February Reading List

In February I read 8 books which is about average for me, although I did surpass this in March.

Anyway here is the list of books:

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman, this is the second in this series about librarians, spies, dragons, books, the fae and alternate worlds. It is a super series and I am enjoying it a lot.

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton, this was a great book and to be honest quite difficult to describe. I would encourage anyone to read it though

Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield, this was by far my favourite book of the month. I just loved it

A Woman Unknown by Frances Brody, this is one of the Kate Shackleton mysteries. It was the first book about this PI and I have another on my shelf. It reminds me a little of the Maisie Dobbs books.

Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce, this had been on my tbr list for ages and I finally got it from the library. Set during the WW2 in London, tells the story of a young woman who wants to be a journalist for a big magazine but ends up working for a small magazine instead.

The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Harden, the second book in this series set in Russia

The City of Brass by S A Chakraborty, to be honest I might have to change my mind and see this was also my favourite book of this month. This was fantastic and I cannot believe how it took me to finally read it. I do so recommend this book and series.

The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslie Waton, not sure what genre this is, it could be YA, there is a bit of romance, also magic too.

Hope you all had a good reading month

A Visit to Barcelona Again

Temple of Augustus

Temple of Augustus

El Born

El Born

El Born Visitor Centre

During school holidays in February I visited Barcelona again, but this time I went with my friend Arlene and my father.

We stayed in an apartment complex called 08028 Apartments and I would recommend this place, it was right next to a metro stop and very, very near to Camp Nou Stadium. This is their site www.08028apartments.com

We just wandered around the city, the port/marina, Poblenou area, the Ramblas, Plaza Catalunya and El Born area. Saturday evening we went to see the match FC Barcelona against FC Valladolid, Barca won by 1- 0 and it was a penalty scored by, yes you all know Messi.

On Sunday we went our separate ways, Arlene and I took a long bus trip to Andorra and my father stayed in Barcelona. We got back quite late but still had time for dinner and a catch up on what we all did.

The next day Monday, my father had to leave pretty early, but we could lie in for a bit at least before we headed off to the airport.

The weekend looms very near now and Alessio has a football match and maybe on Sunday we will go for a day trip.

Wishing you all a good mid week

Christchurch, NZ

Historic Tram

Bridge of Remembrance

Isaac Theatre

Cathedral Square

Cathedral Square

Canterbury Museum

Inside Cardboard Cathedral

Canterbury Museum

Cardboard Cathedral

The last stop on our tour around New Zealand was Christchurch, we stayed here for around 5 days. In those 5 days we saw a lot of the city and we did one day trip to Akaroa, where did a dolphin boat trip.

Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and is still being rebuilt from the large earthquakes which hit the city in 2010 and 2011.

We visited these places:

Quake City - a museum which explains about the two earthquakes and how it happened, the destruction, the stories of the people and much more. We both found this museum very interesting.

Cardboard Cathedral - the cathedral was badly damaged in the earthquake, so this is the temporary cathedral

Canterbury Museum and Christchurch Art Gallery- both were very interesting

International Antarctic Centre - we both really enjoyed visiting and learning about the Antarctic and Alessio just loved seeing the huskies

Andrenalin Forest - out of the city, Alessio wanted to do this, climbing, zip lining and having fun

Willowbank Nature Reserve - the best part for Alessio was feeding the lemurs

Christchurch Botanic Gardens - since we were there in winter not that much in the way of flowers but still nice to water through

Thanks Christchurch we had a fantastic time

Light and Music Show, Zurich

Alessio and I went to the light/ music show that was held in the St.Jacob Church at Stauffacher in Zurich. I happened to win to free tickets from Visit Zurich, which was really cool. We went on a Saturday in February. The show which is now finished was on certain days and from 7pm to 10pm.

It lasted just under 30 mins, which was just enough for Alessio as he was not so keen on it. I found it very good. The music was lovely and the light projections on the walls and roof were amazing. It was possible to lie down on the ground which would have been quite nice, as there were cushions. It got really busy and looked like it was quite a successful enterprise.

Happy Mid-Week