Refined and rewritten

 Tomorrow I look forward to actually showering in our new shower.

Do not worry - there will not be a photograph!

I did not think it would be such a complex job, but there was lots of work in the attic because of lights in the bathroom ceiling and wires trailing all over the place. Evidently a shower needs an electricity supply and so does a mirror. Who knew? Not I. 

Apart from that I am now ready to upload my refined and rewritten edition of Fair Border Bride to Amazon. Fifteen thousand words less, generally smartened up, new cover and linked as prequel to the Scots Queen series.

What can go wrong?

On the plus side I now have a new keyboard which actually prints the letters c and v. It is also attached to the computer. I grew tired of the wireless keyboard forever demanding new batteries. It always took me days of wondering why my typing skills were going AWOL before I twigged that the batteries were fading.

A swanky new shower

 Have you ever had a new bathroom fitted?

That is what is happening here. The en-suite shower room may be the smallest room in the house but with it out of action it certainly makes an impact on our lives. 

While our lovely team are at work we have moved into the other bedroom, and use the family bathroom. Lucky that we can, I hear you cry. Yep, that is true. All the stuff we had tucked away in cupboards under the sink is now sitting forlorn and dusty in a cardboard box in the main bathroom. DH swears he cannot sleep in the "other" bed and this morning was awake preparing breakfast at 5.10am. I was out with Perla by 6.30 and we did not meet another soul! Pity it is raining, or we might have chosen a sunny spot to sit and listen to the birds singing.

Two more days should see us through and then we will be able to have a shower in our swanky new shower. DH has gone so far as to order new dispensers for soap, shampoo and conditioner to sit side by side in the shower recess.

Meanwhile, I'm off to move the bed we are sleeping in so that the electrician can gain access to the loft in order to fix the lights and stuff in the shower room. It is all go here.

Anyone for the Split?

For a reason I can no longer recall, I did not watch the first screening of The Split.

Series 3 ran a few weeks ago, and I watched it and got completely caught up in it. 

To the point that I went to iplayer and watched series 1 and 2 and then came back to series 3.

Up until then I had wondered who Stephen Mangan was. I'd only seen him on Would I lie to You. However, I liked his character and admired his acting. Nicola Walker is always worth watching, and the dialogue was good. Interesting. Intelligent. It would have to be, since the story is about three sisters and their mother and all but one of the four were divorce lawyers. You know, those intelligent, squeaky clean lawyers who earn such fabulous salaries. (The clothes worn by the ladies were wonderfull!)

The writer, Abi Morgan,  has not crossed my path before.

The main story concerns the lives and loves of the female Defoe family, but the internal divorce cases taken on by Hannah, were fascinating in their own right, particularly Goldie and her drunken orgy with her husband's expensive wine cellar. Disruption follows when the absent father, believed dead, turns up again one day and wants his share of the family firm. Further disruption takes shape in the character Christie, who is also a divorce lawyer and often becomes involved in their cases. To my mind, he basically stalks Hannah. She cannot leave her office but he is lounging around within sight hoping for a word from her. I became very annoyed with Christie, but Hannah is severely tempted by him.

In this drama, the conflict comes from the middle sister, Nina, who basically gets drunk and blurts out secrets that should have been confined to the sisterhood of three. As in Last Tango, if those secrets had been kept secret, much of the drama would have been lost. One begins to think that gossip rules the world and these days, of course, gossip is blasted out, whether true or not, via social media. It is a wonder we are all still friends.

Last thoughts

 We both enjoyed re-watching Last Tango on iplayer.

Now it is over, I hope there will be a series 6, 

because there were some threads and stories that were not resolved.

Gillian, for instance. Is she going to sell up or keep the farm? Will she stop telling people she murdered Eddie? Will she settle down with someone? The nice kitchen fitter? and Caroline - will she ever get back with John? She has begun to miss him, so...there is hope. I cannot see her settling down with the women from the chemist shop (spotted at the Hebden Women's disco). She needs someone with a brain and John certainly had that. I applauded his answer when Judith once asked "When did a woman ever start a war?" 

"Boadicea," he snapped after a moment. Then he thought of more, and the list just rolled on and on. And of course, Judith, now rich and a famous author but lured by the vodka - and Caroline. I could see her simply turning up at Caroline's clutching not a bottle but a case  of champagne!

Gary disappeared after Gillian's wedding and seemed to drop out of the story, yet he could support Gillian financially if she would let him. Alan is concerned about Harrison (I always hear  a silent "Ford" following that name) and Ted may not have lasted long in the story line but I cannot see any repercussions there. And Celia. What about Celia? She is the centre of most conflict in the story.

(The pic was taken yesterday from the car as we drove from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Brough. There were a few raindrops on the windscreen.)

Hot Gossip

 

I have discovered the joys of iplayer and re-watched Last Tango in Halifax this week .

It struck me much it depends on what I shall loosely call gossip. If every character kept their secrets there would be little story, but one person tells another and the knowledge ricochets around the whole group. It’s like watching a badminton match.

All the characters re-act according to their own personalities which have been set up in some detail prior to the gossip reaching them. I suppose the main spring behind it all is in the setting up, so that the shot of gossip can do exactly what the author wants it to do.

Food for thought.

Eclectic reading

 

What have I read this last year? Here is a partial list in no particular order:

Ian Rankin The Falls 

Jane Harper The Dry, The Survivors, Force of Nature

Diana Gabaldon Go tell the bees...

Anne McCaffrey Dragonfllight, Red Star rising, The Masterharper of Pern, The Girl who heard Dragons (All re-reads)

John Grisham The Accused

Steve Robinson In the blood

Susan Lewis I have something to tell you

Mark Edwards The Retreat

Harry Nichols Tom Fleck

Barbara Erskine The Dream Weavers

Ragnar Jonasson Night Blind, Black Out, Snow Blind

Sharon Bolton The Pact

Maggie O'Farrell Hamnet

Anthony Doerr
Cloud Cuckoo Land

Pete May Entry Island

Stacey Halls The Familiars

Alexandra Walsh The Windchimes

Some I enjoyed more than others. Some I didn’t enjoy at all. Some I never finished, but they are still on my kindle. One day, in a different mood, I may try again and enjoy those few that I rejected this year.

These are the titles I can recall. There were others, but they have slipped by very easily. One of the recent bestselling Regency stories I read in a couple of nights but now I cannot remember much about it at all. Good entertainment but not memorable. I re-read the Lady of Hay recently because at the time of publication I found it excellent. Now I found it overlong, confused and the coincidences of all those people coming together again was just too much. Just goes to show how my reading tastes have altered in the last two or three decades. I doubt anyone’s tastes stay the same throughout life.