What I read in October 2023

I've now read 53 books in 2023 and with 9 weeks to go till the end of the year, that will bring my total up to 61. I'm quite impressed with myself that I've managed to keep it going this well and this long.

In 2022 I challenged myself to only buy clothes that were necessary, rather than just wanted and I've managed to keep going with that this year also.

I need a new challenge for 2024, I['m fundraising for Birmingham Children's Hospital in November walking 3 miles a day, maybe that's a challenge I could complete every day in 2024, unless anyone else has any ideas?

Finally finished in October, having started it in June and attempted again in September Tess of the d'Ubervilles. I've still to finish Don Quixote - Cervantes (from February). I also ploughed my way through Jane Austin's Emma and enjoyed some light reading with Marian Keyes - Grown Ups.

For the rest of the year I'm sticking to modern books and steering clear of the classics, although there is a re read of A Streetcar named Desire and constant re reading of Frankenstein, The Great Gatsby and King Lear to keep up with the students studying A Level English Literature.

`I've decided to keep the book a week challenge going throughout 2024, regardless of whether I'm still involved with 6th form or working with years 7-11 and reading Of Mice and Men, Animal Farm and  Macbeth for the millionth time.

Most of the books I read are from friends and family and they get passed around. I also borrow books from the library and read recommended books in school. I've a bag of books to swop with my cousin in Brighton later this month when we visit.

So far this year I've read the following:

January

Lord of the Flies - William Golding. Re read from O level days

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee. One of those books everyone should read

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. Re read from O level days

Off Mice and Men - John Steinbeck. Re read from O level days

Macbeth - Shakespeare. Re read from O level days

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood. Never watched the TV series, but the book was brillant

A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams. One we all think we know till we read it.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly. The hardest book I've read to date, takes ages to get going through a series of letters.

February

Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome. Loved this book so much, a travel guide to the Thames.

Good Eggs - Rebecca Hardiman. Light and easy read.

March

Pippi Longstockings - Astrid Lindgren. A childhood favourite.

Five on a Treasure Island - Enid Blyton. A childhood favourite.

The Tempest - Shakespeare. Read the summary first to get an understanding of the plot, characters came to life.

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson. A bit boring, had to persevere.

April

Agatha Raisin Terrible Tourist - M. C. Beaton. Quick read in a day.

Anything Could Happen - Lucy Diamond. A life that could've gone either way, all the 'what ifs?'

Home Truths - Susan Lewis. Dealing with your husbands murder and blaming your son who then becomes a missing person.

The Wild Roses - D.B. Carter Three friends in the mid 80's making different choices and following the paths they lead.

Oranges are not the only fruit - Jeanette Winterson. Absolutely loved the BBC drama with Charlotte Coleman back in 1991. A young woman growing up with the church and not conforming with mothers expectations of her.

The Enemy - Lee Child. Exploring Reachers military days.

May

Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe. My fathers book given to him by his Granny in 1947.

Restoring Grace - Katie Fforde. Easy read about lost love and new beginnings.

Follow Me Home - Cathy Woodman. A light hearted story about finding new love.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell. Hard to get going, but once engaged the pages just raced past.

When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kaplanithi. Pauls' story as a Neurologist discovering he has brain cancer, how he deals with the treatment, life and ultimately his death.

Five Go Adventuring Again - Enid Blyton. I've been reading this book alongside a mentee in school and we've been comparing childhood with the now and the then.

June

Postmortem - Patricia Cornwell - Making sure my windows are locked during the hot weather

Blue Moon - Lee Child - Quite a lot of graphic violence but good plot line

The Hobbit - J R R Tolkien Very different to my childhood memory of reading this book, probably because all I can see now as I read are the characters as they were portrayed on TV

Malory Towers - Enid Blyton 'Your people are here' Parents arrive to collect their daughter from boarding school

July

The American Dream 1965 - Norman Mailer A very violent read, stuck with it as it is relevant to the A Level curriculum

F. Scott Fitzgerald - Andre Le Vot More of a book to reference and understand

August

Again, Rachel - Marion Keyes I've read these books completely out of order.

Blow Fly - Patricia Cornwall Read out of order, her niece, Lucy is now an adult and playing an active role in the case.

The missing years - Lexie Elliot A proper page turner, read in a day.

No Plan B - Lee Child Typical Reacher

Past tense - Lee Child The story seemed so disjointed but typical Reacher.

The invisible man - HG Wells Hard reading

It started with Paris - Cathy Kelly  Following several families as they suffer loss, find love and intertwine

Head over heels - Jill Mansell Pop star discovers he'd fathered a child on moving to a new town and meeting and falling in love with his ex.

Perfect timing - Jill Mansell Jilted her husband to be at the night before the wedding then goes off to find her true love.

Stone Town  - Margaret Hickey Australian murder set in an old Gold Rush town outside Adelaide

A random act of kindness - Sophie Jenkins Searching for love running a vintage market stall

Her last holiday - C L Taylor Fran is searching for answers to her sisters disappearance at a retreat in Greece.

Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty Set in a retreat in Australia, 9 strangers locked in a plot with twists and turns

The Unhoneymooners - Christina Lauren An odd couple thrown together on a romantic honeymoon pretending to be their siblings.

September

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald A man seeking to be someone he'll never really be.

POSH - Laura Wade Based on the Bullingdon Club, an all male dining club at Oxford University.

The Dark Room - Sam Blake Set in Ireland, solving an old crime.

King Lear - Shakespeare A tragedy as King Lear prepares for his death.

Kuala Lumpur in August 2023

After our 5 weeks in Australia, we had a stop over in Kuala Lumpur. It was our first visit and it met our expectations.

Travel for us is different since we became expats, we travel more and travel further and often arrive 'blind' someone where and work things out as we go. All I knew about KL was the Petronus Towers and the painted steps, Batu Caves.

View from the hotel rooftop

View from KL Tower

We arrived at 6am and couldn't check into our hotel until 2pm. So we stayed at the airport for coffee, got SIM cards and waited till daylight around 8.30am before getting a taxi.

Taxi's are prepaid in KL, there's a desk in arrivals, the price is fixed and you had the receipt in at a kiosk outside and they summon a car for you. We did the same at our hotel on trips out and for our return trip.

The airport was about 1 hour away and the taxi cost £20. The infrastructure in KL is really good, with multiple lanes, tolls and underground and over ground trains and numerous buses. Crossing the road was tricky due to the number of mopeds which also blocked the pavements which in themselves were a bit of a trip hazard.

We stayed near Bukit Nanas and the Street food was at Bukit Bintang

We left our luggage in the hotel and went to a mall over the road for food and drink, then on foot we explored the local area. After checking in and unpacking, we headed up to the roof top pool. 

Our hotel and pool viewed from KL Tower

Hotel roof top view

View from the bedroom

We went out in the evening to the largest street food area in Asia. We ate there two nights and the food was amazing. Each restaurant had a frog menu that we avoided and the streets stank of Durian fruit, which I can confirm tastes as bad as it smells, like rotten onions.

There were warning signs everywhere for fines for bringing Durian fruit into hotel rooms, on trains etc.

The second day we got a taxi to the Batu Caves. I'd recommend going as early as you can, due to the humidity and by the time we left at midday the place was filling up with tourist buses.

A couple of things I'd advise you don't do at the Batu Caves. Use the toilets or eat the food, it wasn't the hygienist of places. Buying bottled drinks or wrapped ice creams wasn't a good idea either as there were 100's of monkeys swopping in and grabbing items from tourists, literally straight out the mouths of small children, it was quite frightening.

There's no charge to go up the steps or into the caves, but a fee for entering the temples. You didn't need to wear any special clothing on the steps or caves, only in the temples where legs and arms couldn't be on show.

There were instagrammers everywhere trying to tell us not to walk up certain parts to ruin their photos

We caught the train back to our hotel, which cost around £2, the taxi out was about £5.

The third and final day was spent visiting the KL Tower, a bird sanctuary and a butterfly park. it rained but it was very welcomed, no need for waterproofs. We also had fun at the Upside Down House.

Upside down

The right way up

Taxi to the airport and a 14 hour flight home. We'd fly Air Malaysia again, but would make sure we bought our own food.

Post Comment Love 13th-15th October 2023

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from Bosworth.Life  and I.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week and all we ask is that you leave a comment on either mine or Stephanie's post which you linked up through and at least one other post. We'd also love it if you could RT us on Twitter when we tag you to help us reach a wider audience.

It's been a busy and emotional few weeks with MIL staying with us after a health scare and having to have the dog put down The house seems rather empty now with just the two of us and our 14 year old cat, we're having a couple of days 'down time' before we do some rearranging and get used to the extra space. 

I still can't get used to coming home and not being greeted by the dog and I've kept the walking up, just empty handed.

I had fun at youth club on Wednesday where I volunteer with decorating cup cakes and I've been gathering supplies for Halloween parties with my grandchildren.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the next few days. 

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Unusual things we saw in Australia

Some of these things maybe common to you as you may live here or have visited previously. We're used to things being different as we've lived in both South Africa and Dubai, but we still found these things unusual to us. 

We arrived in Australia the 24th July and spent a week in Melbourne, then flew to Proserpine to spend a week in the Whitsundays where we visited the Great Barrier Reef, then onto Sydney for a week, 2 days in the Hunter Valley, 3 nights in Nelson Bay followed by our last 3 nights on Bondi Beach. We flew home via 4 nights in Kuala Lumpur. We also saw quite an array of wildlife.

In no particular order:

Fruit flavoured chocolate and 'clinkers' not something I'd associate with chocolate.

Coke cans in the UK are 330ml.

They brought the home of James Cook's parents to Australia, brick by brick.

Cruise ships in the City.

Gets the message across.

'Drive on the left' signs some 2 and a half hours from Melbourne.

Designated beaches in case of wildfires for refuge.

Yep, it was hot.

Helicopter landing pads 45 miles out to sea in the Pacific Ocean.

Watch out for Kangaroos.

Koala's ahead or 'drop bears'

These Gymea Lily.

Not only 9 hours ahead but a different season. We've seen Magnolia in the UK spring and again in Australia.

Bottles of vinegar on the beach with warnings of hazardous stingers.

Pole dancing clubs at night, doubling as family restaurants in the day.

Standing = parking/stopping.

A model village of Stratford upon Avon.

The houses are very narrow.

We did see two snakes on this trip and both we're on public footpaths near the coast.

I'm sure a lot of the things on this list have been seen by many, but to us they were slightly amusing or worrying.

Week 40 - One Daily Positive and Project 365 2023.

The house has been empty without Bob, all our routines have changed, no more tripping over him when preparing food, no more being stared at when eating and no more cuddles and the smell of dog in the house. It looks empty without him, no bed, no blankets and a spare cupboard in the kitchen where we kept his food.

After 6 years of tests and cancer investigations I've been signed off from the haematology department with 'you just have an elevated platelet count' All tests have been blood led and I've been symptom free other than severe fatigue and breathlessness. Blood test from Monday shows ferritin in normal range, but I've been getting tired and out of breath over the past few weeks and I've lost weight. Been told to just go back to the GP.

The ophthalmology department have signed me off also, but referred me to neurology to find out the cause of the double vision that comes and goes. I'm fed up of all this now.

Mother in Law received a diagnosis on Tuesday and her condition can be managed with medication which is excellent news.

275 Sunday Bloody alarm went off and I was up at 6.30am. Looked through photos of Bob and wrote up a blog post or two. I was bawling my eyes out. I can't believe Bob is not here anymore. Peter stayed in bed unwell after his covid jab having not recovered from his flu jab the week before. I took MIL for a coffee. I went on my first dog walk without the dog and kept myself busy all day with ironing, gardening, and cleaning dog hairs out the car. Evening spent in front of TV with my laptop.

276 Monday A hard day in work, popped out for a blood test for half an hour. Home by 4pm. My friend who I used to walk Bob with, with her and her dog, during covid called round with flowers and a gift. Evening spent reading, blogging and watched TV.

277 Tuesday Up early and finally finished my blog comments, just my own to reply to now and schedule a few posts for #PoCoLo. Peter took his mum for her hospital tests. I was going to cycle to work but it was too windy, so Peter dropped me off and I got a lift home. Watched a production of King Lear so I can keep up with the A level study with my student. A student swore at me today, it doesn't bother me, other than the fact I was asked to provide evidence before any action is taken.

278 Wednesday The day at work seemed to go on forever and everyone was fed up of hearing me ask 'what day is it?' The student from yesterday was still in lessons, when a teacher is sworn at it's an immediate exclusion. I've been questioning it been told I need evidence. I walked into to met Peter and MIL for coffee. Blogged, read and watched TV.

We've been waiting for my Nephews baby to be born since September 21st. MIL has been knitting.

279 Thursday Into work, still nothing done about the student, then off to Worcester Royal Hospital for an ophthalmology appointment, then back to work. Originally I was seeing the Haematologist for my first face to face appointment but it was changed to a phone call in the afternoon. Evening spent in front of the TV. Got a few blog posts scheduled.

280 Friday Home from work via my monthly Death Cafe group, then home to sit int he garden and read. Friend round with chips in the evening and we had a good cry over Bob.

It's Peters birthday day and our great niece arrived in the early hours.

281 Saturday Peter dropped me at the retail park to get my nails done then went onto Gloucester to visit child 1. It's really strange walking these routes without Bob for company.

I'll need to rethink my walks, always felt safe with Bob.

On the blog this week:

Saying goodbye to Bob the Dog

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