Reading between the lines.

Yeah, right.
Like a large proportion of the country Julie and myself occasionally dabble in the lottery. Even more occasionally, to mangle grammar, we find ourselves with a small win.

When it comes to a rollover, all sense of statistics, chance and logic go out of the window, so when it was announced that there would be a massive jackpot of over £15million, greed came to the fore and we each bought ourselves a bunch of tickets.

However, our senses returned and we then became all rather cynical about the odds. Julie put it very well indeed.

DN-eh?

Please allow me to introduce ZME science.

I have been following ZME Science for a few years now. While it isn't as big as some other blogs, it is most certainly enthusiastic and cheerfully tackles many topics that stretch the definition of 'science', such as archaeology, which is history with a whole mess of science thrown in for good measure.

A relatively recent addition to ZME is a section for questions and answers. Anyone can ask a question, and anyone can also provide responses to or rate questions. Even more recently, they have also started up a contest on their Q&A page, with a rather wonderfully science-themed prize; the chance to find out your genetic lineage via a DNA test. You could find out that your father's great-great-great grandfather originated in Tibet, while your mother had some seriously Scottish ancestry.

Well, I don't know about you, but I'm definitely going to enter. If you want to, visit this particular blog post to find out more...

Mind you, Julie wasn't too keen on the idea.

I'm not sure, but that may have been a very subtle and unconscious play on words, involving 'box' and the fact that 'reincarnated' sounds sort of, possibly maybe, maybe not similar to the word 'carton'. Perhaps.

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What - you're still here? Don't be daft - get over to ZME Science and get your entry to this contest in right now! The prize is available globally, according to my contact, and the closing date is July 31st 2013

World Book Night 2013 - the final draw

Hello folks, it's time for another shambling video clip from Spike and Julie of Julie's Gems. This time, it's in aid of the final part of our free prize draw. In case you weren't aware, here were the prizes:

The first four people whose names were to be picked would win an exclusive World Book Night 2013 edition of Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair, and one lucky person would get everything pictured above. Everyone would also get some official Julie's Gems bookmarks, lovingly laminated by my own fair hands.

Anyhow, down to business - here's the video clip of us making the draw. Apologies for the poor lighting, and for my abysmal mumbling; in my defence, I'm just getting through the last bit of a nasty cold.

So there you have it. Congratulations to Rob for bagging the big prize, and to Magenta, Mikey, Lisa and Slim for winning individual copies of The Eyre Affair. Messages, emails and wotnot will be winging their way to the winners to tactfully enquire as to postal addresses as soon as I post this blog.

Tata for now, and thanks so much for taking part, both in the draw and the blog in general. Don't forget, if you find yourself involved in a Gem-like situation and feel it warrants an appearance here, you can email us with the details at juliesgems@gmx.com

Cheers!

World Book Night 2013: A final fail and a call to arms

Yes folks. As I type this, you have just under six hours to enter the free draw. If you want to be in with a chance of winning a great book posted to you anywhere in the world, then email us immediately (if not sooner) at juliesgems@gmx.com - you never know, you may even bag yourself loads of other goodies too, including some official Julie's Gems bookmarks, featuring quotes from the great lady herself!

As a sweetener, here is one final outtake from our pitiful attempts at making a promotional clip for this draw (made in association with World Book Night 2013)...






There you go. All done and dusted.
We will post the results of the draw on Thursday.

World Book Night Fail II - the Techno-derp.

OK, so there we are trying to film a clip for our World Book Night free draw. Yes, we managed to get it together in the end, but there were a couple of problems. One was my poor delivery, and the other was my less than stellar ability with editing tools.

Mind you, Julie's grasp of technology seems to be even worse than mine (somehow...).

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Don't forget - you still have time to enter the free draw to win a load of books, CDs and other goodies!
Email us at juliesgems@gmx.com - and don't forget, this is open only to residents of Earth.

Ten, not ten.

Last year, Britain stopped airing TV programmes via analogue signals. In the final few months leading up to the switchover to digital TV, there was a sort of genteel scramble to either replace or adapt televisions. It didn't help that many people (us included) thought for a while that we would have to buy completely new TV sets. This was something that incensed us. We don't have much in the way of money, but compared to a pensioner who has to decide whether to spend a day's money on heating or food, it's a small fortune.

In the end, all we had to do was adapt our analogue TV, push the signal through the DVD recorder and away we went. Of course, we had to pay to get someone in to show us that. Nothing we could do got us a reliable signal.

Once it was all sorted, we sat and scrolled through the channels to see what delights lay in wait.
...
...
...
...
...
Well.
What a load of crap.
I knew there was a reason I preferred reading and listening to music.
OK, so we only have Freeview, but we're not going to fork out for stuff we're not going to watch, are we? Especially as a lot of what appears to be on offer are repeats.
To me, one of the oddest channels is Challenge TV; showing repeats of game shows from days gone by. If you are of a certain age and lived in Britain at the time, then you will no doubt recall some of the weirdest notions for game show formats. Bullseye was a cross between darts and a pub quiz, and 3-2-1 asked people to make the most tangential leaps of logic to solve clues and win prizes.

There are other game shows on the channel, too. One of them pits adults against children, the premise being that adults are often less intelligent (or have less knowledge, at least) than their offspring.

When Julie saw the programme title in the listings, she seemed to take it as a very specialised challenge.

Oh deary me...

Cause and effect overturned

Julie likes to enter competitions in the magazines she buys, the sort where there are loads of puzzles and prizes of varying worth. I'm not condemning this, not at all. I enter prize draws whenever I can myself. The main difference between our habits is that hers come from printed magazines and mine are generally found online.

We haven't won any holidays yet, although we have both got some decent prizes. I have won a fair few books and Julie got various games. My personal best was a brand new blender and a month's supply of Greek yoghurts. The yoghurts were rather tasty, although after a month of them, I was glad to see the back of them. My sister was a happy camper though; she had just moved into a new flat and called dibs on the blender. As we already had one blender, one which didn't see much in the way of action, it made sense for me to pass the blender over to a suddenly cheerful sibling.

Julie, in the meantime, stayed with the gaming theme for her top prize - a Mario Kart Nintendo Wii box set. Sweet. It's not my wife's cup of tea, but I was most definitely chuffed to bits.

Some time after Julie's big win, her brother came round for a visit. It didn't take long for the subject of the win to be raised. Never mind the pride and excitement, it's a little difficult to cover up a gaming console when it's attached to the front of the TV...

Colin, Julie's brother, was properly pleased for her, and asked how she had managed to win it. Julie then explained that it was one of the many contests she played for in her magazines. In this case, a sudoku puzzle magazine. As we chatted about the contests, we both had to admit that while we had had a few wins, it was more often the case that we didn't win anything. In fact, Julie has yet to win anything from any magazine other than the sudoku one. It's a little frustrating, as there are lots of decent prizes in the other periodicals. However, as I have pointed out a few times, it's all down to how many people actually enter the competitions. The sudoku puzzles are very specific, which means the fewer people chancing their luck have better odds. It hasn't put Julie off them though. As she says, you have to be in it to win it.

Well, that's not strictly true. What Julie  actually said was this:

I'm not sure, but beneath the loopy language, I have a feeling Julie just violated the laws of time and space...

World Book Night 2012. Boy, do we have a prize draw for you. Finally.

As promised, we pulled some names out of a hat - literally. We're old school like that. We even committed it to video. Finally. We really need that camcorder so we can save ourselves a fortune in AA batteries.

Anyhow.

Like we said before, there would be five winners, each winning a special edition of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's 'Good Omens'. As we added later, there would be an especially lucky person who would also win further prizes. Take a look.

Not a bad haul, eh?

Just to recap the prize situation, everyone will get a special edition of Good Omens and an official, laminated Julie's Gems bookmark. One lucky person also gets a special edition of The Time-Traveler's Wife and a slap watch (seriously, who come up with these stupid names?)
Last night, after Julie came home from work, we cobbled together a quick video clip for the prize draw. As you will see, we had no script (as per usual), not much expertise, and certainly not much of a clue. It also didn't help much that we hadn't agreed how we were going to go about things. As a result, right from the word 'go', I was pretty much wrong-footed for the whole clip.

So, there you go. Four lucky people and one very lucky person. Congratulations to Jules, Sharron, Kevin, Peter and the winner of the extra book and watch, Dimitra! Your goodies will be winging their way to you in a short while - well sort of. Kevin didn't have to wait long at all, the lucky so-and-so.

As you can see, Kev only won the book and bookmark. He seems pretty
happy about it though, doesn't he?

Heh - I did a quick little presentation, showed him the video clip and handed him the book. He then asked me if we had made that video in the library. I had to explain to him that the books behind us were actually ours. And represented less than half of our own personal library.
[/bragging mode]

The quotable Pratchett

Nothing much to say today, despite the massive backlog of Gems, both from Julie and friends who have passed on humorous situations to us. (Think you know someone who is worth Gemming? Drop us a line at the usual email address or via our Facebook page.)
No; today being the last full day of our competition, I thought we could share quotes from Terry Pratchett. After all, I know we could do with a giggle, right? Leave comments below with your favourite quote - if you can think of a single one, that is - and I may collate them in a few days in a special celebratory post.
To get the ball rolling, I wanted to share this Gem-like quote with you. It's not from any of his books, that I can think of, at least, but is worth displaying just for the sheer fact most of us will be sitting here nodding and grinning our heads off like Roundworld versions of Nanny Ogg.

Come on, admit it. You spent a few seconds staring at it before you started nodding, didn't you?

Like I said; the free draw ends tomorrow, so get those entries in!

Spike slanders the British royal family

Yesterday, Thursday 10th of May saw an unusual event in a Scottish BBC TV studio. During the regular airing of the lunchtime news, the newsreader, Sally Magnusson did the usual handover to the weather report. What made this particular event so special was that Britain's crown prince, Prince Charles, had taken the place of the normal weatherman.

Granted, Charlie had been given a special script, one which was - oddly enough, hem hem - rather focussed on areas where there were royal residences, but I have to admit that, looking at the picture above, he seems to suit the job quite well. For a British BBC weatherman, that is. I'm not entirely sure if it was 100% scripted, but Chaz even managed to fit in a jokey reference to our beloved weather patterns and the apparent poor timing with regard to public holidays.

"...but a cold day everywhere, with temperatures eight degrees centigrade and a brisk northerly wind. Thank God it isn't a bank holiday."

It's not laugh-out-loud funny, I'll grant you, but it's typical British humour; a wry recognition of certain immutable facts of life.

You may have gathered from my rather over-familiar references to the queen's successor that I don't go overboard in my flag-waving Jingoism. Don't get me wrong though, I don't dislike the royal family completely. I'm not sure how politically potent they are these days. Queen Victoria was pretty much the last reigning monarch to be actively involved in the running of the country, although it may be that that could change if Charley gets the crown. He's been noted for - how shall I phrase this - trying to influence the opinions and practices of the British people and businesses. Some see him as a welcome positive influence and possible role model, others just think he's an interfering busybody without a clue. Me? I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he's done some good things, raising awareness of environmental issues being just one example.

So that's Charles. But what of the other members of the royal family? The Duke of Edinburgh is hilarious, albeit in a teeth-suckingly and completely cringeworthy embarrassing uncle way. Harry is an earnest young chap, although he's made some howlers himself in the past. I think he's going to grow up to be one of the best people though. And then there's Prince William, Charles' eldest son and therefore second in line to the throne. He's OK, I suppose, but his future role means that he has to watch what he says and does very carefully, with the net effect that he comes across as an amiable and serious-minded fellow - with about as much charisma as a soggy chip (or french fry, for our colonial cousins).

Of course, I can't ignore our current monarch. But... I can't really think of much to say. She appears to be nice, but all I really know of her is that she gets to go on holiday a lot and probably has to see a physiotherapist about RSI in her wrist from all that gracious waving. Having said that, I do recall a sketch on the satirical puppet show, Spitting Image, which had a puppet of the queen, singing 'One Will Survive', to the tune of the classic Gloria Gaynor song, 'I will survive'. In the sketch, Queenie sings about the possibility of abdicating so that Charles has a shot at the throne before he kicks the bucket himself. Well, more precisely, she sings about there being NO possibility of abdicating... As I recall, it was absolutely hilarious.
As you can see, blind obeisance isn't a huge part of my psyche.

Getting back to the point, my friend Wolf mentioned Prince Charles' stint as a weatherman and handily posted a link. I wasn't too worried about watching the clip myself, although I was interested in my friend's opinion; apparently, Charley handled it rather well, which led Wolf to believe there was an alternative future for him. I wasn't too sure myself, and responded in my usual, cynical and none-too-reverential manner...

It might not have been all that bad, except that I have something of a reputation for twisting the meaning of words and sentences, often to a salacious end. A reputation that came back to bite me right where it hurts...
Heh.. oh well.

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By the by, Wolf is the generous soul who sent me one of his copies of The Time-Traveler's Wife to offer as a bonus prize to one lucky person in our World Book Night draw. If you want a special edition of this book, then email us or comment below, just to say you want in. I'd hurry though, as we will be making the draw on Sunday evening (GMT).

Bonus post - It's a nice way to kill time

A friend of mine from gaming days of yore has graciously allowed me to share this little event with you...

Paul and his wife, Lisa, were waiting for a TV show to begin and were successfully avoiding the ads by having themselves a pleasant natter. They both enjoy the show, but it so happens that it's actually Lisa's favourite. Paul was lost in the conversation, but Lisa, who had been keeping a weather eye on the TV, saw that the show was about to begin. With a pithy ability to get right to the point, Lisa cut into the conversation with this...

Um. Yes, dear...
(shutting up now, dear)

When I saw this, I knew I had to appropriate it for Julie's Gems. However, I needed a little background first. After all, the only thing I knew at first was a simple sentence on Facebook.

See what I mean?
Apparently Lisa "has a thing for serial killers. Long story."
Erk. Having asked the question, I was now reminded of a quote from Terry Pratchett's 'Mort'

Yes, it definitely served me right.

In case you happened to be interested, the TV show in question was Criminal Minds.
Many thanks to Lisa and to Paul, who is probably in for a world of pain when Lisa finds out he allowed me to post this.

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Now I've managed to shoehorn a Terry Pratchett quote into the blog, I may as well take the opportunity to once more plug the free book draw taking place. If you want a special edition copy of 'Good Omens' and an official Julie's Gems bookmark (with a chance to also blag a copy of Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time-Traveler's Wife' and a slap watch), then send us an email by this Sunday to juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk

What's a wotnot not?

I've said it before, and I'll no doubt be saying it again before much more sand has passed through the timer's pinch - context is everything. The stupid thing is this; the first time you saw me mention it, I was also bemoaning the fact that I had been quite short-sighted by jotting down only the Gem itself, and not the circumstances in which it took place.
Guess what? I've done precisely the same thing once more. In my defence, and looking at my notes, it seems I was struggling to keep up with Julie as she came up with Gem after Gem after Gem. It also doesn't help that I appear to have had my hands full at the time.

Again, if you have any suggestions as to what the missing/replaced words may have been, then feel free to comment below, or email them to us (along with your entry to the free book draw - hint, hint!) at juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk
Personally, I'm actually dreading some of the answers here. No matter what I come up with for 'wotnot', there's nothing good for 'dubris'.

Say what??

That was close. I put this Gem together, all the time having this nagging feeling of deja vu, and finally committed myself to starting up a new blog post with the title above. Except that after typing the word 'say', I was then given the auto-complete option of 'Say you, say what?' With a sinking feeling, I trawled the archives in search of the post with that title, hoping it wouldn't be the same thing. That I had re-used something, having failed to cross it out before...

>phew<

As it happens, 'Say you, say what?' is a completely different post, one from the murky depths of time before I started getting cocky and adding pretty pictures to each Gem. Take a look.
Today's Gem admittedly riffs off a very similar theme, albeit set to a rambling time signature in the key of 'eh?'

You know what, love? It may well do, but I'm damned if I know...

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Just a few days left to enter the free book draw, folks. Just comment below or send us an email to enter.

Magnificent motors, post-haste!

This weekend, there were a couple of events taking place in Eastbourne. One was a semi-regular 'continental' market along the seafront promenade, which sells product from Europe and the UK - and, for some reason, native American Indian-themed clothing and accoutrements. Hence the use of quote marks above. There were plenty of foodstuffs - mostly pricey foodstuffs. Admittedly, they were tasty, but they were still pricey. Baklava (or however you wish to spell it), churros, paella (so very tempted by this), noodles, biscuits, cakes, cheeses (including a cheddar infused with Guinness. VERY nice melted onto toast) and sweets. There was even a guy trying, in the chill wind, to sell slush puppies. Yeah. I'm guessing he wasn't making much of a profit this weekend.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the long prom (and back a bit), there was the annual event known as Magnificent Motors. We're not petrolheads, not in the slightest. Any interest in cars, vans, buses or lorries is going to be on a purely cultural basis. We don't care how smooth a ride it is/was, or what goes on under the bonnet (or 'hood' for our American friends). However, it was something to do on a bank holiday weekend, so we wandered along, grateful that there was no entry fee.

Last year, it turned out that I was far more interested in one of the bands playing than in anything else - as we approached, I heard the strains of a cover of a tune by The Specials. All of a sudden, Julie found herself talking to thin air (I know, I know...), as I peeled off at speed and a tangent, and made a beeline for the stage where Ska'd 4Life were banging out some great tunes. There was a half decent crowd, but only myself, a couple of young children and one woman (who turned out to be a band WAG) near the stage showed any inclination to pump elbows and dance along. Julie, in the meantime, maintained a cautious distance.
Sadly, the music this year wasn't up to par, although I had to give the singer we saw some credit for singing the Joni Mitchell hit 'Big Yellow Taxi' at a motor show.* I'd have put a pile of money on nobody else getting the joke, though...

It didn't take us long to wander around, although we did stop and have a chat with one guy who was running a stall devoted to making and selling DVDs of old film footage of various forms of public transport around the South of Britain. I was very tempted, but Julie persuaded me not to bother. I'm still thinking about it though. Hmm, look at that, I seem to have his website....
Shortly after that, we came across this beautiful old car.

Apologies for the quality, I was only using my phone-cam.

Now, bear in mind that, as I said before, neither of us have any knowledge or interest of a car's workings, I was curious as to what that brass plate I have pointed out was actually for. In fact, it put me in mind of something else...

Facepalm time. Well done, love, you caught me out with that one. Terrible pun, but you got me, nonetheless.

*Oh come on, you know the lyrics; "... they paved paradise and put up a parking lot..."

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OK, so we're now into the final week of our prize draw. If you haven't put your name in yet, then do so immediately, if not sooner. The prizes, as if you need reminding, are as follows.

1 person wins a special edition of 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, a special edition of Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveler's Wife, an official Julie's Gems bookmark and a funky slap-watch.
4 people will win a special edition of 'Good Omens' by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman and an official Julie's Gems bookmark.

Remember, anyone can enter, the prizes will be sent to anywhere in the world at no cost to you. All you have to do is send us an email (no postal addresses yet!) to juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk
The latest date for entries is this Sunday, 13th of May

Time to finish with a video - a little bit of Ska'd 4 Life, anyone?

Memory almost full - of WTF

OK, it's best that I get the news out of the way first - you're certainly not going to be in any fit state to take it in following today's Gem.
Regarding the World Book Night free draw for copies of Good Omens, I have made the executive decision to extend the time for entries for another week. This is nothing to do with the draw itself, but more to do with the fact I will be sending out the prizes on the back of my next pay packet. Ultimately, this means that any waverers now have a little longer to try and make up their minds, as the closing date is now Sunday, May 13th.
Go on, drop us a line at juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk and tell us you want a free book. Or books and a watch. Actually, why not drop us an email anyhow? We like to hear from people. Tell us what you like or don't like about our blog, and maybe even suggest something or other. You never know, you may even have a Gem yourselves and want to see it posted here... don't look at me like that - it's happened. A lot.

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And now for something completely wotnot.
Today's Gem is all Julie and was a status update on her personal Facebook page.* The first I knew of it was that one of our mutual friends had commented upon it and requested - nay, demanded - that it be transferred here to make it official.
Anyway, no fannying about, here's the Gem. Make of it what you will, because I'm out of options...

Now, if you're anything like myself and our friend, you will have just spent the best part of five minutes reading and re-reading that, just to try and work out if the internal logic holds up.
In fact, if you're anything like me, you have also just developed a sharp pain behind your left eye and given it up as a bad job...

Have a great weekend folks (especially to those of you in the UK who now have a three-day weekend to look forward to. Barring people like Julie who work in hospitals and the like. My sympathies.)

*Don't forget that Julie's Gems also has a Facebook page. If you become a fan of the page, then you'll have access to all the Gems plus a few FB-only posts.

On the Casablanca Choo-choo

WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2012 UPDATE

On Saturday, Julie and myself repaired to the Central Eating cafe in Eastbourne, in order to hand out the majority of my copies of Good Omens. Unfortunately, the weather was against us, being rather wet and certainly blustery. As a result, not many people turned up, nor were they interested in stopping. Fortunately, I wasn't verbally abused, as was one of my WBN compatriots. Amazing - you try to give stuff away and get an earful for your troubles. Fortunately, the cafe is a somewhat bohemian place - I LOVE the people it can list among its regulars - and were at the very least politely interested when I had the temerity to approach them at their tables. In the end, I returned with only two of the books, and I'm sure I can find a home for them...
In the meantime, don't forget that the free draw ends this Sunday, so get those entries rolling in to juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk

We now return you to our normal fare of baffling blogs, wherein we reveal the fact that Julie and myself partook of a certain boardgame of questions and of answers. And yes, alcohol was consumed, as proved when Julie tried reading a question....

"... oops - did I get it wrong?"
Uh-huh.

World Book Night 2012. Boy, do I have a video for you. Finally.

There have been a few trials and tantrums along the way, but we finally have managed to produce a video for you to watch.
Talking of watches, you'll see in the clip that we have yet another prize for one lucky person. In addition to the copy of Good Omens that all five people will be receiving, one especially lucky person will receive a copy of the excellent 'The Time-Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger AND... well... just you wait and see - all will be explained. And demonstrated.

World Book Night 2012. Boy, do I have Good Omens for you. from Spike Matthews on Vimeo.

Well, there you go! Our generosity knows no limits, does it? So, what are you waiting for? Christmas? Pah - it's going to come early for one lucky lad or lady. Just send an email to us at juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk
Oh, and if you think that having a copy of Good Omens disqualifies you from entering, may I remind you of two things. Firstly, there are some extra features that your copy will not have; interviews and a snippet from a book the authors recommend. Then, too, the whole idea about World Book Night is to share your tastes, so you are actively encouraged to pass the book on for somebody else to discover and - hopefully - enjoy.

Don't forget, the closing date for entries is a week Sunday, which isn't really that long, is it?
Tata and good luck to everyone.!

Synonyms and antonyms; apparently the same thing.

For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be plugging the free draw we're running in conjunction with World Book Night 2012 on Julie's Gems. If you fancy winning a special edition copy of Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, then all you have to do is send us an email. That's it. Just an email saying you want the book, leaving only your name. I will only ask you for a postal address should you be lucky enough to win one of the books.
Don't forget there is also a second book (also special edition), just to sweeten the pot. One of the five copies of Good Omens will also be accompanied by a copy of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife.
And, as if that weren't good enough, then every book I'll be sending out will include a bookmark featuring the Gem below. That's right, Julie's Gems are finally beginning to hit the printer!

So what are you waiting for? Drop us a line, let us know how much you want the books (and the bookmarks, of course!) and we'll put your name into the draw.

Send all entries and questions to us at juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk

Back to the Gem for today. I can't remember much about the origins for this one, but I can only guess that it must have come about thanks to one of my little fits of trying to be clever and using polysyllabic... er, big words...

Well, yes. I can't argue with that, I suppose...
If you want to review the free draw details, then feel free to read through the original post. There are some nice pics of the books too.

World Book Night 2012. Boy, do I have Good Omens for you.

Hello, and welcome to World Book Night 2012.
Last year, we had a free prize draw on this blog for people to win a copy of 'Stuart: A Life Backwards' by Alexander Masters. It wasn't the most popular book in the world, I admit. In fact, I didn't manage to ever complete it myself. Oddly enough, though, the only person I DO know that managed to finish it AND to enjoy it was a colleague's young son. Oh well, it takes all sorts, I suppose.
This year, I thought I'd go for something a little lighter in tone. Well, as light as Armageddon could actually be. Mind you, since this particular Armageddon was written by Terry Pratchett* & Neil Gaiman, it's obviously going to be more than leaning towards 'rib-tickling' Yes, this year, I will be giving out 24 copies of the novel, 'Good Omens'.
If you haven't read any Pratchett before, then this would be the ideal place to start, especially if you have been put off by the scale of his Discworld series.

Last Saturday, I went to my library to collect my box of books and went home, eager to open it up and see what they looked like.

Oooo - all that awesomeness in a box!

After that, I had to open them up and scribble a few details in - one of the cool things that World Book Night does is to allow you the opportunity to track where the books go - even if it means they end up on the other side of the world! Part of the idea is that you pass the book on once you have read it. On the other hand, if you like it that much that you want to keep it for yourself - and why not? - then nobody is going to think the worst of you if you allocate it a permanent place on your bookshelf. Also inside the front is a list of all of the books being given away this year - take a good look, it's going to be worth your while, I promise.

If you're interested, you can always pop along to the World Book Night site to find out a bit more.

Now the important bit.
I need to be giving away all 24 copies of this most excellent book, though it may grieve me so to be parted from them. I am doing this in three ways. Firstly, I have earmarked five copies for very close friends and family. Secondly, I will be sat in a cafe in Eastbourne next Saturday from 11am, waiting for fourteen lucky people to turn up and bribe m... >sigh< OK, ask me for a free copy of 'Good Omens'. If you're in the area, then why not drop by Central Eating (240, Terminus Road, Eastbourne BN21 3DE), have a drink and a bite to eat and maybe even get yourself something to read while you treat your tastebuds.

Why, yes, it IS popular.. why do you ask?

That leaves us with five copies of 'Good Omens' left over.
For you. Yes, that's right, for readers of Julie's Gems, because we love you that much. We will be sending a copy each to five lucky readers, wherever they may be in the world, be it Australia, China, Venezuela or the darkest depths of Essex.
What do you have to do to get yourself such a desirable tome? Not a lot, really. You don't have to pay us anything, there aren't any tricky questions and you certainly don't have to cough up cash for the postage. All you have to do is send us an email, telling us that you rather fancy owning a copy of this book. Here's the email address.

juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk

Still not sure if you want to go for it? How about if I tell you that there are some nice little bonus features that you won't find in the original novel. Firstly, there are a couple of interviews with the authors, where they chat about each other. Then, too, there is a snippet of a book by a man that is name-checked in Good Omens more than once.

Incredible, eh? I bet you're really champing at the bit now

WAIT!!

It gets better!
Not only will five lucky people be receiving a copy of Good Omens, but one especially fortunate person will also be receiving a copy of one of the other books being given away. Thanks to my friend, Wolf, we also have a copy of Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveler's Wife' (sic) to add to the pile.

Just to recap, then, we have five copies of Good Omens to give away, one of which will also be accompanied by a copy of The Time Traveler's Wife, to be sent anywhere in the world, free of charge. All you have to do is send us an email at juliesgemsuk@hotmail.co.uk. Alternatively, you could just comment below, but please bear in mind that we need to have an email address so we can contact the winners. Don't let that put you off making a comment though, we LOVE feedback!
One final word; the prize draw will close on Sunday, May 6th 2012. This means you have two weeks to drop us a line.

Good luck to everyone!

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*Yes, I know it's Sir Terry Pratchett, but the man hadn't yet been knighted at the time of writing Good Omens.

Logic while you listen

As I mentioned the other day, we recently went to a comedy gig with some friends, and as we were travelling home, we were all chatting about this, that and the other. Of course, some of this (and maybe a little bit of that, but definitely none of the other), was about the show we had seen. Naturally, we were still full of our own personal memories of the show - but don't you always find that you will have laughed yourself to tears many times during the show, but can never recall anything but the barest details once it's all over and the dust has settled?

Nevertheless, all four of us were bringing up various bits of the show, although some prompting was required to get the details right now and then. At the other end of the spectrum, we'd each had our favourite sketches and would recount them more than once. Julie's own favourite was where Milton Jones was recounting how he was proud and amazed to have an uncle who was a GI and in the RAF - until he found out he was only a giraffe, that is (GI-RAF, geddit?). In the car after the show, after one of us mentioned what we had found particularly good, Julie would pipe up with some variation of "I still like the giraffe joke." Eventually, I felt I had to point out that she was in danger(!) of repeating herself.

As with the other Gem I referred to from this occasion, the remaining three of us fell silent, trying to work through the logic.
I'm still working on it.

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Don't forget there is still a chance to have a chance at interpreting on of Julie's Gems. Yesterday saw an amazing outburst of 'wotnot's, and I challenged you to come up with some of your own otherworldly - or down to earth - version. So, come on, click here and comment with your own out-take. I'll post the best of them (and the real words) at some point in the near future.