A whistle-stop tour

Do you ever take time off and then go back to work for a rest?

Twelve days disappeared in a flash.  A life-affirming combination of fresh air and books.  We walked  in the Yorkshire Dales in sun, wind, rain and snow, ate Masham and Malham steak pie and supped real ales. Well, a half of Landlord on my part, before returning to the reassuring blandness of a cold lager.

Serious study of The Portrait of a Lady was interspersed with more easy going reading.  On a friend's recommendation, I read my first Dorothy Sayers mystery, Whose Body?  Murder mysteries aren't usually my bag, but the combination of great characters and effective writing style kept my interest throughout. I'll know where to turn now for an entertaining read and some respite from the arduousness of the Nineteenth Century Novel.

If I thought it was cold in Malham, that was nothing to a bitter Newfoundland winter.  Although I was never quite comfortable with the disjointed style and incomplete sentences of The Shipping News, I did feel I was there, eating shark fin soup with the motley staff of the Gammy Bird newspaper.  I'll look forward to hearing the views of the Lancashire Ladies at our book group meet next week.

I took my kids to see The Hunger Games which has reached the lofty position of 'second best film ever' (behind Star Wars III) in my son's eyes.  For my part, I was glad to see a heroine with a bit of spark after the wishywashyness of Twilight's Bella Swan.

So now we've reached the last lap of the academic year.  There's light at the end of the degree tunnel, and a whole season of under tens cricket to look forward to.  Let the good times roll.