Well this is a turn up for the books I never realised they were linked… Probably why I am skint.

I have to say my most annoying trope in books, for me personally, is the recurring nemesis.  I really can’t be bothered with it.

Notable examples are Obidiah Hakeswill from the ‘Sharpe’ series and to some extent Voldemort in Harry Potter.

Let’s think of the vampire trope…Dracula case in point. The guy actually appears more times than gas after eating too much broccoli. In folklore the stake through the heart merely pinned them down. If someone removed the stake, then they would return. But generally once down they stayed down. Chop their heads off and cremate them and voila they ain’t coming back.

Now a recurring nemesis I can actually cope with. The Mummy and the Mummy Returns with Brendan Fraser. Yep got that, makes sense. And then the third one is a different scary dude. Today I learned that the Mummy 4 is supposed to be coming out in Oct 2027 with guess who? Yep Imohtep is returning.

So the other thing that bothers me are sequels to TV shows. By this I mean things like Squid Game. Loved that, slightly traumatized me, but still loved it. Brilliant ending…. So leave it alone. But No, it made Squidillions (see what I did there) so they decided Squid Game 2, the revenge or whatever… No leave it alone.

Now I get it, I am really not the target audience for some of the books or films. So if that is your kind of thing then you go and be you.

Can you tell I am a bit bored….

My new friend is keeping me company whilst I wait to depart my hotel.

Well there is quite a list, but one of the nicest things was way back in 2013. I was a head teacher (Principal) of a small school and used role playing games as a way to support/improve writing. The kids were so proud of their work,as was I, that we made a display of it. I moved on, but the display remained… The kids wouldn’t let it be taken down. Sadly the school had to close and I got a delivery… The kids wanted me to have the whole display.

I still have it in the loft.

I suppose my Oil pastel scribbles would count here

Why did I start… Was away on training and on a whim bought some cheap oil pastels and a pad of black paper. Haven’t done any for a while…must carry on…

The other thing is maps…drawing them…

Each town on the large map is drawn too.

Why maps. Well during long COVID I lost my fine motor skills among other things and drawing random maps was easier than the written word.

Well not sure if it is a coincidence or just a very small world. So this is me in about 1991 on my first day as a reenactor. The weird coincidence is that my future wife is sat on the slope behind me.  I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me.

Found the photo after we were married and she told me then.

Here she is in Poland…the short lady in white trousers next to the big horse. She got the largest and I got the smallest 😂. Obviously we are not Romans in the second photo.

To be honest there are quite a lot. Some were accidental and others deliberate.

One that I would like to reread and finish one day is ‘A Boy and his Bear’ by Harriet Graham.

Years ago as a class teacher we read this as part of our topic on the Tudors and Stewarts. For some reason we never got to finish it…

Basically set in Tudor England..Dickon lives in a cruel time when wild bears are made to fight by men for sport. He meets a recently captured bear cub, and is determined to set Nounou free. But the path to freedom is littered with danger for both the boy and his bear.

A second one was a western I got out the library as a kid and some absolute Arse had removed the last page with a scalpel or something… I can’t remember the book, but the fact the last page was gone is what reminds me.

Well there are a few I could think of… What about the Wizarding World… But as I seem to be a Muggle then errrrr maybe I am already in it…

So that leaves me with Middle Earth or Diskworld…

I would be happy to visit both, but as Tolkien has a world riven by strife then off to Ankh Morpork I go….

Luckily I have my map of the city to help me avoid the Shades!

First off, do I have a favourite author, yes indeed, I do love my Terry Pratchett books, but would I want to have dinner with him… probably not to be honest

I would in all honesty like to have a bit of a chat with JRR Tolkien. So many questions… He would probably hate to have dinner with me.

The winning lottery ticket numbers are….

Yes I know money doesn’t buy happiness but it is comfier to cry in a limousine than on a bicycle.

Can you tell I am having one of those days in work!

In reality I would say something along the lines of.

Be kind to yourself. Shouting at a flower won’t make it grow.

I come from this after thirty-four years in education. Primarily in primary but with forays into secondary. Last Ten were in senior management.

The one absolute is:

CRITICAL THINKING

Ye gods it would certainly assist in the amount of stupidity you see flying around.

In the old days you would see it from the man in the pub or papers like the Daily Heil in the UK. Now we have Social Media and outlets like Fox News, GB News… Other outlets are available.

Now we have generative AI with political parties using it to forward their aims.

Discovery channel with their made up documentary shows. Sorry there are other channels too but I just woke up.

I remember watching their Shark week one on the Meg.I mean it should have had the tagline: This is a true story. Only the facts have been changed to protect the innocent!

Ended up in a discussion with a few kids after that one about how it was all made up… On the upside we ended up doing a project on Ancient Life… So I took the win 🤗

Watched something the other day where a guy was arguing that 88% of Muslim women couldn’t speak English. When statistics show that it is 88% can speak it very well,

And let’s not get into politics…

I now need to get going so I will end here with a final thought.

In the words of the great Aretha Franklin…”THINK!”