Some Holiday Photos and some New Books

Our Tree this Year

It's now the second of January 2018. Starting to get back into our usual routine. I went to the gym at the Base (19 Wing Comox) for the first time in 2018 and spent 30 minutes on the running machine. Bought some fresh bread and bananas at Extra Foods and then got the missus a large steeped tea and myself a double/double at Tim Hortons. At the moment, I'm watching footie, jumping between 3 games - Manchester City vs Watford, Southampton vs Crystal Palace and Swansea vs Tottenham, while the dogs relax with Jo upstairs.

We had a very nice, relaxing holiday season, even got some snow. Nothing like some areas get and definitely not the freezing temperatures that they got back East. But for us, it's always a surprise when we get snow and it stays. And it has for the most part. When it does snow we do get a good dump usually.

Xmas is so exhausting!

Anyway, as I said the holidays have been very nice. We've eaten well; Jo has outdone herself as always. We had a fantastic Xmas dinner and then some really super meals all week. No wonder I needed to get to the gym today. I've got to keep my chubby figure, don't you know.

Bonnie and Clyde have had a good time, well, why wouldn't they! They are spoiled rotten. They had so much fun on Xmas day, as you can see from the video above. Clyde loves nothing more than to tear apart a piece of paper. Bonnie prefers to eat it. No wonder they were so tired. LOL!

In my last BLog entry, I listed the four books I was starting off the year with. I'm enjoying so far, each is unique in its own right. A couple, Adam Bede by George Eliot and Order in Chaos by Jack Whyte are quite long but I'm enjoying how they've started so far. I think I've chosen four good books to read.

New Books

I received three books from Awesome Books in the UK just after Xmas. They are all parts of series I've been enjoying.

1. Gideon's Week by J.J. Marric. I've read two in this series so far and have enjoyed. They remind of Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books, basically excellent police procedurals.

"Commander George Gideon of the Yard - his life is a tough one, with the activities of the London police his responsibility; and the week that we share with him here is no exception.
He has two big headaches - an escaped convict swearing vengeance on his wife and an innocent-looking young boy accused of murder - as well as the usual minor ailments, like burglaries and smash-and-grabs. The pressures crowd in as Gideon strives to allow London to sleep safely."

2. Wycliffe and the School Girls by W.J. Burley. Another favourite of mine. Wycliffe is another police inspector. I always enjoy how he handles a case and the mysteries are always interesting.

"First Debbie Joyce, a cabaret singer, was found strangled. A week later, in the same city, Nurse Elaine Bennett was murdered in the sae way and the alarm went out - a psychopathic killer is on the loose.
But Wycliffe was not convinced. Slowly he dug into the past of the murdered girls - a past that took him back to a school holiday and the persecution of one particular child by 'the group'. Was someone working off an old revenge - and how many more women would die because of a cruel schoolgirl joke?"

3. So Much Blood by Simon Brett. I've only read one of the Charles Paris mysteries so far and enjoyed. I've also read 3 or 4 of his Fethering mysteries and enjoyed them. They are nice light, cozy mysteries for the most part.

"Edinburgh and the Festival form both the background and the foreground to this lively whodunit. Charles Paris is flitting between a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, a 'mixed-media satire', a late-night revue, and his own one-man show on Thomas Hood when a fading pop star is murdered, there is a bomb scare in Holyrood Palace, and someone make a suicide leap from the top of the Rock.."

They've been added to my 2018 Challenge spreadsheet.

So there you go, 2018 is officially started and progressing nicely. I hope everybody has a great year!