Vision In Blue

After a few days in Cornwall with my family I've taken to the road on a Megabus. I figured that Penzance to Bristol at 9am on a Tuesday has to be one of the least stressful times to experience this for the first time! Kudos to whoever designed this route... the streets of Cornish villages were clearly designed for giant buses weaving through them!! But I can't quibble, £12.50 for a bus ticket home, for what equates to 6 hours of travel give or take the traffic... a bargain, and had I remembered to book it when I got paid it would have been even cheaper at £10.50. The one bug is no internet, she says as she writes her blog post on her iPad in preparation. I was going to write by hand but there are no tables and I could barely read a word of what I did write. I'm experiencing some of my worst nightmares right now. Strangers. They're loud eaters, they invade my personal space and they want to talk every second of the journey. No strange people, just no, leave me be! Ca...

I've had a little break, partly due to being away but mostly due to being so sick I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to use my brain! So I thought I'd have a recap on the cultural things I've been up to. A couple of years ago I decided I wasn't doing anything cultural in my life... because I realised sitting in the pub drinking pints of coke, while being sociable with my friends, was definitely not cultural. After some discussions with one of these friends, we decided that the best thing to do was at least once a month go and do something cultural... and that we did. But it lasted exactly a year... it was a good year... but I really should have challenged myself to it again and kept up with everything! So in the last couple of months I've tried some new, and some old favourites. Where to start? At the beginning I suppose, which happens to be February... I missed January by a hair... never mind! Arnolfini According to their website... Arnolfini is one of...

Cutting it a bit fine for May new titles... way too many for me to keep up to date with! Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Marc Guggenheim & Mike Norton 9781846537226 Any list I make wouldn't be complete without a graphic novel on it. This month I've picked this Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. one, mainly because every girl wants Agent Coulson in her life! This one features Tony Stark joining the team for a top secret mission. The Autobiography Of James T Kirk by David A Goodman 9781783297481 You all know I'm a Star Trek nut so of course this was going to get into the listing... but I have to object to the first line of this one's description. "The Autobiography of James T. Kirk chronicles the greatest Starfleet captain's life"... Erm no, Jean-Luc has that title. But I'm not going to turn my nose up at this one because of that inaccuracy! Breaker by Kat Ellis 9780762459087 After the execution of the serial killer, Bonebreaker, his son Kyle has a...

April's new titles have changed a bit in the last week. First I picked my favourites out of the buyer's notes, then I put them all in the page and put their descriptions... but going back over them and reading a longer description I came to realise how truly misleading buyer's notes are! You only have one or two lines to go off so they should entice you and give you a good idea of what the book is... yes? No... I deleted about five titles and pondered a couple of others after realising that actually the two different descriptions did not lead me in the same direction at all. So here, after much deliberation are my... oh lord, sorry... 23 picks for April! --- The Art Of Not Breathing by Sarah Alexander 9781474903066 When Elsie is underwater the pain eases. Her twin brother disappeared five years ago and hasn't been seen since. Underwater Elsie has flashbacks to times when her family wasn't dissolving, flashbacks that might lead her to answers. I'm no...

A good app is hard to find, but they do pop up occasionally. Last month I came across Whisper and was reminded of a digital Post Secret. It describes itself quite simply. "Ever wondered what the people around you are really thinking? Whisper is an online community where millions of people around the world share real thoughts, trade advice, and get the inside scoop." As with all social media it is not always used as intended, and you'll always get the trolls of course. But there seem to be a lot of people on it who use it to anonymously air their pain and secrets. It's surprising how sharing your secret with someone you don't even know is liberating. If you told that secret to one new person every day, one day you'd be able to tell the person that matters. I think freckles, stretch marks, tattoos, bruises, birthmarks, and scars are the coolest thing ever. You started with almost a blank canvas. Look at you now. All this evidence that you've lived. ...

I love food. I love cooking. I love finding new recipes. I hate washing up. The eternal dilemma of the housework-shy, cook something fantastic or have someone else cook you something fantastic? Of course, short of winning the lottery I'm not going to get to try eating in every restaurant I would like. Slowly but surely, I'm finding some great places for food, so I thought I'd share a few with you along with some of my favourite memories. So remember everyone... eat all the food! Bills, lots of locations These industrial country kitchen style restaurants make delicious food, I can highly recommend the halloumi burger (with chipotle mayo, not cumin yoghurt). But the main dishes aren't the reason this restaurant is making it onto the list... it's one dessert. Lemon Meringue Cheesecake with poppy seed meringue. Two of my favourite things in one. It comes served in what looks like a dainty glass with a mound of meringue on the top... it tastes heavenly and s...