Friday, October 27

toys, a hammer and finding this incredible author!

I haven't blogged for two days, because I have been buying cards, hanging toys and funkying (new word) up the shop! It's now 12pm and I have almost finished pricing, hammering and hanging up various items. I have things that won't seem to hang up in a box in the back still.
Yesterday Mops came in and gave me the morning off to buy cards and kids books and then my order of toys came in. It's been about unpacking and pricing and then trying to decide how to display them. I tried blue tak but failed miserably - we call it prestic back home and everything just fell! Then I found some upholstery nails and after borrowing a hammer - they're up but a bit wobbly and a little girl has just pulled one down! Aaarrgghhh - I don't see these tiny nails holding up and they have left holes everywhere! Ooops.
I went to see Little Miss Sunshine yesterday during my break and it was really really good! I loved the little girl in it, she was so sweet and laid back!
While running around the shop and looking at the children's puzzles and game books and all the educational bright toys I have in here; I found the book Stuart - a life backwards and started reading it. Being a book girl; I am always on a quest to find a book which is brilliantly written, moves the reader, is about someone so ordinary which makes the book extraordinary and when you read it, it feels like you have found a friend. Well Alexander Masters wrote about a homeless man called Stuart and wrote it backwards presumably that when you get to the beginning of his life - you care about him.
Alexander Masters asked "Why Stuart? Why did he make it off the streets when so many others have tried and failed?"
Linda Blendall - one of the homelessness workers, "He is one of the rare ones. When I first met him, he was completely, totally beaten up, unrecognisable. He wasn't someone who wanted to live inside, because he felt he deserved to be out and deserved a hard time of it. But, ultimately, he had a belief in himself and knew his limitations."
I've only read a few chapters and I feel that this is more educational than any other book written about 'the system' and how most homeless people feel that there are more drugs in shelters than in prisons and that they are bullied and find it impossible to get back into society.
articleaboutStuart - this book is a must read!
While reading this which has already made me cry; I also started reading a girly book called TheWishList about a girl who believes in love and wishes for romance and instant chemistry with someone.
I have some shop things to get on with...


3 comments:

  1. I too loved Little Miss Sunshine! It was so funny! You are the second person to mention the book Stuart. I will have to check it out.

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  2. Please do! It's a really good look at an ordinary man and what he went through.

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  3. I have read that. Very good indeed. Have you read We Need to Talk About Kevin, or a Can of Madness? Can recommend them both!! Oh and Five People You Meet in Heaven!

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