Something Lovely

Yesterday I had the opportunity - the first in weeks, if not months - to leave Pippin at home with a babysitter in the afternoon and go out! By myself!! For a couple of hours!!!*

I walked up to Smith St and had a potter around in the awesome Lost and Found Market... I managed not to buy anything... (this time) and then took myself to Las Vegan Bakery for chai (best I've ever had while out and about) and some comfort e-book reading: The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.

(original cover image from wikipedia, link above)

I love Agatha Christie books. LOVE them. I had read most of them by the time I was 12 years old... starting age 8 with The Seven Dials Mystery which was on my mum's bedside table when I used to curl up in my parents' electric-blanketed bed instead of my own on winter nights (until I got shooed out when they wanted to come to bed!) and onwards and upwards from there.

They are totally my go-to comfort reading. I think my favourites tend to be Miss Marple ones, but Tommy and Tuppence are so spunky and awesome (especially Tuppence) that their tales come a close second. There is no better reading with a cup of tea (except perhaps a Tea Shop Mystery).

*no, that is not too many exclamation marks for this momentous event.

Radical Homemakers - have you read it?

I'm reading it at the moment (on my iPad as an e-book, ironically but conveniently enough). I came across it mentioned on the Apron Stringz blog (which is awesome in itself) and have been working my way through it over the last week or so - I'm about two-thirds of the way through. It's incredibly thought provoking. I admit I picked it up, virtually speaking, because following the closure of my Etsy shop (which you can read about here) and entering into basically 100% full-time 'home duties' (as it was so lyrically put in my most recent mobile phone contract) I really, REALLY needed some reassurance that I am:

a.) Not lazy, and
b.) Making a valid and responsible lifestyle choice

particularly in light of the fact that many of the other mums in Pippin's local playgroup are heading back into the workforce.

And Radical Homemakers is reassuring - forcefully so - from that point of view. It is also quite an eye opener into some aspects of American consumer culture, although I am of course aware that the author has a particular view of the world and that this colours the way she represents that culture. I am just starting the section of the book which discusses the underlying 'how' of being a Radical Homemaker - the skills of nurturing relationships, redefining pleasure, rediscovering 'real food' (I think we do pretty well on that one already, honestly) and so on. I'm particularly looking forward to reading this section, I am sure it will be inspiring.

What I would also really like would be a book written about Australian Radical Homemakers... and to meet some... I would love to know if you have read it and what you think about it!