A Homemaker’s Diary

I’m not sure how many of you have tried scrapbooking but I’m sure many have heard about such hobby.

I started it somewhere in 2005 (I think) and even now I still do scrapbook layout every now and then, and of course if there’s any good challenge/contest to enter. The great thing about entering such challenge is that you’ll have the chance to win more scrapbooking stash or voucher from the online scrapbooking companies..heh!

The real scrapbooking materials are not really cheap. If you buy in a local scrapbooking store, some paper can go as high as RM8 per piece. Most of the papers used in scrapbooking are acid free which means it won’t turn yellow after many years. I still have so many unused paper collection as the result of my hoarding habit for the past 7 years…heh!

Sometimes when I don’t really have time to make a full size scrapbook layout, I used those papers and embellishment to make bookmark like this.

So what’s your hobby?

I feel like reading the book One Day by David Nicholls after watching the movie.

MPH have the copies so I might get one once I managed to go to the nearest branch.

Here is the brief synopsis:

It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met. But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another. Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day—July 15th—of each year. Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. And as the true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they must come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

For me the movie is such a sweet and tender story even though the ending is unexpected. I like this quote:

“She made you decent, and in return you made her so happy, so happy, and I will always be grateful to you for that.”

Will write more once I get the book and read it 🙂

Synopsis taken from overdrivesearch.net:

Described as ‘the flower of his country’s youth’, the poet Rupert Brooke was adored by both men and women, yet he was always dancing out of his lovers’ reach. What was his secret? Did he love no one but himself?

In this seductive and poignant novel, Jill Dawson evokes Rupert Brooke through his own words and those of Nell Golightly, a young housemaid at his Grantchester lodgings who falls under his spell. Capturing the often perverse ways of the human heart, it reveals a far more complex, troubled man than his romanticised image suggests.

In her old age, Nell Golightly receives a strange letter. A Tahitian woman, claiming to be the daughter of the poet Rupert Brooke, writes to ask her to describe him – his voice, his smell, how it felt to hold him. And to explain why all of England remembered him . . .

Turning her mind to the summer of 1909, Nell relives her first encounter with the young poet. She was sixteen, the new housemaid at the Orchard Tea Gardens in Grantchester, and he was the new tenant, already causing a stir with his boyish good looks and habit of swimming naked in nearby Byron’s Pool. Nell soon realises that everyone he meets falls in love with him, while he remains flippant and flirtatious and, apparently, loves no one but himself. Worst of all, despite her good sense, even she seems to be falling under his spell. What is his secret? Does he prefer men? Is he, in fact, capable of love at all?

With great skill and playfulness, Jill Dawson gives voice to Rupert Brooke himself in a narrative told from both his point of view and that of her spirited character, Nell. Revealing a man more surprising, complex and radical than his romanticised image suggests, her novel powerfully conveys the allure of charisma as it captures the mysterious and often perverse workings of the human heart.

My review:

I finished reading this book about 2 weeks ago. I’ve never heard about Rupert Brooke before and only researched about him after reading this book. I am amazed how the writer managed to write a fiction based on a true person and includes his writing and poem throughout the book.

The character of Nell in the story however is totally fictional. It is necessary though for Nell to exist in the story to let people know who Rupert Brooke was from another person’s perspective.

Overall it is a nice book to read. Quoting from a review online, this is a compelling portrait of a failed love affair and of a damaged man who is so cut off from the world that he cannot allow himself to be found by those around him.