1) My big brother Dan is currently exhibiting his art work at Bold Street Coffee in Liverpool. If you are in the area, then please do pop in and have a look! He has also finally put some of his pieces online – here’s his website: dancrilly.co.uk

And here’s the man himself, posing in front of his paintings (above). He hates having his photo taken and will probably kill me for posting this up! Ha. What a handsome devil he is.

2) I have finally finished The Goldfinch! Good God, I thought this book would never end. It was beginning to make me feel nauseous every time I picked it up! Would I recommend it? Meeeehhhhhhhhhhhh…….maybe. It was incredibly lengthy, which wouldn’t put me off in itself (I’ve read Wolf Hall four times, for Pete’s sake) but there was very little in the way of “things happening”. It was a more a detailed study of an emotional journey – a character examination. Boy loses mother, has no authority figure, goes off rails, forms unlikely friendship, huh. Sorry, I don’t even have the energy to tell you what happens. I’m totally drained. The Goldfinch is beautiful at times, and always brilliantly written, but I’m afraid that quite often it just totally lost my interest. Put it this way; I’m not going to lend it to my Mum, and I always pass on the novels I’ve read… I know that she would ring me after a few hours and say, “life’s too short for that!”

3) Pets – Dexter has been to the groomer this week, but you’d never guess from the state of him. It takes approximately five hours for him to return to his usual scruffy self – probably because his favourite “game” is tumbling through hedges. Mr Bear, on the other hand, is the epitome of perfectly groomed; he spends all day licking his paws and slicking down his fur and he adores being brushed…