Mumps - hopefully the final part

Another day off work, considerably less mumpy around the face, starting to feel a bit more cheerful and although I woke up with a tremendous headache and nausea, I have been feeling better throughout the day. Fingers crossed I can make it back to work! I've started to read again (nothing too exciting - Enid Blyton, that sort of thing!), and carried on with endless endless cross stitching. As you can see, I've done two little snowflakes and a Christmas pudding design which I'll make up into little cards soon, and today I've been working on a bauble design.




The highlight of the last two days, apart from having Mr W at home to "look after" me (inverted commas as we differ slightly on what being looked after means), was being alerted to this fascinating programme on Radio 4 which is still available on listen again (certainly to UK readers anyway). It's the author Val McDermid talking about the Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent Dyer. This series is a definite Cardigan Girl Favourite, but here Val McDermid puts it into context and explains how affirming the series is for young women because it shows them that they can have careers, go onto university, and balance having family with work and friendships. She credits it with her discovery that it was possible to earn a living by writing. In the programme, she gives The chalet school in exile to 3 ten year olds to read, and it is fascinating to hear how whilst they found it dated in some ways, they did very much enjoy reading it. The best part is the master mind style quizzing of those being interviewed - some of the questions were quite hard, but I only missed two! Anyway, do go and hear it here, and for those of you who can't access iplayer, then do read this review (and the comments) on the Guardian website here.

Finally, again, big thanks to those of you who have sent me well wishes, especially those of you who had never commented before. It gave me a big buzz to realise that perhaps there were a lot more people reading the blog than I thought!

PS: One final game that you can all participate in. I have been playing #replacebooktitleswithmumps on twitter with the lovely Yvann today (which followed on from me singing mumpy Christmas carols (e.g. Ding Dong Mumpily On High and Mump the Herald Angels Sing). How about The lion, the witch and the mumps? The remains of the mumps? Mumps and prejudice? The mumps of one's own? Please put your favourite mumpy book title in the comments!