More Knitting

I've been on a bit of a role with my knitting recently. I seem to knit in fits and starts. Something will make me feel inspired to create (and that can be anything, from seeing the beautiful handknits in the Harry Potter films, to reading about a character in a book with a nice scarf, or clicking onto a lovely finished project on Ravelry) and then I just have to pick up my needles and go.

When I finished my good friend Zebedee all I knew was that I wanted to do something else right now! I didn't know exactly what it was that I wanted to knit, I just wanted to knit something. It was tough.

After a quick rifle through my knitting magazines, pattern books and booklets I decided I wanted to do something from Jean Greenhowe's pattern books. I love how beautifully simple her patterns are but how effective they are when they're knitted up. After all the different pieces to stitch together on Zebedee I knew I wanted something a little more straightforward.

Bizarrely there wasn't any doubt in my mind that I was going to knit a toy. I've got plenty of hats and I don't like the long-term commitment required on bigger projects like scarves and clothes. I wanted instant gratification knitting, and for me, that means toys.

Each year I get to November, look longingly at Jean Greenhowe's Christmas patterns and sadly put them away for another year, knowing that I'll never have time to knit something in time for Christmas.

Well not this year! I'm starting my Christmas decoration knitting in July, baby!

From JeanGreenhowe.com

Ever since I got this book I've been longing to make the Nativity scene. I remember having a little Nativity set that came out each Christmas when I was a child but I've never had one of my own. Our front living room window has always seemed like the perfect place for one as well.

I have a tendency of getting bored if I do the same pattern too often and that's the one thing that's put me off this project in the past. The Wise Men, Shepherd and Joseph are all made using the same basic pattern but in different colours and with different embellishments. Once I got started on it I soon realised that's not likely to be a problem; there's so many different bits to concentrate on, different colour combinations and differences in robes, hats and other accessories.

I did briefly consider doing these figures in different colours to the ones pictured, but I've got all the right colours so I figured I might as well just do them in the colours in the example. It certainly makes it easier to keep track of things. My shades of green and blue are slightly different but I'm very pleased with how he's turned out:

I've decided that this is Balthazar. I'm yet to take any good photos of him. I'm waiting until I've got all three Wise Men and then I'll try and take some interesting photos of them together.

I'd anticipated being able to make two a month, but I think I might be able to stretch that out to three, seeing as Balthazar only took me ten days from start to finish (and that's including a couple of nights of non-knitting time). I might get all three Wise Men done by the end of the month.

I toyed with the idea of alternating between different characters from the scene (doing a Wise Man first, then a Shepherd, then Joseph, etc) but I feel like continuing with the Wise Men while I'm clearly on such a roll. It seems like there's less difference between the two Shepherds (apart from the colours of their clothes) so I might be able to do two of them at once to speed things up.

Have you knitted Jean Greenhowe's Christmas Crib? Care to share pictures?

Wordless Wednesday: Sheepish

Book 58 of 2014: Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling)

By the end of last year I got caught up in reading a bunch of shorter books, both on my Kindle and in book-book format. There's something about the run up to Christmas that just makes me want to curl up with a good book, but often I don't have that much time to actually sit and read. There's all sorts of things to be done, Mr Click's birthday, wedding anniversaries (my own and my in-laws'), Christmas shopping, wrapping, decorating; it's hard to actually sit down and get absorbed in a long book. Plus I'm constantly aware that every minute I spend reading a non-Christmas book is a minute I could be reading something more festive (and there's only a very small window of opportunity each year to read those Christmassy books).

So I was pretty pleased that the book which cropped up next on my bookcase was J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them. It's the Comic Relief 2001 release of Newt Scamander's textbook in the Harry Potter series. It's like an encyclopaedia for all the fantastical creatures which crop up in the Harry Potter series and it's even got annotations from Harry, Ron and Hermione.

I read this about a month after I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which meant that the wizarding world was still pretty fresh in my mind. Who am I kidding? I've been so obsessed with these books for so long, and I've read and reread them so many times that I think half the time my brain is at Hogwarts (when it's not paying a visit to Middle-earth).

Whenever I reread these books I can't help but be taken back to when I first read them as a teenager. It came out not long after I first discovered the world of Harry Potter and it felt like I was being privy to actual wizarding secrets. It is especially cool to think that there are things in this book which hadn't been mentioned in the main book series until this point. It's easy to forget that when you read them after the rest of the series; perhaps next time I do a reread I should reread them chronologically and then I'll appreciate the hints of things to come a little more.

I love the little comments from Harry, Ron and Hermione but there aren't enough of them. Obviously I wouldn't expect Hermione to write in the margins of books too often, but it's almost a given for Ron and Harry. I wish this book had more of those.

There are lots of little comments which I suspect are there mainly for the benefit of adults reading the book (either for their own enjoyment or to children). I also like the footnotes which expand on points in some of the entries, they're often quite tongue in cheek.


My one complaint about this book (and it's companion book Quidditch Through the Ages) is that it's not long enough. Or if it had to be this length, I just wish there were more of them. I'd love to read Hogwarts, A History.

TV Series Review: The Mentalist

I've been meaning to write this review for a couple of weeks now but keep on getting sidetracked with other stuff.

Last year Mr Click got me the first five series of The Mentalist, starring Simon Baker and Robin Tunney. It's your standard American police procedural series, focusing on a team in the California Bureau of Investigation (aka CBI), headed by Tunney's Teresa Lisbon. Baker plays Patrick Jane, a 'mentalist' who consults for the Bureau. In a past life he was a conman who made his money by pretending to be psychic, instead he's got Holmesian powers of deduction and is very good at reading people.

Unfortunately for Jane, he once made some disparaging comments about a serial killer known only as Red John. Red John proceeded to kill Jane's wife and child, leading Jane to give up the sham-psychic life and instead turn consultant to law enforcement in the hopes that he will eventually be able to capture and kill Red John.

Unlike the previous series we were watching (Criminal Minds) this wasn't all new to me. I'd watched pretty much all of the first series and I think most of the second as well. Mr Click had seen odd episodes from the second series because I realised (correctly) that it would be right up his street, but since at that time we were watching it on Sky we just watched them as they aired. He enjoyed them, but not knowing all the backstory to the characters meant he missed out on lots of the main story arc.

Patrick Jane really is a Holmes-type character; he's very skilled at reading people, the way they act, the things they say, the things that they don't do but should; he puts together all the little clues from their surroundings and comes to conclusions which might seem like giant leaps if you didn't understand the stepping stones he goes through to get there. Sound familiar? He even has an addiction, if you can call his obsession with getting revenge an addiction.

He's also completely unorthodox. Jane has no problems ignoring the rules, not telling his colleagues what he's doing, or setting them up to do something while allows a sequence of events to bring a murderer to light. He's reckless and sometimes it's cringe-worthy because you know that anyone doing that sort of thing in real life would be shown the door faster than anything. But it's TV so it works.

The series has a good sense of humour, which I like. The characters in Lisbon's team are colleagues but also friends (or in the case of Rigsby and Van Pelt, on/off lovers). I'm not constantly round the houses of my colleagues, but we meet up outside of work, we chat on Facebook, we do stuff. I know not everyone has that kind of relationship with the people they work with, but lots of people do so I always feel like it's more real when you see teams in TV series actually doing stuff together (it also makes it a little less weird when they get married and the only people they invite to the wedding are the people they work with, I'm looking at you ER).

There's enough there for my little shippy heart to grasp onto as well. I was well aware of the thing between Rigsby and Van Pelt from watching the earlier series before. I love how that little relationship has played out. One that took me by surprise has been the growing relationship between Lisbon and Jane. The way it's gradually being developed makes it feel perfectly right and almost natural.

I like that you're able to try and solve the crime as you watch as well. It's one of my favourite things about these types of, otherwise often dark and gruesome, series. It's what hooked me into CSI and has kept me looking out and watching these programmes ever since. Some deliberately don't give you enough to go with, but The Mentalist nudges you along with the occasional red herring for good measure.

Speaking of red herrings, I love the episode titles. They all feature a word which relates to the colour red and are usually quite punny. Also, I suspect that there's a Douglas Adams fan on the writing staff somewhere because one is titled 'So Long And Thanks For All The Red Snapper'.

As far as I'm aware, there are another two series after the point we've watched up to. I'm glad that it's not been dragged out beyond its shelf-life. As a series like this goes on you can start getting a little fatigued by it and I'll admit, by series five I was wondering how much longer they could make the Red John thing last. I've read some spoilers about what happens next and it looks like they've taken the series in the right direction.

In a series where the main story arc relies on the relationship between one man and an unknown serial killer, it's going to reach a point where it becomes repetitive or unbelievable. I think The Mentalist skirts that boundary line occasionally but doesn't actually cross it. I'm looking forward to getting the final two series at some point to see just what happens next.

And as I mentioned the other week, we're now watching Elementary, which feels like a natural follow on from The Mentalist. Sherlock Holmes and Patrick Jane have an awful lot in common.

Weekly Rundown: Planning a Road Trip

I've had a busy sort of week this week. Way back in January when I went to Wales, I tentatively made plans to go back in August. But then that all went up in the air with all the IVF stuff so I was never really sure whether I would be able to make it (plus my holiday hours at work were getting slightly stretched).

Well, since it didn't work I've got my August back again. The current plan is to wait for the never-ending period to, y'know, end; wait for the next one to show up, at which point I can get in touch with the hospital; then we'll have about a six week waiting period before we can start the frozen embryo transfer. I need something to occupy my time in the interim and a trip to Wales seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

I discussed dates with my Mum on Tuesday and spent a chunk of Wednesday looking at different transport options. At first it seemed like flying down was the cheapest option, apart from the fact I would have to get some form of photographic ID and take an extra day off work.

Then it was the train. I'd initially dismissed it based on the fact that a return ticket Glasgow to Cardiff was £170! I'm not sure what made me do it, I think I was half wondering if I could travel as a mix of bus and train, but I looked at where the change was (Crewe) and checked out tickets from Glasgow to Crewe. Suddenly a single was £11! And from Crewe to Cardiff it was only £19; a far cry from the £150.50 for a single ticket from Glasgow to Cardiff. Getting my tickets like that could reduce the bill from £170 down to around £70 (plus a little extra for booking fees).

In the end it was a moot point though, the bus was even cheaper. And I've done it before. Almost a year ago, in fact, when I travelled down to Gloucester for my cousin's wedding. On that occasion I spent a day travelling down and came back up overnight. This time around I'll be travelling down overnight and coming back over the course of a day.

There's only one change to worry about in both directions, and although those changes take place at different stations, they're both familiar to me. Plus it's with National Express who have a helpful app to tell you where you are in your route, if there are any delays and when you can expect to arrive. Oh, and as I learned when we got heavily delayed on the way into Birmingham last year, if your journey is booked with National Express all the way through then they make sure you get to your destination. Even if delays on one coach mean you miss your connecting one.

Next time I will look into flying though. I will get my passport updated and will save myself some travelling time. All the same, I quite like long road journeys. I like having time to read, listen to music, knit, or just be alone with my thoughts. I used to spend hours and hours alone as a teenager but now I'm a grown up I don't get to do that so much, so I'm quite looking forward to having all that time on the road (whilst still having my phone for contact with the outside world, and people around me should I need them).

Other than planning long road trips, I've been knitting loads. I lost my knitting mojo for a while but Zebedee Zebra brought it back and I'm now working on a Jean Greenhowe Christmas Crib. Thus far I've just cast on for my second Wise Man; I finished the first one yesterday. As usually happens with Jean's patterns, the main body knitted up dead quick, but giving him his character is taking a little while (not least because I managed to add in about an extra six rows of stockinette to his robe – meaning I've worked about 312 more stitches than was necessary! Oops!) But I love it, so I don't mind. I'm aiming to do two characters a month so I'll have a full Nativity for my front window by Christmas.

I'm also reading a lot more again. I'm getting caught back up on the Reading Challenge (though I still need to get caught up on Goodreads). I've just finished 'a book with antonyms in the title' and chose The Death and Life of Charlie St Cloud which I got about two years ago and have kept on shuffling around my bookcase ever since. It started out well but then took me completely by surprise when it veered off into magic realism territory (one of my favourite genres, when it's done well). And I've been informed there's a film of it as well, definitely one I'm going to have to look out for!

Last week I received copies of Misha Gericke's books The Vanished Knight and The Heir's Choice, the first two books in The War of Six Crowns series. I kept visiting her blog and noticing the request for reviewers and kept on thinking I liked the sound of them, so was lucky enough to get some new reading material. Now I'm caught back up on the Reading Challenge I'm dipping into the first of the two, expect to see a review here shortly.

Now I'm obviously having to organise reading material for my trip away. I'm not sure forty-six days is quite enough time to get that all in hand. Plus I need to put the BBC audio production of The Lord of the Rings on my Kindle, I tried doing it last year but managed to blow up my earphones shortly after getting on the bus at Birmingham, couldn't get new ones until Carlisle and by that point had kind of gone off the whole idea of an epic fantasy story.


What're your plans for the rest of the summer?

Film Review: The Fellowship of the Ring, Part 5

It's time for the next bit of The Fellowship of the Ring. Last week's bit of the review saw the Fellowship take on Moria, which we all know is only going to end badly for them (one more than the others).

In this part we say farewell to Gandalf (for a while) and head off to Lothlorien where Galadriel hands out some gifts (and warnings).

202. And it's a battle. There is fighting.

203. And a big cave troll. Kind of looks like a teacher I had once.

204. More fighting.

205. Still fighting.

206. Fighting some more.

207. Sam's fighting with his frying pan.

208. I guess the cave troll is attracted to Frodo because of the Ring, since he's the main one it's going after. It probably doesn't even know why, it's just drawn to him.

209. Everyone's just been standing there watching the troll attacking Frodo and then when he appears to be stabbed they all go crazy. That's great but it might have been a little more helpful if you'd gone crazy before you let the cave troll stab him.

210. I kind of feel sorry for the troll when Legolas shoots him. I don't think he really knew he was doing anything wrong. He looks like a big child when he plays with his floppy lip.

211. Aragorn's such an optimist: You should be dead.

212. Oh, I love this music. Doo doo dodo dooo!

213. And then, just when you think things can't get any worse, a Balrog shows up.

214. Though I kind of love how for a moment Gimli seems to think that he's scared off all the Orcs.

215. Gandalf's passing the torch. I realise he does this because he knows he can take down the Balrog once and for all, but all the same, he could kind of just carried on running with them and got out alive. I know, that's not the point, but I do love Gandalf.

216. I'd be screwed at this point because there's no way you'd get me jumping down a broken staircase, arrow-wielding Orcs or no!

217. "Nobody tosses a Dwarf!" And that sound you hear is Tolkien rolling over in his grave.

218. Word of advice for the Fellowship: Next time you're escorting the Ringbearer down a crumbling staircase, send him down first to make sure he gets to the bottom, you've got four Hobbits and three of them are somewhat expendable, you don't want to go leaving Frodo behind like that.

219. I think this will always be one of my favourite bits of this film. YOU. SHALL NOT. PASS!
Gandalf! I think Frodo says it best with his NOOOO!

220. And yeah, I know he comes back. But I still think Gandalf the Grey is just a little bit cooler than Gandalf the White. Gandalf the Grey doesn't have as much responsibility so I think he gets away with that little bit more.

221. Legolas looks so confused by all the crying.

222. Also, this bit that they're all on at the moment. Totally where the battle for Moria in the Hobbit films happens. I love picking out these little continuities.

223. Lothlorien is beautiful but also kind of creepy. It's not a comfortable Elvish place like Rivendell.

224. I know lots of people don't like Gimli being used as the comic relief in this film, but I think it works pretty well. I love his reaction as the Elvish draw their bows on him.

225. Notice how Legolas and Gimli look different in this scene? That's because they were trying out a slightly different look which they didn't follow through with.

226. I know I said Lothlorien is kind of creepy, but I'd still like to go there. I love the spirally tree staircases. It's all so pretty and twinkly.

227. Galadriel is so pretty. And smart. And powerful. I love her.

228. Okay, I can't hear the line 'Tell me, where is Gandalf, for I much desired to speak with him' without hearing 'They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard'.

229. It's very clever how Galadriel can speak out loud and then talk to people in their minds. There aren't many women in Tolkien's stories but the ones that do feature are more than awesome enough to make up for it.

230. I like that they included Sam's fireworks poem as well. Though I have no idea why Gimli is snoring or why Aragorn has to hit him.

231. I do actually feel kind of sorry for Boromir here actually. I always forget that he's got burdens of his own and is just trying to do the best for his land since it's been abandoned by its King. He's just easily tempted and that's what leads to his downfall. Poor guy.

232. Galadriel is a barefoot kind of gal. I used to spend all my time barefoot. I still have been known to slip off my shoes when I'm walking Tara around the estate.

233. I wish that Sam had been in this scene as well because I like the way it plays out in the book with Sam seeing the Shire. But I guess they throw that in here so we still get a bit of it.

234. The way the Ring gets pulled towards the Mirror of Galadriel makes me think there should come up a sign on it which says 'INSERT ONE RING TO CONTINUE VIEWING'.

235. Galadriel gets really scary looking when she thinks about having the One Ring. It's not pretty. Just as well that she doesn't take it really, isn't it?

236. Little Ringbearer bonding moment. Galadriel's all 'look I've got a ring too, it's tough'.

237. And now it's time to catch up with Saruman who is giving Lurtz a little history lesson. Apparently the Elves were tortured to create the Orcs and Uruk Hai and now they've been perfected. If that's his idea of perfection I'd hate to see what he thinks a mistake looks like.

238. I love Merry and Pippin's reaction to Legolas's comment about how the Lembas can sustain a man with just a small bite. Little moments like that make this film for me.

239. So they're leaving Lothlorien by boat to get ahead of the enemy. And while they're heading out we get a little flashback to the gifts each member of the Fellowship receives.

240. Especially Gimli's gift. John Rhys Davies points out in one of the interviews about how hard it would be to actually show Galadriel giving him her hair, the way that it is done is so perfect.

241. The farewell has got to be kind of awkward for Aragorn, considering that he's basically having to speak to his girlfriend's Gran about whether or not they should be together (and she's telling him what he has to do to be worthy of her).


242. Hold onto that Frodo, it might come in handy later.

Next week will be the final part of The Fellowship of the Ring, before we move on to The Two Towers. We'll be seeing Boromir going over to the dark side, Frodo making a run for it and the Fellowship being well and truly sundered.

Chapter-by-Chapter: Twilight, Chapter 14

Better late than never, eh? I had this chapter review all written up in my little Chapter-by-Chapter notebook and didn't actually get around to typing it up until today. Oops. I will endeavour to do better next week.

Earlier today we learned a whole heap about vampires, like the fact that they sparkle in the sunlight. And Edward showed off how strong and fast he is. Now it's time for a little bit more vampire education in Chapter Fourteen: Mind Over Matter.

What Happens?

We get loads of information on Twilight vampires along with the creepy revelation that Edward has been watching Bella sleep for ages. Bella is understandably weirded out by this, but only for a couple of minutes, then she gets over it and invites him to her room to talk and watch her sleep some more.

Thoughts as I read:

I'm shocked! This chapter has a three word title! 'Mind over matter' is Edward's motto for being around Bella. Or perhaps it'll be how she approaches being around him. My money's on Edward saying this line somewhere in the chapter.

He could drive well, when he kept the speed reasonable, I had to admit.

I could almost like Edward if he keeps this behaviour up. Less weird & creepy = way more likeable Edward.

We get a little clue to how old Edward is here as well. I've been wondering about that. He claims to have liked the music of the fifties and eighties so he's quite old. I've been guessing that he'd been born in the mid- to late-1800s.

Despite him being much nicer right now, Bella is still concerned about upsetting him and causing another mood swing. Bella, that's not normal, honey.

Barely a page into the chapter and we get a shedload of information. Edward was born in Chicago in 1901, so I wasn't far wrong really. He was turned at the age of seventeen by Carlisle who was his doctor, treating him for Spanish Flu. Poor Edward had been orphaned by this point and Carlisle decided to save him because no one would miss him (and presumably notice that all the patients were suddenly very anaemic). It's quite a heartwarming story, if the thought of being made immortal when you're barely out of puberty makes you feel warm fuzzies.

Apparently turning Edward required Carlisle to show a lot of restraint, presumably not to go too far and just eat him. It was painful for Edward. We don't get any more information than that though. I hope we do at some point. I'm gruesome enough to want all the gory details.

Carlisle's responsible for most of the others as well; Esme was a near death after a cliff fall, Rosalie was intended to be Edward's companion, Emmett was almost killed by a bear. Carlisle has standards; he'll only turn someone who is dying. A vampire with morals.

They've got to move around a fair bit because otherwise people will notice, hey, that Cullen family is looking awfully good considering they've been here for forty years. If they claim that the teens are younger then they're able to stay in one place for longer. I'd imagine they'd have to change their names every so often as well, otherwise surely the schools would try contacting their last school and notice that they've already graduated before.

Then we learn that Alice and Jasper are different. They weren't from Carlisle, in fact Jasper lived with another group at one point. Oh, and Alice can see the future and knows when other vampires are near, especially when those other vampires might cause trouble. That's a handy skill to have. I wonder why some vampires have these special powers but not others.

Not all vampires can live near humans like our friendly neighbour vampires, the Cullens. It's also important to find the right place to live as well; they can't live anywhere too sunny otherwise the whole sparkly skin thing will give them away and dazzle the neighbours. This is where the myth about them only going out at night came from. I do like that we've got a nod back to the traditional vampire myth.

Edward then explains that Alice is a mystery. She doesn't even know who she used to be. So did she choose the name Alice or was that the one thing of her past that she does remember? I hope we get into this in more detail in the future books, I do love a dark past.

It doesn't seem like he has to be invited into Bella's house. He asks if he can come in which might be a subtle nod to another important part of the vampire myth; but I'm not sure that Stephenie Meyer can actually do subtle so I'm more inclined to believe that part of vampire lore is being overlooked.

Okay, just when I thought Edward was getting less weird, he shatters that illusion. He's been coming into Bella's room and watching her sleep! What! Well, I guess he definitely didn't need to be invited in then! Bella is suitably shocked by this revelation.

Then she gets embarrassed because she's said his name in her sleep. Before we can dwell on this too long, Charlie shows up and Edward vanishes. Oh well, Bella, just set your alarm for midnight and you'll be able to see him when he comes for his late night visit. Meanwhile Charlie tries to be all fatherly and probe into Bella's love life:

"Well, you're too good for them all, anyway. Wait till you get to college to start looking." Every father's dream, that his daughter will be out of the house before the hormones kick in.

Heh.

Edward is waiting for Bella in her room. Hopefully Charlie won't sneak up to check on her otherwise he might get a bit of a surprise! Bella leaves her boyfriend alone in her room to shower and change into scruffy jammies. She frets about her look for a moment but I'm sure he's seen her wearing a lot worse over the last few weeks.

There's some talking and teenage smooching on the bed. A little bit risky considering Bella's ready for bed and Edward could happily nom on her neck right now! Edward even goes on about how hard this is for him, but he's fairly confident that he'll be able to leave if it all gets to be too much. Yeah Edward, but is that before or after you've sucked all her blood out?

He basically tells her he loves her:

"Isn't it supposed to be like this?" He smiled. "The glory of first love, and all that. It's incredible, isn't it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it?"

And as if that wasn't romantic enough, he goes on to tell her that he first started his nocturnal visits when she rejected Mike's invitation to the dance. Oh, and he gets jealous at any mention of Bella and Mike. Sexy, Edward, sexy.

Edward comments on the fact that he's been alone for the last ninety years because for most of that time Bella hadn't been born. Eww. That's weird. It also makes the age difference between me and Mr Click look like practically nothing. Bella's snogging a really old guy!

They're briefly interrupted by Charlie coming in to check on Bella. I'm guessing this is because he's heard voices coming from her room and the law enforcement officer in him wants to know what's going on. He doesn't stay long and during this time Edward disappears again, then he comes back and offers to sing Bella to sleep (and compliments her on her small). This is romance, girls.

Bella's allowed to ask him more questions about being a vampire, since he's still on an upswing at the moment. He tells her that he wants to stay as human as he can, which is nice in theory but I wonder how it will work in practice if he has to keep going up mountains to kill bears whenever Bella gets to be too much.

We do get some information about the extra powers but there's not really an answer, just a theory of Carlisle's. He thinks they bring their strongest traits from their past life with them into their new one, but they get amplified. These become their greatest strengths. They're like blood-sucking X-Men.

Edward promises to stay with Bella all night. That is, with her actually being aware of his presence in her room rather than the usual way he stops all night.

Bella's got time for one last question, this time it's about Emmett and Rosalie's marriage. She's wondering about sex, though she doesn't come out and say it in so many words. Looks like that'll be off the cards for Bella and Edward. They're also both virgins as well, making Edward the hundred-year-old virgin. Tough break, Edward, stuck in a permanent state of teenage angst and never able to get some. That sucks.

All the same, he reassures her that he does find her attractive 'in that way' at which point Bella falls asleep, bringing us to the traditional end of the chapter.

Aside from the weird stalkeriness of this chapter, I have quite enjoyed finding out about how vampires in Twilight work. It's great to finally get more answers than questions. But if I ever found out a guy had been watching me sleep after coming into my bedroom uninvited, well, he wouldn't be doing it again!

And now just a few questions raised by this chapter:

• Just what happens when someone is turned into a vampire?
• Why do some vampires have extra powers but not others?
• Do vampires keep their names when they're turned or do they get new ones?
• Do vampires have to change their names each time they move?