Currently...

Wondering...
... what the latest Windows 10 update has done to my keyboard.

Scrolling on it seems kind of sticky. Normally I just hit the down arrow to scroll down but it feels like it's taking a lot of effort. I'm going to have to do some investigating after I've written this post. and fiddle with some settings.

Also wondering...
... why there was salt water coming out of my shower last night.

And my kitchen taps this morning.

Actually, I think this is one for a whole other blog post. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Reading...
... The Painted Bridge by Wendy Wallace.

I forget whether it was my Mum or my Nan who gave this to me when I was down in Wales (Mum, if you're reading this, please remind me if it was you). It's set during the Victorian era and is about a woman whose husband has her labelled as hysterical and committed to an institution. I'm a little over halfway through and it's really compelling reading, I've had a couple of late nights reading it.

Recovering...
... from a party at the weekend.

And I wasn't even invited to it.

I'll tell you about that one tomorrow too.

Preparing...
... for NaNoWriMo!

It's just around the corner, guys!

I've got a little fledgling idea slowly growing its feathers. I've got the 1st of November booked off work. I've rediscovered a chat room that I used to hang out it. I'm feeling that traditional NaNo buzz starting to build.

Now I just need a title. And my characters need names. And I need to figure out how it's going to end. And what's going to happen in the middle. And most of the beginning too.

But it's going to be awesome!

Are you NaNoing this year? Any weird things you're pondering this evening? Reading something good?

Share it in the comments.

Books 75 & 76 of 2015: Fushigi Yugi The Mysterious Play, 1. Priestess by Yuu Watase & The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Way back at the end of October last year I was pretty busy. I was a solid month into a new role at work, and I was gearing up for our first frozen embryo transfer. My friend at work discovered that I'd never really read a graphic novel or any Manga and so set about trying to educate me.

The first of these two books that she lent me was Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play, 1. Priestess by Yuu Watase, which I decided to read for Week 43 of the Reading Challenge, under a book by an author you've never read before (because I'd definitely never read anything by this author before).

Miaka finds a mysterious book and somehow ends up inside the pages in the Universe of the Four Gods. Suddenly she's a Priestess and she has to round up her Celestial Warriors, all the while dealing with the fact that there's a guy she likes and she's just a regular Earth girl really.

I found this book easier to read than I was expecting. I'd already had a primer from Hannah on how to actually read this book (i.e. back to front compared to the books I usually read) but the book came with a helpful diagram on the back so you knew what you were doing.

It was 208 pages long but it didn't take me too long to read. I read a few pages in bed before I switched out the light, then read the rest in about an hour and a half the following morning when I couldn't sleep.

To be honest, Miaka was a little bit annoying, but then again, she's probably a fairly realistic fifteen year old. She was pretty obsessed with guys and how everyone else saw her, so a teenager.

I've seen Manga and Manga-style images before online, I do quite like the Manga versions of Harry Potter characters. There was a mix of cartoon styles in this book. Most of them were what I think of as Manga, but then there were some smaller images smattering the pages in what I think is a Chibi style. I preferred the regular pictures to the cutesy ones. I'd love to see this book on glossy paper and in colour.

Hannah did warn me when she gave me this book that it was the first in a series, but I still think it's kind of sneaky how it sets up all the story and then ends, leaving you to get the next book in the series to find out what comes next. Then again, I think that's how they were originally published, it's kind of like the old Victorian stories in The Strand where they're serialised to keep you buying.

Throughout the story are little notes from the author, which felt like little blog posts as she checked in on her readers. I'm not sure if it's just the translation but in a couple of them she came across as a little bit smug. Then again, she was a young writer/artist who had got her work published, so she's allowed to be smug.

I followed this up with The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. It was originally a novel but it has been adapted into a graphic novel by Peter B. Gillis, illustrated by Renae De Liz and Rey Dillon. This book is about the last unicorn in the world who sets off on a mission to save all the other unicorns who have been caught and held prisoner by the Red Bull.

I really love the pictures in this book. They were so beautifully drawn that it was almost like watching a movie. Case in point:

I was aware that there was a film, thanks to my friend and her sister gushing about it, but it wasn't until I actually read the graphic novel that I discovered there's an original novel as well. I really feel like I need to read this some time. Apparently Christopher Lee was a massive fan and lent his voice to the film when it was made. He has a habit of doing that with his favourite books I've noticed.

I will admit that I found this book a little tricky to follow in places. I think it'd be easier to follow if you were already familiar with the story through the novel or the film. I can't help but feel that this is a comic which is written for the fans more than anyone else.

My two favourites in this story were the character of Schmendrick, he's just sort of sweet, and the butterfly at the beginning, with his poetry and Shakespeare references. I can't actually remember what the poetry and references were to now, but I made a note in my book journal that I liked him for them.

This book has made me curious about other graphic novels. I know that there's one of The Hobbit that I've always kind of avoided, but now part of me would really like to get my hands on it. It's got Tolkien's name on the cover so no doubt it will happen sooner or later. I'd also like to read the source novel for this story and perhaps some of Beagle's other books as well.

On the whole, I really enjoyed this one. It's always nice to discover something new.

The Diet

Since the start of the year I've been saying I want to lose some weight. I'll start with good intentions, shed a few pounds, have a bad day or two, binge on chocolate or something, then put it all back on again.

I've had some success, but with the knowledge that our next fresh cycle will be in February, I knew I really had to get my skates on if I was going to hit my target of 9 stone, 7 pounds by the end of the year. An even larger goal, one which I was originally intending to move onto if I'd hit my target by partway through the year, was to get down to 9 stone total.

I think part of my problem in the past has been trying to lose too much, too fast.

You either lose a lot, hit a plateau and get discouraged. Or you don't lose it as quickly as you have hoped, get discouraged because you've given up all the good stuff and it's made no difference, and console yourself with a nice bar of chocolate. Either way, it's no good.

Last week Mr Click and I officially started our diet, though I'm hesitant to actually call it a diet since it's more of a 'cutting out the crap' kind of thing. I'm not living on lettuce and cabbage leaves. I'm not drinking fancy smoothies. I'm not eating like a cave man. I'm just cutting out the snacking and stuff that I don't really need to eat.

I've set myself two targets. Firstly, to be at 9st, 7lbs by Christmas Day. Secondly, to be at 9st (or near as damn it) by the beginning of February. That gives me a total of 19 weeks to lose 14lbs. That means 1lb per week, with five 'comfort' weeks (for things like periods and Christmas).

I'm off to a good start. At this week's weigh in I'm down 2lbs!

And how am I doing it?

Well, having Mr Click alongside me is helping. He's aiming to lose less than I am, but just having someone else in the house who is working towards a similar goal makes a difference. He's been very good about not restocking our snack cupboard with lots of chocolate and instead getting slightly healthier snacks for us to share, like popcorn.

Plus we can spur one another on.

When I've had a bad day, he's able to tell me it's okay to have a chocolate digestive biscuit at bedtime, or make me a hot chocolate because he knows that's what I need. He's been walking with me more as well, which is making it slightly easier to drag myself out of bed on these darker mornings because I know I'm not heading outdoors alone.

The other thing that's helping is having a food tracker in my Bullet Journal again.

The last time I used one of these I had it as a month long thing and I got the feeling I wasn't getting the best use out of it, but couldn't figure out exactly how to change it. I've got another blog post planned about my Bullet Journal so I'll not say too much about it now, but suffice to say, I'd adapted it into a weekly overview.

It's amazing how just writing down what you're eating makes you so much more aware of it.

And on a completely ridiculous note, I've only got a limited amount of space in each meal box, so I know I can't have too much because there won't be space to record it. It's funny how such little things can influence you.

I celebrated my weight loss yesterday with a handful of Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Segments (I felt I'd earned them after turning down chocolate at work earlier in the week, not once, but twice!) and indulged in both hot chocolate and a digestive biscuit at bedtime.

I'm a week ahead of myself, I can afford to be a little bit bad before I do it all over again next week.

Silent Sunday: Bucket

TV Series Review: Criminal Minds, Series 8

Remember that ill-fated trip to Ayr when the car Mr Click and I were travelling in broke down?

Well, while we were there we picked up Series 8 of Criminal Minds as we were fast approaching the end of our seven series boxset and it worked out about the same price in HMV as it was on Amazon. And we've just finished watching it.

We sort of binge-watched the first seven series which was fine because I've seen them all before. This time around we took a little slower, we watched one episode a night mainly to make them last.

I'm not sure if perhaps I'm getting a little more sensitive in my old age, or if there's really been a shift in this series, but I felt like these episodes were a lot darker. As with the earlier episodes there was a mix of the more psychological cases alongside the more gory ones; both are disturbing in their own way. It seemed like there was an increase in the number of episodes which were like something out of the Saw films; series killers with elaborate rooms for torturing their victims.

As I said, perhaps I'm getting more sensitive, but it felt like there were an awful lot more of these disturbing episodes which stuck with you long after you finished watching. One in particular was the fourth episode 'God Complex' in which a man is abducting people to transplant their legs from person to another. Even now just thinking about it makes me feel weird and this was one of the tamer ones.

This series did see a slight change in the line up. Prentiss is gone again, this time without any fanfare and the series begins with Garcia and Morgan having just returned from visiting her in London. As normal, I was prepared not to like the new character who was 'replacing' her.

This new character is Dr. Alex Blake, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, and she's a linguistics expert, something which Reid has dabbled in in the past. I was torn between not wanting to like her and being thrilled to see linguistics getting a mention on the show. As it happened, from the moment she first sparred with Garcia, I couldn't help but like her.

There are a couple of arcs that run through the series. The first is all about Spencer Reid. He's been corresponding with a woman named Maeve who has withdrawn from the world due to a stalker. Of course, it can't end well and the resulting case is one which Reid brings before his BAU colleagues.

Maeve's final episode sees her dying in front of Reid and I hated the writers for this episode. She was perfect for him and it actually hurt to see his happiness taken away from him. Personally I would've been happy for this to be a series long arc, rather than a mid-series one, with a cliffhanger ending, providing we got a happy ending at the start of series nine.

The other arc which ran through most of the series was the Replicator case. This saw a serial killer recreating the BAU's cases to get to them. Eventually it's revealed that the Replicator is not only on the inside, he's also Luke Skywalker!

When this last bit was revealed I gasped so loudly that I woke up the dog and she got all worried. I honestly was not expecting that!

It also led to the departure of Erin Strauss, which I honestly wasn't too fussed about as I never really cared for that character for a great deal.

On the whole, it was a good series. It did what it set out to do, showing a wide variety of disturbing serial killers and following the methods used by the BAU to catch them. The main thing I enjoy with series such as this is playing along as I watch, trying to figure out who the bad guy is.

It's just that the series got to me a little more than past series did. I don't remember feeling this way about the older series, so perhaps it's a shift in the storytelling method. We've just got the next two series and I've already put in a request for us not to be watching them when we start treatment next year. I'm really grateful that we're watching Scrubs right before bed otherwise I think perhaps there'd be a few nightmares.

I'll let you know whether I still feel the same at the end of series nine.

Chapter-by-Chapter: New Moon, Chapter 20

I was reading an interesting thing about vampires and Italy this morning. Someone online was pointing out that Italy is really the worst place for vampires to live what with the sunlight and all the crosses everywhere.

Really lucky the Twilight vampires don't have these problems.

This week's chapter is called Volterra, which is obviously where Bella and Alice arrived in last week's chapter.

What Happens?

It's a bit touch and go but Bella and Alice make it into Volterra. The city is absolutely packed for the festival and it takes Bella a while to fight her way through the crowds where she finally reunites with Edward. Unfortunately the Volturi guards have some plans for the little gang after their heartwarming reunion.

Thoughts as I read:

I'm guessing from the chapter title that most of the action is going to take place in Volterra, but then again, a couple of chapters ago there was one called 'Funeral' and none of that took place at a funeral, so let's not get too excited.

There's a congested narrow road into the city and it's taking a while to get in there. Bella does what she does best and whines at Alice about the length of time this is taking.

"Alice," I whispered urgently.

"I know," she said. Her face was chiseled from ice.

I'm not sure I understand this. Is Alice cold? Shiny and semi-translucent? Melting?

Bella's momentarily distracted by watching lots of red flags and streamers blowing in the wind. Alice has to tell Bella that the guard might not let Alice in, which means Bella will have to go on alone and just keep on asking for the Palazzo dei Priori. And hopefully learn enough Italian in the next five minutes to be able to follow the directions she is given after saying this.

The Palazzo dei Priori is the clock tower and that's where Edward will be waiting to make his grand, and sparkly, entrance.

Alice ignores the guard who is telling her she can't go into the car park. That is until he taps on the window and tells her that it's only for tour buses and she'll have to park outside. Alice happily waves of gloved hand out of the window, presumably to demonstrate that she doesn't sparkle in the sunlight, but also to bribe the guard with a roll of money. The outermost note is a thousand dollar bill, which according to Wikipedia isn't actually a circulating note. Any Americans care to update me here?

The guard is baffled too, since he's asking 'is this a joke?' and quite frankly, I think it might well be. Clearly Alice is trying to glamour this guy into accepting fake money in order to let them park where they like.

And it works.

The guard doesn't seem to care that the money he's just accepted isn't legal tender and he waves Alice on into the city. Of course, they probably would've done better to just travel by foot since the roads are cobbled, narrow and filled with people walking. Their progress to the Palazzo dei Priori is not going quickly.

Eventually Alice tells Bella to just get out and head for the clock tower. She also mutters something about someone being everywhere. I'm guessing the 'they' she's speaking about are the Volturi guards who are anticipating trouble so are being extra alert.

Bella gets out the car and runs...

... straight into a wall of flesh.

And I've been watching way too much Criminal Minds recently because my mental image there wasn't of a crowd of people.

Anyway, Bella can't get through the crowd and the people it comprises of aren't impressed with her attempts to squeeze through. Finally a gap opens in the crowd and Bella is able to squeeze through. She winds up running through the fountain which gets her dripping wet and means that people on the other side of the fountain are a lot more willing to let her pass through.

When the clock tower bell starts chiming, Bella starts screaming for Edward and with each strike of the Bella we get another glimpse at the people in the crowd surrounding Bella. Until finally Bella spots Edward and realises that he can't see her.

Edward stood, motionless as a statue, just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. His eyes were closed, the rings underneath them deep purple, his arms relaxed at his sides, his palms turned forward. His expression was very peaceful, like he was dreaming pleasant things. The marble skin of his chest was bare - there was a small pile of white fabric at his feet. The light reflecting from the pavement of the square gleamed dimly from his skin.

Somehow Bella manages to barrel forwards and throws herself into Edward. He's a little bemused to see her there and it soon becomes apparent that he seems to think he's died once and for all. It takes Bella a couple of goes before it actually dawns on him that he's not dead, Bella's really there and they're now in a spot of danger because he was about to reveal himself to the assembled crowd, which the Volturi will be less than pleased about.

And speak of the devils, erm... vampires. Two men appear out of the gloom behind Edward. He tells the one called Felix that he's not broken any rules but they want to take him with them anyway. Bella is told to run along and have some fun, but since she obviously knows about Edward's situation, Felix and his pal invite her along for the ride too. She's not allowed to go free as that will violate their rules.

Oh and the other guy is called Demetri and he's keen for Edward to take up Aro's invitation to join the guard. Edward's now got other plans since the mere sight of Bella has cured him of his suicidal tendencies.

Then Alice shows up.

And her presence seems to help. The two guards are suddenly aware of the fact that there are people just down the open end of the alleyway who are blissfully unaware of the presence of vampires in their midst and realise they'd rather not do anything to change that belief.

There's a bit of posturing or something and then a child-sized woman named Jane shows up. They all follow her. As they walk along in her wake, Edward speaks to Alice about how she came to be there and we get a little recap of what Bella was up to prior to this point. Until they get to a hole in the street and Alice disappears down it.

Bella follows her, after some urging from Edward, where Alice catches her at the bottom. A second later Edward is down too and gives Bella a reassuring kiss and cuddle. Aww.

Bella's getting steadily more dramatic as we continue as well. They're walking off to meet their death and all that jazz. Except that's highly unlikely because we've got two more books to go. Then again, death clearly isn't a major handicap in the Twilight-verse.

We follow them along the corridor as it slopes steadily downwards, until they reach the thick door at the end of it. And the chapter ends as they all step through.

Jumping the Gun

Back last week when we saw Dr L., I raised the question of getting the ball rolling for IVF Fresh Cycle 2.5 in February 2017.

She had no problems with this, even going so far as to agree with us that we didn't need the stress of the weather affecting our treatment. Totally justified as at the weekend this was the message against our sailings from Friday onwards:

Now imagine seeing that when you've got a scan to check on your follicle growth, or worse, you've taken your trigger shot and have to be at the hospital in exactly twelve hours time. Yeah, waiting until the spring is definitely the right choice here.

Dr L. said that in order to book this magical February cycle all I would need to do is call and leave a message for J. to let her know our intention to start up in February. She did follow this up with the caveat that we probably wouldn't be able to book that until early January.

But I'm not going to let a little thing like that deter me.

So I called up in my lunch break at work last Thursday. To be fair, I did completely forget about it until the end of my first break, so it wasn't quite top of my list of things to do.

When you call the hospital they have a very helpful automated system where you punch in various numbers depending on whether you want to make an outpatient appointment (hang up and redial this other number), the nurses, the doctors, the medical secretary, book a treatment cycle, yada yada yada. Occasionally they rearrange them, just to keep you on your toes.

I selected the option for booking a treatment cycle and left a message. I got a call back the very next day. Impressive, since I'm still waiting for a call back from the nurses to discuss stopping the drugs for my last cycle (don't worry, I figured out by myself that I was probably good to stop them four months ago).

It was from J. and she sounded slight exasperated and rather amused that I was so ahead of schedule. It would appear that they can book schedules three months in advance, so I'm jumping the gun rather. The gist of the call is that I should phone back at the start of December to get ourselves slotted in.

I've already marked the date I'm calling in my Bullet Journal.