The Year Of The Flood

The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood

Another great book I've read this year. Apparently I have good book choosing taste/luck because I've only given up on three books this year, all the others I've liked or loved!

This is a dystopian future novel (she does them so well!), where some people live in compounds run by companies, which seem pretty similar to nowadays, but with added genetically modified animals, but many people live outside them in slum areas, eating foods that have 'secret' meats in them (could be anything! human, dog, lion...) and in some really interesting conditions. There's also several religious/environmental groups who want the world to change. Adam One, the leader of one of these groups called The Gardeners, has long predicted the end of the world. Now it has happened. The story flashes between two women who remain on earth when everyone around them is gone. It also flashes back to their pasts before The Flood, which is what Adam called the coming apocalypse and cleansing.

I have to say I was incredibly sucked into this story right from the beginning.

Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter
by A.E. Moorat



Wow, this book is a good one. I read it hot on the tail of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and the cover led me to believe it'd be another 'zombie' thing. But no! Sure, there are some zombies in it, but it's mostly about demons and other otherworldly evils, and the fact that Queen Victoria is often attacked by them as a young woman. Why? You'll find out!

It follows the real life of Queen Victoria quite accurately, which is slightly 'scary'- for all you know, it could be true, because who's to say that demons aren't real and they're just hiding themselves well? Reminds me of that bit in Doctor Who about The Royal Family (you know what I mean if you've seen it.)

It's quite funny in places, and has a good love story between Victoria and Albert, plus all sorts of great actiony scenes. Plus zombie servants, mad scientists, werewolves, rats, Intrigue, and much much more.


Tagline: She loved her country. She hated zombies.

Blurb: There were many staff at Kensington Palace, fulfilling many roles; a man who was employed to catch rats, another whose job it was to sweep the chimneys. That there was someone expected to hunt demons did not shock the new Queen; that it was to be her was something of a surprise.

London, 1838

Queen Victoria is crowned, she receives the orb,t he sceptre and an arsenal of blood-stained weaponry. Because if Britain is about to become the greatest power of the age, there's the small matter of the demons to take care of first.

But rather than dreaming of demon hunting, it is Prince Albert who occupies her thoughts. Can she dedicate her life to saving her country when her heart belongs elsewhere?

With lashings of glistening entrails, decapitations, and foul demons, this masterly new portrait will give a fresh understanding of a remarkable woman, a legendary monarch and quite possibly the best Demon Hunter the world has ever seen...

Pride and Prejudice And Zombies- Review

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains"

By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

A much talked about book, that I finally finished on the 4th! But just in case you've not heard- it is awesome, if you're a zombie geek, and a Jane Austen lover (or hater even, I think). It's even great if you're like me and like the concept of zombies but can't cope with too much gore so don't go much further than Shaun of the Dead in terms of Zombie Movies, as it's all in text format and is just so funny juxtaposed with Regency England!

The basic idea is that someone has added zombies to Pride and Prejudice. Woah there, don't get angry- they did it in a completely awesome way, and most of the original text is still there! The zombies have been woven almost flawlessly into it. I was expecting normal Pride and Prejudice, and then sudden Zombie attack, like what often happens in movies- they have no awareness of zombies before that point. No. They've written it so that quite a few decades ago, a plague started, a strange plague, that brought the dead back to life. Now, it is usual and expected for young ladies of a certain social standing to add 'zombie killing' and 'hand to hand combat' to their list of accomplishments, for children to be sent to China, or better (according to Lady Catherine) to Japan, for martial arts training, for groups of militia to travel about the country side killing the afflicted and for deadly blood oaths to be sworn rather than mere grudges based on pride or prejudice.

Yet all of the original story is still there (though altered sometimes due to the zombie changes).
Brilliance.
I also love the fact that it is *illustrated*!

I will have happy memories of this book forever, as I started reading it in the tent while I was away on the Yorke Peninsula, lit only by a torch, and I was laughing away at all the changes Seth made. If you love Jane Austen (or Zombies) you'll love that there's some more stuff to read that could easily get people loving the original (rather than just loving the most recent P&P movie which was sadly lacking in my opinion. No, not talking about that one where she jumped into the book through a portal, which I quite liked!). If you hate it, it'll make it more entertaining for you.


I look forward to the movie that is being made, and also to reading Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters, which I got for Christmas.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union -Review

The Yiddish Policemen's Union
by Michael Chabon
Genre: Detective/Crime/Alternative History

I picked up this book from the library as it was on my list of books that sounded cool- it was on an alternative history sci fi list. This is a genre that I quite like. The author changes something that happened with history, and writes their story set in that world. The changes can be big or small, and have varying levels of difference to reality. The stories can be set in any time in the past or present or future as well.

This story, by Michael Chabon, is set in the present, but the point where time diverged into a different dimension, was that after the second world war a safe haven was created for Jews in Alaska. In 1948, the fledgling state of Israel collapsed. Now, sixty years later, the Jewish state of Sitka is about to be reverted back to Alaskan control. A homicide detective, a workaholic after the shameful divorce from his wife (bit cliche for a crime novel...), investigates a murder that took place in the same 'flophouse' he's been living at.

What do I think of it? I think people should give it a try, but I didn't get more than a few chapters in. Perhaps I will keep reading it, but it doesn't seem like 'my' sort of thing. I didn't realise when I borrowed it that it was a crime novel, and though I don't mind crime novels, I like specific sorts. To be honest the Jewish stuff confused and frustrated me- I don't know nearly enough about Jews apparently to understand things, and though I tried to just read it and piece it together like I would for an alien culture, it was difficult for me, and I gave up, I wasn't sucked in. I LOVED the concept of the alternate history, however, and he writes decently, just in a style that I'm not used to. And I know nothing about Chess.

Maybe I'll try reading it again in a while.

Apparently a movie is coming out - I'd watch it.

edit: People on Library Thing had a hard time reading this too, this makes me feel slightly less bad about it!

Secret Army

The other day, I finished watching Secret Army, it only took Mum and I a year of finding time when we had an hour to watch something at the same time!


I highly recommend that anyone with even the remotest interest in the Second World War watch this show. Or anyone who wants a gripping drama, or likes classic shows.

So, what is Secret Army?

Secret Army is/was a BBC Drama that was made in the late 70s, about the incredibly brave work that the Belgian evasion lines did. They weren't 'resistance' with guns and spying (though they do do some!) and they didn't help Jews escape. They did collect wounded or fallen airmen from the Allied side, hide them, nurse them back to health and help them escape detection by the Germans (who occupied Belgium during the war) and get back home to England, so that they'd be able to pass on useful information about the things they saw behind German lines, and also, hopefully come back and blow up some more Germans, and of course, to save their lives.

The front to their Evasion Line, named 'Lifeline' is the cafe (then in series 2 and 3, Restaurant) Candide. Much of the work is done by female characters, in fact the woman who started it off, Lisa, was a very young woman. She is aided by another young woman Natalie, the man who owns the Candide, Albert, and Albert's mistress, Monique. When the story begins Albert has an invalid wife who never leaves her bedroom that they must hide everything from. They have helpers such as a farmer who does the radio work, and a doctor, who helps the wounded and also gives a Front for Lisa's travelling around at night by letting her work for him.

There are two Germans who are 'after them' (as well as other people of course) part of the occupying force in Germany. This is Kessler, the head of the Belgian Gestapo, and Brandt, then later Reinhart, the leader of the Luftwaffe in Belgium. They become extremely interesting characters.

There is a great turnover of other characters- be warned, much of it is through death, and the show is very dramatic, tense, and tragic, though also incredibly interesting and wonderful.


The iconic opening (and ending) titles.


The story of Lifeline is based on a true group of people in Belgium. And many of the details in individual stories and the fates of many different characters is based on other true stories.

The show was obviously filmed and made with much love, a lot of research and great actors who put their heart and soul into being these characters. It is filmed partially in studio in England, partially on location in England, and partially on location in Belgium.

Though it does have a very 1970s feel, and isn't all cut all over the place like a modern wartime drama would be, it certainly stands up on its own even now, and is just as sad and great as it was then. It was also one of the first wartime dramas that showed the friendship between the women.

Does this storyline sound familiar to you? Perhaps you were or are a fan of 'Allo Allo', a seventies Britcom that was actually... based on Secret Army! Though they set themselves in France rather than Belgium, 'Albert' has more than one girlfriend, and of course it's a comedy. Never in Secret Army are the words 'Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once' uttered.

Albert from Secret Army













Rene from Allo Allo. Notice a resemblance?

I highly recommend that people go out and get this series (available in ABC shops, on Amazon, and probably many other shops that I just don't pay attention to/know about), and enjoy it- you'll learn a lot, and come away with the same question that my mother and I did. If we lived in those times- could we do that sort of thing? We agreed that it was braver than what soldiers did, and that it must have been incredibly strange when the war ended.




Part 1 of the first episode.

Nine Men's Morris

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/ / CC BY 2.0

I thought I'd recommend a game to you today.

Let me introduce "Nine Men's Morris", a game of strategy and thinking skills.
It is an extremely ancient game- the Vikings enjoyed playing it, sometimes for money.

Nine Mens' Morris is a game for two players. Each player has 9 pieces. They each take turns putting a piece on the board- if they get three in a row, that is a 'mill' and they are allowed to take one of the other player's pieces from play. Once all nine pieces are on the board, they are allowed to move pieces to get more mills. A piece in a mill is untouchable from being removed by the other player- but sometimes you have to move one out!

My boyfriend and I played this while in our tent in the wild wild wind, it was the first time he'd been introduced to it. Playing against him is much harder than playing against the computer, which is how I learnt it back in the 90s.

I bought my board in a museum in England, and my pieces are two different colours of marbles.

A fantastic travel game, or for fans of board games, or for kids who want an extension on noughts and crosses.

Anyone else here a fan?

Where The Wild Things Are

(photo is mine, taken at the Innes National Park in South Australia)
I saw Where The Wild Things Are on Sunday.
This is one of my mother's favourite books to read to her class.
I always liked it too.
So when I saw that they'd made a movie from a 25 page (each with a sentence or less) Children's book, I was very confused about how they could make it into a movie!

But I'd give it 5/5. Max was a very realistic little boy, the story was lovely and obviously lovingly created, they 'stuck to the book' as much as possible- including amazingly created Jim Henson puppets showing The Wild Things. The scenery is beautiful, and is obviously filmed in Australia (Apparently in Victoria), and I loved that they filmed it like it was filmed with a camcorder, most of the time. That was very surprising.
Apparently the writer of the book had worked with the producers and script writer, and approved it heartily.

I don't believe it is suitable watching for the under 10s however. There are some scary and heavy themes and feelings involved. As an adult I can watch it and know that the characters are upset over really trivial things but somehow it is shown so that you feel all of the character's childish yet real pain. Children may not be able to cope with that. And some things are indeed very scary- one thing (spoiler alert!) is the teacher freaking Max out by telling the class that the sun was going to go out... and neglecting to say when that's expected to happen. That whole issue isn't resolved in the movie, he goes on believing it and convinces the Wild Things of it (though they decide not to worry about it). I was very scared by that concept as a child myself. Great example of careless teachers though, or a reminder of how kids take what we say!

I'm also very curious how they got the names for the Wild Things! Where do they come from?

I recommend it to everyone over the age of 10 years. Don't be put off thinking it's for 'Children'. It is much more than that. It will either take you back to your childhood, or make you want to hug little Max!

Niagara Massage Chairs

I went to the Royal Adelaide Show yesterday, a fun event where people go and check out new products, see animals, try things out, go on rides, do educational things, eat free samples, buy products, and watch entertainment shows.
It was a fantastic day, except for one nasty experience with a sales man at the display from Niagara chairs. He was incredibly rude and intimidating, and it is yet another example of discrimination against young people. Here is the letter I sent to the company a few minutes ago. I find it bizarre as all other displays in the whole exhibition always encourage interaction with the products, and most, even if you're a teenager unless you're being disruptive or it might hurt you.

Why are massage chair people the rudest people at the Adelaide Show? I met so many fantastic people there yesterday. Thanks to the Chutney guy, the Kyneton lamington woman, the nail art lady, the wobbly exercise machine woman, and soooo many more.

Note: This may just have been this one guy, not the whole company, but I've experienced rudeness in a similar vein before.




My boyfriend and I attended the Royal Adelaide Show on Sunday the 13th of September and experienced some rudeness by your staff in your stall. We are young looking, but we are 22 and 24 years old. I realise that there is often a 'no under 18s on the massage chairs' policy at the Royal Adelaide Show.

My boyfriend had been talking about getting a massage chair, and my Dad had been talking about getting one, so when we saw them we thought we'd go in to have a look.

We were immediately greeted by a man (I wish I'd got his name) in a very rude fashion, asking us what we were doing in his stall, as if we had no right to be there. My boyfriend, nervous at times, mumbled something about 'just interested in looking at your chairs'.
Your sales person then bluntly said that 'They're $9,000. How many do *you* want?'. My boyfriend thought he was joking on the last point, and said he'd take three. The salesman then demanded to see my boyfriend's credit card. He then told us that these chairs are only for 'old people', and that we couldn't use them, and that he only wanted to talk to 'old people', who would be coming in soon.
We left without looking at any chairs.
This whole exchange took less than a minute, and we were made very unwelcome.

We understand that teenagers often want to go in and 'try' the chairs with no intention of buying one. We also cannot afford a $9,000 chair right now, but we did not know how much they cost until we were 'informed' of this. This assumption that we were teenagers, or without money, and the rude manner that we were dealt with, means that we will be sure to not buy your products in future, even if we did have $9,000 to spend on a chair, and I will not be recommending Niagara chairs to my father.

I believe that this is very bad practice, and though I have been asked if I'm over 18 before at massage chair stalls, this goes far beyond that in terms of rudeness and assumptions.

I would suggest that your representatives be trained to try different techniques as to how to deal with potential 'time wasters'.
Thankfully the exercise equipment people (Whose products cost over $2,000) took me seriously and I now have their contact details to share with my parents who
were looking for options. They seemed to have no trouble accepting us as potential customers or influencers of parents and 'hype' to the general community.

I hope to receive a response soon.


My boyfriend also wrote them an email.

I went to see the display at the royal adelaide show yesterday. My experiences were quite offputting. I was immediately swooped upon and my purpose for being there was challenged. I am a younger person, so perhaps not the usual sales target. However, at 22, and my friend, 24, it's certainly not unreasonable that we could be genuine customers, or even just to be treated with respect and given some information about how they work.

It happens that I actually am interested in buying a massage chair, or a massage cover that slips over a chair. I didn't know the price range of the chairs, or if you sell the cheaper slip over ones, and, I still don't know this, for reasons that will become clear. So, after having my intentions challenged, I was then aburptly told that the chairs are $9000, with a sarcastic and hostile question "how many would *you* like to buy?". Now, the salesperson is probably correct. I can't afford that much. However, clearly I could not have known this previously, and therefore his rude attitude is entirely inappropriate. It should also not be ignored that there are 22 year olds who can afford such an amount.

So, assuming that he's not just being a jerk, I tried to make light of his comment by stating that I'll take 3, in a joking way. Perhaps he can give me a quick description of its mechanics, health benefits, suggest something more affordable, or politely apologise that they only cater to that particular price range with a thankyou for my interest in their product? However this was met with the demand that I show him my credit card, followed by a remark that these chairs are meant for elderly people, with a very pronounced implication that I am not welcome. At this point I was very confused and felt no other option but to move on, confused as to why I had such hostility directed at me, and having learnt nothing of the product except that they (all chairs? some chairs? most expensive? cheapest?) cost $9000, the salespeople are rude, and that I must be at least 25 in order to buy one.

There are certainly situations where a younger person could be disrupting enough to warrant this kind of rudeness. However, in this case I did nothing more than walk into this display area before this was directed at me. I was left with a sour feeling and certainly the affirmation that I will avoid this company, and, although I will have rare opportunity, I will discourage anyone from buying from this company given the topic arises.

I'm giving this feedback only because I don't think that it's right at all that a person should be treated in such a way merely because they don't fit the targeted market. I also understand that a salesperson can have a bad day, as can anyone. However, there are certainly ways of dealing with a bad day, and that certainly does not include taking it out on an unlikely customer.


Another point of view. I discussed this on a forum, and one of the responses was:

From what I've read, it sounds like he was definitely rude but I also think it's understandable. Though, understandable and excusable are two different things.
[...]

To be honest, though, I do think you both look like teenagers. Or at least could pass as teens. I'd completely understand how someone would peg you off as another teenager who isn't serious about buying a chair and only wants to try them.

Considering that, also remember that your presence there may not have just seen by the salesperson as a waste of his time but as a discouraging presence among a target group. Remember that these rules of marketing were not simply created by the people who sell such products but by the consumers, themselves. Rich people don't want to shop where poor people shop, stuff like that. The salesperson may have wanted you out of there in case more serious shoppers wouldn't want to approach the vendor with you there.

Foyle's War

Nothing to do with anything? But, Foyle's War is having a new series out, where it's set after the war! :D I'm so excited. Foyle's war is fantastic, it's about an older policeman in the Second World War (Christopher Foyle), his crippled sergeant (Paul Milner), and his driver, a young woman who gets really into the policing world (Sam Stewart), and the murder mysteries they solve. And it's just very cute, and all the murder mysteries are rivetting, and the settings are fantastic, and so many of the murders and plots are tied into wartime life.
This will be brilliant!
It fits in sort of here in this blog, because my friend and I were watching it a bit obsessively for months. We've now moved on to Jeeves and Wooster.