Ridley: I seem to be on some sort of readathon. Not a deliberate one, these moods sometimes seize me. I’ll read nothing for ages and then snap up two or three books in one go.
One of these was E.M. Tippett’s, Someone Else’s Fairytale (love the title). She was kind enough to provide it free on Amazon on 1st March to celebrate being in the Kindle top 1000 books. Congratulations to her! I’d literally just visited her website and read an excerpt when she did, so it was happy timing for me. A much appreciated generous gesture on her part!
I’ve come away after reading this book with a smile and warm fuzzy feelings. Then I happened to watch the most recent Glee episode afterwards, which compounded the feeling -there were so many fuzzies I could’ve made a teddy bear!
It’s a really endearing love story, a fairy tale for the modern girl. Jason is an international movie star and all the fan girls are starry eyed for him (and squealing, giggling, crying) all except Chloe. She is completely unimpressed by him, his lifestyle and his strutting around.
This is what draws him to her.
Laid back and completely normal around him and his superstar status, it is Chloe whoimpresses everyone including his famous friends and his family. Not to mention quite a number of people have a wide protective streak when it comes to her due to something that happened in her past. This ‘something’ is slowly revealed to us throughout the story.
It is the love triangle however, that really grabs the attention. It isn’t only the handsome actor after Chloe’s heart; her alpha Texan best friend Matthew starts to see green, especially when Jason begins to woo her with extravagant romantic gestures.
We follow their struggles, the ups and downs, as well as a reappearance of Chloe’s dark past. It’s only when everything is almost too late, that Chloe realises what she feels and for who. The complications don’t end there, however, as insecurities begin to gnaw at our heroine.
Towards the ending I had my breath held, hoping it was all going to turn out well for Chloe. Of course, I won’t tell you either way how it ends, but it’s a good writer who makes me try to stem the flow of oxygen to my brain!
So if you want a good book, with entertaining characters that suck you into their lives, grab this one!
Ridley: We’re only starting out on our self-publishing journey, so we certainly are nowhere near experts to be talking about it but I’m going to be doing it anyway! I’m not going to share invaluable information (and it’s not because I’m selfish, it’s because I don’t have any wisdom nuggets to share, yet! Maybe one day!). I want to write about my impressions, the view point of a beginner just starting out on this incredible journey. It’s like I’ve entered a new world. Even just peering out the window at this new place, never mind walking through the door out into it, has been absolutely fantastic.
The people in the self-publishing community are extremely welcoming and encouraging. Or is it really the twitter and blogging communities combined? With each person at the varying stages of working on their own novels, you can find knowledge and support and great reads!
I love that you can read an e-book, where if you love it enough, the minute you’re finished, you can pop online and let the author know. You can actually have a conversation with them. As a fan, it’s everything I would have ever dreamed of as a girl. As an author, it’s amazing instant feedback and gratification.
Then there’s the wide range of ideas and stories that you can obtain through reading self-published works. No longer do you have to roam the bookstore and leave a little fed up having found nothing. (Though to be fair, even if I don’t find anything, I still love wandering round in the hush, inhaling that calming book smell.) It’s just sometimes it feels like there’s nothing available to read. It’s understandable that traditional publishers hedge their bets; they stick to formula and topics that have worked. It costs them too much to take too many chances. It just can get very ‘samey’ and boring.
Not so with an e-book publisher. They don’t have the same risks. They don’t need to justify that, Such and Such by Jane Doe did well, mine is just like it. Now they can say, my book is like nothing else on the market and I think it’s a real winner. This creates a colourful and exciting pool of very imaginative and different books.
Before I opened up my mind though, I’d always had that horrible stereotypical view that self-publishing was for people that had given up, failed to get anyone interested in their work and decided to do it on their own. No matter how good their book, the resources were never available to market it to anyone other than close friends and relatives. How many garages across the country are cluttered with boxes of glossy books filled with words no one has ever read?
No longer is this the case.
The power, the influence of the internet just continues to increase and it’s not a selfish medium. It lends this power to anyone who looks for it. Through it, we can reach almost every part of the world.
Even if your book is about the eating practices of a specific worm from a never heard of forest on a distant remote island, someone somewhere will be interested in it. Even if it’s just one person, it’s one more than you could have touched with your writing before this. Better yet, you will have found a kindred spirit.
Dreams are what get us all up in the morning. So many people gaze out their windows and fantasise. Maybe they envision becoming an international dancer, an actor, an animator, a trapeze artist, a fireman, a wealthy CEO.
Now though, for those of us dreaming of becoming authors, we’re incredibly lucky. We’re in a new age where we can make it happen. We’ve been handed the tools to enable us to achieve our dreams.
Not many can say that.
So for anyone reading this, dream big and reach for the stars. They’re there for the taking all you have to do is believe it.
Ridley: I was in the mood for a book, so I went browsing through Amazon on my laptop. This can always be dangerous to my bank balance, I generally have more books I want than sense! (Also does anyone else hate browsing on their Kindle for an e-book? I generally find it online first, then go onto the Kindle and buy it. Otherwise it’s too slow and all that greyness gets very boring, I like seeing all the colourful covers!)
Anyway! I stumbled upon Chosen, I read the reviews, (Amazon.com has far more than co.uk by the by.) opened the excerpt for the first few pages, and then I was hooked!
I’ve definitely found a nice gem and a future favourite author. Below I’ve done a small review so I can spread the word and let others discover it too! -I love telling people about my new finds! Even if it’s a case a thousand and one people have already found it before me, it’s still my find in my head!! Just like Harry Potter was my find, and Twilight was my find and Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy was my find!! Yes, I know you see a pattern-of fantastic finds by me!! 🙂
So Chosen….
The two main characters are complex and wonderfully written. Will, with his dark past and cold ruthlessness and Emma, who has had to deal with her own horrific past events and a life on the run as a single mother.
Their encounter happens almost immediately, there are no boring introduction pages ‘setting the scene’. We get right into the action and we are taken on their journey both physically- across country, and emotionally. With such scarring pasts, it’s only natural that each character has to deal with a lot of emotional turmoil, which the author is quite apt at portraying. However, she does not make the mistake of dwelling on this ad infinitum and she is able to show us that while the characters are both scarred deeply, they are also resilient and very strong.
The other, more fun emotional journey is the romance! (always my favourite part!)
Will definitely has that bad boy attitude that all us poor suckers fall for. Emma though is feisty enough to handle him. The building passionate relationship between them will have you the edge of your seat. Not to mention all of the thrilling gunfights and car chases.
Then there’s the creepiness of Emma’s little boy Jake, he’s cute but he’ll give you a bit of a chill too. No child should speak like him and know the things he does! Though I ended up having quite the soft spot for him, creepy or no creepy!
The book is ultimately a thriller, based in the ‘real world’, it is not as heavily laced with magic as other novels, there are no magic wielding big bads or magical peoples as such. While the whole story is based on concepts which are inherently paranormal, their use is drip fed throughout the book. Each paranormal event is built one upon the other.
In such a realistic landscape, this could have gone very wrong under the typing fingers of a different author but Denise weaves them into the plot extremely well and ensures they’re quite believable.
She also keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. The overall mystery and suspense as to why they’re being chased is what really drives you forward to turn the pages, wondering and hoping the answer will be in the next sentence, the next paragraph, the next chapter.
It’s the sort of book that you finish in a day (which I did!) and then go purchase the sequel Hunted (which I’m about to do!)
So if you want a good read that will keep you snuggled up on your couch till your bum is numb and your tea is cold then pop on over to Amazon and check Denise Grover Swank’s books out.
Ridley: Like many people in their mid-twenties, I grew up with Harry Potter. For 12 years, as each book and film was produced, I was there ready and waiting! It was a sad and jubilant moment when the last film was finally released.
Why do I chat about this now? Because J.K Rowling has returned! She’s announced she has a new adult novel coming out. With so many children, who were her original fans, now fully grown up, I’m in little doubt that this new book will do well. Beyond well. I know already I’ll buy it, even if it was about dirty dishwater I’d still get it. I know it’ll be interesting, though I haven’t a clue what it’s about or even what it looks like (don’t judge a book by its cover unfortunately is a saying ignored by me, not deliberately, it’s just what happens. The more interesting/striking the cover, the more likely it is I will pick it up and ultimately buy it) As it is with J.K’s new book there are only rumours that it could be a crime novel.
I was trying to imagine yesterday what the pressure being heaped upon her must feel like. There are some enormous, ridiculous expectations that she has to live up to. I just wonder how you can sit down in front of your laptop and just type, knowing that’s all there, that it won’t go away. Surely it’s given some sleepless nights. At some point though, I think you’d have to just say, ‘feck it, I’ll write for me’ and just go for it. It’s what she did for her other books before this and it seemed to work!
Of course, some of her biggest fans want this to be another HP phenomenon. I say some fans, because there are those of us who wish we could tell her we just expect a good entertaining read, her books don’t need to change the world every time. Her critics, of course, want it to be a flop, for her to fail, so they can say I told you so. But we’ll all just ignore them.
Either way, she’s a fantastic writer, her words enthral you, even listening to her Harvard commencement speech was amazing.
So…I can’t wait!! 🙂
After hearing this news, I also started to remember where it all began, I believe we each have our own stories to how we ‘discovered’ Harry Potter in the first place.
My start with reading the series was far from auspicious. I was thirteen, still in primary school when Harry made his first appearance. A younger sister of a friend ran up brandishing the Philosopher’s Stone in my face, insisting it was ‘the best book she’d ever read’. I turned it over to read the blurb and saw ‘boy is rescued by an owl’. All I thought was ‘no thanks, I don’t want to read a kiddies book about giant owls.’
Even to this day I still shake my head in despair.
It wasn’t until a few months later, during the summer time, that I came across the book again. My parents brought home a treat for both my brother and I.
My mother who always worried that he wasn’t reading enough (no fear of that with me!) bought him Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. For me she brought back a tape with the song ‘Kiss me’ by Sixpence None the Richer on it. (I loved it. To this day when I hear that song, these memories still come flooding back to me.)
My brother ignored the book. It took me two days before I was bored enough to go hunting for it. I had finished all of my own books and wanted something else to read. I found Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone abandoned on the floor in my brother’s bedroom. (on the floor!!) I settled down into the living room, legs dangling over the armrest with a cup of tea. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. It was a child’s book after all…little did I know!
I flew through it.
I bought the second book that same day. I cajoled my father into giving me a lift into town where I used my allowance money. My parents cautioned me to ‘make it last’ and not to read it too fast.
I didn’t listen.
I finished the Chamber of Secrets also within hours.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had just been published that summer. I had no more money left, I remember painstakingly counting out the exact change in copper coins, penny by penny, to be able to buy it.
I had to wait a day this time. It was excruciating.
The next morning, along with an indulgent fatherly smile, another lift was provided. When I got into town, I remember it was almost deserted. I can’t remember why, it was possibly only due to the horrific weather. The day was dark grey, overcast, it had been raining heavily all morning.
When I arrived at the bookshop, the lights were glaring, harsh on the eyes compared to outside and the yellow wooden floor was so bright.
I paused just inside. It was also very quiet, a fan whirled gently just above the door. I felt a small cool waft of air along my arms. The shop was empty. A single sales assistance stood behind the till, watching me. In my wet shoes I squeaked my way straight across to the stand where the book was on display. I twirled around, clutching it to my chest and I stuck out my fist, it was full of pennies. I dropped them into the girl’s joined hands with a muttered apology.
I almost ran from the shop. When I got home, it was read as quickly as the last ones.
Then I had to wait for a year. Reading and rereading the Prisoner of Azkaban. Twiddling my thumbs like a loon. It was agony waiting for Book 4. The night before it was published, I couldn’t sleep. I was listening to the radio, they were reporting on the hundreds of people that turned up for the Harry Potter midnight party in Eason’s in Dublin. I remember thinking the people that were up there were so lucky to have gotten the book already. (little did I know, my own local bookshop opened with a party that night too!)
It was after the 4th book came out, that it really felt like the rest of the world sat up and took notice. It was popular and then some. The parties, events, they all just got bigger as time went on, then the movies happened.
Soon everyone else loved Harry Potter too.
It was my first ever experience of wanting a book now. I couldn’t get my hands on the next sequels fast enough.
I darted around the house, telling anyone that would listen to me how fantastic the books were. I suddenly understood why that little girl had run up to me all those months ago, waving the book around. Every single one of my friends got the same treatment from me, I introduced them to Harry Potter (I didn’t know Latimer at the time, so she didn’t benefit from my uncontrolled enthusiasm! It was probably just as well, I think together our Harry Potter obsessions would have reached scary supernova levels!)
I still marvel at the fact there are children alive now today that never had that anticipation, that will never have gotten a chance to go to those parties. I can only hope one day there will be a new series that can capture people’s imagination and interests like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books did. That those children can have the fun we did. Perhaps her new books will do it again? We shall see!
For now though, for those of you that were lucky enough to have them, tell me about your Harry Potter discovery stories! You too Latimer, when did you flick open that first page of the Philosopher’s Stone and join the HP world?
Ridley: Or as it’s more commonly known by everyone else, Pancake Tuesday!
After Christmas and before Easter it’s my favourite ever food day! Where you eat and eat the same delicious thing until it really does feel like your stomach could burst-no fast movements now!
It never ceases to amaze me how many different ways people can eat them really, the various toppings, sauces, foods and things that are put on pancakes here.
1. Lyle’s Golden syrup from the tin (or lions as I always end up calling it) is the most popular topping here. So much so when we popped to the shop after realising we were completely out of it at home, we found out so were the three big supermarkets in town! Not a single tin was left on the shelf! We were disappointed to say the least (and no, it didn’t matter that we already had lemon juice, Nutella, ice cream and strawberries to choose from! What are you the toppings police?)
Lyle’s is the proper topping to use in my opinion. It’s sweet, gooey and thick. We tried Maple syrup before, while that was okay, it seemed almost runny compared to the Lyle’s, we weren’t converted!
2. Nutella is another popular option; Ferrero Rocher centre in a jar! There is a restaurant called Lemon is Dublin that do these particularly well (not that there’s much skill in putting chocolate spread on a crepe in my eyes, for me you’ll get it right if it’s lathered on, nice and thick!) This option always feels European to me and kind of Christmas-y. Mainly because I’ve been to both Germany and Italy around Christmas and there’s always some little street vendor selling hot Nutella crepes. Gorgeous! Especially if it’s a cold day!
3. Lemon and sugar is old school. What parents and grandparents will favour if they’re not into the ole Lyle’s golden. Sweet and sour! They’ll squeeze lemon juice all over the pancake, sprinkle it with white sugar and eat it happily. Seems a bit bland and unexciting to me, but to each their own!
4. Ice Cream and a hot pancake, says it all. There are numerous options, it could be plain vanilla or an exciting Ben&Jerry’s combo. There could also be sprinkles or chocolate sauce involved in this one. Adding ice cream is generally for the people who like to indulge. They’re the Nutella crepe eaters taking it that one step further. Hats off to them!
5. Fruit for the slightly healthier pancake eaters, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, you name it and I’m sure someone’s eating it!
6. Butter was another option I heard today. While the reaction to that was generally a disgusted ‘Eww’ and it doesn’t seem to be at all that popular, it must be a topping somewhere. Notice all the pancakes that pop up on google images when you search, there’s a nob of butter on most of them. Though I’ve never had butter and pancakes in my life!
7. Then there’s the savoury options, of which there are loads! Adding in sausages, chicken, beef, cheese and mushroom, stir fry. The list is endless and just depends on the taste buds, who are your buddies!
It doesn’t matter what you layer them up with though, pancake’s are the tastiest of foods! If anyone remembers Sabrina the Teenage witch, they even had an episode where people were addicted to pancakes in ‘the other realm!’ It was a problem.
So the one question I leave you with as this years flour-y pancake Tuesday draws to a close, how do you eat yours?
(Ridley) I’m determined to keep blogging. Even if it means half the blogs are meaningless, make no sense what so ever and only Latimer reads them! Poor Latimer whose up to her eyes in work. Me though, I’ve been off for a few days, so I’ve been working away on our website, trying to get it up and running. It’s not published yet and I fecked up with the domain name. I bought it, applied the name to one web hosting site (didn’t try it out first), I ended up hating the site and now I’ve to wait 60 days to be able to use my domain anywhere else.
After a load of hopping round to different providers, I decided to use free web host provider weebly.com. It’s definitely not exactly what I was after, but I just needed to choose, it took me ages to decide as it was.
The reason? I was searching for a website host provider with a good website builder. Back in the day, when I was much younger, I created a website with geocities. I have to say for a free web hoster and web builder, they were fantastic. So many websites online at the time were build with them. There were numerous geocities web rings, connecting websites together. It was like you were allowed to add an unlimited number of pages. There were drag and drop options and you could also add in some html, whether you wanted purely basic or complicated, it supported both.
I’ve yet to find one as good actually.
Even with searching on google, weebly was really the only one properly mentioned. Most other websites are either too restrictive, they’re really fancy in appearance, but you have no options but the template they’re giving you and maybe you can add in a text box or two. You can’t really change the banner or move the column over just by dragging or do anything really. It’s so frustrating!
And then the ones where you’ve total freedom, are beyond complicated for a html novice. Geocities was that perfect middle ground.
On that website, I had guestbook applications and even my own personal chat room. It took hours, but I loved making that site.
Like most sites at the time, it was a Harry Potter fansite. I was quite proud of it actually, I was only around 13/14 years old. I worked on it during the summers of 1999/2000. I even taught myself a little html so I had ‘Welcome to my Harry Potter website’ scrolling across the top of the main page. (Then I subsequently used what I learned to create a great shop-with music- on neopets.com, I joined when they first started up also that summer! I was on it for a little while, then forgot my password, I’d given a fake birth date, didn’t remember any of my pets names and then got told last year my account was going to be deleted. Oh the frustrating helplessness. Imagine the appreciation value on my shop items and I’m convinced I had loads of neopoints left….I suppose it’s just as well I got locked out of it….though my poor virtual pets…)
Anyway, for my website I even managed to have a free web diversion, so that I didn’t have to use the geocities website address along with my username, it became a ‘proper’ site. I could type in http://www.harrypotter.n3 and then be diverted to my site.
At the time we had corel print house on our Gateway computer, so I got about making things; a home page banner (that took ages to load when you opened the page), little owl page dividers, a background (magnolia coloured page with a purple wavy strip and yellow stars for a border) and wands as icons for the different menu options. All HP related.
I also designed Harry Potter note paper (I had four different styles), coloured bookmarks. There were paper dolls of Harry, Ron and Hermonie all with extra clothes, that I drew myself. It was all there for anyone to print out and play with.
I tried registering for all the ranking websites. All the really good Harry Potter sites were on them. Most of those ranking sites were also geocities ones or angelfire!
Despite this, I didn’t have many visitors, just one that I know of, though my little counter on the main page went up to 23. Possibly counting my own trips to it mind. I don’t think I worried much about visits though, I made it because I wanted to, it was fun and it was mine. I kept thinking, if I stumbled upon an unknown HP website what else would I love to find?
It was like a little Harry Potter treasure trove.
The one person I know saw it, sent me an email (I had a little owl clip art at the bottom for ‘Owl mail’) All she said was she loved Harry Potter too and she liked my page.
I was never so chuffed in all my life.
It was up for a few years, then Yahoo took over Geocities and they were eventually shut down. My site and all the other bookmarked sites I’d loved were deleted. All that work and I never got to really share it with other Harry Potter fans, who I know would have loved it.
It’s the same with what Latimer and I are doing now. We’ve books we’ve written for us, for our own fun and enjoyment but that we know others will love.
I’m not going to let them be another geocities website, this time people will discover this treasure trove.
(Ridley) It’s the Year of the Dragon! It’s also the Year of M. Latimer Ridley (there were solemn determined nods on New Years eve to back this up I’ll have you know.)
We said 2011 would be our year and sort of the year before that (see the date this blog began on and then was abandoned for months to rust in the tall grasses, that’ll give you an idea…) It’s disappointing that while we tried things to make the year ours-submitted to publishers and competitions-we’ve not been the lucky chosen ones.
But I truly believe this is our year, 2012!
Mainly for two reasons.
One, I’m a little obsessed with dragons, so being the Chinese year that it is, to me that’s A Sign!
I did a school project around….10 years ago now (wow, how time flies and I get old!) I’ve loved dragons since then. I do honestly think it stemmed a little from the Harry Potter fourth book, though I won’t credit it for everything. I liked Flight of Dragons long before J.K put pen to paper! And I loved the song, Puff the Magic Dragon as a child. Though it was the art project that started the obsession properly, I do remember asking myself how I’d get away with doing something ‘harry pottery’, without it being too obvious. So I picked dragons. I made a dragon poster, a dragon mirror and a dragon sculpture. As you can see, after the project was over and submitted, I still hadn’t gotten dragons out of my system so I ended up painting a dragon wall mural around my window. It took around 3 tubes of red acrylic to finish. I still love it.
Also painted on my wall is the poem, Road not Taken by Robert Frost. It’s a poem that speaks quite strongly to me of taking paths that aren’t the most conventional, to throw off the shackles of ‘what’s expected of you’ and do what you love. Make your dreams come true. If you won’t do it, there isn’t anyone else going to do it for you, they’ve their own wishes to make true.
This is where the second reason for believing this is our year comes in. I think I’ve really reached that ‘Ah ha’ moment. I’ve come to realise that you need to get out there and do things for yourself. Nothing in life just happens, there’s no secret magic wave of a wand and suddenly you’re published or famous or rich or unconditionally happy or whatever it is you’re after.
The question is, why do we have to wait on someone else to totally make our dreams come true, why does it have to be an all or nothing thing? Couldn’t we get out there and begin to make it all happen for ourselves? So that ‘Ah ha’ moment, is where I also realise we can actually do this and why the hell not!?
So in ten years time, don’t find yourself disappointed by the things you didn’t do, what is stopping you? Always remember, we’re on this earth to live.
Latimer: I love Halloween. There’s something about it. And it’s not that I do anything on Halloween- I sort of prefer not to. I like to just ‘be’ on Halloween. I might watch ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’- I might not.
There’s something in the air; the world is a very beautiful place this time of year. The chilliness, the memories maybe, of my childhood, when I used to trick-or-treat; and the bonfire! Ah the bonfire, I haven’t been to one in literally years! They don’t do them anymore where I live. Health and safety reasons I’m sure (as I’ve been saying a lot lately).
It used to be that my brothers and sisters and their friends (all older than me at the time- well, still are, but at the time they were older children!)- they would go house to house collecting stuff to use to make the bonfire. And then there was always a dummy/puppet person made for the event. Okay, it sounds weird, but it’s more like the real Halloween- it was symbolic I think. The puppet person was put on the top of the bonfire. Making said puppet involved stuffing an old pair of pyjamas with newspaper and some balloons.
On Halloween night they’d set the whole thing alight. The balloons would pop and bang- very dramatic… that sounds weird to have a burning puppet, but there wasn’t anything macabre in it, even though it was Halloween.
Now, I don’t remember exactly because I was very young at the time, but I’m SURE there was adult supervision involved in all of this- of course!
Ah, there was a sense of community that night… I have fond memories of finishing trick-or-treating and going to see the bonfire. Darkness, the light of a towering inferno of flames, spinning tires… I don’t know where the tires came from!- but I have a memory of them… anyway, point is, there was a feeling of ancient-ness to the affair. Because that was the old Samhain festival- a harvest, and a fire to keep away the evil spirits on a cold, dark night… that was the old idea, and in some ways when I was young it was more like that old festival than it is now.
I mean, everyone used to have bonfires back then. But now, I’m sure that isn’t the case. Who on earth would let someone have a huge bonfire… ah, it’s a pity. I miss that old ritual. There’s a real sense of the true Halloween in it.
I’m recalling it now as we head into another Halloween, which seems to get overlooked by Christmas. Well, it’s all commercialised to be-damned now… there’s something tacky and un-true about it. It’s just about dressing up… but I miss the old bonfires and the idea of celebrating an ancient festival. I wish it was more like that. I’m nostalgic for my youth I guess or more accurately, the youthful memory of Halloween I have.
There’s something ancient about the night, a connection to the past. It’s a festival of the Irish, Welsh and Scottish really. That’s where it comes from; so it’s a connection literally to my past. There’s certain things we do that never really transferred to other places with the rest of the concept. A small thing that I can think of is barmbrack. We have it every year in my house. Other people in Ireland do too. It’s a cake filled with raisins and fruit and then there’s a little gold (not real) ring hidden inside it.
I’m beginning to think the reason I like Halloween so much is because I have really good memories of Halloween as a child. Going back to my friends house we used to count out what we had gotten- up-ending our bags, rejoicing in the sweets and crisps and tossing the apples and nuts aside! Ah, it’s a good time of the year.
I don’t know what anyone else out there in the vast world does during Halloween- maybe nothing, maybe it doesn’t even register, maybe it’s just dressing up in a magical way for a party… well, whatever it may be, have a nice Oíche Shamhna everyone!
Ridley: So after much agonising and practicing I’ve finally passed my driving test. I’d never failed anything before I’d started to learn to drive (I’ve comforted myself with the fact my town has an abnormally high failure rate).
This test was my third and (I’d hoped) my final attempt. The question is, was it the hard work or luck of the draw that had me succeed this time? There are all sorts of stories of people failing one day, applying for another test only a few weeks later and with no extra practicing, passing with, sometimes, the very same instructor. While there was a definite improvement in my driving skills since the last two times I’d attempted it, there were other reasons I think that I might have passed.
I had applied willy nilly for my last two tests, letting the testing centre decide when and where I needed to show up and drive. For this last attempt I decided to listen to the geeky scientist within me and left as little as possible to chance. Narrowing the perimeters (told you, geeky science girl), I insisted I could only do the test in the morning (my last two had been early afternoon, when the town got very busy) it had to be early in the week and near the start of the month (if it is to be believed, there are failure quotas, so at the start of both the week and month, they wouldn’t have to worry about meeting them yet) and I’d ensured that it would be during the summer time (no schools open and all that goes with it: heavy traffic, lollypop ladies leaping out at every chance they get, children darting about and women with baby occupied buggies plowing across pedestrian crossings without a moments notice, aka: Hell, when you’re doing a driving test and your “Reaction to Hazards” boxed will be ticked a hundred times over).
I had a lesson before the test (always do this, I didn’t before, but it’s a great idea!) so I was waiting in the car park of the test centre for it to open. Peering in my side mirror at a car pulling up behind me, my heart sank when I saw what tester turned up for work. He was the guy who’d failed me so miserably the previous time. He disappeared off to get a coffee from the shop and I was praying he wasn’t a grumpy morning person.
When I went in it seemed like he was in a good mood, normally they don’t talk to you except to tell you to do things or explain instructions. So I was pleasantly surprised when a single sentence commenting on the good weather was thrown out.
The roads were lovely and quiet when I did the test. The only times I got marks against me was when one of the traffic lights turned yellow too quickly (and I kept going-baaad idea) and then when some mad yoke pulled out in front of me too quickly from a side road that I was trying to turn into (and to be fair, I think I was distracted as I was just two minutes from the end of the test, and the words ‘Almost finished, almost finished, keep it together’ were flying through my head over and over again.) When i went into the centre, he kept me guessing as to whether I’d passed. He got me to sign a form and I thought ‘This hasn’t happen before, this could be good!’ and then I read the top of the piece of paper which had ‘Certificate of Competency’ on it. Once he congratulated me on passing, he surprised me by chatting away and he was actually quite nice.
Not an hour or two later, I was driving through town with my brother and it was very busy. And I just started to catalogue the various times I would have gotten marks against me and the amount of times I probably would have failed out right. There were many. My brother thought I was crazy when I’d randomly shout ‘mark!’ and ‘fail!’ Which got me thinking. I was the same driver, with the same experience but depending on the time of the day my passing abilities were very different.
Overall consensus, once you reach a certain level of being able to drive, the rest is pure dumb luck and an ability to avoid the gobshites around you who can’t drive but still will cost you marks!
One of these was E.M. Tippett’s, Someone Else’s Fairytale (love the title). She was kind enough to provide it free on Amazon on 1st March to celebrate being in the Kindle top 1000 books. Congratulations to her! I’d literally just visited her website and read an excerpt when she did, so it was happy timing for me. A much appreciated generous gesture on her part!
It used to be that my brothers and sisters and their friends (all older than me at the time- well, still are, but at the time they were older children!)- they would go house to house collecting stuff to use to make the bonfire. And then there was always a dummy/puppet person made for the event. Okay, it sounds weird, but it’s more like the real Halloween- it was symbolic I think. The puppet person was put on the top of the bonfire. Making said puppet involved stuffing an old pair of pyjamas with newspaper and some balloons.
Now, I don’t remember exactly because I was very young at the time, but I’m SURE there was adult supervision involved in all of this- of course!
It’s a cake filled with raisins and fruit and then there’s a little gold (not real) ring hidden inside it.
I don’t know what anyone else out there in the vast world does during Halloween- maybe nothing, maybe it doesn’t even register, maybe it’s just dressing up in a magical way for a party… well, whatever it may be, have a nice Oíche Shamhna everyone!
Carwicky 