Book lost

Remember I was making a book list?  My top twenty books?  And I lost the list?  Well, I've been thinking about it again.  (I think about books a lot. I'm surrounded by them, so there's no escape even if I wanted to escape. There are bookcases in every room except the bathrooms, but I don't want to escape to a bathroom.)

So anyway, the list. I think I'm up to number 17. I think. And it's this:

All the Light We Cannot See. All I can say is that it made me cry.  Please read it.  

Change - if only!

I'm very dissatisfied with the format of this blog.  I want to prettify it, personalise it, improve it (okay, I want to upstage my brother and his duringthemeanwhilst.blogspot.co.uk ). 

The problem is that I cannot remember my login details.  At all.  I have no idea what my name is.  (Don't tell my GP!  He'd have me incarcerated in a second.)  As for a password - well, it could be anything.  I didn't used to have a problem.  I used the same password for everything.  Then my brother ( yes him) told me that this was incredibly irresponsible of me because if someone hacked one account, they'd be able to hack them all.  

So I started using different passwords.  I'm sure that I was very inventive (while assuring myself that I'd remember these combinations of words/numbers/lower case/higher case/bla bla bla).  Of course I don't know this for certain - because I can't remember them. 

All this means that I daren't log out of any of my (absolutely essential) social media sites: Facebook (though I keep threatening myself that I'm going to stop); Pinterest (though I keep threatening myself that I'm going to stop); Twitter (though I kee........ You get the idea).  It also means that I can't comment on anybody else's blog, because I don't know my name. Possibly this is a good thing, but I suspect not.  I'd like to comment. I know how much I enjoy the comments that my blog posts get (thank you), and I'd like to reciprocate. 

However, I CAN remember the very first password I used - for a long long long ago and now obsolete email address.  It was a German word.  Maybe that's the answer.  

News

I've been distracted.....

By our little red house in Florida

By all things Disney

By New York

By Christmas

And most of all by a wedding 😃😃😃

My wonderful baby son and my equally wonderful, beautiful daughter-in-law.  On a bright sunny warm day in December. In New York. In Central Park.  What a joy.  

So I'm sure I shall be forgiven for not writing in my blog for many weeks.  

Baking on holiday

Who knew that American flour is different from British flour?!  I couldn't understand why my cakes here are not as light and airy as my cakes in the UK :-(. So I have resorted to cake mix.  You know, those packets that have everything in them except egg and oil.  

To my mind this is cheating.  On a grand scale.  No weighing and beating and sieving. Just splosh and stir and bake.  However, it was easy to choose which box to buy:

I'm waiting now to take said mixture out of the oven.....

All I can say is, "Oh dear," and make some icing. 

I miss my UK kitchen. And my sons. And my cat.  Not in that order. 

Thanksgiving

View from my computer

Yes I'm still in bed. It's Thanksgiving, and I am grateful for so many things.  One of them is that I can get up when I want to.  Shall I make a list?

My children. They are the best sons a mummy could wish for.  They have turned into intelligent, kind gentle men.

My husband.  Another gentle man.

My brother (of whom I have written too much already - any more will go to his head).

My friends - you know, those people you can tell anything and they still love you, will tell you when you're being stupid or foolish or nasty, who will say kind things when you need care and understanding, but will always tell you the truth.  

And then you know all the rest - enough to eat and drink, a roof (or two or three) over our heads etc etc.

And the bear?  He's called Lewis.  There are three things that are the best things I ever bought for myself with my own money: a car (I still miss it - a dark blue VW Eos hard top convertible with cream leather interior); Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (bought in Blackwells in Oxford in 1974 - it's just beginning to fall apart!); and Lewis (who is just 7 years old, so he hasn't started falling apart yet).

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Conversation

I'm not very good at keeping my mouth shut.  I mean, I have to have my say, especially if I disagree with someone.  And even more especially if I think they are talking nonsense.  But now I have to belie that here by being very circumspect and keeping my fingers from tapping.  Because the latest recipient of my opinions may read this and I really don't want to hurt feelings.  I really don't.  

BUT he thinks the moon landings are a fiction. I CAN keep quiet.  I can keep quiet....

Here's some photos instead!

Heatwave

We are back in Florida.  In a heatwave.  I had forgotten how hot hot is.  We walked out of the airport to get our car, and I was reminded of those times when you open the oven door and have to stand back because of the heat.  And this was at 9pm!  

But that's not why I'm writing this.  I'm writing this because I've found a new book, and I want everyone to know about it.  It's called Room. By Emma Donaghue.  

I bought it on Tuesday and finished it within 24 hours. It's heart-wrenchingly breathtaking. Literally. I found myself not breathing, with pounding heart and clenched muscles. I had to force myself to put the book down, so that life could happen (which is kind of ironic, as you will know if you read the book). Will it go into my top twenty? It's possible. That's how good it is.

Read it. Please.