Sunday 31 December 2017

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your friendship and your wonderful support throughout the year, it has meant a great deal.

It as been a rollercoaster year with a few highs and far too many lows. Tears have been spilt and sadly not all with joy. Now as we bid farewell to 2017 we look forward to 2018 with renewed optimism.

Enjoy your celebrations and I wish 2018 will be a year filled with love and laughter, peace and good health.




Raising my glass to you…. Cheers and once again thank you.
Until next year, I hope the sun is shining in your heart and on your face.

Hugs
Pauline

x

Friday 22 December 2017

Merry Christmas Special Video



This year I have produced a trailer for Christmas with photos I have taken during the last couple of weeks.

I hope you enjoy.
Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you.
Hugs
Pauline
x

Thursday 21 December 2017

Truchas for Christmas



Truchas are sweet pastries typically eaten at Christmas in the Canary Islands.

This time of the year you will see these little Christmas pastries in most local shops and cafes on the island. Made with puff pastry, sweet potatoes and almonds - made into a paste, and coated with sugar.

We’ve certainly had our share of these already! Each morning, with our dog, we walk 7km / 8km before breakfast. Something we have done for years. During our early morning meanders we meet a number of people out walking, running, cycling or off for a swim in the sea! Most of these call out an ‘Hello’ and from time to time we stop and have a chat. These morning friends are truly international, Spanish, local Canary, English, Irish, Germany, Swiss and occasionally we have met people from Canada and USA. The common language is Spanish or English.


The other morning we stopped to talk to one of the lovely Spanish ladies we see each day and to our surprise we were handed a bag with a large container filled with Truchas. She told us she had spent much of the day before making them for friends. Taken aback at such kindness we feel very privileged, and yes, they were delicious.

Tuesday 19 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with Susi Holliday



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Susi Holliday





Hello Susi


Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



Hi Pauline, thank you for hosting me on your fab blog! I am all three 😊 I was a reader first, then a blogger, and now I am an author with four books published. Three creepy psych thriller/procedurals set in Scotland, and my new one, The Deaths of December – a festive serial killer thriller. I was born and brought up in Scotland and I now live in London. I love travelling and I love books.


What is your favourite Christmas memory?

There are many to choose from, but I’d probably say the time that my husband and I decided to go to Madeira for a quiet Christmas by ourselves. We stayed in a tiny fishing village with an apartment overlooking the sea. Waking up there to the peaceful sound of lapping waves knowing that we had nothing to do but relax, was absolute bliss.


What is your favourite Christmas food?

Savoury would be pigs-in-blankets (or kilted sausages, as we call them in Scotland) – can’t get enough of those! Sweet is definitely Chocolate Orange. I could live on those.


What is your favourite Christmas song?

I want to say it’s Last Christmas by Wham because I loved them so much and I was gutted when George Michael died last year, but actually it’s Wombling Merry Christmas (if you don’t know it, listen to it now on Youtube – I guarantee you won’t get it out of your head all day long…)


What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



This one… my husband dressed as Bo’ Selecta Michael Jackson Santa, cooking Christmas dinner using his new book with his own face superimposed on top of ‘the other Jamie’, in a very apt apron – makes me laugh every time I see it.


You can find Susi at all these…





Monday 18 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with Catherine Kullmann



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Catherine Kullmann





Hello Catherine


Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



Hi Pauline and thanks for inviting me along. I am all three. I have been an avid reader all my life and always enjoyed writing, both at school and later in my career. I started writing fiction about seven years ago and now have published two novels set in the extended Regency Era—the Murmur of Masks and Perception & Illusion, both which have received a Chill with a Book Award. I love the research that goes with writing historical fiction and blog about historical facts and trivia relating to the Regency in My Scrap Album on 





What is your favourite Christmas memory?

I can’t really pick one out. To me, Christmas is first and foremost the commemoration of Christ’s birth marked by a combination of family togetherness, sacred music and contemplation, excitement and anticipation and family traditions, small and large, Ours are a mix of Irish and German—we have a German Christmas Eve with German carols during present giving followed by a special dinner and an Irish Christmas Day, where Mass is followed by Christmas Dinner.


What is your favourite Christmas food?

It has to be the traditional Christmas Dinner that I have eaten every year of my life, first prepared by my mother and later by me according to her recipes. Turkey with herbed bread stuffing, boiled ham, bread sauce, roast potatoes, braised chicory, carrots and peas. We eat it twice, once on Christmas Day when the turkey is hot and again on St Stephen’s Day (26 December) when the turkey is cold. And every year, as my mother before me, I sigh on that second day and say ‘It always tastes better on Stephen’s Day’. I think it is because this marks the end of my Christmas responsibilities. Now, of course, with an adult family, everyone pitches in but in the past, when I was working fulltime and had a younger family, Christmas was heavy enough going.


What is your favourite Christmas song?

Adeste Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) sung in Latin as it was in my childhood. I love the way the congregation will instinctively build a crescendo on the threefold repetition of ‘Venite adoremus’ (O come, let us adore him) at the end of each verse, starting almost at a whisper and only going full throttle on ‘Dominum’ (Christ the Lord).


What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



I have chosen this photo of last year’s Christmas Pudding with a dish of brandy sauce—again, a traditional part of our Irish Christmas. This recipe comes from my mother’s family so it links me with my sister, cousins and their families as well. This is a link to a blog I wrote about it last year that includes the recipe. https://catherinekullmann.weebly.com/my-scrap-album/christmas-or-plum-pudding


You can also find Catherine at all of these…


Thank you.
My website:                      www.catherinekullmann.com/
My Facebook page:          
fb.me/catherinekullmannauthor




Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Susi Holliday
 Christmas Christmassy

Sunday 17 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with ... Rhoda Baxter



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Rhoda Baxter



Hello Rhoda




Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



I’m Rhoda. I’m an author. I write romantic comedy with a hint of cynicism. I firmly believes that clever is the new sexy, so I like to write about nice guy heroes and women who love them. I especially like it when they make me laugh.


What is your favourite Christmas memory?

Most of my childhood Christmasses were in Sri Lanka. My family are Buddhist, but we didn’t like a good holiday to go to waste, so we did Christmas… a bit. one of my Dad’s friends worked up in the hill country, where there are pine trees, so every year, he’d drive down with a couple of real trees in the back of his enormous car and we’d get one of them. The smell of pine trees still reminds me of hot Colombo evenings, when we dusted off the baubles and decorated the tree whilst trying not to trip over the dog, who wanted to sniff the tree every three minutes.


What is your favourite Christmas food?

Oooh, tricky question. There are so many things. Hmm. Stollen. It’s probably Stollen. Every year I buy some and bring it home. Every year the following conversation happens.
Me: I’ve got Stollen.
Husband: Did you pay for it?
Me: It’s Stollen. Not stolen.
The kids: Sigh (Every year. They have this conversation every year. Geez).


What is your favourite Christmas song?

I Want An Alien For Christmas by Fountains of Wayne. Because it was in the charts the year my husband and I met. Failing that, I love Let It Snow.


What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



I love Lego, but my kids don’t, so all the Lego in the house is mine. My favourites are the Lego Stormtroopers. Last year, I had a Lego Friends advent calendar and my daughter decided to build the tiny sets each day. We spent a fun afternoon setting up little Christmas scenes for my Lego Stormtroopers. This photo always makes me smile because it such a lovely afternoon and because the Stormtroopers look like they’re having a ton of fun too!


You can find Rhoda on all of these….

Twitter: @rhodabaxter

My latest book is Snowed In - it’s a Christmas novella



Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Catherine Kullmann Christmas Christmassy

Saturday 16 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with Anna Osborne



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Anna Osborne



Hello Anna


Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



I’m a lifetime reading addict but more recently, an author!!



What is your favourite Christmas memory?

Seeing a bulky pillow case at the end of my bed and knowing that Father Christmas had been….



What is your favourite Christmas food?

Pizza. Or is it curry? No, it’s pizza! My favourite Christmas ever was a couple of years ago, just me, my husband, 2 kids and 2 rescue puppies. We all chose our favourite type of pizza, then ate it in front of the fire on our laps on paper plates – which we threw on the fire afterwards. No washing up – result!!



What is your favourite Christmas song?

Sinead O’Connor singing Silent Night… or as I’m being indecisive, David Bowie and Bing Crosby singing Little Drummer Boy. Both bring tears to my eyes every time.



What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why

One of my (now) husband sitting on the floor with his arms round me because he’d just asked me to marry him…! My Dad took the photo because he was forewarned…I had NO idea!



You can find Anna on all of these...




@HomeOsborne

www.goosewingpublications.com




Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Rhoda Baxter Christmas Christmassy

Friday 15 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with Emma Poulloura



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Emma Poulloura




Hello Emma

Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.

Hello!!! For those of you that don’t know my name is Emma  and I love reading. You may have previously known me as Chicklit vs Fantasy. My favourite genres if you hadn’t already guessed are Chicklit and Fantasy, I also love the sub genre paranormal and I read a lot of YA fantasy.
I’m 27 but still pretending I’m 23. I live with my boyfriend and our Frenchie Basil. I have 5 brothers and growing up being the only girl taught me a lot about the other sex and exactly how to get them to see things your way. I’m a chocoholic and a bit of foodie. I love to eat but only enjoy cooking when I have a lot of time. I’ve always been a girly girl who loves make up and nails but I’m not the best at either lol. I’ve been a book blogger (http://starcrossedreviews.co.uk) for 3 years now and it’s hands down the best decision I ever made.



What is your favourite Christmas memory?

I grew up with a lot of brothers and on christmas morning we would come downstairs and we would have our own little Santa sacks filled with presents. Looking back it was such a lovely time….until the inevitable sibling fight broke out lol



What is your favourite Christmas food?

All of it?? haha I know a lot of people will disagree with this but I LOVE christmas cake with the fruit cake and the icing and the marzipan. oh the marzipan.



What is your favourite Christmas song?

When I was younger I always played Mariah Carey’s All I want for Christmas and Stay another day by E17 (not that the song itself is christmassy, it's one of those ones that are always on at that time of year). Now I think I’m more of a Pogue’s Fairytale of New York person.



What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



ok so I have two. One is me and my boyfriend and our Frenchie from last christmas day. It was our first christmas with our dog and it was such a lovely day. The second is a picture I was given more recently of my parents on their wedding day.




You can find Emma at all of these…

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/starcrossed89/


Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Anna Osborne Christmas Christmassy

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with Jules Wake



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Jules Wake




Hello Jules 


Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



I’m an author and I’ve had six books published with a further four coming out next year. I’ve written two Christmas books, both of which include elements of family Christmas traditions. Every family has its own little traditions and rituals but none are more prevalent than those at Christmas, so in my Christmas books I do try to focus on those, sometimes stealing from my own family memories.


What is your favourite Christmas memory?

My daughter coming down to discover that Rudolph had polished off most of his carrot and that Santa had demolished his mince pie.  Her sheer delight that Santa had been has always stuck with me.  It was one of our first family traditions leaving a carrot and mince pie in the fire place of our dining room.


What is your favourite Christmas food?

Oooh I’m a sucker for Christmas Cake and no one else in my family is that keen, so I usually end up with one to myself, but I’m very fussy about the icing. It has to be royal icing, which is what my much-loved grandmother always put on her cakes. She was a great baker and her cake was always had little silver balls on it and little robins, snowmen and plastic fir trees.

Every year I plan to make a cake and then always run out of time. A friend of mine is running a Christmas cake decorating course and I am seriously thinking about going on it.



What is your favourite Christmas song?

Oh, it has to be Wizard’s I wish it could be Christmas, as soon as I hear that, I remember Top of the Pops and Christmas of my teens when the highlight was the Christmas disco.  But I am also rather partial to The Holly and the Ivy. In our local town there’s always a town carol service in one of the car parks on Christmas Eve and they always play that carol, which always makes me cry for some reason.


What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why

My granny who lived in Yorkshire, came to spend Christmas with us a couple of times before she died and I have a lovely picture of her sitting in our lounge surrounded by people who loved her. She was one of those people who everyone liked. She always thought the best of everyone, was always enthused by everything and always had a kind word to say, even about people who didn’t deserve it.


You can find Jules at all of these…

@juleswake – Twitter
https://www.facebook.com/juleswake.co.uk/


Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Emma Poulloura Christmas Christmassy

Tuesday 12 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with... Lynne Milford



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Lynne Milford





Hello Lynne


Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.



I’m an author and a blogger, although the first is a very new addition. My debut crime novel A Deadly Rejection was self-published in October and it was a really special moment for me. I’ve been working on the book for so long that it was great to see it out there.
I also blog on writing at Tales from the Writing Desk.


What is your favourite Christmas memory?

I’ve lived away from home for a long time and I would often be driving home on or around Christmas Eve. The song ‘Driving Home for Christmas’ was always very apt. So I’d be hurtling up the A1 desperately trying to get home as quickly as I could. In my home town the Rotary club collects money for charity with a Santa float, driving it round the streets past all the houses. One year I was pulling into the estate where my parents live when I spotted the Santa sleigh coming along the road. I just managed to get parked up outside the house before he came round the corner. My mam and dad got such a shock when I rushed in shouting ‘Santa’s here’. I think they thought I’d gone mad. He’s a big memory from when I was a child, so making it just in time to see him was great. Plus it was snowing!



What is your favourite Christmas food?

Mince pies, without a doubt, are the best bit of Christmas eating. I have a rule that I’m not allowed any until after 1st December though, because then it starts to feel like Christmas. I also love a turkey dinner so I try to have as many of them as possible. This year I think I’m on for five, including Christmas Day, which is probably a record!



What is your favourite Christmas song?

Last Christmas by Wham. As soon as I’ve heard that, then I know Christmas is on its way. I love the video as well. In terms of Christmas carols, I love Silent Night. It really demonstrates the real meaning of Christmas and provides an oasis of calm within the crazy Christmas preparations.



What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



It’s not a picture of people in reindeer jumpers sadly. It’s a sculpture of the Wearmouth Bridge in Sunderland. I took this while I was out for a walk with my dad in Hetton Park, in my home town of Hetton-le-Hole near Durham. It’s clearly a bitterly cold day, but the light is just right for the picture. I’m not much of a photographer, but I’m very proud of how good it looks.


You can find Lynne at all these places…


@lmmilford






Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Jules Wake
 Christmas Christmassy

Monday 11 December 2017

Let's Get Christmassy with ... Val Portelli (Voinks)



We’re getting festive here with some special peeps and today we get Christmassy with Val Portelli (Voinks)


Hello Val



Please tell us a little about you and if you are a reader, Blogger or author.


I’ve always been a reader, and loved writing, but only became a ‘proper’ author when a freak accident left me bed-bound and going stir-crazy. To save my sanity I wrote my first book, it was published and I was hooked. A Facebook author page followed at the insistence of my niece, then my second book was published. Another niece helped me set up my blog, and I found the confidence to self-publish my third book. In between working on several other novels, I also write and post weekly short stories on every imaginable subject, often inspired by social media.


What is your favourite Christmas memory?




There are so many as I love Christmas, even if I’m a bit Bah Humbug when advertising starts before I get back from my summer holiday. All it takes to change my mood is to dig out the Christmas box of decorations, most as old as the hills. The singing Santa who doesn’t sing any more now takes his place on the blow-up Rudolph’s back as they ride across the front-room window. The knitted Christmas tree I bought in La Gomera belongs at the foot of the bannisters, the red Santa boots, and the red and green stockings accompany you in decreasing sizes as you mount the stairs. It takes ages to put up the rest as each evokes memories from when they first became part of the tradition. Throw them away? You must be kidding.


What is your favourite Christmas food?


Turkey, stuffing, dates and figs, Christmas pudding, mince pies, satsumas, I love them all. I’ll even eat spouts although they’re not my favourite. Does sherry count? I’d never think of having it at any other time of the year, but somehow it seems appropriate. My Mother was never a drinker, but one Christmas was worrying over the lunch being ready on time. She accepted a sherry, I topped it up when she wasn’t looking, then found my sister was doing the same. Lunch was late but she stopped worrying, even if she was a bit giggly.


What is your favourite Christmas song?

I love the traditional old Carols. O little town of Bethlehem, In the bleak midwinter, Silent Night, White Christmas, Little drummer boy and many others all have their place. It starts to feel like Christmas the first time I hear ‘A spaceman came travelling’ but it’s not really Christmas until Noddy Holder shouts ‘It’s Christmas!’
Now I’m giving my age away.


What is your favourite Christmas photo? Please tell us why



Most of my favourite old photos are still sitting in boxes waiting to be transferred to my computer, but this one (courtesy of Pixabay) always sums up the spirit of Christmas to me. (It’s also my way of trying to get on Santa’s good girl list.)


Thank you for inviting me Pauline, it’s been lovely reviving Christmas memories.
I’d like to wish you and all your readers a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year. May Santa be good to you, and fulfil all your dreams



You can find Val at all of these...


Spirit of Technology







ABC Destiny





Changes

Trailer







Facebook author page



Blog





Please come back tomorrow to find out what makes Lynne Milford Christmas Christmassy