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Jan. 1st, 2014 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljHappy 2014! I spent a quiet one seeing the new year in. Graham stayed up for his new year and a bit after that but was tired so i sent him to bed. I watched a bit of tv and then read until just after midnight. I could hear some of the fireworks but can't see any of them from here. 2013 wasn't a bad year. Certainly had some great things including my quick trip to Manchester in January to go to the Corrie set with the Coronation Street Bloggers though getting home was a bit of a trial. Our visit to New York in May was really good too! Then the events that led up to the hysterectomy in August and recovery for a couple of months. Touch wood, they think they got all the bad stuff and I'll be going for regular checks for 5 years. Let's hope this was caught early enough that it's not going to have any other impact. Graham had some problems on Christmas eve and is recovering. It's a worry for me but he assures me he's ok, just a bit sore still.
Work... they reorganized again and I'll be under a new manager by the end of January. I would have been anyway because my old one retired. We'll see how this all works out.
Cross bits, all the family seems to be healthy and happy. My niece gets married in August so we're all looking forward to that.
84 Bizarre London - David Long
Little tid bits of odd trivia about London. Things like haunted houses, hidden rivers, brothels, murders, odd events, it's a behind the scenes and history and little known facts of London. Good fun.
85 An Unlikely Witch - Debora Geary
I devour her books and this was just as good or better than the last one! This one centers around Nat, the non-witch wife of Jamie. She can't seem to get pregnant and from an early vision, they are both expecting to have a little boy. How can they if she can't conceive and there doesn't seem to be a reason why not. The healers dig deep, Nat and Jamie are having a difficult time with it. Meanwhile, the witch community are all buzzing and excited about the upcoming solstice and trying to find the perfect "dream come true" gift for the person whose name each has drawn. It's an emotional book that had me in tears at the end, in a good way of course as all her books have wonderful endings.
86 The Preacher - Camilla Lackberg
A body is found murdered and buried over two other older skeletons. Patrik Hedstrom must dig deep to find the murderer. The Hult family present and past keep coming into it but which one is the killer? Meanwhile, Patrik's partner Erika is taking on the brunt of taking care of their new baby and has to deal with unwanted houseguests and her sister's domestic problems. Erika is relegated to being a tired, unhappy minor character rather then the strong interesting one she was in the first book, the Ice Princess. I wasn't as happy with this book as with the first of the series. We'll see how the third in the set I have works out.
87 Clockwork Angels - Kevin J Anderson and Neil Peart
Neil Peart is one of the members of the band Rush. They wrote and produced a new CD recently with a theme, Clockwork Angels and Neil and Kevin J Anderson got together to work a story around the musical theme and created this book. It is about Owen, who has grown up in a little village just like all the other villages in Albion, a country controlled by the Watchmaker, who can control everything down to the weather due to coldfire and alchemy. Owen would love to see the world but is expected to continue to be the orchard assistant and marry Lavinia. But one night, when Lavinia doesn't show up when invited for a midnight kiss in the orchard, Owen impulsively jumps on a steam airship to Crown City where the Clockwork Angels announce their philosphies and his adventure begins. He joins a carnival, he travels to the end of the known world and beyond, he finds that he is being used as a pawn between the Watchmaker and the Anarchist who is trying to break the control of the Watchmaker. Owen must decide if he should follow the Stability that the Watchmaker provides or find his own road. It's quite good. The lyrics to all the cd songs are at the back too so you can see how it was worked into a story.
No resolutions, I just try to be open to trying or doing new things. That includes going new places I've not been or just visiting a new gallery or museum. Any of it is a new experience to be tried, a new possibility. Having the major surgery is kind of new. I've had minor surgery in the past but nothing like this. It wasn't something i had a choice in but it certainly was a new experience! I'd been to New York before but this time got to see a lot more of it including the Guggenheim and the Air and Space museum on an aircraft carrier! That was very neat. We also saw a Broadway show which I did not do last time because it was only a day trip that time.
This year we're planning another trip to Paris but we'll be doing day trips, tentatively to Giverny, Rouen and Bayeux to see the famed tapestry. Planning on a weekend in London on the way back, with a visit to the Tower as G. has not been there and would like to see it, and also maybe try to take in a show. If London works out as it should, we'll be there over the Easter weekend.
Work... they reorganized again and I'll be under a new manager by the end of January. I would have been anyway because my old one retired. We'll see how this all works out.
Cross bits, all the family seems to be healthy and happy. My niece gets married in August so we're all looking forward to that.
84 Bizarre London - David Long
Little tid bits of odd trivia about London. Things like haunted houses, hidden rivers, brothels, murders, odd events, it's a behind the scenes and history and little known facts of London. Good fun.
85 An Unlikely Witch - Debora Geary
I devour her books and this was just as good or better than the last one! This one centers around Nat, the non-witch wife of Jamie. She can't seem to get pregnant and from an early vision, they are both expecting to have a little boy. How can they if she can't conceive and there doesn't seem to be a reason why not. The healers dig deep, Nat and Jamie are having a difficult time with it. Meanwhile, the witch community are all buzzing and excited about the upcoming solstice and trying to find the perfect "dream come true" gift for the person whose name each has drawn. It's an emotional book that had me in tears at the end, in a good way of course as all her books have wonderful endings.
86 The Preacher - Camilla Lackberg
A body is found murdered and buried over two other older skeletons. Patrik Hedstrom must dig deep to find the murderer. The Hult family present and past keep coming into it but which one is the killer? Meanwhile, Patrik's partner Erika is taking on the brunt of taking care of their new baby and has to deal with unwanted houseguests and her sister's domestic problems. Erika is relegated to being a tired, unhappy minor character rather then the strong interesting one she was in the first book, the Ice Princess. I wasn't as happy with this book as with the first of the series. We'll see how the third in the set I have works out.
87 Clockwork Angels - Kevin J Anderson and Neil Peart
Neil Peart is one of the members of the band Rush. They wrote and produced a new CD recently with a theme, Clockwork Angels and Neil and Kevin J Anderson got together to work a story around the musical theme and created this book. It is about Owen, who has grown up in a little village just like all the other villages in Albion, a country controlled by the Watchmaker, who can control everything down to the weather due to coldfire and alchemy. Owen would love to see the world but is expected to continue to be the orchard assistant and marry Lavinia. But one night, when Lavinia doesn't show up when invited for a midnight kiss in the orchard, Owen impulsively jumps on a steam airship to Crown City where the Clockwork Angels announce their philosphies and his adventure begins. He joins a carnival, he travels to the end of the known world and beyond, he finds that he is being used as a pawn between the Watchmaker and the Anarchist who is trying to break the control of the Watchmaker. Owen must decide if he should follow the Stability that the Watchmaker provides or find his own road. It's quite good. The lyrics to all the cd songs are at the back too so you can see how it was worked into a story.
No resolutions, I just try to be open to trying or doing new things. That includes going new places I've not been or just visiting a new gallery or museum. Any of it is a new experience to be tried, a new possibility. Having the major surgery is kind of new. I've had minor surgery in the past but nothing like this. It wasn't something i had a choice in but it certainly was a new experience! I'd been to New York before but this time got to see a lot more of it including the Guggenheim and the Air and Space museum on an aircraft carrier! That was very neat. We also saw a Broadway show which I did not do last time because it was only a day trip that time.
This year we're planning another trip to Paris but we'll be doing day trips, tentatively to Giverny, Rouen and Bayeux to see the famed tapestry. Planning on a weekend in London on the way back, with a visit to the Tower as G. has not been there and would like to see it, and also maybe try to take in a show. If London works out as it should, we'll be there over the Easter weekend.
