A delicious slow burning Victorian mystery that begins to grips you before you realise that you begin losing hours of your life to it.
Based in Victorian England, a young London drawing teacher is contracted to teach two young women (Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie) to draw in their Cumberland home. Quite by chance the night before departing for the house to he runs into a woman dressed in white, who was tutored as a child by Laura Fairlie's mother.
“I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.”
The plot is deliciously intricate, and intruiging from start to finish. Romance, comedy, and featuring a few outrageous characters that you absolutely want to meet (Marian Halcombe and Count Fosco) and above all the mystery of the Woman in White.
I love the use of first person, by via multiple characters (I never thought I would say that) as the characters supply testimonials through diaries and letters, and provide the action as it unfolds. The author cleverly changes each character to quite their guise, and the chapter as Laura Fairlie's uncle is just hilarious.
“When two members of a family or two intimate friends are separated, and one goes abroad and one remains at home, the return of the relative or friend who has been travelling always seems to place the relative or friend who has been staying at home at a painful disadvantage when the two first meet. The sudden encounter of the new thoughts and new habits eagerly gained in the one case, with the old thoughts and old habits passively preserved in the other, seems at first to part the sympathies of the most loving relatives and the fondest friends, and to set a sudden strangeness, unexpected by both and uncontrollable by both, between them on either side.”
One thing the Woman in White does really show the versatility of e-book readers when you are away on holiday, and solves the shoes vs. books debate (always books in case you were wondering, Kiwis don't really like shoes - but that's a post for another day). I love books. But, for an electronic an item that is half the thickness of a paperback, you can take away over a thousand books - case in point, The Woman in White in paperback at 685 pages is apparently 2 inches thick. (If you are nostalgic for real lovely books, check this link out).
Now if you don't mind terribly, “My hour for tea is half-past five, and my buttered toast waits for nobody.”
Sunshine, broad open spaces, Gator swamps, driving on the wrong side of the road, lazy days by the pool, busy days visiting attractions and afternoon showers that came down in the afternoons with the regularity of clockwork for about 20 minutes.
Florida was Daisy Duke to New York's Devil Wears Prada atmosphere.
That weather I was talking about...?
In the below photo, the small sign in the left hand bottom corner reads "It is illegal in the state of Florida to feed the Alligators."
First of all, fair enough - safety first kids.
Second of all, WHO ON EARTH GETS CLOSE ENOUGH TO FEED AN ALLIGATOR AND THEREFORE NEED A SIGN LIKE THAT?
A bit of Harry Potter to compete with 'that mouse'; below is the Three Broomsticks inside Universal Studios where we had to have lunch which included Pumpkin Juice, Butterbeer and mini-Cornish Pasties.
I actually did a U-turn to go to this place, there was no way that I was missing out on 'The World's largest Orange'. Not a chance.
Inside it was full of horrendous touristy bric-a-brac and crates of normal sized oranges, but I didn't really expect much more from it!
We also visited Celebration, a designed town put together by the Walt Disney Company as a 'master-planned-community' to promote as a return to small-town values with walkable and safe communities. It's story-book beautiful.
And, the Desperate Housewives' set was inspired (though not filmed) here.
Florida was full of peerless Southern Hospitality (nothing was ever too much trouble, ever), a few English Tourists in Footballs shirts and gold chains (sadly) and some awesome shopping malls.
I also learnt that I was capable of driving a right-hand-side car in monsoon conditions. We happened to be there for the first Tropical Storm of their rainy season (which gave birth to 8 mini-tornadoes), and driving back from NASA (Cape Kennedy/Canaveral) we were caught in the most insane rain storm. It was so intense I could only see the road markings because my lights were reflecting off them. At 5pm in the afternoon. I'm really not the most experienced of drivers and I can't tell you how stressed I felt. But I didn't panic, and it's one of the things I'm most proud of that I have done in the last 6 months.
What's one of the biggest reasons Kiwi's leave their homes in the land of the Long White Cloud behind? To travel, explore and find out who they are.
Thought up and hosted by the lovely ladies at Found Love, Now What and The Hemborg Wife thought that for the month of May we would focus on a Travel
{one of my favourite love/hate things!}
1. Which airport would you like to never see again?
No questions, it's poor Helsinki. Our first transfer through there went really well (London-Japan); we watched the stewardesses glide by on their scooters with amusement (the terminals are reeeeeeeeeeally long), gawked in surprise at the fur skins on sale and meandered to our transfer. Not so on the return leg; we had to race through the huuuge terminal, get on a bus transferring us from the building to the plane and then slip through snow and ice on the runway, jetlagged and in inappropriate ballet slippers.
2. What is your travel nightmare?
Arriving late to check-in, and being told the flight is overbooked so we can't get on (we had a moment of this whilst coming home from America, we just couldn't Check-In online which led me to fret pointlessly). That, and babies crying because it would drive hubby nuts and I would be fretting about him the whole way through the flight.
3. Would your rather stay in a fancy hotel and do less activities or stay in a hostel and do more activities?
Much like a lot of my fellow Expat to Expat bloggers, we like to stay in apartments a little bit of the beaten tourist track. We find it allows you to have a space in which to relax other than your hotel bed, and gives us the flexibility to brew a pot of coffee for drinking in bed in the morning (one of the ways it 'feels' like we are on holiday) and explore local markets. Aside from that, we prefer to do more activities instead of paying for 5 star hotels which seem to be fairly vanilla anyway.
4. Do you have any pre-travel rituals?
Not really, apart from our preference to pack the day before leaving and not sleeping the night before from excitement like 4-year-olds.
A snippet of an Air New Zealand safety video. Mooloo ohlayohlay
5. What is your favourite airline to fly with?
I swear I'm not being country biased, but it's Air New Zealand for the win even though it's pretty expensive (Singapore Airlines and British Airways are closely behind.) The service is good and really humorous - check out this classic flight safety video (featuring the Hobbit). There are simply loads they have done over the years featuring the All Blacks, Bear Grylls and a disco-theque Richard Simmons...
6. If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I have so many, but at the moment it's getting more and more dusty and exotic as time goes by; South America, Morocco, Egypt and Israel.
7. How do survive long haul flights?
Loads of movies, a huge bottle of water and trying to cue in with the timezone where you are travelling to. Comfortable, breathable clothes and shoes are so important too - we often marvel at the girls in full make up, curls, stiletto boots, skin tight jeans and clubbing tops. I mean try and look vaguely nice if you can as you will be going through immigration and want to make a normal impression so they let you into the country, but there is a balance. Soft thick scarves are great for sleeping in and hiding all sorts of evils.
8. What is your favourite stamp in your passport and why? Prague, it was my first solo travel (apart from flying into London).
1. What are your top 3 necessary items for travel?
Comfortable shoes - slip-ons and trainers. Exploring is so much easier when you 10 toes aren't protesting.
My own headphones - I can't wear the plane ones as the sound is so terrible.
Facewipes - they just make you feel SO much better.
(my camera doesn't count as it's not an object, but an extension of my arms...)
100 points (not sure what for tbh) and I will post you a packet of Kiwi biscuits (in all seriousness) to the first person that can tell me what building this is in New York. You have seen it a hundred thousand times as a cut-away on an insanely popular and long running US sitcom where they love coffee.
2. What is your off the beaten track trip in your current home?
Kent, where we love to explore and go camping. We do try and get away at least once a month, even if it's just a trip to East London.
Okay, so now it’s your turn!
Expats from around the world sharing a bit of their travel highs and lows!
What are your favourite travel places, and with a packet of biscuits on offer can you name ^that^ building?
