Best Laid Plans.....

Well, I got part of my way through the November challenge, just couldn't complete it.

I am in the process of being made redundant along with a colleague, and I'm two weeks away from finishing my job.  The last two years feels like a bizarre turn of events, but right at the time I'm meant to be closing down my job, handing over and just being on call for my India based replacements it has transpired that they can't take over just yet and I am covering for them!  My colleague has left already, and now my workload has doubled!

It's been a stressful couple of years, and I'm leaving just before Christmas, then there will be New Year, and then in early January I am on a long vacation to Australia to my 2nd favourite place in the world - Sydney. I'll be back in the UK in February in time to celebrate my 40th birthday, and then job hunting will begin in earnest.

I may find that I have plenty of time to blog, but also no time, so I thought I'd post my excuses and have a break from the blog, to resume hopefully in February.

In the meantime - have a lovely Christmas and New Year, or if you're not that way inclined - Best wishes of the season to you.

During my time off from blogging I will endeavour to read through my 'Started' pile of books and plan my reviews...

The started pile looks like this at the moment:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
What was lost by Catherine O'Flynn
Epitaph for a spy by Eric Ambler
Game of Thrones by George RR Martin
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguru

My Life in Books 2013

A little earlier than planned - see post 'Best Laid Plans'...

I saw this Mad-Libs style meme earlier this year when I started my blog and loved it so much... Each year Pop Culture Nerd makes up new sentence starters and you complete the sentence using the book titles you've read that year.

Here's my 2013 list: 

My to-do list looks like The Ministry of Fear (Graham Greene)

If a peeping Tom peeked into my bedroom, he'd [take a trip] Down the Rabbit Hole (Juan Pablo Villalobos)

If Martians meet me, they'd think [they'd met] The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (Catherynne M Valente)

My doctor is always telling me [to eat] Quesadillas (Juan Pablo Villalobos)

The weirdest thing that happened to me this past week [was a visit to] Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)

I often daydream about Whiskey Beach (Nora Roberts)

The US government shut down makes me [think they've done] The Vanishing Act (Mette Jakobsen)

If I win the lottery I'd [go to] The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)

My superpower is Nightfall [Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg)

I knew I was a book lover when [I saw] The Light Between Oceans (ML Stedman)

My blogging experience has been Calculated In Death (JD Robb)

You can find my 2012 list here