A tale of many cakes

I have recently had the pleasure of celebrating my birthday, achieving the milestone age of 32. Excitingly, this is the only time in my life that my age is exactly half that of my Dads. I’m not sure if there is a word for that phenomenon, but there should be. A demi-père perhaps.

This birthday, which I celebrated in France with my folks (the first time in 17 years that I’ve spent my birthday with them) was particularly notable for being a white birthday. Europe being somewhat coated in the snowy stuff at the moment.

This meant that all kinds of exciting snow related shenanigans could take place, including the obligatory attempt to slide down a hill on a piece of plastic, and the creation of snow angels. Just because I’m 32 doesn’t mean I have to be a grown up too.

It also nearly put a spanner in the works of our lunch plans, as both us and our local restaurant were entirely snowed in – this part of France not being used to dealing with snow of this magnitude, and things like grit and snow ploughs not featuring heavily in the local mairie’s arsenal. As the photo below of our road demonstrates.

What actually happened, however, was far nicer than a lunch time cancellation. After ringing the restaurant, to find that they had been forced to close as no-one could make it, they invited us over for lunch anyway, as we are in easy walking distance. The food had, after all, already been prepared. In fact, they said, we could come over whenever we wanted, as alcohol was in plentiful supply.

So it was that we found ourselves walking through the heavy snow to the mill down by the river, and had lunch sitting next to an enormous log fire for warmth. The food was, as always, excellent, a warm goats cheese salad, followed by rabbit main and then, excitingly, a birthday cake which seemed to be some magical tiramisu layered concoction.

This was the first of three amazing cakes of the day – having both a mother and girlfriend in attendance for my birthday meant I was getting two cakes already. The third cake being the icing on the cake. As it were. I can report that all three were splendid.

Lunch was pretty damn splendid, as you can imagine, and being a French affair, lasted for over three hours. Lunch is a very serious thing round here. They also refused to let us pay for it, which was rather too incredible for words.

Post lunch, as I’m sure you can imagine, largely involved some lying around and feeling overly stuffed, followed by further cake eating, after which I did my best to wear myself out fully by rediscovering my inner child in the snow. All in all, a damn fine birthday!

My travel ABCs

A travel meme has been sweeping the travel blogging world recently, where travel bloggers are posed 26 (!) questions about their travelling life.

I was nominated to take part by Sophie of Sophie’s World. It’s a bit of fun, and you might learn some things about me you didn’t know already. Without further ado:

A: Age of first international trip:

I was whisked from the Seychelles in the womb, born in Wales, and then returned back to the Seychelles as a baby where I lived mostly on a beach and ate sand. So, quite young would be the answer to this.

B: Best (foreign) beer:

Best? Oh dear. I sense a flaw in this series of questions, as I have a slight fear of the idea of things being better than other things. Any cold beer served in the company of good people, or against good scenery, works for me. But if I had to pick, the Australian Coopers Red is a damn fine tipple.

C: Cuisine (favourite):

There’s that favourite idea again. Sigh. I love all kinds of food. If I had to survive on one cuisine for the rest of my life, it would be Kreole food – the traditional food of the Seychelles.

There is so much variety, it carries a lot of spice, and often involves gorgeously fresh fish. It’s so good in fact, that I wrote a whole article about the stuff.

D: Destinations, favourite, least favourite and why:

I think I’m going to have to give up on fighting this meme and go with the flow. I like anywhere with big mountains and epic scenery. New Zealand was a particular recent highlight, as was Australia. I love big, open, empty spaces.

Least favourite? Well… I’ve mentioned Milton Keynes a few times recently as being not the best place in the world. But even Milton Keynes has a roundabout with cows on, so it’s not all bad.

E: Event experienced abroad that made you say “wow”:

I attended a festival in the outback of Australia for the 2009/10 New Year, which largely consisted of a lot of naked hippies, drumming and fire twirling. That was a pretty epic experience.

F: Favourite mode of transportation:

Train. Or plane. Train because you can just get on it and it’s like having a room with an ever changing view. Plane because, dammit, getting from one side of the world to the other in such a short space of time is as close to magic as I’ve ever been. Plus I love aeroplane food. I know.

G: Greatest feeling while travelling:

The thrill of seeing new things. The awe that the world is able to inflict on me. The feeling that I am so insignificant and meaningless, that the world and the universe is so much greater than I could ever possibly hope to imagine.

H: Hottest place travelled to:

The Namib desert. It was over fifty degrees C for most of the day, plus there was a wind "heat” factor from the wind blowing over the desert. It was like sitting in front of an open oven door. Most of the time was spent with a wet towel around my head.

I: Incredible service experienced and where:

Well, the mechanics around Australia were bloody awesome at looking after my landcruiser. Nothing was too much trouble, and they’d often charge less because I clearly looked like a destitute traveller. Amazing people.

J: Journey that took the longest:

Most of my journeys seem to take an epic amount of time due to the cheapness of the flights I take. Europe to New Zealand was particularly long though, although that did include a 13 hour stop over in Shanghai, which more than made up for it.

K: Keepsake from travels:

I try not to collect junk, but I couldn’t resist picking up a little bongo drum in Australia. I know, a drum and dreadlocks. Seriously, could I be any more clichéd? Oh, I also found my girlfriend whilst travelling. She’s definitely not junk!

L: Let-down sight, why and where:

If a sight lets me down, the fault lies with me. I do my best not to let that happen – there is always a positive to be found somewhere. I could mention Milton Keynes again, but I never had high hopes for that as a destination in the first place.

M: Moment where you fell in love with travel:

I can’t remember not being in love with travel!

N: Nicest hotel you’ve stayed in:

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with hotels, as I both grew up in one, and then my corporate existence required me to live in one for around seven years. But I can recommend Cousine Island in the Seychelles as a rather nice spot, since you asked.

O: Obsession—what are you obsessed with taking pictures of while traveling?:

Landscapes. And reflections. Reflections of landscapes are, suffice to say, enough to hold me for a very long time.

P: Passport stamps, how many and from where?

I’ve been lucky enough to visit around thirty countries across five continents. I’ve got quite a few stamps in my passport!

Q: Quirkiest attraction you’ve visited and where:

Any of the giant things in Australia or New Zealand. I have no idea what motivates the construction of a giant carrot or an enormous fake prawn, but it sure makes for some oddball attractions.

R: Recommended sight, event or experience:

Anything denounced as over visited, too touristy or not far enough off the beaten path. Usually there is a reason millions of people want to visit a place, travel fashion trends aside.

S: Splurge; something you have no problem forking over money for while traveling:

Beer. I love a nice cold beer at the end of a day!

T: Touristy thing done:

Lots. Watching the sunset over Uluru was a highlight. But there are so many great tourist attractions out there, and I have no shame in doing them.

U: Unforgettable travel memory:

Climbing the sand dunes in Namibia to watch the sunrise. Hiking a part of the Great Wall of China. Rafting in Costa Rica. Climbing Mount Taranaki in New Zealand. There have been so many incredible memories from travel that are indelibly burned into my mind!

V: Visas, how many and for where?

Having a UK passport is an amazing thing. But my favourite visa was my Chinese visa that let me travel around that splendid country for three months. I’m not sure I’ve needed a great many more beyond that, other than my work and travel visas for New Zealand and Australia. A great initiative by the way, and one I highly recommend!

W: Wine, best glass of wine while traveling and where?

Ah wine. I have a similar theory to wine as I do for beer. On  a hot day, you can’t beat a chilled glass of white wine on a sunny terrace with a view and good company. Generally though, I’m a red drinker. And I’m not fussy! Currently I’m in France, where the wine is both cheap and excellent!

X: eXcellent view and from where?:

This is like trying to ask a parent of quintuplets to name their favourite child. So many! I am however a sucker for any view with a nice mountain range backdrop, so New Zealand and California score well there. Also, the start of the Gibb River Road in Western Australia had an amazing view back across a mightly river flood plain and mountain range. The world is so incredible!

Y: Years spent traveling?:

This trip, which has resulted in a semi permanent base in France, started in June 2009. I don’t intend for it to end either – there shall be no return to a corporate existence for this hippy.

Z: Zealous sports fans and where:

I lived in England for a long while. They have football there. Probably enough said on that topic…

Phew! Thanks again to Sophie for nominating me! If you’ve got any thoughts to share on this long list of trivia about my travel abc’s, don’t be afraid to pipe up in the comments below!

French poo

Today’s post was going to be either about French food, or French sewerage systems. (Or Christmas. But that was a distant third.)

As there has been a massive digger outside my window for the last few weeks creating a sewerage system, my mind has been unable to focus on much else. The result is that I have been swayed towards talking about poo, rather than food. Food will follow. I appreciate that usually it is the other way around. Sometimes convention has to be broken.

So what do I need to share with you about poo? Well, a fascinating part of living in the vaguely remote French countryside is that large scale plumbing, of the take your unmentionable waste away to be looked after in remote locations variety, isn’t universally available.

Instead, poo management is of the do-it-yourself variety.

Usually, this makes no difference to your day to day water based activities. Stuff still goes down the various holes, and magically disappears. Other than being careful not to pour chemicals that would upset the delicate balance of your garden’s waste recycling facility into your holes, the system is usually self managing.

Unfortunately, there is a small spanner in these otherwise seamless waterworks. French home based waste disposal technology appears to make gigantic technical strides on a regular basis. (I’m sure I could make some kind of joke here about regularity being important to a good digestive system, but it’s just not coming. I probably need more fibre or something.)

Couple these marvellous technological strides with the requirement that for a house to be sold in France, it must comply with the latest waste disposal laws, and what you end up with is an incredible ecosystem of people devoted to septic tank inspection, maintenance, and of course, installation.

When you buy a house in France, if the waste disposal system does not meet the ever changing legal standards, which it fairly inevitably won’t, you’re going to be getting a new one installed.

It makes no difference if your existing system works perfectly, and causes no problems whatsoever. The house cannot legally change hands unless an agreement to upgrade the system to the latest and greatest in poo disposal technology is in place.

What all of this means for me is that the property has spent the last couple of weeks having possibly the worlds most incredibly over-engineered waste disposal system put in place. We have now got no less than two actual septic tanks in place, not to mention a drainage bed that would happily have accommodated an Olympic size pool.

The garden, once a beautifully grassy environment, now resembles a post revellers Glastonbury. As illustrated below.

Still, the good news is that we now have a system able to withstand no end of contributions. And fully up to date with the latest French advancements in the field of poo management. Beers all round.

And that’s that for today! If you’re interested in other poo based stories (it’s not like I have a lot)… why not take a look at my Top five scenic toilets of New Zealand post! Or if you’ve got a poo based story of your own to share.. hit up the comments! And Merry Christmas ;)

Having Fun Again aka I Came {this close} To Quitting

HAVING FUN AGAIN

I will let y’all in on a secret. I spent most of this past month deciding if I want to keep blogging. I came {this close} to quitting. Wanna’ know why? I got overwhelmed and blogging wasn’t fun anymore.

THE EARLY FUN

During spring break of fifth grade, I spent my free time doing what I loved to do most – reading. I wondered how I could make reading even more fun and I found book review blogs. Even though I couldn’t find a single one written by someone my age, I jumped in and started Reading Vacation that same week. The best part of all? IT. WAS. FUN.

BLOG(S) GONE WILD

For me, book blogging was the greatest thing EVER. I totally fit in because everyone I met loved books as much as I did. And, I had the power to decide how much time I would devote to reading and blogging. I was HAPPY and HAVING FUN!

As Reading Vacation grew, so did the time commitment that goes along with it. What started as simply reviewing the books I loved to read had become something much bigger. By the time seventh grade started, I was feeling very overwhelmed by my choices.

So, what did I do to feel less overwhelmed? Do you think I scaled things back to give myself some free time? Nope! I added on a SECOND blog, Young Bloggers Unite. While I loved the idea of featuring and celebrating young bloggers, and I was having a blast with my blog partners, I was getting stressed with how much time it all took. The fun was gone.

HAVING FUN AGAIN

What matters the most to me? Family, friends, grades, and then extras like reading. While my grades haven’t suffered at all, time with my family and friends has been in very short supply. I need to fix that and I am taking back control of my situation.

I took a semi-break from blogging over Thanksgiving week by reading for fun and not worrying about blog posts that needed to be scheduled weeks from now.  I realized that I was happier. I didn’t have the constant pressure of too much stuff.  I finally had time for my family, friends, grades, and most importantly, MYSELF.

HD and I are very excited to say that Young Bloggers Unite is changing hands. It’s been great, but school commitments for both of us make it unrealistic for HD and I to do it, and do it well. We are both so much happier now.

Austin will be taking over with the help of Cat from Books4Hearts. Right now, they are busy planning and getting things set up. You should visit them soon to see what they do and how far they go!

Reading Vacation will still be going strong, although I am making some minor changes to make things less stressful. This Texas tween doesn’t want to end up as a basket case of nerves ever again.

MANY THANKS

I have so many of y’all to thank. To anyone who has ever visited and read a review, checked out what books I am reading, showed your students what is possible, left a comment, sent me an email, chatted with me on Twitter, or recommended Reading Vacation – THANK YOU! None of this would be fun if there was no one to share it with.

Here is a huge and super special THANK YOU to all the amazing authors and publishers who send books to me for review. I want to {{HUG}} all of you!

There are a few extra special friends who helped me make big decisions recently. You know who you are and I won’t forget what you did.

My recent sex change

When I was christened, it would seem that the plan had not been in my parents mind for me to move to France. As if it wasn’t already enough that my surname is a girls first name in most of the world, it was decided that I be given a first name that to the French is a girls name.

Now that I have actually moved to France, the French bureaucracy is struggling to get its head around this particular conundrum.

It doesn’t appear to matter than when I sign up to things, such as the health service, that I tick the little box that marks me down as being the side of the species with two different chromosomes.

What matters is that the name I put in, Laurence, belongs to the homogametic sex in France.

The result of this is fairly interesting. I sign up to something online, and tick the little man box. My mail arrives, with my automatically printed out “M” carefully crossed out and replaced with a handwritten “Mme”. Because clearly I have no idea what I’m doing, bless.

The postman struggles with the correct way to address me. Mostly though, I dread my first visit to an actual real life doctor. Hopefully the dangly things between my legs will jog some part of his/her medical training.

I have pondered contacting the various organisations to set them straight, but navigating the challenging corridors of the French bureaucratic system is a challenge at best. I have been advised, by a number of people, that getting a sex change may actually be the easiest option. Or a change of name, to the French, “Laurent”.

I’m not yet sure which of these three options to go for. But fear not, I’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, why not listen to some Johnny Cash. He seems to have had the same sort of problem…

La France

I am tempted to stop writing about travel and photography, and instead start a food blog. Only it wouldn’t be much good, because pretty much every entry would be about how wonderful the food in France seems to be.

So that probably isn’t the best idea. I’ll stick to travel and photography type stuff, and keep going on about how wonderful that is. Seems like a plan to me.

I am now living in France, for those of you keeping track of such things. I have the pleasure of living with my parents, people who are actually, contrary to generally well established opinion on the subject, rather jolly to live with. The property we all live in is an old converted farmhouse, which is constructed of the sort of giant stone blocks that indicate a good amount of stability. Not that they have hurricanes regularly in France, but if they did, I think we’d be ok, wall wise.

There is a massively cavernous barn, in which it is easy to wander around and get lost. Wooden beams, of the sort that property conversion aficionados get wobbly knees about, are liberally sprinkled about the place. There is a wood burning stove. There are shutters on the windows. There’s a massive wood burning bread oven. That retirement plan that everyone in the UK seems to have, about moving somewhere warm in France and growing vegetables? I’m on that, only thirty years in advance.

Of course, I’m not really retiring (that would suggest I have something to retire from). The property also happens to be a campsite, home to six fixed pitches for motorhomes / caravans, and three tent sites down by the river, which is rather wonderfully fringed with broad leaf woodland. Having arrived in Autumn, I have spent quite a lot of time already getting acquainted with our leaf blower.

The surrounding area is a huge Parc Naturel, which is the French way of saying it’s all rather rural and quaint. There are villages, with buildings and stuff dating from the eighth century and earlier. Less than 20km from where I am sitting, Richard the Lionheart met a rather grisly end at the wrong end of a pointy arrow. His entrails are buried nearby.

There are more castles than you can shake a stick at, and having just spent two years in the “new world” as it were, I’m pretty excited by seeing some seriously old stuff. And of course, the rest of Europe is right on the doorstep.

So, does this mean the end of the travelling, you probably think. And the answer being: of course not. From France I have the entirety of Europe on my doorstep. Fleurie, our soon to be converted campervan, is going to convey us with the sort of style and grace that her forebears, Fluffy and Bernie, have already managed. And I would hope to find more far flung destinations appearing in my plans on a yearly basis, perhaps for periods of two to three months at a time. In the off season, naturally.

But it is nice to have a base again. My own bathroom, for example, is a luxury to only previously have been dreamed about. A spice rack with an actual selection of spices in. A shower that I don’t have to juggle my belongings in, before giving up and putting wet socks on anyway. And amazing people to live with. I’m not sure there is much more one could want from life. (Oh, a computer I can actually edit my photos on in style and grace. Because seriously, much as I loved my netbook, it could not be described as a photo editing powerhouse…)

I’m looking forward to sharing France with you. There’s all sorts of awesome going on here, from the food (did I mention the food yet?), to the scenery, to the buildings, to the general relaxed way of life, to the incredible bureaucracy, to the fact that I seem to have changed sex as a result of my name. Which might be another story. Until then… enjoy yourselves. I plan to.

Life out of boxes

Despite how much I tried to pare my life down to the bare essentials prior to setting off on my travels a couple of years back, there were always going to be things that I couldn’t throw away.

For some reason, because I’m a bit of a geek, these things largely seem to take the form of wires, or speakers. There were also some socks, which I’ll come onto later. Oh, and books, a lot of books.

What this resulted in was the creation of a number of boxes filled with the detritus of nearly thirty years of living, which were sealed away and carefully placed into my parents ever welcoming loft in Wales.

This was all well and good, until my parents decided that Wales, despite being a magnificently scenic country, was also a magnificently wet country, and so a retirement somewhere in the south of France was a more scenic option.

Which meant, to me anyway, that my poor little boxes were going to be leaving their snug abode in a Welsh loft, where they would have happily lived out their remaining years, dust coated and ignored, and instead were going to be transported into the French depths.

I’m not sure that my boxes are that good at French I have to say. Many of them are certainly not European compliant – their contents containing items that largely work only with the UK three pronged plug, a plug which is designed to keep you so safe that it’s almost impossible to actually plug in.

Still, despite their silent protests, my boxes were moved. And so, when I arrived in France after a 1000km road trip from Germany in our valiant steed, I was pleased to find a room full of boxes with the instructions that perhaps I would like to sort them a little bit, prior to moving them back into a new loft.

It’s quite amazing how the perspective of travelling for two and a half years changes how you view things. Firstly, having lost around 20 kilos on the road, none of the clothes I stored fit any more. Hopefully the baggy look will be coming back in soon. Secondly, what the hell did I need approximately two million boxes of wires for? Sure, a bit of wire, or the odd extension lead, may be of use at some juncture, but carefully hoarding around fifty mini-USB cables is not something I really needed to do.

Oh, and socks. Seriously, I have no idea what kind of person I was before I left, but clearly I had some phobia about the world running out of socks at some point. I have, from what I can tell, forty seven pairs of socks. I am fairly certain I’ve just travelled the equivalent of round the world four or five times on five pairs of socks. So by this reckoning, my forty seven pairs will last me for the rest of my life. Which is handy.

Anyway, I am now in France. There is a wealth of exploration to be had here, so I will be staying for some time I suspect. My parents have taken ownership of a rather lovely, and rather tiny, adults only campsite here in France (no sniggering at the back, it’s about tranquillity, not anything else!), which I will be helping sort out in the near future based on my huge amount of experience garnered from five months of working in a campsite in New Zealand.

Around me, there is a wealth of Europe to explore, with castles and history galore. The future is looking awfully bright. And I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.

This Tween's Take on Sexy Times in YA Books

This Tween's Take on

Sexy Times in YA Books

One thing all the young adult books I read have in common is sexy times. When I first started reading young adult books, I was ten and my parents very closely monitored what I read. The most sexiness in the books I read were innocent kisses and new-found crushes. If a book unexpectedly veered into something more mature, I would stop reading.

I am twelve now, and things have changed. I have proven to my parents that I am responsible with my reading choices. I am allowed to make my own decisions regarding which books are appropriate and which are not. There are still times when I begin a book and decide part-way-through that it is too mature for me. Just like before, I stop reading when that happens.

You may be surprised, though, by what sort of sexy times I consider to be appropriate. The sweet and innocent things are most obviously okay. This includes things like flirting, kissing, hand holding, and crushes.

The relationship between Anna and St. Clair in Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is a great example of this sweet and innocent sexiness. These two take their time falling in love and the biggest sexy thing they do is kiss. It’s the “other” things they do that I most enjoyed. A knowing glance and a well-timed touch are all it takes to turn up the heat for Anna and St. Clair. Sarah Dessen’s book, Along for the Ride, has this same feel-good flirty sexiness that I hope I experience someday. And yes, I do believe that this sort of sexy times exists in real life.

What about insta-love? I am not a fan. Who actually falls in love with someone that quickly? WHO? I know who. A character who is lonely, is obsessive, has low self-esteem, or maybe is on the rebound. Whatever the reason, I know perfectly well that relationships should not move to the level of sexy times at lightning fast speed. This is not a race y’all! Lena and Ethan in Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl comes to mind. I really liked this book, but I was put off by how quickly things moved in the sexy times department.

I am also okay with the more intimate sexy times in most of the young adult books I read. This includes things like more intense kissing and more intimate actions. A great example of this would be Jacinda and Will in Firelight by Sophie Jordan. These two have some passionate scenes, and they just seem right for each other. It is like they belong together. I love how they treat each other and I know this is how things should be. Another great example is Clary and Jace in City of Bones. There is no insta-love, they take their time, and their relationship eventually reaches a more intimate level.

But what happens with this same level of sexy times when the relationship is abusive, one of the characters is too forceful, or if there are drugs involved? I will still consider it appropriate to read. But, I am also smart enough to realize that this is not a good situation. I know that this is the sort of relationship and the type of sexy times I never want to be involved in. Betrayal by Lee Nichols has an example of this type of relationship. Bennett is sexually forceful and pretty much a jerk to Emma. There is something to be learned from this one. Another example is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Karou’s ex-boyfriend at the very beginning of the book is such a jerk, pushing himself on her and trying to talk her into sexy times. Just Eww!

Finally, there are some sexy times scenes that are too mature for me. Usually, I just stop reading, but sometimes I like the book too much and I will keep reading anyways. I hate to stop reading a good book because of one or two scenes that are too intense. My example is Switched from the Trylle Trilogy by Amanda Hocking. I really loved this series, but there most definitely were a few scenes that were too mature. There’s really nothing wrong with the scenes, but they are very much aimed at an older reader.

I am so thankful that young adult authors include these sexy times scenes in their stories. It’s real. Even when the characters have paranormal abilities, their relationships and how they approach their sex lives can be very realistic. A nice guy is a nice guy even if he is a vampire. And a jerk is still a jerk even if he is an angel.

It’s not just the guys though. The girls I admire are the ones who are strong and look out for themselves. These are the girls who recognize a jerk when they see one. They don’t get too overly gushy about the hot new boy at school on the day they meet him. These girls take their time. They know what they want. I do not want to be the weak girl I read about who lets herself be taken advantage of. That is not sexy at all. It is maddening.

Are you surprised at all by what I had to say? I know that my opinions about sexy times have changed over the last 18 months that I have been reading and blogging. I still love reading about an innocent crush and those sweetheart boyfriends who are made of awesome. But, I like to read more graphic sexy times now too, as long as they don’t go too far in their maturity.

Community (aka My BBF's) - BBAW

COMMUNITY

(aka My BBF's)

BOOK BLOGGER APPRECIATION WEEK

While the awards are a fun part of BBAW, they can never accurately represent the depth and breadth of diversity in the book blogging community. Today you are encouraged to highlight a couple of bloggers that have made book blogging a unique experience for you. They can be your mentors, a blogger that encouraged you to try a different kind of book, opened your eyes to a new issue, made you laugh when you needed it, or left the first comment you ever got on your blog. Stay positive and give back to the people who make the community work for you!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When it comes to my real life friends, I never say one person is my best friend. I just don’t. They are ALL my best friends, but for different reasons. One is my best friend because she can always make me smile, even if I’m having a rough day. Another is my best friend because she is the one I trust the most with my secrets. Yet another is my best friend because we have so much in common. They each have something that makes them perfectly special to me.

It is the same with my blogging friends. They are each my best blogging friends for different reasons. Let’s call them BBF’s (my own take on BFF). Here are a few of the very many.

MY BBF’s

A Good Addiction – Kari makes me feel included and she is so sweet about sharing books.

Books With Bite – Savannah has a way of motivating me. Remember Vacation Bites?

Boy of Books – Patrik may be in Brazil, but he can talk books with me as if he were sitting right here.

Hint – use the translator in the right sidebar to read Patrik’s blog in English.

Electrifying Reviews – Alex surprises me with exciting new features.

I Read Banned Books – Jen makes me proud to be a Texan. She is a founding member of Literary Lonestars after all.

Makeshift Bookmark – Jen supports my desire to be Switzerland (and eat Swiss chocolate) to avoid drama.

Reading Teen – Amy and Andye make me smile because they are the cool moms of book blogging.

Reading Tween – This group is right there with me and can relate to being younger bloggers.

The Story Siren – Kristi was one of the very first to welcome me to the community and she has taught me about chasing your dream with integrity.

Thank you to the bloggers I listed and all the others who are part of my community. I appreciate every one of you. I am looking forward to seeing who your BBF’s are when I read your posts today.

Happy Book Blogger Appreciation Week!

Back in Germany

After just about a year in New Zealand, we have now returned to Germany. To be honest, being in Germany isn’t that much different from being New Zealand.

Well ok, the mountains aren’t quite as stunning, the buildings are definitely older and there is a somewhat greater headcount, but overall going from one developed country to another isn’t a major culture shock. I just have a sturdier roof over my head.

In fact, in some ways, Germany is more of a foreign place than New Zealand to me because of the language barrier. Luckily, insanely cheap beer is one of the ways that Germany differs from New Zealand, and beer is a fabulous way to conquer any language barrier.

We’re living back in the house we left a year ago. This is in itself very much like living in a hostel in New Zealand – full of friendly people who all speak German. (If you’ve not visited New Zealand or Australia recently, you may not have realised that roughly 80% of all travellers appear to be German. You’d think this would mean Germany is empty, but it turns out not to be the case).

The occupants of the house, including a fat one eyed cat, are approximately the same, minus one philosopher who has gone off to make her merry way in the world. There are of course, subtle changes.

Vera no longer smokes for one. Smoking in Germany is far more socially acceptable than in New Zealand, where by all accounts the plan is to outlaw it completely by 2025. It is also significantly cheaper here. The social aspect of that morning (and mid morning, and late mid morning, and pre-lunch and… etc..) smoke is therefore missing a little.

The other changes also affect Vera more than I. This house was her home for nearly ten years, and whilst we are back in the same room that we left a year ago, it is an emptier place. Everything is gone except the bed (and there was a lot of everything, this is a girl who knows how to hoard), and it certainly isn’t the same place to her any more. The disconnect one sometimes feels after long term travel, returning to a place that no longer feels the same as the place you left, is a little apparent. I’m sure we’ll live.

And what of our plans going forward? Well, we’ll be here for a couple of months, catching up with friends and family. I can, happily, make one of the three weddings I had previously thought I was going to be missing, over in good old England. And then we’re heading to France to spend some time with my parents, and plan beyond that.

In the meantime I shall regale you with further observations from New Zealand, thoughts on my time in Germany, and do my best to work out a sufficient answer to “how was your trip” that somehow encompasses a whole year of life into a paragraph.

Keep smiling!

Today’s post was partly made possible thanks to the generosity of only-apartments, who provided the following zen-like text: If you cannot find inner peace, try staying at one of the Budapest apartments: distance puts everything in its place.

An ode to Bernie

For nearly a year now I have been travelling around New Zealand. That’s what all those posts about New Zealand have been about, in case you were wondering.

I’ve been travelling as a twosome, with my ever patient other half, who has allowed me to visit a lot of, quite frankly, odd locations. But a third member of our troupe was ever present, always reliable, always patient, always cosy.

I am of course talking about Bernie, our van. She started off her life with us as just a four wheeled pile of metal who seemed to be a little more mossy on the inside than you might expect (turned out she used to belong to a gardener), but who with some very careful ministrations, became our home.

Despite conveying us nearly twenty thousand kilometres around New Zealand, on surfaces varying from good solid seal to ice covered grit and every form of gravel in between (for some reason Kiwis refer to gravel as metal. I have no idea why), she never let us down. We didn’t suffer so much as a flat tyre in our whole trip. At her services we always received tremendous thumbs up from the grease coated mechanics, who reported that she was a solid little van.

Not that she was that little. At just a little over five metres in length, she was, if not “spacious”, at least roomy. There was space in her for a gigantic double bed, plus a chest of drawers. When it rained, we could shelter inside her and cook, without the hassle of playing around with tarpaulins and other such complicated nonsense. She was also the only travellers van I have ever seen to come equipped with a gorgeous, if highly impractical, cream shag pile carpet.

We slept in her by beaches, at the foot of mountains, by rivers and by seas. In sub zero temperatures at the foot of Mount Cook, and almost warm temperatures on the Coromandel. When things turned a little sour in Rotorua, she got us out of town with dignity and composure. She was always there for us, and we really loved her for it.

And now, trip over, the inevitable has had to happen. Bernie is gone. On to new adventures, with new people. To greet new horizons. To be home to… someone else.

The good news is that the new owners are terribly nice people. They even liked the name Bernie, so Bernie she has remained. I’m sure they’re going to be very happy with her, as we were.

So thanks Bernie, for all the good times, and all the memories. You’ll be missed.

Today’s post was partly made possible by the ongoing generosity of only-apartments, who provided the following message: If you need to switch off for a few days, a great option is the tranquillity of the Tuscany; get Florence apartments and relax.

Vacation Bites - Results

VACATION BITES DUEL

RESULTS

The last two months have been busy for me.  After reading nearly non-stop, typing up reviews like crazy, and concocting ways to distract Savannah (Books With Bite) from her own reading, Vacation Bites has ended. 

Get this – we ended IN A TIE!  Savannah and I set out to see who could read and review the most books during June and July.  Sometimes I would be a book or two ahead and sometimes Savannah would be a book or two ahead.  For the most part though, we were tied all along. 

The final count came to 85 books each.  EIGHTY FIVE BOOKS!  It was so fun that I’m going for 100 before school starts on August 22.  Who thinks I can do it? 

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway Savannah is hosting.  I am anxious to see who won.

MY VACTION BITES BOOK LIST

1 Tempest Rising

2 Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

3 Tikmia

4 Half- Blood

5 Stupid Fast

6 Myth-O-Mania: Say Cheese, Medusa!

7 Solstice

8 Daimon

9 Soujon’s Journey

10 Effie at the Wedding

11 Myth-O-Mania: Nice Shot, Cupid!

12 Land of Corn Chips

13 The Owl Keeper

14 Uncommon Criminals

15 Haunting Violet

16 Summer’s Crossing

17 The Girlz of Galstanberry

18 Mission (Un)Popular

19 Released

20 Torn

21 Can You Survive the Titanic?

22 Nerd Girls: The Rise of the Dorkasaurus

23 Sirenz

24 Austenland

25 Aurora Undefined

26 The Unwanteds

27 The Dark Devine

28 Forgotten

29 Inside Out

30 The Oracle of Dating

31 Here Lies Bridget

32 Past Midnight

33 Huber Hill and the Dead Man’s Treasure

34 Ruby Red

35 Little Women and Me

36 The Familiars

37 Tempest

38 Secrets of the Crown

39 The Tudor Throne

40 101 Ways to Bug Your Friends and Enemies

41 The Oracle Rebounds

42 Outside In

43 One Hundred Candles

44 Luninous

45 Falling For Hamlet

46 Anna and the French Kiss

47 Spellbound

48 Ordained

49 Touch of Frost

50 Galstanberry #2

51 Lola and the Boy Next Door

52 The Forever Crush

53 The Giver

54 Juliet Immortal

55 Gathering Blue

56 Gossamer

57 Messenger

58 Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

59 Forever

60 The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland

In a Ship of Her Own Making

61 Eighth Grade Bites

62 The Iron Knight

63 Stir it Up: A Novel

64 Floors

65 Reel Life Starring us

66 The Boyfriend Thief

67 Wisdom’s Kiss

68 Ivy and the Meanstalk

69 This Lullaby

70 Liesl and Po

71 The Dark City

72 Ashes

73 The Shadow Hunt

74 The Detention Club

75 Tales of a Sugar Hero

76 Charlie Woodchuck is a Minor Niner

77 Return to Exile

78 The Medusa Plot

79 #1 Ghost Diamond

80 Sweet Venom

81 Crushed

82 Carrier of the Mark

83 After Obsession

84 Supernaturally

85 Aphrodite the Diva