I’ve been home from my conference for nearly a week now and – in many ways – feel like I’ve achieved little. However… I’m happily ensconced in my own house so everything’s gotta be good, right? #spoileralert: The answer’s “Yes, mostly.”

Before I share the exciting trials and tribulations of my life, I’ll start with my reading and reviewing.

What I read

I actually did some reading. Not every night, but on a few nights amidst other commitments – like breaking my antenna amplifier and accidentally almost shocking myself. Literally.

I started the week with Sophie Hannah’s Closed Casket, which I’d been planning to get to for over a month! I then leapt into Gayle Forman’s Leave Me – which accidentally got packed early in my house-move and only reappeared a week or so ago.

And finally I read Melina Marchetta’s Tell The Truth, Shame the Devil. For my fellow Aussies, Marchetta’s the author of the popular young adult book and movie Looking for Alibrandi. This book was very different. And very enjoyable.

What I wrote

Not only did I read. But I wrote stuff as well. Shocking I know. My motivation and work ethic seemingly knows no bounds! There were no ‘personal’ posts however… and everything this week was tres bookish!

My Top Ten Thrillers OF ALL TIME – my first time joining The Broke & The Bookish for the Top Ten Tuesday.
Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah – returns to us the acclaimed Hercule Poirot. There are some obvious differences to the Dame Agatha’s Poirot, but it was an enjoyable read
Leave Me by Gayle Forman – the first adult novel by the young adult author and one that focuses heavily around relationships and balance.

What I did

I worked… which really wasn’t that exciting, but I also had moving-house related chores. My new mattress finally arrived. I dropped a couple of hundred bucks getting my antenna sorted (and the great amplifier-breaking incident of 2016 shall be never spoken of again!). My uncle came and helped me work out how to change my gas bottles… it is indeed my first time ‘cooking with gas’. (#seewhatIdid there?) *

And just when I thought things were under control the pump to my water tank stopped working. I have town (mains) water, but my toilets, washing machine and outdoor taps are hard-wired to only use tank / rain water. After some investigation… ie. me posting photos to Facebook and asking for advice, the same uncle helped me identify that my pump was faulty and so I’ve got someone coming out on Monday to have a look at it. And am hoping I don’t need to buy a new one. Sigh.

Of course I had invited friends over for Saturday afternoon drinks, and their 5yr old boys were equally horrified and intrigued by the idea of filling cisterns with buckets of water when they went to the toilet. (Something I’m expert at having lived in Mozambique in the mid 1990s for 16mths!)

The drinks with my local besties however were wonderful. But, I’d recommend NOT attempting to put together something from Ikea after several champagnes! #justsayin

What I plan to do

I have not been to the post office for over a week and a half. I didn’t really have any days at home last week, so have not checked for book arrivals for nearly two weeks. I’m going tomorrow and am hoping for a lot of new arrivals, but a little afraid at the same time. Looking at my ‘Trello’ table (used for monitoring my reading and reviews) I’ve got at least four books from August I’m yet to read as well as some from September.

I’ll take a deep breath and do some rearranging after I’ve been to collect the others however.

I’m also looking forward to getting back into some exercise this week and hoping to make it to THREE classes at the gym. I’m only working two days and am hopefully over most of the moving-house commitments. (Plus the water tank pump man said he doesn’t need me at home when he comes tomorrow!)

And that’s it for my reading and reviewing. It’s drizzling here today and I’m planning on camping out in my study to get some writing and reviewing done.

What’s on your agenda for the coming week?

As usual I’m linking up with Deep Fried Fruit for the Lovin’ Life Linky; Caffeinated Book Reviewer for the Sunday Post; and The Book Date for ‘It’s Monday!’

* Is the colloquialism ‘cooking with gas‘ used in other countries and cultures?