Sunday Summary

{Illustration by Denise Dorrance | thanks to Russel}

Happy Sunday, FOQs!

Now: confession time. In the spirit of initiating a little bit of change (What?! Change?! No!) I had toyed seriously this week with the idea of introducing a little video segment to the blog. (Vlogging is the future. Apparently.) I got very excited about it. Very excited.

I even created a little intro piece, complete with music!

Then I did a few trial recordings, and very quickly realised that I'm really rather rubbish at speaking spontaneously. But if I script the whole thing, it's, well, obviously scripted, and my speaking self and my writing self have always been somewhat at odds with each other (this may well explain why I'm such a disappointing date... It's an introvert thing: we can be sharp as blades on paper but you have to get used to us and the stumbling, disjointed, wittering way we speak IRL).

{TRUE STORY | Illustration: Kyle Smith aka SixFootGiraffe | via Pinterest}

So I'm shelving the vlogging idea for a little while, at least until it lends itself more naturally to this forum.

Normal service will resume shortly.

---

This week, I have mostly been...

Reading

Watching...

...Begin Again

Don't be fooled by the hack-and-slash trailer. This is a really sweet and decent film. Keira Knightley, whilst being unbelieeeeeevably posh, is a lot of fun in this one.

And far be it from me to objectify but... Adam Levine from Maroon 5 is a beautiful, beautiful man (when he's not rocking that ridiculous hipster beard). And he's actually a credible actor.

...Oh, let's just have a quick gratuitous-objectification moment for Le Levine, shall we?

There we go. Heh. *giggles* *fans self*

The true gem of this film, though, is the "Lost Stars" song. (Voiceroxers, or friends of Voicerox who were present at last week's concert will understand why...)

I've also watched the first (pilot) episode of Breaking Bad. Afraid to say I wasn't bowled over by it but I've been advised by my culture secretary Ms Norgstar to give it another go...

 so... watch this space!

Moving and a-Grooving

...to the local chapter of Rock Choir (featuring Ma QB) who were performing in the grounds (groynds...) of Tonbridge Castle on Friday night.

{Tonbridge Castle under the clouds, looking deliciously moody...}

{Naughty QB, taking photos against the rules...}

The set list was rather wonderful, from Olly Murs to ELO via Adele -- Someone Like You gets me every freakin' time:

{"Never mind, I'll find someone like... waaaahhhhhh!"

and even a bit of Crowded House and Steve Winwood, and I very much appreciated the rendition of Xanadu. (Although, sadly none of the choristers performed in roller-boots but maybe they're working up to that.)

Then on Saturday, after a restorative hug-with-a-hen at the Parentals'...

{Hanging with Miss Violet}

...I resumed the aforementioned Moving and a-Grooving at the Sounds @ Sandcross school-fair-with-an-edge Music Festival, where I joined the fabulous Jos and her lovely family and friendlets to enjoy more musical stylings from Stephanie Davies and the Super Dynamics (remember them from about three weeks ago? Course ya do.)

We then decamped a chez Jos for a most excellent barbecue with lovely garlicky prawns, delicious fennel sausages, chicken kebabs, and a chance to use one of these devices

{It's a mezza luna, apparently. Not, as I probably kept calling it
through a blissful fog of wine, a Methuselah | via here}

on a whole bunch of parsley without maiming myself

{See? Orson's impressed.}

Oh! And more fabulous company. Always a superb way to spend the weekend. (Thank you, Berreens, you lovely lovely people, you.)

Pinterest Pin of the Week

{This vintage book from 1900!
So very Moulin Rouge!}

Weekly Weblinks

Literary Linkage

• Free school visits 'one of the worst things an author can do' | on The Bookseller
• Guardian to pre-publish first Lee chapter | on The Bookseller
• See also: Campaign for Harper Lee revealed | on The Bookseller
• and: Dramatic revelation in first Harper Lee chapter (**here be spoilers**) | on The Bookseller
• Book Trust award for Shirley Hughes | on The Bookseller
• Quentin Blake criticises colouring books | on The Bookseller
• Cardiff to celebrate Dahl centenary in 2016 | on The Bookseller
• If famous artists illustrated classic books | on Book Riot via NYPL
• Why British Literature makes for better TV than American Literature | on The Atlantic (thanks to Leah James for posting this one)
• 'Netflix' teaser for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events looks brilliant - but is it real? | on The Independent | Warning: the YouTube teaser is deliciously creepy! (And apparently not directly associated with Netflix at all!)

Non-literary Linkage

• How women undermine themselves with words | on GOOP | via Susannah Conway
• Similarly, this article explores this 'apologetic language' more specifically | on The Pool (thanks to Evie)

Interjection: Sadly most of the quirky links I save from Farcebook nowadays are extremely slow loaders or platforms for ridiculous amounts of false ads and clickbait ("Mom from Croydon shares her beauty secret" Really?! Really?!).

If anyone knows of any ad- or clickbait-free resources for suitably quirky links, I'd love to hear about them...

• Meet me in St Louis -- I want to visit this former-factory-converted-into-an-adult-playground! | on Higher Perspective
• Life struggles only people with Andy Murray screaming in their ears will understand | on The Poke
• 23 times Minions perfectly captured your life | I heart these blighters! | on BuzzFeed {thanks to Evie!}

"21. When you need something in your kitchen that’s too high
to reach but you insist on doing it yourself" | The struggle is real!

Well, I'm now off on a week's holibobs complete with a couple of planned day trips (woot woot) so I hope to have more excitement to report on next weekend. Not promising owt, though.

Bye bye now!

qb xx