in the Kingdom of Disgruntledom

in the Kingdom of Disgruntledom i am queen.

argh.

i think i would rather be in the Kingdom of Silk.

however, something that has been making me less disgruntled today is...

the bindup i borrowed from the library of my work placement that contains 2 fabulously mad stories from Eva Ibbotson, creator of Which Witch, one of my most favouritefavouritest childrens books ever!

sadly most of her stuff including Which Witch is now out of print, out of stock or indented, however if you can get your hands on it, it is well worth it (don't even think about it, your grubby paws will be going nowhere near my copy-mostly because it is hiding in a box out of easy reach due to wet paint and bits of missing wall in my room-and also cos i love it too much to release it into the World of Borrowing, from whence it most likely will never return... err, not that i don't trust you...)

anyway, i just finished the first story in the bindup- Not Just a Witch- and it really did make me very pleased to be alive, so much so that i almost evacuated the Kingdom of Disgruntledom. almost, because a minute later i was severly irritated by a moronic waiter. still, it is an example of the healing powers of books.

Heckie is a Good Witch. so is Dora. when Heckie and Dora have a fight at their witch graduation (they are both wearing the same snake hat and each witch is convinced the other did it to spite them) 10 years of friendship ends in a squabble, and their plans for Doing Good together are finished.
so, miserable yet determined, Heckie sets out on her own to band together a group of witches, wizards and three children, and forms the Wellbridge Wickedness Hunters. what follows is very, very entertaining, and involves a sad russian wizard who makes air balloons fly by using the hot air talked by politicians, another wizard who spends his time teaching cheese to walk, and a death-dealing cauliflower, not to mention the extremely villainous villain Mr Knacksap (what a delightfully stupid name). there is also a rather pace quickening finale comprising of 300 snow leopards, a gas canister and two very displeased (yet reunited) witches.
i can't wait to curl up with Dial A Ghost, the next story. hurrah for the Eva Ibbotson! i might try reading some of her YA stuff next, but then again I might not as they don't look as silly. and i like silly.

oh saturdays. how i... er actually i don't really know how i feel about saturdays. i quite like thursdays. but saturdays? they can go either way. today is shaping up to be a a sort of medium sized saturday. nothing super exciting, but nothing horrible either. although i do still feel a little seedy. turns out four and a half beers and some mi goreng leads to this particular dugong lady vomiting spectacularly into the toilet in the early hours of the morn. still not sure if it was the beer, the mi goreng, or a combination of both, but i suspect the mi goreng...

however.

i am nearly finished tim pegler's new one, five parts dead. i likes it! it's a sort of spooky historical/modern day flippy thing. by flippy thing i mean that it has the past trying to creep into the present, and our protagonist dan has to work out what the ghosties are trying to tell him while also getting his own life back on track. so far it is nicely eerie and very enjoyable. and there are no 'ghosties' in it as such, i'm just being a bit flippant again. sorry. i recommend it though.

in other news, i am super excited cos the author of the FANTASTIC billionaire's curse trilogy has signed the first two books for me. excellent. i missed him cos i had to go to the dreaded educational institution instead, and couldn't skip cos the mad hatters that arrange my classes had clearly been doing WAY to much mercury (the first class was on friday and the next one is in mid october). fools. anwaaaay thankyou mr newsome! and you have nice handwriting. and i like the archer family stamp!