Books and Clay

I heard Christopher Brookmyre speak tonight - very entertaining guy, had us all in stitches. I've been listening to "Pandemonium" on CD though I'm only half way through it and it's very funny. The first disk had me worried to begin with - I thought the CDs were in the wrong box as I couldn't figure what on earth the story was about! Words we used at school like "boufin" and "barkit" came flooding back (no idea if that's how to spell them!). I got my autograph book signed as well as buying "Be my Enemy". I got the autography book as a present about 6 years ago and it's fairly filling up with author signatures. When I used to run children's reading groups and events, we'd have competitions to see how many and which authors had signed our books. I also decided a few years ago to only buy books that I either would read over and over again (something I rarely do) or if I got them signed by the author. This is mai

I’m off to London for a week in September and I’m going by sleeper which I've been dying to do since I was a child. Because I'm going by sleeper it actually works out a longer stay as I gain two days by travelling overnight. I’m staying with my aunt and uncle and I’ve been trying to narrow down things to do. I looked on the Visit London site and within a couple of minutes found cycle tours – fantastic idea! I vaguely remember taking an open top tour on a bus the last time I was down but the bikes sound more fun. I’ll either go to the British Museum or Natural History Museum (I keep swithering) and the London Eye is a must. Apart from that, I’m not sure what else I’ll be doing. I want to spend time with my aunt and uncle as well as pounding the pavements so I’ll probably just wait and see how the week pans out (especially the weather!). Before London though, I'm due to go to the Scottish mobilemeet in Kilmarnock on 11th September which will mean an early start espe

Yikes, didn't realise it had been ages since I've updated the blog! This is my third attempt to try and update and no wonder it takes me forever as it doesn’t always save properly or there’s a problem with the editing and you’ve to re-type everything! I really enjoyed the cycling course the Council ran in April and managed to change my inner tube with help from the tutor. I have 20" wheels which are harder to get the tyre off but much easier to get it back on! We cycled round Forfar mainly practising turns and roundabouts and I was surprised at the abuse we got from some drivers because we were cycling in pairs. Apparently, it's recommended that you cycle in pairs instead on one big line (there were nine of us) as it's much riskier for a driver to overtake and they could knock you off. I’ve also been cycling round Angus, up the Glens and even got more abuse when using a cycle path. I’ll stick to taking my chances with the traffic I think. I was on holiday for a cou