Wales

Currently I am researching my family tree, tracing my Welsh heritage. The software I am using to compile the information is MacFamilyTree, and I have a large task ahead of me doing this from a distance!

It is great to see this classic series return to the screen.

Maybe our various channels will have a rush of intelligence and start screening some of the classic series?

And I can't leave out "Baby Blues"
by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott

A wonderful game!
A fantastic way to fill time...

Out of interest, if you are looking for a good read based on the game of chess, try
"The Queen's Gambit" by Walter Tevis.

"How to play" sites:

Learn to play chess

Learn to play chess

My dad got me interested in Jazz. While I don't listen to a lot of modern jazz, I do like blues and much of the 50s form...

My other favourite is good old rock'n'roll. The 50's and 60s... Elvis, the Beatles...

* sigh *

I'm a bit picky with my movie watching, but love a good sci-fi thriller... The "Alien" series (Sigourney Weaver), "2001 - A Space Odyssey" (Stanley Kubrick) and "The Matrix" series are some favourites.

Old fashioned Westerns are another passion...
Here's my dad's list of The Big Three

"Shane"
"High Noon"
"My Darling Clementine"

Along with...
"Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid"
"The Magnificent Seven"

Of course, no good movie list would be complete without mention of Pater Jackson's "The Lord of the Ring" trilogy...

Others include "Little Shop of Horrors", "Frequency", "Serenity" (along with the awesome TV series "Firefly") and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"...

Website

For those who are not aware, Peter, Paul & Mary are a folk group out of the 60s. They have been recording off and on (apart from a 7 year gap in the early 70s) and have recently released a compilation album that should be on every music lover's shelves "Carry It On".

There are excellent DVDs also, one giving a superb history of the group...

This is, alongside my Apple Mac enthusiasm, one of my favourite ways of using any leisure time I have.

I like to keep up with young adult fiction and use
"Young Reflections" in Invercargill for many of my purchases.

If you are looking to buy second-hand or something that may be out of print (or rare) try Scribes bookshop in Dunedin

or online at :
http://www.abebooks.com

ABEbooks is a search engine for online second-hand book stores. Absolutely awesome!
I have NEVER failed to finds a title I am after.

Two good online stores:

Fishpond

The Book Depository (UK site)

Both include free shippiong to NZ

Young adult titles

"See Ya Simon" David Hill
"Juggling Mandarins" VM Jones
"The Hobbit" JRR Tolkien *
The "Tomorrow" series John Marsden

Other

The Jack Reacher novels Lee Child

VI Warshawski novels by Sarah Paretsky

"The Lord of the Rings" JRR Tolkien

Three recommended reads (trilogies):

The Inheritance Trilogy
by Christopher Paolini
1. Eragon
2. Eldest
3. Brisingr
4. Inheritance

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
1. The Amulet of Samarkand
2. The Golem's Eye
3. Ptolemy's Gate
4. The Ring of Solomon

The Watcher Quest by Margaret Buffie *
1. The Watcher
2. The Seeker
3. The Finder

Authors to try:
Gaelyn Gordon
Sheryl Jordan
Fleur Beale
Margaret Buffie

Try my Books to Read PDF
(link on Home Page)

Couldn't resist this... Sadly, so true...