This week....

I'm reading

Melbourne weather is notoriously fickle and we have had some really,really hot days this week with more to come. This week it just so happened that I picked up two books set in the Arctic area of the northern hemisphere, so plenty of snow and ice to cool the brain. The first of those books was The Arctic Cruise by Caroline James. Our characters sailed north to Norway chasing the Northern Lights. It was a fun read. (my review)

Then my thoughts turned to France and pastries when I read The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan. As I stated at the beginning of my review...you had me at boulangerie!

I stepped a bit outside of my normal reading this week and read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. I don't normally read these kinds of psychological thrillers. I picked it up because a friend of mine recently told me that McFadden is her favourite author, and I have noticed how her books are dominated the best sellers lists around the world! Having now read one of her books, I can see why. It was gripping, twisty and turny and definitely made me want to find out what happens next. I have requested the next book from the library but there is a bit of a wait.

Finally, I started Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, which is set in a small town in Sweden. This is the second book in the Beartown trilogy and I'm enjoying it very much. I can't wait to pick it up again today.

I'm watching


I watched the first episode of the Irish show, The Walsh Sisters, which is based on the Marian Keyes books. I wasn't really sure what to make of the first episode. There was lots of drama, but I guess I always think of Marian Keyes as being funny while she tackles heavy issues. I am not sure I got the funny yet. I will keep watching too see if it picks up or not.

Recently, it was announced that the best selling books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series are being made into a TV series. I thought that it was probably about time that I watched the movie version which was made back in 2018, which is called Cafe Funiculi Funicula. I enjoyed it,, and liked the way that they depicted the person going back in time. It was a bit different to the book, which I guess is to be expected. I liked it, but I am not 100% sure it would have made a lot of sense if I didn't already read the series.

Here's the trailer

Life


It's a long weekend here for Australia Day. It is a bit of contentious holiday. It's not because people aren't proud to be Australian and love our great country, but the date of 26 January is seen as being harmful for indigenous Australians as it represents the day that the British came and took their land and so many of their people in the following years. I would be quite happy to see the date changed to another date that is less painful. It's been changed before and it can be changed again. I am, however, happy to have the additional day off. Work has been pretty stressful so I am grateful for the chance for one extra day to just do not much, especially seeing as we have had some pretty hot days

With the heat comes the threat of fires. Whilst I have never been close to being threatened by a really big fire, I do hate the days that you wake up and all you can smell is the lingering smoke from fires in other parts of the state. It was like that yesterday morning.

Max


Poor Maxxie boy has an eye infection so he looks a bit rough at the moment. It is getting better slowly though. You can also see how bad his blindness is getting. He is, however, still a happy boy. We will see if there is anything that can be done for him this year. With all his other health issues though we are just taking it one condition at a time!

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Goals

Blog Tour: The Croatian Island Library by Eva Glyn

Blog Tour: The Arctic Circle by Caroline James

Weekend Cooking: The Sweet Life Café by Helen Rolfe

Weekend Cooking: The Boulangerie on the Corner by Susan Buchanan

Sunday Salon: 2025 Year in Review



I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This week

 I'm reading

After a few quieter weeks it was a busy reading week this week!

I finished reading The Last Stop on the Winter Wonderland Express by  Rebecca Raisin which was a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas romp on a train through Europe.

I also finished listening to an audiobook this week. Somewhat unusually it was a non fiction book about writing. I Give You My Body...How I Write About Sex by Diana Gabaldon was mentioned at the reader retreat I attended earlier this year, purely because of some of the names she lists for the male appendage which was mentioned as being particularly humourous. The book was narrated by Herself (which is what dedicated DG fans call her) but it also featured a lot of excerpts from the audiobooks of the series. The two things I took away from it were that Diana Gabaldon talks really fast, and it also reminded me how much I loved this series back in the day. I still haven't read the last book because the last couple have been a bit like hard work to get through. I haven't yet started my next audiobook. Not sure what I am going to choose. 

I started reading A New Life in Amsterdam by Helga Jenssen. I will have the review for that one later this week. 

I also started The Oyster Catcher by Jo Thomas. I have read a few of Jo Thomas' books over the year and really enjoyed them all, so this is me now starting to go back through her backlist.

A few months ago now, I went to an author event which featured Jodi McAlister who had just launched An Academic Affair. This weekend was our read on a theme book club meeting and the theme for this time was Romance. Now, I am never going to be short of a read for this theme, but I decided that this book was going to be the one that I specifically chose to read. And I loved it!

I also talked about The Last Love Note by Emma Grey.

Here are just some of the books that other members read this month!

We agreed that for next month is a freebie. Not sure if that is going to make it harder or easier to choose which book to talk about. 

I did go to a book launch this week. Steph Vizard's new book A Smart Girl's Guide to Second Chances was launched at a local bookstore, and it was standing room only there were so many people there! It was a good night, and I got to see a few other bloggers, bookstagrammers and authors that I am getting to know as we all turn up at the same events from time to time. I am looking forward to reading the book. 

Books let our imaginations travel where our feet cannot - Nora Nguyen

Here's where I travelled through books in September

Australia

Tasmania - An Academic Affair by Jodi McAlister

Western Australia - Daughter of Batavia by Stefanie Koens

Asia

Japan - The Calico Cat at the Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi, The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

Europe

France - A French Inheritance by Jennifer Bohnet

Ireland - Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

Italy - The Lost Garden by Angela Petch, Daughter of Genoa by Angela Petch

UK - Winter Nights at the Bay Bookshop by Jessica Redland, The Life She Could Have Lived by Laura Pearson

US 

Seattle - The Magic of Lemon Drop Pie by Rachel Linden

I also share my favourite reads for the month on Bookstagram and here. I read 11 books in September which is down a bit from the last couple of months but not really surprising. An Academic Affair was a 5 star read and the others shown were both 4.5 star reads! 

I'm watching

After book club on Saturday three of us went and sat at a cafe near the beach and just watched the world go by before we went to see Napoli - New York as part of the Italian Film Festival. It was a good movie. It's the story of two orphans from Napoli who stow away on a boat to get to America and all the things that happen to them along the way. I actually like it a lot. It was a big melodramatic but ti was entertaining.

Life

We booked our next year's holiday and I am so excited! However, my attention is now turned to our next holiday which is in a couple of weeks. Better start getting organised. 

Max

Because my son was away at the same time we were, we had to get a petsitter in for Max. I think he was okay with it! She shared a lot of photos with us over the three days we were away.


Posts from the last week



Top Ten Tuesday: It's a Flower!
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - October links

In My Kitchen - September

Six Degrees of Separation - I Want Everything to Dear Mrs Bird





I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date, Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz and the Good Book and a Cup of Tea link up hosted at Boondock Ramblings

This week...

Max


Who's a good birthday boi! Max turned 3 last week. Over the last 8 months or so he has had some pretty significant health issues so we weren't always sure that he would make it to 3 but he did! We think he is now going blind so we'll see what happens this year. For now, we are giving him the best life we can!

I'm reading

This week I read The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson which was fun. My review is here.

I was then very surprised to find out that there had been a fourth short story in the Once Upon a Time Book Stories by Alice Hoffman. It was  released back in February and I have no idea how I missed it! As soon as I found out about it I had to read it. It is called The Bookstore Family and I really enjoyed it. I like how she manages to pack so much into stories that are no more than 40 or so pages. Now I need to decide which full length book I should read by her.

I did have a very strange moment this week where I wasn't read anything other than my War and Peace readalong (and to be fair I was am a bit behind on that anyway). I had finished my audiobook, my Kindle book and my physical book and I had no idea what I was going to read next in any format. Too many options to be able to make a decision.

In the end I decided to listen to Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent by Dame Judi Dench which is a rare foray into non-fiction for me. It isn't narrated by her though although the narrator who is playng her is doing a great job in my opinion. Basically it is a friend of hers, another actor called Brendan O'Hea, asking her questions to prompt her thoughts of memories of the various roles she has played in Shakespeare productions. I am really loving hearing her thought processes which do a great job of bringing the humanness of Shakespeare to the fore. Definitely makes it seem much more approachable than we think of Shakespeare now!

After my period of indecision, I decided to read A Secret Garden in Paris by Sophie Beaumont. I really enjoyed her last book, The Paris Cooking School, and I liked this one a lot too. I'll have a review up for this in a few weeks once Paris in July starts.

For a physical book I started reading Half Truth by Nadia Mahjouri. I met Nadia at the Rachael Johns Readers Retreat in Perth a few weeks ago and knew I had to read it after hearing her speak about her book!

We had a few hours of flying time over the weekend and I was able to take advantage of this by reading The Island of Hopes and Dreams by Kate Frost on the way up to Brisbane and then Once Upon a Thyme by Jane Lovering. I also started reading Not My Greek Wedding by Sue Roberts. All three of these are blog tour books so I will have the reviews up soon. 

I'm watching

I watched a movie called Firebrand which basically telling the story King Heny VIII's last wife, Katherine Parr. It shows a woman who has some pretty strong religious beliefs which bring her to odds with Henry in the last days of his life. I am not sure it is totally historically accurate but it is an interesting movie to watch. It stars Jude Law as King Henry and Alicia Vikander as Katherine.

Last week we started re-watching Ted Lasso.  I had been seeing lots of clips online and it made me want to go right back to the beginning. What a joy that show is! We finished the first season and I imagine we will continue with season two this week.

Life


We had to do a quick trip to Brisbane this weekend as it was my stepdaughter's 30th birthday. We flew up Friday night and back Sunday afternoon. On Saturday we took advantage of the great weather and went for a drive to look at Moreton Bay and then on Saturday night we had dinner at Skydeck. We were sitting outside on the viewing deck (yes, it's winter here and it was a bit cool but there were heaters). I have to say, the food was amazing! Amazing!

I did get a little bit excited as I started seeing ads saying Paris comes to Brisbane and there was a 4 story Eiffel Tower at Southbank so I made my poor husband traipse over the river to see it, but it was a little bit underwhelming really! Will just have to plan another trip to see the real thing

The only downside, I had picked up some germs before we went away so I was feeling pretty average a lot of the time, and flying does not help! I think I am going to be taking it very easy for the first few days of this week.


Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: Book Titles That Remind Me of a Song
Blog Tour: Over the Sea to Skye by Sue Moorcroft
Blog Tour: The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
Weekend Cooking: Sticky Apricot Chicken Drumsticks
Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - May Statistics


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

Top Ten Tuesday: Animal Companions

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Animal Companions (These animals can be real or fantasy!) (submitted by P.S. I Love Books)

I was thinking about just doing a post with the word dog in the title, but it turns out I already did that a couple of years ago and I would have used a lot of the same titles! Instead, I am choosing books where there are dogs in the books. First though, here's a recent picture of our good boi, Max.

Now, onto the books!

A Snowy River Summer by Stella Quinn - Features a black labrador named Herbert.

Snowy Mountain's Daughter by Alissa Callen - There is a kelpie named Bundy in her series who just moves from place to place around town, whereever he is needed! (My review)

The Woman Who Met Herself by Laura Pearson - One of the characters, Debbie, starts walking a dog called Bonnie. (My review)

The Recipe for Happiness by Jane Lovering - Seren finds herself temporarily owning a Collie called Kez. Or is it temporary? (My review)

The Mirror by Nora Roberts - Mooks, Jones and Yoda! With all the books that Nora Roberts has written how on earth does she come up with character names and then have multiple dogs in the story too! I'm listening to this one at the moment!

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus - How could anyone forget Six-Thirty the dog? (My review)

Starting over at Starlight Cottage by Debbie Viggiano - Tilly tells her dog Cindy all her secrets. I mean, I talk to Max. I am not sure that he is that good at keeping secrets. (My review)

Hopefuly Hearts at the Cornish Cove by Kim Nash - Gladys the labrador plays a big part in this book. (My review)

A Christmas Surprise in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen - When Molly the dog gets sick, Rachel takes her to the vet and meets the vet locum, Luke, who just happens to be her first love. (My review)

Muster Dogs: From Pups to Pros by Lisa Millar- I haven't actually read this but it is the book that accompanies the Muster Dog TV series, which I adore!

This Week..

I'm reading

We are back from holidays! We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Japan and South Korea. We are already talking about when we will go to Japan again! One thing that was surprising was how much reading time I had! I think it is because there was no TV to watch on the ship, and I wasn't playing any games  or doom scrolling on my phone due to limited internet. I also had pre- written all the blog posts for the time I was away so no blogging required either! I normally wouldn't read too much while on holidays but this time I finished 10 books! I am not going to list them all here as I am planning to share them in next week's Top Ten Tuesday post. I also now have a ton of reviews to write as I used this time to get a little bit ahead on review books, but also read a few books just for fun!

What I will talk about is what I have been reading since I got home.

A book that I started on the plane but finished yesterday is Secrets Beneath a Riviera Sky by Jennifer Bohnet. This is a book that I will be reviewing in a couple of weeks time.

Another book with a review due in a couple of weeks time is The Best Days of Our Lives by Helen Rolfe. I loved her Skylarks books set in an air ambulance unit, and was hoping for more, but this is not connected to that series at all!

This morning I started reading Pictures of You by Australian author Emma Grey. I could say I started this on a whim, but the reality is that the library wants its book back, and I don't really want to return it unread, so binge read here I come!

March was a really good month for me. I finished 17 books which is probably the highest I have had in quite some time. I know that I am not going to maintain that pace going forward though. Of the books I read in March, I gave two of them 5 stars (The Jam Maker and The Winter Sea), and another five books rating 4.5/5! Here they are:

I just wanted to mention the passing of Kerry Greenwood. She was the author of the Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman series, and lived a very colourful life. It has been a number of years since I read any of her books, but I think I will pick one up when I go to the library!

I'm watching


I didn't watch anything on the plane on the way to Japan, but on the way home I watched Wicked. I saw it in the cinemas when it came out, but I had forgotten how long the movie is! It was a delight to watch it again though.

The French Film Festival finished yesterday and because I was away for most of it, I didn't get to see all the films that I wanted to see. I was therefore delighted to see that a couple of them were available on the plane. I chose to watch The Marching Band! It was such a good film, although I do seem to have the knack of picking films to watch on a plane that will make me cry! 

Here's the trailer

Speaking of films set in France, kind of, Erin from Still Life, with Cracker Crumb and Lisa from Boondock Ramblings are hosting a Springtime in Paris movie event. The idea is that each week we watch a film and then share our thoughts. The schedule is below.

I did come home from holidays with a bit of a head cold, so sitting down and watching Mrs Harris Goes to Paris was the perfect way to spend Sunday afternoon. It is a movie that I have watched numerous times, and I have listened to the audiobook! I shared my thoughts about the book and the movie a couple of years ago during Paris in July which you can find here.

We also started watching Amanda and Alan's Spanish Job. We loved the two series set in Italy so we were always going to watch, and it is interesting to see the Spanish culture and food.


Life

I am hoping to have big news next week! Let's just say I had to do some job interviews via Teams whilst I was on the cruise, which is a bit odd! I am crossing everything for one of the roles in particular. 

In big news, I bought a new fragrance while we were away. I am one of those people who tends to wear the same fragrance for years until they stop making it, and then it takes me an age to find another one that I like. And then I wear that until they stop making it! Over and over. I also got a sample bottle of another one so now I have three choices every morning!



Max

As seems to be normal with Max he needed to go to the vet while we were away as he had some sores suddenly appear on his belly. He's good in himself, so nothing to worry about but we do need to get his medical conditions under control which I suspect means a change of medication. 

I think he is glad we are home though. He has barely left our sides in the last couple of days. This is a live action shot from a minute ago.

Posts from the last week

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - April links

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Degrees of Separation

Sunbirds by Mirandi Riwoe

Weekend Cooking: In My Kitchen - March

Six Degrees of Separation: Knife to Here Be Dragons


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

This week...

I'm reading

It was a busy reading week this week! I read several books, a short story and finished an audiobook. 

Firstly, I finished The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood which I reviewed here. If you like a book where a house is an integral character in the story, then this might be for you.

Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering also has a house like that and for added measure each chapter is named for a famous house in literature. Here is my review.

I was then excited to see that The Bookstore Keepers by Alice Hoffman was available. This is the third short story in the Once Upon a Time Bookshop stories. These are the first Alice Hoffman stories I have read. I will be reading more as I am amazed how much story and feeling she fits into these short stories.

I was then hoping to get a bit of my reviews for March and also read an Aussie author, but the book I wanted wasn't quite ready. I therefore started A Santorini Secret by Rose Alexander which I really loved. Will be searching out some of her other titles. The review for this one will be up later this week.

I am now sneaking in a non-review read. A couple of weeks ago I went to see Mary-Lou Stephen talk about her book The Jam Maker and so I have started that one!

I also finished listening to Pride and Prejudice, narrated by British actor Rosamund Pike. I then started 

Mis-Directed by Lucy Parker which also has a couple of celebrity narrators, Nicola Coughlin and Gwilym Lee. I sat on the couch to listen to this and may have fallen asleep so I need to rewind a bit. Generally I listen to audiobooks on walks or in the car. 

I'm watching

We watched Unbreakable: The Jelena Dokic Story which was heartbreaking and inspiring in equal measures. Jelena Dokic was a young tennis player back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She came to Australia as a refugee and then represented Australia, until she announced that she was going back to Yugoslavia. She was infamous because of the way her father, Damir, acted, even getting thrown out of major tournaments due to his aggressive behaviour. However, what the public saw was only the tip of the iceberg. The abuse that Jelena was receiving at home was horrific. She is now estranged from her father, and she is a respected tennis commentator and body image advocate. Here's the trailer

Tuesday night I went to see a preview screening of The Last Journey, a Swedish documentary in which a man and a friend decides to take his elderly father on a road trip to the south of France, to try and spark him back into life. It was a lovely movie, and we went to see it in a fab art deco theatre I had never been to before. The son and his friend, who are famous in Sweden, who produced the movie were at the screening and there was a Q and A session after. It was so touching, because when it started it was about the son not understanding how aging had affected his father, and by the end it was about him accepting that his dad was getting old. Along the way they reminisced about their summers in France. If you get the chance to see it, do so, but maybe take some tissues. It's now the highest grossing Swedish documentary of all time.

Life

We went for a lovely lunch for Valentine's Day which I posted a bit about here. Other than that it was all about the dog this week.

Max

Our lovely boy had a relapse and is not well at all. Late last year he was really unwell and was diagnosed with Addison's disease, liver enlargement, muscle shrinkage in his head and brain, and hyperthyroidism. Despite that for the most part he is a happy dog. He is a Labrador though, so you know there is something wrong when he goes off his food and water, so we ended up at the emergency vet on Thursday. He now has a couple of more things medically and so the vets talk about him having a complex medical history. He takes more medication than Robert and I do combined!

He is recovering, but we have had to have some serious conversations about what happens next time. His a very handsome boy, and has a great nature but he is not genetically blessed and wouldn't have done well in the wild! 

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Have Never Reviewed
Blog Tour: The House of Light and Shadows by Lauren Westwood

Blog Tour: Happily Ever After by Jane Lovering

The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Weekend Cooking: What I Ate in One Week (Stanley Tucci Style)


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

This week...

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading week!

I finished my first 5 star read for the year! Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey. I was already a fan of this author, and this book took it to the next level for me! You can read my review here.

Next up was The Storyteller's Daughter by Victoria Scott, which features a WWII mystery, an old house and so much more. My review is here. 

I also read the third book in the Skylarks series by Helen Rolfe which is called Something in the Air. My review for this will be up later this week. 

My current read is An Italian Island Secret by Victoria Springfield, which has whisked me off to the Italian island of Ischia. I wish I could visit for real, but alas, it isn't to be as we have other travel plans for this year.

I'm watching



I am very excited as Bake off : The Professionals is back for another season! I love this particular version of Bake Off which features professional bakers being set the most amazing and difficult challenges. There are some amazing creations. There are also some disasters!

Another thing that was back this week was Sail GP. They changed one of the key elements on the boats for this race and it led to some very exciting racing!

I started watching the TV adaptation of Beth O'Leary's book, The Road Trip. I will get back to that next week I think.

We watched a new movie on Netflix this week called The Six Triple Eight, which tells the story of an all African American female battalion who are tasked with the almost impossible task of clearing a huge backlog of 17 million letters and packages during WWII. It stars Kerry Washington, and features a couple of notable cameo appearances. We really liked it and thought it was pretty well done.

Life

Last week was a pretty quiet week really. 

My thoughts have turned towards actively looking for a new job! Wish me luck!

Max

A couple of  months ago, Max was really sick, but he is pretty much like he was before now. He still has quite a few big patches of hair missing which you can see on his head and belly, but he is wanted to play tug of war, chase the ball and so much more, which is quite a relief.

Here he is lying on the cool of the tiles because it is hot here at the moment!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Books and Blogging Goals for 2025

Blog Tour: Widows Waive the Rules by Julia Jarman
Blog Tour: Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey
Weekend Cooking: What We Ate on Holidays - South Australia

Sunday Salon: 2024 Year in Review

Blog Tour: The Storyteller's Daughter




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

Weekend Cooking: A Tale of Two Christmases

 This year, like others, we had two Christmases. One is with our pretty much grown up kids in the week leading up to Christmas and the other with my extended family on the big day. There are sometimes exceptions, like the year that we went to The Netherlands. This year, my brother announced that he wanted to host Christmas so we all trekked over to Adelaide a couple of days before Christmas.

So this week I am going to share the two different Christmases.

Let's start with the stars of the show - Max and Nala - dressed up in their Christmas finery

One of the advantages of having Christmas in summer is the weather, so we needed to make sure that we used that, so we started our day with breakfast on our deck! Pancakes, fruit, cream and every variation of topping you could possible want!

Moving on to the main meal, we did take a few shortcuts this time.  It's not Christmas without a prawn cocktail, but this year Robert wanted to serve it with avocado, which is a bit different to the normal lettuce! It worked!

We also bought a pre-prepared porchetta from the supermarket, and then added roasted potatoes with a soy sauce and parmesan sauce (which comes from the Rice Table cookbook), cauliflower cheese, a medley of carrots cooked in our new airfryer

For dessert we had the cake which I shared about last week, and we had promised that we would make a South African dessert called Peppermint Twist Tart. 

This year will likely be the last year that we will be doing Christmas this way. Robert's oldest daughter has just moved away to Brisbane (and taken Nala with her!) and so now all three of them live away from us in Melbourne. Two are in Brisbane and the other one is in London.

And so then the festivities moved to Adelaide. Now if you don't hear anything else from this post, hear this. It was HOT! On Christmas Day in Adelaide it was 39C (which is just over 100F). 

We started with ham and cheese toasties with mimosas, sitting wherever we could find relief in any shade from the caravan. 

This year, for the first year, most of us did the whole matching shirt thing! Here is the big guy formerly known as the little chef in his, looking very impressed at me taking his picture!

For lunch, my brother actually did things a little differently, and did a buffet style serving. Normally we always have turkey and ham, but he added in roast beef, including yorkshire pudding

After sharing gifts, where my 5 year old (soon to be 6!) made out like a bandit when it comes to gifts it was time for dessert.  There was a selection of mango cheesecake, make your own pavlova, my mother's trifle and fruit salad

And that's it! Well, in terms of food anyway.  We stayed as long as we could before going back to the cabin at the caravan park and melting off all the food that we ate. Did I mention it was hot! It really, really was!

I hope that you all had a fab Christmas and wish you all a very happy and safe New Year!

See you next year for more Weekend Cooking!

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Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

This week...

Blogging

Raise a glass! My blog can legally drink in Australia! I started this blog 18 years ago, which is pretty amazing to me. I did have a gap for a while, but I am still here.

You'd think I would be better at it by now, right??

To celebrate, I finally decided what I am going to do about Instagram and now I have an Insta account specifically for bookish goodness. Yes, I am committing to Bookstagram. I am always very late for any trends but better late than never!

You can find me @intrepidreaderandbaker and I would love it if you added it, and I will follow back!

I'm reading

Last week I finished reading Someone Like You, which is the fourth book in the Ever After Agency series by Aussie author Sandy Barker. The review can be found here.

I also then read A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorcroft, the second book in the Skye Sisters trilogy, and I reviewed that here.

I then started Crying at the H Mart by Michelle Zauner. I had never heard of the author before, but I am still finding it an interesting read. This is the current Cook the Books selection and will also work for my read on a theme book club as well. I will also need to find something to cook to tie in with this book, and get it all posted by 30 November!

I went to the library last week and noticed something that I had never seen before, or at least paid any attention to. There is a selection of books by the door which they are calling Express Reads. You can't request them, you can't extend them, and they have to be returned within a week. Now, even though I knew I wouldn't get it read, I couldn't resist picking up The Sea Captain's Wife by Jackie French. She is a prolific Australian writer across a number of genres, including historical fiction. I have started the book, but there is no way I am going to get it finished, so maybe I will have to return it and then borrow it again to finish it. We'll see how far I get today or tomorrow.

Speaking of Australian historical fiction authors, I went to see Tea Cooper at an author event and heard her speak about the inspiration for her latest book, The Golden Thread. I have to say the story behind the story was fascinating!!


I'm watching

Before the Tea Cooper event, I went to the see the movie Lee, starring Kate Winslet. This tells the story of the first female war photographer, Lee Miller. She took some iconic pictures during WWII, despite initially being told that she could not go to the front lines because she was a woman. It was a very, very good movie.

Here's the trailer:

I also started my Christmas movie viewing with Hot Frosty. A woman puts a magical scarf around the neck of a carved snowman and he magically came to life! It sounds really naff, but it was actually a lot of fun, with some great nods to other movies like Pretty Woman and Mean Girls.

Life


Yesterday we went to the One Electric Day music festival which is held in the grounds of a historic home not too far from us. The weather threw everything at us, from strong winds, rain, being cold, to quite sunny and warm. Ah Melbourne weather at it's best. I somehow also managed to get sunburnt in a 2cm strip on my wrists, which is a bit odd!

It was a great show featuring the bands Chocolate Starfish, Killing Heidi, Baby Animals, Wolfmother, Birds of Tokyo and finishing with Noiseworks. Birds of Tokyo is one of our favourites so we love seeing them. Chocolate Starfish are always a lot of fun and draw the crowd in, which is a bit tricky seeing as there are so many people just arriving when they are on. It was our first time seeing Wolfmother and Killing Heidi.

Last week was the hardest week so far of the not working thing goes. There were a couple of days where I was struggling for motivation to do some of the things that I know need to be done. I am definitely not missing being stressed all the time, but my brain does have a habit of finding things for me to stress about. For example, I have a blog post due in a couple of weeks and I couldn't sleep the other night because I was thinking about the content. No idea why that was important at that time but apparently it was.

Max


Max is feeling much better than he has been. He wants to play, to be chased, to climb up on us, which he hadn't for a while now. In the picture you can see him being a lap dog again! lol

His fur is starting to grow back again in all the places that he was shaved but it is a slow process! 

He will go back to the vet again on Wednesday.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: A New Start
Blog Tour: Someone Like You by Sandy Barker

Blog Tour: A Skye Full of Stars by Sue Moorhouse

Weekend Cooking: Sift by Nicola Lamb

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

This week....

Max

I mentioned last week that I was worried about Max, and I was right to be. It turned out he was a very poorly puppy.

Over the last week, he has been poked and prodded, had surgical procedures and in short, cost us a fortune in vet bills. The reality is that he has a number of conditions which mean it is likely that he will be on medication for life.. We will hopefully find out more this week, but there's every chance he won't have a normal life expectancy. We will given him as good a life as we can for as long as we can.

I'm reading

I am finding that even though I am not working I am not getting a lot of reading done. I am managing to keep myself pretty busy.

Last week I wasn't sure what I was going to start  listening to next, but in the end I decided that it  was finally time for me to start listening to the seventh book in the Seven Sisters series, The Missing Sister, by Lucinda Riley. It is more than 20 hours long but hopefully I will get through it.

I finished reading A Little Place in Prague by Julie Caplin, which really made me want to visit Prague which I reviewed here. I am currently reading The Girl with the Red Ribbon by Carly Schabowski. I really need to get a move on with this book as I have this and another book due for review by Friday, and I am haven't even started reading that book.

I'm watching

I finished watching the first series of Home for Christmas which is a Norwegian series about a nurse who has told her family that she is bringing a boyfriend home for Christmas dinner, so now she needs to find one. There is a second series, so I will watch that in due course.

I started watching Nobody Wants This and the first episode was fun. I will continue with this series for sure.

We also finished watching Kaos. It's such a shame that this series has been discontinued as a it was a lot of fun, and very clever!

We also went and saw Widow Cliquot, a new movie which tells the life of the widow Barb-Nicole Cliquot who was influential in creating the Veuve Cliquot champagne house. I am hoping to talk more about this next week.

Life

Tomorrow is a public holiday so we took advantage of this and my husband took today off work as well to give us a four day weekend.

It was our wedding anniversary on Friday night so we went to a very nice restaurant for dinner. It is at a restaurant which was on the 35th floor of a building in the city, so there was an amazing view. The bathrooms have what is probably the best view from a bathroom in Melbourne.

On Sunday we took a drive down to the Mornington Peninsula where we went for a bit of walk at Arthurs Seat and then onto the Portsea Hotel for lunch. We stayed at a nearby hotel and then today, we went to the Peninsula Hot Springs, which is a mineral springs area where there are around 70 different pools and experiences. It was a very relaxing experience.

Tomorrow we won't do much at all, not even watch the Melbourne Cup, which is why we have the public holiday!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Trick or Treat

Blog Tour: The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove  by Kim Nash

Blog Tour: A Little Place in Prague by Julie Caplin
Historical Fiction Reading Challenge: November links

Festive Treats: October

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my Kitchen in October

Six Degrees of Separation: Intermezzo to The Kamogawa Food Detectives 






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

This week...

I'm reading

This week I finished listening to Stanley Tucci's new book What I Ate in One Year (and related thoughts) which I reviewed here. I think started and finished Toshikazu Kawaguchi's latest book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series which is called Before We Forget Kindness. Whilst I still really love the stories, I am finding myself noticing when the rules related to the time travel element of the book are getting a bit fluid. I also notice that my coffee (or tea as the case may be) seems to get cold much more slowly than the coffee does in the book.

I am currently debating whether to do a short-ish easy listening romance as my next audiobook, or if I should commit to a meatier, longer audiobook now that I have more time on my hands. Not sure. I think I am leaning towards the latter but I will need to make a decision soon. 

I also finished reading The Bookshop at the Cornish Cove by Kim  Nash. I then started reading A Little Place in Prague by Julie Caplin. I have reviews due for both of these later this week.

We had our read on a theme book club meeting on Saturday and here are just some of the books that people read for our theme of Going Back.

I'm watching


We watched a movie this weekend called The Great Escaper. It stars Michael Caine as a WWII soldier who escapes from his nursing home to go back to France for the 70th anniversary of D Day. It was a lovely movie. It was apparently Michael Caine's last role and it was also Glenda Jackson's final role before she died. It is actually based on a true story.

It turns out that Pierce Brosnan made a movie inspired by the same story, although it is a different story other than those key facts. We saw that this movie was also available on streaming so we watched this one too. This movie was called The Last Rifleman. This was good in a different way. If I had to pick just one it would be The Great Escaper but they were both worth watching.

Here's the trailer for The Great Escaper

Life


Last week I went to an author event featuring Australian chef Annie Smithers and baker Nadine Ingram. It was such a fun night. They talked about their shared philosophies around food, about knowing their limits and more. I resisted the urge to buy their books, particularly Nadine's but I have just borrowed her first book from the library.

I went with my friend who is also in the book club with me. Ever since we have been doing this book club, I had suggested doing food related books but no one was ever interested so I had given up. This week my friend had the brilliant idea that we should do food or cooking for the next theme!!! At least I know that I have dozens of books that I can read that fit this prompt already on my Kindle!

I mentioned last week that I had some changes in my world. I have left my job, and my intention is to spend a couple of months not doing much at all until the new year when I will start looking for my next role. The idea is that I will read, bake, watch TV series and go to the movies, go for walks, do all those things that I never have time for like going to doctors. That's the plan at least. So far, after one week, I am coping surprisingly well really. I am very fortunate to be in a position to be able to do this and to have my lovely husband's full support.


Max


I'm a little bit worried about Maxxie boy. He just doesn't seem like himself, and his face is very, very thin. We took him to the vet on Friday so we are just waiting to hear what is going on.

Posts from the last week


Top Ten Tuesday: October Reads

Blog Tour: In Italy For Love

Weekend Cooking: What I Ate in One Year (and Other Related Thoughts) by Stanley Tucci

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

Blog Tour: A New Dawn in Pelican Crossing by Maggie Christensen

What's that saying about there being only two things in life that you can be certain of? Death and taxes. For me, I would like to add a third certainty. If there is a new Maggie Christensen book out then I will be reading it.

This is the third book in the Pelican Crossing series and this time the main focus is Gill Dickson, local divorce lawyer, and Joe Harris, widowed town mayor. Gill is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce from her husband Max, which in turn has caused her daughter to cease speaking to her. Not only is she upset to find herself in this situation, the fact that it is dragging on and on given that she is a divorce lawyer is a bit embarrassing. There is no way known that she is interested in meeting anyone new. She will throw herself into her work, just as she always has, even though Max has often said that was a big part of why they have divorced. The only time when she isn't on edge is early in the morning when she joins the wild swimmers in the ocean, whatever the weather.

Joe has been widowed for a while now after a very happy marriage to Barb. He has his chocolate lab, Coco, and he has the mayoralship which keeps him very busy. He's lonely, but not really ready to do much about it, but when he meets Gill he is immediately attracted to her, despite her prickliness.

When Joe's sister, Erica, suddenly contacts him in a distressed state, he has no qualms in offering her a refuge. He never really liked his brother in law, Geoff, but even he can't believe what has been going on in his sister's life. When a friend suggests that Gill might be able to help, it enables him to see her even more. Whilst Gill  is advising Erica on her next steps, Joe is helping Gill to try some new adventures, with the hope that she will thaw a little towards him.

Gill is a bit of a funny characters. She is very emotionally contained, which I guess serves her well as a lawyer, but probably doesn't serve her that well when it comes to making new friends. She definitely makes Joe work hard for every little step in their relationship. I did like that Gill was very community minded.

As always, this is another fun visit to Pelican Crossing, and we also got to revisit a few of the characters from the previous series which was set in nearby Bellbird Bay. I can always rely on Maggie Christensen to write feel good second chance romances for older characters.

I am sharing this review with the New Release Challenge hosted by The Chocolate Lady's Book Reviews. Be sure to check out other stops on the tour shown below. Thanks to the publisher, and Rachel's Random Resources for the review copy.

Rating 3.5/5

Before finishing, I thought I would share a picture of my beautiful chocolate lab, Max, just  because I can.

About the Book

A New Dawn in Pelican Crossing

Divorce lawyer Gill Dickson thinks she has seen it all, until she finds herself in the midst of her own acrimonious divorce and estranged from her daughter. Her one certainty is that the last thing she wants in her life is another man.

Pelican Crossing mayor Joe Harris has buried himself in his work after his wife's death, finding solace with the companionship of his faithful dog, Coco. But when Joe needs Gill's legal expertise for a family matter, he is unexpectedly drawn to her.

Can Joe break through Gill’s emotional barriers and earn her trust? And can these two lonely souls find the happiness they deserve in each other?

Set in the small Queensland coastal town of Pelican Crossing, this heartwarming romance will keep you captivated until the very end.

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/NewDawninPC

About the author 

After a career in education, Maggie Christensen began writing contemporary women’s fiction portraying mature women facing life-changing situations, and historical fiction set in her native Scotland. Her travels inspire her writing, be it her trips to visit family in Scotland, in Oregon, USA or her home on Queensland’s beautiful Sunshine Coast. Maggie writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. Maggie has been called the queen of mature age fiction and her writing has been described by one reviewer as like a nice warm cup of tea. It is warm, nourishing, comforting and embracing.

From the small town in Scotland where she grew up, Maggie was lured to Australia by the call to ‘Come and teach in the sun’. Once there, she worked as a primary school teacher, university lecturer and in educational management. Now living with her husband of over thirty years on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, she loves walking on the deserted beach in the early mornings and having coffee by the river on weekends. Her days are spent surrounded by books, either reading or writing them – her idea of heaven!



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