In My Hands Today…

Posted on December 4, 2018 by memoriesandsuch

The Atlas of Us – Tracy Buchanan

How far would you go for the one you love the most?

When Louise Fenton flies to Thailand to find her mother, Nora, after the Boxing Day tsunami, she fears the worst when the only trace she can find is her mother’s distinctive bag. In the bag is a beautifully crafted atlas owned by travel journalist Claire Shreve, with her notes and mementoes slipped in-between the pages. The journal tells the story of Claire’s struggle to find her place in the world following a life-altering revelation, and a tumultuous love affair.

Louise treks across Thailand’s scarred landscape, exploring Claire’s atlas to try to make sense of the connection between this woman and the mother she is so desperate to find.

As devastated people are beginning to put their lives back together, Louise uncovers the secrets that nearly destroyed Claire and the man she loved – the same secrets her mother has been guarding all these years …

Instagram Interludes

Posted on December 3, 2018 by memoriesandsuch

Over at Changi Airport, there is a Harry Potter display. The airport does this pop up displays all the time and this one is probably to coincide with the latest Fantastic Beasts movie.

GG is a huge (and I really mean huge Harry Potter fan). She knows everything that is to know in the HP universe and probably more and leaves me so far behind, I just can’t catch up with her anymore.

So we went to the airport just to catch up these pop ups and it was a bit underwhelming. I really expected more, so I was disappointed. Most of the structures are in Terminal 4, with the Whomping Willow in T2 and one more in the T2 transit area (which we could obviously not see).

There’s also a redemption counter where if you purchase products worth $60 at the airport retail outlets, you can purchase HP plushies and some other souvenirs at a discounted price. There was also a small retail store in T3, with super overpriced merchandise.

Here’s what we saw at the airport.

Hogwarts made out of Lego Bricks (T3)

Hogwarts Express at the Hogsmeade display (T3)

Grand Staircase which was cordoned off (T3)

Diagon Alley where you can play games when you show then your social media posts

Another view of Diagon Alley (T3)

Whomping Willow at T2

2018 Week 48 Update

Posted on December 2, 2018 by memoriesandsuch

This week was a usual week with nothing really happening. But it’s December now and the countdown to 2019 has begun. I should start thinking seriously about what I want to achieve in 2019 and start planning for it.

BB and GG have been hopefully utilising their holidays productively, they do study for a while each day before doing other things.

We are still waffling over whether or not we should go on a short break to a neighbouring country. S has been on and off on leave this week and will probably do the same next week too.

This week also promises to be something similiar. But hope you guys have a wonderful week!

In My Hands Today…

Posted on December 1, 2018 by memoriesandsuch

The Island House – Posie Graeme-Evans

In 2011 Freya Dane, a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology, arrives on the ancient Scottish island of Findnar. After years of estrangement from her father, himself an archaeologist who recently died, Freya has come to find out what she can about his work. As she reads through his research notes, she sees he learned a great deal about the Viking and Christian history of the island. But what he found only scratches the surface of the discoveries Freya is about to make.

In 800 A.D. a Pictish girl named Signy loses her entire family during a Viking raid. She is taken in by the surviving members of the Christian community on Findnar, but when she falls deeply in love with a Viking boy, she is cast out. She eventually becomes a nun and finds herself at the centre of the clash between the island’s three religious cultures. The tragedy of her story is that, in the end, she must choose among her adopted faith, her native religion, and the man she loves.

Centuries apart, Freya and Signy are each on the verge of life-changing events that will bring present-day and Viking-era Scotland together. The Island House plunges the reader into a past that never dies and a love that reaches out across a thousand years.