Katie Butcher

I’m currently looking forward to receiving 25 books that I ordered last week from ‘The Book People’. I was really hoping I would get them today, but alas no, it looks like it will be Monday.

‘Richard and Judy’ ran a competition earlier this year called ‘How to Get Published’. They offered budding writers an opportunity to send in the first chapter and a synopsis of their novel for the chance to win a publishing contract Pan Macmillan publishers. They received over 40,000 entries. The winning novelist was offered a contract along with a £50,000 advance, but the apparently the standard of the novels was so high, Pan Macmillan also offered 4 runners up a contract as well. I’ve bought all five books from The Book People for £12.99.

The Olive Readers – Christine Aziz (Richard & Judy winner)
Tuesday’s War – David Fiddimore
Gem Squash Tokoloshe – Rachel Zadok
Journeys in the Dead Season – Spencer Jordan
Housewife Down – Alison Penton Harper

I’ve also bought a ‘Contemporary Fiction Collection’ for £9.99:
According to Queeney – Beryl Bainbridge
Wilderness Tips – Margaret Atwood
Breaking the Trust – Lucy Clare
Fair Exchange – Michele Roberts
Where or When – Anita Shreve
Tears of the Giraffe – Alexander McCall Smith
Still Here – Linda Grant
Mary Reilly – Valerie Martin
The Queen of the Tambourine – Jane Gardam
Canal Dreams – Iain Banks

Also I bought a Box Set of 10 Memoirs for £10.
The Snow Geese – William Fiennes
Revenge – Laura Blumenfeld
Dead Men’s Wages – Lilian Pizzichini
The World The World – Norman Lewis
The Poison Principle – Gail Bell
If the Spirit Moves You – Justine Picardie
Getting There – Manjula Padmanabhan
Swan River – David Reynolds
Something Wholesale – Eric Newby
Cherry – Mary Karr

I’m very much looking forward to getting stuck into these. The only author I’ve read before is Jane Gardam; all the other books and authors are new to me. I’m sure these 25 books will keep me going for a several months. Reviews to follow, naturally.

Since George Best’s doctors (more than 24 hours ago) said they only expected George to live for a few hours more, the media having been acting as if he’s dead already! Whatever anyone thinks of him, the guy deserves a break; I think it’s grossly disrespectful to speak about someone as if they’re dead, when they’re not. How must his family feel knowing that the press are talking about him like he’s already gone?

The media are just going so over the top with it all. There’s been non-stop ‘tributes’ to George Best for the past few days, we’ll have a load more when he actually finally goes, then they’ll be even more when the funeral takes place.

Slightly aside from this, I actually seem to get the impression that the majority of people don’t particularly care any more about George Best than they do the next person. So why the media insist on supplying us minute by minute details of his condition I just don’t understand. Anyone would have thought the Queen had died/ was dying with the amount of media coverage, not some ‘has-been’ who might have been a good footballer 30 years ago if he’d not let the drink take over his life.

It’s sad when anybody dies, but there are many many people who are gravely ill at the moment and is George Best really that special to most people that they need to hear all the details.? Well I don’t think so anyway. I don’t think the fuss does any good from anyone’s point of view, and most of all the man himself – I’m sure the last thing he needs whilst laid on his death bed is a bunch of cameras outside the window!

** As I type this, it’s just been announced that he’s passed away – 1:00pm news on the radio. Straight away they played the obviously pre-prepared clip talking about his life. Not suprisingly it’s just a repeat of everything we’ve heard no end of for the past few days.

Ooooh some shopping website make me really mad and Viking Direct is one of them. It used to be really unusable but now they’ve improved it *slightly* although it’s still complete rubbish. But the thing that really gets on my nerves is that when you buy something, at the last section when you confirm your order, an insurance surcharge gets added to the cost. The ‘protection plus’ insurance gives you 12 month accidental damage protection and 12 month free trial of your purchase. Brilliant, so I (or GBdirect rather) have to pay an extra £1 to get 12 months accidental damage protection on a box of cheap Biro’s and a packet of notebooks. Why the hell would I want that? It may only be £1, but there is no option not to have the insurance and that’s what annoys me. I can’t believe that it’s even legal to do that. What a rip-off.

If they want to get more money out of you they could just charge £1 for postage. I wouldn’t have minded that.

UPDATE: In praise of Viking, I was really shocked when my order turned up at 15:45, just a few hours after I placed the order. Quite impressive.

I picked up an ‘exclusive preview’ copy of ‘The Mobile Library: The Case of the Missing Books’ free with The Times a few weeks ago. It is apparently the first of a new series by Ian Sansom that is launching in the New Year.

I really quite enjoyed this book, it was warm, funny and light-hearted and very easy to read. It’s about a somewhat geeky young man called Israel Armstrong who moves to Northern Ireland to start a new job as a librarian. Unfortunately he arrives to find the library closed and his job altered to driving an old jalopy of a library van. What’s worse the library’s 15,000 odd books have gone missing, so he ends up having to try and find them.

Although most of the characters are completely barmy, they are also very likeable. They are characters that you might find on Sunday night dramas that everybody’s mum watches (e.g. Heartbeat). The dialogues between the characters were probably the most realistic that I’ve ever read in a book, you could really picture them interacting with one another. Sometimes it was a bit silly, but you didn’t mind beacause the book was so light-hearted and fun. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up being a Sunday night drama some time in the future.

A unique mystery story, not quite like anything I’ve read before; I think I will keep my eye out for more books in the series. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story set in Northern Ireland before either.

I haven’t got much to say about ‘Good Harbor’, by Anita Diamant as not very much happened in it. It’s about 59 year-old school librarian called Kathleen who is diagnosed with breast cancer and forms relationship with 42 year-old writer called Joyce. Kathleen is struggling with her cancer and finds support in Joyce (who herself is having to cope with her awkward adolescent daughter and a lifeless marriage). I think it’s meant to be about the power of female friendships but to me it was a little dull. I think perhaps the book is aimed at older women than me; it may be that I just didn’t relate to a 59 and 42 year old that well which perhaps caused me to not fully appreciate it. It was a bit boring for me. This one’s going in the charity bag.

My 5 and a half year old £180 Candy washing machine finally packed in on Sunday night. It’s been on the way out for a while so I wasn’t exactly suprised (and in some ways glad as it was a rubbish machine anyway). It would have been better if it didn’t happen in the month we’re getting a new bathroom and buying the soft furnishings to finish off the dining room, but in reality I doubt there would have ever been a convenient time for it to break down.

We’ve been a bit undecided as to what to get as a replacement. I knew I didn’t want a ‘cheap’ washing machine again, but we also (for reasons stated above) aren’t in the best position to spend a fortune at the moment. I found a very useful and informative site with advice about buying washing machines; it says that as a rule a particular brand will have a particular build quality irrespective of what model you get (e.g the most expensive Indesit model is the same poor build quality as the the cheapest model, it just has more features and faster spin).

I had sort of decided that I might go for a middle brand like Bosch or AEG so we would get something quite good but not spend too much, but when we got down to Curry’s tonight I changed my mind. The Miele washers had a label on that said they’re expected to last for 20 years at 5 washes per week – well if that’s true then even though they’re more expensive at the beginning, in the long run they’re actually cheaper. So in the end we went for it and got the Miele W526
Novotronic washing machine. Apparently Miele are a highly regarded brand (the Rolls Royce of washing machines), plus the washing machine engineer who wrote www.washerhelp.co.uk says that Miele are one of, if not the best makes and he gives me the impression he knows what he’s talking about. It also comes with 5 years parts and labour guarantee.

The Miele W256 was £100 more in Currys in than in Comet so we got Currys to price match and are going to pick it up on Friday evening.

In reference to Bytey’s post about the Bradford Astronomical Society, I started wondering: does bimonthly actually mean ‘twice a month’ or ‘every two months’?

Here is the answer according to AskOxford.com:

I’m afraid it means both! But in the publishing industry, it is used fairly consistently to mean ‘every two months’. The same ambiguity affects biweekly and biyearly. If you want to be absolutely clear, use a phrase such as ‘twice a week’ or ‘every two years’.

I recently finished reading ‘The Glass Palace’ by Amitav Ghosh. It is a novel set in south-east Asia and the setting begins in 1885 with the British Invasion of Burma and the exile of King Thebaw, Queen Supayalat and their family to India. One of the Queen’s maids catched the eye of an orphan boy, Rajkumar and a saga then emerges covering his life and 2 World Wars and 3 generations up to the present day.

I liked this book in bits but some sections I found irrelevant and boring. I don’t think the author was sure whether to make this a history book or a fictional saga. It seemed to go in fits and starts – for a few pages it would be a romantic saga, then the next it was historic details of a battle, which doesn’t particularly interest me. Some things would be covered in loads of detail and then the next paragraph you’d suddenly jump 20 years further on in the tale. On the whole, the only reason I kept reading it was to get to the end. I didn’t not enjoy it enough to give up on it, but I don’t think I’ll be recommending it to anybody unless they’re interested in finding out about Burmese or Indian history.

The nail extensions I had for the wedding have been beginning to look a bit of a mess. Unsurprisingly, my nails have grown in the past week and there is a gap at the base of the nail where new nail isn’t covered with the false one. I shan’t be getting them in-filled as I don’t want (nor can afford) to have acrylic nails permanently.

Nigel found his tub of acetone in the cellar and I tried what it would be like to remove a nail by sticking my right thumb in the acetone. If it didn’t work or I found the acetone irritating, then I was going to have to pay about £20 to get them taken off at a nail place. It did work but it took about an hour to dissolve the nail (the false one that is, my real one was perfectly fine underneath). The acetone was very smelly and the skin on my thumb was really dried out after so needed a fair bit of moisturising. Later in the evening I dipped my other 9 fingers in a tub of acetone (which was stood in a bowl of warm water to heat it up a bit). It took about an hour and a half to get rid of them and I’ve still got a bit left on my left index finger which I’ll have to get rid of tonight.

So all in all, I would ONLY recommend acrylic nails for a very special occasion. They’re more hassle (and more money) than they’re worth. They only look nice for about a week unless you’re prepared to put a lot of money and time into them. Plus, long nails are just not practical, they make it difficult to do things with your hands; typing, washing-up, grabbing washing out of the washing manchine etc. It feels lovely having short nails again, I vote for practicality over vanity any day.

Pictures from the wedding are here.

The weekend of Eve and Martin’s wedding began for us on Thursday evening when we travelled down to Aylesbury. We didn’t arrive at Nanny and Grandad’s house until about 10:30pm as we didn’t manage to leave Bradford until gone 8:00pm.

On Friday morning Grandad dropped us off in Aylesbury town centre. Nigel kindly treated me to some make-up from the Clinique counter at Beatties department store.
I got:

• Gentle Light Powder
• Blusher
• Colour Surge Eye Shadow Quad (Polar Blue)
• Touch Base for Eyes

I got a ‘free’ gift as well with absolutely tons of Clinique goodies in it including a lipstick, mascara, lip gloss, a sample size ‘Simply’ perfume, blusher brush, ‘Moisture Surge Extra Thirsty Skin Relief’ mini jar, tube of body butter, and sample size face moisturiser and face soap.

I’ve been really pleased with the make-up. It’s pricey, but so much better than the ‘17� stuff I used to get. It will last me ages.

I was meant to go and get my nails done at 2:00pm but Eve called me when we were in town and asked if I could go earlier. She was already there having her nails done but she was asking if I could swap appointments with Rhian who had got stuck in traffic on her way over from South Wales. It was 12:30pm so I said I could get there about 1:00pm. Grandad came and picked us up and took us over to Aston Clinton to the nail lady. It took just over an hour to have my acrylic nail extensions.
Process for acrylic nail extensions:

1. Push back cuticles (not pleasant)
2. Gently file natural nails to produce rough surface
3. Choose correct size false nail and stick onto natural nail with glue stuff
4. Place pink acrylic gel on the main part of the nail covering joins between natural and false nail
5. Place white acrylic gel on the tip
6. Set gel under UV lamp
7. File and polish nails to make them look beautiful

I didn’t have the nails finished particularly long as the nail lady said because I didn’t normally have long nails, I wouldn’t get on with them. They looked great but did feel really weird for about 2 days. On Saturday my fingertips did feel a little sore and I thought I’d be removing them after the wedding but by Sunday they felt fine. If you want to keep the nails for more than about 2 weeks you have to have them filled in at the bottom where your nail grows up . I won’t bother with that, I think I’d only get them done for special occasions (apart from anything, acrylic nails are too expensive for me to have fortnightly at between £35 to £45 to put on and £25 for in-fills).

Rhian arrived just as my nails were done. She had a manicure (as she has nice nails anyway) and then Eve’s mum came over and picked us all up. We had a late lunch at Eve’s mum’s (Jane’s) house before we all headed over to Aston Clinton Baptist Church for the wedding rehearsal. Martin’s family minister was coming over from South Wales specially to marry Eve and Martin but we had to wait an hour for him as he also got stuck in the traffic.

After the rehearsal Eve, Jane, her brother, Rhian, Nigel and I went over to ‘The Bugle Horn’ in Stone for a meal. Then Eve dropped Nigel and I back at Nanny and Grandad’s; I got a shower and packed my bag for Nigel to take me back to Eve’s mums house to spend the night there.

We had an early night on Friday because Saturday was going to be busy. I didn’t sleep terribly well, but we got up a 6:30am and Jane laid out a breakfast table of strawberries and champagne followed by croissants. We got to the hairdressers for 7:30am and spent a couple of hours there all having our hair put up. When we got back to the house we put our dresses and make-up on just in time for the photographer who arrived at 10:30am. After the photos we had a bit of a breather before the cars came at 11:30am. Jane, Rhian and I went in one car, and Eve and Toby went in the other.

The ceremony was just after midday and was lovely. I was trying not to cry when we walked down the aisle, but after that I was fine. Nanny, Grandad and Claire gate-crashed and sat at the back, but it was nice that they were there.

The reception was at Pendley Manor in Tring. We arrived at about 1:30pm where we greated with fizz and hors d’oeuvres. Everyone chatted for a couple of hours until we were invited to the dining room at 4:00pm.

I was sat at the end of the top table next to Graham, Martin’s father. Nigel was on another table a little bit away. The probably meal probably took about 2 hours – it was 3 courses followed by coffee and then speeches. We had melon for the starter, Welsh lamb and vegetables for the main, and then a fruity mousse thing for dessert. I was too full to eat all the dessert. There was half a bottle of wine per person, so as soon as your glass was down to about half the waiters would fill it up again! Eve’s brother Toby started off the speeches, followed by Martin, then Gareth (the best man) and finally Graham.

After the meal, Eve wanted to touch up her make-up before the evening do. Rhian, Eve and I went to Rhian’s room at the hotel while Eve sorted out her make-up. By the time we got back to the party, the Barn Dance Band were waiting to start up.

They played and people danced for about an hour or so before the buffet. I wasn’t that hungry for much buffet food. Then there was more music and dancing until about 11:00pm when the band finished. After that people started filtering away. I called Grandad to come and collect us and we said goodbye’s before going to wait outside for Grandad.

We got back about midnight and I was absolutely exhausted. It had been a great day though.