Tuesday 16 May 2017

Recent reading



Morning all.  Ref. the photo - I loaded nearly 100 yesterday but only three appear to have been saved.  I have got son Danny coming for the night tomorrow, and hopefully he will help me sort out the sticky bits on Windows 10.  This is my current screen saver too . . .

I will load a photo when I've written this.  Photos take about ten minutes to load still but I have to gear myself up to phone BT again and I thought I'd give an update on recent books read.  In bed I am reading a light-hearted series a friend loaned me - The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor.  I'm at the end of book two, A Second Chance.  Time travelling back to intriguing bits of history.  Good fun.

I downloaded a few books to my Kindle in recent weeks.  I've just read Skendleby by Nick Brown, which was a sort of lightly-written Gothic Horror with special appeal for anyone who has an interest in archaeology.  He's top banana with the archaeology but the actual story wasn't as scary as it could have been.  I can't see him getting commended for the Booker Prize, but a goodish read.

I am currently reading Parliament of Rooks by Karen Perkins.  It's sub-title is Haunting Bronte Country and yes dear reader, it is set in Haworth and lots of Bronte facts and hauntings, and popping back in time to that of the Brontes.   Oh, and Rooks.  Lots of those too.  Had I looked through it in a bookshop I probably wouldn't have bought it, but as a read it isn't too bad, but on a par with Skendleby.  I paid for it, so I will read it!

Waiting in the wings are Val McDermid's The Distant Echo.  I like her work and have lots of her novels to catch up on.  Then there is L J Ross's Holy Island, a DCI Ryan Mystery.  Not read anything of hers before, but they come up regularly on my Amazon feed.  Finally The Man in the Lighthouse by Erik Valeur.  An unknown quantity but probably good.

Yesterday I bought Keith a hardback book I knew he (and afterwards I) would enjoy.  Dunstan by Conn Iggulden.  I loved the intro, which I read in the car coming home from town yesterday.  Apparently he is a masterful writer and people love his historical novels, so we shall look out for more now.

I had my 6 monthly visit to the Respiratory Nurse yesterday, and my tests weren't very good.  As a result, we had a chat and I am now on a new (stronger) inhaler, totally different from the Fostair I was on, which if I am truthful, wasn't working too wonderfully for me.  This new one comes with a whole raft of possible side-effects, but we won't go there!  This new inhaler is just taken once a day and should shut down some of my immune responses so there is less inflammation and mucous production.  I have always tried to avoid going on to stronger and ever stronger medication, trying to struggle on with a lesser amount for as long as I can, but I have to say the Fostair really wasn't doing the trick any more.  This new one is a powder inhaler again (but SO different to the capsules you had to puncture and inhale 50 years ago) and I am hoping it works without any of the side effects.  Fingers crossed.  Since my maternal grandmother died of a heart-attack probably the result of her asthma for which there was no real treatment in those days, so it would have put a strain on her heart, I am lucky to have passed the age she died at and am still keeping the asthma more or less under control.

It is still raining here, but set to clear up later.  I have a hankering to go to Newcastle Emlyn again - it's been a year since we were last over that way.  I'll take my camera if we do, as we will pop down to Cenarth and I'll take some views of the river there, which is so beautiful - and one of the last places, like Carmarthen, where they still fish for Salmon in coracles.

7 comments:

  1. I like Newcastle Emlyn, we were there once when a shop in the town was burning down! Is there still a good junk/antique shop up the market end, actually is the market even still there?

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  2. We don't go to the market, but there used to be a junk shop up towards the bridge end of town, on the market side of the road. Last time we went in there we thought it was a charity shop but it turns out it was a junky dealer. There are a couple of antiques centres, which we plan to look round, though they don't do trade prices. I am trying to identify some Gaudy Welsh china I got in a swop recently. Apparently it is Poppy and Grape pattern, but no sign of that anaywhere on the net.

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  3. I am reading a lot, but nothing too involved. My head can't concentrate on much at the moment. History of Pirate Radio CAroline is entertaining me at the moment.

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    1. Gosh, you've just taken me back with mention of Radio Caroline Simon. I used to sit in dad's car and listen to it! Those were the days! I went into a charity shop today and the chap there was playing 60s music - had me singing Flowers in the Rain then!

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  4. Oh no you still having BT issues, since they replaced the cable running up the drive ours has been working good, it only took them 2 years of the internet dropping out to do it, the repair men told me at some point there had been a lightning strike on the pole and it had causes four faults along the cable were it had fried.

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  5. I am still at the speaking to India stage Dawn. We are the last house on the line so we don't matter! When the cable came down at the bottom of the hill (across the river) we waited for 3 mths whilst they procrastinated, and said that it was "too dangerous" for their engineers to attempt to get a line across. From sheer desperation, Keith and I managed to throw a length of rope across and tied it to a tree and a telephone pole on each side and only then did they decide it could be repaired. Haven't heard back from them after they were apparently checking the line for two days and it's still not good . . .

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  6. It is very patchy (the internet) through the country, we experienced trouble here with BT and went onto a local web provider - which is good. BT are only just bringing fibre optic through the village but I think you have to have it connected to the house. And don't get me started on my mobile, as I have to stand outside in the garden to talk on it!

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