I'm a World Book Night Giver

Tomorrow is world book night www.worldbooknight.org  and I am delighted to say that I was chosen as a giver this year.

It’s a brilliant idea thought up by Jamie Byng who was running the London marathon today and giving away one of the titles on this year’s givers list after each completed mile.

The thinking behind world book night is that each giver gets 24 books to collect from their chosen collection point. The givers then give out their books free to anyone you think may not be an avid reader to encourage them to enjoy all the wonders that the world of books and reading can bring.

World book night first came into existence last year when I was lucky to be chosen as a giver then but as can happen on any new project things didn’t work out quite right for me but when I received the e mail about world book night 2012 I jumped at the chance to be a giver again and was delighted to be chosen again.

I collected my books on Thursday from my chosen collection point, the Gutter Bookshop, www.gutterbookshop.com  which is on Cows Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin. I LOVE the Gutter Bookshop. I have never gone there without finding an absolute gem of a book and the staff is the best. The gutter bookshop is giving away world book night books on the Ha’penny Bridge at 6pm.

My choice of book was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s a lovely little tale and a lovely read with a message at the end to carry with you. I just felt that a story like this can sow a seed and could encourage further journeys into the realms and joys of reading.

There are some really great books on the list but the alchemist just felt like the right one for me to give. The books have been given a special world book night 2012 cover so they will always be acknowledged as part of this cool concept. 

The website www.worldbooknight.org has a selection of bookmarks to print down so I put two in each of my books. The idea is that each receiver passes the book to another reader and so on so I thought as the first receiver catches the reading bug; well they are going to need a bookmark aren’t they.

This year Germany and the US are part of world book night along with the U.K and Ireland so hopefully the word will spread to other countries by next year which would be amazing.

The website has a list of events for tomorrow night in all areas of the U.K and some in Ireland so check it out and see what events are happening near you. There are some great events listed as well as the main event in London is at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road. It starts at 7.15 and will be streamed live to different venues. There are some great reading taking place too.

And guess what, my next blog will be telling you all about my experiences tomorrow night as part of this great event.

Keep Smiling

Life before mobiles

I was early for my acupuncture appointment the other day so of course as I was waiting for the previous client to finish up I began fiddling with my iPhone. I had a quick look at the news channels and was running a check on twitter when the previous lady, who is a really pleasant friendly person, took one look at me scrolling away and said ‘what did we do before we got our mobile phones!’

I had to laugh because what did I do before I got a mobile phone.  I had to think about it.

I have an early memory of visiting my Nan on a Sunday; you know the old family rituals. But at around 6.30 ish I think (I would have to ask mum this, Dad doesn’t remember things like this but ask him about an old engine…….) we called my grandparents in England. We didn’t have a phone at home ourselves at the time. Now this is the mid and late 1970’s not the dark ages for any of you younger readers.  We didn’t get a landline phone until 1983 or 4. But this wasn’t terribly unusual.

I remember if mum needed to call her sisters we went to the phone box at the end of our road. There was always a queue. There were a few dotted around the town so this was a great way of catching up with some of the people who lived locally. That phone box queue was quite a sociable spot!

Sometimes if we were in a real hurry and couldn’t afford the wait at the box we used a neighbour’s phone. A 10p piece was left on the hall table for the call despite the protestations of said neighbour but this was correct phone etiquette. Looking back it seems a bit like Victorian calling cards and not being allowed to refuse a dance at a dance hall.

The landline arrived in time for me to be a pain in the ass teenager ringing my friends in the evenings after home work was done. Dad couldn’t get his head around how I just been in school all day with my friends but I still had to be hours on the phone to them in the evening when I would be back in school with them the next morning. Then when I was allowed out to discos it was one call after another we eventually went out and left the poor phone in peace.

I had friends and their parents locked the phones. There was a little purpose made lock for telephones. And of course there was a way of picking them too so they soon went out of fashion.

I got my first mobile sometime in ’01 I think or maybe late 2000, I’m not sure. I was first in our office to have one.  It had the tinniest ringtone ever. At that time I worked with a real funny character who used to dance to the tune when it rang. The whole office used to look up when it started, it was such a novelty.

The next one I got had a setting where you could record a tune of your own. Each key had a sound like a mini keyboard and you could record your own ringtone. Mine sounded like a cross between a Middle Eastern dance and a wasp caught in a jam jar. That used to get a reaction but there were more phones in the office at that stage so it was more a case of ‘there’s the mad ones noise again’.

Fast forward to two Christmas’s ago and dad insisted on buying me an iPhone. He saw them being used in the stands when he was at soccer match and for some reason decided I needed one! Now I am not using it to its full potential but really I did fall in love with it pretty quickly. As I said twitter is a real addiction. I don’t tweet a lot but I love what the people I follow tweet and also when the bloggers I follow have a new post I can read them from twitter which is great. I love tweets with links like that!

Then there is the news apps, e reader apps, games, an invaluable notebook, guided meditation apps, it’s a real hobby toy.

I’m not a great one for texts. Or e mails for that matter. I prefer to call people. I’m still an old fashioned girl in that way. I just love talking. A LOT! I find texts and emails are easy to misinterpret. People need that human touch sometimes, that understanding from a friend who knows from your voice that you need to talk. And besides when the lady ahead of me at the acupuncture passed her funny comment, I could have taken it a number of ways, even as sarcasm if it was written and not said. It would have made for an interesting crossing of paths this week if that was the case.

So what did I do before mobile phones? Well I drove my parents mad, stood in the cold at a phone box which has now been replaced by a flower bed carried a purse full of change, ‘in case I need a phone box’, relied on the newspapers and 9’o clock news to see what was happening in the world and played a hand held battery operated space invaders game. Oh and mediated to cassette tapes on a walk man about the size of a small house brick.  The cell phone world has its down sides but most things do, I suppose. Funny though for all my phone saves me in what I now don’t have to carry around I still have a handbag that weighs a bloody tonne!!!

Keep smiling

Springtime with a cupcake

I woke up this morning with an ungovernable urge to do two things, (don’t panic this is not THAT kind of blog).

The first was to bake buns/cupcakes/fairy cakes or whatever I am supposed to call them now. The second was to get back to my old friend, my blog. I know it’s been inexcusable to stay away for so long but life has a habit of getting in the way of things sometimes. I do however have endless scraps of paper and bits in my notebook where I was developing ideas and working on my projects. It’s funny, once you say out loud ‘I write’ you’ve opened the floodgates and you just don’t stop!

The baking was a surprise this morning. I had made pancakes yesterday as bro and his son, the angel child were visiting and the two of them and dad like getting together over a treat. Cakes didn’t feature in today’s plan. It must have been the sunshine.

The days are showing signs of a ‘stretch in the evenings’ and certainly I am not groping around in the dark when I get up for work in the last week or so. My tulips are putting in an appearance, joining the daffodils and anemones who are already greeting passers by with their bright spring colours. Soon it will be time to prune the roses. An old gardener once told me to prune the roses after St. Patrick’s Day, March 17^th. I have stuck to that rule and the roses here at my window have had many a good year.

So the cakes are now happily sitting on the counter waiting to be eaten. I went a little experimental with them. Well I am in a good mood today. I decided to try a filling so I remembered I had a lovely organic cherry and berry spread so I put a spoon into the centre of each cake to see how it tasted. I just do the good old basic Madeira mixture, margarine, sugar, eggs, cream flour and baking powder. I placed a small spoonful into the paper case, dropped the jam into a well I made in the centre and covered the jam in with another spoonful of mixture. And miracle of miracles the jam stayed in the centre and didn’t run out the side or burst through the top. Happy days.

I just went the route of royal icing, icing sugar in boiling water. I am not a fan of butter cream icing at all. It just isn’t my bag. In a way I wish it was because you see all these lovely piped icing on cupcakes and they look so well finished. But I just aint a classy dame, so icing of the plain persuasion it has to be.

I am off now for a cup of tea and a bun. These creations aren’t going to make until tea time I think so it looks like the dog will be getting a long walk tonight. Or I might end up on the exercise bike if I can’t behave myself.

It’s fun to be back,especially as i cant load my photo the right way around!!!!!!

Keep smiling