A book trip to Venice

 There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you prepare to settle down and continue reading a good book that takes all your attention. Finding an author who will deliver feels like meeting a good friend. You know you are going to be entertained.

These were my feelings recently while in the local library when I spotted Give Unto Others by Donna Leon. I haven't read one of Donna Leon's novels for some time, so I was delighted to find this latest one. Having visited Venice on a number of occasions, I love to read about it and recall those trips. I remember being there as guest of a hotel chain the first time. We were invited to dinner across the lagoon, the hotel transported us there by boat. When dinner was over and we emerged into the October night, we discovered that there was a violent storm. We were quickly told that all hotel boats were cancelled and we would have to use public transport, i.e. the vaporetto. I can't swim and am scared of waves but I managed to jump on board, and I mean jump, inbetween the bobbing motion. And that's when I discovered that my thirst for adventure was somewhat abated, because when we got back to the hotel after a very choppy ride, a few of us opted to stay indoors over a nightcap while the more adventurous went out to sample night life in Venice. Looking out of my bedroom window that night, I could hear the storm and the creak of the gondolas rubbing against each other in the window. I can still remember it.

I returned to Venice once or twice in the summer and found it less mysterious in the July heat, I have to admit. There is something magical about the place, the fact that you walk along a pavement and turn the corner and then there is just a canal. But that stormy October was what made me fall in love with this city.

Love the cover of this book. It captures the atmosphere of the Venice I remember. A Commissario Brunetti mystery set in Venice, complete with mention of the palazzos, the vaporettos and the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo and of course Piazzo San Marco? Yes, yes, yes. Bring it on.

Awesome

 I found an article I had cut out a few years ago, from The Sunday Times I think. Anyway, the writer states that according to researchers at Stanford University, all you need is awe. The study revealed that regular "awe-inspiring moments" can improve mental health because your life satisfaction is getting a boost every time you have such a moment, as examples looking at the Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon were mentioned. Hmmm.

So what would be awe-inspiring for you and me? Something on a less grander scale, I feel. In fact, we would need to define exactly what we mean by "awe". Let's just tone it down a bit, let's substitute "awe" for "happy". For me, "happy" covers that feeling of excitement when you are looking forward to some event, it comprises that warm feeling when you are with your loved ones, sharing a meal or watching a move or just sitting and talking. I feel happy when I am meeting a friend for lunch or going for walks by the sea. I 'm happy that I live the proverbial stone's throw from the sea and can stroll along the beach with the wind in my hair any time I feel like it. Awesome!

Apparently, if we experience something awesome it changes our perception, makes us see things in a new light. This in turn makes us happier people and we are more likely to be nice to others.

A word of warning: if you are walking along on the beach or in the park and have your head down because you are on  your mobile phone, then you are not only missing the "awesome-ness" around you, you are very likely to crash into another equally oblivious mobile-phone-user or even into one of the awesome trees that fill the park.

Have an awesome week, dear readers!

To make friends or not?

I don't belong here...

I believe there is a book out at the moment by Elizabeth Day Friendaholic, Confessions of a Friendship Addict. The author claims she is addicted to making friends which is an interesting idea. Do you feel you have to have a host of people following your every move on FaceBook or Twitter? Loads of phone calls, texts, from various people? Otherwise you don't feel you're really living?

Now, I have to ask you, what do you understand under the word "friendship"? Is it your Best Friend Forever, as I discovered BFF is short form for. (I did mean to end that sentence with a preposition, thanks). If so, what do you understand under the term "friendship"? Someone you meet for coffee every so often and have a moan with about, you know, the big one: Life: the husband, boyfriend, boss, colleague and all their faults? Or is it someone you chat to on the street, attend the same gym, see them at the bus stop, wherever, you're always glad to see them but not really close. Or the person you think, "I really have to tell her/him this, she/he'll be so pleased," when something good happens to you - promotion at work, you finally meet the Right Person and they ask you to marry them, - big stuff like that. And you know that the other person is going to be delighted, excited for you. Or the friend who can tell you that you are making a horse's rear end of yourself and make you see where you are going wrong and still leave you in no doubt that they care about you despite all that? Or the friend who lives far away and you only get to see each other once or twice a year but it's like you saw them yesterday because you can pick up the threads so easily?

Depending what you answer, I think it might be an idea to change "friend" into "acquaintance" I have friends - a few - from way back when we shared our first flat together, I have friends from my London flat life. These are really my closest friends. We've been through it all, the heartaches, the laughter, grief at the loss of a loved one, and we've kept in touch all down the years. We don't need to pretend to each other. We remember having a ball on New Year's Eve and we remember being on our own on that date another time and listening to the party next door and hearing the church bells and ships' sirens heralding in the New Year and feeling like we were the only people on the planet who were alone. I like to remember that particular time, I must admit, it signalled a "low" in our lives but we came out the other side laughing. I know I can still tell my friends anything or they can tell me anything that is on their minds or on my mind and we will understand each other and we won't judge.

I have acquaintances, too. I enjoy their company, we go to the theatre, the cinema, concerts, day excursions, restaurants together. I know them well, can guess their reaction to situations, their take on things. But we have not experienced the depths and heights which I have shared with my close friends. And it is this depth which forges the deepest friendship.This is not a reflection on acquaintances, they are very important in everyone's life.  

Many years ago some famous philosopher said that you are lucky if you have more than three friends during your lifetime. Yes, as I get older, I begin to understand that. I don't feel the need to go out and make undying friendships every week. In fact, friendships grow on you and are a part of your life before you recognise it. And that's nice, it's the way it should be.

Here's to close friends, acquaintances and all the people inbetween. Without you all, the world would be a far bleaker place.

 

Happy Christmas Everyone

 Happy Christmas one and all!  I hope you are doing something nice for the festive season.

I read recently that the "Happy Christmas" greeting is dying out in favour of "Happy Holidays" but I'm not buying that. People say "I don't believe in the Christmas story". Well, that's fine. I don't believe in the Summer Bank Holiday story but I do believe in having time off for whatever reason. So let's leave the introspection to one side and just enjoy Christmas with all the nice things associated with it: family gatherings, people coming home to celebrate, presents, children running around with excitement. 

Yes, it is very commercialized and seems to get worse every year. Personally, I find the slogans amusing "make Christmas for everyone"  er, how d'you do that exactly? Put a sprig of holly down the back of their jumper? "Make Christmas amazing", yes,well if we didn't know from all the hype, it would be amazing that Christmas just turned up out of the blue on 25th December. "More for everyone", maybe pass on the tips to the government?

What is my picture of Christmas?  Church service then home to a crackling log fire, Christmas carols and songs in the background - you know, the old traditional ones - family sitting round the table for a meal, everyone chatting and smiling. That feeling of being safe and secure that we had as children. 

Sigh. I know it's not like this for everyone but we can all remember and dream. Oh, I read on Twitter that authors shouldn't have their characters "sighing" because nobody does nowadays. Do I have to take that on board with the Happy Holidays? I don't think so.

Let's all have the happiest Christmas that we can make it in our various situations. Yes, I think I'll raise a glass to that.

The Season for cozy reads and some musings on friendship

 Every year I put aside the crime novels I have on my TBR pile and get out my Jane Austen novels. I know them all by heart, or, to be, honest nearly all of them as I never could get into Northanger Abbey. I have just started Sense and Sensibility. It's like visiting friends you haven't seen for a year. I know what to expect and it is all going to turn out fine. We all need that feeling in our lives and there is no better time for calling it up than the dark winter months before Christmas.

Speaking or should I say writing of friends, made me stop and think for a minute. In my latest Christmas novel CHRISTMAS AT THE WISHING WELL writing under my Romance pseudonym Peggy O'Mahony, one of the characters says: "There are people for short journeys and people for the long haul. Knowing the difference means understanding friendship."

Short haul people are very often the people you have a good time with when you go out. You can chat to them at parties, wave at them across the tables at restaurants and know they will wave back equally enthusiastically. But they are not the people you confide in when life kicks you in the solar plexus. Someone once said that real friends are the people who, when you have made an atrocious horse's rear end of yourself, don't think it's a permanent job. Real friends, few and far between as we all know, are the ones who know you and still like you. Now that is a comforting thought.

Back to Sense and Sensibility. I sometimes ask myself why the novels appeal to me so much apart from the feel-good aspect. As a writer, I have a fairly critical eye. Jane Austen stays true to her characters. They don't change into something else. In Sense and Sensibility, Sir John, a warm-hearted type with not much brain, ends up promising a puppy to the villain of the story when he sees how upset he is over Marianne, although he is very fond of the Dashwoods. That makes him very human and very believable.

One thing I know, I never can write like Jane Austen and I don't intend to try. I expect every author writes what is in them to write and we all hope that our readers will like it.