Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

June Round-up

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june

Watching: Fringe (I started back at Season 1 and I’m up to 4), Orphan Black (catching up on Season 4), Orange is the New Black (had to wait till after Paris but then binged Season 4), re-watched Season 5 of OUAT with Nat before we went to the convention, The Great British Sewing Bee, of course Game of Thrones (last episodes!!), the usual Casualty, Holby City, Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow etc. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Just Go With It, Zootropolis, Twilight, Olympus has Fallen, Deadpool,
Reading: Wait for Me, Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn, Cinder.
Sewing & Making (for Closet Geek): Ears!! It’s still been all about the ears. I announced the last day of £6 ears and my social media blew up. In total I think I took orders of over 50 sets in the end. Other than that there was a Woody dress, a Jessie dress, a Belle dress and apron, a Baymax dress and jacket, a custom Sleeping Beauty fabric dress, some custom pencil cases, plus the usual bows and jewellery orders.

And in other news…
– We went to see Zootropolis at the cinema and I loved it.
– We spent a whole day looking for a new car for Chris but he ended up with a really nice one and it was totally worth it. We also got ice cream from Blyton on the way home!
– Lily got a short story printed in a book. It’s not technically printed yet but we got a certificate and I had to give my permission for it to be published.
– Megan had her first day at secondary school on a taster day. It didn’t go as well as she’d hoped but she has another in July.
– I helped Nat to pack up all her belongings and load them into my car and hers. She then moved in with us a few days later.
– Nat and I went to Paris for a very long weekend. We saw loads of tourist attractions, plus attended a OUAT convention and spent the day at Disneyland Paris. It was a great trip but it was lovely to be home.
– We got new broadband. Not a major event in itself but its all connected to Chris now having a BT contract so its all good. Also it seems faster which is great.
– Had our first viewing on the house since being on the market since April. It didn’t come to anything but at least it’s a start.

Looking forward to in July:
– Honestly, nothing really. Most of July is busy with school things, like Sports Day, Transition Day, school reports, end of year service, Leavers Party, Leaver assembly etc. but otherwise I have nothing planned myself in July.

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Book Review – Kingdom Keepers: Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson

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Last week Lily and I finished the second book in the Kingdom Keepers series. As you may remember, I reviewed book one, Kingdom Keepers: Disney After Dark, only a few weeks ago. This book was quite different from the first – and in my opinion it was much better in lots of ways.

Again, reading it aloud to Lily, I did at times struggle with the structure of the writing. However I generally found it improved from the first book. Where the last book was set at night time – bedtime trips to Magic Kingdom in holographic form – this was set in a whole day time, a day time in fact where the kids couldn’t sleep (just in case) in Animal Kingdom. Now this is really the main reason I said it was better in lots of ways. I enjoyed the story more, the writing was good and I really enjoyed the plot as a whole. However (and I’m sorry, please don’t hate me) I wasn’t at all sold on Animal Kingdom when we visited Florida last year and it just didn’t really do anything for me on that front. I’m not fussed about animals either, plus I think many aspects are quite old and therefore not necessarily accurate, but yeah… Animal Kingdom is a bit blah for me.

So obviously I never like to spoil the plot on these things, but despite being set in Animal Kingdom AND being all about animals, the story was good. I liked the addition of Amanda and Jez to the gang, plus I enjoyed the way the kids are all much closer and better friends in this book. Unlike the first book, which tied off quite nicely, it was obviously that this book was “to be continued…”. While it had an element of tying off loose ends, it clearly left a storyline open for another book (which we have actually started now and it does pick up from the end of the last one).

All in all, I’m really enjoying these books. The next one is apparently set in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, so I’m interested to see how that plays out. Also the fact the books started off calling Hollywood Studios – MCM, I feel like these are becoming newer and more up to date.