Monday, January 29, 2024

This Week....


I'm reading



Some weeks I make a lot of progress in reading, and other weeks not so much! This week I am happy to report that it was the former.



I finished reading The Secrets of Crestwell Hall by Alexandra Walsh which I reviewed last week, and I also finished reading Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros which I started earlier this month..



I then read Shout Out to My Ex by Sandy Barker and now I have started reading Happy Ever After in Bellbird Bay by Maggie Christensen. I already know that finishing this book is going to be a bit bittersweet as this is going to be the last book in the Bellbird Bay series. I do know that there is going to be another series in a new town, but still.



I did have a bit of a funny experience this week. As I mentioned above I started reading Iron Flame earlier this month but I had to put it aside so that I could read some review books. I was reading The Secrets of Crestwell Hall and there was a quasi-terrorist group that formed part of the contemporary storyline and they called themselves Empyrean. When I finished the book I picked Iron Flame up again, and I was reading along when the word Empyrean jumped out again as it is the name of the dragon group in the book! It's not like it is a common word and yet it was in two completely different books, genres, etc.



I'm watching



We started the second series of Reacher this week. So far, so good!



We also watched the end of the second series of Muster Dogs. It's such a lovely show. 



On Saturday I spent the whole day watching Grand Designs Australia and being blown away by how creative and ambitious people can be when they decide to build out of the ordinary houses.



Life



Unfortunately I was struck down by the dreaded lurgy last week. I ended up having a couple of days off work and even when I went back to work today there were people who were saying should you be here?







We did feel recovered enough to go and visit the Titanic exhibition which is currently visiting Melbourne.  When you enter the exhibition you are given the identity of someone who was on the ship. I did see this last time it visited and luckily I would have survived the sinking again. This time I was the wife of John Jacob Astor! We also had high tea which was a lovely treat.





On Sunday we went for a drive in the country. We visited a small town called Woodend which is one of our favourite destination for a vanilla slice. What we didn't expect was to purchase a painting....but we did!





Max



When I mentioned above that we were watching Muster Dogs, the word we was inclusive of Max. Here he is watching Muster Dogs with us. He was watching intently. I don't think he learned anything about being a working dog though.







I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

17 comments:

  1. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Sounds like you had an excellent week. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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  2. The Titanic exhibition looks wonderful. I'd love to see that someday. I hope you have a great week!

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  3. interesting coincidence with Empyrean. I had the same experience last week when two books in a row mentioned The Alchemist - a book I'd never heard of before then. Was just watching a fun clip on the news about dogs and cats loving to watch animals on TV.

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    1. I haven't thought about the book The Alchemist for years. I did read it back in the day

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  4. Ha ha! I've been hearing about lots of dogs tuning in to watch Muster Dogs :-)

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    1. I would say it is Max's favourite show.

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  5. That exhibition looks interesting! I'm glad you were feeling well enough to go.

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  6. I am sorry you weren't feeling well, Marg. I am glad though you were up to going to the Titanic Exhibition. It sounds like a lot of fun. Haha, Max knows he has the best life. :-) I hope you have a great week, Marg!

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  7. the Titanic exhibition sounds like fun. Hope you're feeling better now.

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  8. Glad you are feeling better! That exhibit sounds fun. I was so looking forward to the Titanic Museum (or displays, I suppose I should say) when I visited Halifax, Nova Scotia about ten years ago and it was shut the day we were there due to high winds, which I found very puzzling.

    What is a vanilla slice?

    My sister was reading the Rebecca Yarros on the train next to me this past weekend. I thought when she finished it, I would read it but she read very slowly!

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    1. A vanilla slice is generally pastry at the bottom, topped with custard and another slice of pastry and then either icing or icing sugar. So delicious

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  9. The Titanic exhibit sounds fun and interesting. And Empyrean surely seems an unusual word to come across twice so quickly in different books. Perhaps you buy a lottery ticket ... as it just seems too weird or lucky a coincidence.

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    1. Seeing Empyrean twice so quickly was definitely odd!!

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