If There’s Not A High Speed Car Chase, I’m Not Interested

I don’t know what’s wrong with me at the moment.

I’m in perfectly good health (for me) and life is fairly as per usual (in a good way) but recently it seems the only thing that can sustain my interest for any great length of time involves car chases.

Now, I think I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not exactly the most highbrow when it comes to artistic taste. Certainly with films, my own personal merit scale is usually measured in explosions. The equation for my perfect film goes something like this:

(Attractive Male Lead + Sword Fighting* x Space Ships) / Explosions = The Best Film Ever

*can be substituted for super powers, martial arts or even gun fights a la ‘Wanted’

So while engaged in conversation with my boss a few months ago, the topic of films came up. He discussed at great length how wonderful The King’s Speech was, while another colleague talked of the brilliance of Black Swan. I had to confess that the last film I went to see was I Am Number Four.

But it seems I’m getting even worse. Now I need high speed car chases above all else.

Finding ourselves with some extra free time, what with all these lovely Bank Holidays, the Boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of films. Sky Anytime had a Fast and Furious marathon which I was eager to watch, however the Boyfriend is a sensitive soul who likes thoughtful dramas. I ended up watching Remember Me with Robert Pattinson and Emile De Ravin. When he had a shout halfway through, the cars were back on.

If you look at our DVD collection it goes something like this:

The Day After Tomorrow
The Matrix
Erin Brockovich
Snakes On A Plane
Transformers
Little Miss Sunshine
Clash Of The Titans
Titanic
Smokin’ Aces
Pirates Of The Carribean
Star Trek (incidentally this has an attractive male lead, sword fights, explosions, gun fights, martial arts and a very short car chase)

The three in that list you would expect to belong to me are his.

I’m not kidding.

Little Miss Sunshine is one of his favourite films.

Which should be fantastic, but honestly, at the moment if the soundtrack doesn’t have a ground shaking bassline and the sound of revving engines, I’m just not interested.

Which leads me to the frightening conclusion that I, Liberty Gilmore, must be slowly morphing into a chav.

Help.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 24

Day Twenty-Four – Book That Contains Your Favourite Scene

Best scene in a book ever has to be in The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, where the main character, Mary, is searching through a house and finds a zombie baby. Unable to bite, it poses no threat to anyone, just lies in its cot undying. Mary picks up the baby for one last cuddle, then drops it out of the window in a blunt show of the horror of the world they lived in. Brilliant, heartbreaking scene.

Summary From Goodreads

In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

Sexy Pirate Wench

Well, at least a Pirate Wench anyway…

Today was a very special occasion. No, not the Royal Wedding – it was QWERTYmum’s birthday party. She hired out a canal boat for the family and we went for a trundle down the local canal. Mum being Mum, we also had to dress up as pirates.

Now, I didn’t hear of this until yesterday, not leaving me an awful lot of time to put something together. In fact, I wasn’t even going to bother. But then at 5.30 this morning, a good two hours before we had to be up, the Boyfriend got a fire call. As he dashed down to the station, I was left with plenty of time to contemplate my outfit.

Realising I had nothing suitable, I decided to make something.

I haven’t made myself an outfit since I sewed myself into a piece of leopard print material and called myself a cavegirl at a fancy dress party during my University Career. I can’t sew at all, and my fashion sense is dubious enough when I’m picking ready made clothes off shelves, let alone when attempting to modify.

But, a few cuts, some Korabond and application of an iron later, and my shirt I used to wear to work (before the sleeves started cutting off the circulation in my arm) was looking decidedly more wenchy. It’s difficult to see on the photo below, but once I’d cut the sleeves and cut off the collar, I split the back and folded over the edges to create a triangular border. I was very pleased with the overall result.

Front View!

Back Detail!

Full Profile

And to think my siblings and mother mocked me when I bought that skirt for 20p.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 23

Day Twenty-Three – Book You Tell People You’ve Read, But Haven’t

I pretend I’ve read books I haven’t at work all the time, as my colleagues are very much into their Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyres, whereas I’m more YA and Urban Fantasy… The last one I pretended I read was actually Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Summary From Goodreads

Charlotte Bronte’s impassioned novel is the love story of Jane Eyre, a plain yet spirited governess, and her arrogant, brooding Mr. Rochester. Published in 1847, under the pseudonym of Currer Bell, the book heralded a new kind of heroine–one whose virtuous integrity, keen intellect and tireless perseverance broke through class barriers to win equal stature with the man she loved. Hailed by William Makepeace Thackeray as “the masterwork of great genius,” Jane Eyre is still regarded, over a century later, as one of the finest novels in English literature.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 22

Day Twenty-Two – Book You Plan To Read Next

Next on the pile is this one: Looking For Alaska by John Green

Summary From Goodreads

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (François Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

The Royal Wedding

I feel obliged, as a member of Great Britain, to comment on the upcoming Royal nuptials.

But, as much as I love this little island, I really couldn’t give a monkeys about the wedding, aside from it being a free day off. However, on the way home from work I heard about how to posh up your name on Radio One and it was quite amusing.

You take the name of your grandparent, your first pet name and the name of the street where you grow up, preface it with Lord/Lady et voila!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work too well, mostly on account of the first pet I ever owned either being a rabbit called Play or a fish called Lunch.

Lady Jill Lunch-Glebe or Lady Jill Play-Glebe doesn’t work too well.

Ivy’s is equally lame. She would be:

Lady Jill David-Glebe

Yes. She named her guinea pig David.

Taylor’s is pretty awesome though…

Lady Jill Tabitha-Ollerton

This amused me muchly on the way home.

So, what would your Royal Wedding name be?

30 Day Book Challenge Day 21

Day Twenty-One – Favourite Picture Book From Childhood

Clearly a dead old school choice this one, as I found it hard to find even a description on the internet. I loved this when I was little, though, and I wish our tattered old copy was still around somewhere. Bears In Pairs by Niki Yektai.

Summary

Forty-eight Bears — Whole In Pairs — Parafe Through The Pages On Their Way To A Party. Here Are Bears On Skatteboards, Bears In Hardhats, And Even A Bear With Chicken Pox!

30 Day Book Challenge Day 20

Day Twenty – Book You’ve Read Most Number of Times

I had this book as a kid and must have memorised every single word and line. I loved it to death. I don’t know what happened to it when we moved house, but I hope it’s still on a bookshelf somewhere at my mother’s, waiting for my littler siblings to discover the delights of how to get a witch’s hair do, or brew a good potion. The Witch’s Handbook, Malcolm Bird.

The Witch’s Handbook is a homely collection of things to do and make, specifically aimed at the witch’s tastes and talents. There are spells and superstitions, recipes and crafts, gardening and fortune-telling, all the things a successful witch needs to know.

30 Day Book Challenge Day 19

Day Nineteen – Book That Turned You On

Hmmmm… Mostly I just find sex in books laughable. Because the words we use to describe it, no matter how creative we are, are just funny. So I’m really drawing a blank on this one. This book doesn’t turn me on, because that would be a bit wrong for a children’s book, but it does have the most romantic and ‘make your heart melt’ relationship in it, and heart melting is generally about as close to turned on as I get in books. Kissin’ Kate Barlow and Sam the Onion Man are the couple I kicked myself for forgetting in my Top 5 Romances post. Holes by Louis Sachar

Summary From Goodreads

Stanley Yelnats is unjustly sent to Camp Green Lake where he and other boys are sentenced to dig holes to build character. Stanley learns the warden has them digging holes for something else- but what?

30 Day Book Challenge Day 18

Day Eighteen – Book You’re Most Embarrassed to Say You Like

I don’t know…. Er… Twilight?

Summary From Goodreads

Isabella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Bella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Bella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife—between desire and danger. Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.