How Does She Do It?

After the New Year celebrations a lot of people breathe a sigh of relief and get straight back into the normal routine.  I can never do that because hot on the heels of New Year is my youngest son's birthday.  He was 13 on Thursday.  Most years its the first day back at school on his birthday (poor thing - I'm such an inconsiderate mother having him then - although he was due on Christmas Eve so its his own fault for hanging around). But this year because they didn't finish school until the Thursday before the Christmas weekend they don't go back until tomorrow (Yeah!).

So on Thursday we had a lovely day to spend together.  We went out for lunch with a friend of his from primary school and his mum who is my friend too and then we went to the cinema to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Later his friend came back for tea and a sleepover.

What a great film it was though.  It was two hours long but it didn't feel like it and when we came out we were all surprised by the time - surely a sign of a good film.  I do like going to the cinema - I love the feeling of entering another world for an hour or so where you can really lose yourself, but never more so than this one.  I felt it didn't have quite so complex a plot as the HP stories but that didn't seem to matter because you just got caught up with the characters.  Using different characters in New York in the 1920's also made it different enough to HP to stand on its own two feet, but created a familiar world where the wizards are in conflict with the non-wizards.  It had at the same brilliant cinematography as the HP movies too which is just fantastic.  We had quite a HP fest this Christmas with all the films being shown on TV and I just love the quality of the films.

But what I admire most is J K Rowling's imagination, she is just a genius.  The thing I struggle most with in writing is description.  Dialogue flows but description is something I really have to work on.  After seeing the films again I have decided to re-read the books, concentrating on how she puts those amazing scenes in words.  I think that will prove to be a masterclass in writing.  Wouldn't mind getting my hands on the screenplay for this one too.

Certainly something to be inspired by.

Another Year Older

Or not as the case may be.

I know that might sound a bit cryptic but let me explain.

Last year on my birthday I convinced myself, probably because I'm rubbish at maths and my memory often plays tricks on me, that I was 48.  But I wasn't, I was only 47.   Throughout the previous year, I've been unable to shake off my mistake and have constantly fooled myself into thinking that I was actually a year older than I was.

So on Sunday, my birthday, although I was officially a year older, I was still only 48.  Good trick heh?

I can't say that I'm particularly bothered about my age, although I've noticed aches and pains creeping in, but the one thing that baffles me is where did the time go?

In my head I'm still young, ambitious with my whole life ahead of me.  But when I see my teenage decade described as social history, it does send me into a bit of a panic.  I love watching TV programmes such as the Back In Time programmes where families live in the conditions of previous decades and I'm horrified to see what I thought of then as state of the art technology,  is now viewed as old, clunky and obsolete.  (I'm hoping here that I haven't gone down the same route).

I still have so much more that I want to achieve, particularly in my writing ambitions, so I suppose I had better just get my skates on, and attach those fingers to the keyboard or pen to paper.

However, despite my maudlin, Sunday was a lovely day.  Had a long lie in reading a book, was surrounded by my lovely boys (well they were trying their hardest) and the sun was shining.  In the evening I had several glasses of wine with friends in my local country pub. What's not to like?

I Survived!

I have survived the birthday week and now life can really get back to normal!

Last Monday as it was my youngest’s birthday, we took him out for a meal at our local pub and a good time was had by all.

On Tuesday a restaurant down the road from us was having a 50% discount night so my husband booked us a table there as well – how decadent for the first week in January!  He’d told the staff that it was a birthday celebration and bless them they put balloons on the table and made a real fuss of the birthday boy.  The pudding came out with a sparkler and a song.

After eating a huge portion of fish and chips the young man found it a bit difficult to eat all the pudding so Mum had to help him out – well that’s what Mum’s are for aren’t they?

The rest of the week was business as usual but then on Friday we had a sleepover for four of his friends.  They all had a lovely time – although it was a trifle loud and not too easy to get five boys to sleep in one room, but thankfully they’d all had a busy week so eventually crashed out.

Saturday morning was more noise and then I took them to play football at a centre which has synthetic pitches.  They had a great time and I got to sit down with Writing Magazine and notebook for two whole hours – what bliss.

Then it was out for lunch and then eventually I managed to get them all back to their separate homes before crashing out on the sofa, completely exhausted.

The Merrie Month of May

Oh I love the month of May.  One of the reasons is because it’s the month of my birthday, although I have to admit that as the years creep up, it’s not quite as exciting as it used to be.  I try not to look on my birthday as a reminder of the advancing years, but use it as an excuse to spoil myself.  If you can’t kick back on your birthday then when can you?

 

But the main reason I love May is the weather.  The nights draw out, the weather gets warmer (in theory) and finally, after the dark days of winter we can reconnect with the outside world again. 

And the first few days of May have been a blessing.  Although it’s a bit cloudier today, the forecast for the Bank Holiday is good (fingers crossed).  The only downside to being in the outside world again though, is that I can no longer deny the shambles which is my garden. 

Gardening to me is like housework – I hate doing it but love the results.  When I say gardening, what I really mean is weeding. I never seem to manage to finish the weeding before I have to start again. 

Over the last few days I have been tackling the front. As I live in an open plan estate, it is the part that shames me most as everyone can see the level of neglect.  I’m nearly finished and it’s looking so much better that it’s given me the incentive to keep going.

Maybe this year, now that I have more time at home, I might be able to make some progress. Who knows, I might even get the time to plant something!

Whatever, I’m hoping that at least we’ll get some good enough weather for me to sit outside without looking at the weeds and feeling guilty.

Fingers crossed that the predicted hot weather in May becomes a reality.  It will be nice to have a summer that lasts more than just a few days.

Falling At The First Fence

One of my New Year's resoloutions was to blog more regularly.  Seeing as its now the 17th and this is my first blog of 2013, I'm not doing very well am I?

It's been a bit of a unusual start to the year though. It's a poor excuse, but the only one I have. Before Christmas I scratched my eye. That healed up but then it became infected, so I've been on antibiotics and now all is well again.  For a while though, I couldn't even open my eyes, let alone read or face a computer screen. Thank goodness for my Ipod, I think its the only thing that kept me sane.

At the start of the year, when everyone else is getting back to normal, we start with another celebration which is my youngest son's birthday on 5 Jan.  Poor thing having a birthday so soon after Christmas, but he was due on Christmas Eve, so it could have been worse!

This year was the first year he didn't have to go back to school after the holidays on his birthday and, as it was a Saturday, and like the rest of the males in my family, he loves Leeds United, we paid another trip to Eland Road, stayed at a hotel and had a meal out in the evening.

Although I'm not a footie fan, I must admit it is beginning to grow on me.  It's a great atmosphere walking towards the ground with the fellow fans, and the family stand is full of different generations, grandads, dads, mums and offspring, all united in a common cause.

As it was his birthday, I was a bit worried that the score might not go the right way, especially by the way Leeds were playing (1-0 down at half time) and the fact that it was a knock out round of the FA Cup.  In the end, after a valiant effort by both teams, it was a 1-1 draw, resulting a replay. Thank goodness that didn't spoil the celebrations!

The reply was on Tuesday, and again, after being 1-0 down at half time, Leeds pulled it off winning by 2 goals to 1.  The next round, against Tottenham, is at home on 26th Jan and there are mumblings in the house about getting tickets. I'm not sure my nerves can stand it!

The boys only went back to school the following Tuesday and then on Thursday we took them out for two days (naughty, naughty) to pay a visit to the Emerald Isle.  My other half has a lot of Irish reletives so we vist regularly, and this was a 50th birthday celebration.

I'm not entirely sure that it's a good thing to go to Ireland in early January, it just adds to the excesses of Christmas, but a good time was had by all.

This week I thought it would be back to normal, but on Monday was struck down with a heavy cold. It's not man flu, so I can keep going, but as you can imagine, not much writing has been done recently.

I have, though, been catching up on some work and general paperwork, and am determined to get into a good routine soon, both with working from home and with the writing.  Wish me luck.

I hope you all have had a good start to the New Year, and now I would like to wish you, rather shamefaced, a belated happy New Year.

I'll be back again soon, I promise!

Linda

Chasing My Tail

I was a very bad blogger during June and I promised myself that July would be better.  Well, so far I’ve not lived up to my own expectations.

At the moment I feel as though my life has gone mad. The last few weeks have seen me rushing from one event to another, and in between there has been precious little time to do anything apart from get ready for the next event.

Of course it’s a busy time at school, what with summer fairs, sports days, performances and other special events.  My youngest has had the rare opportunity to spend 6 days at a local outdoor centre.  This has taken place on odd days over several weeks which is a disruption to my routine (I do like routine), and has meant a split school run as eldest son has still been at school.  

Eldest son has taken part in the annual district sports competition – 100 metres sprint, varying football practices, a school performance and is currently attending both cubs as scouts as he is going up to scouts in September and is being given some ‘taster’ sessions.

Youngest child has taken part in an 11 school dance festival (he introduced his school to around a 500 people audience – I nearly cried with pride) and has completed his first holy communion at a thanksgiving mass and party.

There have been several birthdays and parties too and six more to come over the next few  weeks.  

My mum had an operation on her shoulder a month ago and wasn’t able to move her arm at all for 3 weeks.  My dad’s been doing a brilliant job but as their only daughter I have wanted to look after them. They live 30 miles away which isn’t far really but I’ve only managed to get up there to help out on a few occasions.  They’ve both been grateful for what I have been able to do, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve done enough.

In all this time I haven’t been able to get my head round writing much.  I’m desperate to finish my WIP for my NWS script and even though I’m nearly at the end of my current draft I feel as though I’m never going to get there.  After the current draft I’m going to have to do one quick read through and then send it off.  It’s nowhere near the shape I wanted it to be in but it will just have to do.   Maybe with the invaluable NWS feedback I will be able to back to it in a few months time with a clearer perspective.

With school breaking up in a few weeks time, I’m hoping that things will calm down soon, and that the weather picks up too, in time for the ‘summer holidays’.

I usually dread the summer holidays as it’s my busiest time in the job I’m in.  Sadly, this will be my last summer here though, as I’m being made redundant shortly.  It’s not a great shock, as we have been winding down the course for the last three years now, but I was hoping that my employers would be able to find me another job.  At the back of my mind I’ve always thought that this wouldn’t be possible but have been living in limbo for a while.

At least now I know where I’m up to and in a way am looking forward to new opportunities.  My redundancy package should buffer me for a little while so I can finally get my house sorted out and hopefully set up some freelance work.  It would certainly be nice to have a better work / life balance than I do at the moment.

Have a nice weekend and try and keep as dry as you can!

Linda xx 

It's My Birthday!

Another score on the calendar of life, but does this face look bovvered????  No, because age is just a state of mind - or so I keep telling myself.  Actually I've decided to count backwards from 40 so today am I 36 years young, and I got 36 kisses from my boys this morning to prove it.

Actually, after the hectic partying a few weeks ago, I must admit that I'm happy to have a quiet one this year.  A glass of pretend fizz and sharing cripsy duck with my family tonight will be the pefect way to spend the day.  Besides which we're off to a dinner at a local hotel at the weekend with the footie crowd so that will be my celebration.

Despite the fact that I have a few more wrinkles, and considerably more grey hairs, I feel I'm finally growing into my skin.  At the moment, I'm in a relatively happy place.  I could do with more time, but who couldn't.  Now, all I need is a book deal, or at least to sell a few short stories and life will be perfect.

Whatever you are doing today, have a happy one.

Linda XX

Another Celebration

Whilst everyone else is celebrating the return to normal after the festivities, we are entering into a new zone of celebration.  Eight years ago today I gave birth to my youngest child.  I always feel sorry for him having his birthday  at this time of year, at a time when everyone is jaded from a party atmosphere. And whilst I am usually fed it with it myself, I always do my best to try and make it special for him. It's not his fault he was born at this time of year but it could have been worse, he was due on Christmas Eve and I keep joking that if he was, I was going to call him Jesus - it is a joke!

At the moment he loves school so the fact that his birthday always seem to fall on the first day back isn't too traumatic, but I'm sure there will come a time.  This year we've held back some of the best presents for today, so the smile on his face when he opened them was well worth the wait. We've been out with his Nanna for a birthday tea, and at the weekend he's having a sleepover with some friends and a cinema trip followed by a bit of a party with some of our friends, and then next weekend another party tea with family hosted by Grandma.

I hope I've done him proud, he certainly seems happy, but as every year,  I will be glad when life can truly get back to normal?

What about you, are you sad or glad at the return to routine?

Birthday!

Not mine I hasten to add.  Today is my first born’s 10^th birthday.  Ten years? Where did that go then?

It’s hard to reconcile the boy with the cheeky smile, dry sense of humour and an endearing sense of thoughtfulness with the tiny scrap of humanity who entered our lives all that time ago. 

As births go it was pretty awful. Three and a half days of labour followed by a caesarean section under general anaesthetic.  Needless to say I wasn’t too with it for those first few vital hours, and my husband was booted out and left to pace the corridors like an old fashioned father.  But he came out perfect in the end which was a blessing.   And he is still a blessing too – more than he’ll know until he has children of his own. 

I remember feeling so scared that this tiny human being was completely dependent on me for his every need. He was only just over six pounds with “legs that look like they should be hanging out of a nest”.  My husband’s words, not mine.    His legs haven’t improved much – they are still long and skinny but he runs like the wind now.  

It’s been a long run up to this birthday and the excitement levels have been fit to bust.  We’ve got three friends coming for a sleepover tonight, family tomorrow and then a trip to an outdoor activity centre on Sunday with more friends followed by pizza and cake.   I only hope that his birthday lives up to his expectations.  That’s the hard thing about kids’ birthdays; it’s up to you to deliver the perfect day / weekend.  No easy task but let’s hope I’m up to the job. Wish me luck!  

Talking of Footie and Birthdays

Well what a weekend that was.

It started off early on Saturday morning as my eldest son who is nine was playing in the final of his football league.  All the matches were played at Chester football ground so this was a major event and incredibly nerve wracking, both for us watching and him playing.  The kick off was a nine am and by nine forty five I was physically drained.   I must admit the team played well and had many chances to score but unfortunately it was not to be.  However, the other team didn’t score either so no one lost.  Being only nine they don’t do extra time or penalties so both teams will share the Shield for six months each.   It was rather nice that there were no losers on the day and both teams should be proud of themselves for playing some very good football.

I’m not what you call a football fanatic, but living with three of them in the house, you do tend to get involved and it was a lovely atmosphere at the stadium with mums and dads shouting for their boys alike.  Talk about proud – I was positively puffed up.

More football followed in the afternoon with the FA cup final but the boys went to watch it elsewhere, leaving me in peace for a few hours.   And I used my time wisely by playing with my new toy – a Kindle.

I have been debating the merits of e-readers versus books for a long time but have finally decided to take the plunge.  My kindle will never replace the good old fashioned book as there is nothing like the feel or smell of a book so I don’t see it as the demise of the hard copy.   We live in such of an age of technology these days though that it doesn’t make any sense to ignore it.  Rather, I think you should use it the best way to benefit yourself.

Anyway, the Kindle was a birthday present (for yesterday) and it had arrived in the week.  Of course I had to take it out of its box in advance, just to make sure that it had arrived in one piece and on Saturday afternoon I decided that it would be prudent to charge it up so that it was ready and waiting for me on Sunday morning.  Well of course then I had to connect it to Wi-Fi, and register it, and it made sense to download some samples of books too didn’t it?  I did resist the urge to start reading then – because that wouldn’t be right now would it?

No, I put it away and went to get ready to go out.  The boys were spending the night at their cousins so we went out for a lovely Italian meal with some friends.

It was weird waking up on my birthday with no children, but it was very chilled out an relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable – although I did get to the stage when I insisted on picking them up because I was missing them.

In the morning I did have a chance to play with my new toy properly and so far I’m really pleased. I love the fact that you can download sample chapters of books for free so that you can see if you want to buy them.  I picked quite a few of my wish list and am now compiling a must have list.  I found the Kindle easy to use and to read and I’m looking forward to saving my baggage allowance when I go on holiday at the end of the month.  So far I’m really chuffed with it but I’ll let you know how I get on.  As far as I’m concerned it will never replace the paperback, but as I’m desperately trying to declutter my house, it will come in very handy.

In the afternoon we went swimming, went out for tea and then spent the evening with friends enjoying wine and cake.  I got some lovely kindle vouchers too, so I can spend freely on my first books.  Can’t wait.

All in all a fantastic weekend. Now I just need to recover.