Happy Happy Joy Joy !!

The Royal Mail postmen were my harbringer of treasures today. A day when I had to take the day off because of flu - aching muscles, tummy, plus a little fever. I was just lying around staring up the plastering on our ceiling when we heard the familiar drop of letters from our mail slot. My youngest daughter as always ran to get them. There was this yellow padded envelope from America addressed to me. Who could've sent this?? Well whaddaya know, my dear friend from Boston sent me a CD with a compilation of 70s and 80s music. Wow! A lot of them are my old favourites that me and hubby haven't heard for a very loooong time. Even those very familiar RJ FM regulars before - The Hurt and Tuloy Pa Rin Ako were included there. Incidentally, I didn't know that the latter was sang by Side A. And I thought that that group is 'bagets' (young bloods). So now I'm swanning around enjoying my Georgy Porgy, Midnight At The Oasis, Of All The Things, etc. No doubt this will help in my recovery. Thank you thank you very much my dahling friend !!

The second treasure came almost at the same time as my CD. A Parcel Force man rang the doorbell to deliver a big box. But I didn't order anything?! It turned out it was from one of those book clubs that gives huge discounts on books upon signing up with them. I sent my application form long long time ago that I totally forgot about it. I was expecting this around early December but since none came I thought my form got lost in the mail. And what's made me clapping with delight was the delivery included this (click on it for a bigger picture):

It's the complete unabridged collection of all of Jane Austen's novels. Wheeee! They're small hardbound and even got classy gold leafed edges. I've always wanted to collect her novels but this is just so convenient, in a good hard case and very good value, too - I got it for £1 !
Jane Austen is one of my favourite authors. I remember the very first time I read her Pride & Prejudice. I was about 14-15 years old at that time, and was getting tired of the Mills & Boons' and Barbara Cartland's sickeningly sweet love novels that my aunt was passing to me. When she saw that I had my fill of them, she pressed her paperback copy of P&P into my young hands. She highly recommended it and insisted I read it. I was intrigued but soon was getting exasperated with the Victorian dialogue. Imagine reading a whole big paragraph of flowery words only to realise that what the character meant to say was - "No." Anak ng kamote naman! (Son of a sweet potato!) But I soon got used to it and cannot possibly put the book down. I lost sleep and braved the wrath of my mother nagging me about homeworks only so that I can find out if Mr. Darcy did end up with Lizzie. I'm not a book critic and not much of an articulate person, but just like watching movies, finding out if a book is good is if it entertained me. And Ms. Austen always does. I love all the characters she puts in her books, the plots, the twists and turns that makes her so readable and hard to put down.

Some of the other books I got are the following:

They're all fiction. I've been always been a non-fiction kind of girl. I am sometimes reluctant to read fictions because it involves some emotional investment on me (if it's drama). I am a bit emotional (mababaw ang luha) that in watching drama TV shows my kids are sure my tears would be falling soon enough. If the book character is getting in a bind (they always do especially in thriller ones) I find my stomach knotting up and me getting really anxious. I know, it's pathetic! :groan: There are a few exceptions to this, besides Jane Austen's, the Harry Potter series has got me hooked. For the last installment, me and my older kids were fighting over who's turn it is to read it. Haha! I had to devise a reading rota schedule for us to have a civil family life. ;)