Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I'm lucky enough to be on holidays at the moment. Cold weather = slow business at work, and the perfect time for me to take a few days off and head home. A lot of people complain about the cold and throughout winter 'Bring on Summer' statuses litter my Facebook feed, but this couldn't be further from my feelings about the season.

It's especially nice being home, snuggled up by the heater, with a cup of hot tea and devouring book after book. I opened 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' at 5pm yesterday, and at approximately 2am this morning, read it's last page.

Tonight I'm scouring Mum's bookshelf for my next read. I'm tossing up between 'A Short History of Tractors in the Ukrainian' and 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. Mum has been trying to persuade me to read 'The Horse Boy'... "It's good, Camilla, really!", hmmm I'm not convinced.

Today was a nice lazy day. I slept in until 10:30am (had to recoup from my late night/early morning reading), and then leisurely got ready before heading down the street with Mum. We strolled around town, looking at art galleries, book shops (unfortunately sold out of 'A Discovery of Witches', dang it) and had a coffee.

We then buzzed around town, checking out new houses and passing judgement on them (a favourite family past time). Mum was especially pleased that we were in my car, "people don't recognise us in your car, Camilla! We're incognito!".  Indeed we were, and snoop we did.

The rest of the afternoon we hibernated. Mum doing a puzzle and I re-read my favourite parts of "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society". The book was unfortunately Mary Anne Shaffer's first and last. She died soon after writing it, which is sad as I would've loved to have read more of her work!

Anyway, I'm off to hum and ha in front of the bookshelf again. Decisions must be made so I can hop into bed and start tonight's reading session. I can assure you however, that whatever book I choose, it will not be 'The World of Amish Quilts'. I kid you not, this a book on Mum's shelf. The things she spends her money on, honestly... However, I just spied a book called 'You Can Teach Your Child Intelligence', and obviously her purchase of this book has had wildly successful results :-D, so maybe I shouldn't judge her too harshly.

Nighty night!






Wednesday, June 6, 2012

City Adventures

It's been so long since I've been in the city to shop, and I got a nice little surprise when I discovered that the Winter Garden in the Queen St Mall had reopened! The renovations look fantastic, and the caliber of shops has certainly been stepped up. It felt sort of like a rabbit warren of high-end stores; going down little alleys and turning corners to find Sambag, Dinosaur Designs and Bessie Head among others.

The highlight for me was hands down Mecca Maxima - a massive Mecca Cosmetica store! My jaw was on the floor as soon as I walked through the doors. Finally, a make up store in Brisbane with a decent range of make up, and a good set up! Mecca Maxima has definitely taken inspiration from Sephora, I just wish the prices were similar to those at Sephora! 

I also loved the displays they had set up for the opening of the Winter Garden; shoes hanging from the ceiling and mannequins with bouquets of flowers instead of heads! I think they're very whimsical and beautiful. I saw some Japanese girls taking photos of the displays, so I decided to get in on it too and be a bit of a tourist in my own city (although I definitely did get some odd looks from people).

Whilst I didn't buy anything from the Winter Garden, I did end up buying some beautifully cut Alannah Hill pants and picked up a birthday present for the boy! On a side note, I always receive the BEST service at the Alannah Hill store in Queens Plaza. The girls are always really friendly (like, genuinely friendly), and go out of their way to help you out - thoroughly recommend.