50 books to read before you die:

1. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien ((Read the first one but haven’t read the other two.))
2. 1984 – George Orwell
3. Pride And Prejudice – Jane Austen
4. The Grapes Of Wrath – John Steinback
5. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. A Passage To India – E.M. Forster
9. The Lord Of The Flies – William Golding
10. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
11. A Bend In The River – V.S. Naipaul
12. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. The Catcher In The Rye – J.D. Salinger
14. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
15. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
16. The Diary Of Anne Frank – Anne Frank
17. Don Quixote – Miguel De Cervantes
18. The Bible – Various
19. The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer
20. Ulysses – James Joyce
21. The Quiet American – Graham Greene
22. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
23. Money – Martin Amis
24. Harry Potter Series – J.K. Rowling¹
25. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
26. The Wind In The Willows – Kenneth Grahame
27. His Dark Materials Trilogy – Philip Pullman
28. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
29. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
31. The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time – Mark Haddon
32. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
33. Heart Of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
34. The Way We Live Now – Anthony Trollope
35. The Outsider – Albert  Camus
36. The Colour Purple – Alice Walker
37. Life Of Pi – Yann Martel
38. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
39. The War Of The Worlds – H.G. Wells
40. Men Without Women – Ernest Hemingway
41. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
42. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
43. Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
44. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
45. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
46. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
47. The Count Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
48. Memoirs Of A Geisha – Arthur Golden
49. The Divine Comedy – Alighieri Dante
50. The Picture Of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

I would highlight the books I have read but it’s quite embarrassing².  Think I’ve got a lot of reading material for the holidays/rest of my life.

How many have you read?

1. Okay, I didn’t read it technically.  I attempted but it didn’t really capture my attention. [↩]
2. Doing it anyway – talk about contradiction. [↩]

You can include early November in this…forgot it was December.

The not so good things:

• Why tax payers are working their butts off, only for their money to get squandered like this?
• People who would rather point a finger at others rather than taking responsibility for themselves.
• The fact that sometimes just to do something simple – let’s say…pay off a holiday – takes 10 attempts and three different numbers and a few hang ups.
• Driver’s who put on their high beams unnecessarily.
• Mobiles.  Sorry, I’m never going to get along with them.
• I lost my ninja bunny.
• John Terry.

The good:

• Michael Bublé.
• My favourite season is here.  Please let it snow.
• Faster and more efficient laptop.  I upgraded the RAM from 512mb (I know, I know) to 2gb.
• Trip to Munich is finalised.  It’ll be the first time I go travelling with a friend and I can’t wait.
• Matrix (jewellery-specific CAD program).  Rendered images more pleasing to the eye than my sketches.
• Novatech (suppliers of PC components).  Ordered a lot from them on Monday, chose the following Monday for delivery (it was free then) but got it yesterday (Wednesday), I didn’t get charged.
• My friend, who kindly allowed me to get the CPU stuff sent to her house.  As usually no one is home at mine and I hate being a pain in the butt to delivery men.
• Pasta, just because I love my Italian food. :9

I’ve recently order quite a bit online – not all for me – but there has been one parcel I was particularly excited to receive.  It’s something that’s going to help solve my niggly problem with loose wires.

I introduce…Ninja Bunny.

Many thanks to Jennifer who sent me this, and to my postman who didn’t go on strike. Here’s to no more getting caught on protruding objects.

Just some random questions/points:

1. Would it be cheeky to say uni. starts on the 14th September, when in fact it starts 2 weeks later than said date?  I’m just sick of constantly taking blame for things I blatantly haven’t done.  It also gives me time to start on my project for uni.  So, how has your summer holiday been?
2. On sweeter note, I could be going to Germany next year (Feb).  Woohoo!  To see a show…a German word which I can’t pronouce let alone spell.   If it went forward it would not only be my first international jewellery show but also a first trip with friends.
3. Also…I got my jewellery parts and crystals.   Squee.  I’ve been debating for a while whether to my own jewellery to wear – departing with money has been the main reason why I’ve put it off for so long.  The packages came fast, next day dispatch.  I don’t know if it’s just me thinking this but the recession seems to have quickened the pace of dispatches and deliveries.  All I’ve done really is put bales on the Swarovski pendants.  Then with the Prince Of Whales silver chain I can mix and match the pendants.  Would take pictures and show you but it’s late.  I’ll get them done soon though – well, that’s what I think…
4. Has anyone had a moth stick to them whilst in the shower? *raises hand*  It is scary and makes you do some crazy dance.  That doesn’t compare to being stuck in the bathroom with a humongous one though. *shudders*  I don’t like fear insects and spiders.  This is probably the only reason why I haven’t visited Australia yet.
5. Oh yeah.  If you hand in a ring with set stones to be repaired, expect the stones to come back nice and bright.  The only reason the diamond – or any other gemstone for that matter – was misty in the first place is due to the gradual build up of dead skin¹.  It most likely is you ring, just cleaned and polished.

1. I know, not nice [↩]

Trick candles are a mission to blow out.

Happy birthday to me and to other cool people who celebrate it on the 27th of June.