Monday, April 20, 2020

This week...

I'm reading...

After finished reading both the books I mentioned last week, I was faced with what is one of the tougher decisions ..... what to read next? I could read on the library books I have here so that they are all read by the time that the library reopens, or I could read one of the many, many, many books I already have downloaded on my Kindle or just pick one of the unread books off my bookshelf.

In the end, I didn't do any of those things. I ended up downloading a completely new book. Earlier this year I read When It All Went to Custard by Danielle Hawkins and really enjoyed it so I downloaded Chocolate Cake for Breakfast. We won't talk about the fact that I started reading it at 4am because I couldn't sleep. I had read a quarter of by the time I went to sleep. I then finished the book by 1.30am the next night which is probably a fair sign of how much I enjoyed it, which was lucky given that it was a book that Bree from All the Books You Can Read recommended to me about 3 years ago.

The other book I started this week was Ambulance Girls Under Fire by Deborah Burrows which features ambulance girls working in London during the blitz in World War II. I read the first book in the trilogy a couple of years ago and it has taken me that long to get back to it. This is one of the library books.

After finishing Chocolate Cake, I was again left pondering what to read. Bree and I have long been recommending books to each other. Many years ago I recommended Poison Study by Maria Snyder to her. I should clarify, it was actually many, many, many years ago. We even went to an author event together back in 2011 where we both bought several of this authors books.  A couple of weeks ago, Bree finally read Poison Study, and then proceeded to read the rest of the books in the series in quick succession (all 9 of them). After chatting to her, it was probably inevitable that I would go back and reread the book! Poison Study was a 5/5 read for me back in 2006, and I have already been sucked back into the book very quickly.

But all is fair in love and war, and in book recommendations, because when I was speaking to her about Chocolate Cake it turns out that she felt the need to reread that book!


I'm watching....


I mentioned last week that the new series of Masterchef had started but that there were new judges, so it was going to be the beginning of a new era. It's fair to say that we are in! The first week they had Gordon Ramsay as a guest judge and it was a great start to the season and I can't see any reason why we won't keep watching.

At the opposite end of the skills spectrum are the contestants that sign up for Nailed It which is what we binge watched on Friday night! The show can be a bit over the top at times, and most of the time I think that there is no way even the most talented chef could complete the challenges that are set but it is entertaining to watch the contestants try!

Another baking show that we started watching again this week is Bake Off: The Professionals. This is part of The Great British Bake Off franchise. Instead of amateur bakers, this show features teams of professional pastry chefs making amazing looking miniature pastries and then a huge showstopper. It is beautiful food produced in a high pressure environment. We do love watching the judges, Benoit Blin and Cherish Finden. They are professional baking judges and they make us laugh quite regularly, especially Cherish!

My #isoviewing adventures continued over the weekend. On Friday night we watched The Phantom of the Opera which was fabulous. I did decide that there were some advantages to getting to watch these shows at home. If we were watching in a theatre there is no way that we would be able to singalong!

What I am finding is that there isn't enough time to watch everything that is available online. I haven't watched any of the Shakespeare productions, didn't watch Jane Eyre, or so many other things!

Life

How are we all going with our social distancing? I think I am in week 5 or 6 now of working from home, and this has been the hardest week so far. I am not sure why this is the case, maybe because we know that it is going to still be another 3 weeks before life starts to get to be heading towards the new normal, whatever that is going to look like.

One thing that we did do for the first time this week was a jigsaw puzzle. Not too long ago our Prime Minister told the country that jigsaws counted as essential items for shopping which was a bit puzzling (no pun intended). I have ordered a new one online which hasn't arrived yet, but then Robert (my husband) mentioned that he thought that he had a couple when we moved in. A quick search of the shed produced a couple. We possibly should have started with one where there was a picture of the puzzle on the box to at least refer to!

We enjoyed doing the puzzle together, but it will be a couple of weeks before we do another one. Robert found it a bit distracting to have it sitting there incomplete on the kitchen table. Every time he walked past he had to put a few pieces in which isn't ideal when you are working from home!

There was also a moment last week when he was at the kitchen table doing the puzzle and I was watching Masterchef. Next thing he is saying I thought we were doing this puzzle together? And my response was I thought we watched Masterchef together!?!


Posts from the last week

Weekend Cooking: The patisserie shop
Alphabet 2020: C is for Chocolate
The first glimpse of la tour Eiffel

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

20 comments:

  1. I know that I don't have any jigsaw puzzles at my house but I also know a lot of people are doing them now. I've been keeping busy with books and audiobooks. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

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    1. Kathy, we are doing all sorts of things to keep busy. I have been reading, but today's the first day that I have been able to listen to my audiobook.

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  2. I’ll have to try the new Masterchef, I lost patience with it a few seasons ago when they hyped up the drama, so if they reigned that in I’m willing.
    I’ve never been a fan of puzzles, my daughters did one together the other day though.
    I’ve liked all of Hawkins books, I still need to read The Pretty Delicious Cafe though.

    Wishing you a great reading week and good health

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    1. Shelleyrae, I think it just feels a little lighter in tone than it had.

      I can see myself reading another Hawkins book very soon.

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  3. Chocolate Cake for Breakfast sounds like a fun read. I am glad you enjoyed it, Marg. I am sorry to hear you are having trouble sleeping though. Ambulance Girls Under Fire sounds like another one I might like. I hope you are enjoying it as well. I haven't yet read Poison Study, but it is on my TBR pile. :-)

    We really like Nailed It in our house, especially my daughter. She loves all of the baking contest shows. I like Nailed It because I think that's about how well I would do in one of those competitions. LOL

    My dad loved putting together jigsaw puzzles. I keep telling my husband we need to invest in one of those roll-up puzzle cloths so we can do one together--without the cats messing the pieces up when we aren't working on it.

    I hope you have a good week. Stay well and safe.

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    1. Sleeping is always a bit of an issue, but I think it is a bit worse at the moment.

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  4. Poison Study and the rest of that series are one of my grand-daughter's favourite series and she keeps recommending them to me. I really must try them as I have that first book on my Nook.

    Well, I'm a big jigsaw fan so I know how tempted Robert is. LOL

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    1. Cath, the first book is certainly worth taking a look at. Then you can decide about the rest of the series.

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  5. We were doing a puzzle too- it was a collage of flip flops lol and definitely put us in a summery mood! The things we do to pass time now haha! Still, it is fun. And Chocolate Cake for Breakfast sounds fun. I love that cover!

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    1. That puzzle sounds like a lot of fun Greg.

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  6. Puzzles are such a fun thing to do during these times. Perfectly distracting and challenging as well. I haven't done one yet because of too many little hands here so I miss those. We are in week 6 I think and talk has started about opening up slowly. It's still going to be a long time though.

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    1. Athira, it won't be too long before a partial return to normal here either.

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  7. I've heard Chocolate cake for breakfast was good, I'll have to add it to my list when I'm off of my book buying ban.

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    1. Definitely worth considering reading Claire

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  8. The ambulance girls books sound really interesting to me. And that puzzle looks like fun. We have two young cats who I don't think would be supportive if we started doing jigsaw puzzles ;) Thanks for sharing!

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    1. That could definitely get messy Becki!

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  9. The CHOCOLATE CAKE FOR BREAKFAST cover is adorable! I'll have to look up this series. It sounds fun. POISON STUDY has been on my TBR list for forever. I'm not sure why I haven't read it yet. Maybe I should pull it out and start reading ...

    I know a lot of people have been doing puzzles to combat boredom during the pandemic. I have a friend that leaves the puzzles she's already done on her doorstep so others can come and grab them or trade her for ones they've already done. We haven't put any together yet, but that's mostly because our dining room table is already covered in my husband's Legos! Good thing we have our kitchen table to use for meals :)

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    1. I can see how Lego would be super fun too Susan!

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  10. i think i am enjoying the new masterchef and the new judges tho that melissa annoys me:)

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    1. I don't mind her but my husband says that she sounds like a kid when she yells. But he also tended to get annoyed at George by the end of the series in previous seasons.

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