I don’t really know where the last 3 weeks have gone. About 3 weeks ago there were some events that refocused my attention elsewhere and even though I had got back to my normal routine over a week ago, I hadn’t got back to posting more than the odd comment here or there. I see that it has been 2 weeks since my last post and so I have some catching up to do.
The weather here this last week has been exceptional for the time of year. We had the wettest day of the wettest June on record on Monday. It wasn’t too bad in the south of the country but further north, parts of South and East Yorkshire were severly affected with over 100mm of rain in one day (1.5 times the average rainfall for the month). At least four people have been killed and more than 3000 properties have been flooded. I was reading on the BBC website that more heavy rain is expected on Saturday. It has also been unseasonally cool for June with temperatures overnight around 10-12′C
Unfortunately, the bad weather has proved a disappointment for the kids’ school. The PSA at Watling Lower School had organised a funfair for this coming weekend, but due to the weather, the school fields are too muddy and soft for the heavy equipment, so this has had to be cancelled. The PSA put a lot of work into organising these events and so it is sad when the weather spoils it. A meeting will be held after school tomorrow to see what can be done instead.
I finished listening to the audio book today of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini read by the author. This book was recommended to me by jmb back in February in the comments to my Book Meme post. In the same comment she also recommended The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay. Both books were excellent in their own ways; the later is a good fantasy book which I must now get the others in the series of. The Kite Runner isn’t a book that I would have naturally picked up to read, but very soon after starting I was transported to Afganistan in the 1970’s and how life and society changes there with the coming of the Taliban. A big thank you to jmb for the recommendation and if you come across it pick it up and have a read.
On Saturday, Gary posted Instant Message Me Direct from Azazil.net where he talks about Plugoo, an instant messaging widget for your website/blog. On Sunday evening, while watching a re-run of Ramsey’s Kitchen Knightmares on More4, I was checking out some blogs and while I was there I thought I’d give it a try. I had a quick chat with Gary, and as all Brits do we discussed the weather (as a nation we are obsessed with talking about the weather!). I can vouch for the fact that Plugoo works really well, although it would be better if you had a bit more control on the size of the widget. I liked it so much that I have added it to my contact me page. The only problem it seems to have is that it is beta at the moment and sometimes the Plugoo servers are not responding or a bit slow. So if you want to have a chat when I’m online by all means pop over to my contact me page and chat away.
Last night I watched a film that I hadn’t seen for about 20 years. I watched Kagemusha by Akira Kurosawa. This is a film set in 16th Century feudal Japan, where the powerful warlord Shingen is replaced when he dies by a double to deceive Shingen’s enemies. The double is a thief who has to transform himself into the great leader and maintain the deception. There is a battle scene at the end of the film that I remember from when I saw the film 20 years ago and in my mind it was a much bigger battle. It’s strange how your mind plays tricks on you like that.
So that’s it for the moment, normal posting should now be resumed. If it isn’t give me a kick.
Tags:kagemusha,kite runner,plugoo,uk weather
On Wednesday, I collected Farworld: Water Keep from the post office. This is the new book from J. Scott Savage that I posted about a couple of months ago. Water Keep is the first in a five book fantasy series called Farworld. J. Scott Savage has published several other books, but this is his first young adult book and first fantasy series.
. I have read the extracts that he has posted and although it is aimed at young adults, I’m quite looking forward to reading it myself. I know my son will enjoy it. Looking on Amazon UK tonight, I was surprised to see it listed; I had expected to have to import it from the US. It is due to be released on 12th September and I have pre-ordered it.
. It’s scheduled for release 2nd March 2009, hopefully it will be on time, the last one slipped by about 6 months and that was a long wait. I really enjoyed the last book 
, which only took me a couple of days to read.
‘ and is set in Los Angeles in 2019. Harrison Ford plays a cop named Deckard who comes out of retirement to hunt down and eliminate four androids who have escaped from off planet colonies and have travelled to Earth to confront their designer.
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