Went to Mum and Dad's on a Sunday! We always go at the beginning of the weekend and come back from there on a Sunday, so very confusing... Clare drove us to the station and we headed off on the train as she headed off to pump class. A slow but pleasant and quiet train ride there, the four hours went fairly quickly. Partly because of my new book, "Nothin' But a Good Time: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Glam Metal"1. Yes I have put down the Hilary Mantel yet again, but this time as it is too heavy to carry around and this other one is a paperback that I just bought. I have bought more new books during this time of furlough and gardening leave than I normally would I think. That gives me the excuse to repost my furlough reading list again, even though furlough is really over.
| Author | Book | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|
| Ian Rankin | Westwind1 | Dated thriller, shame. |
| Ian Rankin | Doors Open1 | Really good crime caper in Edinburgh but with no Rebus. |
| Suzanne Collins | The Hunger Games1 | Borrowed from the children, very good. |
| Suzanne Collins | Catching Fire1 | Hunger Games part 2, read this even quicker, a bit darker. |
| Suzanne Collins | Mockingjay1 | Hunger Games part 3, joyless and grim. Very 2020... |
| Karen McManus | One Of Us Is Lying2 | Another one liberated from the children's bookshelf. A Breakfast Club whodunnit, dying to be a film, not at all suitable for a ten year old... |
| Robin Paige | Death at Glamis Castle3 | Edwardian era mystery written by Americans. I read one of these before. Quite atmospheric, though a little twee. Sort of romance / crime. Written in accents, with plenty of "of the time" attitudes. |
| Jed Rubenfield | The Interpretation of Murder4 | A charity shop find, one you always see, have had it kicking around a long time. Historical crime fiction again set in New York 1909, featuring Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Great, but complicated and fairly unlikely! |
| Muriel Spark | Loitering With Intent5 | Branching out a little this time, it's not even a crime. |
| Julie Wassmer | Murder on the Pilgrims Way6 | Going back to the familiar now. Fairly gentle and local crime. Forgot I had this one from when we met the author in Waterstones. Mostly predictable and cosy but I did not get the actual end murderer correct. |
| Reginald Hill | Blood Sympathy7 | Even more familiar, have read this before, but keen to revisit this crime series. Very enjoyable. |
| Robert Webb | Come Again8 | Time travel action rom-com, unfortunately not very good, feels like two unrelated stories in one with no resolution. |
| Reginald Hill | Born Guilty9 | Joe Sixsmith again, hoping I enjoy all of this series as much as the first one. Dated and a little complicated but lots of fun. |
| William Golding | Lord Of The Flies10 | Like I'm doing GCSE English! I had not read this before but we had it in the house. |
| George Orwell | The Road To Wigan Pier11 | Might be a bit bleak but again I already had this one in the house as part of a George Orwell box set. I took a break from this to read my new books. |
| Bill Bryson | Shakespeare12 | Something else we had in, a short read but brilliant. We know almost nothing about Shakespeare. |
| Kate Atkinson | Case Histories13 | Birthday present, have seen these Jackson Brodie stories on TV and liked it a lot. This story is awesome but horribly sad in parts. I think sometimes murder can be sad though. |
| Kate Atkinson | One Good Turn14 | Another birthday one, Jackson Brodie book two, set in Edinburgh. Loving it so far. |
| Arthur Conan Doyle | The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes1 | Read before, but reading again with thing one. |
| Hilary Mantel | The Mirror And The Light1 | Book three of the Wolf Hall trilogy, another birthday present. |
| Richard Osman | The Thursday Murder Club1 | Have paused Wolf Hall to read this one, couldn't wait. Liking it a lot already. |
| Robert Galbraith | Troubled Blood1 | Another Cormoran Strike1, couldn't wait to start it so have paused Hilary Mantel yet again. This is very good. |
| Justin Quirk | Nothin' But A Good Time1 | A history of glam metal, I was lured in to this one. Is OK. |
I will stop this for real when I start my new job on Monday, of which more later.
We had a lovely roast dinner when we got to Mum and Dad's and the boys watched quite a lot of TV and ate a lot of sweets. The next morning I ran a bit and saw no less than five squirrels. I was practically tripping over them. Then off to Gunwharf for a disastrous shopping trip. Was hoping to get thing one a new coat in North Face but he was not interested and they didn't have much boys stuff in. The coat we did like they did not have in his size, and it's now not available online either, must be discontinued. Hope we have more luck in London. More successful was the trip to Pizza Hut next, though it's much more complicated these days. The salad bar is closed and while they had the buffet it's not a buffet at all and you have to order from the waiter, so you probably eat less.
Monday night I met up with friends at the West Street Ale House which was awesome. Running out of time to write now as Great British Bake Off is on so will be back later with more...
MORE: I'm back again updating on Wednesday, my last full and free day off before starting the new job. Not exactly fully free, as Clare is at work and the boys are here so it's going to be harder for me to say get my hair cut. Back to the update of the weekend. Hmm, not much more to say really. I got a lift in, good to see several friends in person, and one on a facetime call when we were all together. We were still within coronavirus rule-of-six legality even with our virtual one. The bar was quite quiet, three other small groups when we got there and only two others by the time they called last orders at 9:20. The other guys got takeaway from Barbecue Boss again which you can bring to the table of the pub, but I'd already had some tea. A walk home, which topped up Sunday's step count nicely but normally this walk would stray past midnight and contribute to the next day. Not in these challenging times.
Monday was too wet to go out really, so the boys watched more Top Gear in the morning, we had burgers for lunch, and got trains back home again. Mostly quiet, though one of the tube trains was quite busy. Interested to see how it will be when we go again this weekend.
I got a call from the new job and I do have to go into London on my first day. It seemed for a while I'd be working from home from the outset, but I need to do some admin in person. So will be on the 7.30 train and have to figure out how to get the tickets. I have got The Key15 so I think I can get a full price single up to London, then an off peak one on the way back with the Network Card, totally just under seventy quid.
| Country | cases | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 8748483 | 229284 |
| Brazil | 5355650 | 156528 |
| India | 7813668 | 117992 |
| Mexico | 874171 | 87894 |
| UK | 830998 | 44571 |
| Italy | 484865 | 37059 |
| Spain | 1110372 | 34752 |
| France | 1041075 | 34508 |
| Peru | 883116 | 34033 |
| Iran | 556891 | 31985 |
Coronavirus weekly death graph for USA + Brazil + India + Mexico + UK + Italy
Paul Clarke's weblog - I live in Hythe in Kent. Wed + dad to 2, I'm a full stack web engineer, + I do js / Node, some ruby, other languages etc. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, Television, squirrels, pirates, lego, and TIME TRAVEL.