Happy Wednesday

You know I said I treated myself to a sneaky bookshop shop last week… well, I finished The Second Husband by the lovely Louise Candlish at the weekend; and I have to share the love. Louise is a beautiful writer. What started out as a love affair with her chicklit style in Prickly Heat progressed to women’s fiction greatness in The Double Life and shifted up a further gear with contemporary women’s fiction title Since I Don’t Have You which left me in bits… and this latest title is just brilliant. The "brand Candlish" is well on it's way to securing it's permanent place on the Top 10 FOS shelves of all good bookshelves, with echos of Jodi Picoult in style and the love child of Katie Fforde and Maggie O'Farrell in content. My one and only negative is that the blurb on the back and tag on the front of the book reveal just a hint too much of the plot....'there are some things a mother and daughter should never share'. It doesn't really take a genius to work out what those things are.



I also finished a proof I've had lying about for a year or so Fifty Is Not a Four-letter Word by Linda Kelsey, the former editor of Cosmo and SHE. It's a sort of generation jump for Bridget Jones - Hope hits 50, gets sacked from her high powered job as a (wait for it) editor of a glossy women's mag, gets dumped by her long suffering husband, has a bit of a fling in Paris with a hunky American and feels sorry for herself for a bit... till she turns her life around for the better. As I'm closer to 50 than I am to my 20's - I did enjoy this. But thank Christ I'm not quite close enough to completely connect with the twists and turns of Hope's life.

On a separate note, The Mother and I had a lovely afternoon at Sadlers Wells at the end of July, watching the sell out West Side Story. You have to get up very early to beat a classic like this - but the 50th anniversary production has all the good bits you remember from the film, plus a great new set and adorable new cast. No wonder the critics that know about such stuff have had a tricky time finding any faults....

With just 9 months now to go till the Big Day (yep, I know, I know.....) Boo and I made a trip up the M4 to meet our cake lady - Lisa. Oooooh the loveliness involved in choosing cakes can't be beaten. Other than, of course, eating them. We've ripped off some creations we saw in a wedding magazine, and added our own twist and come up with 4 different designs which we hope will look adorable together. Boo likes fruit cakes, so we will have 10 of them. I like Victoria sponge; so we are having 10 of them as well. That's 2 per person, and 2 spare for me and Him to take home as reminders....or to scoff later on in bed.

Last but not least, Melly launched ParkLife (boot camp style fitness circuit training thing) last night. I did some skipping, a hint of jogging, and even won the three legged race... and now my butt hurts. She was very whistle-happy, but it was great fun despite the wet grass and passing squirrel attention. If you live in Ealing or the surroundings you should come. Every Tuesday, 6.15pm, meet at the entrance to Walpole Park outside Pitshanger Manor. Mail melbeves@hotmail.co.uk for more info.