This Week I will mostly be ...

... in 2008. How weird.
... reading 'The Da Vinci Code' by Dan Brown
... trying to find time to review 'Thank God it's Monday'
... working as of Wednesday :(
... having a sore throat if today's anything to go by
... making New Years Resolutions

I love that scrolling blog thing!!

I just love that little scrolling thing on the blogger.com home page that shows what blogs have just been updated, you can find some really random stuff that way - I've just discovered a blog from a fellow knitter through it! I've added it to my links (Yarn Jezebel) mainly to remind myself to have little look from time to time but feel free to look yourself!

This Year I have mostly been ...

... buying our first house - and loving it!
... jobhunting (not too successfully)
... mastering the art of crochet
... resurrecting my blog!
... trying to be good and green
... putting on weight (I know I lost a lot but I think over the year I probably put a lot more on, cumulatively speaking)
... learning to sing (ongoing process, probably will take another 70 years!)
... shopping in Next and charity shops
... reading books given as gifts - maybe next year I'll get round to borrowing them from the library!
... feeling cold and damp (think that sums up 2007 well!)

Let's see what 2008 consists of! Happy New Year to anyone who reads this!!

This Week I will mostly be ...

... CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS! Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this!

This Week I will mostly be ...

... relaxing a little now that the bulk of my Christmas shopping is done
... tidying, cleaning and preparing for the mini-party that was postponed from yesterday to next weekend
... reading 'Thank God it's Monday' by Mark Greene
... working less. I have today off, plus tomorrow morning and Friday afternoon, yippee!
... watching a group of burly teenagers fling themselves about on a bouncy castle
... praying that we won't have to call an ambulance for said burly teenagers!
... buying last-minute pressies, food and ingredients for a Moroccan vegetable nut roast (my veggie turkey alternative, yum!)
... listening to Christmas songs
... feeling festive!

200 word review: 'The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde' by Joseph Pearce

I was given ‘The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde’ at a time when I was developing an appreciation for his theatre work. I was fascinated by him, but just wasn’t interested in non-fiction at that stage. Now I’m older, with a longer attention span, I thought I’d have a read of this book. It’s slow to start but once I got past Wilde’s marriage it got into its stride.

For the first few chapters, I felt that Pearce was getting bogged down in detail; I understand the importance of discussing the work of Wilde’s influences and peers but at the end of the day readers will be more interested in Wilde than a bunch of authors nobody has heard of. Equally, I found Pearce’s lengthy refutation of other biographers’ claims that Wilde contracted syphilis a little off-focus and even self-indulgent. The biography is good – he doesn’t need to prove himself by discrediting other works!

That said, in later chapters Pearce really engages with the tragedy of Wilde’s life, especially drawing on his troubled walk of faith, and brings to life the struggles of this brilliant but confused man. A great read for Wilde fans; just persevere through the first few chapters!

This Week I will mostly be ...

... doing panicked last minute shopping
... going back to work tomorrow having been off since Wednesday - boo hoo
... going to Leeds German market and thinking that Lincoln Christmas Market is 100 times better
... finishing 'The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde', picking out a new book and maybe getting round to posting a review!
... eating nuts
... drinking warm things, especially tea and hot Ribena

Generous Journal: Seasonal Generosity

Well, Christmas is approaching and there a whole category on the Generous website given over to seasonal actions. I thought I'd go through them here and see which ones I think I should/could do:

• Make your own greetings cards - now, I would do this, but we still have two bumper bargain boxes of cards to finish (does that make us sound cheap?!) I'm not really a card-giving type, and do think it's a waste of paper, but I know not everyone does so give cards anyway. I think next year I might have a stab at making them though.
• Give a 'Just' gift at Christmas - I do try to find fairtrade goods for gifts, and have my eye on some Oxfam Unwrapped pressies, so I'll sign up for this one. It does feel cheeky giving money to charity then saying 'here's your present!' but my workmates did a similar thing for my birthday this year and it's the best birthday present I've had, so I'm going to do the same.
• Christmas boxes for children - aargh, something I always mean to do but am never organised enough and now it's too late, the collection's been done at my church. The idea is to fill a shoebox full of gifts for a child in a Third World country. Really wish I'd got my act together and done it this year, maybe next year.
• Resist over-consumption this Christmas - most of the suggestions in this action revolve around buying fewer presents, e.g. only buy for kids, Secret Santa and the like. Sorry, but isn't the idea of buying less for loved ones a little ungenerous??
  
• Sort your Christmas gifts and see what you can pass on to someone else - again, seems a bit mean. Someone has been kind enough to give me a present and I just get rid? Although have to admit that sometimes, after a few months, I do decide to put unwanted gifts in the charity bag. But doing it in such a calculated way just seems ungrateful!!
• Have a fair trade, ethical celerbation dinner - well, this one's out because we're having dinner at hubby's parents. But I will look into this in a few years time when we can't get away with scrounging off the folks any more!!
• Pick n Mix ... Generous Christmas! - this involves doing four seasonal actions. Hmm, doesn't look like I'm going to get close, does it?
• 'Buy a 'Crisis' Christmas pud and feed the homeless - again, I'm not the one buying the pud, or even cooking it, so this is out.
• Give up something this Christmas - this involves giving up a treat for a month and giving the money saved to charity. Good idea, but my only real treats are chocolate and biscuits, which we'd buy anyway because of hubby's inordinately sweet tooth, and the thought of Christmas without chocolate or biscuits is rather depressing. So I'm going to have to wimp out on this count.
• Give a life-changing book this Christmas - this action suggests giving someone the book '100 ways to make poverty history' by John Madeley. Hmm. Not only am I a little uncomfortable with being preachy with my nearest and dearest, I don't feel like I should give this book until I've read it myself, and I've only just heard of it!!

Sigh, I'm such a Scrooge, all those actions and I only sign up for one!! Maybe I'll do more next year.  In my defence, though, I will be saving as much paper as possible for re-use and may also use this year's received cards to make card to give next year.

Any other suggestions for how to make my Christmas more generous are very welcome!

Theatre review: Peter and the Wolf

I occasionally do theatre reviews for a website and did one on 'Peter and the Wolf' (an Opera North project) last week. If you're interested, here's the link:

http://www.dinedirect.net/venues/reviews.asp?venue_id=wyph_ls2&play_id=893

Enjoy!

This Week I will mostly be ...

... still reading 'The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde'
... recovering from a cold
... going to see my mummy and going round Lincoln Christmas Market
... drinking plenty of fluids (part of the cold recovery programme)
... eating home-made caramel shortbread, yum!
... watching hubby fly around in a rally car (and praying he finishes in one piece!!)