The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion
ARCHIVE Team Challenge: UNO 2018
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UNO Pre Challenge Chat
Nanci wrote: "Hi Lauri!Good to see you again! That is a New Year's resolution that deserves breaking...ha! Maybe we'll be on the same team again. :) It's good to know someone else who loves the library as much ..."
Hi Nanci! I'm trying to cut back to only 1 library visit every other week! I only have 69 items out this time 🤓 I've only joined 2 group challenges so far this year! It's only January 4th. HA!
Beth (Ducky) wrote: "where in England are you living? That would be my dream but even just a nice long vacation there would be perfect "I’m living near Cambridge (which is awesome) and an easy train ride away from London (double awesome). I’m loving it and I’ve always wanted to live in the UK - well to be precise, I’ve always wanted to try living in another country and Britain’s always been at the top of my list mostly because I’m dreadful with languages.
Victoria wrote: "Beth (Ducky) wrote: "where in England are you living? That would be my dream but even just a nice long vacation there would be perfect "I’m living near Cambridge (which is awesome) and an easy tr..."
I love everything about Manchester. The history, the "hard work" attitude, the blue collarness, Oasis, Manchester City, Noel and Liam Gallagher, just everything. I want to be there so bad lol.
Even if you're not into football (soccer football, not handegg football) if you are on my team, I'm making you go to a match for me :p
Hi everyone!My name is Kaley. My only team challenge experience is last year's UNO, which I was hooked on! I need to start participating in more though, because team challenges get me way more motivated than personal challenges. I love YA and fiction, and I've started getting into more thriller/suspense/mystery type novels too. Last year during UNO I got into a few cozy mysteries too and I really liked them but haven't kept it up much. In 2018 I am very much looking forward to Queen of Air and Darkness by Cassandra Clare...but it's not expected to come out until December :'(
Beth (Ducky) wrote: "I love everything about Manchester. The history, the "hard work" attitude, the blue collarness, Oasis, Manchester City, Noel and Liam Gallagher, just everything. I want to be there so bad lol.Even if you're not into football (soccer football, not handegg football) if you are on my team, I'm making you go to a match for me :p "
I don't know much about football (the soccer kind nor the handegg kind lol), but I do really want to go to a football match while I'm here so I won't need much convincing :)
Oh I'll be in London for 2 nights in about 2 weeks! And before that I'll be in Iceland for a couple of nights, but I'm sure I'll have wifi at least somewhere to check in with my team :)
Victoria wrote: "I started chatting before introducing myself!-Name: Victoria
- Team Challenge experience: I've done a few team challenge, but none in recent months. I want to say UNO last year was the last one ..."
I need to add Victoria's books to the books I'm anticipating this year! :)
Initial teams have been announcedFind your team here
Captains
Yell out when you are ready for us to unlock your thread so you can reserve some spots
It looks like Annika won't be on until the am (since she's in Sweden) should I go ahead and yell out for our thread to be unlocked or wait for her to do it later?
Kathleen - you can still sign up as we are using people as reserves and:or creating a new team prior to UNO starting
Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "Kathleen - you can still sign up as we are using people as reserves and:or creating a new team prior to UNO starting"Sweet. I did just that :) Thanks Karen!
While I hope nobody is going to flake in my team, it would be cool to have you on board. But if not, there's always thread hopping hehe so feel free to swing by Andromeda any time! :-)
Eldarwen wrote: "While I hope nobody is going to flake in my team, it would be cool to have you on board. But if not, there's always thread hoping hehe so feel free to swing by Andromeda any time! :-)"Oops, I didn't mean I hoped someone would be a no-show. But yes will be peaking in once in a while in your team thread! Gif and all ;)
As I wait for my team captain to check in, I'm checking our cards for February and loosely planning my month of reading based on the Reverse and Color cards, coming up with options (getting excited). But, I've already listed more books than I usually read in a month. Uno gets me every time! It really gets me reading way more than I usually do!
Laura wrote: "As I wait for my team captain to check in, I'm checking our cards for February and loosely planning my month of reading based on the Reverse and Color cards, coming up with options (getting excited..."Me too! Especially with Netgalley reads that I need to get through!
Lauri wrote: "Nanci wrote: "Hi Lauri!Good to see you again! That is a New Year's resolution that deserves breaking...ha! Maybe we'll be on the same team again. :) It's good to know someone else who loves the li..."
So crazy that your library lets you take out so many books! It is one of my best addictions! ha!
I'm refraining from making a list of books to put on hold at the library while I wait for my team captain to check in. I keep reminding myself I need to finish all the books I've got started this month. I have trouble deciding to give up on a book so this is good motivation to finish up all the books I put down last year or the year before. Then there is the monster fantasy book I started last month. I do not need start planning a library trip, but I'd really like to.
I went through and "compared shelves" with all of my team mates and I've found 20 books on my TBR that will work for Reverse... now just to work out how to best read them over the 3 months!! lol
if only ;)well 6 of them also work for my cleaning out the closet challenge so I'm prioritising them!
Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "if only ;)well 6 of them also work for my cleaning out the closet challenge so I'm prioritising them!"
Ooooh am I one of them? If you need to nudge me to read a book so you can read it for reverse, let me know ;)
Victoria wrote: "I also miss the snow! I've spent most of my life in the American NE and Midwest, so I used to getting at least one or two good snowstorms a year. But, now I'm living in England and it's warm in com..."Yes when it snows over here everything comes to a standstill.
Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "if only ;)well 6 of them also work for my cleaning out the closet challenge so I'm prioritising them!"
Good plan!
Louise wrote: "Victoria wrote: "I also miss the snow! I've spent most of my life in the American NE and Midwest, so I used to getting at least one or two good snowstorms a year. But, now I'm living in England and..."Hah, you don't say. I studied in Glasgow for a year (in think this was back in 2010) and was flying home over Christmas, had a short layover in London. The flight from Glasgow was all fine, on time and all. Landing in London in time. Then it all went downhill. I looked out the window and there was snow dust on the ground (you could still see the grass through it) but that was enough to create chaos. We waited 5 hrs to get off the dammed plane, no information whatsoever, all flights everywhere cancelled. Slept in the airport that night and got up just after 4 to start queuing for a new ticket home. Around 10 in the morning we saw what I assume to be the riot police, armed with some heavy duty weaponry I might add, come up to the desk and then we were all thrown out of the airport - no more bookings that day and still no flights. All hotels everywhere fully booked. And no prognosis of when we could all go home. All flights were still grounded.
In the end the flight home took 5 days, my luggage was lost and was extremely lucky to be booked on the first flight leaving for Copenhagen. And these are just some of the highlights of that trip, I could tell you soo much more =P
I think they said we were about half a million people stranded on Heathrow those days...
I've had some interesting flights (including 33 hours from Sydney to Toronto) but one that always sticks in my mind is when I was living in Canada and I went from Toronto to Vancouver in December. It was -15c in Toronto and +2c in Vancouver when I landed at almost midnight. I stepped out of the airport and just took of my jacket and enjoyed the "mild" weather. The taxi driver was very confused (especially with my Australian accent!!). Then after a few days I flew to Sydney to +40c and died. Just spent days in my mum's loungeroom in the A/c with the blinds closed in a darkened room. LOL
Yep, Australians are the masters of the long flights. The one that nearly killed me was Iceland (Had to get up at 3 am!) - Heathrow (8 hour lay over) then Singapore - Sydney. Took me days to get over that, LOL. But Iceland was worth it. Amazing place.
I’d love to go. But it is just SO FAR AWAY! We loved Russia but that was a killer with flights too :(
Louise wrote: "Yes when it snows over here everything comes to a standstill."It made me very reminiscent of the years I lived in Kentucky, which was the same. Actually, Kentucky was a lot worse because every year I lived there it snowed a decent amount - enough for sledding and building snowforts at least once or twice a year, but every year it seemed like a surprise. Especially for the city council who didn’t think it prudent to invest in more snow plows
@Annika/Karen
Well, I think I should stop complaining about flights now. Annika’s sounds like a nightmare and I think I’d go crazy flying for 33 hours!
The worst I can boast is about 26 hours of travel time from Thailand to Ohio. My 2 hour layover in Japan turned into 7 (where I wondered into all the bars and got chummy with some Marines... so not too terrible) finally flew about 15 hours to Chicago, had a two hour delay- which was the most annoying bit because my mom lived in Chicago and I could have made that my final destination, and then finally made it to Ohio where I was going to school
Oh my gosh! These horror flight stories are not good timing for me to be reading. On Saturday I will be flying from the east coast of the USA (Washington DC) to LA on the west coast and then after 2 hours board a flight to Melbourne, Australia. Once we land we have less than 2 hours and then take another flight another 5 hour to Cairnes. I have never been on a plane for more than 6 hours and I’m freaking out about being stuck on one for so long. My Australian friends, any hints for doing those looong flights? Planes are just so cramped and uncomfortable! Ack!!
My husband had to fly quite a bit for work until two years ago. He always had ear drops like Swim Ear and gum to help pop his ears. Sudafed to keep his sinuses clear. Drink lots of water!!! You will get dehydrated quickly flying.
My biggest advice is to use compression socks! Sitting down for so long and the pressure changes can make your feet/legs swell a lot, and the compression socks do make a difference. If you can, also stand up and walk up and down the aisle.
Thanks Ora. Great hints! I'm definitely going to get those drops and using the Sudafed is good too. When I was flying back from Europe my ears were so bad the flight attendant warned me that if my eardrum burst I wouldn't be able to fly again for 3 months. I generally have issues with my ears when I fly and often they're clogged for a few days afterwards, but this time the pain was immense. They were wonderful and put these amazing drops in my nose that took the pressure away immediately. I didn't understand the name of the medicine, but it was a wonder. My doctor told me to always travel with Afrin and use it just after boarding to clear my sinuses. I do drink lots of water, so I've got that covered. Thanks so much!!
So funny, Maria Helena. My husband and I were just now talking about that. I put it on my list right before I read your comment. Thanks!
This makes me happy that my boyfriend and I like to drive on our vacations. We've never been overseas but when we go to DC we drive (it's about 10 hours)The only time I've flown was from Chicago to Las Vegas and back and that wasn't bad at all.
Though I've taken the Greyhound from Arizona to Michigan and back and that was.... quite the experience
Victoria wrote: "The worst I can boast is about 26 hours of travel time from Thailand to Ohio. My 2 hour layover in Japan turned into 7 (where I wondered into all the bars and got chummy with some Marines... so not too terrible)..."haha at least there was a silver lining inside that cloud ;)
Nanci wrote: "Oh my gosh! These horror flight stories are not good timing for me to be reading. On Saturday I will be flying from the east coast of the USA (Washington DC) to LA on the west coast and then after ..."eek. and how annoying that you have to fly to Melbourne before going back up to Cairns!
A few things for me:
- seating can be really important. check out your seats at www.seatguru.com. if you don't like them most airlines let you change online, or otherwise talk to your travel agent
- take food (e.g granola bars). some airlines are terrible with food and it is a long time to be hungry
-luggage does get lost. pack in your carry-on whatever you would need if stuck overnight without your luggage (think phone charger, knickers...)
-charge up your kindle/ipad etc. and take chargers in your carry-on. then if you get a delay you can plug in at a terminal
-have a pen on you. So annoying to get those customs cards and not have a pen
-stand up and walk when you can. They have made this really difficult now as you aren't allowed to "loiter" (stand in the space near the toilets for example), but you really do need to move!!
-take an eye mask to block out the light so you can try and ignore everyone and sleep. noise reducing headphones are also helpful
Finally, just check that 2 hour stop in Melbourne. If you are required to go through customs there before getting on the Cairns flight you may not have enough time. (hopefully that's not the case!) but if it is, it would be worth knowing when the next flight leaves if you miss that one
I'm going to Iceland next Sunday and thankfully, I guess, it will only take two 2 1/2 hour plane rides! I'll still have to get up at 4am though, yay ._. haha!
Great flying advice from Karen. You really have to get your head into what I call "the flying Zone", nothing you can do about it so try and sit back, read, watch movies and relax. Set your watch to the time zone your destination is in and try to "think" in that time from once you get in the plane. Another thing I do now on long haul flights is try and book exit rows seats which costs about AUD $80 a sector extra and especially on the long sections (like LA - Melbourne for example) it makes heaps of difference because you can stretch out. Are you going on Qantas from LA -Melbourne on the new Dreamliner plane?
I was just up in that area before Christmas (Port Douglas, near Cairns) and it was fantastic. Sun, surf, The Great Barrier Reef.. awesome! Enjoy your Australian adventure.
Beth (Ducky) wrote: "This makes me happy that my boyfriend and I like to drive on our vacations. We've never been overseas but when we go to DC we drive (it's about 10 hours)The only time I've flown was from Chicago ..."
So Beth, you don't advise using the Greyhound buses in the US? I only ask because I'm thinking of going over this year and we might have to get from Montreal to Boston and using the bus was one of the alternatives. But my travel agent wasn't keen on this either.
Books mentioned in this topic
4-Minute Fit: The Weight Loss Solution for the Time-Crunched, Deskbound, and Stressed Out (other topics)Queen of Air and Darkness (other topics)
A Treacherous Curse (other topics)
Burn Bright (other topics)
Magic Triumphs (other topics)
More...



-Name: Victoria
- Team Challenge experience: I've done a few team challenge, but none in recent months. I want to say UNO last year was the last one I did
- Have you joined UNO before? Yes! This will be my third
- Favourite genres: I like most genres. The last couple of years I've been primarily reading fantasy - mostly uf and pnr, and romance; but this year I have a goal to read more mystery's, historical fiction, and non fiction
- Book you can't wait to read in 2018: I'm really looking forward to reading more mystery's, I'm loving the ones I've started so far this year as well as the historical-mystery's I ended last year with.
I'm also looking forward to the releases of: