Good News

My mother called just today and she was able to sort out the horrible snafu with airline tickets. Apparently, American Airlines had changed our tickets so that we’d have had to spend seven and one half hours in O’Hare airport with a sleep-deprived five year old! Not acceptable! So, they had an earlier flight that we could take, but wanted to charge $200 for changing G’s ticket even though they are the ones who changed it in the first place! Anyway… it’s all sorted.

That’s not the good news. The good news is that my father is going to be able to come home on the 15th of October! So, he’ll be able to see us more often and probably go round and do a few things with us, aided by a walker and/or a wheelchair. Very good news indeed!

On the reading challenge front, as you may or may not have noticed I’ve read 31 books. I’ve still got three months left. I usually read two books a month. So, barring a hectic Christmas time, I should be able to beat my previous yearly record of 36 books. I’ve got a couple of plane flights so that should help as well. And I tend to read more on holiday. So, I’ve got a chance.

Books I’m reading currently:

Three Days To Never by Tim Powers

Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling

America Trip

I’m really looking forward to our trip to America this year. Well, it’s my second trip to America, but the first one wasn’t under pleasant circumstances as my father had taken very ill with complications from his bowel surgery. I flew out for a couple of weeks to look after him and my mother.

It’s looking like there’s a good chance that my dad will be out of the hospital by the time we get to America, which is very good news. I’m sure he’s sick of being in the hospital now. I can be that sure because we talk to him on Skype and he says so. Maybe he could even get around with a wheelchair or something. I’d hate for him to miss out on anything, but if he’s confined to his bed, then we’ll make home a regular hub of all our activities there so that we can keep him updated on all our stories and he can see the pics we’ve just taken. Well, we’ll do that anyway. I’m sure he won’t be going out all that much even if he’s allowed.

This will be a great trip this year. We’re going there at a specific time of year for a double reason. A Halloween in America, which is the best place for a kid’s Halloween and also because it’s my Dad’s birthday in November. So, we’ll throw him a party with hats and streamers wherever he might be located for that. We’ll just have to see what we can do when we get there.

Books that I’ve read:

29.  Station X: The Code Breakers of Bletchley Park by Michael Smith – Incredibly informative and shot through with accounts by the people who were actually there. And not just the highups.

30. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis – A horrible book and at times very boring. The extreme violence is tedious as well. Put it down once, but it was the only thing to read at the tail end of my holiday and I got most of the way through it. Never read anything by him again.

31. Edward Trencom’s Nose by Giles Milton – It was okay, nothing special. I guessed the “twist” by page 20 and I never try to guess twists.

Back From Butlins

Got back from Butlins on Friday. I am still tired even now and to top it all off, I think I’m coming down with a cold. That’d be fantastic as I have so much to do this next week. So, I’ll be walking in to work 2 miles each way with a cold and snotting down myself the whole way. NE has also come down with a cold, but she’d a little bit further along and is upstairs sacked out. Which means… SHE gave ME this cold! And I had high hopes of going to the gym every day this week. That’s clearly not going to happen and I ballooned up at Butlins by half a stone, I’m guessing.  Feel bloated and heavy.

I’ll be posting some pics from Butlins when I get some energy. No promises or anything, but some of the shots were good family pictures. There weren’t too many things that I haven’t taken pictures of before. We’ll have a car next year and will probably explore some more of the coast around Skegness, which will be nice for me as I like to explore in that way. We had loads of fun this year, though. Bowling, rides, going out and having a few drinks as well!

We booked for next year already! Bring it on. 🙂

Books I read since last time:

26. Dead Lines by Greg Bear – Quite good, enjoyable for something I picked up at random from a library book sale

27. Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve – One of NE’s course books that sounded good on the back cover. I don’t normally like young adult novels, but this was very good.

28. Double Vision by Tricia Sullivan – A paperback that I picked up at Butlins when I couldn’t bear to read American Psycho on holiday like I planned. Some nicely executed ideas, but a little empty.