May's Month In Numbers

May's end has arrived all too quickly.  It's been a mixed up month with hail and heatwaves, fun and frustration, celebrations and sympathy.  And being the last day of the month, it's time to join in with Julie's Month In Numbers where a bunch of us use numbers to document the things that are important to us.

30 = the minutes Niece No.1 was allowed to transform Child No.3 from a schoolgirl into the personification of the Olympic torch as part of a make-up competition at her college.

3½ = books read this month (all World Book Night Editions) and all great reads (so far).  First there was my own choice, "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger, which was no less thought provoking, uplifting, engaging, upsetting or brilliant upon its second reading than the first time.  I do hope the people I handed it out to on World Book Night 2012 enjoy it as much as I have.

Next up was the WBN choice of a friend from my reading group - "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy which was depressing to say the least.  At times the writing style annoyed me (no punctuation, sparse repetition interspersed with excessive flowery abundance). Perhaps that was meant to mimic the way of life of the father and son protagonists but I prefer authors not to use such obvious methods.  That's not to say I wouldn't recommend the book though - quite a worryingly believable post-apocalyptic tale which left me thinking - and that's a good story in my opinion!

Jo sent me a copy of "How I live Now" by Meg Rosoff for my daughter and I to read.  Telling the story of Daisy, an American teenager in a near-future occupied England, it was another book that didn't use punctuation but it was somehow far less of an irritation this time around.  Read in one sitting, I enjoyed the contrasts between the strangely idyllic Swallows & Amazons beginning with the horrifying realities of powerless children being buffeted about by the actions of adults.  The final part of the book felt a little rushed and unsatisfying; I'm looking forward to discussing it with Child No.3 soon.

The half-book is Ian Banks' "Player Of Games" sent to me by a friend on the Isle Of Man. Come back next month to find out how I got on with it!

130 = the height in feet of Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe, which we visited, along with Avebury and West Kennet Long Barrow while staying with friends in Wiltshire.

Us (& Alfie) in top of West Kennet Long Barrow

46 = the number of pounds I spent replacing the hard drive of my laptop which failed 7 months after my last back-up.  Not to be confused with the 46000 seconds (approximately) that I spent laboriously retrieving all the un-backed-up files from the failed hard drive to put onto the new one; which has now been backed up!

26 = years of marriage celebrated this month

5 = hours spent at home by No.2 Son while fetching a suit to wear to his university summer ball - more fun for us than posting it to him as originally requested!

3 = children who have all been sitting exams this month (last but 3 GCSEs for Child No.3, first year Sociology exams for No.2 Son and the final Masters exam in Chemistry for No.1 Son).  Now the wait for various nerve-racking results days begins!

P.S. This post was pre-scheduled so there will be some extra numbers to add when I scrap them ... such as how many people took part in my {Inter-}National Scrapbooking Day Challenge (final deadline at midnight GMT tonight), how many stitches I have in my arm and how many seconds it took for the Olympic torch-bearer to run past me today!