Book Review - A Hat Full of Sky

By Terry Pratchett

Oh how I miss my books! The food to my soul, the chocolate to my brains, the tv of my eyes...... Trust me, that's how you'll feel if you are an avid book reader who comes to Fiji. Unfortunately, we sadly lack in that intellectual department, not because we don't have the resources or can't afford it, but because it is not impressed upon our children here. Society here doesn't regard it as a very rewarding activity in general. While there are those of us who do appreciate books, some of us who cannot afford them, most of the population in GENERAL, do not appreciate them.

Anyway, on with my latest review - one of the few books of Terry Pratchett that I have not yet read.

A Hat Full of Sky is about a young budding witch called Tiffany Aching who once defeated the Fairy Queen with nothing but a frying pan and earned the respect of the most powerful witch in all Disc World - GrannyWeatherwax. In this book, her guardians, the little outcasts of fairy world, the Nac MacFeegles, discover that an ancient form of life, one that lives in powerful hosts, is now after Tiffany. It wishes to possess her and follows her to her new place of abode and to a new teacher, a witch called Ms Levy. Except that Ms Levy is divided into two, literally.

While training under Ms Levy, Tiffany fails to disclose her secret ability and this is what leads to her being finally posssed by the Hiver, the ancient life form. It is a story filled with inventive antics of the miscievous, trouble making Nac MacFeegles who are under a geas to protect her and the intervention of the greatest witch of all times, Granny Weatherwax herself!

Under Granny Weatherwax's guidance and Tiffany's grandmother's love, she discovers the powers within herself to overcome the thing that is hunting her. She also makes new friends and enemies, the beginning of what seems to be another Granny, Nanny Org and Margaret circle. Not as much laughs and witty humour as in some of his other books, but definitely entertaining and captivating. Another Terry Pratchett hit! :)

My Rating....... 3.5 out of 5

The Diary of Curses, Wishes and Thoughts

There are times when I wish that someone I truly dislike (not the trivial 'he/she's a snob', 'that person is so lazy', 'that friend backstabbed me and took my job, house and partner'), truly can't stand even thinking the first letter of their name, would just get run over by a bus several times. I'd even hope that the bus driver would reverse over the disliked person in an effort to make sure that he did run over that person and that it was an accident, or perhaps he was imagining things but sadly enough, he did not. And that overcome by grief and shock, he fails to drive the bus off the body.

Aha. Yes I'm having one of those days and no doubt, others have too. I get these feelings when I encounter extremely lazy people with brains the size of a peanut but they only use less than half a nut to function. These are the people who see only several kinds of people.

1. Their own - one dumb peanut recognises another dumb
peanut.
2. The ones better than them (this is not hard at all)
3. The rich - peanuts determine if the rich can turn them into
peanut butter or if they are something to be looked down
upon. On no account have they ever once thought that
people better off than them have actually had to work
hard in life. No!

I was recently in a position where someone blamed me for losing his job. Hmmmm. I don't know if it was because I felt sorry for him and kindly took him aside to tell him that sitting on the internet 10 hours a day chatting to some online chick he just met was not a good image.

If anyone can tell me what a security guard's job is, please do so.

Plus, there were a few factors that added to me insulting his pride. Apparently, his village boss was also a boss at the firm who had hired him, the primary word being 'WAS'. That to him meant, that if his boss was no longer there, he didn't have to answer to any other superiors. Get my drift?

So of course, him not turning up for work and not informing anybody was all my fault. Him sitting at the computer and not doing his duties was all my fault. The boss noticing his absence and lack of work ethics was once again - all my fault. I suppose he thought the boss was blind and that I had told him. Sigh................................

There are people like this everywhere in the world. But nowhere as prevalent like here in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Expatriots, if you are coming to work here, come armed and with the knowledge that you don't have to bring all your brains. Just a couple of peanuts.

Written by a local.