Easy Saturday

Today has been a chilled out sort of day after a mental few weeks.  

We spent a blissful last week of August in Orlando and Clearwater with wonderful friends.  There we rode roller coasters, explored Hogwarts, swam with stingrays and saw dolphins playing in the wild.  We also ate twice our bodyweight in American food, including the fish that the boys caught on a fishing adventure in St Petersburg.

When we returned we faced the daunting task of moving our lovely 16 year old musical theatre star to start his new school in Chiswick, London.  He has moved in with a lovely family in Ealing and his first few school days have been great fun.  I just spoke to him and he is with his new friends enjoying open mic at the Theatre Cafe, Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

Yesterday we had the wonderful privilege of attending my cousins wedding in Ham, Kent.  Everyone looked lovely, the decorations were delightful and the whole afternoon and evening were great fun.  The colour scheme was navy blue and yellow and all the bouquets consisted of these flowers below.  Anyone know what they are called?

After such a lot of fun and high emotion, I needed today to be a lot more chilled out.  So I finished reading my latest book and thought I would share with you some of my summer reads.

This was a riveting read and very topical.  It made me very aware of my relationship with social media and how much of myself I am willing to share.  The story could easily have been based on Facebook or Google and was totally plausible.  

I had mixed feelings about this book.  I was a compelling story for sure, but it was just a bit too chick-click for me.  It reminded me a lot about Gone Girl and I did not like the main character at all.  That being said, I could not put it down and read it pretty much in one sitting.  If you are by a pool and need to zone out then this book will help.

I have to do more and more presenting in my job and I always want to make sure that I am as polished as I can be.  I LOVE TED talks and am often impressed by how engaging the speakers are and this book shared some of their tips.  I have already brought some of this into my own work, and now actively try and think of anecdotes that I can weave into my own presentations.  If you present or just want to be more engaging in a group, then read this book for sure.






I already have my next reading list lined up from my pinterest page, here.  I can't wait to get started.