Experiences: Meet the Author

We were having lunch at a little cafe, Food Foundry, when Girl saw a sign on the table about a Book Signing session with local author Boey Cheeming that weekend. She was very excited and wanted to attend it, so we went.

Boey, who is also an animator and artist, authored "When I was a Kid" and its sequel, "When I was a Kid 2", which contained anecdotes of his childhood memories.

The little session was surprisingly well attended by fans, who were treated to some background information about the author and his books as well as the reading of a few of the stories.

We got our books signed. Girl said she enjoyed it very much as it was her first time at a book signing and meeting a "famous" person :-)

Books: Love Affair with Jane Austen

I admit it. I first fell in love with Jane Austen with the 1995 BBC TV series adaptation of Pride & Prejudice many years ago. Mr Darcy ... swoon!

Occasionally, I would rewatch the DVDs. I've tried to get others to share my love, but it's not everybody's cup of afternoon tea. Surprisingly though, my then-8-year-old enjoyed watching the series with me.

When I was visiting Bath in 2012, I came across the Jane Austen Centre. It's quite a delightful place, with lots of historical facts and trivia, period costumes and backgrounds on Jane's best loved novels.
 

With a renewed interest in her works, I bought two other BBC TV series based on Jane Austen's novels — Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensibility — to watch with my girl. I found the former rather slow-moving, but Sense & Sensibility was a lot of fun (with yummy eye candy too!).

Books: The Lorax

After watching Dr Seuss' "The Lorax" movie, we followed up with the book.

Bedtime reading: "The Lorax"

Was never a fan of green eggs and ham, but the movie definitely piqued my interest, introducing me to the whimsical, magical world of Dr Seuss.

"The Lorax" is an entertaining yet thought-provoking story about the importance of protecting and preserving our environment, long before it became an "in" thing. It brings us to a time where children grow up in a world without any trees and relates the events that led to the final tree falling — "the very last Truffula tree of them all".

The book is definitely worth a read.