Paul's Race to 75 Part 22

Nero Vivo italian restaurant is possibly my favourite italian restaurant in town. Great setting either inside which has stunning artwork or outside on the terrace with a lovely view of the city. Their mixed anti-pasti is heaven sent.

Books read so far:
1 North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
2 The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
3 The Guards by Ken Bruen
4 Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5 Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
6 Shadow by Karin Alvtegen
7 The Road Home by Rose Tremain
8 One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens
9 Pure by Andrew Miller
10 The Appointment by Herta Muller
11 The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
12 The Battle of Pollocks Crossing by J.L. Carr
13 No Glossing Over It by Gary Edwards
14 Unknown by Mari Jungstedt
15 The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
16 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
17 Zoo Station by David Downing
18 The Troubled Man by Henning Mankell
19 Jack Sheppard by William Ainsworth
20 An Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington
21 The Fourth Man by K.O. Dahl
22 Christine Falls by Benjamin Black
23 Troubles by J.G. Farrell
24 My Life in Cricket by Dennis Lillee
25 Voyageurs by Margaret Elphinstone
26 The Affair by Lee Child
27 The Potter's Field by Andrea Camilleri
28 The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
29 The Blessing Way by Tony Hillerman
30 Praying Mantis by Andre Brink
31 Parky by Michael Parkinson
32 All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel
33 The Detour by Gerbrand Bakker
34 The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
35 Legion of the Damned by Sven Hassel
36 Treblinka : A Survivor's Memory by Chil Rajchman
37 L'Enver de Treblinka by Vasily Grossman
38 Open Season by C.J. Box
39 Divorcing Jack by Colin Bateman
40 The Chalk-Circle Man by Fred Vargas
41 Lovely Green Eyes by Arnost Lustig
42 The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White
43 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
44 Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
45 The Butterfly Effect by Pernille Rygg
46 Twist of Gold by Michael Morpurgo
47 Eternal by Craig Russell
48 Life by Keith Richards
49 The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
50 Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
51 The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtromer
52 Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet by Gerry Davis
53 War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
54 In the Heart of the Country by J.M. Coetzee
55 Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster by Terrance Dicks
56 The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill
57 The Day of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks
58 We Were Young and Carefree by Laurent Fignon
59 River of Smoke by Amitav Ghosh
60 Thirty Three Teeth by Colin Cotterill
61 Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors by Brian Hayles
62 Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum

Currently reading
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens, Andrew Jackson by H.W. Brands, Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell, Palace of Desire by Naguib Mahfouz, Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

Best Books of the Year so far:
Literary Fiction
1. The Road Home
2 Lyrics Alley
3 Wolf Hall
4 Dandelion Wine
5 Sea of Poppies
Thrillers
1. Zoo Station
2. The Troubled Man
3. The Potter's Field
4 Divorcing Jack

12 in 12 categories

1: Historical Fiction 7/12
2: 19th Century Fiction 3/12
3: Biography 8/12
4: In translation 7/12
5: Series Starts 7/12
6: Scandicrimesters 5/12
7: Sci-Fi 7/12
8: Noughties 4/12
9: One Word Titles 4/12
10: African Born Writers 4/12
11: Bought and Read in 2012 6/12
12: Off the Shelves 0/12 (IN RESERVE FOR THE END OF THE YEAR)

NOBEL CHALLENGE

NOBEL WINNERS READ WITH FAVOURITE WORK READ SO FAR:
2011 The Half-Finished Heaven by Tomas Transtromer
2009 The Appointment by Herta Muller
2007 The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing
2006 Snow by Orhan Pamuk
2005 The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
2003 The Master of Petersburg by J.M.Coetzee
2001 A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
1998 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis by Jose Saramago
1995 Station Island by Seamus Heaney
1994 A Quiet Life by Kenzaburo Oe
1991 July's People by Nadine Gordimer
1988 Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
1987 On Grief and Reason by Joseph Brodsky
1983 Lord of the Flies by William Golding
1982 A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
1976 Herzog by Saul Bellow
1972 Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Boll
1970 Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1964 The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre
1962 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
1961 Bridge On the Drina by Ivo Andric
1958 Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
1957 The Plague by Albert Camus
1955 The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness
1954 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway
1953 History of the English Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill
1949 The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
1948 The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
1947 The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide
1946 Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
1938 The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
1932 A Man of Property by John Galsworthy
1930 Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
1925 Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw
1923 Collected Poems by W.B. Yeats
1921 And the Gods Will Have Blood by Anatole France
1907 Kim by Rudyard Kipling

UNREAD NOBEL WINNERS ON THE SHELVES

2011 The Half-Finshed Heaven by Tomas Transtromer
2010 The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
2008 The Interrogation by J.M.G. Le Clezio
2005 The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
2004 The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
2002 Fatelessness by Imre Kertesz
2000 Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
1999 The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
1993 Jazz by Toni Morrison
1992 Collected Poems 1948-1984 by Derek Walcott
1990 The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz
1986 Ake: The Years of Childhood by Wole Soyinka
1985 Flanders Road by Claude Simon
1981 Auto de Fe by Elias Canetti
1978 The Family Moskat by Isaac Bashevis Singer
1973 Voss by Patrick White
1969 Molloy by Samuel Beckett
1968 Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
1965 And Slowly Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov
1952 The Desert of Love by Francois Mauriac
1950 A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell
1937 Jean Barois by Roger Martin du Gard
1936 The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill
1933 The Village by Ivan Bunin
1929 Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann
1920 Hunger by Knut Hamsun
1915 Jean-Christophe by Romain Rolland
1913 He (Shey) by Rabindranath Tagore
1905 Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

List of my active series. Doesn't include series I own books but haven't started (far too many) or series that I have read all - Sherlock, Poirot, Marple, Dr. Who, Wallender, John Carter, Richard Hannay, Father Brown, Rougon MacQuart, etc etc etc

WRITER SERIES NEXT BOOK UP

1 Abbott, Jeff // Whit Mosley Black Jack Point 2/3
2 Adler-Olsen, Jussi // Department Q Disgrace 2/3
3 Akunin, Boris //Erast Fandorin Special Assignments 5/10
4 Atkinson, Kate //Jackson Brodie When Will There Be Good News 3/4
5 Aubert, Brigitte //Elise Andrioli Death from the Snows 2/2
6 Auel, JM //Earth's Children The Valley of Horses 2/6
7 Bateman, Colin //Dan Starkey Of Wee Sweetie Mice and Men 2/7
8 Billingham, Mark //Tom Thorne Good as Dead 10/10
9 Black, Benjamin //Quirke The Silver Swan 2/5
10 Black, Cara //Aimee Leduc Murder in Belleville 2/13
11 Blake, Nicholas //Nigel Strangeways A Question of Proof 2/16
12 Block, Lawrence //Matt Scudder A Drop of the Hard Stuff 17/17
13 Block, Lawrence //Bernie Rhodenbarr The Burglar in the Closet 3/10
14 Blunt, Giles //John Cardinal Crime Machine 5/6
15 Box, C.J. //Joe Pickett Savage Run 2/12
16 Brand, Christianna //Inspector Cockrill Heads You Lose 2/6
17 Brookmyre, Christopher //Jack Parlabane Country of the Blind 2/5
18 Brown, Dan //Robert Langdon The Lost Symbol 3/3
19 Bruen, Ken //Jack Taylor The Killing of the Tinkers 2/9
20 Burke, James Lee //Robicheaux Neon Rain 2/19
21 Camilleri, Andrea //Montalbano The Age of Doubt 14/15
22 Carr, Caleb //Kreizler The Angel of Darkness 2/2
23 Chandler, Raymond //Philip Marlowe The High Window 4/7
24 Child, Lee //Jack Reacher A Wanted Man 17/17
25 Cornwell, Bernard //Saxon Chronicles The Burning Land 5/6
26 Cotterill, Colin //Dr. Siri Disco for the Departed 3/8
27 Crispin, Edmund //Gervase Fen The Case of the Gilded Fly 3/9
28 Dahl, KO //Frank Frolich The Man in the Window 2/3
29 Deaver, Jeffrey //Rune Death of a Blue Movie Star 2/3
30 Deighton, Len //Harry Palmer Horse Under Water 3/6
31 Deighton, Len //Bernard Samson Faith 7/9
32 DeMille, Nelson //John Corey Plum Island 2/6
33 Dibdin, Michael //Aurelio Zen Medusa 9/11
34 Downing, David //John Russell Silesian Station 2/5
35 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan //Brigadier Gerard Adventures of Gerard 2/2
36 Dunnett, Dorothy //Francis Lymond Queen's Play 2/6
37 Eastland, Sam //Pekkala The Red Coffin 2/4
38 Edwardson, Ake //Erik Winter Frozen Tracks 3/6
39 Eisler, Barry //John Rain The Detachment 7/7
40 Finder, Joseph //Nick Heller Buried Secrets 2/3
41 Forbes, Colin //Tweed Double Jeopardy 3/24
42 Ford, Richard //Bascombe Independence Day 2/3
43 Fossum, Karin //Sejer The Caller 8/9
44 Fraser, George MacDonald //Flashman Flashman in the Great Game 5/12
45 Freeling, Nicholas //Van der Valk Because of the Cats 2/13
46 Fyfield, Francis //Helen West Shadow Play 2/6
47 Gadney, Reg //Alan Rosslyn Immaculate Deception 5/6
48 Ghosh, Amitav //Ibis Trilogy River of Smoke 2/3
49 Gilman, George G //Edge Hell's Seven 9/61
50 Gray, Alex //Lorimer A Small Weeping 2/9
51 Harvey, John //Resnick Cold in Hand 11/11
52 Harvey, John //Elder Ash and Bone 2/3
53 Hewson, David //Nic Costa The Seventh Sacrament 5/9
54 Hill, Reginald //Pascoe and Dalziell Ruling Passion 3/24
55 Hillerman, Tony //Leaphorn / Chee Dancehall of the Dead 2/18
56 Holt, Anne //Vik and Stubo The Final Murder 2/4
57 Hurley, Graham //Faraday and Winter Cut to Black 5/12
58 Iggulden, Conn //Conqueror Bones of the Hills 3/5
59 Indriadson, Arnadur //Erlendur Hypothermia 6/8
60 James, PD //Dalgleish A Taste for Death 7/14
61 James, Peter //Roy Grace Dead Tomorrow 5/8
62 Jardine, Quintin //Bob Skinner Skinner's Ordeal 5/22
63 Jecks, Michael //Medieval Mysteries The Merchant's Partner 2/31
64 Johnstone, William W //Mountain Man Ordeal of the Mountain Man 17/32
65 Jungstedt, Mari //Knutas The Killer's Art 4/7
66 Kerr, Philip //Bernie Gunther A Quiet Flame 5/8
67 Leon, Donna //Brunetti The Girl of His Dreams 17/21
68 Lovesey, Peter //Peter Diamond The Summons 3/13
69 Lucarelli, Carlos //Negro Day after Day 2/2
70 Ludlum, Robert //Bourne The Bourne Supremacy 2/3
71 MacBride, Stuart //Logan McRae Shatter the Bones 7/7
72 MacDonald, Ross //Lew Archer The Way Some People Die 3/18
73 Mahfouz, Naguib //Cairo Trilogy Palace of Desire 2/3
74 Manning, Olivia //The Levant Trilogy The Battle Lost and Won 2/3
75 Mantel, Hilary //Cromwell Series Bring Up the Bodies 2/3
76 Marklund, Liza //Bengtzon Paradise 2/6
77 Martin, Andrew //Jim Stringer The Blackpool Highflyer 2/8
78 McBain, Ed //87th Precinct Killer's Choice 5/55
79 McCall-Smith, Alexander Tears of the Giraffe 2/13
80 Nabb, Magdalen //Guarnaccia Death of a Dutchman 2/14
81 Nadel, Barbara //Ikmen Deep Waters 4/15
82 Napier, William //Attila The Gathering of the Storm 2/3
83 Nesbo, Jo //Harry Hole Phantom 7/8
84 Nesser, Hakan //Van Veeteren The Inspector and Silence 5/7
85 O'Brian, Patrick //Aubrey Post Captain 2/21
86 O'Brien, Martin //Jacquot Confession 5/7
87 Plaidy, Jean //Tudor Saga Uneasy Lies the Head 2/11
88 Price, Anthony //Audley The Alamut Ambush 2/19
89 Rankin, Ian //Rebus The Hanging Garden 10/18
90 Rees, Matt //Omar Yussef The Saladin Murders 2/4
91 Rendell, Ruth //Wexford From Doon With Death 3/23
92 Rickman, Phil //Merrily Watkins Midwinter of the Spirit 2/11
93 Robinson, Peter //Banks Watching the Dark 20/20
94 Russell, Craig //Lennox The Deep Dark Sleep 3/4
95 Russell, Craig //Jan Fabel The Carnival Master 4/6
96 Sandford, John //Lucas Davenport Buried Prey 21/22
97 Sansom, CJ // Shardlake Dark Fire 2/5
98 Sayers, Dorothy L //Lord Peter Wimsey Whose Body? 2/14
99 Sigurdottir, Yrsa Thora //Gudmundsdottir Ashes to Dust 3/4
100 Silva, Daniel //Gabriel Allon Portrait of a Spy 11/12
101 Simenon, Georges //Maigret The Crime of Inspector Maigret 9/98
102 Sjowall, Maj //Beck The Man Who Went Up in Smoke 2/10
103 Smith, Tom Rob //Demidov Agent 6 3/3
104 Taylor, Andrew //Dougal Waiting for the End of the World 2/8
105 Temple, Peter //Jack Irish Black Tide 2/4
106 Vargas, Fred //Adamsberg Have Mercy on Us All 2/7
107 Waites, Martyn //Joe Donovan Bone Machine 2/4
108 White, Stephen //Alan Gregory Privelged Information 2/19
109 Wilson, Robert //Javier Falcon The Silent and the Damned 2/4
110 Wingfield, RD //Jack Frost Frost at Christmas 3/6

Reserved for miscellaneous lists!

Bit frustrated as I couldn't put up the photo I wanted for Nero Vivo as this one doesn't really do it justice. Will try to get a better one later.

I'M FIRST! WOOT WOOT!

Edit: There, now that I have that stupid comment out of the way, I just wanted to say that I feel really bad because I missed most of your last thread. I hope your mum will be all right, and I'll keep her in my prayers. I can't wait to see what you think of Our Mutual Friend; this is actually the first time I've heard of that book, so I'll definitely be interested to hear what you have to say.

Hi Paul, that restaurant is screaming to me....screaming "Out of your league!" I dont think my attire would allow me entry, let alone my bank balance ;)
>6 PaulCranswick: Miscellaneous lists huh? Now that is just tantalising.

Your Nobel lists are making me conscious of which ones I have/need to read.

I look forward to another fast moving thread from you, almost as much as I am looking forward to dinner (sausages, butternut squash croquettes and steamed broccoli). I hope your time of day is close to food time? Sorry if its me being tantalising now....

Eris - well done with the early bird promotion - winner of a tropical hug all the way from muggy Malaysia. Making slow but assured progress with Our Mutual Friend which I did read in my teens, but I won't finish the re-read this month as I keep getting sidetracked with other books to quickly boost my reading numbers!

Megan - If you're in KL Megan it would be my treat - it is not all that expensive (certainly compared to your NZ eateries) and dress code is non-existent as long as the customers are wearing something!
Your dinner does sound appetising but unfortunately mine is still over 5 hours away!

This is representative of the artwork displayed at Nero Vivo which is largely by Sandra Knuyt.

>9 LovingLit: - Don't all Italian restaurants do that ....... have to admit a weakness for them despite my food intolerance/allergies .....

Nice photo once again.

>10 PaulCranswick: aw thanks Paul, Ill take you up on that one day :)
Only one two hours to go! (til your dinner, not me visiting KL, that's about a decade away, if ever)

Edited after doing a quick time check....sorry 'bout that :|

Hi Paul - your threads move so fast:) I'm still reading them all though.

Hope the next phone call with your mother has positive news.

Hi Paul- Congrats on the new thread! I love the photo at the top, very Edward Hopper like. Hope your week goes well.

I think I'm caught up on your thread for now. Some interesting religious discussions and great mystery lists. I'm mostly without Internet for another week. Using iPhone mostly. I have to go to the library to be able to do a little work today.

Alex - what allergies do you have mate and I'll find a restarant here for you.

John - Don't see us getting close to the 19 golds in Beijing. My guess 7. What do you think?

Megan - I have about five minutes to go before breaking fast and am salivating albeit dryly. Toad-in-the-hole today, although given SWMBO's mood she might just serve me the hole!

Calm - I'm still reading yours too. Although a lot more lurking than usual with my present workload.

Mark - thanks mate; the place actually has far more atmosphere than is captured in the photo.

I think we will get 12 golds mainly from Rowing and the velodrome, but you never know.

Sometimes John I would prefer to be wrong! I also think the Chinese will top the medals table overall.

Lori, sorry we cross posted and I almost missed you! Lack of connectivity sucks but I would love to have a library facility I could immerse myself in.

Hi Paul

As always, I enjoy your stunning photos!

Linda - and as always I am blessed by your visits to my thread. x

Congrats on your nice new thread, Paul! Love the photos you've chosen - especially the one up top.

Thanks Mamie...am a bit overworked today; hope to be more active around the threads tomorrow.

I'm liking your new restaurant theme, Paul. I've always enjoyed your thread immensely, but now it also makes me want to make reservations! At a local restaurant, that is.

Paul
Sorry to hear you are a bit overworked. I hope you can rest this evening.

Sounds and looks like a great restaurant to visit, Paul. Congrats on the new thread!

I don't think that you have to read the Sharpe novels in chronological order. I second the idea that you can start with Sharpe's Rifles. There are 14 of them in the Napoleonic Wars series. The ones set in India were published later, even though chronologically there are earlier. The Napoleonic series shouldn't be hard to find as they were quite popular.

I read somewhere that Cornwell read that a rifleman in the British Army at Waterloo could fire 3 rounds a minute with a mussel loading rifle. He doubted the veracity of that and started doing research. To his amazement he found a written training pamphlet in some British library describing the technique. It was published sometime during the Napoleonic Wars and that started him thinking about life as a rifleman in the British Army during that era. That lead to the Sharpe series. However, it was the filming of the BBC production that really propelled Cornwell to author stardom status. The series caught on here in the U. S. and the rest is history. I hope that the new production of the Deon Meyer books will do the same for him, as I think this is a mystery writer with some talent.

Somebody up ahead, or maybe in the previous thread, mentioned that they thought the first Station book by David Downing should have been in first person. Maybe so, but this is a series in which the characters continue to grow and grow-on the reader. They defiantly develop more as the series matures. Especially the female characters.

I opted to spend the long hot Sunday afternoon at the swimming pool and then went out to pick my last batch of blueberries in the 100 degree heat instead of watching Olympic feats of daring do and all that drama. I missed the road race, and all of the afternoon televised events. That meant that in the evening I was forced to watch the Little Girl's Gymnastics, a series of events that I loath almost as much as I dislike the Little Girls Figure Skating. I thought that they were particularly disgusting when those events were filled by ever younger prepubescent girls. However, I find that the Chinese, and some American sports are also delving into the depths of finding more and more teenage sports stats. To my shock, there were some 17 year-old swimmers last night. The last time I recall seeing swimmers that young was in the hay-day of the East German sports program. Does that mean I am suspicious? You bet.

Hi Paul! Congrats on another new thread, and thanks, as always, for posting such wonderful photos! I love being able to get a glimpse of your home.

Hi Paul, thought I was going to surprise both of us and manage a second visit to your last thread... but no such luck. Very happy to see the mention of Cornwell's Sharpe's series. I love the video adaptations and while there are some characters and events that will make more sense if you are able to read the series in order, its not crucial. If you do want to read the books in time period chronological order, Wikipedia has a great reference table for the TV series you might be able to use to organize the books into reading order ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpe_%28TV_series%29)

Hope you hear good news soon regarding your mother and I promise no mention of food items while you are fasting. I personally have no will power when it comes to food and would have an awful time keeping the fast.

Neat restaurant. Totally ruined my appetite for Nachos though. Oh well. The kids will enjoy them. I am also ignoring the niggling impression that I need to make a list of something...

#29 - I am incredibly jealous of your blueberry patch. Blueberries sound marvelous. In defense of the 17 year old swimmers, while we don't know Missy Franklin personally, we have watched her swim regularly for several years. Our son has competed in many meets, including state championship meets where she was competing and we know her club team very well. Missy has legitimate talent as well as an incredible work ethic. She is very well liked and respected in our swimming community. That said, I am totally on your page with the "Little Girl's Gymnastics" etc. lol - and I am adopting that phrase into my vocabulary.

Deep breath! Hi Paul!
I think I entirely missed your last thread - comment wise.
That's what happens when I'm gone for a week, I guess.
I did enjoy reading it quite a lot. So all is not lost.
Have a good day!

Tuesday for you now, Paul. Hoping today is not quite as busy for you. I am going to order more pods today and immediately it brought you to mind! Here's to excellent coffee!!

Ellen - Thank you so much - I suppose it is typically perverse of me to have a restaurant theme at a time when I am not supposed to be eating.

Linda - Thanks but today promises to be worse if anything! My Scottish client is here today as his project edges towards completion.

Thanks Joe - the food is great but I dno't think it can rival the Cafe for ambience and goog company.

Benita - I have already ordered Deon Meyer since you don't seem sure on his abilities (hahaha). I know what you mean about the Chinese swimmers - apparently the girl in the individual medley yesterday had a better split time in her discipline than Ryan Lochte in the mens race? Bizarre in the extreme. The hosts still await their first gold and I have a feeling we may have more frustrating moments to come.

Anne - There is quite a lot to see here in the fast growing and vibrant capital of one of Asia's pre-eminent tiger economies (just practising for my attempt to get commission from the tourist board).

Lori - It wouldn't be my thread without your regular once a thread appearance on it! I have read and enjoyed Cornwell's saxon series and I believe that Sharpe will be at least as good.
Actually I like to talk about food even more in the expectation of eventually getting some. Dinner yesterday was toad-in-the-hole (with chicken sausages) and SWMBO also made some nasi goreng kampung (literally village fried rice - spicy rice fried with green vegetables, a little chicken meat and ikan bilis small local dried anchovies)

Jenn - I get the same niggling feeling on an almost daily basis! How cool that you know Miss Franklin - I was interested to read in the Andrew Jackson biography I am reading at the moment that there was an attempt to form a state named Franklin roughly around the environs of what is now Tennesse - named after a yet still more famous Franklin of the Benjamin variety.

Cee - All is not lost indeed as you are obviously back safe and sound and full of cheer from your recent bout of visiting. x

Mamie - My Harrods cup has grown on me - that and I'm too lazy to get another one. Nicest moment of the evening dinner slides down - wife goes to pray and I get the first of two coffees to wallow in while I am consuming the latest book.

Hope your toad in the hole (....or was it just the hole you were served? lol) was delicious. What have you been doing to antagonize the lovely SWMBO?
Um, call me crazy, but what exactly is toad in the hole again? Something wrapped in pastry?

Megan - my very presence tends to antagonize my dear lady.....toad in the hole is sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding and served with gravy and mash. Because I was persona non grata yesterday she made it with instant mash because she knows that there is not a snowballs chance in hell I will touch it - so I was left with toad in the hole with fried rice - weird combination but it worked.
Irritation actually centres upon the fact that I did not confiscate Yasmyne's phone to stop her communicating with her boyfriend (who is even more persona non grata than I) - I simply had a heart-to-heart with her and asked her to be more responsible in its usage - not nearly enough for La Disciplinara.

I suppose it is typically perverse of me to have a restaurant theme at a time when I am not supposed to be eating.
LOL! Well, I suppose you can think about food and, really, it seems spiritually and emotionally healthy to consider what you are resisting, giving up, doing without ---- the point is to notice the fast, yes?

Ellen - agreed. I am certainly noticing the fast as is my waistband. It is typically a habit of Malays to stuff & gorge themselves immensely during the nightshaded hours allocated for feeding, but I just take a normal, though hearty meal, at breaking fast time.
There are a little over two hours to breaking fast today and if you ask me I'm already at the stage of slowing rather than fasting.

Paul, I don't think its possible to find such a restaurant ..... my allergies are mainly around the good stuff ie fruit/veges etc .

hence my love of pub grub & fish & chips ....

Alex - there is little to beat pub grub and fish n chips done properly.

Paul- Toad in the Hole, huh? The description sounds better, than the title. Hope your week is going well.

Paul - The Harrods cup is probably swelling with pride at its recent promotion to head cup! Well done to promote within the ranks - probably causes less friction.

Sorry to hear that today was just as hectic as Monday -any hope for tomorrow?

Mark - I'm not trying to steal Joe's clothes but here is the self same toad in the hole

Mamie - hahaha I actually have hold of the proud little vessel as I try to type with one hand.
Tomorrow promises to be worse if anything - car service, scottish client morning after interviewing new staff, afternoon meeting on our new simulator facility project and an evening meeting with my partner and an investor for our aerospace manufacturing proposal. Today went ok btw.

Hi Paul, I once again love the pic you've opened your thread with. The food theme is tantalizing, hehe. While I dine out very rarely, I love to frequent one of our local working orchards in the summer. The view from the top, where the cafe is, is staggeringly beautiful; and the produce and pastries are to die for. Yum!



On another topic, the reason I dropped by actually -- I've just been looking at the recently announced Booker LL for my next read and think I will donwload The Garden of Evening Mists. Sounds like a gorgeous read and is set in Malaya 1951.

Hi Paul, thanks for the friend request, i'm honoured to become a friend of yours and being a fellow Yorkie makes it doubly good and don't forget it's Yorkshire day on the 1st August and the 2nd test starts on thursday at Headingley, it doesn't get much better my friend.

ah ha The toad in the hole picture picture brings it all home. I was expecting individually wrapped sausages...but I guess the yorkshire pudding mixture is poured over the sausages and baked. I get it now. Sort of.

Sorry you're in the dog house as it were. Another ten years or so til Im facing girlfriend troubles around my place. I shudder to think.

Nancy - you're right it is stunning! I will certainly look up The Garden of Evening Mists as the subject matter is obviously of interest to me.

John - my pleasure of course mate. Not only a fellow Yorkie but I was born in Crofton which is the next village to yours. Yorkshire day today which is a good omen for me as I have a particularly important meeting this evening.

Megan - my picture is pretty much how SWMBO makes it. Good lady wife seems more contented at the moment as I was magnanimously smart enough to waive the money she "borrowed" from me earlier at the end of last week. She takes a salary from the firm for reasons I no longer remember and always complains it leaves her short at the end of the month (despite her being the second highest earner on the payroll). I don't know why we have this charade every month as I always advance her and she always wheedles a waiver. Anyway peace reigns!
Girlfriend troubles will not be as taxing as boyfriend troubles unless Wilbur and Lenny go after the same gal!

Anyway peace reigns!
You and SWMBO have established equilibrium, even if parts of it are based on a charade to which both of you are savvy. The joy of healthy relationships, that's what that is.

Paul- I did not forget about you, my friend and I left some "Searchers" comments over on my thread. I'm so glad you already own a copy of "Empire".
Hey, that toad in the hole looks tasty!

Ellen - Left her peacefully sleeping this morning and she seems quite happy with her lot at the moment.

Mark - I am the fellow struggling to get round to all my pals this week as I'm snowed under with work. I think "Empire" will be a target for this month.

Passing through, Paul. Hope you're having a good week. I'm always hungry after visiting for some reason...

Anne - hungry is a sensation I have got used to in the last couple of weeks hahaha. Same to you Anne, trust that everything is well with you all over there.

A stats taster.
Here are the top twenty posters:
1 Paul 5477 (22 threads)
2 Richard 4894 (18)
3 Kathleen 4756 (17)
4 Joe 4136 (17)
5 Mark 4073 (16)
6 Stephen 3099 (13)
7 Ilana 2887 (11)
8 Darryl 2682 (11)
9 Claudia 2641 (11)
10 Mamie 2272 (9)
11 Caro 2179 (9)
12 Amber 2111 (9)
13 Donna 2076 (9)
14 Megan 1956 (7)
15 Chelle 1889 (8)
16 Lucy 1861 (8)
17 Ellen 1772 (8)
18 Bonnie 1738 (7)
19 Suzanne 1692 (7)
20 Peggy 1399 (7)

Here are the number of books read by those top 20 posters/threads
RD - I have included in the total what he terms as orphaned books.

1 Suzanne 251
2 Amber 140
3 Richard 107
4 Ilana 101
5 Caro 96
6 Kathleen 89
7 Chelle 89
8 Mark 88
9 Joe 84
10 Darryl 79
11 Mamie 79
12 Lucy 74
13 Donna 65
14 Paul 61
15 Ellen 55
16 Megan 53
17 Peggy 53
18 Bonnie 49
19 Stephen 47
20 Claudia 40

11 of the top 20 have already reached the 75 books target. Nice to see a list with me tucked below half way.

Will post the next 20 later in the day.

Hey Paul, nice new thread here. Sounds like you are rock and rolling at work lately...and I am "slip sliding" down in the numbers. No worries, I'm happy! And, no, I haven't been drinking. Simply overtired and excited about the visit from some grand children tomorrow!

Hi Paul, this is a drive-by greeting to congratulate you on #22 (didn't you just start a new thread a couple of days ago?).

Will be back to catch up on all I've missed.

Me, #4 in the reading leagues out of the top posters? Really?? Seems incredible. I'm actually at 102, just didn't have time to update today. ;-)

Donnie - Bonnie and your goodself are the only two to have the same position for book reading as posting among the top 20 posters. Enjoy your time with your grandchildren tomorrow.

Ilana - glad to see you driving given your recent travails on the train services, so long as it is not in your favourite taxi !!! Your position in the overall list is also very respectable it is just that I don't have time to update it completely - that is why it is in stages this time.

Hey! What about the top 10 readers! *snivels*

Ok Morphy dry your eyes it will be with us shortly - are you fully updated?
Struggling a bit for time these last few days but after tomorrow I should be a little bit eased.

Aha! I thought you might have raced into a new thread!
Sorry that your free time is at a premium. how is your poor driver?
I was thinking of him/you yesterday, lol when we were trying to find an address...
Dan driving, and he kept in the center lane..knowing we had to pull over soon, when we found the address...
I wanted to strangle him for not getting into the parking lane.. Have you ever strangled a driver? LOL

Hi Paul!
Sorry I have missed your last few threads-- I have been really busy with not much time for posting, but I will try to get updated this week! Love the picture at the top! :)

Kath - speaking of racing I have just happily watching GBR take gold and bronze in the cycling time trial - brilliant and just when it looked like we were going to host the thing and win nowt.
I have already said Amen to Amin who has gone on to pastures new if ever he can find them poor chap. Dan sounds like he went to the same driving school as Amin although I'm not sure I'm much better worried as I am more about the goings on in the latest Karin Fossum rather more than is safe to do so.
The only driver I was really tempted to strangle was the one who almost left Kyran (then about six years old) behind at the hypermarket - lucky that Erni was on hand to go and find him. That was one of the easier decisions to sack anyone that I have ever had.

Callia - nice to "see" you back! When do you make the trip to NZ. As you know I took my tribe there earlier this year and we all fell in love with the place.

Hi Paul! Finally caught up on your thread

You should be very proud of your home country. GBR is doing very well with 8 medals already!
I watched the cycling time trial today and Wiggins had a great race!

I'm just in survival mode so will be doing my drop in say hi and pop right back out trick. Hope things are going well for you Paul! And a new thread already????

My parents have been visiting for a few days so I've been mostly absent, but just popping in to say that Italian restaurants are a weakness for me as well, and I wish we had one close by, as I'm very much missing the couple of wonderful ones we had within driving distance in Ohio. Sigh.

LOL Paul.. Oh no! I missed the departure of Amin.. no one new yet?
I think I would like a driver for me. But I would like them to drive like me. :P

Um, not to quibble, but I did complete Book #56 just this morning......
xo

Hi Paul! I'm not sure on the exact dates of NZ, but I know that it is sometime in March-slash-April!

Hi Paul - I've been swamped and am trying to catch up but I fear it's a hopeless cause!

Re: toad in the hole: I grew up eating this (in the Northeast part of the US - New York/Connecticut) but for us it was toast with a hole in the center filled with a fried egg. In fact, I was thrilled to see it on a brunch menu here in Texas last weekend. Strange that the British (original?) version is so different!

Chelle - Nice to see you here in the build up to your own Olympics - less than four weeks already? Very proud of Wiggins and Froome especially with that being my old sport.

Valerie - you obviously do survival quite nonchalantly!

Amber - So we share being swamped and loving italian restaurants. I remember with my first love and early student days taking the bus up to Nottingham and going to "our" Italian restaurant, being very much in love and only being able to afford the daily special. Happy days indeed and my eyes often moisten when company asks about the specials at my new favourite italian restaurant.

Kath - I don't mind to contact Amin for you and send him over there to conquer the US. He won't be able to find his way around of course but still he was able to cope with the same situation in his home town.

Ellen - Will of course update! I was right at the time though right?

Callia - that is roughly the same time that we went to NZ and it was stunning with the leaves turning golden and starting to say goodbye to their sylvan abodes.

Katie - I am having to prioritise this week as I am pretty much double booked the whole week and am having to shift resources around to keep clients happy. One of my keenest young charges had a motorcycle accident last night and will be absent for a couple of days - thankfully apart from a few abrasions he is ok.
Interesting that "toad-in-the-hole" differs so radically in North America. I believe the British one is the original but then again I would say so wouldn't I? No travel plans for South-East Asia presently?

The egg in the center of toast is known to me as a "bird in the nest", but I'm not sure where that comes from...
A "pig in the poke" is sausage baked into tiny loaves of bread, and my mom makes the most delicious ones. Sigh.

Hi Paul,
Sorry in advance, Im not being perverse, but food seems to be to theme on your thread lately, in spite (or maybe because of) your fasting.

>72 katiekrug: I like the sound of that toad in the hole too Katie. Hmm, maybe I could replicate that and call it breakfast.

Also...>74 scaifea: pg-in-the-poke! What a name, I like the sound of that dish too! Looks like my subdued appetite over the last week or so is coming back to haunt me!

That's it for food talk now, I promise, Ill leave all that for Joes Cafe :)

Great, now I'm hungry again......
Must join Megan over at Joe's to see if he has toad in the hole on the menu.....

I seem to recall a disclaimer earlier when I made clear there was no play intended to distract traffic from the Cafe which does it so much better than I!

Megan - mmm yeah I suspect hunger pangs too.

Amber - "pig-in-the-poke" is much more literal than "toad-in-the-hole" and does celebrate the fact that it is normally pork sausages used in its preparation. Ours are chicken sausages and we have a delightful deli here that does various spiced sausages that SWMBO throws into the Yorkshire pudding mix.

Ellen - sorry my dear but you do need plenty of fuel in prep for your half marathon.

Your stats highlight that I am sooo behind in my reading :P Had a couple of months where RL was way too busy. Unfortunately I don't have your energy and I need more sleep. That's life in the slow lane ;-)

I spend so much time reading threads. Many times they are more fun/exciting/informative/heartbreaking/well written than the books. Bottom line: I'm still reading a lot of great stuff!

Hope work becomes more manageable for you... you're gonna need another vacation soon!

Hahaha that is exactly SWMBOs point of view! She is agitating for a holiday immediately at the end of fasting month, but she hasn't told me where I'm going yet!

Just checking in over here to keep my head above water on your thread. We call the egg in the center of toast thing "egg in a basket" - the "bird in a nest" makes much more sense, though.

Paul - don't know how you find the time to keep up with the stats. Amazing!

Sorry. My sympathy here is totally with Amin. I too, eas born with zero sense of direction. I too can get lost in my hometown. When i was workin, one of the O.T. Supervisors even had a name for it. It is some sort is issue with perceiving distance, and it affects sense of direction. i agree , it was probably not the best career path for him....but I totally "grt" the getting lost in a store thing. :p

Just trying to stay caught up with you Paul (seriously?) I haven't had toad in the hole in many, many years but for us it was bread with a hole in the middle filled with a fried egg.

Just checking in to your new thread. My mother used to make the traditional toad-in-the-hole when I was young but been many years since I had it. We don't have sausages that often, I like to buy the ones with real meat in them so that means a special trip to the right sort of butcher or farmers market.

Mamie - Both names for an egg filled bread make some sort of sense. When I was small we used to have fairly soft boiled egg with the top sliced off into which we used to dip toasted strips of bread. These toasted strips of bread we called "soldiers" - this is apparently from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty - if you recall Humpty broke his crown and all the kings men couldn't put him back together again.

Kath - Don't bother to send your resume as another driver with no sense of direction fills me with foreboding. Far worse of course is the driver who abandoned the kids - Amin left with something approaching grace.

Bonnie - Then you are doing far better than I Bonnie as I am dizzy from rushing between three sites with three different clients - a Korean, a Scotsman and a Frenchman - there must be a joke there only it probably wouldn't be funny.

Kerry - SWMBO is an avid sausage buyer and goes to a deli that make their own sausages - they must be pricey because even she doesn't want to tell how much they are.

Yesterday I compared books read and posts made by the top 20 posters.
Today is position 21-40 on the posting league and the books read by them

21-40 in posts

21 Stasia 1359
22 Terri (tymfos) 1325
23 Roni 1324
24 Linda (Whisper) 1256
25 Jude 1239
26 Judy (Delta Queen) 1197
27 Micky 1063
28 Sara (Saraslibrary) 1047
29 Calm 1013
30 Joanne 1007
31 Lynda (Carmenere) 979
32 Katie 979
33 Heather 969
34 Deb 962
35 Luxx 944
36 Nora 936
37 Morphy 838
38 Nathalie 782
39 Gail 781
40 Linda (Lindapanzo) 780

Now books read by those posters:

Morphy 181
Heather 114
Judy (Delta Queen) 108
Calm 99
Roni 92
Nathalie 81
Micky 77
Stasia 68
Terri (tymfos) 67
Linda (Whisper) 67
Linda (Lindapanzo) 58
Gail 57
Luxx 56
Katie 55
Lynda (Carmenere) 46
Joanne 45
Nora 45
Deb 44
Sara (Saraslibrary) 39
Jude 17

Would note a couple of things:
Stasia - I have no actual idea books you have read this year - this is a best guess from reading all the posts.
Micky - Have included the Shakespeare reads in addition to the normal book records as, after all, they are books too.

Whew, there I am. I feel better now.

It looks like I'm so firmly entrenched in the 5th spot, I will never leave. It's my humble abode.

Agreed, abandoning kids is never good.

I can't help loving the stats!

Now I'm going to go see where I was around now last year.

Back to say -- at the end of July last year I was at 70 books, so just about the same.

There have only been two occasions in my life when I was clueless about what direction I was traveling. Both were in fog. Other than that I am not directionally challenged. Even when I am desperately sick and have vertigo. I may not know what or where up and down are but I can tell you where north is. Once I was sleeping in the back seat of the car at night and when I woke up I promptly told the driver we were going the wrong way. Thirty miles later turned out I was right. I knew it because Orion was in the wrong car window.

There is an art to telling an employee that it is time to leave and it is an art that I have never mastered. Just two days ago I reprimanded an employee for doing something that was technically not wrong, but wasn't ethically correct. Unfortunately I was very harsh with her and the scene got ugly. Two days later I recognize that there were many different options to have handled this situation and I choose the wrong one. Doing things like that is something at which I have no talent. I keep thinking that I learn from each mistake but once-in-awhile things go wrong. However, in twenty years in this job she is only the second employee to make a written complaint about me, so maybe that isn't so bad. I just don know. (Sigh.)

I am getting ready to go on my august vacation to my home in Kansas, ( I leave tomorrow - a full day in the closed in space of the car, by myself with a recorded book - can life get any better?) so you won't hear from me for at least a couple of days. I will have to go to my sisters to use her computer and she lives 20 miles away. I will take books with me for reading and have resolved to not purchase any new books on this trip. Since I will be moving to a new place on September 1, (the thought of moving fills me with trepidation) it is best to keep the numbers of new books down to a minimum.

a full day in the closed in space of the car, by myself with a recorded book - can life get any better
Nope! It doenst sound like it can. Enjoy.

Hi Paul, maybe SWMBO has brought the US trip forward based on her and the kids getting dragged around from LT meetup to LT meetup. That way it would give you little time to plan the itinerary based on that alone. hehe, dont give her that idea or she might run with it!

I envy anyone with a sense of direction. When I say mine is zero.. I am not off by much..

I have totally lost Lynda's (carmenere) thread. Cannot find. Like she has vaporized. I am sure that isn't the case, so if anyone here knows?

Kathleen - Here's Carmenere's thread (I think): http://www.librarything.com/topic/140439

I hope that's the right one!

Thanks !! Much appreciated :)

Hi Paul, trying to catch up on all I missed, but I have to admit to skimming most of your last thread. Trust all is well, although I see that you have let Amin go to search out greener pastures. Stories of him will be missed, but hopefully you are now able to get to your meetings in a timely fashion.

Sorry most of a full day away from the internet as work intrudes....

Morphy - glad to oblige!

Mark - the eternal fifth....wasn't there some literary associations with that? I would hardly call it humble.

Kath - Abu was the driver who left Kyran behind and cost himself his job in the process.

Lucy - Your reading may be similar but you have had quite a few more posts on your threads this year. Just checked and at end of July last year you had had 1387 posts against this years 1861.

Benita - I agree with you that one of the hardest things about running your own company, or having responsibilities for somebody elses is the management of the people. Hiring and firing are crucial skills indeed. To be absolutely honest I detest having to fire staff because I hired them in the first place and have thus failed also. I am lucky having a fairly close-knit team who appear to remain motivated, committed and loyal - this is largely achieved by gentle cajoling, financial inducement, patience and the exercise of good humour.
Your sense of direction is impressive I don't know how many people these days can navigate using the stars if they are not sitting in the middle of the ocean.
Enjoy your holiday and I'm not sure that I can applaud your restriction on book buying being unable to manage such things myself.

Megan - For the US trip I will arrange the places and she will look at certain "sights" she wishes to see. I will of course tell her that I might be meeting "the occasional friend" here and there without revealing the true extent of my machinations. When she meets all the wonderful guys she will be satisfied anyways.

Kath - Your sense of direction also extends to losing threads....hahaha - well my dear your activity in the group is so frenetic that I am hardly surprised. I would hazard that the person who has made the most posts across all threads is yourself, but that is just a guess and it is too much of a task for me to verify.

Eris/Kath - spot on with the link!

Judy - nice to see you here as always - I have had the same problem as you in the last week or two and haven't got around the threads with anything like my usual vim. I'm sure that there will be more travel strories to share post-Amin don't worry.

I have always thought I had a huge love of numbers, Paul. But compared to you, my love pales.
Just one question: Have you ever interrupted, um... "intimate moments" to check up on some statistical curiosity running through your mind??? Just checking on your priorities ;-)

Cee - hahaha; no but it is nice when SWMBO can inform me "now that was a ten!".

Not such good news on my mother. Called her in the early hours. Tests not conclusive as the growth is too big but it is definitely not fibroids. The specialist told her it is ovarian cysts or a tumour. Quite fraught conversation as the poor dear old girl is not bearing up to it so well. She will have a full scan to determine exactly in a few more days time. I have a strong feeling that I may have to drop things here and go back for a few days to give her the benefit of my shoulder. I'll see how she is over the weekend - today here feels so far away and I am so damned busy at present.

Hugs and prayers for you and your mother, Paul.

Sending up prayers for your mother.

Hi Paul- Sorry to hear the news about your Mother. I wish you and your family the best. Keep us posted.

dropping by for a very quick visit. Mentions of toad in the hole, bird in the nest and a pig in the poke have made me hungry and has reminded me I haven't eaten dinner yet.

Sending good health vibes to your Mom and a virtual hug to you Paul.

Cee, Lori, Mark and Lori - (2 Lori's together what a welcome coincidence!) - thank you so much for your kind words, wishes and prayers. I must say that the little community we have here is a wonderful source of support and succour in trying times.

Hoping the test results are not what you are all fearing it will be .....

Alex - thanks mate.

Ack, not good news re: your mum. She would appreciate you visiting, surely? Good for you making that a priority.

Oh Paul, I am so very sorry to hear about your mum - how awful for her, how awful for you being so far away. I pray, too, that the news will not be as bad as you fear. I assume that in Britain now - as here in Australia - all teenage girls are vaccinated against ovarian cancer (or do I have that wrong, and it is cervical cancer?). Either way I hope next generations will be spared the suffering of these awful illnesses.

Currently pumped about Pulitzers - Olive Kitteridge at the moment - loving it!

*Hugs* to you and the family, Paul. Hopefully you are able to go back and spend some time with her as I'm sure your shoulders would most definitely be a source of comfort for her. Sending you lots of positive vibes and will be praying that things turn out okay!

Megan - Yeah I feel the distance a bit today to be honest with you and work is going past me in a bit of a haze.

Prue - The process of life towards its denouement is an instrinsic part of being us I suppose and we all have to face up to it (not many with the dignity and good humour that you displayed, at least outwardly, with your mum last year). I'm very rarely maudlin as you probably realise but the tangible fear in her voice coming at me through the telegraph wires (ok satellite) was a little hard to bear.
I also have Olive Ketteridge - I swapped it for another I had read in a hotel in Te Anau.

Valerie - I am looking at my schedule and trying to figure which may be the most ideal time to go. I also just realised that I don't have a permanent passport with pages left and I must do something about that soon.

Sorry to hear the latest about your mother, Paul. You're in my thoughts.

Hmmm it sounds like your mom needs some good energy sent her way..
consider it done, from my direction. And stay positive.. for her sake :)
Bless you for dropping things to go to her and support her.

Spoke to my mother just a short while ago - she seemed a little more chipper and has her old school friend over to talk over the old times. Had to smile because she always complains I never call her enough and then because she is chewing the fat she asked me to call her back later!

Laura - thanks so much - I really appreciate all you wonderful guys.

Kath - thanks my dear I can feel the energy from here. Not quite dropped things yet as I have to go and get myself a passport next week firstly.

#113 Not really sure why you think I could possibly be in the market for a helicopter but I wouldn't say no to a freebie that could fly me all the way back to the UK.

Oh Paul, so sorry to hear about your Mom. Sending good thoughts your way and keeping yourself and her in my prayers. I know it must be so hard for you to be so far away and feel that there is only so much you can do from a distance. I am sure your visit would mean the world to her. Take care, my friend.

Paul, just sending my best wishes to your Mum. I hope she manages to keep her spirits up over the next few days.

I cannot imagine how it must feel for you trying to lend support to your mother from such a distance, Paul. I have found it very difficult having my elderly mother living only two hours away. I hope you are able to work things out for a visit, as that is obviously very important to you.

101: Paul, I hope your mother gets better news from her more advanced scan. Such a worry for you during a busy time. I did some long distance commiseration with my parents before I just gave in and moved back home. I know that isn't an option for you. A quick visit may be just the medicine your mother needs, and ease your mind as well. Your family has my prayers.

Fingers crossed for your mother. If it is ovarian cysts, they are very treatable; I know someone who had this problem and she is just fine, 12 years later.

Sorry to hear about your mom! That's good that she's feeling a bit better.

I am so excited for NZ. I've seen pictures of it in the fall and it looks just amazing.

Sending healthy and positive thoughts both to you and your mother. Here's hoping for better news at the next dr. visit.

Mamie, Rhian, Linda, Donna, Callia, Rebecca & Amber

I was so blessed when I found this site at the beginning of last year - blessed that it bestowed upon me the priviledge of meeting such a wonderful group of people - thanks to you all so much - for once I am almost lost for words.

Called her again this evening and passed the phone to SWMBO, who despite her pugnacious exterior is extremely fond of my mum. Afterwards she shed a tear as my mum told her that she had told her school friend that the one person who could look after her if she was very sick was Hani.
My SIL (the elder of the two) had quite serious ovarian cysts which were removed via surgery - and she is now a-ok.

I am going to bed a contented man tonight - not only are my cycling boys doing Britain proud in the velodrome but I have had a series of some of my favourite people in the world visit my thread and instil me with warmth from their supportive words.

Such good and comforting news Paul! Having a mom and wife get along is truly a blessing. :)
Will continue to keep you in my thoughts.

Wonderful news, Paul. I'm so glad your mom and wife are close :)

Paul, I may have missed an entire thread-no, make that I certainly have missed at least one entire thread during the 3 weeks I was gone! I've caught up on this one but have not gone back to look for your previous ones, not yet anyway. I'm trying not to be compulsive and to be satisfied with just viewing the current threads for everyone as I am between 25 and 125 posts behind on most of my many starred threads.

I didn't think Amin would last, I must confess. I'm shocked that I'm still in the top 25 for posts after my time away. I did like your listing by top #s of books read as well, irrespective of posts.

I do hope the further testing leads to a very treatable condition diagnosis for your mum, Paul. I know the uncertainty is very stressful for all of you.

Best wishes and good luck to your mum, to you and to the rest of the family.

Valerie/Callia - Hani likes to take her shopping and my mum is normally more comfortable asking her for what she would like than she would be with me - I am an impatient shopper if books, music or food is not involved.

Roni - I did notice of course reduced activity whilst you have been on your travels but then again it is a welcome trade off sometimes if we enjoy our travels which I'm sure you did. Nice to see you back and you are right in that Amin was never really likely to cut the mustard long term. I serviced the car today as a result of his heavy handed approach to chauffeurship and it cost me $3,000!! Brake discs and pads needed to be changed, suspension issues and a host of other things I don't have much knowledge about. x

Lilian - Thanks for your good wishes.

Hi Paul, Just catching up and sending best wishes to your mother.

Paul, so sorry to hear of your mother's health concerns. I'll add my healing thought to all the others and hope we hear good news soon.

Hi Paul - So sorry to hear about your mom as well and hope that things turn around soon. Take care.

Good to see your boys do well in the velodrome (did they? I never saw the end)
We did a great few hours on the water yesterday, not sure what it is about us and rowing, but we seem to love it. Its nice to hear our national anthem played!

Its lovely that your wife gets on with her MIL. Im not sure that is always the case :| Rest up, and pu-lease, Paul, get your passport situation sorted out ;)

Oh Paul, I've not visited threads for a couple of days, so just saw the news about your mum. I hope it's not as bad as is feared as present. Either way, you know you have this wonderful community giving you full support, including me of course.

Hope this isn't in poor taste, but I thought I'd advertise here (since this IS THE #1 thread!) that I put up the discussion thread for The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, our Steinbeckathon selection for August: http://www.librarything.com/topic/140559

Many of us are continuing with East of Eden too this month: http://www.librarything.com/topic/139235

Jenn, Judy, Kerri, Megan and Ilana - At the risk of repeating myself too much I am extremely grateful for all your thoughts and kind wishes - I am sure that so much positivity can only be a good thing for the old girl.

Megan - Yeah I noticed that you guys were doing well on the Thames (3 golds I think) - given the amount of freshwater to go it though it is hardly a surprise! I remember your own fondness for your "MIL" with a smile - when SWMBO gets irritated with my mother she will voice a complaint in Malay and I will translate diplomatically (ie falsely) to keep everything in order.

Ilana - Don't worry about taste dear lady I am fasting this month and am not allowed to taste anything during the day! No problem and in fact it reminds me that I must find where is my copy of The Grapes of Wrath as a couple of intense sessions will do it justice and finish it off.

As visitors will know I have been a little bit overwhelmed by work recently so keeping up with the Book Reading league, which takes time, has been slowed. Anyway with a few hours free this morning I have updated it - to the end of July.
This means that - Books entered after that are not counted as the first 40 have already been listed.
It includes only those with over 100 posts plus a few other buddies so they won't feel left out when, hopefully they visit soon. (John, Tania who are "honorary" members plus a few other friends) - but it doesn't of course cover everyone in the group.
It fails to take account of some of the speed merchants such as Dejah and Luci who have not updated for ages - I can only include what is on the threads.

So of 186 people listed below they have collectively read 11,868 books (if everyone updated 12,000?)
Mean number of books read is 63.81 per person
Median number of books read is 57 books.
25 to end of July had read more than 100 books
57 to end of July had passed the 75 book target
124 are on target tp reach the 75 book target (44 books or more to end July)

1 Suzanne 251
2 Susan (suslyn) 204
3 Morphy 181
4 kathy (kmartin) 165
5 Selene (mene) 162
6 Foggidawn 142
7 Amber 140
8 Emilie (alsvidur) 137
9 Lori (Thornton) 134
10 Brenda (brenpike) 129
11 Anne (AnneDC) 126
12 Hugehorrorfan 122
13 Kerry 118
14 Rachel (TheHibernator) 116
15 Heather 114
16 Kim (lilkim) 114
17 Dejah 110
18 Jenn (Nittnut) 108
19 Judy (Delta Queen) 108
20 Richard 107
21 Jeremy (JBD1) 105
22 Terri (tloeffler) 102
23 Ilana 101
24 Cynara 100
25 Karenmarie 100
26 Calm 99
27 kkunker 99
28 Melis (kassilim) 98
29 Caro 96
30 James (Eyejaybee) 96
31 Luci (Elkidee) 96
32 Cyrel (torontoc) 95
33 Carrie (cbl_tn) 94
34 Susan J 94
35 Tina (tututhefirst) 94
36 Karen O. 92
37 Roni 92
38 Mary (storeettlr) 91
39 Blue 89
40 Chelle 89
41 Kathleen 89
42 Kerry (CDVicarage) 89
43 LauraBrook 89
44 Mark 88
45 Rachel (aktakukac) 87
46 Becca (seasonoflove) 84
47 JOE 84
48 Cindy (Countrylife) 83
49 Beth 81
50 Nathalie 81
51 Liz (Lyzard) 80
52 Darryl 79
53 Mamie 79
54 Cheli (cyderry) 77
55 Ellen (kittenfish) 77
56 Micky 77
57 Rosalita 77
58 Daneille 74
59 Lucy (Sibyx) 74
60 swynn 72
61 Jim (drneutron) 70
62 Amy (PorchReader) 69
63 Fuzzi 69
64 Kathy (archerygirl) 69
65 Genny 68
66 Stasia 68
67 Dee 67
68 Linda (Whisper) 67
69 Paul (paulstalder) 67
70 Terri (tymfos) 67
71 Anne (AMQS) 66
72 Deseree (goddesspt2) 66
73 Susanna 66
74 Donna 65
75 Monica (justjoey) 65
76 Faith (Dk_Phoenix) 64
77 Rebecca (Rebeccanyc) 64
78 Carol (sugarcreekranch) 63
79 Kerri (DorsVenabili) 62
80 Janet (Streamsong) 61
81 Paul 61
82 Susie (susiesharp) 61
83 Marcia 60
84 Deborah (arubabookwoman) 59
85 Kelly (Violet Bramble) 59
86 Randy 59
87 Tania 59
88 Kriti 58
89 Linda (Lindapanzo) 58
90 Gail 57
91 Jenny (Lunacat) 57
92 Tui (Tiffin) 57
93 Valerie 57
94 Luxx 56
95 Ellen 55
96 Katie 55
97 Mary (bell7) 55
98 Unrulysun 55
99 Kara 54
100 Mike (mldavis) 54
101 Angela (bookangel) 53
102 Carrie (cal8769) 53
103 Charlotte (fourpawz2) 53
104 Linda (Laytonwoman3rd) 53
105 Megan 53
106 Peggy 53
107 Markon 52
108 Cariola 51
109 Lori (Ikernagh) 51
110 Steve (sclvad) 51
111 Bonnie 49
112 Ellie (mirrordrum) 49
113 Jenthepen 48
114 Reba (chataquan) 47
115 Rhian (SandDune) 47
116 Stephen (Ape) 47
117 Laura (lycomayflower) 46
118 Lynda (Carmenere) 46
119 Orlaith (ominogue) 46
120 Jean (majika) 45
121 Joanne 45
122 Nora 45
123 Deb 44
124 Katherine (qebo) 44
125 Jill (mrstreme) 43
126 Marie (mbellerose) 43
127 Tammy (tjblue) 43
128 Cindy (Georgiadawn) 42
129 Piyush 42
130 Anita (FAMeulstee) 41
131 Judy (ffortsa) 41
132 Brenda (Beeg) 40
133 casvelyn 40
134 Claudia 40
135 David (tapestry100) 40
136 Katelism 40
137 Kathy (persephone) 40
138 Tad 40
139 mstrust 39
140 Sara (Saraslibrary) 39
141 Guy (someguy) 38
142 Zoe 38
143 Sarah (beserene) 37
144 Stephen (TomKitten) 37
145 Laura 36
146 Leonie 36
147 sandykaypax 36
148 Kim (Berly) 35
149 Leah (atlargeintheworld) 35
150 Bekka 34
151 BJ (billiejean) 34
152 Ellie 34
153 Sandy (sjmccreary) 34
154 Karen (maggie1944) 33
155 Linda (Linda92007) 33
156 Nancy 31
157 Karen (karspeak) 30
158 Madeline 30
159 Ren (jadebird) 30
160 Samantha 30
161 Alex (roundballnz) 29
162 Cerie (Cerievans 1) 29
163 Carsten 28
164 Cushla 28
165 John Simpson 28
166 Hannah (HanGerg) 27
167 Nina (humouress) 27
168 Brit 26
169 Monica (mskeens) 25
170 Eris 24
171 Pat (phebj) 24
172 ursula 24
173 Becky (labwriter) 23
174 Porua 23
175 Callia 22
176 Caroline McElwee 22
177 Caty (CatyM) 22
178 Jenny (gcpl) 18
179 Jude 17
180 Blackdogbooks 16
181 Michelle (mks) 16
182 Prue 15
183 Lisa (kiwiflowa) 14
184 Tom (ty1997) 13
185 Jenn (jmaloney17) 12
186 Jonah 11

Finally just to show I've caught up - the updated Posting League as of this Morning (Malaysian time)
174 group members have more than 100 posts on their threads. Of these the total number of posts is 117,333 posts or an average of 543.21 posts per day. (wow and I have read em all!) or 674.33 posts per person (mean average). The median is only 336 which shows some are more active than others!
For example my thread has averaged 25.73 posts per day, whereas the mean average is 3.12 posts per day.

1 Paul 5558
2 Richard 4959
3 Kathleen 4809
4 Joe 4190
5 Mark 4130
6 Stephen (Ape) 3134
7 Ilana 2940
8 Darryl 2702
9 Claudia 2671
10 Mamie 2317
11 Caro 2194
12 Amber 2144
13 Donna 2104
14 Megan 2013
15 Chelle 1920
16 Lucy (Sibyx) 1897
17 Ellen 1803
18 Bonnie 1762
19 Suzanne 1694
20 Peggy 1406

21 Stasia 1369
22 Roni 1336
23 Terri (tymfos) 1334
24 Linda (Whisper) 1269
25 Jude 1249
26 Judy (Delta Queen) 1208
27 Micky 1075
28 Sara (Saraslibrary) 1058
29 Calm 1027
30 Joanne 1008
31 Lynda (Carmenere) 998
32 Katie 986
33 Deb 983
34 Heather 980
35 LUXX 947
36 Nora 944
37 Morphy 844
38 Linda (Lindapanzo) 792
39 Nathalie 787
40 Gail 784

41 Kim (Berly) 778
42 Kerri (DorsVenabili) 773
43 Anne (AnneDC) 733
44 Dee 729
45 Kerry 687
46 Nancy 684
47 Laura 658
48 Pat (phebj) 651
49 Cushla 650
50 Kara 650
51 Anne (AMQS) 648
52 Jim (drneutron) 587
53 Liz (Lyzard) 586
54 Lori (Thornton) 586
55 Genny 584
56 Tui (Tiffin) 576
57 Rachel (TheHibernator) 573
58 Brit 570
59 Faith (Dk_Phoenix) 569
60 Leah 566

61 Beth 552
62 Katherine (qebo) 545
63 Madeline 531
64 Tina (tututhefirst) 531
65 Anita (FAMeulstee) 508
66 Rhian (SandDune) 502
67 Ellie 485
68 Eris 463
69 Terri (tloeffler) 459
70 Valerie 458
71 Zoe 451
72 Amy (PorchReader) 440
73 Jenn (Nittnut) 435
74 Sarah (beserene) 413
75 Karenmarie 406
76 Dejah 402
77 Judy (ffortsa) 400
78 Cheli (cyderry) 368
79 Mary (bell7) 367
80 Carsten 359

81 Kathy (archerygirl) 357
82 Unrulysun 357
83 Rebecca (Rebeccanyc) 354
84 Becky (labwriter) 340
85 Foggidawn 339
86 Marie (mbellerose) 337
87 Carrie (cbl_tn) 336
88 Brenda (brenpike) 335
89 Leonie 326
90 Linda (Linda92007) 317
91 Linda (Layton3rd) 316
92 Susan J 314
93 LauraBrook 312
94 Blue 293
95 Karen (maggie1944) 282
96 Mary (storeettlr) 276
97 Cindy (Countrylife) 272
98 Carrie (cal8769) 269
99 Angela (bookangel) 262
100 Rosalita 261

101 Ellen (kittenfish) 258
102 Janet (Streamsong) 258
103 Cynara 250
104 Fuzzi 250
105 Becca (seasonoflove) 239
106 sandykaypax 237
107 Lori (Ikernagh) 230
108 Karen O. 224
109 Katelism 222
110 Alex (roundballnz) 216
111 swynn 199
112 Laura (lycomayflower) 197
113 Cyrel (torontoc) 194
114 Piyush 193
115 Kriti 191
116 Bekka 188
117 Kathy (persephone) 187
118 Markon 184
119 kathy (kmartin) 183
120 Kim (lilkim) 183

121 Susan (suslyn) 183
122 Prue 181
123 Reba (chataquan) 181
124 Jenny (Lunacat) 180
125 Tammy (tjblue) 180
126 Hannah (HanGerg) 178
127 Monica (justjoey) 177
128 Stephen (TomKitten) 174
129 Mike (mldavis) 173
130 Hugehorrorfan 172
131 Emilie (alsvidur) 167
132 Ren (jadebird) 167
133 kkunker 165
134 James (Eyejaybee) 162
135 Melis (kassilim) 162
136 Tad 162
137 Steve (sclvad) 161
138 Tom (ty1997) 161
139 Sandy (sjmccreary) 154
140 Carol (sugarcreekranch) 152

141 Susie (susiesharp) 151
142 Deborah (aruba) 149
143 Luci (Elkidee) 145
144 Paul (paulstalder) 144
145 Porua 144
146 Brenda (Beeg) 142
147 Samantha 142
148 Monica (mskeens) 141
149 Jeremy (JBD1) 138
150 Cariola 137
151 Charlotte (fourpawz2) 137
152 Randy 136
153 Kerry (CDVicarage) 126
154 BJ (billiejean) 122
155 Rachel (aktakukac) 119
156 Lisa (kiwiflowa) 118
157 Michelle (mks) 118
158 Nina (humouress) 118
159 Guy (someguy) 117
160 Marcia 116

161 Blackdogbooks 115
162 Cindy (Georgiadawn) 113
163 Daneille 113
164 Jenthepen 113
165 Jill (mrstreme) 110
166 Karen (karspeak) 109
167 Jean (majika) 106
168 Susanna 106
169 ursula 106
170 mstrust 104
171 Selene (mene) 104
172 David (tapestry100) 102
173 Feca (67) 102
174 Jenny (gcpl) 102

Wow Paul - that is a lot of work compiling those stats.

So sorry to hear about your mother, hoping for a positive result from further tests.

Hope that work eases up for you and that you find a good driver soon.

Have a great weekend.

Calm - thanks - I hope West Wales is it's usual peaceful (dare I say calm self) this weekend and that you have a lovely one too.

Greetings, Paul! Here I am with my feeble attempt to try and catch up and get back into the swing of things.
So sorry, to learn of your moms health scare. I'm sending all the positive vibes I can muster to you and your mom.

#137 - Looking at the groups of 20 here, it's funny, because at the meetup with Mark and our spouses, I was trying to explain LT to my husband and said that Mark is on the "A" list and I'm kinda on the "C" list. I was exactly correct! Ha!

Nice work putting those stats together Paul!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Lynda - lovely to "see" you - I'm looking forward to a late night with the Olympics and catching up with all the threads. Thanks for your supportive message re my mum she's a lucky lady if only she knew it!

Kerri - hahaha you'll never be relegated to my "c" list but I would acquiesce that Mark is a superstar. Wait that would mean that I'm on the E list on book reading.
Interesting that only Richard, Amber and Suz make the A list on both lists, although Ilana comes close too.

Callia - thanks and the very same wishes tropically forwarded to you. Be interested to see you update your reading!

I'll add my sympathy re your mum's situation to everyone else's, Paul. That's got to be very difficult for you. Glad SWMBO gets along with her so well - that was the case with my Debbi before my mom passed away, and it meant a lot. Among other things, she was able to help with some difficulties in a clear-headed way that my sisters understandably just couldn't (and were outside my zone of help).

Anyway, I'll be pulling for some good news on your family front, and thinking of you.

I'm sorry to hear about your mother, Paul. I hope that the ovarian mass is a benign one. Please keep us posted.

Thank you Paul! I think I got all my books updated....

Hi Paul, I just realised where your boys won the velodrome ride, my boys got the bronze! Even if my boys wore zoot suits that were a little "the Jetsons" for me :)

Re: my own MIL, it is true that we dont get on, yet I am the one encouraging her son to visit, persevere and bite his tongue. So it might seem to an outsider (or even an insider) that we get on fine. I have dreadful premonitions that one Christmas I might have one vino too many and let loose on the whole clan though. haha, not likely, but there is an outside chance.

Kerri- As far as I'm concerned, you are A List material all the way!

Both sets of boys having been doing well at the velodrome ...... can't help but be impressed

BTW - came across this blog thought you would like : http://undergroundnewyorkpubliclibrary.com

Just catching up here while I have a few moments to spare - Craig and the kids are embattled in Mario Kart which apparently also requires trash talking!

Continuing to send my thoughts and prayers your way concerning your Mom's health. Wish I could do more. Hate that you all have to wait for answers.

Thanks for the time, effort, energy and enthusiasm that you put into keeping and posting the stats - always so interesting to see! I particularly love the reading update where you provided the additional data:

So of 186 people listed below they have collectively read 11,868 books (if everyone updated 12,000?)
Mean number of books read is 63.81 per person
Median number of books read is 57 books.
25 to end of July had read more than 100 books
57 to end of July had passed the 75 book target
124 are on target tp reach the 75 book target (44 books or more to end July)

11, 868 books - Amazing!! Adore all those lovely statistics! And you provide them all for me free of charge, lovingly tallied and listed, with no effort on my part. Thanks for that, Paul!

Your posting statistics astonish me! Seriously, that sounds like tedious work, and I don't know how you do it. Then again, I have a brother like you, only he monitors polling date (he's a political science junkie), creating huge Excel speadsheets filled with information about political races. I can't understand any of it. :)

Continuing the prayers for your mother, and I hope everything will be all right with your family.

Hoping for the best on the results of your mum's next scan.

I'm glad we're finally on the board with the golds.

Your fasting trials remind me of one of my favourite PG Wodehouse stories, (the title of which I cannot at the moment remember), but a millionaire has decided to go on a drastic diet, and his method of coping with food deprivation is to get his secretary to read recipe books to him, for his bedtime reading. Personally, I doubt that helped his diet.

Joe, Thanks for your comments. It is true that sons and daughters in law can be more clear sighted than the blood sons and daughters in a way that is both compassionate and practical. My daughter who is a lawyer dealing with matters of domestic abuse and child welfare issues is a tough cookie but is not the most loving or sympathetic character. Her husband on the other hand is a great help and support to my mum and they fortunately live in the same village less than 5 minutes walk away so help is always at hand for my Mum.

Darryl - thanks mate must admit the phrase "ovarian mass" made me shudder somewhat!

Callia - Will go over and check your progress after this! I had hoped to go round all the threads yesterday whilst I had the Olympics on in the background. It didn't work as I became rapt in Britains most successful day in the games since 1908! Six golds in the day - fantastic!

Megan - The slightly ridiculous disqualification in the team sprint for ladies marred what could have been a clean sweep to date, but since this is very much my sport I am of course jumping around in a quite undignified manner as the golds keep piling up. SWMBO has informed me surprisingly that she is thoroughly enjoying the velodrome too but I'm not sure whether it is because of the all too revealing skin-suits or not!
I can picture you with a couple too many glasses on a family get together issuing a few home truths that get you permanently on strained terms with the MIL - I wouldn't mind being a fly on the wall.

Mark - Agree 100%; Kerri is a star and my pick as team mate if we have a rock quiz.

Alex - It is great stuff isn't it - so great in fact I have actually sorted by tyres out and will turn the pedals for the first time in several years this evening. Too bad none of my cycling apparel fits me anymore.
Your link made me smile - I was one of those oblivious of all as the pages were turning when I used to get the train into work.

Mamie - "Mario Kart"? Not the games one might have envisioned you participating in with such relish on Craig's long awaited return! The kids love their gaming and Belle in particular is a dab hand at wii.
The waiting and not knowing and not being able to affect things is one of the binds about staying so far away.
When you quote the stats analysis like that it does make me seem a touch geeky doesn't it? Hahaha.
I had a look at your stats just now and if you discount the first quarter you have averaged 17 posts a day which if was pro rated would place you sixth overall. That also doesn't take account of the fact that for everyone else in the top ten the first quarter was by far their most productive. You have the third most posts in the third quarter.
Free service - of course - but donations always welcome!

Eris - I'm not sure I should admit it too readily but I really enjoy keeping up the stats. Your brother sounds like my sort of guy!

Nina - It has been a fairly slow start for the green and gold - more green than gold you might say. I was a tad disappointed that you didn't show more in the pool, but I'm sure that Alison Pearson will do well in the hurdles.
You have given a timely reminder that I should re-read the Jeeves and Wooster series.

Thanks once again to all my pals for their support and well wishing towards me and particularly my mum. I truly am a blessed fellow having you all to sound off to.

I've been enjoying the Olympics too - the atmosphere in the UK is so positive with all but the most diehard sports refuseniks being won over. It is good to be having such success as well. One of the commentators last night mentioned what an improvement it had been since Atlanta where Britain only won one gold medal! I had a perception that we had done a lot better in London and Bejing but I had forgotten things used to be that bad!

Rhian - this has been by far GB's most successful games to date since the war. Couldn't help a few stats:

Year Venue Golds Medals Event per Gold

1948 London 3 138 46.00
1952 Helsinki 1 149 149.00
1956 Melbourne 6 153 25.50
1960 Rome 2 152 76.00
1964 Tokyo 4 163 40.75
1968 Mexico City 5 174 34.80
1972 Munich 4 195 48.75
1976 Montreal 3 198 66.00
1980 Moscow 5 204 40.80
1984 Los Angeles 5 226 45.20
1988 Seoul 5 241 48.20
1992 Barcelona 5 260 52.00
1996 Atlanta 1 271 271.00
2000 Sydney 11 300 27.27
2004 Athens 9 301 33.44
2008 Beijing 19 302 15.89
2012 London 14 138 9.86

So far Team GB is winning better than 1 in every 10 events. I think the authorities took a decision after the fiasco of Atlanta that investment in sports was necessary to stop us being an international laughing stock.

> 155 well you are one better than me & still have a working bike - lets be honest do you really want to look like those 50+ "I am having a midlife crisis' lycra crowd ?? far too many in Auckland for my own liking ...... since have moved into the suburbs might even get me a bike .....

Alex - Hahaha no more lycra for me that is for sure - my bike will be for dignified recreation only from here on in. Great exercise though.

Sending thoughts and prayers for your Mum, Paul. Glad to hear she was feeling a little more chipper the last time you spoke.

Thanks Heather - I hope you're enjoying the Olympics over there.

Hi mate, thanks for the visit to my thread, hope everything is ok with your mum and that it turns out to be benign. I can't believe i made it onto one of your lists and in 165th position, this will spur me on now cheers. I think that we were a little bit pessimistic in our gold medal guesses, since wednesday it has got better and better and last night to get three in the space of an hour was awesome.Regardless of how the state of the country is these fantastic athletes have really lifted the country and shown how hard work can reap rewards. Yesterday morning i shed a tear or two with the female lightweight rowers and then Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter who gave everything, straining every sinew and then thought they had let the country down, they did the country proud and i just hope that all those overpaid nancy's in the Premier league were watching and show some humility instead of faking injuries and chasing ever larger paychecks, these fantastic athletes deserve every accolade accorded to them.

On a different note, how are you and yours this weekend, hope you are having a good one as we are, just getting ready to go watch my son playing for Old Sharlston CC in the Dyson - Skidmore final at Ackworth hoping they win the trophy for the second time. Have a good day mate and i'll talk to you soon.

Just popping in to keep up ( hah! or pretend to )

#157 Thanks for that table Paul. That was exactly the information we were searching for on the internet last night, but we failed to find anything as useful as that. Surprised that some of the earlier Olympics had such poor British performances as well - 3 gold medals for London 1948 - I'd maybe assumed it was a more recent thing.

By the way, your table managed to convey to my husband, something of what I enjoy about LT. I think he'd assumed previously that I'd just been typing in my book reviews and listing my books. But I showed him your table, and mentioned in passing a little bit about you and his comment was 'You mean you actually know things about these people?' I don't think he'd realised previously that we actually talked to each other, but now he has categorised LT as a sort of literary Facebook and maybe understands it a bit better. I've been trying to get him to join - he reads around 30-40 books a year and keeps a paper book diary - but to no avail so far.

HI Paul. Sending you some good wishes for your Mom! Hope everything works out well for her

Paul, I am very excited about the Olympics....School starts in 15 days (aaaa!) so I'm working on not staying up till 11 PM every night!

Hi Paul - It's so hard to keep up with you. I'm sending good wishes your mom's way. I hope everything turns out well. I see the Olympics bug has bitten you, too. I am cheering for Andy Murray right now:) This year, I decided to cheer for the underdogs -- countries or people who have never won medals.

You're doing some good, long reading right now.

John - Isn't it nice to be sometimes wrong. Last night watching as we snaffled six golds and gave countless other wonderful performances was a real buzz. Ohorougu and Greene through to their respective finals and I have a sneaking feeling that they will manage toraise their game when it counts.
You are absolutely right about the overpaid jerks playing in the EPL. FIFA needs budget caps, they need a squad system of 25 players per club where at least 10 of that 25 need to be club academy products, we need video technology to stop ludicrous miscarriages, we need sin bins - isn't it a joke that the suspension system can directly work against the club sinned against - clubs A, B and C are chasing the title - club A plays and draws with club B and have their best two players sent off in the last minute. They then play club C who having the advantage of club A missing players go on to win over club A and deprive club B of the title. How is that fair?
Sharlston at Ackworth - I played many times at the Quaker School as a skiddy medium pacer and obdurate bat. Is your son a demon bowler or a batsman? Good luck mate, I never did like Ackworth!

Kath - I'll rush over to yours shortly and make a similar pretence of keeping up.

Rhian - lovely story about your husband coming close to LT enlightenment! I also didn't realise what a community of friends, fellow travellers and like minded individuals this would become for me.
The stats on Olympic golds are interesting aren't they? Started off with the first modern games in 1896 in Athens through Paris, St. Louis and London in 1908 but realised that it was very different then. The french topped the list in 1900 as a majority of events were only for them, similarly in 1904 for the Americans and 1908 for us. We won 56 golds in 1908 which was more than half the total but some of the events were not open to foreigners. That is why I started with 1948 and the second London Games.

Chelle - thanks so much. Sneaking up on New Scotland's upcoming festivities isn't it? I am excited for you both already.

Callia - Surely your mum doesn't prescribe any curfew whilst the Olympics are on?!

Beth - Lovely to see you here striving to keep up! Thanks for your kind words re my mum - I'm sure she'll be fine as SWMBO says it will be so and she assures me that she is never wrong. She never gave up on Bambi the cat despite the Vet seeking on three occasions to put him to sleep.
I, like you was cheering for Mr. Murray and I am astonished to be typing that he won superbly against an out of sorts Fed-ex.

Paul- I hope you are having a nice weekend and I hope you are getting some quality reading time in. You deserve it.

Not really got going with my reading this weekend mate, although I have a couple of new purchases to add - the Olympics keeps distracting me.

I'm fascinated that I have more visitors this year than last. I do think, nay, I can admit, that this year I feel more 'addicted' to LT than ever.......

I'm sorry for your worry about your ma, and being so far away. My australian bro had to deal with that while my mother was fading away. Being right there had its ups and downs, of course, but on the whole I am glad of it.

Finally the Murakami has arrived in a digestible format in Malaysia and was of course snaffled immediately.

IQ84 by Haruki Murakami
Doctor Who : The Three Doctors by Terrance Dicks (bought for a re-read)
The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
Step-by-Step Cook's Encyclopedia by Linda Doeser - for SWMBO who intends to present it to Yasmyne.

It is dangerous to go to Katie's thread immediately prior to going to the shopping mall!

You're welcome!

In answer to a previous inquiry waaaay back up there, only major travel plans right now are to Australia in October. Will let you know if I somehow finagle a trip to KL in there as well!

Paul, agree with everything you put about the EPL. Son and heir is a demon bowler and at some point i am going to get kitted up like the michelin man and have a net against him, don't know where he got the pace from i was more of a spinner and a botham type batsman. Another good clutch of medals today, Ben Ainslie and Andy Murray with gold and plenty more opportunities on the track today and tomorrow with the Brownlee brothers to come and Keri-ann Payne in the 10k open water. This one of those times when i am so pleased to have been wrong and hope my guess is way way out.

Paul, thanks for your kind words over on my thread. Not doing too brilliantly today, still getting over all the emotions from yesterday, but I'll pull through. xx

#Paul you're quite as dangerous yourself. I think it was either you or Mark who started with the best of... lists and boy did that make my wishlist grow. Today I went with two friends to the biggest bookmarket of Europe, held once a year, and bought a not so humble amount of 30 books, quite a few who came from your little lists. But who's complaining?

I also concur on the EPL ..... sadly I think the horse bolted many years ago - there was a chance but the gutless officials chose not to act.

Paul-- Oh, she tries....:)

Oooojh Paul - lovely two Tyler books in your haul! Ladder of Years is one of my favourites! With a Brit in the house, we are glued to the Olympics here, also. Watched the women's marathon last night (replay) - one of the Austyralian's running works for IBM here in our Sydney offices, so had to cheer her on! Great to see GBR doing so well! If only silver was worth more than gold, the Aussies would be well-ahead! Oh, by the way, on the outgoing trip to Cambodia, I am staying at the Ancasa Hotel and Spa (which I think is fairly central in the city). I haven't booked accommodation yet on my return visit....

Thinking of you and your mum and glad to hear she is chirpier...

>164 SandDune: and his comment was 'You mean you actually know things about these people?
that is funny, as people i have talked to about LT say the same thing, only with an incredulous and slightly disgusted tone! I have to say that I have actually met people from the site and that they are cool, interesting, intelligent and fantastic people. (see- I'm sticking up for all my LT peeps)

Katie - it would be nice if you were able to get yourself to KL for a while at least. I envision book shopping together could be quite incendiary.

John - Next time I get across in the summer we can meet up and pad up to the speedster together and show him that the old un's can still do a shift (well probably an over or two). It shows what investment in sport can achieve doesn't it. After 1996 Atlanta when we won nowt the British Olympic Association hatched a plan to invest in sports to improve our credibility. The pumped most of the money into five sport; track and field, sailing, rowing, cycling and swimming. Swimming didn't quite pay off this time but most of our guys were fairly competitive.

Ilana - nice to see your response - sometimes wish I was a short drive away as sometimes there is little substitute for a friendly face but I trust that words of support and the positive vibes that are part and parcel thereof do help from time to time. x

Hahaha Lilian - that is surely a benefit not a detraction of the group. The genesis of the best of lists was that Mark posted someone else's list on his thread for discussion - as usual I got carried away and posted my own best of lists which spiralled into a thread of lists set up by Lucy; so I guess if apportionment of blame was in order Mark, Lucy and I all are a little culpable but since those two are such gems I better shoulder the responsibility!
The biggest book market in Europe? Now that I would like to see - where is it?

Alex - Yeah and now the performances of those athletes on grants compared to the useless footballing moneybags is getting talked about. Even if it meant breaking with UEFA/Fifa and losing a lot of the best players abroad I do believe that salary caps, academy systems, technology and sin bins as well as a radical change to the offside law would help the game forward. Its very survival will be eventually threatened unless the wage incontinence is stoppered.

Callia - I'm not sure exactly of your age (we don't follow the same grade system) but I guess you are close to Yasmyne's age. SWMBO is fighting a losing battle with her over similar issues at the moment. For the Dad wanting to be protective of your daughter but aware of a teenagers need to grow themselves rather than being merely nurtured at home I am often in the cross fire and called upon to agree with both of them. Mums usually know best and I am scared that my dear girls bump into boys with the same attitude to life that I had in my younger days. I used to feign sleep to manage to read when they were out the way, but I'm not giving tips (honest Anne).

Prue - Ancasa Hotel is next to Puduraya Bus Station and may be a tad lively but it is in a busy central area and close to the Petaling Street market. It is also fairly close to the Vietnamese restaurant I put up on my thread earlier but since your destination is Cambodia you may want to try something else first! I will try to pick you up from there and we can hit the bookstore in KLCC or Pavilion. It is a few weeks away but I'll PM you my phone details after this and before I forget.

Megan - hahaha I know Rhian's comment about her hubby is similar to that encountered from a number of my own friends about bookworms and egg-heads etc and I well remember your friends terror stricken concern and mobilisation of support team when they found out you were meeting a strange Brit you had come into contact with somewhere on the ether!

Skimming over all the Olympic talk, mostly because I haven't watched any myself this time. We cut cable/satellite last year as part of our trimming down of the budget to account for going from 2 incomes to just 1, and for the most part I don't miss it at all, but at times like this I do. I am enjoying the joy of others watching the games, though, and I'm happy for you that your compatriots are doing so well!

I skim over the Olympics because I find them dead boring...
I know, I know they worked hard etc .. and I wish them all well..
but I will be glad when it's over. Between politics and the Olympics..yikes!

Now that it's August, can you eat during the day again??

*waving* at Paul

I am one of those who love the Olympics. What I want to know is what knucklehead at Bryant & Stratton planned finals while the Olympics are going on?!

>172 PaulCranswick: Am I correct in remembering that there is a 75ers group read of IQ84 planned for the fall? Maybe I'll join in. My copy has been sitting around for months now, but for some reason I just haven't heard it calling to me!

Hi Paul,
You are one busy dude over here!
Now that I finally have my passport updated, I am joining Megan in admonishing you to "pu-lease" get yours in order! You'll be glad you did.

Note to Megan: If you ever DO have a nice un-inhibiting glass(es) of wine and let loose on your in-laws, all those flies on the wall are your LT friends whooping it up!

Amber - I don't think I'd miss satellite to be honest as we learn to adjust. I missed most about my life in England apart from family and stuff firstly quality newspapers and secondly libraries. I got used to it eventually but when I get the chance back in England I devour the papers and sneak off to the library when SWMBO still sleeps.

Kath - sports and politics do make many people shudder - and they get muddled sometimes don't they over the pond. That's why your Presidential elections are called a "race". I would agree that events normally have proved it to be poor sport.
Fasting ends around 19th of August.

Stasia - nice to see you. Could they not give sports fans some sort of dispensation for the games! Good luck with your finals - I'm rooting for you every bit as much as I am for the GB medal hopefuls.

Linda - There may have been a group read planned but the 1000 plus pages may mean that I am a bit slow keeping up with a group read!

Cee - You are in line now with my antipodean pal and my "lovely" wife in seeking that I make sure I am ready to fly around the world at a moments notice. Don't know why SWMBO is so keen that I be able to get away - shouldn't I be the one trying to improve my potential mobility.

Paul- My mom fights the battle too...against me and my sister! and sometimes my dad...we are gymnastics fans. Good thing my mom has a strong will :)

Well, Paul - passports are not only to get away, but to get back home too! Not to mention less hassle all around. Just sayin'

Hi Paul.
I'm 114 posts behind (but it was a great camping trip, with fabulous wildflowers and no cell coverage), so I'm just skimming through. Very sorry to hear about your mum and hoping she gets good news soon ---- sounds like she is bucking up but it's got to be scary......

Thanks for all the reading and posting stats. I'm glad to see that I'm hanging in there, even with reduced time available for LT (not to mention reading). I absolutely deny that I have any competitive streak at all so I'm assiduously ignoring all stats from here forward...... heh

Watched a bit of the Olympics last night while I read Palace Walk (odd juxtaposition). I enjoy the track and field events but I still wish the US announcers would allow a bit more silence......

I hope you have a good week, Paul.

Hah! A bit more silence from the U.S. announcers sounds good to me, too. It does remind me that we were disconcerted in Australia by how much silence there is on their sportscasts. I wouldn't mind a happy medium.

Good to see that we've gone from the London Mayor wisecracking about the lack of medals (GB was just showing courtesy and polite restraint to guests) to GB amassing a slew of medals.

#149 and #155 - Awe, you guys are swell!

Even though Canada does better at winter activities, I have been glued to the TV watching these Summer Olympics. I love it all, but it certainly does cut into the reading and LT time! I am very pleased to see GB doing so well, I think it's so nice for the home country to be able to see their athletes win medals.

Callia - I dare say that you will be a chip off the old block. In my own home there are three very determined ladies - well five if Fifi (SIL) and Erni are counted.

Cee - You're right as always my dear.

Ellen - It is nice to see my non-competitive friend back refreshed from a very enjoyable trip. Your stats are remarkably consistent actually . Palace Walk and the Olympics - well Mahfouz's classic was published in the year of the Melbourne Olympics and would have certainly garnered a gold medal that year for Egypt. La Chute wins Silver for France and Albert Camus with Bronze going to GBR and The Towers of Trezibond (Rose Macauley).
Hope you have a great week too.

Joe - I'm usually one for a happy medium in most things. I think the British commentators are normally ok and don't get in the way of the events. Boris Johnson seems to be reaping the benefits of a seemingly successful Olympics and is being touted as a successor to David Cameron. The fact that he doesn't have a seat in the House of Commons and is therefore ineligible seems to have passed most people by.

Kerri - Thanks but unfortunately in my case I am literally so!

Judy - It does add spice to the watching if your home boys are competing but I had games fatigue last night and went to bed early. I awoke with Richard Sharpe sitting on my chest - fortunately I move so little during sleep that the pages weren't even creased!

>181 PaulCranswick: I well remember your friends terror stricken concern and mobilisation of support team when they found out you were meeting a strange Brit
lol
Yes that was a laugh. She's the same one who would take my boyfriends aside and give them talking to's about treating me right! There's nothing like a good friend is there.

>186 -Cee-: all those flies on the wall are your LT friends whooping it up!
Cee, you'll be the first to know if I realise my fantasy of giving some home truths to the in-laws. lol. I suspect there is more than just a tad of rottweiler inside this golden lab!

I love watching the Olympics. I did see the foot race where the Brit won and the American got the silver and they were so happy because they had trained together in Oregon. That was quite good and I saw the Brits win the Rowing event. I was also glued to the beach volleyball as well as the regular vb.

I'm hoping you will get good news on your Mom's scan soon Paul.

Paul-- we have a lot of determined ladies in our family.... Only three of them live in our home!

Bonnie - SWMBO doesn't allow me to watch the beach volleyball - It is her considered opinion that my interest in it has nothing to do with sport.

Callia - Girl power indeed!

MUM UPDATE

She got blood tests back yesterday and these do not show any cancer!! Whilst further checks are being done it looks nailed on to be ovarian cysts - not nice at all certainly but not the dreadful C. Mightily relieved and thanks again to all of you and your positive vibes helping her along to this good news.

Great news, Paul!

Good for her. Been through a couple of scares myself; glad she's clear.

Very good news for your mum (and for you). Whew! I'm so glad -- and no, the cysts won't be fun to deal with, but a lot better than cancer.

Beach volleyball. Why is it the women wear bikinis and the men wear beach shorts and a loose tank shirt? (don't answer that)

Really glad to hear that your Mum's diagnosis isn't the bad news that you were worried about. I hope that the treatment for the cysts isn't too unpleasant.

Just heard a piece of news on the radio this morning that may amuse you. Apparently if Yorkshire was a country it would be lying tenth in the medal table!

phew for your Mum, Paul.
And I agree with SWMBO on beach volley ball. What's next for an olympic sport....pole dancing? Actually, dont answer that :))

#200 Wonderful news!

What's next for an Olympic sport, pole dancing?

I read this week that a pole dancing association was lobbying hard for it to be included!

My son's first comment on the Opening Ceremony was 'Oh look, they've got pole dancers' which was a little suprising until we realised he meant the maypole dancers. Not quite the same thing!

203 - apparently its in the sport regulations - guess it was made for Tv then :)

Great news on your mom. What a relief it must be.

Paul - So very happy to hear the news about your Mom -WahHOO! Sending good thoughts her way for the next step.

Love Ellen's comment above: " I still wish the US announcers would allow a bit more silence...... " She is so very polite - I want them to SHUT UP. They talk continuosly through every event - what's up with that?

I'm glad to hear the good news about your mother, Paul.

LOL at SWMBO's comments about beach volleyball!

Great news, Paul! What a big relief! Hope the rest of your week goes well.

Oh, so happy to hear the cancer-freeness of you mom! Still sending thoughts her (and your) way, though, throughout the cyst business...

Oh good ! Mom will be okay... too bad about the beach volleyball.. lol

Glad about your mother; for the person I know who had ovarian cysts, it was a simple procedure (don't want to go into the medical details) to remove them, and she went home the same day.

Thats great news about your mum Paul, i can tell its been a worry for you till now. Pesky ovarian cysts but better than the big C. Just this minute seen the Brownlee brothers get Gold and Bronze, Alistair first and poor Jonny had to take a 15 second penalty and still got Bronze. We just can't stop winning medals, 19 Gold and 42 in total so far, c'mon GB.

So relieved to see the latest news about your mum Paul, although I'm sure not half as relieved as you are! Hope the cyst removal goes as smoothly as others have said here.

Refraining from comment about beach volleyball.

Great news about your mum!

I should mention, though, that pole dancing (when not done by a stripper, but an athlete) is EXTREMELY athletic and can put many of the gymnasts to shame with their core control. I've seen someone hold onto the pole with their toes & "hanging" completely horizontal. Like, stiff as a plank but using only the muscles on the top of their feet to hold their entire body weight, 20 feet off the ground, sideways and horizontal. It's ridiculous. Should it be an Olympic sport? Well, not to comment on the beach volleyball, but if THAT can be included...

Wonderful news about your mom!

Mamie-- I agree!!! LOL and they don't even talk about the event. They talk about the emotions of the athletes and their families and how hard their emotional journey was when no one really cares :)

>181 PaulCranswick: - The two of us book shopping together would indeed be quite a site. Could we rent a mule or something to carry the haul?

I'll go out on a limb here and admit that I actually like the beach volleyball. It certainly qualifies as a sport in terms of skill, endurance, and fitness!

ETA: So pleased about the good news about your mum!

1 whole day away from LT and I know I'm going to be struggling to keep up. Today promises to be just as hectic. I will reply to all your lovely messages when I get back from site this afternoon.

>199 PaulCranswick: SWMBO doesn't allow me to watch the beach volleyball

Well I'm not sure what you're referring to Paul but I was watching the MEN's beach volleyball;-)

210> LOL!!!!!! Mamie, you are spot on.

I am just so happy for you about the much better news on your mum. You must all feel like you can breathe again. Such a scare to go through - and damn doctors that give you the worst news before they know for sure!

I have been watching the discus - big boys those throwers! And the mens gymnastics - buns so firm you could bounce a 20p piece off them!

I'm afraid I have Olympic fatigue! I didn't get much reading done today. I was doing genealogy while I had the Olympics on for background noise.

Prue: lol (you know what comment that refers to)

Glad to hear about your mom's test results, Paul!

"...buns so firm you could bounce a 20p piece off them!"

But - are they really happy???

Wow, I'm so far behind ...in part because LT refuses to list your thread on my list lately. I have to backtrack down and find your list 19 then work my way forward. Very frustrating. Anyway, I'm delighted to hear the news about your mother is good and I guess one good thing about the LT problem is that I never had time to worry for her since I read the entire sequence in one sitting.

Stasia, Nina, Ellen, Rhian, Megan & Heather, Alex, Morphy, Mamie, Darryl, Mark, Amber, Kath, Rebecca, John, Laura, Faith, Callia, Katie, Prue, Roni and Reba

Thanks so much for your latest supportive comments regarding my mum.

Ellen - apparel for beach volleyball - it really is a men's world isn't it!

Megan, Rhian, Alex - Hahaha - Not sure about pole dancing but I have heard that the lobby group for mud wrestling to be included is gathering pace.

Rhian - Yorkshire 10th?! and that is without being able to field a full squad!

Mamie - On TV here we have mainly the British commentators and they are generally not too intrusive. Have noticed the tendency of the interviewers to ask ridiculous questions. Asking the gold medal winner "how do you feel" is particularly inane.

John and the number is now 22!

Faith - the queue to buy the tickets would probably be a mile long.

Katie - I think that a whole cattle-train would probably be required to carry our supplies.

Bonnie - You mean that the men are playing it too?!

Prue - As someone known to prize shillings over buttocks I would sooner pocket the 20ps rather than bounce them off buns!

Lori - My yawns accompanying my typing tell me that my body is in full agreement with you.

Cee - Depends surely on who is picking up the 20p pieces.

Reba - Don't tell me LT is fed up with me already! Glad you made what seems like a not inconsiderable effort and I certainl like to see you here.

200: Thanks for that Mum Update, Paul. Excellent news. I can almost hear your sigh of relief.

Olympic fever is seriously messing with my reading life. I love seeing the places in England we visited when my daughter lived there.

Great news on your Mom, Paul!

I think SWMBO is wrong on the beach volleyball - I love that sport, and have for years (men's and women's). It's really spectacular the way they cover ground, dive to make miraculous plays, and then scramble up to play on.

My daughter doesn't get the comments about the women's bikinis. She says, look at what the Olympic men divers are (barely) wearing!

224: Prue!
Er ... did you try it?

Paul, regarding your fiscal policy re 20p pieces, you must be from oop north. :-)

Donna - Thanks - My reading is struggling due to three main things:
1 Incredibly busy office due to the impending holiday period here
2 No driver so I can't read {much} in the car for the moment
3 The London Olympiad

Joe - I would agree that the beach volleyballers are athletic and it is eminently watchable. Erm Your daughter is right...I saw some of the synchronised swimming yesterday and the cut of some of the swimwear left virtually nothing to one's imagination.

Nina - Prue would surely not waste good coinage in that manner and I believe that you could check it out more properly by using your own fingers.
Oop North is exactly right - I am a born and bred Yorkshireman (we are renowned for caution in all matters mercantile) from sunny Wakefield.

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose reading is being adversely impacted by the London Olympiad. :-)

Hi Paul re >234 PaulCranswick:, the sun was shining brightly all day in Wakefield today and is forecast to stay like this till Monday, how are you mate.

Thanks Paul. Unfortunately the problem isn't only with your thread. It is annoying but searching missing buddies out is worth it.

Stopping by for a quick visit and happy to see the good news update regarding your mom!

Ellen - I surrended last night and went to sleep early. Hopefully today is a little less hectic. I am hosting the companies annual dinner and fast breaking today so it should be a happy day.

John - and there was I being tongue in cheek! Things have been a bit overwhelming mate to be honest and I am hoping for a bit of a rest this weekend.

Reba - Hope all your glitches with the computer and connectivity get settled as it is always a pleasure to see you in these parts.

Lori - Thanks it is nice to see you here as usual.

62.

Bad Intentions by Karin Fossum

Another installment in the Inspector Sejer series. Centres around guilt as the mysterious deaths of a young man when in the care of two friends and the subsequent finding of the body of a Vietnamese youngster leaves Inspector Sejer with his usual feeling that somthing is definitely amiss.
Will give all Fossum's fans the usual recipe of setting and amateur psychology - it is by no means my favourite Scandi series but enjoyable nonetheless.

7/10

I have only read the first book in that series, but I own several more of them - need to get back to those. Have you read anything by Camilla Läckberg?

I haven't made it that far in the Fossum series, but I do have that one downloaded on my Kindle so I'll eventually get to it. I want to read it in order as much as possible.

Paul - I am perfectly happy to spend a few 20p pieces on buns any day.

Hi Paul- Just checking in with you, my friend. Hope you find a little time to breathe. Whew! I need to get back to Inspector Sejer. I've only read 3.

Mamie - I have the first three in the series by Camilla Lackberg but haven't read them yet. The Ice Princess is scheduled for September.

Lori - I like but don't love the Fossum series. Much prefer Henning Mankell, Mari Jungstedt, Arnaldur Indriadson and Hakan Nesser whose Wallender, Knutas, Erlendur and Van Veeteren respectively do morose introspection more effectively than Inspector Sejer who seems far more happy to be sad.

Prue - hahaha

Mark - still overly occupied mate but I am hoping I can make it round the threads a little today.

Ok, don't laugh, but I am reading The Stonecutter right now - checked it out from the library not realizing it was part of a series. Oops. Pretty good so far.

Mamie - (with face devoid of either frown or freakishly foppish grin) I read the first chapter of The Ice Princess last year when I bought it in UK and it looks pretty good.

Have fun at your annual dinner!
Can't even imagine what the food will be. Actually, if you told me, I probably still couldn't imagine it. I'll bet it's all tasty :-)

Cee - Will give you a full update later - I 'm sure it will be tasty too. We are going to a place called Arousha which serves mainly arab food and is a favourite of the staff.

Update on the posting activity in the 3rd quarter.
21 threads have attracted more than 250 posts since 1 July as follows

1 Paul 1036 posts (Overall 5669 posts 1st)
2 Mark 810 posts (Overall 4246 posts 5th)
3 Mamie 790 posts (Overall 2421 posts 10th)
4 Richard 727 posts (Overall 5058 posts 2nd)
5 Kath 720 posts (Overall 4913 posts 3rd)
6 Stephen 660 posts (Overall 3176 posts 6th)
7 Joe 502 posts (Overall 4274 posts 4th)
8 Amber 480 posts (Overall 2208 posts 12th)
9 Ilana 464 posts (Overall 2977 posts 7th)
10 Darryl 437 posts (Overall 2748 posts 8th)
11 Caro 421 posts (Overall 2215 posts 11th)
12 Megan 390 posts (Overall 2051 posts 14th)
13 Chelle 360 posts (Overall 1979 posts 15th)
14 Claudia 332 posts (Overall 2713 posts 9th)
15 Valerie 315 posts (Overall 472 posts 70th)
16 Kim 313 posts (Overall 792 posts 42nd)
17 Ellen 303 posts (Overall 1832 posts 17th)
18 Donna 288 posts (Overall 2139 posts 13th)
19 Lucy 281 posts (Overall 1940 posts 16th)
20 Bonnie 255 posts (Overall 1781 posts 18th)
21 Stasia 255 posts (Overall 1419 posts 21st)

Of the top 21 only 2 Valerie and Kim are from outside the top 21 overall
of the top 21 overall only Suz and Peggy are not in the top 21 this quarter, which shows a remarkable consistency in the threads.

Hey, it looks like I'm working on the Silver, eh?

I still haven't given Karen Fossum a try, she just doesn't rise to the top of my list..... yet.

Last night I gave it a rest with the Olympics, too, Paul. I was in bed by 9:30 and lights out before 10pm. That is early for me, but the cumulative effect of staying up until midnight several nights in a row caught up with me.....

Paul-- Hope your annual dinner goes well!

Mark - it is nice to put up a list that doesn't put you in 5th! It has been nip and tuck between Mamie and yourself for the last month. RD has in the last week become the second 5000 man.

Ellen - I can recommend Fossum. SWMBO rates her the highest of the Scandis that she has read. My fatigue with the Olympics has coincided with Britains as we didn't win anything at all yesterday.

Callia - Thanks. Just got back from hosting 40 of my favourite people for dinner. Nice to catch up with all my staff's families some of whom I only see at these sorts of gatherings - there is more good news for them tomorrow as it is bonus time for them all!

just trying to keep up... nothing at all to add, but hello :)

Yup, I've been AWOL from others' threads, so it's hardly surprising that folks are AWOL from mine!! In contrast to Paul, who defines a busy period as one in which he stays away for a few hours, I've been AWOL as long as two days at a time from mine -- unusual. Work and real life -- the former normal, the latter a bit more unusual. Anyway, it has been... interesting.

Glad your mother dodged the big C bullet -- hopefully whatever happens next will be straightforward, and she'll sail through it. And yes, you DO need a passport with free pages. (says I, who has but a single complete page left for visas in mine...)

But the reason I hopped on to your thread is to tell you the latest Giles Blunt novel just arrived chez moi this afternoon... I'm now trying to find a way to shoehorn it into an already-overcrowded month of reading!!

Absolutely no way I can catch up on this thread ..with more than 200 posts since I was last here. So I'll just start afresh .... right.... here!

Hi Paul!

That's great Paul! It sounds like it was good and I'm sure they will enjoy the bonus!!!

And I named my new thread after the 5th Spot too! I hate to change it, it has a nice ring to it.

So happy about the Mom news!

#240 - I liked Bad Intentions, but not so much The Caller. Also, I just finished Faceless Killers by Henning Mankell and thought it was terribly ho-hum. Does this series get better? I assume so, since so many like him.

Struggling to keep up, but it seems I'm not alone!

eta: oops, somehow missed the all-important news regarding your mum. What a huge relief that must be! That's awesome news Paul, happy for you and mum!

Hooray for staff bonus time! As a family member of a staff member who sometimes gets a bonus, I totally agree with them and adore them. :)

Oh, and btw, I went to the Container Mall where I met you for lunch, this morning. For the first time since I met you there! Anyway, I asked some people who turned out to be tourists how to get through/around the building that was in my way, and of course they had no idea. I swear it must take about a week to build entire buildings! It is very disorienting when your landmarks change so quickly and completely.
So it looks like you're not the only one who has a hard time finding what's left of our inner city.

Kath - Hello back to you too my dear. I am a little bereft of words also this afternoon.

Suz - Hope your tongue is not still firmly lodged in your cheek! Busy or not I am always happy to see a contribution from my favourite prospective bookshop partner. My mum did an MRI yesterday and was a little (lot) perturbed that the machine broke down 20 minutes into its operation and she has to go for a repeat on Tuesday.
Jealous a bit about Giles Blunt's latest. Having one heck of a problem tracking down his last two - maybe I'll seek him out on Amazon Canada.

Caro - I have been in exactly that position for the first time whilst on LT recently. Fresh start always gratefully received.

Callia - Just dished out the bonuses for most around 2 months salary but without the usual deductions so I am a fairly popular chap at the moment.

Mark - It does indeed have a nice ring to it mate - but whatever you call it I will always be amongst your threads most ardent followers.

Kerri - I really liked Faceless Killers I must admit and didn't think it ho or hum! He's worth another try certainly and The Dogs of Riga is the next and in my mind one of the better in the series. The Caller is already on the shelves, but I am noticing a remarkable sameness in a lot of Karin Fossum's work.

Ilana - Thanks my dear she is certainly not out of the woods yet and listening to her detailing her woes at the moment is hard-work if I'm absolutely honest. She is terribly upset that she has lost the GBP400 that she paid for a holiday to the Isle of Wight - so I've sent her a little over double the equivalent just so it is one less thing for her to worry over.

Megan - Staff bonuses sorted - My secretary very nicely asked me "What about you Mr. Paul?" - I guess I'll have to wait. SWMBO who did receive a bonus and receives more per hour than David Beckham will have a smile on her face for an hour or two at least.

Oh no.. poor mom. I would have been none too pleased about that myself.

I bet you are, Paul! :) You're quite popular here as well!!!! (that shouldn't be a surprise, you are so wonderful)

Good news re. your mother Paul!

Kath - she was more than a little upset I can tell you.

Callia - Aw shucks!

Linda - nice to see you my dear and thanks so much!

I'm just here to echo your recommendation of The Dogs of Riga. Series or no, I thought that was a great read.

You're a wonderful employer, husband and son, Paul !

Has SWMBO already put her plans in motion for Hari Raya Puasa? We're going to celebrate over here too in our own little way. We've invited a few friends to pop over for homemade ketupat (I don't know how to make lemang), rendang, chicken curry, gado gado, grilled crab, sambal telor, a peranakan prawn and pineapple curry and bubur hitam. Our hosting an 'open house' started about 5 years ago when I had a Muslim colleague from Malaysia whose family had just moved here 2 months before Eid and didn't know anyone. So I decided to cook and invited friends who had adventurous palates for spicy food and included them too, so they'd at least have folks to celebrate with. It turned out to be loads of fun and even though my colleague has since left the country with his family 2 years ago, we've somehow kept up with the tradition of holding 'open house' during Eid.

I need to read more of Fossum's books, but unfortunately my local library only has one and I have already read it!

Ellen - thanks, great minds and all that!

Caro - Open house is a wonderful tradition in these parts - for those who don't know; a few days after the end of Ramadhan and after visiting close friends families will start to declare open house and will cook enough food for a small army and have literally hundreds of people home to visit share stories and enjoy each others company. This is in keeping with the traditions of hospitality in south east asia.
We will be going down to Johor for malam raya and then celebrations with MIL / FIL, couple of days visiting relatives and then back to KL. Your menu sounds delightful Caro! My mother-in-law will play safe and add nasi biriyani with the ketupat as she knows how much I like it.

Stasia - If we ever meet up I'll pass you some Fossums.