining has gotten me nowhere, I got creative. Play the video below and then follow along with my new lyrics.

'Let Me Go' - An Ode to Leaving Vodafone

(Frozen is Disney's Intellectual Property; the phone service cock ups are Vodafone's Intellectual Property)

The screen glows bright on my Samsung tonight

Not a message to be seen.

No word of communication?

Well, Vodafone is the queen. 

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside.

Couldn't get out now, heaven knows I've tried.

Don't try to ring,

Just let them be.

You're tied into the contract now, you see.

Conceal, don't feel,

Don't let them know.

Well now they know.

Let me go, let me go. 

Can't handle it any more.

Let me go, let me go.

Turn away and slam the door.

They don't care

What I'm trying to say

Let the storm rage on,

Service never bothered them anyway.

It's funny how some missed calls

Makes everything seem huge

And live chats just won't console you

'Cos staff are really rude!

It's time to see what they can do

To test the limits and break through

No right, no wrong,

I'll switch to Three

And be free!

Let me go, let me go

I'm so tired of all their lies

Let me go, let me go

Vodafone hear me cry!

Here I stand

And here I'll stay

Let the storm rage on!

My fury flurries through the air into the ground

My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around

And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast

I'm never going back,

'Cos Vodafone is crap!

Let me go, let me go 

And I'll switch at the break of dawn

Let me go, let me go 

Another contract gone!

Here I stand

In the light of day

Let the storm rage on,

Service never bothered them anyway!

Since writing this I have heard back from the Vodafone Network Team who have advised me that the best solution to the problem is to get a cheap Pay As You Go phone on another network; that's how much faith they have in their service.

Weekly Rundown: Healthy Easter

This week has been relatively quiet since my last couple of busy weeks. Considering it was only a four day week, it felt like a bit of a long one; possibly because I had a half day on Friday and so I was doing an extra half hour each morning to help balance things out.

I've also been having a bit of an ongoing battle with Vodafone (we spent most of our Easter weekend trying to deal with it, we've written a formal complaint letter and emailed the CEO and are still no nearer a resolution) but my thoughts on that tomorrow. So pretty much all of my online time has been spent on that.

The plus side is that we've found an alternative network provider for when we can finally get out of our current contract, we've started the process for getting our phones unlocked and we'll be getting broadband at home very soon too. I'm quite excited for that as it'll definitely make getting blog posts uploaded a little bit easier. At the moment I get all my posts written a week or so in advance and sometimes I run out of time to get things written and then when I do have the time to write, I don't have access to a internet connection.

Aside from that, I've been working on Bertie Bloomer, reading and on Friday night we went out for a friend's birthday. Good food, good company, a lot of laughter. We've got my birthday coming up next so I've got a few weeks before the next one; the big 3-0!


Mr Click and I have been making a big effort to be healthier this year. And Easter was a big test for me. We've been gradually making little changes since around about Christmas.

My first one was over the Christmas holidays when I virtually gave up fizzy drinks. The intention was to make them a weekend treat but now I rarely even bother drinking lemonade unless I'm out for a meal (and then it's often mixed with orange juice). Mr Click decided he wanted to lose a bit of weight and has given it up apart from weekends too. It's amazing how different lemonade tastes when you're not drinking it every day.

I've even learned to love diluting juice; I think I was traumatised against squash from all those childhood parties where it was made with the tiniest splash of juice and about a jug full of water.

We've been walking a lot more too. At the start of the year I was walking by myself each day, but now Mr Click joins me for most of my evening walks. It's lovely to just walk together and chat about what we've been up to. It's a nice way to unwind and catch up before tea.

Plus this week I've succeeded in hitting 10,000 steps every day. I'm not sure if I'll manage it today, but here's hoping!

And my latest one is reducing the amount of chocolate I eat. It's something that's been on my Bullet Journal habit tracker since the beginning of the year but it's taken me three months to finally get the hang of it.

I know I can give up chocolate for a month when I want to, I've done it during October before NaNo a couple of times. But the problem is, I just like to eat chocolate and giving it up completely doesn't work for me. It's a nice treat and when I give it up completely I have a habit of bingeing on it when I am allowed it again.

So I'm giving up chocolate Monday to Thursday. Fridays are the start of the weekend so I'm lumping it in under Saturday and Sunday. Mr Click is with me and he's actually being even more strict about it than I am. For the purposes of my challenge, hot chocolate doesn't count, nor do things with a minimal amount of chocolate in (like the breakfast bar that I ate on Tuesday evening). And I'm sticking to it pretty well.

I also have this weird little quirk of trying to make my Easter chocolate last until my birthday, which means I have a whole month to go between getting my eggs and the end of April. So far I've made do with little bits and pieces of Easter chocolate without touching the eggs; I've got three eggs and about nine days of potential chocolate-eating time between now and my birthday. I think I can make this work!

I don't know if I've lost any weight because we don't have any scales at home (and it's been a while since I cracked out the Wii Fit), but I feel good and that's the main thing. The next one I'm going to work on will be getting my 'five a day' each day, I've noticed Mr Click has been sneaking fruit into my lunchbox for my snack instead of crisps and chocolate so it's going pretty well.

Speaking of the coming weeks, once again we've got a busy few weeks coming up with medical appointments, my birthday and then family coming to stay. Hopefully this coming week will be a little bit quieter before all the chaos starts again.

Film Review: The Battle of the Five Armies, Part 3

This week we're hitting the halfway point of The Battle of the Five Armies, the third instalment of the Hobbit trilogy.

Last week negotiations between Thorin and the others broke down but it's okay because Gandalf is feeling better and has come to visit Dale.

100. And now Gandalf's arrived in Dale. He looks a little surprised to see the Elves there.

101. Kudos to Alfrid for calling Gandalf 'pointy hat'.

102. "Who's in charge here?!" That would be Bard.

103. Time for a mini council. You know this would go better if Elrond was there.

104. Thranduil's like, eh, 'snot really going to affect us, is it?

105. I always forget, are the wereworm things actually in the book?

106. The war bats kind of remind me of the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz.

107. Somehow, I don't think Legolas and Tauriel are going to be able to take on all these orcs by themselves.

108. I love this little bit between Bofur and Bilbo. I think it's an extra scene. I like the way that it hearkens back to the first film when Bilbo was getting ready to leave. It's almost like Bofur knows that Bilbo is planning on going somewhere.

109. Abseiling Hobbit! I like to imagine Bilbo came back from his adventure with a whole host of new hobbies to share with the youngsters of the Shire.

110. Thranduil's current attitude towards Gandalf; you started this, I'm finishing it. And he's killing anything moving on the mountain. This is going to end well.

111. Slightly awkward introduction to Thranduil there Bilbo. How did Thranduil actually know that Bilbo stole the keys?

112. Gandalf's looking all proud of his Hobbit.

113. And now he has a few home truths for Bilbo. Thorin's not going to be Bilbo's friend any more.

114. He's also figured out that Bilbo has no plans to actually hang around in Dale now that he's completed his mission.

115. I love the way the Elves part to let people through. Everything about them is so fancy, even stepping out the way for your boss.

116. Oh look. No Hobbit. Well done, Alfrid.

117. "What payment? You have nothing!" Well, actually...

118. And now it's time for Bilbo's confession.

119. Thorin does not look pleased.

120. Bombur looks like he's trying to be somewhere else right now.

121. Is Gloin's helmet the one Gimli wears in The Lord of the Rings? It looks really similar if it isn't. I like the idea of Gloin passing his helmet on to his son.

122. I'm impressed that when Thorin tells the other Dwarves to throw Bilbo off the ramparts, none of them actually do it. And when he lets him down, it's Bofur who tells Bilbo to go.

123. Thorin really sounds like a sulky teenager.

124. Ecthelion of Gondor, that would be Denethor's daddy. I love those little touches like this.

125. For a moment it looks like Thorin might actually chose the right option here. If that crow hadn't shown up just then.

126. Oh look! Here comes Billy Connolly! Uh, I mean Dain!

127. The goats and pig kind of look like some of the animals who live next door to my Mum.

128. Gandalf gives us a little exposition about who the new guy is; he's Thorin's cousin, though Gandalf's always thought Thorin was the more reasonable of the pair.

129. I love that Billy Connolly is basically playing himself, just as a Dwalf.

130. Which reminds me, I really need to watch the special features and commentary. I want to see what Billy Connolly thought of his costume.

131. After a few minutes of exchanging insults it's time for Billy Connolly to send in the goats. He also has some sort of weapon he calls a 'twirly whirly' which is like a spear with a spinning bit on the end. It's not pretty when it hits and arrows don't stop them.

132. And so begins the battle. And you know how I am when it comes to writing about battle scenes.

133. Though it does stop for a moment when the wereworms show up. Those things are ridiculously large. They wouldn't look out of place in Peter Jackson's King Kong.

134. Dain's "Oh come on!" sums it up pretty well.

135. And so the Dwarves decide to change who they're fighting and abandon the battle against the Elves in favour of attacking the big ugly army coming towards them.

136. Thorin's not keen on his gang joining them though. Funnily enough, Thranduil's guys aren't either.

137. Until they suddenly appear over the backs of the Dwarves forming a protective wall with their shields. Way to go guys! That's teamwork.

138. But Azog's still got more to hit them with. Some sort of troll!

139. The trolls really do a number of the Dwarves and their chariots.

140. And then the instruction comes for the rest of the enemy forces to attack Dale. The good guys really need to work together a little more.

141. Bard's leading his troops, along with Gandalf and Bilbo back to Dale to protect the people there.

142. We've not seen them for a while but we can only assume that Thorin and the gang are watching the scenes below and waiting for them to wipe themselves out so they own the gold uncontested.

143. I do like the troll battering ram. I love that it collapses after smashing a hole in the wall.

144. Bard's still not quite got the leadership thing mastered, he's arrived back in the town, but is too busy looking for his children to do too much.

145. I'm wondering who the kid with the red hat on is, he seems to get quite a bit of screen time in these scenes; he must be related to one of the movie makers. Don't think he's Billy Jackson though.

146. Bain's not a bad fighter considering he's never done it before.

147. Well done, children. Distracting your father in a battle.

148. And now he has to rescue them from the big ugly troll because they don't think to run away from it.

149. Lucky he judged that right, otherwise he might have solved the problem of his kids being beaten up by a troll by killing off his offspring.

And what's up next week?


Well, from here it doesn't look as though the battle is going too well.

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 12

Friday means time for another chapter of Stephenie Meyer's New Moon. Last week's Chapter 11 ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, with Bella being woken to a scary scratching sound on her window. This week's is number 12, Intruder, where presumably we find out who her visitor is.

What Happens?

Jacob stops by Bella's room to try and help her figure out just what he is, because he can't tell her but it's okay if she works it out on her own. When he leaves, Bella has a dream and works out exactly what he is. But when she plans to tell Jacob what she's figured out, she learns that another tourist has been abducted and now it looks like Jacob's pack might be in on the disappearances.

Thoughts as I read:

Considering this chapter is called 'Intruder' I'm guessing that someone is paying Bella a visit. It's been a while since a strange boy came to hang out in her bedroom. I wonder if it will be Jacob come to explain to her just what's going on, without Sam Uley to influence him, or perhaps someone else has decided to come hangout in Bella's bedroom.

Upon waking to the strange scratching sound, Bella's pretty certain that it's Victoria come to kill her. But why would Victoria need to scratch on the window when Edward was about to just super speed his way in there whenever he felt like it. My money is on it not being Victoria.

And I'm right; it is Jacob come to visit. The noise has been coming from the tree that he decided to climb in order to gain entry. Nicely done, Jake. He manages to make it in through the open window but he's still not quite the old Jacob and this upsets Bella. She's understandably upset at being woken up in the middle of the night, frightened half to death and all by someone who has spent the better part of the last fortnight avoiding her.

Jacob is rather shocked when she tells him to get out, especially as he was planning to come here to apologise, but also probably because Bella's way of rejecting his apology seems to be to try pushing him back out the window he just came in through. That's it Bella, kill him.

We're reminded of the fact that Jacob is hot, not hot hot, but actually physically warm to the touch. And he's huge, massive actually. The thought of all this hits Bella and she kind of collapses which worries Jacob. The following conversation reminds me of the conversations between Bella and Edward from the last book. For the amount of sense that they make when they talk to each other here, they practically could be Bella and Edward!

Jacob, it would appear, has come to apologise but he still can't actually explain what's going on. So why even bother coming then, Jacob? He does tell her that he has a massive secret that he can't tell anyone and that he hopes Bella might understand what that sort of thing feels like. She does, except these things being massive secrets, she can't say anything back.

"Can you understand that I might have the same kind of… situation?" He was struggling again, seeming to fight for the right words. "Sometimes, loyalty gets in the way of what you want to do. Sometimes, it's not your secret to tell."

And then Jacob gets kind of annoyed because Bella apparently already knows the secret because Jacob already told her, or something. Basically he can't tell her, but if she figures it out all by herself then it allows her to know but keeps him safe because he won't have told her.

So they start retracing some of their first conversations together, going right back to the Quileute legends that Jacob told her about. But Bella can't quite tease out the memory of whatever it was that he told her way back then. Jacob's rather peeved that the one story which stuck in Bella's mind was about the vampires; this is supposed to be about him now and she's still just thinking of Edward, even now!

Bella then goes to begging Jacob to run away with her so they can escape from whatever he's now a part of. Obviously, it's not as easy as all that though. He needs to leave Bella to figure this all out by herself and get back to the guys; they're incredibly cool apparently. Also it's not safe for Bella to hang out with Jacob any more; where've we heard that before?

Then it's time for Jacob to go, he tells Bella to come see him when she figures it out, and then adds cryptically 'if you want to'. This is clearly significant. He prepares to head out the window but stops and gives Bella a massive hug before he goes. He's really desperate for her to figure out his secret. You'd think he'd come up with some other way of helping her along. Like perhaps writing it out in code, or leaving a picture of a werewolf in her room or something.

Once he's gone, Bella falls asleep and wanders into a new dream. There's the forest again but it feels different and Jacob is there telling Bella to run. It's the dream she had after Jacob's story first confirmed that Edward was a vampire. But instead of an obviously vampiric Edward showing up, Jacob turns into a red-brown coloured wolf. Funnily enough, it's the same wolf that helped rescue Bella from the vampire in the forest the other day. I wonder if this is a clue.

Right before she wakes up, screaming again, she registered that the eyes of the wolf are exactly the same as Jacob Black's eyes. Coincidence?

And now she remembers and we get nearly a page of text rehashing their conversation on the beach back when they first met. The Quileute legend that said they were descended from wolves. Jacob's a werewolf.

Then Bella says what we're all thinking:

What kind of a place was this? Could a world really exist where ancient legends went wandering around the borders of tiny, insignificant towns, facing down mythical monsters? Did this mean every impossible fairy tale was grounded somewhere in absolute truth? Was there anything sane or normal at all, or was everything just magic and ghost stories?

Bella does kind of wonder why she's so baffled by this revelation when she long ago accepted the existence of vampires. I'm confused too. Learning that her friend is a werewolf is apparently a huge shock to her.

And she figures out that Jacob's not in a cult, oh no, he's in a pack! And she has to go see Jacob right now to make sure her suspicions are correct. She's on her way out the door when Charlie catches her and gives her some bad news. A wolf was apparently spotted shortly after a tourist went missing. Now a group of people are getting together to go shoot the wolves. I'm sure Bella wouldn't mind if they shot Sam Uley but she's a little worried in case Jacob gets caught in the firing line.

Charlie's heading out to go shoot him some wolf too and Bella decides that maybe she doesn't want to go out after all. Maybe going out and, I don't know, warning your friend, might be a good idea. But she's torn, after all, it looks as though the vampires might have been the good guys, at least the ones she was friends with weren't going out eating tourists, unlike her new best friend.

Bella is confused.