Book 47 of 2014: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Are you visiting through the A to Z Challenge? You can read this morning’s challenge post here.

We’re finally drawing near to the end of the books that I read last year. So far this year I’ve almost read as many books as I managed in 2014, so at least I know I’ve got enough book review blog posts to see me through a couple more years!

During my Open University Children’s Literature course I had to study the first Harry Potter book, which prompted a reread of the series. It took me quite a while because I read quite a few other books in between each of the Harry Potter books and I finally reached Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in November last year. I was determined to get to the end of them before the end of 2014.
For some inexplicable reason I wrote this into my book journal as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which I’d read just a few weeks before. I have now idea why.

I’ve read and reread the Harry Potter books so many times now that I sometimes wonder if I’ve said everything that there is to say about them. But then again, there’s something about J.K. Rowling’s stories which mean that even when you think you’ve spotted all the little details in them, you read them again and find something new.

As usual I loved rereading this book. I don’t normally cry at books. There are two which I can think of offhand which make me bawl, The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Fault in Our Stars (and the latter I’ve only read the once). I haven’t yet cried at any of the Harry Potter books, but I did feel kind of choked up at the end of this one. I guess it’s just that sensation of realising that you’re reaching the end of such an important series.

I know I’ll never be able to go back and reread it for the first time again, but I also know that there won’t be any more books. And that makes me sad. So I’m sad for the events that happen in this book. I’m sad for the characters. I’m sad for it being the last book in a series I love. And I’m sad for me. So I think it’s okay to feel a bit choked up with all the sad going around there.

On this reread I’ve kind of grown to love Snape a bit more. When I first read the books for the first time I didn’t really feel as much for him as I do now. I guess I’ve grown up a lot myself and I look at his storyline differently now I how I did as a teenager. I think I understand him and the things he does better now. Ten years ago I guess my world was more black and white, now I see the shades of grey and there is a lot of grey in the character of Severus Snape.

As usual I didn’t have room for all of my favourite quotes in my book journal. I copied out so many quotes that I only had a few lines to write up my review! I’m sure I’ve noticed them before, but there are an awful lot of one-liners. Considering how dark the storyline of this book is, it’s a welcome relief to get some occasional little bright spots of humour.

Another thing I’ve discovered on this reread is that I am kind of a closet Harry/Luna shipper (clearly not so in the closet now). I can’t help but love their little bits together, especially when Luna takes Harry to the Ravenclaw common room (side note: I love the Ravenclaw common room, I’m such a Ravenclaw). I just wish we got to see more of Luna in the series, or that she could get a whole series of her own!

#AtoZChallenge: R is for Relaxation

This is the eighteenth of a series of posts that I’m posting during the A to Z Challenge; that’s a blogging challenge where you aim to post a blog post for each letter of the alphabet throughout the month of April (with Sundays off for good behaviour). During my first A to Z Challenge I wrote about infertility, which I’m sort of revisiting during A to Z Challenge 2015.

My theme this year is IVF/ICSI, a process we’re starting at the moment and today it’s R for Relaxation.

I’ve mentioned in a couple of my other posts about how stressful the IVF process can be, as well as how important it is to take time out for yourself for a little bit of pampering and relaxation. I thought this would be a good chance to go into a little bit of detail about how I like to relax.

Different people will relax in different ways, that goes without saying. What you might also find is that what normally helps you to relax, doesn’t during treatment. Towards the end of my cancelled cycle I was no longer comfortable being on my feet for long periods of time; considering I really enjoy taking our Labrador, Tara, for long walks, especially when I’m feeling stressed, this wasn’t much of an option for me.

It’s just a question of adapting to what works for you; a relaxing shower, a good book, a craft or hobby that you enjoy. You can buy CDs or MP3s of relaxing music (as well as IVF specific ones, which I’ll talk about more on Saturday in my V post) which some people find helpful as well.

While it would be nice to get into a relaxed state and just stay that way for the rest of the treatment process, we all know that’s not possible. It is possible to try and avoid stressful situations. Again, not always possible, but you can always try. Hide people on Facebook whose posts irritate you, don’t get drawn into conversations that you know will wind you up, walk away from things if you can. You’re under enough stress and pressure as it is, you don’t need to add to it.

Remember as well that your partner needs time to relax as well. It’s a stressful time for them as well; they’ll probably be watching you going through all the tests and treatment and their involvement will be relatively limited (aside from the obvious bit towards the end). Give them opportunities to unwind as well; let them go out and let their hair down, have a long relaxing soak in the tub, take the dog for a nice long relaxing walk. ;-) It’s easy to get very focused on yourself during IVF treatment and your partner is going through it as well but may often get forgotten.

If you’ve got a friend or family member going through treatment, try to remember that this is a stressful period in their lives and they’ll be grateful for not being riled up. You might be able to offer them opportunities to unwind or help take the pressure off them in some way. And above all, remember that both partners are going through the treatment, so don’t just focus on the one who is getting all the drugs and tests.

Chapter-by-Chapter: The End, Chapter 11

Visiting on your way down the A to Z Challenge list? Today's post is here.

Remember how at the end of The Penultimate Peril there was a napkin with ‘The End is nigh’ written on it? Well it’s getting nigher! This is our final week on this book. In the last chapter Ishmael told the Baudelaires a little about their parents’ pasts on the island and tried to convince the children to stay on the island with him. They left his secret room with him, appearing to have made up their minds to stay behind on the island.

What Happens?

The children return to the colony with Ishmael, finding a massive argument going on there. The mutiny has started and the islanders are battling over whether they will stay or go. Ishmael tries to regain order but Olaf shows up and attempts to take over. Ishmael and Olaf obviously have some history together and the former decides to end it once and for all, brandishing the harpoon gun at Olaf.

Thoughts as I read:

This chapter image is one of those one which goes across two pages and that interacts with the chapter heading. On the left hand page there is a hand, wearing a robe, holding the harpoon gun. The harpoon has been fired across the facing page and has struck the words ‘Chapter Eleven’. The fact that the person holding the gun is wearing a robe means that we can eliminate two potential characters; it’s definitely not going to be Kit or Olaf. Perhaps it’s one of the children, or one of the colonists. There’s only one way to find out…

I love this opening:

Perhaps one night, when you were very small, someone tucked you into bed and read you a story called “The Little Engine That Could,” and if so then you have my profound sympathies, as it is one of the most tedious stories on Earth. The story probably put you right to sleep, which is the reason it is read to children, so I will remind you that the story involves the engine of a train that for some reason has the ability to think and talk.

The point of this is that the moral of the above story is that if you think you can do something, then you can do it, which is obviously not true.

The children leave the arboretum on the sheep-drawn sleigh with Ishmael. They can’t think of anything that could possibly go right now. They aren’t particularly keen on shunning the real world in order to stay in the relative (and boring) safety of the island. They’re also not sure how they’re going to join in the mutiny considering the fact that they didn’t bring any weapons back from the arboretum. If this is the right decision, they don’t seem very happy to be making it.

When they arrive back at the main camp there’s a bit of a heated dispute going on. Considering Ishmael’s best efforts to prevent anyone from experiencing anything that might be classed as bad in the world, the islanders are having a pretty good go at attacking one another. Apparently this is human nature or something. Even Mrs Caliban and Friday have fallen out. That’s the second time that family has been divided by a schism!

Turns out that Finn and Erewhon started the mutiny without the Baudelaires and they’ve had to make do without weapons. Luckily they’ve got teeth and hands to do the job just as well. They also tell the children that Olaf was right and that they (the Baudelaires) have let them go. Jeez, I’m beginning to think Ishmael might be the good guy here after all! They seem to have some trouble understanding one another as well, since the conversation descends to Sunny saying ‘What you mean what you mean what I mean?’

Ishmael tries to reign things in but no one is having any of it:

“Please, everyone!” Ishmael cried from his clay chair. “I suggest we all take a few sips of cordial and discuss this cordially!”
“I’m tired of drinking cordial,” Professor Fletcher said, “and I’m tired of your suggestions, Ishmael!”
“Call me Ish,” the facilitator said.
“I’m calling you a bad facilitator!” retorted Calypso.

Oh dear. I kind of feel sorry for Ishmael now.

And so it all comes out about the mutiny and some people want to go ahead with it and some people don’t. Some want to escape from the past and live simply and some want to have some excitement instead of everything that washes up there being banished to the arboretum. Some of them are suspicious of the Baudelaires and some are suspicious of Kit Snicket.

And then all the secrets come out; teaching people to read and to yodel and having whisks. Things only go downhill from here and it’s the Hotel Denouement all over again as everyone starts yelling out their suggestions for the island. This causes the Baudelaires to have a flashback to some of the mobs that they’ve witnessed in the past.

It all culminates in a new voice shouting for silence. It’s Olaf, still in his fake pregnant woman disguise. He’s here to stake his claim to Olaf-Land. Turns out he knows someone called Monday who warned him Ishmael was still on the island, oh and the mutineers let him out the cage. That was not a smart move, guys.

Apparently Olaf attempting to take over the island wasn’t part of the plan. Olaf does take a moment to reveal that Ishmael clearly wears the clay on his feet to disguise the fact that he has an eye tattoo on his ankle. To be honest, so many people sport these eye tattoos it would be easier to just point out people who don’t have one!

Olaf tells everyone he’s got the only weapon that can threaten them, but Ishmael’s got a weapon too; the harpoon gun. It would appear that there’s some history between Ish and Olaf, since Ishmael accuses Olaf of starting the fire that burned down Ishmael’s home. Olaf insists that wasn’t him but Ishmael’s not having any of it and announces he’s going to shoot Olaf in the stomach, y’know, right in the diving helmet full of deadly fungus.

The Baudelaires yell ‘No!’ but that’s not enough to stop the harpoon from hitting its mark. Which it does, releasing spores into the air, just as everyone gasps, ensuring that they’re all going to get a nasty dose of Medusoid Mycelium.

This is a very unfortunate event.

Rat Tails: Dinner and a Movie

Looking for my A to Z Challenge post for today? It’s here.

It occurred to me the other day that I’ve not shared much about my pets recently. Tara did get a mention during my Weekly Rundown post roughly a month ago, when we got absolutely drenched on our morning walk, along with a very cute photo of her looking soggy. But my ratbags are relatively unmentioned here on the blog.

Both Yoda and Wicket have grown into massive rats in the (almost) year we’ve had them. They were a little bit older when we got them than most of my previous rats and so I always think of them being bigger rats, but it still comes as a bit of a shock when I think back on how small they were compared to now.

Wicket especially is a great big chunk. He’s got a bit of a belly but he’s all solid. He does like his food. Another thing Wicket likes, apparently, is musicals.

It’s a bit of an Easter tradition for me to watch The Sound of Music and this year, after picking up Bluebell (our new car in case you missed that one), we got the boys out and watched it.

Wicket was very impressed with it, during the songs he was virtually glued to the bars of the cage closest to the screen. The photos above were taken during ‘So Long, Farewell’, though he was also quite interested in ‘The Lonely Goatherd’. Yoda, on the other hand, was more interested in ‘Edelweiss’.

When they come downstairs, Wicket likes to hang out in the small cage, occasionally popping out for a wander or to see what Yoda is getting up to. He’s very skittish of sudden movements or loud noises. Yoda is my fearless ratty. From the minute we open the cage downstairs, Yoda will trundle out and explore his surroundings. If he’s on my chair he has this habit of curling up on the top of the cushion at my back. It’s about an inch and a half wide and each time he does it I worry that I’ll forget he’s there and squash him at some point.

If the small cage is on the coffee table then Yoda expects to be allowed to wander all over Mr Click and the sofa. On the sofa he likes to curl up on the cushion where Tara would normally sleep. It’s very cute.

What’s also kind of cute is the fact that he sees it as his duty to make sure our plates are clean:

We obviously share out meals with our rats and if we’ve had something with a sauce, Yoda will try a bit. In the picture above it was sweet and sour sauce.

I shall try and share some of their antics and photos a little more frequently in the future.

#AtoZChallenge: Q is for Queasy

This is the seventeenth of a series of posts that I’m posting during the A to Z Challenge; that’s a blogging challenge where you aim to post a blog post for each letter of the alphabet throughout the month of April (with Sundays off for good behaviour). During my first A to Z Challenge I wrote about infertility, which I’m sort of revisiting during A to Z Challenge 2015.

My theme this year is IVF/ICSI, a process we’re starting at the moment and today it’s Q for Queasy.

It took me some time to decide on my Q topic for the day. I’d already covered the importance of asking questions in my C is for Confusion post, and I did questions as my Q post during my first A to Z Challenge. It wasn’t until I switched my S topic that I realised that Q would be a good way to talk about some of the side effects you might experience during IVF treatment.

The number one symptom I had during my cancelled cycle was queasiness. I don’t deal well with being sick and nausea makes me anxious about throwing up and so feeling like that semi-constantly was not much fun. The main culprit for this was the metformin I was prescribed to help develop my eggs. Nausea is actually one of the better side effects, it can also cause upset stomachs, which is one of the reasons why they’re usually fairly flexible about your dosage.

The queasy feeling really messed up my eating schedule so I took to eating little and often. A small breakfast, with the old standby of ginger biscuits by the bed for first thing in the morning, grazing on fruit through the day, until mid-afternoon when I would start to get starving and could usually stomach a more substantial meal for tea. I think it’s important to eat healthily, even though you might not feel like eating much at all, because you’re asking a lot of your body during treatment. Staying hydrated helps too, especially if you're lucky enough to get headaches as another side effect.

Those travel sickness bands help too. I’m not sure how much of it was psychological and how much of it was actual pressure points working to eliminate the nausea, but either way, I didn’t once throw up and the days when I wore them were usually better days. If it’s something you find yourself struggling with, it’s probably worth a shot.

Last week during my O is for Ovaries post I mentioned some of the side effects associated with the medication which is used to stimulate your follicles. Aside from the discomfort associated with the swelling of your insides, the side effects listed for the medication usually include mention of the site of your injections. Funnily enough, if you stab yourself with a needle you can expect the area to be sore. Just a heads up. ;-)

It’s important to let the medical team dealing with your treatment know if there are any really unpleasant side effects that you’re struggling to cope with. They won’t be able to stop all of them, but they’ll certainly be able to offer you advice about dealing with them.

And if you’ve got a friend or family member going through fertility treatment, you can bet that they’ll experience some fun side effects from the medication. Don’t be alarmed if they display some crazy mood swings, aside from the other things I’ve mentioned. They may randomly start crying, or dash to the loo to throw up, or wander around with their trousers undone. Just let them know you’re there for them and offer to help out if you can. They’ll appreciate knowing there’s someone on their side.

Weekly Rundown: Stats & Stuff

Considering how action-packed my last few weeks have been, this week has been surprisingly quiet. It’s made for quite a nice change.

My participation in the A to Z Challenge has been somewhat lax owing to the fact that I’ve not had an internet connection for much of the week. The two days when I was able to get online on my laptop for a couple of hours in the evening were mostly spent catching up on comments here, replying to them and returning visits to their blogs. And I did all that on my Kindle (which isn’t the best way of doing things).

Today I’m splitting my time between replying to and returning visits to people who have commented on my blog, catching up on the blogs I read regularly and trying to get through forty or so blogs from the challenge list. If you’re visiting because of a comment I left on your blog today then you know that’s going quite well. ;-)

Despite my tardiness in visiting the blogs of other challenge participants, I’m still getting a vast number of hits. I’ve actually broken my total number of pageviews for last month and I’ve just managed to break my highest number of pageviews in a month ever! When I checked this morning I was at 5,064, more in a month than ever before. I'm quite pleased.

I’m thrilled because I’ve noticed my posts getting retweeted on Twitter as well. Considering I picked my A to Z theme of IVF/ICSI in the hopes of raising awareness for people on both sides of the treatment process, I’d say that I’m achieving my target. So yay!

Other than failing to visit other blogs and celebrating my rising pageview counter, I’ve been reading a lot.

It took me an age to get through The Pickwick Papers (read: one week). That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it, it just felt like I was running on the spot a lot of the time. You’d sit and read and read and read for an hour or so, check your progress and find you were only a tiny bit further on in the book. I suspect that some of this was because I was reading it on my Kindle so didn’t have that physical representation of how much I’d read (at least when you’re reading a book-book you can feel how far through a book you are).

Now I’ve moved on to Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales. Like The Pickwick Papers this is another book for the Reading Challenge (Pickwick was for a popular author’s first book, this is for a book by an author you love that you’ve not read yet). Despite weighing in at about as many pages as the Dickens book, I feel like I’m getting through it a lot quicker.

This week looks set to be a little bit busier as we’re gearing up for my birthday. We’ve got a trip to Oban coming up which I’m planning on using to buy even more reading material and having the day off for my birthday should give me a little more time to get caught up online while I’m somewhere with an internet connection.

See you there!

Film Review: The Lion King, Part 1

Are you looking for this morning’s A to Z Challenge post? You can click here to read it.

I was kind of torn about what film to watch next for my regular Saturday film review posts. After Inception for the last five weeks I wanted something a little bit more light-hearted as my original choice (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) seemed a little too heavy-going for me.

So I looked to my shelf (read: one of my shelves) of Disney films and decided to watch my super duper version of The Lion King. For my birthday three years ago, Mr Click bought me a sumptuous box set with the three Lion King films (the original and the two sequels, which for sequels aren’t actually too bad). I remember watching it on my birthday and having to pause it to take Tara out for walks because we’d had her for less than two weeks at that point and she wasn’t used to us sitting in and watching films on a sunny day.

I’m not sure if I’ll go on and review the other two films after this one, I might return to my original plan and watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Let me know what you fancy. I’ve divided these film posts into three, so we’ve got until the beginning of May to figure out what we’ll watch next.

In this first part we meet the main lion players and get our first couple of award winning songs. Simba also almost gets himself killed and his father has to rescue him, for the first time.

1. Getting into this film on blu-ray takes ages. First you have to select the version of the film you want (with or without sing along mode, with or without audio commentary) then I’m asked if I want to watch it from where I previously viewed it. Yes, Rafiki, I want to watch this from some point during the end credits.

2. I picked sing along mode. This’ll be fun.

3. I remember seeing this in the cinema. I was obsessed. I had a Pride Rock playset and bought myself two toy lions I named Simba and Nala with my pocket money.

4. How incredible is this animation at the beginning? I love the way the focus shifts from the leafcutter ants to the zebras. So awesome.

5. Holy crap the volume is loud!

6. Aw, cute baby Simba.

7. This would be a really short film if Rafiki dropped baby Simba right now.

8. Baby Simba does not look happy about being presented to his subjects. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d be happy about being waved over the edge of a rock either.

9. Do you think Scar was called Scar because of the scar over his eye, or it was just a (not so) happy coincidence?

10. Rowan Atkinson playing the advisor to royalty… Where have we seen that before?

11. Scar and Mustafa really don’t look much like brothers/half-brothers, do they?

12. Hehe, Zazu has the right idea about turning Scar into a throw rug.

13. The shots of the scenery could really just be framed pictures on a wall. They’re like the landscapes you get on the wall of doctor’s surgeries and dentists.

14. Sarabi: ‘Your son is awake.’ Mustafa: ‘Before sunrise he’s your son.’ Hehe, love it.

15. Okay, this bit with Mustafa telling Simba that everything the light touches is his is kind of distracting because all I can hear is Darth Vader talking!

16. ‘We are all connected in the great circle of life.’ IT’S THE CIIIIRRRRCCCCCLE OF LIIIIIIIFE!!!!

17. I wish this version of the film put ‘The Morning Report’ back in. Ever since I decided I was going to watch this as my next film I’ve been singing it. I’m sure the old DVD version of the film gave you the option to watch it with or without it included.

18. Scar is so evil and Simba is kind of a dimwit here with the whole Elephant Graveyard thing.

19. ‘The sooner we get to the waterhole, the sooner we can leave.’ Hehe.

20. Uh, if Simba and Nala are part of the same pride, that means that Nala’s not only Simba’s friend, they’re also probably half brother and sister. I guess lions don’t care about that.

21. Yay! ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’! I actually made up a dance to this when I was in primary school… actually I made up dances to most of the songs in this film… and performed them for my class…

22. I love the psychedelic colours in this song. Oh and it’s reminded me of the Lion King computer game I had where you had to jump on the animals to get across one of the levels. I loved that game.

23. ‘I bet your pardon, Madam, but GET OFF!’ hehe, poor squashed Zazu.

24. Simba really is lucky that he makes it to adulthood, isn’t he? I’ve never really thought about how much danger he puts everyone in as a child.

25. I wonder if Shenzi looking kind of like Whoopi Goldberg was intentional. I really need to watch Sister Act again…

26. Simba’s little baby roar is so cute. Also, yay for Mustafa showing up when he does.

27. Ooh Simba. You’re in trouble now! This is one of those moments when your parents being disappointed in you is so much worse than them being angry with you.

28. Guilty Simba kind of reminds me of guilty Tara. She does the same slinking thing with her head down when she’s pinched my socks off the airer.

29. Mustafa is clearly a much better father than Darth Vader.

30. ‘We’ll always be together, right?’ Uh, no, not really Simba.

And that’s where we’ll stop for now. The action is all going to kick off next week with yet more songs, a death and some bug eating. Yum.