time is precious Archives - Antony Simpson is an Author, Blogger, Nurse & Witch.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Christmas Presents Wrapped — The Presents for Others Wrapped

Christmas snuck up on me this year. Like a cat stalking it’s prey it pounced on me, causing a mad panic to get everything ready in time.

For starters Christmas cards didn’t get written or sent due to a bout of illness. The fibre optic tree was a last minute purchase and while most of the presents were ordered online, I had to dash out to the shops for a few people I’d forgotten about.

I was still wrapping the presents on the week of Christmas. Food wise, I had to go shopping with Steve for our Christmas dinner and arrange what time I had to be at mums for their christmas dinner. The prep. felt completely chaotic and stressful this year.

But Christmas Day came and it was all worth it. It was a wonderful day, starting in the late morning at mum’s watching my two year old nephew open his presents with his dad (Neil – my brother). Seeing and spending precious time with my family is always my favourite part of the day.

Then it was home for my first Christmas dinner with Steve and an exchange of presents. A quick nap followed before heading back to my mums.

Back at my mums, I had my second Christmas dinner with mum and her partner (Ian). Mum and Ian had opened their presents off me earlier and seemed pleased. I opened my presents from them, before heading back home to spend the night reading. Time seemed to speed up and the day flew by; it was over far too quickly for me.

I got lots of great presents this year:

My Christmas Presents — Presents People Bought Me

The theme of my presents seemed to be: minions (yay!), chocolate (double-yay!), smellies (tripple-yay!) and stories in the form of books & DVD’s (quadruple-yay!).

Hope you had a great Christmas!

Antony

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Book Review: The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

Saturday 10 April 2010 / Antony Simpson / Leave a Comment

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I love Cecelia Ahern’s books. PS, I Love You I found to be emotional and moving, Where Rainbows End was like reading intimate and private letters, A Place Called Here was like stepping in to a world of make-believe, Thanks for the Memories made me question our connection to our bodies and If You Could See Me Now made me belief again in invisible friends.

So I had high hopes for The Gift. The Gift tells the story of high flying building developer Lou. Lou is too busy for his family and always needs to be in two places at once. Lou’s a workaholic which is made worse by a potential promotion. The book is set towards Christmas which is obvious from the book cover and the chapter titles. Then one day Lou meets Gabe a homeless guy on the street and buys him coffee. For some reason Lou offers Gabe a job and what follows is an adventure as Gabe helps Lou reevaluate his life and priorities prior to an unexpected ending.

The telling of the story through the writing felt a little laboured at times. It felt as though it was rushed to publish in time for Christmas and because of this the story didn’t flow as previous books by Cecelia. In addition Cecelia explained the meaning of the story at the end – that time is precious. Cecelia didn’t need to do this and it felt slightly condescending.

Overall The Gift is a comforting Christmas read, with a good “moral” to the story.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Books & Authors, ReviewsA Place Called Here, Cecelia Ahern, christmas, Christmas Story, Gabe, If you could see me now, Lou, PS I love you, Thanks for the Memories, The Gift, time is precious, Where Rainbows End