Waiting for the post

They say that a watched pot never boils, the same could be said for a letter box, it never boils either.It also doesn't receive the post that you want it to. Why is it, when you're waiting for something specific, it seems to take forever to arrive?

On Monday I paid some customs charges on a parcel that I've been sent from America. It's been in the country since last week, which is longer than it took to reach New Zealand from the US. As yet though, no sign of it arriving here.

Back home in the UK, most post, letters at least, are pushed through the slot in the door (which is still called a letter box, even though it's not a box). For most houses in New Zealand, it's a case of walking to the letter box that sits at the end of your driveway. It's not a long walk, but when you're waiting for a delivery, it's a bit annoying to keep going and checking. 

Not that my parcel will be arriving there, but it's the same when you are waiting for something small to arrive. 

I remember when I was a teenager, waiting and waiting for something I'd ordered. It took weeks, when I eventually managed to get to the bottom of it all it had actually been lost on route and another had to be sent out. I really hope that hasn't happened this time.

Come on Mr Post man, where are you? 

With look the post box will boil tomorrow, I'll just try to stop looking at it first.

Saving Grace - Sandy James

The other day, when I wrote about how I hate the star rating system that Amazon and Goodreads use, I could have been talking about this book. I certainly was talking about books like this one. I gave this book a five star review on both, but it wasn't perfect, it certainly deserved more than most four star books though, so five stars it was.

I really enjoyed the story line, unlike some romance books, there was far more going on here than the usual boy meets girl. Of course there was that element too, which is what you want from a romance really. 

There were a number of elements to the story here, I don't want to give everything away, but I'll give you a basic outline of the storyline. The story starts with a woman turning up on the doorstep of a ranch, she collapses and is nursed back to health by the owner and his daughter.

The two 'main' characters fall in love, although there is clearly much in Grace's (the female lead's) past that she is keeping hidden. Much of the story line revolves around her past and what she is running from, as well as the love that's developing between Grace and Adam. There's also a lovely love interest between two secondary characters, Victoria (Adam's grown up daughter) and Matthew (Grace's brother).

The only thing that really let the story down, was that because there was so much happening, the characters and their growing relationships and interactions weren't fully developed, there could have been much more written and said about all of this. It would have made the book much longer, but I for one, wouldn't have complained about that.

It was a lovely story, which reached a good conclusion at the end, where both we, and the characters in the book found out all that had been hidden as the story progressed. There are two more in this series which I'll be reading, particularly as I got this as a three book bundle for my kindle for only 99p. 

Sports time

I have to admit that I've never been particularly good at sports. I spent most of my PE lessons

avoiding getting too involved and I was always one of the last ones to be picked for teams.

I had two major obstacles when it comes to playing sports, I tend to do day dream ("Quick, catch the ball! The ball!") and even if I am trying to catch said ball, my hand eye co-ordination isn't the best. I enjoyed swimming, I was even quite good at that, but other sports, I struggled with.

I enjoyed playing badminton and tennis, but I wasn't very good, my racket tended to develop a huge, invisible hole. Hockey I didn't mind, if it wasn't too cold, (which it usually was) but netball I hated with a passion.

Now that L is at school, she's been introduced to sports for the first time really and tonight she had her first go at hockey. I have to admit, she's not a natural, although given her mother, that's hardly a shock. But, what she lacks in natural ability she make up for in enthusiasm, and as she's only five, there's plenty of time to learn and maybe get quite good.

I hope that she continues to remain keen and enjoy it. It would be good if she got quite good. I'll certainly encourage her to give it a good go and get involved in any case.

Snow time like today

As I sit here typing this, my fingers are freezing, I can hardly feel them. I'm also wearing two pairs of trousers. Not in some bizarre fashion statement kind of way, but just because it's so flipping cold. It's cold outside, we had snow this morning, and it has kept snowing for most of the day. I'm really cold though because we don't have a fire at the moment.

Tomorrow the new fire is getting fitted, so of course the cold weather and snow arrived today. Isn't that always the way? I have got heating, electric heaters, on in the lounge and the bedroom, but as I'm cooking tea, I'm in the kitchen. I'm hoping that the heat from the oven will start warming this room a bit more soon.

Of course come about Thursday, when our new fire will be with luck, fully operational, we'll probably have a heatwave, not that I'd be disappointed about that of course. Just warning those of you in the South Island of New Zealand that this weather may well be on the way out.

I had hoped to get a few photos of the lovely snow covered hills this morning. Sadly by the time I got around to it, much of the snow had melted. I took a few anyway. It has continued to snow for most of the day, but it hasn't been settling, so much of what we have left is just slush, we are coastal after all, I'm amazed that we get as much as we do.

I'm not sure what the weather is like for tomorrow, I just hope that it doesn't stop the man installing our fire from making it round here. Brrr. What's the weather been like for you today?

Real books v kindle

When kindles and the like first came out, I couldn't imagine that I'd ever want an ereader, what would be the point. I love books, I love the smell of them, the feel of them, pretty much everything about them. Then I got a kindle, and I was hooked. I tend to use my kindle more these days, but still read quite a few real books, so I thought I'd do a bit of a comparison, real books v kindle.

Real books

• Look good on the book shelf
• Can be shared with friends
• Can be read in the bath without worrying about the water stopping them working
• Can be bought second hand
• Don't smash if you drop them
• Don't need charging
• Feel nice in your hands
• Smell nice
• Need nice book marks
• Can be given as gifts

KindleIs lightweight

• Can go everywhere with you.
• Can carry hundreds of books on one device (great for holidays)
• It's really easy to add new titles, as the touch of a button
• Is easier to read a page or two when you only have a few seconds
• Keeps your place for you
• Can read the same book on your phone, tablet and ereader
• Has lots of free and cheap books
• Makes finding new authors easy
• Is easy on the eyes when you're tired.

They both have advantages and disadvantages, so for now I think I'll stick with both. Using the kindle for everything that I can download without costing me a fortune, and real books from the library, when I get them as gifts and when I make second hand purchases. What do you prefer, real books or an ereader, like the kindle?

Happy hens

I've always quite liked the idea of keeping hens, having fresh eggs on hand every day and the like, but
I wasn't that bothered. Just over six months ago though, we were given three for the boys birthday. One each for the boys and a family hen. I soon discovered that they are mad as mad can be and not all that intelligent either. 

Our hens are called Matilda, Kakapo-Zombie (both named by the kids) and Tegal, (which might not mean much if you don't live in NZ, but it's a name of a brand of chicken that you eat, poor thing). I don't think that they actually know their names in any case, so it does't really matter.

They are rather stupid, if two of them are outside in the run, and the other is inside when you give them food. Then the one inside will run up and down the inside of the cage trying to get out, rather than actually coming out of the house and into the run where the food is. If you give them three different bits of bread, then they all try and eat the same one, rather than taking one each.

So far we've had a few escapees, we clipped their wings to stop them flying off, but they still manage to get out sometimes.

To begin with the eggs were really small, which was quite cute, but now that they're all into the swing of laying, we're getting three good size eggs nearly every day.

Having three hens in the family is lots of fun.

A Southern Star - Anya Forrest

Often when I finish a book I sigh, it's usually because I didn't want it to end, or because the ending was so good. This time, sadly, it was because it just didn't quite get there.

I really really wanted to like this book. A kiwi author, in the South Island, and even visiting Dunedin at one point. It should have been all there. But somehow it just fell a bit short.

It didn't really help that I didn't like either of the main characters to begin with. We meet them both in the opening chapter on a ferry crossing to Stewart Island. She's as wet as a soggy stack of newspaper that's been left out in the rain. He's domineering, overbearing and arrogant. 

I know that the charge taking, alpha male, is a stock 'hero' of many romance books. But he needs to have a balance to his character. He does develop this later in the book, but in the open stages, he demands to know things about her, cancels her food order and seems to get angry over nothing. She worries that she's upset him by not sharing things. But honestly, if this were real life, I'd get out of there now love, controlling, abusive relationship alert.

He does get better, in parts, but the rush into his needing to know everything, before they've in any way got to know one another seems forced. I did keep reading, and I did want to know how it was going to turn out. (Yes I know, it's a romance, you know where it's going really, but still). 

I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I struggled with much of their relationship, and felt that the not talking about some of the issues was a bit forced. There were a few other things that just didn't do it for me. Once or twice we were told that one of them made a comment or said something that the other one reacted to, but not what it was. Very very odd, it certainly didn't help the flow of the story. Other aspects of the story line and people's assumptions were introduced in a way that didn't feel natural and didn't really flow.

I was also irritated by a section of the story that dealt with child birth. Despite being in New Zealand, the whole thing was handled by a doctor, which, unless there are serious issues, is pretty much unheard of over here. It seemed to be based entirely on tv shows, and ones set somewhere else at that.

I really did want to enjoy this, but didn't. It was almost there, but not quite. With a bit of polishing it could probably be much better. The author, Anya Forrest has another book out and another on the way. I may give them a go, just to see if with a bit of experience they pick up, as I really would like to 'like' this Kiwi author.