I have really had to restrain myself from beginning each of these Monthly Memoir posts from saying something along the lines of ‘I can’t believe we’re in *insert month here* already’ as I knew it would get repetitive. But seriously? We’re almost half way through the year now! Anyway, here’s a look back at May 2019…
We began the month by returning to Salisbury, as we said we would, and took the kids with us this time. The weather wasn’t quite as warm as it had been on our first visit to Salisbury, but we still managed a picnic on the Cathedral green, which was lovely. This time we also had a look at the Magna Carta, which is pretty amazing, and hadn’t realised it was housed in such a grand room. We also had chance to look around the market together, but I made notes on that in my previous blog about Salisbury.
It wasn’t really our intention, but we also ended up repeating our drive to Avebury, as R and J hadn’t visited the stones there for so long, they hardly remembered them. Unfortunately it was too cold for a proper walk around the stone circle, but we ended up with the table inside The Red Lion with the best view of them from the warmth!
It feels a bit strange as I can’t refer you to a video of our day on my YouTube channel. For once, I left the vlogging camera at home and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, it was nice not have to remember to tell the story of the day properly with plenty of transition shots and explanations as to what we were doing. However, I have got so accustomed to having all our family special occasions and days out together documented on video, that I’m a bit sad that I don’t have that day as well. I know people say you’ll always have the memories, but I’m too scared of forgetting them.
My personal photography files for May are actually a bit thin on the ground. I’ve been very busy working behind the scenes on Threads of a Fairytale. I did a two-day photo-shoot with R and J to update the photos on some items of festival clothing that haven’t been selling well. So I’ve been editing and posting those to my Etsy shop; but also I’ll be launching an integrated shop on my own Threads of a Fairytale website soon, and it takes flipping ages copying and pasting all the item details in again. So that is where most of my time has been, but I’ve combined it with listening to audio books.
I’ve joined a book club! I’ll be honest, reading has never been something I’ve particularly loved doing, even though I want to! I’m just too impatient and don’t have the capacity to sit still for long enough. However audio books mean I can carry on getting on with things and still absorb the story – perfect! Joining a book club is making me put aside the podcasts for a while and listen to something new.
A quick review of Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund
Initially I was completely gripped by this Scandinavian thriller. It was very well written; I enjoyed the style, and I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to play out. Then I started getting a little annoyed by the fact that it seemed to be written for television and time felt wasted to me on the detective’s personal life. Then I got more annoyed as the book went on and on and started introducing more characters so I started getting a bit lost. And it really gets on my nerves when the reader is led to believe something that turns out to be false. For example, during a recent Agatha Christie television adaptation, while the detective is surmising over a particular person committing the murder, the viewer gets to see a clip of that person committing the murder. As a viewer therefore, we think we know his theory is correct, after all, we have just seen it happen, and we just have to wait for the detective to find the evidence. However, then it turns out to be someone else entirely! That REALLY annoys me! And it’s difficult to write what I want to say now without giving away spoilers, but you get what I mean! And the ending was awful. Really awful. Twenty-one hours it took to listen to that book.
As a writer, I really don’t like giving negative reviews, but I would like to save you twenty-one hours of your life and advise you not to read or listen to Crow Girl. Sorry.
If you want to ignore me though, here’s the Amazon link!:
A quick review of Tangerine by Christine Mangan
Tangerine begins with a body being pulled out of the sea. It’s a good beginning and Christine Mangan builds up the tension and character development beautifully. I was totally immersed in this book until about three-quarters of the way through and I started to get bored. The relationship between the two main characters, Alice and Lucy became tedious and the outcome predictable. I’d hoped there was going to be a twist at the end to keep me happy, but it didn’t happen. I was cross about that ending for an entire week. I’m off to discuss it at book club this evening, so hopefully I’ll be able to vent a bit more clearly (not giving away spoilers here is tricky)! It was a great story (and six hours of listening was a lot more manageable) but I can’t recommend this book due to the end.
And whilst we’re on the subject of disappointing endings: what about Game of Thrones?
Actually…I can’t even…
Let’s move on to Glastonbury Festival. You may have been wondering where are our panoramic photos of the Glastonbury festival site that I promised? Well…I had a phone call from the Glastonbury Festival office asking me to stop posting the photos as the people involved in Arcadia were concerned that they would encourage people onto the site, which is a building site, and whilst looking at the new Arcadia creation, could break an ankle and result in the festival getting sued and possibly sent to to prison.
Hm. I had a few doubts about this: 1. Would someone really see a photo of something and then try and see it in person even though they shouldn’t? It’s possible, but I think unlikely. 2. I live locally, and even I don’t know how to get passed the security guards who were already in place. It’s possible, but unlikely. 3. The construction can be seen clearly, bang in the middle of the BBC Glastonbury Festival webcam, where you can zoom in on it too. Would someone really see Arcadia on the webcam and not want to see it in person, but then see our photo and would want to see it in person? I think that’s VERY unlikely.
However, I agreed to stop posting the panoramic photos as I don’t want to annoy the festival. I just thought it was a shame for those people who were enjoying seeing the photos. All was fine, but then I had an awkward text later in the day from the festival office thanking me for agreeing to take down the photos. I agreed to stop posting more photos, but nothing had been mentioned on the phone call about taking anything down from my blog. Besides, that ship had well and truly sailed – @TheGlastoThingy on Twitter had taken a snapshot from our photo of the new Arcadia and had gone semi-viral, along with NME publishing it on their website! So I did what I always do when something is awkward, and just ignored it. I’m pretty sure any respect the Google ranking system has for this blog would entirely vanish if everyone tried to come to a page that had now disappeared. And I really cannot afford to piss off the Google ranking system!
However, I then discover that suddenly the folks at Arcadia have just released their own video all about their new creation called Pangea, and included several clear close-up images of the new construction in progress on the festival site. But that won’t encourage people to come and see it, but my picture will? Come on! If Arcadia had just been honest from the start and simply asked me not to include Arcadia in the photos as they wanted to keep control of showing the public the new Pangea when and how they wanted, I would have totally understood and respected that.
It just goes to show how little drama happens in my life that this little incident caused me so much stress! I kept playing over things I should have said; things I wanted to say; things I might say if I had another phone call. Plus the fact a few people on the Glasto Chat message board on e-festivals that I’ve belonged to for years got annoyed with me, just for being annoyed on their behalf that I couldn’t post more photos for them! So I was going over and over answers to them in my head as well. It’s ridiculous isn’t it, how we sometimes let stupid things really affect us? Do you find you do that, or do you just brush things aside?
Anyway, if you’re going to Glastonbury Festival this year, please take a look at this post all about how to prepare and get ready for Glastonbury Festival – it includes packing lists and practical tips too.
For the last May bank holiday weekend, Chris and I packed up and prepared our VW camper for the first time this year and took it to Devon. We were both in need of a holiday, and this little gettaway was perfect. We got tonnes of photos taken for fashion blog posts, and also for Threads of a Fairytale clothing, but somehow it also feels like we had a really relaxing time.
I’ll leave it at that as I’ll be writing another blog post shortly about our van travels around Devon, to Dartmoor and then Salcombe, and back again.
Sorry about my Glastonbury Festival rant! Have a lovely June everyone. 🙂