Saturday, 13 June 2015

Stacking the Shelves #88


Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords. 

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress so you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!
         
I've had another pretty quiet week overall as the lack of blog posts would suggest. The warm weather we had the last few days has sucked out all my energy and I just couldn't be bothered doing anything. I really hate when we get warm weather as it just doesn't agree with me! It's warm again today but dull so I hope it cools down. Oh how I look forward to winter!!!

I've managed to stop spending on books! I didn't buy a single book this week which was good so my small haul is just the books I ordered from Amazon two weeks ago-the ones that were delayed. I haven't read a single thing this week either! I've been relaxing in front of the TV and just recharging my inner batteries and I'm not going to stress about it! Maybe during the week I'll grab a book off the shelf if I feel like it but I have plans to try out a couple of TV series I have taped. I've been neglecting my TV viewing for a couple of years now! I'm also going to be uploading more blog posts for my Corrie Mania-I have a ton of reviewed episodes to talk about!
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Sunday, 7 June 2015

Chuckles Corrie Mania #2


Welcome to Chuckles Corrie Mania! I watched Coronation Street all through the late 70's, 80's and early 90's but lost touch with it by 1999 due to work. So discovering that kind Corrie viewers have uploaded a ton of classic episodes on YouTube was great! I've spent two years gathering as many as I can, ready to get watching, and as I work my way through them, I'll be reviewing what I watch and sharing my thoughts. Would love to hear the thoughts on these episodes from other fans.

 Thank you to Auntie Corrie(1976-1994), Mr Magister(1961,1995-2000), Classicsoap(2001+), CLKfanvideos(2006,2010,2011), corriestuff(various), OZZY45100(1960's, 1970's), FullEps(2009), XCorrieClassicsX(2006-2009), albiondean(2012-present), Sevin Alsoylar(2006,2011), Soap Fan 2013(various), JonathanOpenshaw(various) and everyone else who has supplied episodes online.

Where better to start than at the very beginning! The 1960 disk of the 1960's dvd box set from Network features the first 8 episodes of the soap in order, and here I am talking about thelatest episodes I've watched.

 Episode 3: December 16th 1960
Elsie tries to play peacemaker when Ivan arrives to try to persuade Linda(right) to come home with him. Leonard Swindley tells Ena that he will evict her from the Mission Hall if she continues to go drinking in the Rovers. May returns home from her stay in hospital for a mental breakdown to find relations strained with her daughter Christine, and the neighbours gossiping about her. Linda admits she is pregnant and knows Ivan doesn't want a baby but he is thrilled and they put their differences aside. 

I swear I was ready to strangle Linda in this episode! She was moaning, whining and shouting non stop and poor Ivan seems like such a nice, kind guy. I have no clue why he wanted to marry such a hellcat! Those kids annoying May...I wanted to strangle them as well. They talk about kids today but these brats were just as bad!

Episode 4: December 21st 1960
Annie is unhappy at the magazine content that Jack(left) has been looking at while Elsie is on at Dennis to make more effort in finding a job to pay his way. Lucille Hewitt runs away from the orphanage to spend Christmas with her father Harry, and Esther takes her under her wing. Leonard catches Ena in the pub and she feels he is picking on her. During a verbal spat with him at the Mission, Ena collapses. 

Poor Jack! I like his character so much and seeing him henpecked is a shame! Ena was funny as she ranted on about her morals being questioned by the Mission people. 'We will go down to Sodom and Gomorrah and seek out Mrs Sharples!'

Episode 5: December 23rd 1960
Elsie rows with Dennis when she finds money in his pocket and thinks he has been stealing again. Martha steps in to help the Mission while Ena is in hospital but the furious Ena accuses Martha of plotting to steal her job. Linda isn't happy with Ivan again and Ena makes life miserable for the nurses by complaining about everything. Concepta Riley returns from Ireland and is given her job back at the Rovers by the delighted Annie. The police pay a visit to Dennis.(right)  

You have to feel sorry for Elsie with her moaning daughter and lazy son! It's no wonder that her own temper is on such a short fuse and she looks frazzled all the time! It is so weird for me to see Dennis as a young man after watching him in the more recent episodes with Rita. It was also good to see a nice normal Irish woman! When Eastenders brought in those Irish relatives for Pauline Fowler they were all portrayed as drunks and idiots so it was good to see Concepta as normal instead of a dreadful steriotype, something Eastenders is bad for. To read more about that, follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EastEnders_episodes_in_Ireland 

 
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Saturday, 6 June 2015

Stacking the Shelves #87


Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews
Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords. 

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress so you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!
        
This week, I wasn't feeling 100% and had no interest in reading, blogging or anything much so I decided to have a rest and get some TV watched instead. So I've had a few days of watching season one of Elementary and the first 12 episodes from the 60's of classic Coronation Street. So that has been fun! It doesn't help the book tbr but at least I wasn't online enough to buy much so it's a small haul this week! The urban fantasy books I expected from Amazon are delayed so hopefully they'll be on next week's haul.

I've never read anything by Simon R Green though I've seen his books around for years so I grabbed the first book in three different series that he wrote, so I can see if I like them. Not sure when I'll get around to reading them but it was a good grab! BookBub sent me the notification of Darkbound going cheap on Amazon so I grabbed it for under £1-another author I've never tried. I also grabbed the anthology for 99p which was a good bargain! I also bought some dvd bargains as well as I needed cheering up!!!

DOWNLOADS:



 
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Friday, 5 June 2015

Chuckles Corrie Mania #1


Welcome to Chuckles Corrie Mania! I watched Coronation Street all through the late 70's, 80's and early 90's but lost touch with it by 1999 due to work. So discovering that kind Corrie viewers have uploaded a ton of classic episodes on YouTube was great! I've spent two years gathering as many as I can, ready to get watching, and as I work my way through them, I'll be reviewing what I watch and sharing my thoughts. Would love to hear the thoughts on these episodes from other fans.

 Thank you to Auntie Corrie(1976-1994), Mr Magister(1961,1995-2000), Classicsoap(2001+), CLKfanvideos(2006,2010,2011), corriestuff(various), OZZY45100(1960's, 1970's), FullEps(2009), XCorrieClassicsX(2006-2009), albiondean(2012-present), Sevin Alsoylar(2006,2011), Soap Fan 2013(various), JonathanOpenshaw(various) and everyone else who has supplied episodes online.

Where better to start than at the very beginning! The 1960 disk of the 1960's dvd box set from Network features the first 8 episodes of the soap in order, and here I am talking about the first 2 which I watched last night. This is the first time I've ever seen these early episodes so I wasn't sure what to expect!

Episode 1: December 9th 1960
Florrie Lindley has bought the corner shop and is trying to get used to some of the characters who will be shopping there. Ken Barlow(right) finds that his new college education makes him ashamed of where he comes from. Elsie Tanner despairs over her layabout ex-con son Dennis not finding a job and her daughter Linda leaving her husband Ivan again. 

I was surprised to say that I did enjoy this! I had feared it might be too old fashioned but the scripts are good and the acting was better than I expected. It was interesting to see Albert Tatlock being normal and not grumpy and I loved seeing him laying into Ken for turning into a snob, trying to stop his girlfriend Susan from meeting his family or seeing his house. Elsie was one of my favourite characters when I watched it so seeing her looking so glamorous was fun! I had forgotten how scary Ena Sharples was-just watching her buy a few things in the shop was enough to scare young children! The thing that struck me most about this episode was how happy and smiling Annie Walker was and you can see the love that she has for husband Jack who is such a nice character.

Episode 2: December 14th 1960
Ken is embarrassed when Susan's dad's car gets vandalised by kids at his house and Susan gets annoyed at his apologies for his family, his street and his pub, saying she doesn't care that nothing is posh. Christine Hardman is furious with Ena(left) for calling her mother mad and Ena is delighted at the chance for a feud. Linda is determined not to go back to her husband but won't tell Elsie why. 

This had a very funny scene in the Rovers where Ena is telling Minnie and Martha that she wants to die like her mother did. 'She just sat up, broke wind and died!' I nearly choked on my sushi!
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Thursday, 4 June 2015

Chuckles TV Catch Up #1

This is my new feature for the summer! I have sooo many great sounding TV shows that I want to watch but because of all my reading, I haven't had time to catch up with any of them! So this summer I'm doing a Chuckles TV catch up where I hope to get a look at some TV, decide what I like and don't like and tell you all my thoughts on everything. Now, my TV watching is very much mood related so I can't predict what I'll want to watch...

This week: Elementary, starring Jonny Lee Miller, Lucy Liu, Aidan Quinn and Jon Michael Hill.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.

Sherlock Holmes is an manic, hyper freelance crime solving consultant and a recovering drug addict. Joan Watson is a former doctor and paid companion to stop addicts from relapsing. When Sherlock starts consulting for the New York Police Captain, Watson tags along. 

OK I  saw ads for this on TV and thought it looked weird and uninspiring. The only reason I decided to give it a try was because I liked the main three cast members-Miller, Liu and Quinn. I sat down last night to watch the first three episodes-I usually decide by episode three if I like a series enough to continue watching it.

Loved it! I watched five episodes back to back! Miller is brilliant as the rude, quirky, frustrating  Holmes. Think of House(rude) meets Columbo(quirky) and Doctor Who(mad). Liu is a great foil for him and they have good on screen chemistry. I also like the relationship between Holmes and the cops-the Captain who sometimes wants to strangle him and the young hotshot Detective who finds him weird! There is humour, complex plots and it keeps you guessing throughout, which I enjoy. I loved the 'Balloon Man' and 'Angel of Death' stories in particular.

So, liking this series was a total surprise to me and I'll be grabbing the dvd boxsets as soon as Amazon lowers the price a bit! Might even continue watching series one tonight if time allows... 
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