Random from the Summer

So that's it then.  Summer's over, we have passed through the Autumnal Equinox (although the forecast for this week is decidedly summerish) and it's now time for a Summer Summary.

Parental Negligence:  We were made painfully aware that we have been terribly negligent in the upbringing of our children while on our holidays.  We haven't taught them any card games.  I know, it's shocking.  One evening we didn't want to play any board games and I was fed up looking at them all with eyes glazed over, mesmerised by their devices, so I got out a deck of cards.  But what to play?  With an range in ages from 11 to 71, Crazy 8's seemed to best option.  But neither of us could remember the rules of Crazy 8's.  We actually had to google it. Then, not only could we not remember the rules to Crazy 8's but we couldn't even remember any other easy, kid-friendly games at all. I was a little embarrassed.  But this will be remedied by next year.

Mystery Tour:  One morning during our  holidays I arranged a Mystery Tour for the Trouts and Luddite Granny.  I kept it a secret right to the end because I'd get nothing but grief and resistance and gurning.  I treated them all to a ride on the  SS Bigwin.  This was the boat that took wealthy holiday-makers to Bigwin Island and the resort there.  It took them years to refurbish this boat and as it turns out,  Luddite Granny and Grandpa with Jesus would go to the dry dock and watch them work on this restoration.  So it was kind of nice for LG to have a ride on it.


Picture from SS Bigwin website

It was a 1 hour trip out into Trading Bay on the Lake of Bays and we were able to see how the other half lives, well the other 1% I suppose. 

According to one of the guides on the boat, this "cottage" was for sale and originally listed for $15 million dollars.  With no offers forthcoming, the asking price was lowered to $8 million.  I've put in an offer and expect to hear any day now.  Snort.

Summer Reading List: 

The Bird that Did Not Sing - Alex Gray
"2014: The Commonwealth Games is coming to Glasgow and security is extra tight, particularly after a mysterious bomb explodes in nearby countryside. As the opening ceremony for the Games draws ever closer, the police desperately seek the culprits. But Detective Superintendent Lorimer has other concerns on his mind. One is a beautiful red- haired woman from his past whose husband dies suddenly on his watch. Then there is the body of a young woman found dumped near to the bomb site who is proving impossible to identify. Elsewhere in the city people prepare for the events in their own way, whether for financial gain or to welcome home visitors from overseas. And, hiding behind false identities, are those who pose a terrible threat not just to the Games but to the very fabric of society. Alex Gray's stunning new Lorimer novel, set against the backdrop of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, brings the vibrant city to life in a race to stop the greatest threat the city has ever known." fantasticfiction.co.uk

A Lovely Way to Burn - Louise Welsh
This is the first in a trilogy about a plague that is sweeping the globe.  Stevie Flint is sure her new boyfriend has been murdered and not died from the Sweats.  As residents flee London, she is drawn back into it on a mission to discover the truth.  This kind of Speculative Fiction freaks me out because it's not totally implausible and therefore scary.

The Red Road - Denise Mina
The fourth book in the DI Alex Morrow series set in Glasgow.  This one's a twisty turny one with an unsolved murder from 1997 connected somehow to a present day murder.  Kept me guessing.

The Black Country - Alex Grecian
Set in the 1890s, Inspector Walter Day and Sergeant Nevil Hammersmith of Scotland Yard's new Murder Squad are sent to the British Midlands to discover where members of a prominent have disappeared to.  The villagers are all related, of course and secretive and superstitious so the detectives have their work cut out for them.
 
The Return of Captain John Emmett - Elizabeth Speller
Set in 1920, this novel explores the aftermath of WW1.  Laurence Bartram finds himself dealing with the death of his wife and baby as well as his experiences of the War by retreating from society.  When the sister of an old friend asks him to look into the events leading to her brothers apparent suicide, he discovers secrets and cover-ups and more suspicious deaths. Based on accounts of executions of British officers for desertion. I didn't choose this on purpose, but   since it was the 100th anniversary of the start of WW1, it was a fitting read for the summer.

Valley of the Lost - Vicki Delany
The second in a series about Constable Molly Smith set in fictional Trafalgar, British Columbia.  A young women is found dead of apparent heroin overdose with a 3 month old baby lying beside her.  Is it a drug deal gone bad or something more sinister? 

The Maze of Cadiz - Aly Monroe
Set in the final days of WW2, Peter Cotton is sent to Cadiz to tidy up and close the office of British Intelligence whose agent has died under mysterious circumstances.  Why did the agent sever ties to his London handlers; how are the bizarre ex-pat community involved and who can Cotton trust in this hotbed of shifting political alliances?

Harbour Street - Ann Cleeves
Latest installment of the Vera Stanhope series.  Murder of a seemingly innocent little old lady on the train near Christmas.  She lived and worked in a creepy guest host in creepy seaside village.  Everybody has secrets and a past. Especially the victim.

Never Apologize, Never Explain - James Craig
Second in the Inspector Carlyle series.  Quiet, unassuming older lady is killed, her husband, equally unassuming is charged but tells Carlyle of her connections with the Fascist coup in Chile in 1973 and  suddenly his straight-forward murder becomes a diplomatic incident.

Washington Shadow- Aly Monroe
Second in the Peter Cotton series.  Set in September 1945, Cotton is sent, by cover of a team sent to ask Washington for a load, to investigate the dismantling of America's wartime intelligence agency.  Of course, it gets all very murky and people around him start dying in all kinds of "accidents" .

Is It Just Me? - Miranda Hart
Read it with her voice in your head and  visualise her antics and it's laugh out loud funny.


In the Interest of Public Health:  We were at a water park on one of our days out and there I saw two things which made me cringe.  A woman, a grown woman with a child of her own went into the public washroom in her bare feet. Ew. Ew, ew. Ew, ew, ew.  And then I saw someone else walk into the restaurant in her bare feet. Ew. Ew, ew. Ew, ew, ew.  Are people stunned?

It's Not Rocket Science: The trick to a pleasant day out at a Safari Park/Water Park on the hottest day yet of the summer is to keep everyone, children especially, fed and watered.  A hungry child is a grumpy child and more likely to throw a huge hissy fit when his parents won't let him buy some over-priced piece of crap souvenir. And then he stomps off in a huff and refuses to watch the elephants having their swim. A quick glance at a clock would have told us the parents it was well past supper.  And since he'd been at the water park for about an hour, it probably wasn't too much stretch of the imagination to guess that he might just need a drink of water.

Some Holiday Snaps:
 



Elephants at the African Lion Safari having one of their twice daily swims

 

I think it's Elephant Poo.  It wasn't there before the animals got to the pond.



Diabetes on a Plate.  This is a Funnel Cake which as far as I can tell is a deep fried Belgian Waffle.  This one happens to have a very artificial strawberry topping.  I would have preferred just icing sugar but I was sharing with LB.

 

What the dog looks like after she's been to the groomer to have her mats removed because her owners didn't think to get her trimmed before she went to doggie daycare for her holidays.  She's almost down to the wood.

The Trouts clambering on the rocks of the Oxtongue River Rapids.  Lego Boy's next step finds him on his arse in the Oxtongue River Rapids.  You know the phrase "getting there is half the fun"?  Well not in this case.  Luddite Granny remembered going here with Grandpa with Jesus years ago and once they took SG when she was little.  There was a little clearing at the riverside with a picnic table and a portable toilet and some sign about the hikes and trails.  This little park is marked on tourist maps and roadside signs so we set off down the road to find it.  This "road" was barely a track hacked into the bush and it got sketchier and sketchier the further we travelled down it. There were no houses, no cottages, no sign of habitation at all.  It was obviously was not maintained.  At one point, I said to LG "this can't be right; it's way too sketchy".  She agreed and we turned back.  Because we're stupid persistent, we went back the next night bound and determined to find it.  Sure enough it was there just a little further on from where we had turned around.  And the track carried on through the bush past this little park.  We all got out of the Beast, had a wee wander around, some of us in the water, took some nice pictures and made our way back to the van.  As we, one little old lady, one middle-aged lady and two children, made our way to the vehicle in the fading light,  two loud quad bikes came roaring down the track from further in the bush.  One buddy was dressed head to toe in cammo and my immediate thought was "Jeez, buddy the deer won't see you coming but they'll sure as hell hear you".  He nodded as he past our little group and his pal didn't acknowledge us at all.  Considering we were down a very sketchy track in the middle of the bush with these two strangers, and nobody knew we had gone on this little adventure, I quickly ushered everyone in the Beast and got the hell out of there. Not that I'm paranoid or suspicious or anything.

And that, my friends, is a random sampling of the Summer Festivities.