Tuesday 30 June 2009
Monday 29 June 2009
Sunday 28 June 2009
Saturday 27 June 2009
Friday 26 June 2009
Thursday 25 June 2009
Wednesday 24 June 2009
£6.99
Hmm. Now cheaper than I can buy it direct from the publisher with author's discount.
An Ungodly Child
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Monday 22 June 2009
Mug Monday
I'm joining Crafty Green Poet with her post of 'Mug Monday'
Here's one of the shelves in the kitchen: My mugs are top left (the cover of my book, a gift from a partner), middle right (a tea bowl for Japanese tea), bottom shelf (left: a cat I found in an Oxfam shop, middle, an antique stoneware tea bowl and right, a procelain mug with poppy (two for £3 at Morrison's).
Sunday 21 June 2009
Saturday 20 June 2009
Saving Salt
You may have seen this campaign already. But if you've not already bought 'just one book', then please do consider doing it now. The 'just one book' campaign has raised £24,000 already - but to survive they need to raise a further £31,000.
That's quite a lot of books.
To help, Salt are offering a third off all books until the end of June.
There is now a huge 33% off ALL books in our stores till 30th June. Use the coupon code G3SRT453 when in the checkout to benefit.
I've just bought "Unexpected Weather" by Abi Curtis.
Thursday 18 June 2009
Wednesday 17 June 2009
And fades into the past
Remember these sheds on Bramshill Rise?
I remarked how delighted I was to see them, and how beautiful I thought them.
Now they are being dismantled. The council have paid a vast sum for ‘professional dismantlers’ (three blokes and a transit van) who are very sensibly wearing coveralls and masks to remove the asbestos, but stand to make a tidy profit on the steel structures beneath.
I remarked how delighted I was to see them, and how beautiful I thought them.
Now they are being dismantled. The council have paid a vast sum for ‘professional dismantlers’ (three blokes and a transit van) who are very sensibly wearing coveralls and masks to remove the asbestos, but stand to make a tidy profit on the steel structures beneath.
You should have seen how cross the chap on the roof (obviously the gaffer) became when I took the photograph. You can’t tell who they are, and their van was unmarked, but it’s a good indication they were up to no good.
Bless ‘em.
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Monday 15 June 2009
Sunday 14 June 2009
Saturday 13 June 2009
My Favourite Plate
Crafty Green Poet posted a picture of her favourite plate yesterday, so I thought I would, too. Regular readers will recall me acquiring this plate last September, when I found it on the waste ground I refer to as the 'Wetlands Field'. I suspect someone in one of the adjoining houses had used it as a frisbee. It's a 7" plate that I've photographed befoe with ink cap mushrooms on.
With dinner in hand
I search the market
for the perfect plate
Friday 12 June 2009
dot Convoluted
A Biblical mark
of the damned and flesh-welders
who laid out the vellum and opened the holes.
The trumpeting bark
of your sapient elders
devouring by hand all the moribund souls.
The onion eaters,
the trainers of fleas;
Remember the grave-bound you sent to the mist
The carpet-clad beaters
who do as they please --
ideas convoluted and thoughts often missed.
Friday Bench
Again inspired by Gerald England, another bench, this time in Queen's Park, Chesterfield
Tea in the park.
Milk jug shared between three.
Daisies in the grass.
Thursday 11 June 2009
Wednesday 10 June 2009
Tuesday 9 June 2009
Monday 8 June 2009
Sunday 7 June 2009
Saturday 6 June 2009
Friday 5 June 2009
Undedicated Bench
In honour of Gerald England and his Ackworth Born blog, here's a Friday Bench, taken this morning.
An open sided bench
one side facing the graves
the other,
the distant trees and houses.
I am left to wonder
which way a person sits
To remember the dead
or reflect upon life?
one side facing the graves
the other,
the distant trees and houses.
I am left to wonder
which way a person sits
To remember the dead
or reflect upon life?
Thursday 4 June 2009
Wednesday 3 June 2009
My tea has steeped too long
I poured scalding water
and took the washing upstairs
then stood for a moment
looking out of the bedroom window.
A boy runs across the grass.
Outside the opposite house a woman sits in a car
smoking a cigarettes with the driver’s side window half open.
A woman pushes a child’s chair, talking on a mobile.
Next door a crisp packet blows across a daisy-speckled lawn.
On the stairs I linger,
tracing a finger across paintings.
This canal scene brings my sister to mind.
I bought it for her but kept it, and think of her more often because of it
in the way a photograph becomes invisible.
One beach scene reminds me of Borth, another of Devon
and a series of lithographs of the time
I was a professional artist.
At the bottom of the stairs I compose a poem,
but my voice falters when I video the scene
and I forget the pretty phrases
that flowed so well in my head.
And in the kitchen
my tea has steeped too long.
and took the washing upstairs
then stood for a moment
looking out of the bedroom window.
A boy runs across the grass.
Outside the opposite house a woman sits in a car
smoking a cigarettes with the driver’s side window half open.
A woman pushes a child’s chair, talking on a mobile.
Next door a crisp packet blows across a daisy-speckled lawn.
On the stairs I linger,
tracing a finger across paintings.
This canal scene brings my sister to mind.
I bought it for her but kept it, and think of her more often because of it
in the way a photograph becomes invisible.
One beach scene reminds me of Borth, another of Devon
and a series of lithographs of the time
I was a professional artist.
At the bottom of the stairs I compose a poem,
but my voice falters when I video the scene
and I forget the pretty phrases
that flowed so well in my head.
And in the kitchen
my tea has steeped too long.
Blood, Sweat and Tea
Blood, Sweat and Tea, by Tom Reynolds
A beautifully written insight into the stresses, strains and successes of working for the London Ambulance service. Is there anyone who hasn't wondered about the state of the occupant of an ambulance, screaming along with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? Have you? And have you wondered about the other people inside the ambulance, maybe fighting to save the patient's life? Or have you considered that the ambulance may be another 'maternataxi' ordered by a woman who can't be bothered to book a real cab and who then complains she can't smoke on the way to hospital? And that the medical technician inside might just be desperate to get back home from a busy shift, to have a cup of tea and catch up with his blog? Meet Tom Reynolds. Tom is an Emergency Medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a blog of his daily working life since 2003 and his award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate. It is never less than compelling. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.
I heartily recommend it.
Buy it Here:
Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
The sequel to the bestselling memoir Blood, Sweat & Tea. Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and witness the last moments of a dying man in the afternoon. He deals with road accidents, knife attacks, domestic violence, drug overdoses, neglect and suffering. And you think you're having a bad day at work? Tom blogs about his experiences at the end of each shift. His Random Acts of Reality website has a huge following with over 30,000 visitors every day. He is an internet legend and a remarkable writer. His first book, Blood, Sweat & Tea came out of nowhere to be a surprise bestseller in 2006. Readers were stunned by the stories he had to tell and impressed by the sheer quality of his writing. Critics who sneer at blogs-to-books have never read this one. More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea charts the past two years of Tom's life as an ambulance worker. He is tired, he is frustrated and he is more pissed off than ever but he still manages to capture the more moving, heartwarming and inspirational moments alongside the chaos.
Buy it Here:
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
Or download it for nothing to see if you like it:
A beautifully written insight into the stresses, strains and successes of working for the London Ambulance service. Is there anyone who hasn't wondered about the state of the occupant of an ambulance, screaming along with its sirens on and blue lights flashing? Have you? And have you wondered about the other people inside the ambulance, maybe fighting to save the patient's life? Or have you considered that the ambulance may be another 'maternataxi' ordered by a woman who can't be bothered to book a real cab and who then complains she can't smoke on the way to hospital? And that the medical technician inside might just be desperate to get back home from a busy shift, to have a cup of tea and catch up with his blog? Meet Tom Reynolds. Tom is an Emergency Medical Technician who works for the London Ambulance Service in East London. He has kept a blog of his daily working life since 2003 and his award-winning writing is, by turn, moving, cynical, funny, heart-rending and compassionate. It is never less than compelling. From the tragic to the hilarious, from the heartwarming to the terrifying, the stories Tom tells give a fascinating - and at times alarming - picture of life in inner-city Britain, and the people who are paid to mop up after it.
I heartily recommend it.
Buy it Here:
Blood, Sweat and Tea: Real Life Adventures in an Inner-city Ambulance
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
The sequel to the bestselling memoir Blood, Sweat & Tea. Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and witness the last moments of a dying man in the afternoon. He deals with road accidents, knife attacks, domestic violence, drug overdoses, neglect and suffering. And you think you're having a bad day at work? Tom blogs about his experiences at the end of each shift. His Random Acts of Reality website has a huge following with over 30,000 visitors every day. He is an internet legend and a remarkable writer. His first book, Blood, Sweat & Tea came out of nowhere to be a surprise bestseller in 2006. Readers were stunned by the stories he had to tell and impressed by the sheer quality of his writing. Critics who sneer at blogs-to-books have never read this one. More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea charts the past two years of Tom's life as an ambulance worker. He is tired, he is frustrated and he is more pissed off than ever but he still manages to capture the more moving, heartwarming and inspirational moments alongside the chaos.
Buy it Here:
More Blood, More Sweat and Another Cup of Tea
Or download it for nothing to see if you like it:
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