bigjobhagmistress

Ways to Live Forever

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 08:47:49 GMT

I just finished reading a novel, Ways to Live Forever, that moved me profoundly. It's the debut novel from a young author, Sally Nicholls - I think she was only 22 when it was published. This extract from the publisher's website says it all really....

"It is the story of Sam. He is a boy who likes facts. He's also interested in UFOs and ghosts - and death. He has terminal leukaemia, and is going to die. And dying is a fact of life. The no-nonsense questions that he asks about death demistify the taboos, and make this funny, sad, honest, tender book a life-enhancing experience. It's for readers of all ages, and it will touch hearts and minds around the world."

It's written in Sam's voice, it's his book. He's a normal 11 year old boy, getting the most out of life while coming to terms with mortality in general and his in particular. Sentimental it is not. He writes about what he's been doing, his family and friends, his ideas and opinions. He makes lists: lists of questions, lists of facts, a list of ambitions, which he achieves one way or another (including climbing all the way up the down escalator in the local shopping centre when his mum isn't looking!) And through his matter of fact observations, we get a very moving insight into how the other members of his family are affected by the situation and the different ways in which they cope, or at times, fail to cope.

I would recommend this book to anyone. Having said that, a small word of warning. I started reading it to my #2 who is 9 (having not read it through myself first), and after getting about half way through, I decided to put it aside for a while, as her mind was clearly starting to spin. I think perhaps she is still a little young for it. To be honest, I'm not at all sure I could manage to read it out loud to the end either - it's somewhere up with Black Beauty on the tissue requirements!

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:26:56 GMT

Dickgloucester and me are pissed. And I have discovered a new word. "Conscriptcism" . What does the fuck might this mean? All offers wlecome. Now dickgloucester is fed up with me typing in Noorwegian so she wants a go.

Dicky says: you have <i>no</i> idea how long it took her to type this, not how many corrections she had to make. I have grown old and died waiting for my turn.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:31:34 GMT

In reponse to dickgloucester "list ten fictional characters you would have sex with (in no particular order) and tag five people to do the same".

Here's the list. In no particular order. Except the first which left a lasting impression. And it's fairly recent as I can't remember further back than last week a lot of the time. Except the first of course. Fraid no 150m angels, transformer robots or cartoon characters (G’Kar?) here, and no Alan Rickman - I may be in the minority but I don't really fancy him. I’m sure there must be others but these are the ones that sloshed into the upper levels of my consciousness today.

1. Sejanus from I Claudius (Patrick Stewart) – I have never forgotten those legs

2. Jean-Luc Picard (yes, Patrick Stewart again)

3. Sergeant Patrick Harper (Daragh O’Malley) – Sharpe’s big cuddly Irish side-kick

4. James Bond (as played by Daniel Craig) – oh wow (and I don’t normally go for blonds)

5. Mr Darcy (as played by Colin Firth)

6. Dr Gregory House (or Hugh Laurie in general)

7. Guy of Gisbourne (as played by Richard Armitage in the ludicrous recent TV series of Robin Hood – dressed all in black leather, and on horseback, what more can I say)

8. DCI Gene Hunt (Philip Glenister) – Life on Mars

9. Dr Who (as played by David Tennant)
10. Oh all right then, Lucius Malfoy

I haven't tagged as I should think everyone on my flist has already been tagged by others…

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:41:07 GMT

Family outing to Millenium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday to watch EDF cup semi-finals.. Leicester Tigers vs London Wasps (Tigers won yeah), Ospreys vs Saracens (who cares...). The funniest thing was that Wasps appeared to be fielding a Quidditch team. Reserves were warming up in front of us, beind the goal, sporting black, hooded, long sleeved 3/4 length robes (yes, robes), teamed with yellow and black striped socks. I wish I'd thought to take photos.

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:25:21 GMT

We've just spent the weekend introducing our Czech au pair's mum & dad to sight-seeing and picnicking 'English-style' i.e. muffled up to the eyeballs against the cold and sitting in car admiring the rain/hail/gale. We 'did' Buxton, Chatsworth and various places in between last Friday, then headed off to North Wales yesterday as they wanted to see the sea! It was a little fresh to say the least but they seemed to enjoy it, and Czech dad was very chuffed to find 2 whole mussels on the beach (when he saw the big nets of mussels waiting to be brought in at Conwy we thought he was going to jump in a swim across to get a few) - needless to say his wife and daughter rolled eyes & pretended not to be with him. Anyhow we saw the big castles at Conwy & Caernarfon (sorry if spelt that wrong) and then came back via the Llanberis pass and Pen y Pas so they could see Snowdon - the gale was blowing so hard up there that it was actually difficult to fight the car door open. Very sweet sight of toddler (probably about 18 months) all done up in mountain gear and being stood up against the gale by his parents.

Yesterday the girls and I were subjected to Czech Easter Monday custom of men beating any available females on the bum with willow sticks (which had been specially imported for the purpose I may add) whilst reciting some poem about giving them eggs or ribbons or some such. I assume that, like Morris dancing, this is some kind of ancient fertility rite. I will post the poem when I've had chance to write it down. Would be interesting to know of any similar customs anywhere.

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:42:14 GMT

Hmm I am not happy. I have just been accused of sounding "offensive" by a colleague. "Abrupt" I will happily admit to, especially as I have a headache, earache, and wasted most of yesterday slogging away testing something that turned out to be wrong, in large part due to his inability to articulate exactly how he wants a formula to be applied, or to read carefully what I wrote down in front of him in order to confirm my understanding of what he said. I am only human. He's normally a nice guy that I respect and don't generally fall out with, so I am doubly pissed off. But I am doing a damn good job on a difficult program which is taking weeks to test, so there's no call for him to be narky.

However, reason says that the guys in the finance dept are having a tough time right now, so I ought to cut him some slack. Hey ho.

Got that off my chest now, thanks.

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:36:26 GMT

Just a quick "thank you" to all of you who responded to dickgloucester's call for a beta for my fumbling first steps at a fic (not counting the 2 drabbles). It's just 1,500 words, took around an hour to write (coz that's all the time I had), aims to be funny and, other than a passing reference to Voldy's genitals, contains no sex or smut of any kind. I still need to make a couple of adjustments, notably removal of the small amounts of dialogue currently in there (truly cringeworthy), then I'll post it up here and go bury my head under a pillow!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 23:55:48 GMT

I have just twice saved my elder daughter's hamster (appropriately named Lucky) from death by cat. Came downstairs to kitchen, believing all children & rodents to be safely tucked up. Found hamster in corner, playing death stare competition with cat. ??????? How the hell did it get there? Assuming the admittedly unlikely scenario that younger daughter had played with hamster and forgotten to put her away, I rescued hamster, tried to warm her little toes, and put her securely back in cage. Went into kitchen for 20 minutes to add many chillies to dinner and heat it up. Came out with tray to find....yes....hamster in corner, playing death stare competition with cat. That is one hamster with attitude. Rescued hamster again, replaced in cage, checking carefully for escape routes (it is a large cage with lots of fun things in it). None seemed possible. Then watched while manic hamster did SAS style hand bar walk across roof of cage, and extruded herself through gap in bars that did not seem possible. !!!!!!!!! Realised that we must now make sure door latched right up tight, and was relieved that I had not torn younger daughter limb from limb. In the meantime, said cat was eating my chilli, which I had left on floor when rescuing hamster. Finally got to eat dinner after microwaving it to destruction to kill cat germs.

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:20:19 GMT

Should dickgloucester be getting on with the next chapter of Lady Ellhorn, or should she allow herself to be distracted by writing lumione porn? What's your vote?

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:24:34 GMT

Shattered after long day at work followed by 70 mile round trip for riding lesson. That may sound strange but it's worth it - good riding teachers with well schooled horses are a bit thin on the ground. Learning on a horse which responds in the correct way when you get it right (and conversely does not when you get it wrong) is a joy;

I've been having lessons for 2 1/2 years on my own pony, but he was lame for a few weeks recently so I've been making the journey to my teacher's yard for the last couple of months. The 8 lessons I've had so far on one of his horses have absolutely transformed my riding. The wonderful thing is that the better I am able to ride, the better my own pony goes for me. It's a long slow process, but so rewarding. It's humbling to understand that the vast majority of "problems" one has with one's horse, are actually down to lack of skill as a rider. To ride well you have to be able to show the horse what you want, with both firmness and subtlety, and then allow the horse get on with his job without interference. To do this you have to be able to continuously support and help the horse to balance himself, while maintaining your own position and balance so as not to hinder. As horses did not evolve to carry large weights in the middle of their backs, a horse's carriage with rider needs to be different to it's natural carriage without - the rider has to help the horse to do this, and to use and build his muscles to support this burden without injury. It's a curious combination of exercising complete control over the position and tone of the whole of your whole body, whilst being supple and relaxed enough to absorb the horse's movement; of being mentally very focused whilst at the same time very calm. It takes a lot of concentration and huge amounts of practice. The magical part is when you feel your horse in total balance and poise, when he is feels as if he is floating, when you find you are so in harmony that he can carry himself like this without hindrance or direction. I'm finally beginning to get this on occasion and it's just amazing.

I must sleep now.

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:09:34 GMT

Back from my conference now, having failed to win any of the amazing prizes up for grabs in the gala dinner bingo (including Bose stereo, several i-pod touches, about 6 Nintendo Wiis, Aston Martin experience day etc etc) - makes note to get to more of these events. Still, personal haul included 2 cuddly lions for the children, 2 stress buster squeezy fishes, a couple of pens, a usb stick, a SAP satchel and something I haven't opened yet. Even managed not to acquire hangover - partly due to being on level of good behaviour as there with boss. Excellent entertainment during dinner by 'The 3 Waiters' - comedy act modelled on The 3 Tenors - and yes they could sing!

Off to bed now before husband gets too grumpy with me messing around on the computer. I think he is somewhat appalled by the LJ/fanfic thing, but what the heck. It's nice to get creative after all these years.

First Post.....

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 23:19:28 GMT

Firstly a big THANKYOU to everyone who has read and said nice things about my drabble on dickgloucester's drabble challenge. I'm not sure where the idea or the words came from; I was leafing through DH and they just kind of fermented into existence. Quite surprised that I managed to keep flowcharts and bullet points out of it, as most of my writing for last N (I'm not going to say how many) years has consisted of system designs and program specs. Going back even further I was a dab hand at the literary form 'Introduction, Objectives, Method, Results, Conclusion' .

Thankyou too to all the people who have already 'friended' me.

Apologies up front if I don't always reply promptly to posts. I only have partial access to LJ from my office pc, so am a bit limited to what I can post in the lunchbreak, and I often don't get on the home pc for days at a time due to just being too damn busy/tired (kids, hubby, house, horse - in no particular order of precedence). Drabbles are probably the most I'll manage at the moment, but I like this short form because (a) it makes for economy with words and (b) can take big flights of fancy without having to justify them. DAMN - bullet points also creeping in again.

I think I'd better reread all the HP novels now as I like them but am not really up to speed with all the detail - if I make mistakes in my references please don't throw tomatoes at me!

The lovely cow in my picture was lying on the verge of a tiny backroad in the far northwest of Scotland when we drove past it this summer. I couldn't resist sharing it.

Off to sleep now as climbed most of way up Snowdon today, and have to go to possibly interesting but probably tedious conference for next 2 days.