Knight's kiss

In a fairytale world, she's the damsel in distress and he's the gallant knight in shining armor who comes to rescue her from the tower of the evil witch.

Enter reality -

CJ in a golden steed green bike and Pinky gallop to the sunset head to the lift of a six-storey apartment building. They speak different languages. They also have different personalities. He is an introvert; she is obedient. And sweet. When asked to kiss him she obliged. Click!  goes the knight's little professor's very first kiss from a girl besides his mom.

ABC Wednesday

International Book Week

In this post: Booking Through Thursday and Thursday Thirteen

Quick–what are you reading right now? Would you recommend it? What’s it about?

Pocket Finance by The Economist Books. Does it count? It's one of thousands of finance books out there; a "guide that outlines the complexities of financial concepts and practice through essays and alphabetized terms."

If you are in higher education, Southeast Asia region- finance, accounting, management sort of stuff, you might fancy it for side reading. Come to my nook and we'll discuss it over tea. Coffee if you like or martini. It's just that at work there's talk of gearing up subject content for business undergrads; things like the AEC (Asian Economic Community), etceterati. This is back-up just in case.

Thursday Thirteen: International Book Week


There's a bit of fun going on around FB in honor of international book week. Bookworms are invited to grab the closest book to them, turn to page 52, and post the 5th sentence as their status. I'm tweaking it for T13 today. Here are thirteen shortened 5th sentences from books littering my bed right now -

1 Capital adequacy. Pocket Finance, The Economist Books
2 I dare say the Colonel will leave her all his fortune. Emma, Jane Austen
3 People always thought he had been to Oxford or Cambridge. Eating People is Wrong, Malcolm Bradbury

4 She'd learned capital optimisation promiscuously. The Lazarus Vault, Tom Harper
5 They recite together the Veni creator spiritus. Ladies in Waiting, Anne Somerset
6 But the beastie vanished into the chestnut wood. Wuthering Bites, Sarah Gray
7 The objective is to have the clubface make contact with the ball slightly. Golf, Bernard Gallacher

8 Provencale style also inspired Sunday's choices. The Heart Garden, Sunday Reed
9 Choose a stockpot large enough. Postcards from Kitchens Abroad, Diane Holuigue
10 Kolniyatcsh message will drown any that may be uttered. And Even Now, Max Beerbohm

11 Her face was thin and fierce. Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer
12 Robert nodded in agreement. Taste-Berry Tales, Bettie B. Youngs
13 Women in the cells at the other end tell Malachy he's gorgeous. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt

~ Happy Book Week to all book worms ~

Managing My Minutes: do I really need to? - a review

They are only minutes and we have big things that require days, months or forever to do, so do we spend hours discussing the minutes or do we just play it by ear?

Managing My Minutes: Do I Really Need To? shows why and how the minutes matter. It is when the work is great that there's a need to pay attention to little details. In a sea of chores moms or anyone managing a home may hope the children or loved ones in the household will cooperate so things are done quickly. But that may not be always the case. You wonder why the Jones children behave better, their obedience systematic. Is there a secret trick for that?

Author Lorrie Flem points you to a law in the natural world that serves as a guide to help you understand what you might be getting wrong. It's not magic, nor a 'get-rich' formula but an 'app' you can actually make use of. This e-book works around a concept most of us deal with whatever social roles we play - schedule. Now I usually treat schedule as routine, but as this book differentiated the two words, I am seeing how will my 'puzzle pieces' fit together nicely.

A recent change in my professional timetable cleared my weekday mornings. I am free Monday to Friday from dawn til midday you would reasonably think I am well on my way to chapter II of my dissertation. Quite the opposite. Being Miss Busy Doing Nothing is alarming. A section of this e-book addresses my predicament and enables me to confirm where I stand on managing my minutes.

You'll be delighted at how ancient terms bear similarities to business / political references so familiar today. I was. With real life scenario used to analyze the foundation of getting scheduling right, it was then easy for me to nail the thesis of the book, which also provides an assurance that paying attention to the little minutes is worth it in the long run. As a sucker for value of time and effort, the idea works well with me. Find out more of what I'm talking about by reading the book. Details are here. You may want to have a look at the author's site - Eternal Encouragement for related info.

*****

Thanks to Jen of The Happy Little Homemaker for the product photo.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Jane Austen Jigsaw Puzzle

"Oh Mary! ... find some useful employment!" ~ Mrs Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen's 500-piece 18" x 14" jigsaw puzzle looks to me like one heck of useful entertainment. The moment I saw it on a shelf by the check out counter of Asia Books, I decided it was mine even before I read the blurb -

"Settle down for a cozy afternoon with this literary-minded puzzle. Cleverly packaged in a booklike box... it features illustrations from the Regency Era paired with quotes from Jane Austen's beloved novels."

Alas! I have had the misfortune of not having touched this most prized possession since I bought it last year. Therefore this is one good reason to look forward to rainy afternoons at home on that russet hardwood dining table. If only I were home.

ABC Wednesday

Shoe issue

That animal owner who abandoned his German shepherd Missy on a Colorado mountain made excuses: 'I was forced to leave her,' this and that bla bla bla. Fact is he DID NOT go back to rescue her. Other people did. After a vet declared that Missy would fully  recover the owner wants her back. I can imagine animal rights activists glaring at his guts.

Or I was the one furrowing my brows in disbelief, feeling sorrow over Missy's cut paws. Poor darling. Mozart should learn about paw preservation from her, and at least try to wear his shoes for once in his life. But Mozart will never know the perils of mountain hiking until he were in Missy's shoes.

Does your fur kid like to wear shoes? 

Mine does not :( Actually he refuses to wear anything on his paws and will bite if forced. Recently I insisted he tried, at least for the sake of photos, and his teeth sank quickly on my hand so I dropped it. But not without having him pose with his unwanted shoes.  Heck, grooming accessories are not exactly cheap I have to have some sort of consolation. 

Did I say Mozart is a spoiled brat?

Bookstore bits

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="144"] Bookshop Window (Photo credit: garryknight)[/caption]

On the daydreams department: Inkwood Books, an "indie bookstore in a cozy old Hyde Park bungalow" is for sale. My dream is alive with more than just black and white as I buy the book bungalow in a page-turn.

The rich becomes richer: had the U.S. State Department not withdrawn a $16.5 million contract to provide Kindle Touches for its overseas language education program, that would have been the case with Amazon . The reconsideration now gives all vendors opportunities to respond to the Department's requirements for mobile learning. Yay to sharing the pie.

A positive state of bookstore affairs: Oblong Books & Music (New York) renovates. Here's wishing them traffic flow increase. Politics and Prose (Washington, D.C.) changes their store layout. A toast to events that draw larger audiences. Builders Booksource (California) re-sizes to a cozier space. May they have continued relief from high rental costs. Book Rack Bookstore (Massachusetts) has a changeover focusing on aesthetics. Patrons find it fantastic, they report.

I find all this especially good to muse about after singing a bookshop dirge earlier.

Home in the Burrow

If you had to choose to live within a novel, which would it be?

That was a question I answered in a book party some time ago. I delightedly went, 'without much ado Harry Potter's Hogwarts! What a place to explore! I'd like to transfigure arrogant Malfoy into a cross-eyed cockroach. *kidding* And when I feel like cutting Snape's class I'll hang out at Hagrid's hut. Then during summers head to The Burrow. As Ron Weasley says, "it's not much, but it's home."

The kiddo loves Harry Potter. He watches the first two installments over and over hiding behind the door and saying, "I don't like this..." each time. Then he watches it again, runs to the door again, the ceremony goes on :) For fun I thought of listing our

Thirteen favorite places in Harry Potter:

1. Hogwarts the moving staircases and all the magic learning!
2. The Burrow 'dilapidated and standing only by magic' ah!... wonderful
3. Hogsmeade Village appeals to the country girl in me
3. Madam Puddifoot's is where we will have high tea
4. Diagon Alley shop til I drop
5. Shell Cottage a newly-weds' home must be sweet and lovely
6. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes I want their anti-acne cream
7. Honeyduke's Sweetshop for my sweet tooth
8. The Leaky Cauldron when one day in Diagon Alley is not enough
9. The Three Broomsticks running a pub and living above it
10. Scrivenshaft's Quill Supplies good old writing paraphernalia
11. Magical Menagerie offers advice on animal care and health
12. Florean Fortescue's who doesn't want choco-raspberry with chopped nuts?
13. Flourish & Blotts books of course

Have you got a favorite place in Harry Potter or any literary place really? It's fun to imagine yourself in them sometimes.

~ Photo Credit: The Pensieve. I claim no ownership. ~