Guest in house

My daughter is now having her summer break. She won't be going back to her playgroup when the holidays are over and instead will be moving to the nursery at the same school. However, not being at school means that she has a lot of extra energy. The first day she was jumping around everywhere and I had quite a hard time controlling her. She's not that bad as compared to some other kids I have seen though.

Fortunately she has something or should I say someone to occupy her. My wife's Italian colleague Roby flew in from Kenya last week and will be staying with us till the 1st of August. Now Rahil follows her everywhere. I try my best to stop her from going into the guest room and disturbing Roby but she will slip off when I am not watching.

Kids!

Quality furniture site

As I have mentioned several times on this blog, I have been an Ikea fan for quite sometime. However, I can feel that my taste is slowly changing. Maybe watching too many Colin and Justin interior decoration shows on TV is having it's effect. The company produces very functional furniture that you put up yourself but somehow lacks the sophistication.

If I were a successful business man, I am not quite sure whether I would go for plywood or fibreboard furniture that I have to put together, for my office.

On the other hand, this handsome computer desk is something that I would definitely consider. It comes from the online furniture store 'Furniture From Home', which carries a range of high quality bedroom, Living Room and Home Office Furniture among others.

Their website is quite nice and it's easy for customers to shop by room, style, or color using the advanced search on the site.

Asian Wild Rose reviewed

A few of the guys on my review list have asked me to hurry up with their reviews. No! Not really. A few asked politely whether their blogs have been reviewed. I must confess that I have neglected it for a while but I hope to go through the whole list before the end of this month. Unless of course some new bloggers request a review as well.

Next on my list is Tracy, a blogger from Calgary, Alberta who has a blog called "Asian Wild Rose".

It has a generic looking Word Press template with a simple but nice unique banner. I am not quite sure whether the lady pictured is her. The 'about us' page mentions "we" so there might be more than one blogger.

Lot of funny posts about everything Asian (read Chinese) in Canada and Abroad. Really enjoyed going through the blog though I would have loved more pictures. It has a great number of links on the side bar but nothing wrong with that. The blogger says

Asian men are sexy and strong and I’m glad they like ME and only ME! :)

A simple way to self-publish

Are you an aspiring author but have no idea how to go about publishing your book?

You may very well be the next JK Rowling but unfortunately convincing the various, well established publishing houses otherwise may prove to be the biggest hurdle. Even if you do convince them, they might take away most of the control over the book while giving you a paltry sum as a royalty.

You may want to consider a new way of publishing a book, by Self Publishing with AuthorHouse. This leading self-publishing company was established in 1997 and have since then has helped over 25,000 authors to self publish their book.

The best part is that you as a author retain all rights and control decisions regarding the publishing and ultimate marketing of their book. After it is published you won't even have to worry about the marketing of the book as it will available for order at more than 25,000 retail outlets worldwide, online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, well as their own online book store.

Rowling set to start another series

For those traumatised by the end of the extremely popular Harry Potter series, don't worry!

The latest rumour on the grapevine is that Rowling is working on yet another series of books - following the adventures of Ron and Hermione as they grow up and get married. There might be a TV series on the line as well.

Tags: harry potter jk rowling ronald weasley hermione granger

Flooding in Warwickshire

Several places in Warwickshire nearby, has been hit by severe flood after rivers broke their banks at several places. The flood is said to be one of the worst in years. Several houses have been evacuated in the area and forced to spend the night in emergency centres. Thousands of cars were stranded on the M5 and drivers as well as passengers had to spend the night in the cars.

Much of Stratford-upon-Avon town centre (birthplace of William Shakespeare) in now under water as the river Avon overflowed. Performances at the Royal Shakespeare Company's (RSC) Swan Theatre were canceled as well.

Was listening to BBC radio today morning and one caller reported that she could see people canoing on what used to be the main road outside her house.

The River Leam also burst its banks and flooded parts of the town centre in Leamington Spa.

My copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Oops! I should make that OUR COPY of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (my wife wants to read it first). Drove down to the nearby Morrisons and grabbed a copy. I was quite surprised because there was so many copies left. I had expected the shelves to be half empty at least. Read my post "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows price war".



There was an elderly couple in front of me at the payment counter and they were really surprised when I told them it cost only £4.99. The husband quickly ran to the display near the entrance to grab a copy for their grandchild.

"People were queuing up for it at midnight", the lady told me. "Yeah!" I replied, "they didn't need to".

Tags: harry potter harry potter and the deathly hallows morrisons