If You're After A Cracking new Book

I'm always on the lookout for great new authors - my favourite genres are science fiction, fantasy and horror. I like all the usual suspects and have read a great deal of the not so good as well... Imagine my great joy when I discovered an author that was new to me a couple of months ago - I'd like to recommend Phillip Palmer. He's written four books thus far: Debatable Space, Red Claw, Hell Ship & Version 43. I've read Version 43 & Red Claw and loved them both, they are a real breath of fresh air in a sometimes jaded and stagnant market.

I have also been lured to the dark side of the thriller, by another exceptional new author - Grant McKenzie. He has written two novels - Switch and No Cry For Help, again two excellent reads - highly recommended, it's an overused promotional tool when promoting books, but these two truly are unputdownable page turners!

Grant has also self published an electronic novel - K.A.R.M.A. available on Amazon for Kindle.
I have thoroughly enjoyed all of them and recommend any one as a toe dip in the water...

The Wonders Of Watergate Bay

October half term is Watergate Bay time. A magical place attracting garments from Jack Wills, Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister from the four corners of the world (but mainly London) and dragging their sorry owners with them. Ignoring this influx of well heeled insular tourists with no real appreciation of the beauty they are surrounded by, we have a champion time here every year.

God Save The Queen!

Last Saturday 10/09/2011 it was our very great pleasure to visit Her Majesty The Queen's official residence in London - Buckingham Palace to you and me. What an amazing time we had - I can heartily recommend it to anybody. Arriving at 10.35am - ten minutes before our allotted slot, we were at first dismayed to see the long queue stretching around the front of the palace, however, this quickly disappeared as we were ushered into the "holding pens". Passing through airport security we collected our audio guides and tried to make sense of the instructions - this proved to be the only slightly sticky moment of the visit, as a bit of a log jam formed as people struggled to grasp the concept of listening to instructions and pressing buttons...
Anyway, after swapping one of our Japanese headsets for an English one we were off - and what a journey - the tour takes you through all the state rooms that the Queen uses to entertain her guests - they are all awe inspiring in their opulence and scale. Beautiful colour schemes and lashings of gold leaf - we were particularly taken with the galleries - purpose built halls with glass roofs - allowing natural light to display the beauty of Canaletto and Titian alike.
Another slight log jam at the Faberge exhibition as visitors tarried in front of glass cases containing intricate, priceless wonders, but then we were through and approaching the main event - "The Wedding Dress". Despite The Queen describing its setting as "horrible", it was a great thrill to see the dress that Kate had worn on her wedding day - that lady is tiny! Also a reproduction of her bouquet, shoes and earrings in the same room and in the next room - the cake - a magnificent multi - tiered affair that looked amazing.
All too soon we were out into the gardens - a spectacle in themselves - and it would have been rude not to take a little tiffin on the balcony - strawberries and chocolate cake... then a visit to the shop to purchase the obligatory "Royal" souvenirs - you can never have too many tea towels...

So there you are - a glimpse of a better time when we all admired, feared and respected our royalty, I can't help feeling we've lost something in our modern world - quite a few somethings actually - don't get me started...

Another One - So Soon?

If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything. If you have nothing interesting to say, share it in a blog... I subscribe to both of these views, so... Things I learned (not learnt - try to write and speak proper like what I do) over the Bank Holiday weekend:
It's far colder here at the moment than it should be and certainly a good 20 degrees colder than Orlando Florida, where we have been for the past couple of weeks.
Sky customer services are a lot more accessible and helpful than I had expected or been led to believe.
There are no long sticks to be found easily in garden centres.
The Inbetweeners Movie was a good laugh, but not as brilliant as I was expecting (although the dancing scene is a classic moment in film history).
Life is good, take time out to appreciate it and everything around you - because that bus over there might just be coming to squish you

The Impressive first post

I've dipped in and out of various people's blogs over the years, and often thought I'd like to do one of those. So I have. It will variously feature my views on most things, blatant plugs for my various ventures http://www.falcongrinding.co.uk/ you see I really am shameless http://www.tonyjohnsonart.co.uk/ there I go again! and the ubiquitous long periods when I am really busy/can't be arsed/have nothing interesting to say - some would argue that the last would preclude any content whatsoever, but when they speak I tend to put my fingers in my ears and chant "La, la, la..."
For anyone stumbling across my blog "Welcome" especially if you've read this far, for anyone subscribing "Thank you" especially if you are rich and are at least considering sending me money (I admit that this is a long shot - ho hum).
Well there it is my first post, I feel it's missing an interesting fact so can I just say that West Bromwich Albion football ground (The Hawthorns) has the highest altitude of football grounds in the country. I also like words, one of my favouritres is mellifluous which means flowing with sweetness, slip it into conversation if you can.