Careless in Red by Elizabeth George

Here’s the massive coincidence.

The last two books I’ve read have been The Islands by Di Morrissey and Careless in Red by Elizabeth George.

(I know I’m supposed to have been reading The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga - the Booker Prize-winning novel - but I just can’t get into it)

Now on the face of it these two novels have nothing in common.  The Islands is soap opera in book form and Careless in Red is detective fiction.

I read The Islands first.  It was a review copy that came into the office and I was looking for some light reading for the holiday break. 

Anyway it was Christmas and I wanted to invite some good friends of ours - now divorced - to our Christmas dinner.  Which I did and it was all very nice.

The day after Boxing Day, the male half of this couple flew out to Hawaii to have a holiday with his girlfriend.   The Islands is about Hawaii.

Then I sat down and read Careless in Red. 

Now technically I shouldn’t have been able to take this book out of the library.  It had been reserved and mistakenly put back on the shelf. 

The librarian had been giving me a lesson in self check out when it came up flagged as reserved which she over-rode I guess because I was a good student… or something.

Anyway I got the book with a “Please read it first” from the librarian (first of the seven I had taken out) and so dutifully I did so.

Get this.

Part of the action takes place in a small Cornish town with the same surname as the female half of this couple’s boyfriend!  In fact he could even come from that village.

How spooky is that?!

I thought it was spooky.

And both the books had a surfing theme running through them.  What’s up with that?

So to the review of Careless in Red by Elizabeth George.  

This is another Inspector Lynley novel and I love this series.  He’s an upper class Earl who works for New Scotland Yard or did until his upper class pregnant wife was murdered randomly by a twelve year old boy.

To cope he takes himself off for a walk along the Cornish coast and finds the body of a young man at the foot of the cliff.

Of course he is dragged into the investigation along with the fabulous Barbara Havers, his former partner at the Met. (and by that of course I mean the Metropolitan Police not the Metropolitan Opera)

It’s full of intrigue and inuendo.  Red herrings and plot twists, all set on the wild Cornish coastline.

I imagined Echo Beach style surf shops, Irish cliffs (okay I know they are probably very different but they are the ones I imagined) and plump, tasty Cornish pasties.

I always enjoy Elizabeth George’s books and this one didn’t disappoint.  She’s like a modern day Agatha Christie but her novels are a good deal longer.

And I like a good doorstop of a mystery.

Slumdog Millionaire

Go and see this movie.

You might think it is some worthy foreign flick but it is not.

It’s gritty, inspiring, pacey, uplifting and shocking all at the same time.

If a film could be a pageturner - this would be.

Compared to the last Hollywood flick I’ve seen - The Dark Knight - well, lets say I got bored half way through this supposed action movie whereas with Slumdog Millionaire I was on the edge of my seat.

It’s the story of a kid from the slums who wins Who Wants to be a Millionaire, but it so much more.  A story of the slums, a love story, a gangster film, a story of police violence, a story of corruption and a story of hope.

Most reviews have been kind to this movie with good reason - it is brilliant.

The Islands by Di Morrissey

When you pick up a Di Morrissey book you are not expecting high literature, or even medium-high.

You are expecting a rollocking saga with beautiful women and unreachable men set in an exotic location with a nod to the local culture.

In this novel that is exactly what you get.  Young Catherine, off on a gap year - or what passes for a gap year back in the 70s, meets and marries a dashing US naval officer and ends up in the married quarters in Hawaii.

Stifled by the other navy wives and their strict, conservative lives, Catherine seeks freedom by meeting the locals and learning a new skill - photography. 

It doesn’t take long before she finds herself tempted by an enigmatic surfer.

This is the type of book you take with you on holidays - preferably in Hawaii.  You sit with it at the pool and while away a couple of hours while sipping on your fruit cocktail and gazing over your spray tan to the other beautiful people lounging in the sun.

You are wearing big sunglasses and probably a floppy straw sunhat.

It’s not challenging but it is a pleasant enough way to spend some time.  

It’s a bit like watching the Bold and the Beautiful I imagine.

Swimming for the blog

The things I do for this blog.  The extremes I will go to.

Take the other night.  Hugamuga suggested we have a family swim down the beach.

Never mind that the news had been full of shark sightings and that someone had actually been taken.

Never mind that sea breeze was in big time and sea was choppy and rough.

Never mind that it was after seven o’clock and all the lifeguards had gone home.

Never mind that we have a perfectly good, and recently cleaned pool in our backyard.

We went to the beach.

Once in, I was determined not to swim above my depth.  Staying in the shallows getting wet was enough.

Groover had other ideas:

“Hey want to swim around the pylon with me?”

“No way!  Swim in shark infested waters, when the visibility is zero and no lifeguards… you must be joking!!”

“You could blog about it…”

“Hmmm.  Okay then.”

Brave or tragic?

And I can report that the pylon looks even worse from the seaward side.

A Lady Di moment

One of the most famous images of Lady Di - before she married Chuck - was the picture of her outside the daycare centre with the see-through skirt. Remember that?

Well I discovered that when I walk in sunlight the same thing happens to my dress.

Yes that dress in the photo.

I made it over the Christmas break and mostly I’m quite happy with it, you know apart from the see-through bit.

So I’ve decided to line the skirt with black fabric and also lengthen it by about two inches so it sits on the knee because for me… it’s also a tad too short.

Sorry Ken, told you you might be in for a disappointment.

Ahhhh the end of 2008.  I go into the new year sitting by a backyard pool, eating and drinking with friends, followed by Guitar Hero World Tour.

Rock on 2009!

How I get to work

The last thing I do before leaving home every morning is fill my coffee cup for the drive to work.

I love my coffee machine.  If Groover and I ever split up I think custody of the coffee machine might be a contentious issue.

And today I’m back at work.

I’m not unhappy about it. It’s going to be 38C today and I get to sit in air-conditioning ALL day.

I’m wearing a dress I made over the Christmas break from material my friend and colleague gave me - she’s the one I did sewing lessons with.

It includes several of the features we did in sewing class - pockets, darts, set in sleeves, invisible zip, so I enjoyed putting those lessons into practice.

It’s a bit short though. I think I’m going to add a border to the base of it.

Photo will come soon.

It’s kind of nice being at work over the Christmas break - a relaxed pace and because everyone is on holidays - no annoying phone calls!

Oh and while I have you - check out these photos of my recent lunch with The Food Pornographer. She takes such delicious photos - mine were rubbish!

Yes of course you have to take photos of food when you’re with TFP!

Keep Cott Beautiful

Seems the Town of Cottesloe read my post about the Michael Jackson litter campaign and decided to update their signage.  Hope it works although I will miss having a giggle at the old posters.

The weather this Christmas break has been beautiful.  High 20s to low 30s.  Crystal clear days.

Not what I’d call shark weather.  You know, those oily November days where the sea is flat and grey.

And yet it has been shark weather.  A fellow got taken off Port Kennedy and yesterday on our walk the authorities pulled everyone out of the water.

It was like a scene from Jaws.  A beautiful beach day with everyone standing on the beach or the groin looking for a fin. 

Five helicopters were circling overhead.

We didn’t see the shark and walked home.

Meantime once again I have proved myself to be a bad mother.

Last night we invited our son’s friend’s parents over for a Christmas drink.

“So did Hugamuga get a good report?” they asked making small talk.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG!

We hadn’t seen his report!!

That’s bad isn’t it?

He did really well I think - 3 A’s in the core subjects… and they are the subjects that count!

We are all in the gutter

A guest post from Groover:

It was Oscar Wilde who penned the line, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”.

It’s a favourite of mine, along with many other Wilde quotes, but to me it perfectly describes the principle that it is not circumstance that defines us, but our attitude and response to those circumstances.

I came across this on my way to work today. I thought that it was a discarded bouquet of flowers but on further inspection it turned out to be the perfect embodiment of my attitude to life from this moment on.

We may all be economically “in the gutter” but from now on, I’m this plant.

Living full-out in the moment, shouting at the world that this maybe a gutter but look at me I’m giving life a red-hot go and doing what I do best.

Today I paused and noticed the flowers. They taught me a valuable lesson.

From Christmas to colon cleansing

Christmas happened, and in fact was the most stress-free Christmas dinner that I’ve hosted.  I know! Can you believe it?!

What? I don’t look hysterical do I? Oh. Just my hair…

The day started with me waking my teenage son so we could open presents.  Long gone are the days when small people jump on you at 5am to gather by the tree.

Eventually the males of the household dragged themselves to the lounge room and with coffees in hand the present giving began.

Groover has always maintained that all he wants is “a gumnut stuck to a card” from the kids - in other words - it doesn’t matter about the gift but he wants them to at least think about him when they buy it.

We saw a wry smile when he opened his first present from Dipp to see - yes, you guessed it - a gumnut stuck to a magnet.  The rest of us rolled with laughter.

I think the presents were a success.

The funniest was the last one, again for Groover.  He’d wanted me to get Dipp ABBA Singstar but I knew he really wanted it for himself. So I decided the kids could give it to him for Christmas.  

The night before when we were wrapping presents he asked me if I had bought it for Dippity.  I feigned horror: “Oh no! I forgot!!”

“What?  But you knew I wanted to give her that!  I would have bought it if I’d known.  Damn!” He ranted on, “I was really looking forward to it…”

It was all I could to do to stop cracking up.

So when he opened the last present and we saw his face - it was priceless.

After present opening of course we had to have a practice of Singstar ABBA - gee the songs are fun to sing although I do I do I do I do is much harder than I thought - they sing that line in a different key or something.

Anyway then Mum and Dad and my Aunt arrived with more presents and I got - how is this for an unusual present - a colon cleansing kit.

No there are no hoses - not that kind of kit - it’s a detox program with herbals and such like.  Well I suppose it can’t hurt and Mum is going to do it with me.

Gives me the runs just thinking about it.

Then we cleaned up the house in readiness for the party.

Then I made my salad and discovered I was out of toothpicks.  So while Groover dealt with the turkey - turkey number 1 - I tested out my new ipod tuner thingy for the car and went over to mum and dad’s to get some toothpicks.

I stayed yarning for a while and then moseyed back home to make some devils on horseback (prunes wrapped in bacon) and set the table.

Guests started arriving at 6ish and we had a glass of champagne-style wine and prawns and then began the feast.

Dad’s ham was delicious as was the turkey and then we had four salads. It was delicious and I didn’t miss the brussel sprouts AT ALL!

As the sun eventually set, the fairy lights came to life and we had proper plum pudding - brought by R.

And then presents!

This year we did a Kris Kringle… here are the instructions Groover sent to everyone:

In an effort to maintain the spirit of Christmas, the social responsibility to reduce our global footprint and have a bit of fun all at the same time, we are proposing the following gift-exchanging policy for those wishing to take part.

Please only bring one present each. This present should be:

1. New or unused and in its original packaging if possible.
2. Wrapped in some kind of paper or material which disguises its identity.
3. Not labeled in anyway

The gift can be of any value whatsoever, but the idea is to re-gift something that you have lying around the house that was given to you at some time and you really can’t stand.

Anything.

Perhaps it was a corporate gift or a smelly candle or something you bought and then never used. It may be something you had multiples of, whatever the idea is that it is a new item YOU DON’T WANT!

The gifting ceremony will involve people (one at a time) selecting a gift and then unwrapping it to squeals of delight, eg:

“Oh fantastic, a jar of tastefully themed Blue & Yellow Eagles Pot Pourri!”

 

Then the fun really starts, the next person selects a present and as they unwrap their Perspex Frog / Shower Timer they then have the choice to exchange their gift with any of the already opened items.

 

So if they prefer the Eagles Pot Pourri to the Shower Timer, said gifts are swapped until all gifts are unwrapped and hopefully that rather useful set of outside table-cloth fasteners is in your possession and all is well with the world.

It means that the first person gets to choose what they want out of all the unwrapped gifts but might have to relinquish it and the last person has no choice of the unwrapped presents but can choose whatever they want.

Tinsel free zone

Seems to me you can divide the world into those who like tinsel and those who don’t.  At work our office is tinselled to the max.  

It is everywhere.  along the partitions between desks, around whiteboards and pin-up boards, hanging from the ceiling and framing doorways.

So my home has become a tinsel-free zone.

Since Groover bought the plastic monster tree we’ve had this tradition of every year going out and buying an ornament each for the tree.

We’ve had everything from neon blue lit-up dolphins to stars that like a chameleon disappear into the tree.

It’s a free choice (as long as they don’t pick tinsel).

This year we went wooden and bought a set of tiny wooden decorations rather than four big decorations.  I think they look sweet.

So which camp do you fall into - are you tinsel or tinsel free?

White lights or coloured lights?

Whatever your preference I wish you a Merry Christmas from downunder where the temperature today will be 26C and fine.

Now… where’s that coffee?

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