The school holidays are fast coming to an end – eek! The weather is still hot and balmy and today we had another trip to Bellevue (our local beach). Only 5 minutes drive from our house, but feel like I’ve been away for the weekend when we go there.

One of the things I associate with holidays is reading books. Before we had kids, DK and I would take 5-10 books each with us. These days I’m lucky if I manage to get through 2 or 3 when we’re away.

One time when we went to Gran Canaria, DD7 came down with chickenpox (on the last day of our holiday, groan) and we weren’t allowed to fly home. It’s an infectious disease. We had to repack our suitcases in the hotel lobby, and waved goodbye to DH and DS. DH very kindly left the book he had been reading – which was just exploding on to Best Seller charts around the world. It was the Da Vinci Code. I remember those 7 extra ‘holiday’ days as being a nightmare (DD was 2 years old, ill, extremely narky and we were in a strange place, not knowing when we would be allowed home). Two things saved me: a large bottle of gin and that book.

That book got me reading again. A good, old page-turner. Nothing too heavy and highly entertaining.

Since then I’ve rediscovered the joys of reading. Normally read a few chapters every night. Fits in really well with the Flylady’s idea of pampering. I’ve re-read all the Agatha Christies I read as a child – who cares if I can remember who the murderer is? As Candace a.k.a. @C_Joy on http://www.twitter.com/ so rightly said: “I just want to live the life of those who have ‘country weekends’ at manor houses – sans murders of course” 🙂 Ben Elton’s books make me laugh and amaze me with his intelligence.

So what am I reading today, I hear you ask? Reading Twilight 4 (“Breaking Dawn”). Will be happy to get to the end of this vampire saga. Fairly entertaining but too much teenage anguish and by book number 4 I actually want to strangle Bella myself. Hoping to finish it tonight.

And then I can start on yet another Andrea Camilleri. He writes the books that spawned the TV series “Il Commissario Montalbano“. And, at the risk of repeating myself, that is another blog post.

Night!