2013 Here we come

Well Christmas is over and here we are hurtling towards 2013 - only a few days to go and I really have never been one for celebrating the New Year - everyone banging on about a fresh start and all - but why can't every day be a fresh start, every day is a new chance, a chance to make a change, do something good. But we only celebrate 'a fresh start' at the beginning of a new year I wonder why.

Any way just thought I'd pop in and say what ho! and hopefully the new year will mean I post a bit more often.

On the camera front I now have a replacement for the compact camera which died a while back - and it's okay and at least I will be able to take photos from this blog a little more easily (as the camera phone is really not good and the DSLR can be a bit conspicuous at times)

Any way night all is 10:42 pm here in Wales and some of us have to go to work in the morning x

Nightclub Cover Charges - rip off or justified

Just got back from a night out in Cardiff - it was the works Christmas do. And after a lovely meal at a Mexican restaurant in the Brewery Quarter we popped in to the club next door for a few drinks and to be honest although the cover charge wasn't to bad it was irritating - these clubs get you to pay to enter and then pay through the nose for the drinks (a bottle of wine that cost £7.09 in a pub cost £17 in there) they also expect you to pay to use the hairspray in the toilets - now the cover charge I understand and having worked in the pub trade for many years I do get how the prices have been worked out and why they are high - but and here's the thing - you go to the loo and want to use a hairspray or deodorant and they charge you for that - I mean really - come on the can of hairspray would only cost £2 in Superdrug - so in  my opinion they are having a fucking laugh - I could use the restrooms in the Savoy Hotel London and have a spritz of decent perfume for less.

So how can they get away with this?

I will tell you - because we let them - we are idiots - if we all refused to go into these places and went somewhere that didn't charge the earth they would have to change.
It's why I will always prefer my local pub to a club - they may not be open as late - but at least you get a decent drink and although the prices are still high they are not ripping you off - they are just staying afloat. So I say boycott the rip of clubs with the crappy X Factor style formula music and support your friendly local - where the drinks are fair and the staff friendly and the music real - especially if you go to a pub that has live music on.

So do us all a favour before we lose the local pub forever - get out there and support it instead of wasting your money in the City Centre Clubs who only care about the bottom line- because one day you may want a pint in your local and it won't be there, it will be a Indian Restaurant or Charity Shop and you know what - You will only have yourselves to blame!!!

Hay on Wye

Sorry that the review of Skyfall was, well let's e honest very brief, I really wanted to write a lot more but to be honest I have had a bad cold this week ad only now am I feeling a bit better -still sniffy but the sore throat has gone. Anyway today off we went on a trip to Hay-on-Wye. Yep that's right I was let loose in the book town of Britain.

I was very amused by the banner below:

 Now I love my Kindle and it is perfect for holidays and taking to work, but there is nothing like holding a real book in your hands, the texture and  the smell,books are some of my favourite thigns, and yes of course i bought some, here they are below:

Okay so the middle item is an old magazine from 1955 and in my defence I bought it because there is an article on Marilyn Monroe that I don't have in it. Also the Focus on Fame book is by a photographer who took photos of MM and there is a chapter and some photos of her inside.

All in all a good day and now I have more books to add to the pile by my bed, I'm not going to read them though until I've finished the Shakespeare bio and the Bob Mitcham one.

At least I'm going to try not too.

Skyfall

Went to the cinema on Sunday to see the new James Bond film Skyfall. Now I'm not a big James Bond fan but it looked good so I thought why not so off I went with the boyfriend and me Dad to the flicks.

I have to say really enjoyed it - loads of action, cars and Daniel Craig - and not too much sex (Hooray) and then there was the ending which apparently no-one was expecting.

All all a good film to celebrate the James Bond 50th Birthday.

Go see it now!

A family mystery

This evening I have been surfing the net and specifically the Find My Past website, looking up my Mum's side of the family, and she learnt a few things she never knew for instance her Grandmother on her father's side, name was Emma, and although that was interesting it's her Mother's side of the family that has always been the mystery, her Grandmother never married and although we know her name, the name of 2 of her sisters and where she was born, we really didn't know anything else, today we found a record in the 1911 census for her family, the Dadleys in Daventry as  we expected however the census threw up 2 further mysteries, firstly there is nowhere on the census someone named Florence Margaret Dadley, not anywhere, now Florence was born in 1888 and had her daughter (my Mother's mother)  in 1919, but there is no record at all for her in 1911!

The second mystery is the discovery of another sister, who has never been mentioned at all, a Clarice Victoria Dadley, born in 1898. Now I  have found a marriage record for her in 1924, but being broke as usual I don't have the money to pay on the site to look to see who she married and when she died or if she had any children!

In order to check that this is the right Dadley family (and I am sure it is) we have ordered Florence's birth certificate from the General Register Office now we just have to wait for it to arrive (which won't be til after the 26th November and it will be quite easy to check as the Father of the Daventry Dadley's in the 1911 Census had a very unusual name Desmora Lennox Dadley. The sad thing is that Desmora died in 1945, 1 year after my mother was born, he never knew his granddaughter Muriel, let alone that for a year he had a great granddaughter as well.

But the thing I want to know it

• Where was Florence in 1911 - why doesn't she show on the Census
• Who was Clarice Victoria Dadley? And why wasn't she ever mentioned?

Enquiring minds need a Time Machine!!!!

Can you ever have enough books?

Well,I have spent part of this afternoon sorting out my books, and I have a lot as you can see from the book cases below

Top 2 shelves Terry Pratchett books 

 Books on Egypt and cookery

2 bookcases of Marilyn Monroe books.

And that's not all the books - nope not at all, there are books in my bedroom and living room that I haven't read yet, there are books at my parents house that I have lent them - and then there's my Kindle

Yep there are 72 books on here I haven't read and about 60 that I have and all I can say is - I STILL NEED MORE

I love books and there are so many out there good, bad and indifferent that I just can't get enough.

The scary thing is though there are so many books out there to read and not enough lifetime to read them all in - but I'm going to read as much as I can!!!

Misty gets a cone

Poor Misty has injured one of her back legs and last week she had to have an operation and to her chagrin she now has to wear one oft hose collars to stop her licking the wound, while she obviously finds it annoying, I think she looks pretty cute myself

She is so adorable