Alone on a Wide Wide Sea.

Just zipped through Michael Morpurgo's latest in the last couple of days after having had a proof sat on my shelves for a good 2 or 3 months. For something that resides in the 9-12 section it's pretty harrowing. It's like a seretonin-free Louis Sachar's 'Holes'. Clearly by the speed at which I gobbled it up, it's compulsive reading. The first 2/3 reads more easily that the back third but it still hangs together pretty well.

Orphan boy gets shipped to Oz after his parents are killed in the war. He leaves with a key thread through with string given to him by his big sister Kittie. He meets a variety of cruel, sad, strange, gentle and hearty individuals who shape his life and move the story full circle until he has a daughter of his own and she decides to return to England and find out the truth about Kittie. Not a sniff of sentimentality and some pretty harsh things get thrown at the characters; abuse, snake bites, 30 foot waves to name but a few.

A very memorable read. I don't care if it's written for kids, he's a very accomplished writer, grounded in social realism and well worth the effort.

M I L E S

last night i caught a glimpse of f-nakaj'sbf.

i approve.

not that my approval was required.

all i have to say is that anyone who calls that silly hair but prefers this;

needs their eyes testing!

condiments

I refer you to
http://newyorktrilogy.livejournal.com/
where the following is posted:

"Do you have a book in stock called: 'Mayo'?"And there I was, like a fool, looking for a book that intrigued me by the title alone. There was I, expecting to be rewarded with a Mark Kurlansky-esque insight into the world of Mayonnaise - a la 'Cod' and 'Salt'."It's called Mayo: The Unknown Story"And there I was, like a fool, now even more intrigued, excited by this historical investigation into the very beginnings of the condiment... until..."And it's by someone called '...Chung Chang?' and '...John Holiday'."Oh.

Only today, in another unnamed, unmentioned, uncited and positively ANONYMOUS branch, the same request was made for 'Mayo' but then the customer added:

"It's the sequel to the curious incident of the dog in the night time."

FOUR

I need to up my running distance by a mile a week from now on if I'm going to stand a chance of completing the London Marathon.

So today I ran four miles. It took me 55 minutes which I know is really slow BUT it was further and longer than I've run before so I'm happy with that.

Bad news is that I've not been accepted through the ballot and all the Oxfam Gold Bonds have gone which means I have to find another charity to run for that still has places. I'm rather miffed about that.

But I ran four miles !!!!!

Need to plan a five miler for Thursday. >gulp<