It has been a bit of a trying week as my dad and I decided to finally get our living room painted. We picked out this lovely Peach Parfait shade but things have been going less than smoothly.
Day One Tuesday
We decided to split it into three parts as we have a lot of bookcases and
heavy furniture to move and not much space so we started at the front of the room. This was the window wall and along a bit to the living room door. We had to move the computer and chair, a three shelf bookcase and the heaviest TV unit in the world plus a pile of magazines, paperwork, Playstations etc. I was starting to regret the whole thing and I hadn't lifted a brush in anger...
Day Two Wednesday
I have been nagging my dad about helping me get this done for about a year and I also told him to check that the paint hadn't gone off-which he said wasn't necessary. So after moving all the furniture on Tuesday night, we opened the paint on Wednesday morning...and it was kind of curdled! So we had a delay of 90 minutes as we had to buy in more paint and figured out how to put the new ladders together. Great start. As we put it on the walls we realised with dread that it was going to take three coats. Wonderful. We got two coats done today and had to leave the rest until tomorrow.
Day Three Thursday
We got the third coat on and we're happy with how it looks. We spent the afternoon getting the furniture moved back and I planned a nice night of reading and rest. My dad decided to start moving furniture to get the next bit painted. This meant moving all his bookcases packed with cds and playstation games and his chair and a pile of junk that I was itching to put in the bin. This took forever! Groan! My poor back!
Day Four Friday
We moved the piles of cds again to leave a path into the kitchen so we can eat something, and then we got started. This was continuing along the living room door wall to the halfway point of the room. It looks like a small area but the paint just didn't like the wall for some reason and the three coats were very hard going. When we finished, we started worrying that it was going to need a fourth coat which was sickening.
So it looks like the weekend will be full of painting and lugging furniture around so no Stacking the Shelves this week. I'll report later on how the painting is going!
Day Eight and the medals keep on coming! This is the first time that canoe sprint has been in the games and GB took full advantage along with medals on track, horse, swimming and tennis! Here are the latest medals!
Gold in the canoe sprint for Jeanette Chippington!
Gold also for Emma Wiggs!
Third gold went to Anne Dickins, our 100th Paralympic medal!
Bronze in the canoe sprint to Ian Marsden!
And another bronze to Nick Beighton! What a day in the canoes!
Silver to Gordon Reid and Alfie Hewett in the tennis!
Richard Whitehead takes a brilliant silver in the 100 metres! Awesome!
Kadeena Cox, Maria Lyle, Georgie Hermitage and Sophie Hahn break their own world record to win silver in the 4 by 100 metres relay!
Natasha Baker takes gold in dressage!
Sophie Christiansen wins gold in dressage with Anne Dunham taking silver!
Britain also take gold in the team event!
Charlotte Henshaw takes bronze in swimming!
Another amazing day at Rio sees our wonderful athletes pass the medal total from London. That is really incredible and everyone in the team should be really proud of their efforts! So let me take you through the latest medals!
First up was Sarah Storey in the cycling time trial taking another gold!
Karen Darke also took gold in the time trial!
Steve Bate and Adam Duggleby win another gold in the time trial!
David Stone takes bronze in the time trial!
Lora Turnham and Corrine Hall take bronze in the time trial!
Sophie Wells takes gold in equestrian!
Lee Pearson takes silver in equestrian!
Gold in 400 metres for Hannah Cockroft with bronze for Kare Adenegan!
Gold for Kadeena Cox in the 400 metres! That's gold in two sports for her at Rio!
Bronze for Maria Lyle in the 100 metres!
Silver for Andy Lapthorne in tennis!
Now to swimming! Mikey Jones takes gold! Jonathan Fox takes silver!
Aaron Moores takes gold with silver for Scott Quin!
Gold for Hannah Russell!
Silver for Bethany Firth!
Silver for Claire Cashmore!
Bronze for Susie Rodgers!
I need to say a special word for Alex Zanardi, successful racing driver who 15 years ago lost his legs in a racing accident. This amazing man at 49 years old won gold in the time trial today on the anniversary of the tragedy. The man is an inspiration to everyone and it's hard not to shed a tear for him!
They have been preppers
for four years, and have prepared a retreat where they can hunker down
and survive an EMP that cripples the entire country. The group,
consisting of three couples, must now reunite in Prescott, Arizona, the
site of their bug out location. Two of the couples must use power line
easements and old cattle trails to find their way to their ranch in
Prescott. They face many challenges during their grueling journey, which
they make on ATVs. Meanwhile, the third couple hunkers down at the
ranch and prepares for the arrival of their friends.
My Review:
When the EMP goes off, three couples are more prepared than most people.
Bud and Mary meet Ed and Ann at a prearranged place on their ATVs with
agreed in advance supplies. They need to escape from the populated area
they live in as quickly as possible and take a rural trail through the
hills which will lead them to the ranch of their friends Don and Kate,
where they will live and work together to survive the disaster.
For
four years, since they first met, the friends have been gathering
supplies and getting ready with a plan in case an unexpected disaster
should happen. Each person takes responsibility for areas like medical
supplies, food, weapons etc and they share financial resources to buy
and stock everything they need, storing it with Don and Kate as their
home is the most secluded and safe. On the day of the EMP hitting, Don
and Kate take a final supply run into town and see how things are going,
and people are already rattled. Now Don and Kate have to wait for their
friends to make the dangerous journey to meet them.
I took to
this series of short novellas instantly. There are six characters that
we get to know quite well. Don is the master prepper and instant group
leader, the one who has things organised and knows what needs to be
done. He is the one who introduced the others to the idea of prepping
just in case things go wrong and the government can not get help to them
straight away. Don has no qualms about doing whatever it takes to
protect the people and the property that they have. Kate, his wife, is
equally capable and dedicated to their cause. Their friends are less
certain about it. Bud and Mary in particular have a moral issue with
taking another life even in defence of their own, which concerns Don as
any weak links in the group could be trouble for all of them.
Don
can be a bit overpowering and he knows he needs to take a step back and
not dictate to people all the time but you understand why he wants to
take charge of everything. Kate is the voice of reason who tries to keep
him level headed when required. They are a good couple and I liked
them. It will be interesting to see the group dynamics as the series
unfolds.
The main focus of this book is the journey that Ed, Ann,
Bud and Mary take. They know that their friends are waiting for them
and expect the journey to take three days or so, stopping off at various
camping areas along the rural trail, but trying to avoid people at all
costs. The journey is filled with tension as they try to avoid being
seen by potentially unfriendly people who might try to take their
supplies. Put it this way, it is not a journey that I would want to take
but it is better than risking life in a populated area when things go
bad. You like these people because they are just normal and are scared
by what they have to do, so you are already rooting for them.
I read each book in the series back in February 2016 and I'm just catching up on my review backlog to publish it here!
Another twelve medals won today and it is just so great to watch the team competing at such a high level over so many sports! Here are the medals from Day Six!
Second gold of the games in athletics 400 metres for Georgie Hermitage!
Libby Clegg and Chris Clarke take their second gold in the 200 metres!
Gold and world record in the javelin for Hollie Arnold!
Bronze for Stephen Miller in the club throw!
Gold for Rob Davies in the table tennis!
Silver for Piers Gilliver in fencing!
Into the pool and it was gold for Stephanie Millward!
A wonderful gold for Matt Wylie!
Silver for Ollie Hynd!
Battling bronze for Ellie Simmonds!
In tennis it was two bronze medals from Jamie Burdekin and Andy Lapthorne, and Jordanne Whiley and Lucy Shuker! (no photos available)
And for some reason, there was no report on GB winning an archery silver this week and I just found out about it so a special shout out to John Stubbs and Jodie Grinham!
