Stronger Than Magic by Melinda VanLone

 This book was V in my list, and I'm getting excited about completing my challenge!

The blurb says:

Tarian Xannon never wanted to inherit her family’s power until someone tried to steal it.

Tarian Xannon is used to leading a double life. In one, she’s a modern day bounty hunter. In the other, she’s next in line to inherit an ancient mantle of power. She loves the first job, she’s not sure about the second.

When a demon steals her blood, and with it the ability to use her family’s power, she must embrace the duty she’s been denying or catastrophe will consume both her worlds. Now it’s a race against time to find and destroy the demon before he turns her into his puppet.

As the demon grows stronger, Tarian’s ability to resist grows weaker, and now saving the power she’s never wanted is the only thing that matters.

I read Stronger Than Magic in a day.  Overall, it kept my attention and made me want to know what was happening next.  I would even go so far as to say that I enjoyed it, and I have added the next in the series to my wishlist.  I didn't realise until halfway through the book that Tarian was meant to be 24yo, as she does act a lot younger (think 18/19yo), and some parts of the story don't make sense (women have power, but in reality are only incubators for children) but if you like fantasy, this book will allow you to spend an enjoyable few hours.

However, there are three issues that I have with this book:

1. There are three fairly detailed sex scenes.  Not a bother if you're YA or older, but if you were to give this to your teen you may want to be aware of them.
2. Twice this book disses human religion (specifically Christianity) as "worshipping an old man in the sky".  Firstly, that's a ridiculous straw man, and I don't know any Christians who do indeed worship an old man in the sky.  And secondly, this is a book about magic and demons and is set in a fantasy world where dolphins are Ancients.  It was just totally unnecessary comments by the author.
3. What is stronger than magic? The title of the book seems to have no relation to what is happening in the story whatsoever.  Normally when books talk about 'stronger than magic' they mean 'love' - this book isn't about love at all, just sex.  And everything not about sex is about magic.
   

Plague 99 by Jean Ure

As I didn't have a U in my alphabet list, Plague 99 by Jean Ure was recommended to me by friends.

It is aimed at teens/YA and is about a plague that has appeared and affects the UK... timely!

It is about a young 13yo (I think) girl called Fran, who goes off on a youth camp for the summer, and returns to a deserted London.  Away at camp, nobody had any idea what was going on in the rest of the world, and Fran has to come to terms with the impact the virus has had on her family as she struggles to survive.

The blurb says:

Almost overnight a plague has wiped out the population of England. The only survivors seem to be three very different teenagers. Together they must come to terms with the man-made devastation around them. Fran, Harriet and Shahid have the power to rebuild society, but do they have the courage?

As the book starts, I think it is very obviously written for teens, however, don't let this put you off reading it.  The plot progresses, and you become drawn into their world, and it is interesting to see things from the view point of a teen.  Surviving is not easy for Fran or anybody else who remains.  She meets a boy from her class at school and with her best friend Harry, they try to make sense of everything around them, and determine what they need to do and where they need to go to for food and shelter.

Despite the beginnings, I really enjoyed this book.  So much so, that I was going to buy and read the second book in the trilogy immediately - the only thing that stopped me was that it no longer focuses on Fran, and I was desperate to find out what happened next in her story.  I have added the subsequent books to my wishlist, and I have recommended this book to DD1 (12yo).  I really enjoyed it.
 

Weekly Update Y2w33

So, last week I made a commitment to get below 90kilos by the start of September.

As part of that, I have tried to go for more walks, and I have been out for walks 4 times this past week, I have a new mammoth water bottle (that holds 2.2litres) that I have been succeeding to drink each day, and I am trying not to eat carbs at night.

Last week I was 91.3kg, and this morning I am 90.9kg, so after an up-and-down week, I have lost weight overall.

And you can see that the yellow line in starting to dip downwards again - hurray!

This coming week, I am going to keep doing the same things: drink plenty of water, eat plenty of vegetables, and get some exercise.

If I keep losing 0.4kilos a week for the next two weeks, I should just reach my goal by the start of September.

Let's keep going!

Joyful by Toks Adebiyi

 

The blurb says:

Successful or not. Rich or poor. People use plenty of terms to determine and define happiness—but is it really joy they're seeking? Author Toks Adebiyi shares examples from his time in both Nigeria and the United Kingdom in the inspirational memoir Joyful. Like many others, Toks got caught up in the push for wealth and popularity and dreamed of becoming the next Richard Branson or Robert Kiyosaki. But when events in his life brought him back down to earth, he began to redefine what joy meant to him. Here, Toks shares what he found, laying out a path for others to follow in advice-filled chapters such as "Loving Yourself" and "Mind Your Environment." All throughout, he includes action points to aid others in their own pursuit of joy. Joyful is specifically targeted at young readers and families. This lighthearted, easy-to-read guide will help you find what matters most in your life—and what you really need to find inner peace.

I found this book to be a mixed bag. 

At first the book reads as if it adheres to the Prosperity Gospel, but if you persevere you realise this isn't the case.  There is also much of this book that is just biography, and anecdotes of his own inspirations and prejudices.  The chapters are very, very short, I hadn't realised that it was purposely aimed at young readers, so that may be the reason why? 

And some of the comparisons are hilarious - when discussing the idiom [paraphrased] "the wealthiest people are not always the richest and the richest people are not always the wealthiest" he gives the example of someone who has a one hundred million pounds of savings but is depressed and gets divorced, compared to someone who has one hundred thousand pounds of savings, who is happy and content. £100,000!!!! That's still someone who is really really rich!  I do agree that you can be economically poor, yet rich in life, but this was not the example to choose!

However, within the book are nuggets and gems, hidden amongst the other stuff.  I got the book because it was free on Kindle, and if you can get it for free it is definitely worth reading.

Incarnation by Jason Tesar

 I'm speeding through the alphabet now, and Incarnation by Jason Tesar was my T.

The blurb says:

Since the ages before time was measured, the angelic races have existed. Unseen by our eyes, they move through creation, shaping our world, sustaining our existence, and battling demonic hordes. But the war is changing; the battle lines are expanding into new frontiers and the next epoch is emerging.

Centuries after the first humans were exiled from their home, their descendants have pushed eastward into a prehistoric wilderness. In a land shrouded by mist and superstition, primitive tribes struggle to establish new civilizations, unaware that their world is about to change forever.

Weary from unceasing conflict, Sariel—legendary warrior of the Eternal Realm—crosses into the Temporal in search of the only one who can bring him peace. But he is not the first; others have already begun their inhabitation. As the dominance of their kingdom spreads, threatening to engulf all of humanity, Sariel finds himself standing between his own kind and the one he loves and must embrace the life he abandoned in order to secure her freedom.

When I started reading this book, I found it hard to get into it.  It starts in a battle in the Eternal Realm between angels and demons and seems a bit same-old.  But do persevere as it does get better.  Sariel falls in love with a human, which isn't permitted.  There is also the story of Enoch who is a prophet - he leaves his home, wife and child, to walk miles in order to preach the Holy One's message.  Unlike other prophets, his message was for angels...

As a Christian, this was my context that I put the book in, but I would be interested to know if it can fit other world views or religions that have angels and demons?

So yes, I found the beginning of the book a bit unnecessary, many of the names of places, types of angel and their weapons have too many vowels (including 'y' as a vowel) - silly I know, but that's how I felt.  You do get used to them, and understanding the differences between the types of angel becomes more relevant as the plot progresses.  I confess, though, that I still didn't understand all the different weaponry: vaepir or vandrekt amongst them. I also don't know why they are always written in italics?

Once I got into the main part of the story, I did enjoy it, and have added the next in the Wandering Stars Series to my wishlist.

 

The Collective Virtual Choir - One Voice

Throughout lockdown, I've been keeping my depression at bay by singing regularly.  Unfortunately, my usual Adult Musical Theatre group has had to stop, however, I have been able to join The Collective - a virtual choir made up of many people around the world!

The Collective was started by Simon Lubkowski, a music teacher and barbershopper.  His vision (I encourage you to read the About Section on the Facebook Page) has taken off, with a fantastic team of volunteers who are all encouraging everyone to do their best, and now with thousands of participants, singing their hearts out.  Being part of the group, I can see the amazing amount of work that the leaders all do for free - from the admin, the tech team, to the music group and section leaders, to Simon himself, who seems to not need sleep at all!  It is the type of production that people would gladly pay to be part of, but it is done solely for the love of music and spreading joy.  It's amazing.

I missed out on the very first song (White Cliffs of Dover), but I have joined for three songs, and unfortunately have had to pull out again, because I'm just too busy to dedicate the time the latest song deserves.  

The first of these songs was One Voice by Barry Manilow.  Not being a Manilow fan (sorry! I don't dislike him, just couldn't care either way) I didn't know the song beforehand, so had to learn everything from scratch.  The materials to learn the song, both the music script and audio of the song, plus individual parts (I sing soprano) are all provided to you as part of the collective.  The music team then gets to work teaching everyone, over zoom, the melody, breath points, various singing and breathing techniques (ninja breaths!), multiple times a day, multiple days a week, across various time zones for the international singers.  

One participant, Ian Walker, deserves special mention as he made an app for all the information you could possibly need: links to videos, audio, script, rehearsals etc all separated out into your section part (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass or Solo), and adjusted according to your timezone.  Very impressive!

Once the song is learnt, the music team then focuses on performance, how to put emotion in the song, and the tech team teaches how to record your final version and the technology you need.  And, if that wasn't enough, they invite everyone participating to record themselves to gain feedback to improve their performance.  

As I write this, I had a sense of deja vu, and I have written about this before, so sorry for the repetition.
I will now get to the point of this post - the final video!

Recording it was a bit of a palaver, as I didn't have a good set-up, so I'd have to balance my laptop on a couple of boxes on an upturned bucket on my bed.  Not only that, before this recording I woke up late, and had to rush to put my make-up on, before joining in the zoom meeting.

But that didn't put me off.  After the tech team did their magic to integrate all the individual recordings from hundreds of people, to align them all, and then to get it to align with the video (that was recorded separately) the video was finally finished!  Hours and hours and hours of work for the volunteers to produce this 8minute final video.  I am there; briefly during the song itself, and more clearly in amongst the credits at the end.

I hope you like it.

Flooding Bathroom

Yesterday I woke up, used the en-suite and noticed that when I stood on the tiles, they bubbled and water came up.  I mentioned it to my husband when he returned from work, who admitted that he had had a shower before work with the door open... 😒😒

So we mopped it up, but the water kept coming.  Every time we stood on a tile, more water would appear, so we figured that the water had gone under the tiles and we'd need to lift them.

After a few hot days, we couldn't sleep much and I awoke at 5am.  As the tiles were still wet, my lovely husband decided that this was the best time for hammer & chiselling up the tiles... 😒

After drying under the tiles, husband went to work, but more water kept appearing.  In my husband's defence, the water wasn't coming from the shower, that was just a coincidence. 
No, the water was coming from the toilet. 😒

You can actually see the different colour of the grout
dark and wet near the toilet
lighter and dry away from it.

So, on to CheckaTrade to find an emergency plumber.  I like to use local and independent companies if possible, so I was pleased that A Team Plumbing and Heating was the first to answer my call. 
(At time of writing, they don't have their own website or Facebook page, but if that changes I will edit their details in here.)

I phoned late morning, and Lee was able to come round to have a look in the afternoon.  He took the toilet off, located wand isolated the leak, explaining everything that he was doing.  As he didn't have replacement parts on him and another job to go to he promised he would be back either later or tomorrow and sort it then.  I was only expecting him to stop the leak, give a quote and rearrange an appointment at an unknown point in the future.  I was impressed that he was able to fix it all so soon.

Fortunately for me, he was able to come back after an hour, this time with James who did the work.  All the way through, I was updated with what they were doing and why.  They were very friendly and knowledgeable, and offered advice on areas beyond the job they were doing (specifically, a discussion about replacing the tiles, and which brand to go for when we need to replace our boiler).
They even tidied up everything and took all the rubbish away with them!

All in all, it was only a couple of hours work, and he charged me less than what he quoted!  

He did ask for a review on CheckaTrade, which I was more than happy to give, and I am happy to give this review here too. 
If anyone needs a boiler in Swindon or the surrounding areas (I know he works in Bristol too), use A Team Plumbing and Heating.