The sun shone warmly on us today as we celebrated our 14th Wedding anniversary! This morning we worked up an appetite by climbing Salcombe Hill to look at the view over Sidmouth (you can see our house from here!) There was a heat haze (temperature about 19 degrees Celsius) so this was the best photo I could get from the top:  

Afterwards we drove to Woodbury Park, Golf & Country Club (previously owned by Nigel Mansell) for drinks and lunch on the terrace, overlooking the 18th tee (tomorrow we get to play a round ourselves - weather permitting). It’s a fabulous place with wonderful views, so we sat for a couple of hours soaking up the sun, watching the golf and reminiscing about out wedding day. Lovely!

After, we drove to Budleigh Salterton and walked along the beach, before enjoying an ice cream at our favourite beach cafe.

Days like today are the stuff that dreams are made of …

~

Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Above: P and me (after a quick dash before the camera timer went off!)

Jan Marshall - Author, reviews of A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

ISBN 978-0-099-50692-8

Synopsis

“George Hall is an unobtrusive ordinary man. A little distant, sometimes a little cautious, not comfortably at ease with the emotional demands the modern world, including fatherhood and manly bonhomie. “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” But some things in life just can’t be ignored. For instance: his tempestuous daughter Katie’s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.

At 57, George is settling down to a comfortable uneventful retirement spending his days building a shed in his garden and enjoying the freedom to be alone when he wants. But then he runs into a spot of bother. That red circular rash on his hip: George convinces himself it’s skin cancer. And the deeply inappropriate Ray? Katie announces he will become her second husband. The planning for these frowned-upon nuptials proves a great inconvenience to George’s wife, Jean, who is carrying on a late-life affair with her husband’s ex-colleague. The Halls do not approve of Ray, for vague reasons summed up by their son Jamie’s observation that Ray has “strangler’s hands.” Jamie himself has his own problems — his tidy and pleasant life comes apart when he fails to invite his lover, Tony, to Katie’s wedding. And Katie, a woman whose ferocious temper once led to the maiming of a carjacker, can’t decide if she loves Ray, or loves the wonderful way he has with her son Jacob.

Unnoticed in the uproar, George quietly begins to go mad. The way these damaged people fall apart — and come together — as a family is the true subject of Haddon’s hilarious and disturbing portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely.”

I’ve been a great fan of Mark Haddon’s writing ever since I began to notice his books, so when I came across A Spot of Bother on the supermarket bookshelf, I couldn’t resist making a spontaneous purchase and I wasn’t disappointed when I read it. It’s a great book for reading on holiday, for reading in short bursts, for picking up and putting down - it’s an easy read but don’t underestimate it.

Mark is a modern writer in that he doesn’t shy away from discussing sex, using swear words and looking closely at and exploring difficult modern dilemmas. This enables the reader to explore all sorts of situations that they might not come across in their own lives and it give them an insight they might not otherwise have. His style is light, witty, funny and sometimes full of pathos. A bit like life really.

A Spot of Bother, however, is quite different from The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time - so don’t expect an identical experience when you read it; these two books are unique - and some reviewers have been disappointed by how different the two books are. I was not. I have no expectation for a writer to keep producing the same old, same old. Writing is about exploring what interests you at the time you are being creative - writing is not a formula that should be followed for every book you write.

Many critics have said that the characters in A Spot of Bother are too ordinary. But life is ordinary, people are ordinary - so in this way the novel has verisimilitude. The story is about a family dealing with those old chestnuts: aging, retirement, a homosexual son, relationship and marriage difficulties, filial relationships, affairs, illness, madness, hypochondria - and looks at the opinions of all and sundry on all of these matters. Yes, these dilemmas are faced by ordinary people in the novel because, that’s what happens in real life! We all live lives of quiet desperation.

One particular passage was memorable for me. How many times in your life have you been treated badly by someone and spent years fantasizing all the things you would like to say to them, should you ever get the opportunity to take them to account? Then maybe years later you meet them and find they have performed an impressive trick that stops you getting even and thwarts you:

“by turning into a self-pitying arthritic figure too insubstantial to be the butt of anyone’s anger” (page 77).

Haddon’s humorous and insightful treatment of his character can make you laugh out loud one minute and can be quite thought-provoking the next. His metaphors and similes are so original and funny they are memorable - you find yourself wanting to use them. Now that is praise indeed, coming from me!

“They’d lead a life which looked perfectly normal from the outside but was, in truth, a kind of living death that left your heart looking like a raisin.” (page 259)

Well worth a read!

Some other reviews I’ve written:

Bookshelf

Stuart, A Life Backwards

A book we need to talk about …

The Phenomenal Power of Words  (review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you will know I adore cats! I don’t have a cat at the moment since my own beautiful much loved Siamese Lilac Point cat, Henry, died in 2004 - and I still miss him greatly.

However, one of my favourite blogs to read is Diva Kitty - a fluffy and adorable cat’s blog! So when DKM (Diva Kitty’s Mom) e-mailed me some photos of  DK (Sophia - Diva Kitty herself) for me to be creative with, I was delighted! A huge thank you - what a collaboration! I think DKM’s photographs and my digital tinkering produced a lovely fun result!

First of all I set to work with the Warholizer - and the gorgeous result is below. What do you think? Wouldn’t it make a splendid quilt design, or look stunning on canvas hanging on the wall?

Then, I tried the Hockneyizer:

Diva Kity - you are so special! DKM is very lucky!

“There is no old age. There is as there always was, just you” - Carol Matthau

Yesterday, when I visited my dear old Grandad he was in good form - and seemed happy and content. Considering he is now 99 years and 9 months old, and I have been told that due to his organs failing he will survive weeks rather than months, I was pleased and relieved.

I think the main difference for Grandad of late, has been good pain control. Prior to his visit to hosital he was in a lot of discomfort and sometimes in real acute pain - but now a cocktail of carefully given prescribed drugs has meant he can be pain free and yet maintain his alertness. It’s a real blessing for him - and me.

Yesterday, to my amazement the nurses told me that he has been insisting on getting up and dressed each day. What a trooper! I think it’s his steely determination to get his telegram from the Queen that keeps him going!

On a sad note he did seem a little more confused than usual - but didn’t seem distressed by it. He told me lots of things about the past but confused all the name and dates etc. He didn’t know he was getting it wrong so I didn’t let it worry me. As long as he is comfortable, warm, cared for and happy - then I am happy. He said he’s looking forward to meeting God - but not until after his telegram!

I had my camera with me (I can hear you groan!) so I set the timer to take a photo of us together. The timer went off quicker than I expected so there wasn’t time to position ourselves for the photograph - but heck, life is never straightforward is it? It’s a silly and fun image - so I thought I’d post it regardless - it made me and grandad laugh anyway! He really liked it, so I’ve got to print a copy for him ASAP apparently.

The Seven Ages of Man - William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players:

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages.

At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel,

 And shining morning face,

creeping like snail Unwillingly to school.

And then the lover Sighing like furnace,

with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth.

And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,

His youthful hose well sav’d a world too wide For his shrunk shank;

and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. 

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Religion”

Follow the links below for other entries (I will add links as entries come in!):

Sky Windows & Blahblah Blog & Idea jump! & Just for fun & Looking in the mirror

The theme of religion was chosen by Tina over at Sky Windows- and as soon as she named it I knew which photograph I wanted to enter. I have to admit it is an old one I took in 1994! I didn’t have a digital camera in those days so I’ve had to scan the old photograph which does tend to compromise the clarity - nevertheless I still wanted to submit this particular entry.

I took the photo on my wedding day. As we came out of the church (the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church on the corner of Seven West Fifty-Fifth Street and Fifth Avenue, New York) I looked upwards. The sunlight was reflecting off the cross on the top of the steeple so that it was glowing like a beacon, a bright candle, a light, the light.  It felt deeply symbolic to me. Everyone around me noticed and stood staring upwards. I then took the photo that I am submitting as today’s entry.

Light has always had a very special symbolic meaning in the Christian Church. People often light candles as a symbol of their Faith since it is said to represent a great and burning love for God. Candles are lit for many church services; at a traditionsl betrothal service the bride and groom light candles before they enter the church to show the unwaning light of God (during our service we both lit candles from one source, symbolic of being joined together in holy matrimony). Candles are also lit for baptisms, funerals and many other services, because they are imbued  with a variety of spiritual and symbolic meaning. So somehow - the cross on the steeple glowing with light just seemed very appropriate - like a blessing.

Notice in the photograph the “eyes” all around the triangle shape of the steeple - they are symbolic of God being all seeing. The Eye of Providence or the all-seeing eye is usually conveyed as an eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory, and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is sometimes interpreted as representing the eye of God keeping watch on humankind. Notice also the small open doorways around the steeple, each with a sybolic flight of steps inside - they represent the ways open for each person to ascend to Heaven. Isn’t it beautiful?

But first, an excerpt from my novel A Curious State of Affairs (USA  UK) to give you a description of the church itself:

“The actual ceremony was to be held at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church on the corner of Seven West Fifty-Fifth Street, an architecturally  interesting Victorian brownstone construction opposite the Trump Tower International and snuggled between the huge glass and steel skyscrapers of Fifth Avenue. Like a relic of a bygone age, built in 1875, it sits proudly showing off it’s history in a disposable world. It’s a truly beautiful building  with a wonderful spiritual calm inside aided by the twelve inch space between the inner and outer walls that helps to distance the street noise and make it a haven of tranquility even in the noisy 24/7 city that is today’s New York.” (page 175/176).

Then, without more ado (as Tina would say!)  my entry:

Photo Friday: Religion

( It seemed particularly nice looking at the photos again now, since it is our 14th wedding anniversary in just 4 days time!)

Below: Bonus photo - the church in its setting, also taken by me on the day.

NEXT WEEK: 9th May is entitled: Self Portrait (using your choice of gadget from this list)

Below: Suggestions for who picks the title (please state in the comments your choice of title, if you haven’t already, and you’re happy to select!)

Friday 16th May : Title by CuriousC:  Doors, Doorways, & Entries…. to the soul, the house, a city, whatever…

Friday 23th May : Title by Julie: Emotion

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria 

NEW MEMBERS ALWAYS WELCOME !