Jo's Old Site

I found this website that I thought was helpful as it explains quite a few different ways that we can manage our stress. It also tells us that stress is good for us but too much of it isn’t and here’s the link:

http://www.cedrostec.com/consulting/articles/how_to_handle_stress.htm

Isobelle Carmody wrote The Farseekers which is the second book of her Obernewtyn Chronicles, and is published by The Penguin Group. Also this book’s ISBN number is 978 0 14 013405 6.

I found that I enjoyed reading this book and have decided that I’ll be reading the other books in this series. As Elspeth Gordie goes travelling to a place in the lowlands to retrieve some Beforetime books. And she was also aware that there was a person there with some useful abilities. This person she discovers is a girl who she called Dragon and this was so because the girl had been on her own for so long she couldn’t talk much. In fact Elspeth was beginning to think that Dragon was a mute until she tried to say Elspeth’s name and the name she had given her. Also why I liked reading The Farseekers is because Elspeth’s journey was quite a dangerous expedition.

But she and the others that went with her got out of trouble, by making friends with people who helped them out, and along the way they also collected some important information. And then they were racing time as Elspeth wanted to get back to Obernewtyn to warn them.

Today at Luke’s Place we had a barbecue lunch, and I got a choice to go up the street and window shop or stay behind and I chose to stay at the centre.

Then while they were gone I got my photo album out as I knew a lady that goes to Luke’s Place on the same day that I go, wanted to see photos of Ilse my miniature schnauzer.

And as I didn’t go to Luke’s Place last week she was surprised that I still remembered. Also there was a superviser there that looked at the photos too, and thought Ilse was lovely. And the other thing we did today was indoor ten pin bowling but I just read a book called The Farseekers by Isobelle Carmody and listened to music.

James Patterson wrote this book with Gabrielle Charbonnet and it was published by Young Arrow in 2009. And the book’s ISBN number is 978009953725. This book was easy to read as it had short chapters and it was about two teenagers who are brother and sister and their names are Wisty or Wisteria and her brother’s name is Whit or Whitford. Anyway Wisty and Whit are totally unaware that there are prophecies made about them, and they don’t even know that they are a witch and a wizard until they get taken from their home as the mysterious New Order ordered it. Also they were allowed to take one item from home each and Wisty’s mother gave her a drumstick and Whit’s dad gave him a book with nothing in it. And while Whit and Wisty are in prison they find out what happened to Whit’s girlfriend as she died and now is a half light. And when she rescues them they escape through a portal. Whit and Wisty then find others who are like them and now they join in the attempts to rescue other kids from the same prison. But Whit and Wisty also plan to find their parents.

I’ve already pre ordered the next Ranger’s Apprentice book that is called Halt’s Peril. And I found this recent interview that John Flanagan gave. Also I have known for sometime now that John Flanagan started writing the Ranger’s Apprentice as a series of short stories to encourage his son Mike to read. But after reading this interview, I discovered that it was John’s daughter who suggested writing the story in book form, and here’s a link to this interview:

http://www.thenile.com.au/blog/2009/07/an-interview-with-john-flanagan/

The author of this book is Isobelle Carmody and was published by the Penguin Group. And the ISBN number for this book is 978 0 14 017654 8. Elspeth Gordie is a orphan as her parents were accused of sedition and was put to death but she has a brother named Jes who has plans of his own. Elspeth also has a cat called Maruman who wanders freely, and they are able to talk to one another through their minds.

Then after coming back from a expedition to collect white stick they get a visit from Madam Vega who is searching for certain types of people. And as Elspeth had heard stories about the place in the mountains she becomes very nervous when Madam Vega was talking to her. Afterwards, it was thought that Elspeth got tainted by the water that she fell in when she was out collecting white stick, and finds herself being sent to the mountains where Madam Vega comes from.

And while she was there Elspeth makes friends with Dameon, and Matthew, and they notice the changes in a girl called Cameo who they befriended and they then start to talk about escaping the institution.

Elspeth also meets the doctor who she thought was defected, and she also must have realized that it wasn’t him that was running the place but Madam Vega and her cronies. Then while Elspeth is searching for a map so that she and her friends could get out she makes a discovery about the machines and she also finds out what Madam Vega is up to.

Yesterday the disabled people that go to Luke’s Place on Tuesdays went to a shopping centre called Riverlink. And as there were more volunteers than usual yesterday they were able to take us around in smaller groups, and I took the walker with me. I of course went to the bookshop and got a bargain on a biography on U2. As instead of paying about $74.00 I only had to pay under $25.00 for it so that was a surprise.

We then went to Target, however they didn’t have the Simple Minds CD called Graffiti Soul there but then as a volunteer suggested that I could go to J B Hi Fi I went there and found it. I was quite impressed with this store too.

As they had a larger selection of music than Target did, but I didn’t know where to go to buy the CD after I found it. But then I eventually found the place where I had to be, and I also brought a Simply Red CD there too.

I then brought a chicken kebab with sweet chilli sauce and a apple and blackcurrant fruit juice drink for lunch, and I found that it was easier with the walker to get my lunch.

As when the group went to Toowoomba Grand Plaza I took the Canadian Crutches and found that I needed a person to carry my lunch back to the table that I was sitting at.It was also lucky that we went to look in J B Hi Fi, as one of the disabled people in the group got lost and was standing outside this store. And when he saw the group that I was with he came towards us and said that he got lost.

But all was well, as he just stayed with us and the people that he was originally with came back to this store looking for him.

Today when I went to Luke’s Place we made a bread loaf, and they got me to read the recipe out while getting other disabled people to put an ingredient in. They then mixed the bread dough up in a bread maker. Then the bread was cooked in the oven and we each had a slice after it was done. 

It was also a savory bread but one person didn’t like cheese or tomato and another didn’t like garlic. So they left the garlic out and the tomato, and they left a plain area for the person who didn’t like cheese. We also did chair exercises today while the bread maker was doing the mixing, and then after that a superviser who had just got back from his overseas holidays showed us some of his holiday photos.

Then after lunch I found some time to do some reading, and then was asked to come up with ideas so that they could get an idea of what to put on the calendar that they give us. I then asked the superviser who was putting mine and another person’s ideas down whether they did anything with the computer other than play games on it and then expressed an interest in learning how to use Photo Shop.

The other person who was also saying what her ideas were was teasing me, as at first she said that I’m just going along with whatever idea she came up with when I said I like to do some drawing as well. But this lady wasn’t being unkind, and I also gave a reply to that.

And I’m also pleased to say that I did come up with a few ideas of my own.

This is the first book in The Monster Blood Tattoo Series that D M Cornish wrote and illustrated. The book was published by Omnibus Books and was first published in 2006 and reprinted in 2007. And the ISBN is 978 1 86291 632 6.

Also the main character in the story is an orphaned boy by the name of Rosamund Bookchild who has good manners and is polite when he speaks though he often get teased about his name as it is so different. And I recently discovered that his name can be either for a male or a female and that difference between the two names is in the spelling as the female version is spelt Rosamunde.

Anyway, as Rosamund is one of the older boys at the ophanage he soon gets picked to be trained up for a lamplighter which he didn’t know much about at the time. But as he speaks very politely, he is well liked by most of the characters mentioned that works at the orphanage like Fransitart, Verline, and Craumpalin.

Rosamund then discovers that he is expected to get to the place that trains lamplighters by himself. But unfortunately he gets on the wrong boat at the start of his journey and I also think that later in the story that he starts to realize that although he meets good and kind people like Fouracres and a woman named Europe who helps him get to his destination, there are also people like Poundinch that later on realizes he shouldn’t trust so easily.

As Poundinch tricks him, and Rosamund discovers that he had been tricked after seeing the boat that he should have been on.

This story was quite enjoyable as it was about helping people who need help as when Europe needed help Rosamund didn’t just made her treacle but he also took her to a place where she recovered well enough to travel. Rosamund then discovers that Europe really wanted him to replace her now deceased assistant and as he didn’t really know what to say to her about it he didn’t say anything, but it all turned out well for him in the end.

I’ve been getting on the internet lately and reading some articles of The Courier Mail, and as I like reading about books and authors that I have read I then clicked on entertainment and then books. I then started reading that some school librarians have decided to either take the Twilight Saga books off the shelf or place age restrictions because they thought these Stephenie Meyer books were too racy and it is also reported that these worried adults think the books goes against religious beliefs.

And I don’t know what to think about school librarians thinking that the Twilight Saga books goes against religious beliefs, as the books are only stories. And I also don’t know what they mean about racy either but reading further I discovered that they are also worried about what teenagers are thinking about the sex.

This then made me think that they’ve based their decisions on taking the books off the shelves because of how they have decided to do the movies of the Twilight Saga stories. However I think the idea of having age restrictions on these books is being more reasonable as after all it is only a story and kids grow up.