Twilight

I have just finished reading all the books published in the Twilight Saga and the half finished, illegally posted online then posted online by Stephenie Meyer herself 5th book. Yes, I was that in to it that I sat in front of my computer and scrolled through a PDF on www.stepheniemyer.com. I guess you could say that I'm not the target audience and it's true I'm a late comer to the saga considering that the first book was published 5 (or more?) years ago.
I mentioned in my blog of 2009 that I'd read the first 2 books in the saga but I didn't reveal that I hadn't even heard of it until I saw something on the news about the New Moon movie premiere. I love to read and I particularly like reading series of books. I like to know what happens to the characters after the end of a story so a trilogy or a quadriology (?) is ideal for me.
I enjoyed all the books and I have to admit that my least favourite was New Moon. I've been trying to work out why and **spoiler alert** I think it's because Edward is away for a large part of it. The thing that keeps me hooked is the relationship between Edward and Bella so when he's not there (or I guess if she weren't there) then I find it hard to get involved with the story line. I'm not saying that I'm only interested in Edward - it's the whole "we are absolutely right for each other and we've known it since we met" that I like. I think that this is what millions of others like about it too - i mean i could be wrong - but if I was reading this as a 15 year old I just know I would be obsessed by it. As it is I'm reading as a 30something married woman and I can't quite get it out of my head.
When I was at school I used to have to write book reviews as part of my English homework. "Home Readers" they were called and you could pick any book and you had to write a 4 part review. The 4th part was "what age would you recommend this book for" and I always wrote that I didn't believe in recommending books for particular age groups as if you could understand the words you could understand the story. I may have been missing the point as I was always reading books like ""the Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" and reviewing them instead of reading Judy Bloom which is what I'm sure my English teacher was expecting. This popped back in to my head whilst I was reading the Twilight novels.
Stephenie Meyer has, I think, captured something of the intensity of relationships and this is often hard to find in books no matter what the target audience.

Nails

Before I got engaged I didn't really bother with my nails. I used to put nail polish on once in a while but I don't think I ever went for a manicure. Then when I had a diamond on my hand and I had to show it to people I suddenly became very conscious of the state of my nails. Up until the wedding I had regular manicures and for the day itself I had acrylics put on. I love how my hands look in the wedding pics, but there is no way I could keep up maintenance on acrylic nails. Since the wedding and until the last few weeks apart from at Christmas I've usually kept to fairly neutral nail polish colours or even just base coat and top coat with nothing in between. I am slowly getting better at application. I do need to learn to apply the polish properly with my left hand but can apply quite well with my right and my left hand usually looks good.

For some reason a few weeks ago I suddenly decided to match my nail polish with my dress. My dress was purple so I went out and bought a purple polish. Then I went and got a dark pink for "every day" wear and I've been wearing that for a few weeks. On Saturday however, I was up in Scotland and Wales were playing Ireland in the rugby. So I decided to buy to bright red nail polish in support of the Welsh team. It's called "red carpet" and is a really vibrant red. I have to say that having red nails feels amazing. It's like being glammed up even when wearing your leisure trousers.

Cheesecake

Cheesecake
Originally uploaded by mrs_od

I have to say I am not a baker. I love to eat some cakes - I am very particular about icing and marzipan - however I love cheesecake. I have been up with husb's family for the weekend and we cooked a mothering sunday dinner. Husb was in charge of the starter (caprese salad at my request) and the main (home made steak and ale pie or fish pie) but I was in charge of desert. I decided to make a baked cheesecake. I haven't made one before but I'd got my hands on a really simlple recipie so I decided to do it. Making it was super straighforward - though I would probably have left it in for a little longer. It was super fat filled - but I have decided I am going to try and make a low fat version. I will let you know how I get on.

Piano

I learnt the piano when I was younger and got grade 2, but gave up before I sat the exam for grade 3. As part of my creative efforts (blog, photography) I decided a while back that I wanted to take up the piano again. The only thing is we didn't have the space. I agreed with husb that we'd get a piano when we moved; but it wasn't on the list of priority buys. So I had a space for it but was focusing on purchasing essentials. When I got home last night however husb said he had a suprise for me. (He'd been home all day waiting for a sideboard to be delivered) It was a lovely brand new piano. I was so pleased and grabbed an old music book and was soon playing recognisable tunes (with both hands!) I need A LOT of practice but I am going to stick at it and will put up some recordings of me playing one of these days!

A very big house in the country

I have been up in the North East of England for work. I went up last night as my meetings started at 8am this morning and I got to stay in a lovely old manor house that has been converted in to a hotel. Like a lot of these places there is a new wing out the back, but I was lucky enough to avoid this completely as my room was in the main old part of the house.

I woke up and looked out of a leaded window over frosted fields and hills. There wasn't much trace of the present time in the view that I had (though there was a road - though there wasn't much trafic at 7am). Later on I returned there for Lunch and again for a post meeting debrief.

We had the debrief in what I am sure must have at one time been the drawing room and I imagined that I was in the Regency era and I was sitting at a window seat reading or taking a turn about the room (like in pride and predujice when lizze and jane are stuck at mr bingly's coz jane is ill). I also thought about all the servants who must have made living in such a house possible.

I never thought that when I had a proper job I'd be hanging around in such pleasent surroundings.