Lucy Sullivan is getting married

I liked this book…I really did. 740-pages strong, it had a right blend of eccentricities, romance, predictability and enough icky-moments to keep me hooked.

Lucy Sullivan is a typical Londoner. Twenty-six years old, she is burdened with a dysfunctional family, a dead-end job, an anal-retentive boss, a medley of demented colleagues, flat mates who totter on the thin line between heaven and hell AND a love-life that’s riddled with enough potholes to make you dizzy.

And then a tarot-reader proclaims that Lucy will be getting married within a year. When she sees the fortunes of her colleagues coming true in varying degrees, the cynical Lucy is intrigued (and a tad hopeful). Suddenly, men are popping out of the woodwork. Who will be the one who will walk down the aisle with Lucy? Gus, the penniless freeloader? Daniel, the incorrigible flirt ? Chuck, the beefy blind-date? …or perhaps Jed, the new office colleague?

So it’s a typical book with the typical drama and hi-jinx that litter your usual estrogen-infused chick-lit. What ups-the-ante is Marian Keyes’ flair for story-telling. Her words flow along with Lucy’s misadventures. A good splash of sarcasm, ooodles of witty repartee and the ability to transform whiny stop-gaps into pages of quirky dialogue make this book a real winner.

Lucy is a character you can associate with. She is confidently sassy but prone to bouts of depression too. The supporting line-up is brilliant , especially the flat mates: Charlotte (the dumb blonde who is just smart enough to know that people think she is a dumb blonde) and Karen (the seriously, scary frenemy with an ability to kill all the house-plants with a single deathly stare).

A fun read that helps you escape and yet.....keeps you tethered with it’s take on realistic situations.

Today, I am just thankful....I can't say for what, because it's a mite personal and am not big on the whole spilling-my-guts-out bit. Let me just say that the ol'adage : If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it is true...

One of the Family

I have an olde-worlde soul...and this painting ('One of the Family' by Frederick Cotman) captures my idea of a perfectly rustic, domestic household.

Google's Sesame Street tribute

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of 'Sesame Street', Google came up with some real cute logos. Here goes:

The best of SnorgTees.com

Leo, The Mighty Lab

I used to look at (my dog) Smokey and think, 'If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking,' and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'

~ Fred Jungclaus

p.s. ...that's LEO...he isn't mine, but I have been covered with enough doggy-drawl and fallen-prey to enough 'puppy-dog' eyes to forget that l'il fact...

The Tale of Custard The Dragon ~ Ogden Nash

...in an attempt to keep the ol'clogs well-oiled, I have decided to memorize stuff...poems, songs, thoughts, quotes and what-have-you....and first on my list is "The Tale of Custard the Dragon" by Ogden Nash. It appeals to my love for the inane...

The Tale of Custard the Dragon
Belinda lived in a little white house,

With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,

And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,

And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Now the name of the little black kitten was Ink,

And the little gray mouse, she called hum Blink,

And the little yellow dog was sharp as Mustard,

But the dragon was a coward, and she called him Custard.

Custard the dragon had big sharp teeth,

And spikes on top of him and scales underneath,

Mouth like a fireplace, chimney for a nose,

And realio, trulio daggers on his toes.

Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,

Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,

But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful,

Ink, Blink and Mustard, they rudely called him Percival,

They all sat laughing in the little red wagon

At the realio, trulio, cowardly dragon.

Belinda giggled till she shook the house,

and Blink said Weeck! which is giggling for a mouse,

Ink and Mustard rudely asked his age,

When Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound,

And Mustard growled, and they all looked around.

Meowch! cried Ink, and Ooh! cried Belinda,

For there was a pirate, climbing in the winda.

Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right,

And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright,

His beard was black, one leg was wood;

It was clear that the pirate meant no good.

Belinda paled, and she cried Help! Help!

But Mustard fled with a terrified yelp,

Ink trickled down to the bottom of the household,

And little mouse Blink strategically mouseholed.

But up jumped Custard snorting like an engine,

Clashed his tail like irons in a dungeon,

With a clatter and a clank and a jangling squirm,

He went at the pirate like a robin at a worm.

The pirate gaped at Belinda's dragon,

And gulped some grog from his pocket flagon,

He fired two bullets, but they didn't hit,

And Custard gobbled him, every bit.

Belinda embraced him, Mustard licked him,

No one mourned for his pirate victim.

Ink and Blink in glee did gyrate

Around the dragon that ate the pirate.

But presently up spoke little dog Mustard,

I'd been twice as brave if I hadn't been flustered.

And up spoke Ink and up spoke Blink,

We'd have been three times as brave, we think,

And Custard said, I quite agree

That everybody is braver than me.

Belinda still lives in her little white house,

With her little black kitten and her little gray mouse,

And her little yellow dog and her little red wagon,

And her realio, trulio little pet dragon.

Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chase lions down the stairs,

Mustard is as brave as a tiger in a rage,

But Custard keeps crying for a nice safe cage.

MARVEL Poster

MARVEL rules! Came across this wicked-cool piece of artwork and have been drooling over it ever-since...

Jamie at Home - Artwork

I love the drawings that pop up during *Jamie at Home*. Pages of a crusty notebook, they are grimy, dirty with food spots…and yet flow with colour and crazy word bubbles. They remind me of the lazy doodles I used to make sitting at the back of an accounts class in college…..ah...Halcyon Days.

Italian for Beginners

If this is your first chick-lit, you’ll enjoy it thoroughly. And if it’s your 55th chick-lit, you may not be blown away by the story but will still come away with a warm fuzzy feeling. I come under the latter category and ‘Italian for Beginners’ was a fun romp.

The plot has been done to death… Sensible yet single heroine on the wrong side of thirty…nosey relatives who love to drop poisonous barbs at every given opportunity (especially at embarrassing public gatherings like weddings)…unresolved issues with a deceased parent....a well-paying though dead-end job…and the cherry on the cake: a non-existent love-life. Say hello to our heroine:Cat Connelly.

Cat meets the seemingly perfect man, but things go awry when she learns that he is married. In a bid to break out of her safe mould, she scoots off to Rome (a place she has always loved), where she hopes to reunite with an old flame. But the book is 340-pages thick and Cat’s problems cannot be solved so soon. She encounters crazy situations and messy emotions that she could have done without. She learns to deal with her past baggage. She rediscovers her self…her self-worth…and people who prop her up with their buoyancy and sheer pig-headedness.

And the whole transformation was brought about in a glorious setting…the dusty, mellow around the edges, steeped in culture Roma. These were the parts I liked best. The author, Kirstin Harmel lets her love for the ancient city pour out through tiny but delicious descriptions, like:

I took a deep breath, soaking in the smells around me; baking bread from a nearby bakery; a hint of lavender perfume hanging in the air from the giggling pair of twenty-something girls who had just passed by; the slightly salty, slighty muddy smell of the Tiber river, drifting in from a block away.

I started off getting irritated with Cat’s seeming lack of backbone to feeling happy as I watched her grow, glow and shed her insecurities. A sweet light read that gives you a few moist-eyed moments; but mostly fills you with a strong yearning to wear a white sundress, a floppy straw-hat, gladiator-sandals and have your own l'il Roman Holiday