Being stuck inside most of the time, I've grown increasingly bored. Normally, I'd at least help tidy up, do the dishes and best of all (no irony) do the laundry. However, since the house isn't the least bit childproof, I have to stick to my son like a leech. Poor thing, he's probably tired of me by now. All I can do is, once in a while, keep an eye on what's going on online. The problem is, whatever is going on, it's not going on in my feeds and on my dashboards... :)

Under other circumstances, we’d be exploring our new neighborhood, but as it is, we can just go to the shops a few times a week. We try to go outside as little as possible. There’s a patio outside but it’s not very nice. You get the impression every neighbor can see us there. It’s also a bit bare. Everything’s very monochrome. Mainly grey with a bit of black here and there. When were at Lidl we were eying an orange tree longingly, but it’s quite expensive and right now, we need to keep an eye on our expenses. There were also violets or pansies in a big lilac pot. They were very pretty and not as expensive. We might get those later, we’ll see. I also want more indoor plants. I have a few I had to leave behind but at the moment, with the borders closed, we can’t get to them. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they won’t die. My lovely Monstera Deliciosa that I got for my confirmation died a few years ago, but at least one of its 'children' was still alive when my sister was last back at the house. We might get something for the patio, to get more privacy and some chairs and a table so we sit outside some time in the evenings.

We absolutely need to get more toys for the children. They’re not even allowed to play in any playground so we haven’t even gone out looking for one.

No matter how inconvenient this is, I know there are others much worse off and we just need to think of them and be grateful we’re doing as well as we are.

I’ve already done a bit of exploring in Second Life, so now I’m probably going to look for a concert and try listening to some music.

We took the opportunity of reconnecting with a second cousin that I haven't met since we were both six. I sincerely hope he doesn't remember that occasion, because I wasn't very nice to him then. LOL. It seems not. He seems nice, but we don't have anything in common.

I also decided to try to log on to my email accounts. Sadly, it turns out I haven't logged into one of my main accounts for more than six months and they are deleting it, if they haven't already done so. Even if it isn't completely gone, they can't reverse the process or let me get the same address again. :( So I decided to get a similar one on my other account. No use crying over spilled milk, even though I almost did. Sigh.

I should try to save and then archive my old homepages/blogs and start new ones. No one will be interested in my ancient history. I'll probably change the name too. I'll see. We will probably keep our fan fiction up until further notice but it's not that simple unfortunately. We'll need to change things over quite a bit. Our personal blogs will be easier. I would love to have somewhere to just 'chat'. I have a private blog where I gush over all the cute things my children and nieces have done, that I promised I wouldn't spam my followers with. :) It used to be where I was whining about my life but nowadays I find that I mainly post about the children. I was born to be a mother.

I liked Charlie's ideas and suggestions while working and the end of the book was quite exciting but it's still a 2.5 star book. There were too many inner monologues and not enough tension. They were chasing a serial killer, racing against the clock, but I was bored. I also didn't enjoy the love story. Charlie had to choose between two men and her choice made me sick. It just went against everything I knew about the woman. 

I'm so sorry to say it but I was bored. The whole story sounded like a retelling of the book - not enough dialogue for me. I actually forgot the main characters' names and had to check them before writing about the book in my blog and I had just finished it. It also seemed like some parts of the story were missing, like Jacob finding Devon and so on.
The beginning of the story was quite good but the book should have started earlier. I wanted to read about Devon and Laine's friendship and how they lived on the farm. And although Devon's escape and living in Rawley's house was rather good, her romance with Spencer was dull. 

I'd been waiting for the perfect moment to read this book. So, finally, the weather was warm and sunny, I had my cold drink  and was sitting in the garden.  And after reading 10% ... I was bored out of my mind.

Some days later I tried again. This was torture. I read 20% and nothing happened. So disappointing.

Third try. I can do this. I'm ready. I can conquer this book...

At 32 %

I'm done.  I imagine this is worse than Chinese water torture. It's soooo slow, has pages and pages of description and nothing has happened.

I actually loathe Benny's family. Where's the grovelling? After years of bullshit, they own her some serious grovelling. And there's nothing, nada, zilch,.. because Frankie is such a "generous soul". Yeach! You are a fucking doormat, Frankie!

Bye, bye, The Promise. I hope to never meet you again.

The mother of all writerly sins, in my book, is simply to annoy or to bore me.  I know that sounds awfully general, but that's what it comes down to -- it can be a trope, or too self-involved writing (looking at you, Dr. Brusatte and Ms. Wright), or sloppy editing or research, or too much stuffing, or too much telling instead of showing, or simply bad grammar ... any and all of these will set off my inner ranting reviewer.  I may not actually bother to write a review, even if I finish the book (which isn't a given), but I'll remember the reading experience, and even if I may eventually try another book by the same author -- which isn't a given, either -- (s)he will be up against a considerable bias on my part.