A Cure for Love

There are a number of fantastic ladies I have the privlage of working with, one in particular provides a fantastic service to the people in the community that are unable to make it into the library for books.

Today she showed me this little note, a small post-it stuck to a returned audio book from a 92 year old lady.

"I still have no cure for love"

This made me smile at first, such a cute little note. But then it made me a little sad! I don't think the lady is seriously looking for a cure for love, I think it had more to do with the book that it was stuck to. It just got me to thinking.....

I think better in places like this:

With views like this:

And this:

However I didn't have long, as usual!! Even so my mind kind of drifted to my virtual BFF Deb's medicine cabinet challenge, would a cure for love be something you would want in your medicine cabinet?

When I think of my ideal medicine cabinet it would be more a Narnian wardrobe leading straight to here:

Complete with potions master preferably!

The odd vile of Veritaserum would come in really handy or a little Felix Felicis tucked away for necessity.

Yes love is hard but would I include a cure for love? What instance would you even consider needing a cure for love? 

I have felt all consuming love, I still feel all consuming love. I have loved and then had the object of my love taken from me, yet still I don't think I would want to be cured of that love because it fuels my memory. 

Hmmm, there is unrequited love; the times when you fall so completely for the one person you can't have or that hasn't fallen as far for you. Would you cure yourself of that love? Is this the cure I need to keep tucked at the back of my medicine cabinet along with my liquid luck for emergencies? For times when it hurts and you have to try not to love someone.

But alas, I fear my medicine cabinet will forever be stocked with the staples of nit lotions, spot potions and Calpol (because it mends broken bones). If someone is still looking after 92 years I don't think there is a cure to be had! There are much worse things to be told there is no cure, there are worse things to live with than a heart full of love.

Would you use a cure for love?

World Book Day

This is one of my favourite times of the literary year. A time when books are celebrated and there are book related events going on all over the place.

Children's books are the focus of much of the hype and so they should. A trend on twitter today was 'growing up I read' and some of the responses made me wish I had been more into reading as a child. There are books that I wish I had read growing up that are mounting up on my catch up list. Classics like Alice in Wonderland, Narnia and many more should be required reading, it seems I missed the boat and am doomed to have to paddle, or read, twice as fast as an adult! If just a few children every year get the reading bug at a young enough age then the campaign is a success!!

I can't wait for Thursday 1st March when both of my girls will be attending school / nursery dressed as their favourite book characters. My eldest, who has recently discovered the Potter series, will become Hermione Granger for the day and my youngest is insisting on being Alice in Wonderland for the day. Is it wrong to get so excited about dressing my kids up as two of my favourite characters?!? Oh well, I think I will embrace the philosophy of living vicariously thorough them and continue to foster the reading bug in them!

Who was your favourite character as a child? Are you doing anything for World Book Day?

The big screen

Can books be successfully be portrayed on the big screen?

After this weekends experience I am not so sure. I have just finished reading One Day by David Nicholls,  which I would recommend. I laughed, I cried, I got attached to the characters and even threw it across the room at one point. Having loved the book so much and the film just becoming available on DVD I decided to watch it and, as with so many film adaptations, I was left disappointed and screaming at the screen! I don't know if it is just the style of the story or even because I had read the book but I found my self not connecting with the characters I had come to love so much.

There have been other book to film adaptations that have left me with a similar feeling, some not even keeping to key features of the book; High Fidelity springs to mind here! However some adaptations, like the Harry Potter series and the Twilight franchise manage to capture the essence of the books successfully, even though I still don't understand why Peeves the poltergeist didn't make the films!!

What do you think?? Should I just avoid watching the film versions of the books I read, or chance them and hope that they prolong my enjoyment?

Getting Old

It happens to the best of us, or so they say!!! Why is it that when we are young we want to be older, more grown up...yet when we are 'grown up' all we want to do is be young again? It is one of the conundrums of life!!!

As middle age creeps up fast and my knees creak in and out of every Zumba class I can't help but reflect on my life so far and what I can look forward to. The worrying thing I have observed is there seems to be a distinct correlation between increasing age and increasing crankiness. Even more worrying is that I can see it starting already; a decreasing Patience with people and situations, more frequent bad moods and an irritating frustration with myself at things that would not have previously bothered me. Is this the point at which I have to stop thinking like a teenager and actually get old???

May be there is an alternative perspective to be had here. A more optimistic outlook on life? 'You are only as old as the man you feel'? However, since my husband is older than me I think I will ditch 'the man' and simply try to believe that 'you are only as old as you feel'. This will however require me to lighten up and 'feel' young at heart to stave off the impending doom that ageing seems to instill in me at the moment.

Luckily for me I have two little terrors that insist on making me play horsey or making me dance round the living room like an idiot with them. They let out the child in me! You can, therefore, spend time colouring in simple picture with wax crayons or get excited about seeing the Hogwarts express in person and it is all in aid of keeping the children happy?!? When in actual fact these things make the child in you happy too and therefore keep you young at heart.

So I am off to pull my self together, get excited about seemingly silly things and tomorrow after work and school we will dance around the living room without a care in the world. Why? Because I intended to stay young until I am no longer able.

How about you? How does getting older affect you? Do you dread the annual celebration of your birth or do you remain young at heart?