What have I been reading of late? Just finished a book "Murder at an Irish Wedding " by Carlene O'Connor. I picked it up at the library because it was on a display of Irish books over the St Patrick's Day weekend. So many good books on that display, too, and with the exception of Marian Keyes and Maeve Binchy, most were authors I hadn't read before. Case in point was this book. It was fun, laugh out loud in a lot of places, very witty, un-put-downable, and with an intriguing murder to solve. Great cast of Irish characters. I want to go around now saying Feck and Jaysus but I spose I shouldn't. I could dig out some 'Father Ted' though. I'll be looking for the other books featuring sleuth, Siobhan O'Sullivan Also read, was a charming Debbie Macomber featuring her angels, Shirley, Mercy and Goodness. It dealt with gritty topics, including teenage pregnancy and youth suicide. I had a few DNFs (Did Not Finish) but a lot of it is you have to b

I was recently involved in helping with an exhibition on George Bernard Shaw, ie he who wrote Pygmalion, and then adapted it for the screenplay of My Fair Lady, of which he won an Academy Award. I didn't actually make the exhibit, as it was curated by a famous chap in Ireland, and I was just involved with setting it up. Tomorrow I have to take it down and ship it off to another part of this fair land, where it will be for a week before it is shipped off somewhere else.  It has been a fascinating experience for a number of reasons. One, I got to work with the Embassy of Ireland who organised the display (Shaw was Irish)  and seeing as a fair number of us Kiwis have some Irish in them, cool. In fact, according to my sister's DNA test, we have something like a quarter Irish so am pretty happy about that, although my  mother's been saying that for years about the Irish. I also got to read up on George, and what a character that chap was. Most fascinating to me was how he

This weekend just gone I had a road trip in the South Island, heading down to Dunedin from Restricted viewing aka cheap seats. Pretty decent. Christchurch to see the Eagles in concert. We stayed in the city and walked to the stadium, a half hour or so walk, and when it finished, back again with all the thousands and thousands of people in the late hours. I even bought a T-Shirt. Music is an interesting thing, isn't it? I hadn't really listened to the Eagles much since I was in my late teens, and to be honest, I wasn't even planning to go until about six weeks ago when one of the whanau (family) said, "Come down to the South Island and we'll go." I was totally in. The concert hadn't sold out so getting a ticket wasn't a problem. Ditto the cheap airfares. BUT... oh my golly gosh... accommodation was an absolute bitch! Everywhere it seemed had filled up or a fortune was being demanded. And for two gals who like to do things on the cheap, there