Bridget: a mixed review and a well overdue weekend

I finished the new Bridget Jones book 'Mad About the Boy' and even though it was a good, easy read I wasn't 'Mad About the Plot' and didn't come away from it thinking 'I'm Mad About the Book'. I quickly slipped back into Fielding's informal writing style for this line of books and I liked all of the reality drops i.e. Starbucks tax avoidance (can't remember any more which shows I was not really into this book) that makes Bridget easily relatable to the every day woman. I think the main problem I found was that it was hard for me to adapt to an older Bridget, and she never really had any goals throughout the book other than having sex with her toy boy. Gone was the passion for her job (she was texting her toy boy throughout every single meeting) and even though she was widowed and mentioned a few times of her guilt for leaving her children to her nanny, I didn't find that her children were a main central point of her life either. 

The name 'Roxster' grated on me. It was so stereotypically 'toy boy' I just didn't like it. I also didn't take at all to Mr Wallaker. I guess I'm hung up on the way there was just something so likeable and lovely and lush about Mr Darcy and the whole whirlwind love story that there was just nothing to compare to it from this book. Yes I wanted Bridget to be happy but all of a sudden 10 pages from the end she was in love with Mr Wallaker and that was it, happy ever after. I didn't like seeing Bridget settle. The man I fell completely in love with was Daniel but that's a no brainer as he is just Daniel. 

I didn't like the unbelievable event near the end, it turned me off in the same way the second film did with the whole prison thing. It just dragged out and didn't seem real enough to me. 

I really, really wanted to like this book. 

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My weekend in Manchester was amazing. And chilled. It felt so good to catch up with my friend JT. We're not big for texting in between meetings but it's not a bad thing as we have a million things to talk about when we see each other. 

The first thing we did when he met me at the station was go for lunch. JT had already picked out where we were going to go, and it was best. food. ever. We went to Oklahoma, a half-shop half-vegetarian cafe and both ordered the chick pea curry with sweet potato and mango chutney, along with Moroccan mint tea. 

I was tempted to ask for the recipe but I don't think they would have given it to me. I definitely need to learn to cook this. 

We walked around the shops for a while and talked about his latest hill race and how my running was going. JT, my best friend of 18 years, never ever thought he would have an afternoon's worth of conversation with me about running. He was surprised when I started out last February and even more surprised that I'm still at it. His favourite sport related hobby is climbing (he lives for it) but he did swimming a lot growing up and he's an all round good athlete. He ran 15 miles last week just because he felt like it, in 1hr 47. Amazing. 

The highlight of my afternoon other than this hot spiced apple drink and sharing carrot cake was when JT promised to pace me when I grow some balls and run my first half marathon. I'm really looking forward to this, so watch this space. 

We went out for Thai food with 2 out of 5 of his housemates, who are all completely lovely and took the time to chill out with us all weekend. They all have the same interests (climbing) and even though they're all full time working and not students any more they still get on great and have their own bachelor pad thing going on (read: messiest house I've ever seen (there was absolutely no way I was going to shower in either one of their bathrooms)). We bought some beers from a supermarket and went back to relax and watch the XFactor. We had planned to go out for a drink but the weather was terrible and we were happy enough staying in watching films. 

Sunday we all went to a bar / cafe down the road for some pulled pork ciabattas before going to Aldi to stock up on ingredients for baking. 

JT is not the biggest lover of photographs, not sure if you get that impression. 

We all demolished our chocolate brownies ASAP while they were still warm and it got to this point before I remembered to take a photo. They were pretty good brownies seems as we were lacking every single utensil you can imagine you might need to make any form of cake. 

An hour before I was due to train it back, we cracked open the monopoly. 

You wouldn't believe from this pic that it was the guys' idea to play this game. 

I have never even seen an electronic version of this game before let alone played it but it was really fun. Instead of paper money you all get a debit card that you pop in the electronic meter and it deducts and adds all the money you need.

I didn't get very far in the short time we had but I'm planning in sourcing this game for our family in time for Christmas. 

The last thing I did before I left was steal this from JT's bookshelf:

He recommended it so I can't wait to start reading. 

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Although I was inspired by all of our running talk over the weekend, I skipped my run today in favour of making my favourite chilli. I feel a bit demotivated by the darkness and rain and even though I was running last winter, my distance was low and one lap of my village was enough to complete my training plans. Now that both the trail and next village are out of bounds due to the dark, I would have to run over two laps of the village and this is just not inspiring me at the moment. But I will get out, I am just not sure when. 

Dans x

Ps sorry for whatever is going on with my font, hopefully get that sorted soon. 

Hello weekend

I had a job interview yesterday. I have absolutely no idea how it went. I don't think I can ever judge these things very well, because I get in there and as soon as the first question is asked I seem to forget everything I've prepared and just start spouting a load of verbal d. It was an internal interview so I knew the person who was interviewing me but I'm not sure whether that made it better or worse. 

There will be another stage yet, the next one with the main person you will be PAing for if you get the job, and I think at the end if the day it all comes down to chemistry. If there's no chance of developing a great working relationship together then you won't get the job. As my PA colleague said when I caught up with her after the interview yesterday: "It's like a marriage without the sex".

I think they're keen to get someone in quite quickly so I might hear back at short notice for the second stage early next week. Fingers crossed. 

So this had been on my mind since Wednesday and along with my opticians appointment my mind has been pretty occupied (no Mrs Optician I am not wearing contact lenses right now *cough*) and I haven't had much chance to think about my trip to Manchester this weekend, which has come at PERFECT timing after a busy week. My oldest and dearest friend moved to Manchester to study at Met over 6 years ago and never came back home to stay. I guesstimate we have been friends for approx 18 years. 

As these photos were taken over a year apart, that green v neck sweater must have been a favourite of his. 

He always comes home to visit his family and me but a trip for me was well overdue so am currently on train (searching for wifi) on my 3 hour train journey with nothing to think about other than writing blog posts, reading the news and reading Bridget Jones (and fretting about my interview feedback but determined not to think about it). Bliss. 

I haven't been for a run for a week now. I was supposed to go yesterday but I had a headache from the mega early start and from concentrating on the motorway in the pitch black and horrendous rain. I haven't been doing nothing though:

Sunday: 30 min swim

Monday: 30 min swim

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 30 min swim

Thursday: 30 min swim

Friday: rest

Saturday: rest

Not a bad week but aching to get out for a run so shall make it happen on Monday. 

Dans x