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Sunday, December 09, 2012

As a frustrated boy scout whose parents could never afford the membership fees, I'd prepared thoroughly for Thursday's trip to Gloucester by booking Friday morning off work, just in case I got stuck in the Slough of despond due to signal failure. It meant that in addition to enjoying a half hour lie-in until Toby started crying, I was able to finish 'The Hunger Games' in the bath before returning to work.

And I was slightly disappointed. Not just with work, but with the ending of the book. It's hard to criticise a story which held my interest throughout all 454 pages and made me want to keep reading (partly because I was stuck on a train with nothing else to do), but ultimately it never quite delivered on its promise. The first half built up so much anticipation that I couldn't wait to get to the second half. But when I did, there just wasn't enough there to keep me satisfied. As brutal slaughters go, it lacked a certain something.

I think part of my problem was that whilst Suzanne Collins claims she'd never heard of 'Battle Royale' when she wrote 'The Hunger Games', I saw the film six years ago. And I have the blog post to prove it. So I couldn't shake that constant sense of plagiarism. And it spoilt the book somewhat.

But the good news is that I bought the entire trilogy for a fiver and I have an aversion to wasting money, so I'll be ploughing on with the second book in due course. Assuming I can find another train to get stuck on.

In the meantime, yesterday was spent ticking off items on my list of weekend jobs. Amelie was at my parents' all day, which not only gave me the chance to write a thousand words about breakfast spreads for another website, but also meant we could throw out all her toys. For a council estate kid with no money, Amelie owns a remarkable amount of stuff. Quite a bit of it's from charity shops, but she's also conned a lot of people into spending money on her over the years, with the result that you can no longer see the floor in her bedroom.

We've bought her a doll's house for Christmas, plus numerous bits and bobs, and despite the fact that Toby's getting nothing more than an orange and a lump of coal, we need to make space before the 25th, otherwise Santa won't have room to drop anything off.

So Lisa and I spent yesterday afternoon in Amelie's bedroom with a roll of black sacks and a ruthless streak a mile wide. She's back home now, and so far, she hasn't noticed. Probably because she returned with a load of new toys from my parents. I think that's how we got into this mess.

6 comments:

Phil's Mum said...

I thought she had brought most of her toys with her when she came this time.  She obviously had her suspicions when she left home.

Lisa said...

That's made me laugh, Phil's mum.

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