Sunday Summary

I drafted this post from the rear of Costa Coffee -- a woman must have a table and a hot chocolate of her own if she is to write blog posts, after all...

That said, a fully functional tablet version of Blogger would be nice too.

This week, I have mostly been...

Reading

Ooh, and all the Brandt family secrets are coming out now, so they are...

Goodreads is probably mocking me behind my back (I've not been checking it lately, on purpose) for being about six books behind schedule but never mind. As soon as I have time I'll be catching up.

I've also picked up this little gem:

in the vain hope that it can help me abate some of the commuter rage... At the very least I can use it to wallop the next twerp who 'man-spreads' or the next post-GCSE teenager who thinks carrying all her Oxford Street shopping bags home at 5.30 is a great idea. (IT'S NOT. WHEN YOU REACH THE REAL WORLD, LITTLE GIRL, YOU'LL UNDERSTAND...)

Watching...

...still and determined to catch up with everyone else on the planet who has overcome their collective girl-crushes on Alex and moved on to crushing on... well, a character whose name I don't know yet. Because I'm still on mid-series 2. And Vee is evil. Oh, I love being this invested in fictional characters!

{You bet it is, Morello!}

Hosting...

...Caroline, over from Sweden for a few days: On Thursday we had our favourite local curry (from Everest Spice, always always top quality!) in front of Mamma Mia, then on Friday we met and wandered the enormous Foyles on Charing Cross Road in pursuit of books and orange-and-lavender-cake before heading across-river to the Southbank to see what was occurring over there. (Lots. But nothing specific.)

And in the evening we wired the PC up to the telly so we could stream Netflix and rediscover Third Rock from the Sun.

I don't remember it being as sexist as it was, though -- my feminism-dar is more strongly attuned these days...

French Stewart is still pretty damn genius as Harry though.

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling my best at the tail end of this week (bad antibiotics comedown?! Random lurg?! Who knows? Let's just not go there...) so I wasn't the most ebullient host I could have been -- sorry, Caro.

Next time, I promise, I'll be all about the perk. Annoyingly after a Saturday afternoon of doing nothing and eating nothing but cold curry and steamed veg I was feeling considerably better.

Partying...

...with my Voicerox lovelies

{Photo by Jos; taken just before we completely rocked the following attitude...}

(Well, not really. We climbed up the very steep garden, accepted Prosecco and nibbles and the rest is, as they say, history...}

{#headlocklove}

{W-O-R-D UP!}

Never underestimate the power of prosecco. And Pimms. And tiny glass muglets of chocolate mousse with honeycomb. And the chance to indulge a karaoke passion for hours on end. That's how we rolled on Saturday night as we celebrated Voicerox legend Alun's birthday (mostly with aforementioned prosecco and karaoke).

Top night! 

And the Toby Carvery 'late lunch' today certainly didn't hurt either -- thanks, Charlie and Jos and Amber and Finn for letting me gatecrash! #namecheckingjosandcharliebecausetheyloveit xx

WARNING: OBSCENE IMAGERY FOLLOWS...

{Carveryyyyyyy!}

Setting the groundwork for...

...Jolly July

It's been a while (five weeks?!) since we last had a month of motivation so I'm beginning Jolly July on Wednesday to celebrate the coming of the hottest month of the year so far (well, it includes my birthday so it better blinking be) and to further embrace the fundamental need for, and pursuit of, happiness.

Keep your eyes peeled for daily prompts to positivity and hints towards happiness. But not too much Pharrell. That'd just be mean (especially if you're a Voiceroxer...). Watch for the hashtag... #jollyjuly

Pinterest Pin of the Week

Weekly Weblinks

Literary Linkage {all on The Bookseller}

• Virago's youthful take on feminism
• Walker acquires YA novel from Curham
• Children's authors say curriculum hurts creative writing
• Millennials 'least likely to buy e-books'
• Pan Mac acquires Poldark tie-ins

#gratuitouspoldarkpicturealert

And one for Charlie: 

• Orion and Saltyard buy adult colouring books

Non-literary Linkage

• Young becoming hostages to handheld devices | {on the BBC website}
• Stunning a cappella rendition of SIA's Chandelier (the original of which, by the way, I don't think I've heard having apparently not tuned into the hit parade for decades...):

Thanks to Glenda for flagging this one up.

• IKEA introduces PEGI warnings for their flatpacks | {on The Poke} but also, in actual news: 
• IKEA to open local, high street stores | {on the Daily Mail; thanks to Julie for sending me this!}
• What if Disney Princesses were Minions...? | {on Bored Panda} ... or maybe Velociraptors?!? {on The Poke}

Y'know, I had another five or six links to share, all neatly saved up on Facebook, but it's taken me too long already to construct this post so I'm saving them for next time. Sozzle.

---

Incidentally, next Saturday is our annual Voicerox concert (which comes to you with a side serving of vicarious performance anxiety (please let's focus, everyone...), so do expect a huge comedown-edition of the Sunday Summary, complete with my questionably sincere (sorry, not sorry) apologies. And photos if time and opportunity allow...

Tatty-bye for now!

qb xx

PS I am aware I have not met my random cute animal imagery quota this week. Please accept this gif of this... you know what, I cannot even tell but goshdarnit, it's cute... by way of apology.