Last week we went for a day trip to Douala with Genesis. The main point of this trip was to buy some more computers for HINT. Due to the overwhelming response we received in finical support for this trip, we have been able to pay our room and board and had some money left over. We are donating this money to HINT to help the charity expand. So we donated 4 computers from our fund. HINT runs as a computer school and when there are not lessons running we are an Internet cafe as a way of paying the bills and raising funds. However we were loosing customers as there were no available computers during class times. We had a successful trip and HINT now runs with 21 computers. 18 for teaching leaving 3 free for customers. We are very grateful to everyone that donated and wanted to let you know how your money is being used.
As we were in Douala with a local we thought we would make the most of it. We visited a restaurant that Genesis and Joe have been to before. From the outside it not look up to much and the service was slow. Most the food was finished but the food we did have was amazing. I had plantain with fried fish and cabbage which was yummy. Joe had rice and beef ndole (which is bitter leaf and ground nut, looks a bit like sag loo). We also had varieties of Top, which is the local fizzy pop. It was a very nice meal and for the three of us came to about £8. Only trouble is not sure if I will ever find it again!!
We then went to marche du fleurs. which is a local arts and crafts market. I could spend all day there but we had a driver waiting so could only have a few minuets. There is a lot of tourist rubbish but if you looks there are some great things. We got these two masks. The art of haggling is required. the price for one started at 50 000 CFA (£50) Joe said I will give you 10 000, OK says the man! Having Genesis with us is great meaning they drop the white man prices once he joins in! I am sure we will make many more visits there and have no room to bring any else back home!!
Our household has been going through some changes the past couple of weeks. Here is an update of who we now live with. Amelia has left for China. She has gone to Equatorial Guinea for a couple weeks first. This is a small island not far from the coast of Cameroon. she was supposed to fly last Tuesday. He flight was at 6pm and she was going to leave the house at 3pm and pop in to see her sister on her way to the airport. Which is about 1 1/2 hours from here. So unsurprising she missed the flight. She came home late that night then went our early the next morning to get a boat instead. We will miss Amelia she was good fun. Hopefully she will be home at some point while we are still here.
Jeff has gone back to Yaounde to his family. We have met his Dad, who is Genesis senior brother. He is a private investigator. Gabriel has now arrived. He is the son of Genesis eldest sister. He lives here to go to school in Buea and goes home to his family in the north west province for the holidays. Gabriel is older than Jeff. He is about 14 maybe. Very quite and doing all the house hold chores.
Sharlotte is staying with us for a month or so. She lives in one of the villages but goes to school in Buea. It is too far to travel each day. So she will stay with us until her sister comes to the University of Buea and gets accommodation. Sharlotte is about 13. I think she is scared of me! On Saturday I was offering her a biscuit and she said no. Marceline had to tell her it was OK and she could have one of my biscuits then she happily took one! I also had to talk her in to sitting next to me on the sofa.
Sheila did not get the grades to go to University so is re-sitting her A' levels. She goes to night school. So will be remaining in the house.
The house is not so packed now but is always busy!
As one observant book worm has noticed I have read the no. 1 ladies detective agency books. I really enjoyed them. Short little books oozing with charm, very pleasant reads.
I have had plenty of time to read the last couple of days as I have been curled up in bed. So I have quickly read The Sunday philosophy club. I have to say I did not enjoy it as much as the detective agency books. Joe tried it and could not get in to it saying the style suited the quaint life of Africa but not Scotland.
I think he is trying to repeat the same thing with a different setting. It kind of works but not as well as in Africa. Its a nice little pleasant read though and I am sure I will read the next one at some point.
On Saturday night we went to Ekona to visit Marceline's parents house and some of her family. We have now met all of Marceline's 7 sisters and I think I can remember all their names! Ekona is about 45 mins away in a taxi. It would be about 1/2 an hour (or less) if there were not as many pot holes in the road. We hired the taxi man to then sit outside while we went in for an hour or so. By the time we got there it was dark so we did not get to see the surroundings. The taxi driver came in for some food. We met Naomi's new cousin Naomi. She was born the day before our Naomi. This was the first time Marceline had seen her and we did not know she had the same name!
From top left, me, Joe, Marceline, Mum, Dad, Maggie, Sarah
Elizabeth, Agbol, Peacebell, Naomi and Naomi
Sorry for the lack of posts but over the weekend and the start of this week I have been at home sick. Well it was only a bad cold but I have felt pretty awful. Being sick in a different country is not much fun. All I wanted was a hot bath. However we can go to the pharmacy and buy pretty much any drugs we want, which is handy.
The nice thing is the view from my sick bed!!
A sign of the dry season approaching is that we are getting beautiful sunsets. On Monday evening I glanced out of the window while at work. The whole place was a glow of orange. Went outside for a better look and there was a breath taking sunset. The photo does not do it justice. With the mountain and the colours in the sky it was just amazing. I hoped me might witness a few nice sunsets being on the west of Africa. So there may be more to come. I am hoping for some good sky's when we visit Limbe on the coast.
Well I do not see what all the fuss is about. Firstly I do not think it is a brilliant masterpiece as so many review it to be. Its OK but really not all that. I also do not see why so many Christan's have got their knickers in such a knot. Yes it does claim that Jesus was mortal, married and had children. But is fiction. We do not really think that Jesus is a Lion called Aslan, so why should we give any of the garbage in this book a second thought.
I wanted to read the book to see what all the fuss is about. I do not feel I can comment on these things until I have read them. I did not really know what to expect. The only things I had really heard about the book were the criticisms from religious groups. I was expecting something far worse than I read. It is basically a cat and mouse story and a hunt for the Grail which will change religion forever. In the 600 pages of the book there are only really a few references to Jesus and his life. In the beginning of the book there are a couple of paragraphs explaining what is fact. Which does not include the claims made about Jesus.
Now the way the book was written really annoyed me. I like suspense, cliff hangers and page turners. But this was just annoying. Dan Brown continually refers to things but does not explain it till much later. By the time he has you have guessed anyway. It takes 400 pages for him to tell what Sophie had witnessed at her Grandfathers house. That's not suspense its just plain annoying.
I also find him a little to American. I had not really notice before but I often read books by English authors. The book is set in France and London and he keeps referring to things in America. The thing that really bugged me is an English man using American slang. You would have thought he would do his research and at least have the English man talking in proper English (Sorry Ann!)
It is obviously written to be a film. I do not really have any desire to see the film now. I have heard it is pretty rubbish and the book did not make me jump up and down in anticipation to see it on the big screen.
Labyrinth is said to be the girls Da Vinci Code. Well yes it has a Grail and murder. That's about the only links. I think it is much better.
Buea is basically one long road that steadily climbs the foothills of the mountain. We are about 1/2 way up in Bounduma. The post office and radio station are a little higher in the Clerks quarter and the University and some shops are a little lower in Molyko.
To get around we use taxis. Joe has written a little about his in his crosstown traffic entry. However this is a topic we could write many entries on. A typical journey cost 100 or 150 CFA per passenger (depending of the length of the journey). That's 10 - 15p. We try to save up our 100 CFA coins as taxi tokens!! They have just put the price up to a shocking 150 or 200 CFA per person.The taxis are yellow, mostly Toyota's as nearly all the cars are. Most are in a pretty bad way. They keep them running as long as possible then when they are well and truly dead they are stripped and the parts are used to fix other taxis. There are a few 'garages' dotted about with decaying old taxis outside.A couple of weeks ago we had to jump out of a taxi that looked as if it were about to blow up!! We were going up the hill to the post office and the engine started spluttering then plumes of black smoke started pouring out. The driver pulled over and I jumped out the car and ran away. Joe ran to the front of the car, I ran to the back (I figured if it was going to blow it would be the engine). We could not see each other for a while due to the thick black smoke. It soon cleared and the driver suggested we got another taxi!!These are share taxis which means they drive up and down the road picking people up and dropping them off. A taxi is full when there are 3 in the back and 2 on the front passenger seat. This is not much fun if the person you are sharing the front seat with is more traditionally built!You may notice the huge gutters on the side of the road. All the way down the road on each side there are these huge deep gutters. They are needed when it rains heavily to take the rain down the mountain off the road. they are about a foot across and 2 foot deep. At junctions they are covered so cars can drive over but most the time they are open. Kids loose there footballs down them, which is better then running out in to the road to fetch it. I have seen the occasional goat or chicken in them also. We have to jump over them to cross the road. I am sure one of these days I will be crossing the road, chatting to Joe not looking where I am going and will fall down it!! Especially in the dark, there are no street lights so it is difficult to see them if there are no car headlights about. Shelia said she has often seen drunk men sleeping in them at night.The condition of the roads is terrible. On Tuesday we went to Douala for the day with Genesis. We hired a car and had a complete nutter as a driver. I was sat in the middle of the back seat so had a view out of the front window. This mostly meant I could see the cars approaching us head on as we where driving on the wrong side of the road dodging pot holes or overtaking lorries. When we arrived all in one piece Genesis took his number them promptly told us he will not be phoning him for any journey again. This guy was a police officer. So had no regard for the rules of the road.
I have gone google. I have switched to blogger beta, Gmail and Picasa photo album. I think they are great and much better than the previous services I was using. Now I will tell you why.
Flickr vs Picasa. I thought flickr was great. I still do and will continue to put my recent photos there. However on Picasa I have soooooo much free storage space - its great. I have all my old photos that have long dropped off my limit on Flickr. My trip to Lapland and Kate and Martin's wedding. You can find them all here. I know I could just pay for a Flickr pro account but I am tight and don't want to! The only problem with both is there is no upload tool for Linux (which is what I am using in Cameroon). However Picasa are developing one so they win! I can also load photos in to Picasa then use them in my blog. Two birds with one stone.
Hotmail vs Gmail. Gmail is great. So much storage space. It automatically threads messages. This is great as people have a whole conversation by email then I have to spend ages opening and reading the messages one by one. Now I just open one message and read the whole conversation. I can star messages which I use to remind me who I have to reply too. It saves sent messages which Hotmail did not and caused me bother.
Blogger vs blogger beta. It is much easier to edit your page settings. Add pretty things like a map of Cameroon. Spell checking works better, I think (which is handy as I use it a lot!). I prefer the way my history is displayed. The only problem is I cannot comment on non-beta blogs. They are working on this. I have to comment as 'other'.
Well this post is a bit geeky really. But I thought I would share my new love of google with you.
I mentioned last week that Marceline and I were visiting local children in preparation for our back pack program. The back pack program is run by HINT. It was set up last year and helped a few children in the church. This year we increased the number of children to 25, although only 16 came. They hope to increase it more each year. The concept is that we help needy children by giving them a gift to return to school with.
Over the week Marceline and I have been to a couple of markets buying the supplies. About 10 school bags, text books, shoes, uniforms and exercise books. Then on Sunday afternoon we held a program to present the packs to the children. As with many African events it was totally disorganised but actually ran quite well.
Genesis gave an opening talk about HINT and the back pack program. Then the children performed a play, mostly in pidgin, so I did not really follow it. They sang a song I taught them from my Sunday school years - My God is so big. They also recited memory verses. Some of them were so small and recited it beautifully. Joe and I also said a few words. Introduced ourselves and said what we were doing here.
Then the presentations began. Marceline read out the names and Joe and I gave out the gifts. I wore my new African outfit (see below). Then once all the gifts were given there was one special prize left. This was a selection of pens, exercise books, pencils etc. Genesis announced that it was a special prize called the Joseph and Heather Talbot prize for services to humanity!! Genesis was explaining to the children how we have left our jobs, homes and family in the UK to come and work for HINT for nothing. John won the prize for supplying water to the HINT office. When he passed he would come in collect the water bottles go to the tap to fill them, then bring them back and carry on his way. He did this without being asked to. He just felt it was important for there to be water in the office. I do not know how old this boy is but he is quite small. Maybe about 10 years. They said this will be a yearly prize for anyone who has shown unrequested kindness to others.
So once it was finished we photographed the children then had snacks. Cake and popcorn and watched Finding Nemo. The only region 1 DVD we have that we can watch on Genesis' DVD player! Good job it is a child friendly one!
Well we have been for for 2 months now. I tried not to have too many preconceived ideas about Africa before we came. The two I did have is that it would be hot and I would lose weight. Well neither of them have been true. I am fatter and whiter than when I left the UK.
As we may have mentioned it is the rainy season here in Cameroon. This means we have hardly seen any sun. But not for much longer. 'The dry season is coming' Marceline said to me last week as we hung the washing out. So soon it will be getting colder in the UK and it will be hot hot hot here. Anyway white skin is fashionable these days.
I am sure I am fatter! Before we came my friend said to me 'it does not matter what you eat now, you're going to Africa'. Although we only eat one proper meal a day I am convinced my belly is bigger. It is due to the fact that everything is cooked in copious amounts of oil. I watched in horror one day when Marceline was cooking and she poured half a bottle of oil (a 1 litre bottle) in to the pan. This is to make the sauce not to fry in! Not really getting much exercise either. Joe is playing football but I do not really play any sport, don't really fancy jogging either. We get served up huge portions also which I feel obliged to eat!
Anyway enough about my figure. How has the last month been? Well pretty good. Genesis our host and boss has been away in the states on a training course for small organisations.
So without him being here things have been slow. I have written and just about completed a 30 page training manual to teach others how to become HIV educators. This is so the awareness programs can continue after we leave. I have also written information for a web site Joe is busy creating for me.
We are now planning when and were the training courses will be. Soon we will be visiting the villages speaking to people about HIV. It is difficult during the rainy season as many of the roads are impassable.
Joe has finished working on the HINT website which should soon be live. And is now working on a curriculum to teach how to build web sites.
I still miss my washing machine, although doing the washing is good exercise! After spending a couple of days in Douala having hot showers made me miss them even more! We take so much for granted in the UK. Everyday I have a hot shower before work and sometimes one after too. We do not have water everyday let alone hot water. A few times I got to have a wash and there is no water in the tap. It will be off for a few hours then return. Otherwise we are pretty settled in to Cameroon life.
This book was also a birthday present, this time from Joe's Mum. I had not heard of the book or the author before but knew that Joe's Mum was good at choosing books so it would be good.
It is a daughter's memoir about her father Mohammed Forna. Her father came to Scotland to study medicine where he married a Scottish lady and where Aminatta was born. The family then move back to Sierra Leone where he worked for a doctor before he moved in to politics. I will not tell you any more as I do not want to ruin it for you.
During the first part of the book she describes her childhood. She describes Sierra Leone in a way I would love to be able to describe Cameroon to you. She talks about so many things we have experienced or can relate to. Here are a few examples.
I upended the beaker, pulled my foot away and trapped the cockroach under the glass. It sat unperturbed as at home as a fish in an aquarium. By the end of the day there were half a dozen inverted objects on the floor around the house.
This second quote is when she was in Scotland talking to her Scottish Grandmother.
At the kitchen counter Gran prepared the chicken for high tea, cutting off the flaps of skin with a pair of kitchen scissors. I told her she shouldn't buy dead chickens. 'Whatever makes you say that dearie?' She looked down at me in surprise. 'You don't thing I'm going to kill it myself do you?'
The last part of the book is her personal search to find the truth of what happened to her Father.
If you have an interest in Africa or have ever visited Africa you will enjoy this book as much as I have. It has been compared with Wild Swans (Jung Chang) and I think is also like A Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela). Aminatta has also written two other books. Ancestors stones is a novel also set in Sierra Leone. She is currently working on another novel . Mother of all myths a book on modern motherhood.
I know I do not need to tell you how privileged we are in the western world. We have everything at the touch of a button. Most people have sufficient money to buy enough (in most cases too many) clothes, shoes, food I could go on.
On African terms Joe and I and the family we live with are also very privileged. We have a big brick house with running water and electricity. These are things in England we would take for granted but here we do not. The public tap is not far from our house. Everyday we see children struggling under the weight of water containers whilst they carry the families supply of water home. I moan about the lack of hot water or washing machine but I can live without these things. Clean running water is a different matter.
Today I have been to visit some of the children HINT supports. These are children from poor families in our local area. We have been visiting their homes to meet them and their parents to discuss their back to school needs. On Sunday afternoon HINT will hold a special annual program called 'back packs'. This is designed to give children something they need for school their parents cannot afford. Uniform, text book, school bag etc. I will tell you more about it after the event next week.
So I have been in about 5 houses. Most only have one or two rooms. Many made of wood with tin roofs. No windows just a hole in the wood with metal bars covering it. Grit floors covered with lino to try and make it homely, we remove our shoes when we enter. The bed and living areas are in the same room. I saw an outside kitchen and no evidence of a bathroom in one house. No running water although most had electricity (and a TV in the corner). It makes you think when you see a small room with 5 maybe 6 people living in it and a telly.
However even these people are privileged, they must be they have a telly. With my work I will be visiting the villages. This is where I will see real poverty. Mud houses with little furniture. I will write more after some visits.
I also went past the site of the landslide the killed 4 people on our first night here. Seeing where the earth fell from just in front of another house (these people have now left this house over fear of their lives). Directly on top of this poor little defenceless house. It was the middle of the night, the people in that house had no chance.
So yesterday I had the day off work. The rain was really heavy all night and all morning. Genesis told us not to go out in the rain and stay in until it stops. I had already planned with Marceline to have my hair done today. When in Rome and all that! So about 12:00 we ventured out. The woman was out where we had planned to go. Two young men said they would find her but could not. So they said they would take us up to another salon. So we walked up the hill in the rain and they guided us to said salon.
These boys then hung around. They turned to Amelia and said 'we want to go now'. They were waiting to be paid for their favor. We did not ask them to show us up the hill, we said we would go home. They insisted. This is very Cameroonian you think someone just helping you, then they demand money. You did not ask them to help you, they just do. This happened to us at the airport with our bags. You either have to carry a lot of loose change or always say no!! We had not change on us so refused. They then turned to the girls in the salon 'we brought you a customer, give us money'. These girls just told them how foolish they were and sould leave. They hung around for about 45 mins before getting the message we were not going to give them anything.
Anyway back to the story of my hair. Over the last few weeks Marceline, Sheila and Amelia have all had their hair done. They kept suggesting I too should have mine done. At first I said no, then I decided why not, I can always remove it if I don't like. Absorb myself in the culture and all that.
So they took to work. I settled on a red rather than black. There was a mousy brown but Amelia said that was too boring. It took about 5 1/2 hours, which I am told is quick. By the end I was really hungery and had a numb bum! I had a total of 6 different people working on my hair. With 4 at one time. My head being pushed up, down, left, right to keep each one happy. I have a lot of hair so they ran out of mesh (that's the name of the fake hair). They had none the same colour so a different shade of red was used, although you can hardly tell. I had to pass them chunks of mesh to speed things up. I soon got the hang of it after being told too much or not enough.
Still undecided on the end result. It can last about 3 months. Although my roots will be much worse than the others as my hair will grow straight so I may only leave it one month. I cannot wash it and must not get it wet in the rain! The curls on the end were accidental. She asked if I wanted the ends curled, I thought she said cut, so I said yes as they were all different lengths and a bit of a mess! Oh well I quite like them.
Today I met Auntie Becky. No I do not have some distant relative in Cameroon. The people of Cameroon have a lot of respect for others. You address your elders as Auntie or Uncle. Everybody called Genesis, Pastor and Marceline, Madam (we just call them by their own names though). Jeff refers to me as Auntie Heather but I told him just Heather is fine. Anyway back to Auntie Becky, she is an amazing lady and one I will be having a lot to do with in the future. Auntie Becky retired from Government work a few years ago. She trained with a home help team and now works with HIV/AIDS. She works in the surrounding area helping about 60 orphans and widows. About 40 of these through HIV/AIDS. She helps the people who are too poor to help themselves. She visits these people in their houses. She told me about one grandmother who lives in on of the villages. Both her children have died of AIDS and she is left caring for 18 grandchildren by herself. She has little income and depends on the help Auntie Becky gives for the family to survive. HINT is joining forces with Auntie Becky to help care for these people. I will be working with her visiting these people. Advising them how to keep healthy, speaking to other people in the villages about HIV and how to protect themselves. Auntie Becky used to do this work with the help of the Government. There was an small local organisation who were government funded. However the treasurer was always away and it was impossible for them to access the funds. This appears a common problem in Cameroon and most of Africa I guess. There are funds there but they do not get to the correct people. So Auntie Becky and her team decided to go it alone. They depend on donations which is why they are teaming up with HINT. As it is a functioning NGO with a desire to work in the field of HIV/AIDS. I look forward to working with Auntie Becky more and visiting the people that she helps. It will be a real help having a local person who speaks Pidgen to be with me when talking to people in the villages. I say I am trying to learn but not getting very far!
On Saturday night about 10:30 pm there was a knock at the door. Genesis Mum, sister and nephew had come to visit. They had come for 2 reasons firstly too see Naomi and secondly to deliver our house boy. It appears no house is complete without a boy. This boy is there to run errands like going to the shop to get the essential ingredients you forgot or just getting your shoes from another room.
Over the summer Jeff has been staying with us. Marceline had said to me that usually they have another boy who is much better than Jeff. Jeff is waiting for his Dad to pick him up and return him to Yaounde where they live. He has been staying with us for the holidays. So exit Jeff and enter Gabriel he is about 12. He stays with us to go to school but his family live in Bamenda in the north west province, this is where he has been for the summer.
When the family arrived they had quite a bit of luggage. A couple of large bags of their own stuff then the gifts of food. A branch of a plantain tree, a couple sacks of corn and a live chicken in a basket. So the chicken sat in its basket pecking on its corn waiting for its doom. I did not see the chicken being killed, plucked or prepared thank goodness. We did not eat any of it. There were 11 mouths to feed in the house and I think we had something different that day. However this morning when we are leaving the house and Jeff was outside nibbling on a chicken head!! The children get the head Genesis told us. Is it a treat - I don't know but Jeff appeared to be quite happy nibbling away.
As many of you may know England played a euro 2008 qualifier on Saturday. Joe was wondering what to do. He figured he would try 5live on-line. However when we were having a drink after work on Friday at our local they had a South African sports channel on. They advertised showing the match on Saturday. Great we thought we can come to the bar to watch it.
So Saturday afternoon just before 5 we trotted along to the bar and they were indeed showing the match. First couple of goals flew in. Then the bar man changed the channel to some other football commentated in French. We were not the only people in the bar but the others seamed pretty gutted too. So I protested 'We want to watch the England game' and he soon changed the channel back.
Joe said I was being feisty - me, feisty!!!! But it got the football back on and that is what we wanted. I am no football pundit so I will not comment on the game or England's performance. The only thing I will say is that I am sure Robinson (that's the goalie for any non football fans) did not touch the ball once. I think the game was a little one sided. But then from what the commentators were saying they were playing against a policeman and a lawyer amongst other things as the Andorra team or semi-professional. It is not surprising as the country has a population of 67 000 which is less than Buea.
We chatted a little with some of the others watching the game in the bar. One guy asked us why spice boy was not playing. That's the local name for Beckham.
On Friday we were happily working away in the office when there was a lot of noise outside. We looked out and there were people marching down the road. It was a lot of people but they were quite spread out. Took about 10 minuets for them to walk past. The first lot were a little rowdy. You know how crowds get. It is the same in every country, get a bunch of people together and they behave like idiots. We were stood outside the office but soon ran in as they were throwing rocks around. One it out sign board. Then once they reached the sign they pulled it out the ground and left it on the road.
We found out they were from Tole tea, the tea plantation. It had been bought out and closed. Resulting in lots of people losing there jobs and not being paid for the last few weeks work they have done. So as you can understand there people are angry. The school year started today so there are parents who are unable to pay for their children to go back to school.
When we left the office later once everyone had passed including the police following at the back and the long line of cars waiting to get past. The road between the office and the house was a mass of destruction. Nearly all the signs ripped out the ground. A friend of ours had her table she sells food on ripped apart. Fortunately here husband is a carpenter so it was fixed the next day. I am sure this destruction carries on all the way down the road.
So yes they are angry but why do they have to ruin everything for everybody else. We have done nothing to hurt them? Its just what groups do. You cannot stand out in a group be behaving.
I hear there is another strike/protest today so not point in fixing anything yet. Don't worry they are not targeting people, I am quite safe and we lock the doors of the office so they cannot get in!
As I expected we do not have a telly. At first this did not bother me. I did not expect to have a telly and was quite looking forward to life without one. I do of course wonder what is happening in Lost and will be gutted to miss the next series of ER. However these things can be purchased on DVD at a later date.
After a few weeks and the initial excitement of being in Cameroon wore off I started (dare I say it) to miss the telly. Once we get home from work, if we do not pop in to the bar for a swift beer there is not much to do. It gets dark about 7pm so we have to stay inside to avoid the mossies. We play cards and read. At times it would be nice to mong in front of the telly. We have set the lap top up as a DVD player but that is an occasional treat.
I have now swung back to enjoying not having a telly. I am enjoying reading and having the time to read. So far I have read about 4 books. My Favourite has been Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. It is a book I put on my wish list, I had seen it about and of course Richard and Judy recommended it (so it must be good). My Mum said that she has read it and really enjoyed it so bought it for my birthday. When I opened the present I was a little shocked at how fat it was. I am scared of fat books. I am not usually a very fast reader and I worry it will take me ages to finish them. However once I started it I could not put it down. Two stories running in parallel. It has blood, gore and romance. What more do you need! I really enjoyed it and would recommend it as a great read. Joe also has read it, he did enjoy it but not as much as I did. He did not like the style of writing and saw through stuff quicker than I did (I am a little dim when it comes to plots).
I may enlighten you with my reading material from time to time. I would love any recommendations. Especially older stuff, we have a great bookshop down the road, called books and things. It sells books and things but random things like loo roll, rain coats and some food stuffs. It has a great collection of books so I am sure I will find something to read in there. I have brought a few books with me but if I keep reading at this rate I will soon run out.
