The Babble Hinge - 5.

Well, here we are again and what a couple of weeks it has been!

I had my birthday week off work and filled it with fun. However, I did think I really needed another week off work to recuperate. Yeah right ;-)

I thought I would have time to do lots of reading, but oh no, it wasn't to be. By the time I was able to pick up a book, I was so exhausted, I fell asleep.

Last time I blogged a hinge, I told you about the start of the week where I had taken my niece to Bewilderwood (link is on that page). By the end of that week, my lovely colleagues had surprised me with a fabulous Mad Hatters Tea Party. I had been looking into having one of these but decided the official ones were just too expensive to ask friends to pay for, for a few fancy sandwiches and cakes.
Bless them, they only went and hired out a nearby village hall and put it all on themselves.Oh my, what a treat it was. I love Alice in Wonderland.One of my favourite stories.I love it's magic and it's quirkiness and as a child thoroughly enjoyed the film and the warmth I felt from it. I received many Alice in Wonderland/Mad Hatter Tea Party gifts including this fabulous tea pot -


Oh I do love a good cuppa.

So, back to the party, well, it was magical.Knitted mice coming out of teapots -

My friends dressed up and when I arrived, I was quickly donned with a rabbit nose, a tail, a hat and a clock to go around my neck -

Not a very flattering photo but you get the idea (blushes).
Cutting cake -

Safe to say, I felt like a queen, but not THE Queen - The Queen of Hearts, that is. :-)

"Have I gone mad?"

"I'm afraid so, you're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret....

All the best people are." 

- Alice's Adventures In Wonderland -

I have finished and reviewed AEROADDICT - The story of one man's lifelong love affair with aeroplanes by Doug Gregory. You will find this in this blog if you look hard enough ;-) Lovely book.

I still have The Taxidermists Daughter by Kate Mosse to review but in the meantime I am having a quick easy read of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Harry Potter #3) 

as believe it or not, I haven't read further than book two!!

I have been contacted by an author via my blog to review a book called Cruel Reality Games of Life and Death. The author tells me it is a bit like a modern day Hunger Games. This grabbed my attention.

The authors name is C.J Whitley. This is the blurb for the book - 

Taken by masked men in the night, a host of British people find themselves at the mercy of unknown abductors. They cannot guess where they are going, or why they are going there. When they find an arsenal of medieval weapons in their new prison, horrific possibilities are imagined. When cruel reality of their fate is revealed to them, they must learn a new way of life.
Fight or die. There is nowhere to run.

After good old Harry Potter, this will be my next read and what a chunk it is too!

I will report back to you on this and many other babbley things.

So many pictures on this hinge.

Good evening all and so to our next post.

AEROADDICT - The story of one man's lifelong love affair with aeroplanes. by Doug Gregory

Read from April 5th - 12th 2016.

Published 2013 by Little Knoll Press

Format    Paperback - 192 pages

Review  The next two paragraphs is a summary that can be found on Goodreads, that I read before starting the book.

Doug’s is a ‘lifelong love affair with aeroplanes’ - first as a boy in Southampton, then as a WW2 night-fighter pilot, flying more than 67 missions over occupied Europe, and post-retirement, as the pilot who built his own replica S.E.5a biplane and entertained the public with his aerobatics in the Great War Display Team.

Doug, now aged 92, didn't hang up his flying goggles until he was into his 90s. This memoir tells how he built an aeroplane in the back garden and took to the air in it - to Doug a natural way to pass the time: ‘This is an account of me, building a fun aeroplane for my enjoyment in my dotage, and while building it, dragging up and jotting down a few reminiscences with which I have bored friends over the years. Building an aeroplane is fun in itself, but it is only a means to an end. Flying is the greatest pleasure.’
The book is a gripping read, told with wry humour, honesty and some pathos.

My thoughts - I love planes (especially military planes) and I love history and this book had both so I felt excited about being asked to read it.

I did hope it wasn’t all “I screwed this piece of wood to this 6 by 4 bit of metal” type of read and no, it wasn’t.

This book captured Doug’s love and passion for planes, flying and life in general. His writing style flowed well from 1940’s war time to present day and continued back and forth merging his war time experiences with plane building in his retirement.

A very easy and enjoyable read which captivated me from the very beginning whilst being enhanced with photographs of young Doug, older Doug and the planes he flew and his own S.E.5a that he built.

It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know plane/military ‘lingo’ so to speak, it is explained very well and you soon get to understand the terminology used.

This book came across as Doug’s diary, a diary of his thoughts, memories and activities so I felt I got quite close to Doug, as though he had let me snuggly into a portion of his life. I do like it when a book does that and can envelope and pull you into the life that is in the book. At times, I did chuckle. This man had a great sense of humour but I think when living through hard times, you had to have.

The humour was evident from the start and I particularly enjoyed the chapter where he explained how he was chosen to be a pilot in the RAF and then having to go through the, in his words ‘ceremonial puncturing of bodies’.

Doug shares with us, his duties abroad in places such as India and Rhodesia in Africa and of course, what this young aspiring pilot got up to in his evenings and free time here in the UK and farther afield. Believe me, his young life was far from dull, for the time.

We are invited in the well put together pages to share his excitement at finally flying his first RAF aeroplane and the ups and downs (literally) of accomplishing this task of learning and being taught at the flying training school.

Doug introduces us to some of his friends past and present and his wife Liz who even lends a hand with his plane building. His love of planes and thirst for the build was probably a way for him and Liz to share some quality time together.

The book finishes with a fabulous photograph of Liz and Doug in 2012 which just makes you feel like you want to smile at the end.

A very talented man who even adds poetry into the read. I also liked the way the book was presented with the easy to read type which would be helpful to the older population, the short captivating chapters, the way it was laid out with smatterings of poetry which broke the pages up and the postscript at the back which just after finishing the main story, tidied it up somewhat. The picture index right at the back, I found a great help so I could relocate a photo again as I read further along without shuffling around the pages.

I was surprised how much I got into this book and how I felt I knew Doug through his work. I’d recommend to anyone who likes reading historical memoirs and especially when it comes to aeroplanes.

Sadly, Doug passed away in August 2015 and you find at the front of the book some words written (as described) from those whose lives he touched which makes the content all the more poignant.

5 out of 5 stars given.

The Babble Hinge - 4.

Good Evening.

What an amazing start to my leave week. The weekend has gone so quick and I am shattered. I collected my niece Saturday morning and we went to Bewilderwood for the day and the sun came out for us and made it a great day for climbing and sliding and tunneling. Yes, this almost 40 year old did it all too but I did stop at taking part travelling along a zip wire! Yeah right, what a funny old sight that would have been. This is a link to Bewilderwood. If you're close and have little ones, and older ones, my niece is 12 then go and enjoy it and believe me, you will enjoy it as much as them. I do think that any older than her age and they are not really going to be that interested but you never know. Anyway, I'm getting carried away here.Here's the link - http://www.bewilderwood.co.uk/
Such a magical imaginative place.

The journey there wasn't so pleasant. I have experienced my first road kill. A very jolly pheasant came toddling across the road at great speed, looking very happy with himself out there in the sun, straight for my front wheels. At almost 60mph, I knew I was going to hit it with a row of cars behind me and cars going the other way, there was no way I was going to avoid this beautiful happy bird without causing an accident. So, there we have it, bump. I had to try and explain to a 12 year old girl that although awful, there would or could have been worse on the road if I had tried to avoid it.
She sat in the back for each journey after that but just said, "I wish I hadn't seen that" and just carried on. She soon got over it as she then proceeded to tease me about the whole episode wondering if they had pheasant plush toys in the gift shop! Cheeky little so and so. Oh and on the way back, guess what? yes, another pheasant came across the road.It was in front of me trying (bless it) to dash through the traffic on the other side, but just as I came along, it gave up and stayed on my side of the road. With no one behind me, I could slow as it made it's way to the bank....to safety. I think this meant I was forgiven by my niece :-).

Arriving at my sisters 16 miles away just after lunch to a box of 6 lovely homemade cupcakes for me to take away for my birthday. A little cheeky cupcake once home. It was so very scrummy. Lemon flavour with hundreds and thousands and a chocolate bunny on top. My sister informed me that I could freeze some. haha, freeze? FREEZE? that's assuming they will last THAT long.

Book news. I am almost through  The Taxidermists Daughter written by Kate Mosse and published by Orion Books. I am really enjoying it. I love the style of writing. Keep and eye out for the review because being off work for a bit means lots of fabulous reading.

Yesterday I received the book that I was asked to review, I believe as a result of this blog, so this could be my first blog customer!

AEROADDICT by DOUG GREGORY D.F.C (Little Knoll Press).

I will be starting this book after I have finished my current read. I love history and for those that know me, military planes are a huge love of mine.

So to next time or my next review. Time to catch up on some sleep and a cheeky read.