Unexpected Blog Break

 

Hi guys!

Sorry I just seemed to vanish without word earlier in April. To be honest I wasn't planning a blog break of any kind. I just got really annoyed with Blogger messing me about on a few of the posts I was doing. I also happened to be reading a book written by one of the DS from SAS Who Dares Wins (Ollie's newest book, for those who know the show) and the book was about looking at the time consuming things in your life, the things you do out of habit or addiction etc and deciding why you do it and if you should continue with these things if they don't add to your life. It's got me thinking about the blog being so time consuming when Blogger is doing my head in, how I hate writing the book reviews and so on. It sort of got me wondering again about the long term future of my blog which has been a theme for me since last summer.

Can I see myself doing this blog in five years time if Blogger continues to arse me about over simple graphics and text? No, to be honest. Are there other things I could be doing like reading and getting stuff watched? Yes. Am I also tired of the toxic social media environment I'm wading through? Yes. I guess I didn't realise how draining it all was and on the 13th I think it was I told myself I couldn't be bothered blogging that day and went off to do other stuff. I ended up exercising, weight training with my new weights, varnishing the fences, watching reruns of favourite stuff, browsing the internet just for fun. To be honest, the caterpillar cake wars (Colin v Cuthbert), Ed Balls Day and the failed European Super League had me so entertained that I forgot to go back to the blog and I realise I've been away from it for two weeks without thinking about it or realising. The question is, what now?

 

I just wanted to let you know that everything is ok with me despite my vanishing so suddenly. My health is fine, my dad got his second Pfizer dose earlier this week and he's ok, my mood is fine and I'm not depressed or anything. I'm just trying to have a think about things but I'm not reaching any conclusions yet. I'm off the blog and social media until Monday as there is a anti-racism boycott going on in the UK but after that you'll see me active on Twitter. At the moment I'm hoping to start visiting your blogs next week to say hello, and I plan to continue keeping in touch like that for now even if the blog isn't posting anything. So I will see you guys around while I ponder things for a bit longer!

 

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones

Chuckles

Chuckles Weekend Roundup

            Welcome to my feature Chuckles Weekend Roundup where I will be looking at what books I've received, anything interesting I've done or bought or watched and other random stuff. I'll be taking a look back at what happened in my blogging world too, sort of like The Sunday Post that some of you do! 

 

Please note that I'll be visiting your STS/SP as normal, but I don't follow or leave comments on blogs run by Google Plus, or DISQUS as I refuse to join something just to leave comments, and I won't allow DISQUS to follow new people, update my profile or post tweets 'on my behalf'. I am the only one who does that on my social media! I won't comment on any blog that makes me sign in using another account. Sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me because I deleted my account with them but I will persevere as it only happens the odd time!

 

Another week speeds by and I'm wondering where it is all going. The weather has been a bit mixed again, so no outdoor work done on the fences but I did dye my hair purple just for a change. The postman complimented me and said it makes me look younger which was nice of him! A change is as good as a holiday as they say. I'm concentrating on trying to delete all the non essential crap stored on my computer as it is being a bit sluggish and close to capacity. It's a slow and thankless task that I'm forever putting off so I had to get on with it. I've also added a couple of new exercises to my morning routine which has been a bit of a trial as both are pretty hard going!

I've been reading each nice but I'm tackling a few longer books so each is taking a few days to get through. Quality rather than quantity this week! I need to put a book buying ban on myself for a few weeks as there have been a lot of new releases that I just had to have so progress has stalled a bit on reducing the tbr. I'll get there though.

Chuckles Blogging World

A bit of a mixed week for getting blog related stuff done. 

 

Book Reviews

 

Chuckles Mini Reviews Catchup 

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/chuckles-mini-reviews-catchup.html 

Regular Posts

 

Top Ten Tuesday

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/top-ten-tuesday-one-word-titles-3.html 

Chuckles Weekly Reading Roundup

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/chuckles-weekly-reading-roundup.html

 

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/around-blogs-with-chuckles_9.html 

Discussion Posts

 

Spring Things #5

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/spring-things-5.html 

Obituary

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/obituary-prince-philip-duke-of-edinburgh.html

 

Reading Challenges 

 

Tackling The TBR

http://chucklesbookcave.blogspot.com/2021/04/obituary-prince-philip-duke-of-edinburgh.html 

Films & TV & Music

Started watching a bit of IPL cricket and continued watching my Jaws films! Music wise I'm listening to my mp3 of favourite songs while I exercise each morning!

 

Book Tags/Blog Awards

none this week

 

The Week In Review

I was back in the mood for a bit of non fiction recently so my latest reads have included biographies of Tyson Fury and Burt Reynolds, along with Ollie Ollerton's Battle Ready which I've just finished.

 

The Week Ahead 

This week I'll be continuing to sort through computer files but I do hope to get a few book reviews written if time allows. I'm not sure what I'll feel like reading so I'll see where the mood takes me and not pick anything yet.

 

FOLLOW ME:
https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/chuckles-book-cave-9910183 
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3426724-chucklesthescot 
https://twitter.com/chucklesthescot 
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/chucklesthescot/ 
 

Spring Things #5

TUESDAY

My exercise weights arrived this morning and I'm itching to get started with them. I've also bought and received some of those Grenade fat buster pills. They help speed up your metabolic rate so you can burn a bit more fat during each exercise session. Every bit helps so we'll give that a go. A weird side effect of the exercise regime is that for some reason I'm not really wanting to consume sugar. Not sure why but I'll take it! I'm a bit less keen on the lemon flavoured water I consume after each session which also aids fat busting. It's not fun if you put too much lemon in the water! Ugh!

 

WEDNESDAY

Did myself a bit of an injury last night. I have big long plastic storage boxes beside my bed and if I get up during the night, the light switch for my bedside lamp is right beside it. I was a bit dopey as it was 2am and instead of grabbing the light switch I missed. I slammed the joint between the smallest two fingers right into the edge of the plastic, forcing the two fingers very far apart and at a fair force. Cue muffled screaming, severe pain and mild nausea for the next thirty minutes. My fingers aren't broken but I've done some damage to the tendons in two fingers of my left hand, (says the pharmacist) which is now strapped up tight, and I'm on painkillers. The brownish bruising goes from halfway down the two fingers on the back of my hand right up to the wrist and across half the surface of the hand. On my palm, the end finger is bruised. I've tried taking photos of it but it isn't showing up in the gloomy light today. Why am I suddenly becoming accident prone during a pandemic??? You'd think I'd be more bloody careful. Luckily it's my left hand so I can still read, type and so on. Muppet.

 

THURSDAY

Tonight I decided to dye my hair purple. I haven't dyed it since around 2005/2006 so I was happy to see that it is an easier process than it was then. No dye coating your face and ears for a week and refusing to come off, no stained shower floor making it look like a scene from the Bates Motel, and no dye coming off on clothes and sheets every time you sweat! An old towel to use on the hair was the only casualty of the operation and I'm pretty happy with the results. No photo as yet as I still hate getting my photo taken! It was a bit of a military operation trying to get it done one handed but I was too stubborn to wait for another week or so!

 

On the fun side another T Shirt arrived and I'm feeling very Stark at the moment so yes it has wolves! I'm very much part of the North when it comes to Westeros. This is what the sigil on the shirt looks like. Nice!

 

 

FRIDAY

Britain went into mourning this morning for the loss of HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, husband to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. He was well loved in this country for his devotion to duty, his support of The Queen, his war record, his charity work, his humour and also the way he never suffered fools gladly. Telling photographers to hurry up and take the effing photo was one much loved withering putdown witnessed in a documentary. Ordinary British people loved what the media called hi rude comments and insults. As a Royal fan, it was a sad day for me to hear of his passing. It seems ironic that two books I ordered over a week ago about the Duke arrived yesterday in the post.

SATURDAY

The post arrived today with a couple of Game of Thrones T Shirts to add to my ever growing collection. I'm glad I cleared out a pile of old clothes these last few months as it was a good excuse to buy some of these bad boys! You can never have too many GoT T Shirts!

Tonight I am treating myself to fish and chips out of the local takeaway. Well fish is good for you so I figured why not! I'm not thinking about the big pile of chips that'll go down very nicely or the fatty batter on the fish...

Around The Blogs With Chuckles

 

We all enjoy snooping and lurking on other people's blogs right? Why not share those entertaining things you found with other readers and bloggers too! Welcome to Around the Blogs with Chuckles, where I take time out to show you some of my favourite blog posts from the previous seven days and link you up so you can check them out. 

 

It is vital that we all stick together online at this time. Do what you can to show some love to other blogs, to books and authors and let us all know that you are staying safe and well. Hearing from our friends will make it easier to deal with whatever is coming during the pandemic. Stay safe everyone.

 

This week!

 

1) Book Review-Shadow And Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Barb's review.

http://bookertsfarm.blogspot.com/2021/04/2-bloggers-1-series-shadow-and-bone.html 

 

2) Book Review-Almost There And Almost Not by Linda Urban 

Lindsi's review.

https://www.doyoudog-ear.com/2021/04/almost-there-and-almost-not-by-linda.html 

 

3) Book Review-Stolen Daughters by Carolyn Arnold

Sherry's review.

http://www.fundinmental.com/stolen-daughters/  

 

4) Book Review-Near The Bone by Christina Henry 

Mogsy's review.

https://bibliosanctum.com/2021/04/05/audiobook-review-near-the-bone-by-christina-henry/ 

 

5) April Releases 

AJ's list.

http://ajsterkel.blogspot.com/2021/04/cant-wait-wednesday-april-2021-book.html 

 

6) Book Review-The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon 

Carole's review.

https://carolesrandomlife.blogspot.com/2021/04/review-drowning-kind-by-jennifer-mcmahon.html 

 

 

Obituary: His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

It was with great sadness that I saw the breaking news of the death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and beloved husband to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. He was a war hero who was destined for a life of naval service and promotion to the very top before giving up the career he loved for the woman he loved. From that day onwards he was forever at her side, dedicating himself to the service of his Monarch and our country. Year after year, he was by her side, entertaining the crowds on royal tours, amusing us with his wit and his real impatience with photographers and the media. 

His war heroics soon came to light. In July 1943 he was first lieutenant, second-in-command, aged 21. During the Allied landings in Sicily, HMS Wallace came under attack at night, with the ship and crew in real danger of destruction. Philip came up with the idea of a decoy, a raft overboard covered in smoke to make it look like ship debris. The Germans were fooled into attacking that decoy while the ship and crew were able to safely escape from the area. For witness details please follow the link below. I wonder how many lives he saved that night.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/dec/28/monarchy.davidsmith 

His love for the environment came before it was fashionable to care for the planet, a love he passed on to Prince Charles. He was the first President of the World Wildlife Fund after it was founded and he was passionate about his charities. He helped to transform the lives of many young people through his Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. I was a great admirer of his work ethic, his enthusiasm and his devotion to duty. I'm very much a Royalist, proud of my country and a supporter of the working royals who represent Britain around the world. I would have loved the chance to meet this inspirational man. We grew up feeling as if we knew the Royals, watching them grow and their lives evolve over the years. I watched all the weddings, funerals and state events, the documentaries and also read a lot of books about their lives. I can't express my sorrow at the news today.

My heart breaks for the Queen. He was her rock, her strength, her support in times of trouble. He was unbending in his loyalty to her and was always there for her. I so loved seeing the photos of them together, where you could see the genuine love, respect and the regard that he held her in. She must be totally devastated by his death and I really fear for her health after such a blow, which comes after a year of real stress in the family. His recent health scare coupled with the troubles unleashed against the family in recent weeks must have been hard for her. To lose him so soon after this must be terrible for her.

My thoughts are with Her Majesty and the rest of the family who will provide her with the love and support that she needs at this moment. Rest in peace Sir. You deserve it after your years of loyal service.

Goodnight Sweet Prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.