Book Review: Cannibal by Jeremy Robinson

Cannibal by Jeremy Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cannibal by Jeremy Robinson is the 7th full length novel in the the Chess Team or Jack Sigler series. I've read or listened to every one of them and really enjoy them. I'm not going to go into story details as I don't want to have any spoilers but this is what I class as a techno thriller: a novel where there is a military/action setting with a supernatural/paranormal element. My favorite type of book.

I purchased this on audiobook as I was about to do some traveling on my own and am really glad I did. The (as always) excellent writing combined with Jeffrey Kafers' superb narration (I love that mans voice!) made my journey a joy and it passed way too quickly. It also proved useful in making the middle of the night baby feed a lot easier to handle!

The team are back with one member missing and a new one in his place but the dynamics are still there between them as well as with the non chess team members of the 'family' such as Sarah and Ana. As always they face some supernatural type threat that has a scientific explanation although that doesn't make any less scary or deadly.

The novel flowed well, eventually situated in three different locations but the transitions to the characters in each location was smooth and you were never in any doubt of where you were (mainly due to it being clarified in the chapter heading) or who was speaking (also due to Jeffrey Kafers' skill as an audiobook narrator).

One of the things I love about Jeremy Robinsons books is that the paranormal/supernatural element always has a scientific explanation at that end which, although I don't know if that science is real or not, makes me believe it has a real possibility of either having happened in the past or being capable of happening in the future. I figure being able to convince the reader that the Hydra (see 'Pulse', a previous book in the series) is a mythical creature that once was just another species in nature, has to be a sign of a good writing.

The climax of the novel left me feeling bereft before the epilogue simultaneously shocked me and assured me that this wasn't the end of one of my favorite techno thriller series.

Overall another fantastic offering from Jeremy Robinson, only dropping one star due to the overly patriotic US military references which just annoy me because I wish the UK could be more like that!! Can't wait for his next book :)

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BookBug Day!

It's been a busy day for little Son3 today. He turned 12 weeks yesterday (which I really can't believe!) and so had his 3 month developmental check with the Health Visitor followed by a rather traumatic visit to the nurse for his second send of innoculations and then a lovely book bug session.

Here in the UK they look for certain skills at the 3 month check such as smiling, making noises like cooing, starting to support their head etc as well as obviously checking that Mum is happy with babys feeding and sleeping as well as happy in herself.  Questions such as 'are you going to any of the local groups?' and asking what sort of family and friends network you have are reassurance that they are there to support you if need be and here in Aviemore there are 3 lovely groups to attend that have been really welcoming and friendly.  We also received some lovely freebies of weaning bowls and spoons and a leaflet despite the fact that you are advised to try and hold off from starting solids until they are as close to 6 months of age as possible.  I'm not telling you how old Son2 was when he started on the purees but there was no way he was waiting till 6 months!! 

Son3 managed to get naked and weighed without peeing on everything and everyone in the nearby vicinity and we then received our BookBugs pack which was rather nice:

BookBug is run by the Scottish Book Trust and gifts book bags to every child in Scotland. They also run free song & rhymes sessions across the country and although Son3 is still very young, we've already started attending the session in Aviemore as it's great to get him into this as soon as possible.  I used to be a bookseller with two different companies and so am quite vocal in my love of reading and getting my kids to read.  I've read to all of them since they were born and actively encouraged the use of audiobooks for journeys and after bed time story to go to sleep to.  This is a lovely wee pack and a great addition to Son3s' library.  Find out more about BookBug here.

We went to BookBug Aviemore straight after Son3s' inoculations (which went fine although he did give the nurse a rather dirty look after he'd stopped crying) where he had his bottle and listened to lots of songs including Tommy Thumb, Hickory Dickory Dock, Old Macdonald had a farm (not in this family he didn't) and Row Row Row your boat among many others.  There is also a story at the end which was a birthday story today as some of the children had had birthdays during the week.  It's nice how they do that for them :)

So that was our busy morning all before 12pm!!  I've spent the afternoon with my fingers crossed that he doesn't spike a temperature following his jags and even managed to get a couple of rows on the duffel coat done while he had a nap.

Tomorrow sees me taking Son1 to Inverness College for his application interview eek!!!  How'd he get so old?? How'd I get so old???!!  I think there will be a couple of hours spent biting my nails in Starbucks waiting for him to phone to say he's finished.  Have a good evening all!

Kelly x

WIP Wednesday: Garter Stitch For The Win!!

Its Wednesday so it's time for a crafting update.  Now, I have to admit that there hasn't been any progress on any of the projects I showed you last week but that's because I started a new one.  I wanted a project that was not only easy to pick up and put down, but also fairly simple for traveling at the weekend too.

I really liked a little grey garter stitch cardigan that son 3 had from Next and decided to make one in size 3-6 months using a pattern from this gorgeous book by Debbie Bliss:

The hooded duffel coat is all garter stitch and I had ordered some grey Bernat Softie from Deramores that i decided to use:

Traveling by myself and a brilliant audiobook produced good knitting progress and I had the back finished and front left cast on by the time I returned to Aviemore:

Not only is the pattern really well written and easy to follow but the yarn is lovely to work with too, making this a project I really look forward to picking up whenever I can.

Fingers crossed there'll be even more progress to show you next week :)

Kelly x

A Trip Home

This weekend saw me doing a return trip to the home island.  As some of you will know, son1 has spent the last 3 years attending the high school on the home island and staying with his dad there during term time.  But now my first baby is all grown up and has finished school ready to embark on his college days.  He's applied to attend Inverness College so with school over it was time to bring him back to Aviemore along with all his paraphernalia.

I headed up on the Saturday evening sailing from Ullapool to Stornoway (the town on the Isle of Lewis) and had the pleasure of using the brand spanking new linkspan that has been installed to accommodate CalMacs new MV Loch Seaforth ferry which has replaced the old MV Isle of Lewis (which I detested frankly).  It's the second time I've been on the new ferry but the first time was when they weren't taking cars so was a lot quieter and enjoyable!! This time I had to endure a very busy crossing due to it being the first time in 6 weeks you were able to take cars on the Ullapool - Stornoway route plus it was a bank holiday.  Nightmare!

Anyway,  as always I stopped in Inverness for a little light shopping to pick up crickets for my sisters bearded dragon Kevin (possibly my favourite family member) followed by the obligatory Frappe from Starbucks to see me on the drive to Ullapool.

The drive to Ullapool was pretty wet but my frappe and my new audiobook, Cannibal by Jeremy Robinson (fab, expect review soon), made it rather enjoyable.

View of the ferry from the Ullapool car park.  

Despite the sea being quite choppy it really wasn't noticeable and that's definitely a vast improvement on the last ferry which was rubbish in bad weather.

As you can see from the picture below, the car deck was pretty full.

Arrived at my destination with quite a few hours left of Eurovision to enjoy!

Yes, it was as fabulously bad as that picture indicates ;)

My return trip was on Sunday afternoon, this time with son1 and a full car, and I managed to get a much better picture of the ferry from Stornoway car park.

Seeing as I don't intend to do this trip again for quite a few months I indulged in my favourite ferry dinner of macaroni cheese and chips.  Mmmmmmm, best ferry food!

And that's the story of my weekend.  Hope you all had a good one :)

Kelly x

Changing Bag Review: PacaPod Hastings

Seeing as I've been travelling yesterday and today (pictures and post of that tomorrow hopefully) I thought I'd throw up a changing bag review I'd already written up.  Enjoy!!

So yes, it's yet another changing bag review.  I'm still on my quest for the perfect changing bag and this time we are looking at the PacaPod Hastings which I bought from www.naturalbabyshower.com for £65.  This company has wonderful customer service and excellent delivery charges and speed.  

I bought the Hastings in the mocha colour which, as you can see from the pictures is a lovely brown.  It also comes in a lighter stone colour.  It comes with two travel pods, the changer pod and feeder pod, and a small changing mat and a set of pram/pushchair clips.

I really wanted to love this bag as I wanted a backpack style and I loved the colour but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be :( I found the convertable strap system uncomfortable to carry as you can't just sling one of the backpack straps over your shoulder as it's all one long strap (hence it's convertable nature) so it all feeds through and becomes too long.  Plus, the strap feels too thin and so it's uncomfortable on your shoulder.

The front slip pocket was just too small for me as I like to be able to fit my large Kipling clutch in it and there was no way it would fit.  That would mean I'd have to unclip the front of the bag and unzip the top every time I needed my purse which just wasn't practical.

The shape and structure of the bag meant that every time I took one of the pods out, such as when I needed to feed or change son 3 or just grab the soother wipes, the rest of the contents would move and fall to the bottom so I'd have to sort it all out again which I feel would've become really annoying.

So overall I was disappointed but I don't think the bag is bad itself, just that it wasn't suited y I how I wanted to use it.  I've put in the pictures below of when I was trying it out for you all to see.  

Straps on the back of the bag that convert from backpack straps to messenger style.

Front slip pocket with magnetic closure that has two elasticated pockets and an elasticated key fob.

Inside main compartment with three travel pods, medicine pack, Aden & Anais Swaddle, a couple of toys and my Kipling purse.

Just Some Nice Scenery

As I said in my intro post, we've never regretted moving to Aviemore and here's a few pictures to show why:

These were taken this evening when we took Stanley out on his usual walk on the Spey Valley Golf Course here in Aviemore.  It was a lovely evening and I hope you like the pictures :)

Kelly x

YouTube Video To Make You Smile: WhatsUpMoms Taylor Swift - "Blank Space" PARODY (Mom Version)

Check out this hilarious parody that I think a lot of mums will be able to relate too ;) Subscribe to The WhatsUpMoms YouTube channel for lots more fun videos.

Kelly x

Changing Bag Review - PacaPod Picos Shell

You will soon discover that I am a great fan of the PacaPod range of changing bags.  This is because it calls to my love of a bag within a bag system which drives himself mad as he refuses to listen when I tell him which bag has what in it.... Anyway, the PacaPod range was designed by a mum from Devon and it's main feature is the three in one system it has which is an outer bag parent bag (1), an insulated feeder pod (2) and a changer pod (3) which keeps your changing stuff away from your feeding stuff and therefore more hygenic.  I just love that it's a bag within a bag system.

I already have the Samui which is from their Lite bag range and absolutely love it!! I will be doing a full review of it shortly.  I wanted to try a different a style of bag from them and because I already had the feeder and changer pods from my Samui I ordered a Picos shell which is their 'dad type' backpack bag without the pods.

The bag arrived in rather nice biodegradable wrapping from PacaPod with a local courier this morning.  It was roughly 2 days that it took to get to me which given the rather hefty £14.95 postage charge to the Highlands, I was expecting!

As you can see from the picture it's a very nice black backpack style bag with brown zips, padded shoulder straps, chest buckle and a water bottle pocket on each side.

The front of the backpack has a large pocket with a zip opening up the front for all the parent bits and inside this pocket is an elasticated key fob attachement (so you don't have to root around for your keys all the time) and three slip pockets for the likes of sunglasses, mobile phone etc.  It is also a deep pocket so you would be able to slip items in the bottom of it.

 However, I really didn't like this pocket.  I found it too difficult to reach the pockets to the sides of the zip and once they had items in them, it would have been really difficult to retrieve anything that was in the bottom of the pocket.

Going into the main compartment of the bag, this opens with a double zip which is handy and has two loops on the inside to attach your pods to using the little attachment loops that you get at the top of each pod.  For demonstration purposes in this picture, I've used the more solid type pods you get (as opposed to the lite versions I have with my Samui) to show how the bag is filled. 

In the front part (that folds down) you can see there is a slip pocket which is where the changing mat is designed to go.  I put in the changing mat from the Samui plus an Aden & Anais Muslin Swaddle (more to come on those in a later post) and they fitted lovely.  Then I had the PacaPod Changer Toy pod in the bottom and the Feeder pod in the top with Son 3's medicine bag and some toys.  You can see from the picture that it all fitted quite nicely.

However, I felt it would have been a pain getting the pods in and out as everything would sort of fall around the space plus this all made the bag rather heavy as it is already a very sturdy bag made from good well structured fabric.  And I also felt that this style didn't really suit me and could have been achieved with a cheaper rucksack from Mountain Warehouse.

Sadly, this with the inaccessability of the front 'parent' pocket made me come to the conclusion that this bag would have to go back.  Bit of a bummer given the hefty delivery charge.  However, it did convince me that I wanted the hands-free element of a backpack style bag so I have ordered the PacaPod Hastings from Natural Baby Shower to give it a whirl :)  Keep an eye out for that review coming in the future!!

Kelly x

WIP Wednesday - What I am currently Yarncrafting

It's Wednesday!!! Half way through the week, hump day, etc etc etc.  Whatever way you want to look at it, it's good.  Mainly cos it's just another day frankly but it also lends itself rather well to a snappy blog post title of  'WIP Wednesday'!  This stands for Work In Progress Wednesday and what I will be aiming to do is to do a weekly blog post on Wednesdays on what is currently languishing in my yarncrafting bags.  There's a good chance that there will be very little of the actual 'progress' but it's a good way to hold me accountable for what is still on the hooks and needles and needs to be worked on so lets get started shall we??

I both knit and crochet although I am better knitting.  I am not sure if this is because I learnt to knit first and so it's my 'first language' so to speak but I enjoy both and currently have projects from each craft on the go.  I mainly like to create toys and socks and this is illustrated in this weeks projects beautifully.


My current works in progress in their bags:

So in the little brown bag with hearts on we have a pair of baby tube socks for son 3.  This bag is actually a dual bag with two sections in so you can work on socks two at a time:

It was made for me by mum (cairngormbags) and is very handy when you are wanting to avoid second sock syndrome.  I am knitting these socks on Hiya Hiya Sharps 2.5mm 100cm fixed circular needle (and believe me they are sharp as I punctured my leg with one of them yesterday!) with Regia sock yarn.  I can't remember the exact regia line and colorway as these are leftovers I had but they seem to be knitting up nicely :) 




















Next up in the large Primark bag is the crochet pattern 'Baby Helicopter' by Paola Navarro of Delicious Crochet Patterns.

I love this designers toy patterns as they always have so much character and the patterns are really well designed and easy to follow.  As you can see from this picture I have done the fuesalage and rear rotor.  I am crocheting this using a 2.5mm KnitPro Waves crochet hook and various dk yarns that I had in my stash in different blues.  I really like the KnitPro Waves hooks as the handles are soft touch and so easy to work with.  I am going to buy a little squeaker insert from eBay to put in the dummy/soother/pacifer of the helicopter to jazz it up a bit :)

And lastly, in the 'Books Are My Bag' bag we have Jonathan The Bee. 

This is a pattern designed by Stacey Trock of Fresh Stitches.  I love these crochet toy patterns and always really enjoy making them.  Jonathan will have crochet eyes rather than safety eyes in case Son 3 likes to chew and he is also being created using a 2.5mm KnitPro Waves crochet hook and various dk yarns from the stash in the appropriate bee colours :)  This is going to be a gift for Son 2 as his project at school this term is bees which I think is fab.  There homework for the next few weeks is to create a bee friendly garden in a cat litter tray type tray which is definately going to be a job for Grandma and Grandad as I can kill yukka plants with one look!!  After I've finished this version of Jonathan he's requested that I do a larger version which I'm quite happy to do as I'm enjoying this pattern so much.

So that's all that's in my project bags this week and hopefully doing this weekly update will encourage me to make some progress on them!!  Comment below and let me know what crafty projects you are currently working on and if you have a blog, don't forget to link it :)

Kelly x

Time for an introduction!

Although I know that many of you reading this blog will already know me, I thought it best to write an introduction post not just for those that maybe visit the blog in the future and don't know me personally, but also to tell you what this blog is going to be.

My name is Kelly and I am a 37 year old mum to 3 boys aged 16 years,  8 years and 2.5 months (yes, I know they're big age gaps and no it wasn't planned!) as well as a 5 year old pug called Stanley.  I live in Aviemore with this lot and my husband where we moved to from our home island of the Isle of Lewis back in September 2010.  A move we have never regretted!!  Aviemore is in the Cairngorm National Park in the Highlands of Scotland and is an exceptionally beautiful and friendly place to live.

For the first 3 years I lived here I worked as a bookseller in the local branch of a national UK high street bookseller before leaving to concentrate on my business teaching kids and adults to knit.  I really enjoyed teaching knitting and made so many lovely friends through it, but when I discovered that I was expecting my third child I made the decision to close the business and concentrate on the home life for a wee while.  I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all and frankly I'm okay with that!

So not only does that give you my back story but it also tells you all my hobbies and pretty much what will be covered here in the blog: parenting, pugs, books, yarncrafting, walks in the area and anything else that trundles across the wasteland of my brain.

Really what I want to do through this blog is document my family life so that even if no-one else reads it (and I hope they do!) it's here for me to look back at in the future and remind myself of how fab it is to have a normal day to day family life.  How things like making a dinner that the whole family actually ate without bloody complaining about is a win situation and finding a toy brand that your kid likes and you're okay with buying can make for a pretty damn good day!

I'm not going to promise to post a blog post every day or at least one video post a week or anything like that (although I'd be hellva impressed with myself if I did!) but hopefully there'll be some regular updates with everything from pictures from a stunning walk to baby toy reviews to what's in my bag videos.  And hopefully you'll subscribe and join me in enjoying a day to day family life :)

To get the ball rolling, here's a picture of our number one family member Stanley the Pug.... Enjoy!

Kelly xx