As I did last year, I’ve given book-rating site Shepherd a rundown of my top three books from October 2024 to September 2025, ready for people who are buying or requesting books ahead of Christmas. This year they include a murder mystery, a book-based fantasy and a non-fiction exposé of social media.
Twice in the last couple of weeks, I have gone out Latin dancing. As many of you will know, I love to dance, but I hate going out when it is cold and dark so, except when it’s summer, I mostly just dance around the living room. However, after talking about it since the start of the year, I finally went out with some folks (well, one person) from my church missional community (read: house group) and we had a fab time! Muscle memory is a wonderful thing, and even though I may not have danced salsa or bachata in about a year, my feet still remember what they are supposed to do.
I’m in St Andrews for the umpteenth time but with me this time is my niece Susannah, who has never been before, so this post is going to be me interviewing Susanna about her first impressions of St Andrews.
Me: So, Susannah, what strikes you most about St Andrews?
Susannah: I think what struck me most was the fact that it’s sunny in Scotland!
Me: Was there any other weather today? *knowing full well that we got blown sideways on the West Sands*
Susannah: Yes, there was quite bit of wind and rain when we were on the West Sands.
Me: That’s one of the three beaches in St Andrews, and what are the three main streets called?
Susannah: North Street, South Street and Market Street.
Me: Well done! And what’s the other one at the side?
Susannah: The.. Something?
Me: That’s right 😂, The Scores. What do you think of the shops we’ve seen so far?
Susannah: Yeah, there seems to be a lot selling souvenirs and also some shops saying some pretty random things as well.
Me: Yes pretty, random things. Lovely. And we went out to a restaurant for dinner which was called Mitchell’s. What did you think of dinner?
Susannah: It was delicious but it was quite small.
Me: Yes it was it was quite small – and my fish was greasy. The chips were good, though.
Me: We’ve seen a few different university departments, mostly from the outside. We’ve seen Languages and Theology, Psychology. We’ve seen a lot of the halls of residence as well. Oh yeah, where are we now?!
Susannah: We are in one of the halls!
Me: Which is officially called McIntosh Hall but everyone here calls (or used to call) it Chattan, for a reason I don’t know. What do you think of the hall?
In Chattan
Susannah: It’s quite nice. The rooms have got a lot of space and the bathrooms are quite clean.
Me: We’re not inside the room just now, we’re in the living room, or the common room, or the TV room, or whatever you want to call it. We have it entirely to ourselves and it seats what would you say, 15 people?
Susannah: Probably, yeah.
Me: Maybe more, and we have it entirely to ourselves, which is nice. (Some people came in but quickly ran away when they saw it was occupied.) What do you think of how long the days are in June?
Susannah: I think it’s quite surprising really that it’s like 9 o’clock at night and it’s still light, but I suppose being this far north it does tend to happen.
Me: So why are the two of us in St Andrews anyway?
Susannah: Because I want to go to St Andrews, the university, because I think it’s very good university and it’s also just a great town.
Me: There’s a good advert! And you would be studying – what is the current plan?
I’m told that one of things that is endearing about me is that I am obsessed with strange things. So in the hope that this is true, I’m going to bang on about one of those things here – snooker, and specifically the World Championship. If you find snooker about as interesting as I find cricket (slightly less interesting than reading flat-pack instructions in a language I don’t speak), feel free to skip.
It feels like I’ve had my head down all year and barely registered what I’ve been up to, so I’ve just scrolled through my calendar, photos and blog to find out what I actually did do this year!
I recently finished reading The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. I read it slowly, because was my bathroom book (sorry if that’s too much information, but it’s a great way to read important but not terribly gripping books) but also because it just wasn’t very good.
I suppose in the same way that if you write you’re a writer, if you make YouTube videos you’re a YouTuber. I know my nieces think I’m a YouTuber, and I have made quite a few videos, but I’ve never felt that the cap fits well. However, yesterday I reached a new milestone: I had a video banned from YouTube!
It’s not been a great year for me. All work and not enough play made Karen a dull girl in 2023; Artemis’s avian romance ended in tragedy; and there was the major disappointment of not getting Eurovision tickets 😭 But it hasn’t been all bad. Let’s have a look at it.
I’m planning to cover 2023’s reading in my usual “year in review” post, but this is slightly different. Book recommendation site Shepherd asked me for my top three reads of the last 12 months, October to September.
K C Murdarasi 