Flaming Nora

Back from a lovely holiday overseas and here's a quick run down of the books I read while I was away. Lynn Barber, A curious career.  I've always enjoyed journalist Lynn Barber's interviews and when I saw an unused and unread version of this book for sale in a charity shop for a song I snapped it up. I read it on the plane journey to our holiday destination. Devoured every word.  10/10. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.  This book was recommended to me by someone who described it to me in such a way that I knew it would be right up my street. I was right. I loved the story and couldn't put it down. It cracked along at a great pace.  I do hope it's made into a film. 10/10. Please, Mister Postman by Alan Johnson. This is the 2nd instalment of Alan Johnson's autobiography, the first version I read earlier this year.  A delight. 8/10. Despite a promising write-up on the back of the book and some decent prose inside, I gave up on this book after a few ...

To the Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days event for the second time this week.  Earlier we had visited the Mayor's chamber at the local council - you can read about that here and see some pictures too.  This time it was a vintage bus pub crawl around heritage pubs of Sunderland that we joined.  Well, as you can see from the above picture, the vintage bus didn't arrive, unless the vintage was circa 2014. A slight disappointment but nothing that would spoil the afternoon. Dun Cow exterior Dun Cow interior Pub 1 - The Dun Cow (1901) After lunch in The Dun Cow, we had a look around upstairs with our guide Ron from the Sunderland Antiquarian Society. There was a good group of approx 30 of us on the tour, a friendly mix of men and women and we were off to a good start.  Rightly listed in CAMRA's good beer guide. Mountain Daisy exterior Mountain Daisy interior Pub 2 - The Mountain Daisy (1901) A proper drinking palace, built for working men, and de...

This week is Tyne and Wear Heritage Open Days wee k. And in this special week, you can go and have a nosey around buildings and areas that the public usually can't get into.  Today was one of those days and it was off to the Mayor's chamber at the local council for a good neb. It felt as if we had peeked under the curtain just like in the Wizard of Oz.  The Wizard, I mean the Mayor, was even there to meet and talk to our group, along with his good lady wife. First stop was the Mayor's parlour, which was like a first-class airport lounge. Or, how I'd imagine a first-class airport lounge would look like. Lots of plush sofas, comfy chairs, nice things to look at, great views from the windows.  From there, an ante-room was filled with gifts from visitors but my eye was taken with these very old, very big books of minutes of Council meetings.   The photo gives no idea of scale, but those books were approx. one foot high. Then the to the Mayor's dining room. W...

All through my working life I resisted, as far as I possibly could, wearing a name badge or stringing a company pass round my neck.  I've sometimes had to tie a security pass to my waistband, but that's as far as I would allow myself to be labelled. The paid office work I have done in the past is just something I have done. It was never, ever, what I was.  But this... this is different. It's an honour to be doing the voluntary work I'm currently doing . And although I don't have to wear my volunteer badge while I'm doing what I'm doing, I wear it anyway, and with pride too. _____ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here . This week on Corrie,  Sally got stuck. ______ I'm on twitter @flaming_nora