Back To Reality

Well, May passed by in a blur especially as we were on holiday for ten days of it, so apologies for the lack of blog posts recently.

Life was all a bit hectic before we went away, we had a lovely relaxing 10 days and then came back down to earth with a bump.

When I booked the holiday I thought we were travelling back on Saturday night arriving back at 1.30 on Sunday morning.  With the rest of Sunday to recover I thought this would be fine. On closer inspection though, I realised that we were in fact coming back on Sunday night, arriving in the early hours of Monday morning when we were all due in work or school.  Still, I thought if we got some sleep on the plane and had a good run through the airport it wouldn't be to bad.

But I wasn't factoring in baggage handlers who were on a go-slow.  We waited an hour and three quarters for our luggage, amidst chaos of other flights coming in and getting their baggage before us.  It was carnage, just what you don't need in the early hours.

We eventually got home at 4am, grabbed a couple of hours sleep and woke up to find that that a mains water pipe had burst in the village and there was no water.  My youngest's school was closed but as I couldn't stay off work I then had to find someone to look after him.  My husband whizzed over to his mum's to get some water and at least we had enough for a quick wash, a cup of tea and even managed to clean our teeth.

Not exactly conducive to keeping hold of the holiday vibe but I do like a challenge!

Exercising the Writing Muscle

I’m not a big fan of exercise but sometimes I force myself to do it out of sheer necessity.  Mostly I try to find excuses or rather find other things to do as a means to avoid it.  To my shame, I feel as though I have been doing the same thing with my writing recently.  Is it sheer madness that the very thing I say I love to do, I find 101 excuses not to?

I’ve just been away for a week in the sun and lovely it was too.  As a family, we don’t tend to do highbrow or exotic holidays.  My husband is busiest at work during the summer so whilst everyone else is jetting off to luxurious destinations, I’m usually pet sitting and wondering how to juggle work with entertaining the boys during the long summer break.

So by October half term we are more than ready to get away.  Destinations are fairly limited; we don’t want to travel too far as we only have a week but we do want it to be hot. We usually plump for one of the Canary Islands as the weather there is pretty much guaranteed.

My husband loves the sun.  He rarely sits down at home but give him sunshine and he does a pretty good impression of being comatose.  The boys of course need to be occupied so instead of going exclusive we go cattle market (sorry, slip of the tongue there, I meant to say all-inclusive).

Now, all-inclusive I think, is a bit of a mixed blessing, especially at half-term.  It’s crowded, noisy and there’s usually a fight for the sunbeds each morning – more of that another time.  But the facilities are great for the boys. They have plenty to do, make lots of new friends in a relatively safe environment, eat what they want when they want, and only sulk when we insist on taking them for a walk.

So that’s the other half and the kids taken care of which leaves me plenty of time to read and write.  It’s the closest I get to a writing retreat without abandoning everyone (oh what bliss that would be!)

And yet at the beginning of the holiday I struggled to think of anything to write.  Life has been so hectic that I haven’t had the time or the headspace recently.  But before I came away I emailed some of my ideas files and half written stories to my kindle and I forced myself to write.  Just a little, but I set myself a goal of 500 words a day.  Not a great deal, I know, but it was achievable and as soon as I got into the habit, the writing and ideas started to flow.  As well as finishing some stories which had been languishing in a folder on my computer for too long, I made a list of projects to complete post-holiday, read some writing reference books and even toyed with an idea for a new novel. 

Now I have something to aim for and I just need to keep up the momentum now that I’m back (even if I am drowning under washing and ironing).

So I’ve learnt that writing is like exercise, the more you do it the easier it gets.  I wonder if I’ll be fit by Christmas? 

Is Writing Really a Form of Madness?

Sometimes, amidst the clutter of my family life, TV, the internet, emails and texts, I struggle to find the head space in which to write. 

On holiday I like to disconnect from technology and the outside world and exist in a bubble of my family, reading and writing.

I refuse to have a laptop and don’t even watch TV or buy a newspaper, and whilst my husband is snoozing in the son, and the boys play in the pool, I scribble away in my notepad.  I’m sure my fellow holiday-makers think I’m a complete loon. 

Fortunately my family are used to me and don’t bat an eyelid when I whip out my notebook while they are watching a game of football in a bar.  In my mind it frees us all up to do what we want to but who else goes on holiday with the aim of being more productive then they are at home. 

Perhaps I need to invest in an apartment in sun kissed climes where I could take my family every holiday (I wish).  Imagine my output over a six week summer holiday – I can but dream.

For now I’ll just settle for the crazy lady who scribbles in her notebook while lounging on a sunbed or ignoring the football.

My only problem really is on my return, trying to decipher the handwriting smeared by suntan lotion or the after effects of too many glasses of vino!

Apologies For Absence

I haven’t been around much at all in Blogland this month – so apologies to you all for not keeping up with your blogs.  I don’t have much of an excuse except that once more my life seems to have taken over me.

The first half term of having a child in high school has been a revelation.  My eldest has settled in well, in fact he loves it, and I can’t believe how mature (on the whole) he is behaving.  Homework is a bit of a challenge though, and although he is being vigilant at keeping up with it, he still needs help in prioritising it (and he’s asking me?)

The fact that he comes home each night and starts his homework is great though, and has had a positive effect on my youngest who is being much more conscientious about his own homework.  I’m so glad that I can be around to help them with this, even though it takes time (and patience).

October is the month of my Mum’s birthday and last year we were very organised and bought this year’s present (tickets to go and see Wicked and The Palace Theatre, Manchester) in advance.  My Dad and brother aren’t big musical fans but my husband likes to go as well as the boys.  My sister-in- law is mad about The Wizard of Oz – she even took part in an Am Dram production last year as the Wicked Witch, so it was a great opportunity for Mum to go with us and all her grandchildren (the other men just don’t know what they are missing).

I didn’t know much about Wicked except that it was connected to the Wizard of Oz.  I purposely didn’t find out much about it before we went because I wanted to enjoy it without having any preconceptions.

It was a truly magical show telling the back-story of the Wicked Witch of the West.  The two main characters (the Wicked Witch and the Good Fairy) really did carry the show. It was fabulous and made me wish that I could dance, sing or act (sadly I can’t do any of them!)

Half term has been taken up with our annual holiday.  I can hardly believe that we haven’t been away properly this year, so we booked a week in Lanzarote.  A chance to get some sunshine before coming back to the mizzle and drizzle of winter.  We had a fabulous time – mostly spent lazily on sun loungers, although there was a rather pathetic attempt to play tennis (least said about that the better). The complex was quite small so it gave the boys for a chance for a bit of freedom (while we could still keep an eye on them) and make new friends.

There was plenty of time to read, write and reflect and I’ve really got my head around what I want to achieve over the next few months. Now I’ve just got to act on it! We’ve had some brilliant family time and I’m trying my best not to bump back down to earth too quickly despite being straight back into a busy week, and all the washing and ironing!

Bad, Bad Blogger

I've been meaning to post for a while now - honest guv! But of course the longer you leave it, the more there is to write, and the longer it will take, so I kept putting it off!

 

So, what have I been up to?  Well for a start we went away for half term - yeh!  Ten days in Lanzarote.  It was quite a small all-inclusive complex in Costa Teguise, which meant the boys could have a bit more independence, make new friends, and I could read - and yes, write!

 

I took my trusty Kindle with me, which has been collecting books and free downloads for a while now, and I managed to spend some time idyling in the minds of my favourite authors, while lying in the sun - in October - what more can you ask for? We certainly needed the break I can tell you.

But now it seems like it was a long time ago - even if it was only a few weeks ago - but I've been a busy bunny since I've been back.

 

Of course there has been the usual post holiday washing and ironing - yuck - although ironing does give me a chance to catch up on all the TV programmes I've recorded - the freeview box was nearly full (ouch).  We also had a 31 October deadline for applying for a high school for my eldest - it was a bit of tricky dilemma.

 

I've also done a few short story courses recently - one online and one in Leeds last weekend, more of that later, I've done some freelance work and I've signed up for NaNoWriMo.

 

Readers of this blog will know that I've completed NaNo twice, the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November. I didn't do it last year and I really missed it, so I decided to go for it this year, even though I had so much on before and during this month.

Well, I started off really badly, in fact I didn't even start until 3rd November, and I've been playing catch up ever since. There have been days when I haven't been able to write at all and days when I've written a lot, but despite that I was still behind. Yesterday, though, I managed to catch up. The stats on the website are brilliant, and I have to admit to becoming a little obsessed with them. When you update your word count, it averages your daily word count, estimates how many words you will have to write each day to finish on time, what day you will finish if you continue writing at the current speed - I've gone from 6 December to 29 November yeh! And there's even a graph showing where you are and where you need to be! Oh I love it. My aim was to hit the line on the graph and yesterday I did it! I'm now at 28,700 words and one the homeward run, trouble is I'm running out of plot. 30,000 - 40,000 are always the hardest to write so I'll have to hope I come up with some inspiration, otherwise I'll be writing complete nonsense! Who's says I'm not anway.

So, in a nutshell, that's what I've been up to lately. And now that I'm catching up a bit, I'm hoping to be able to blog a bit more frequently - I also need to catch up on the blogs I haven't had chance to read yet as well!

I don't know if any of you remember, but before I went away I found a cat in the road. In the dark it looked as though the cat had had a injury behind it's ear and by the way it was behaving it was obviously not quite right. It turned out that the thing behind the ear was a massive tumour - poor thing. A note that I put up in the local post office, managed to locate the owner, but when they contacted the vet, they decided that the poor thing was too ill to go on and so she was put to sleep. I was saddened to think that the poor little thing is no more, but can only console myself that she is no longer in pain. And it was a much more dignified ending than being hit by a car.

On that note I'll go now, but I'm hoping to be back soon. Watch this space!

Linda

The Big Declutter

The last few weeks have been rather strange.

Leaving the job I've been at for the last eight years was a poignant experience.  I started there when my youngest was a baby and now he's in junior school - how the time has flown and how much things have changed since I first started.

My redundancy had been looming for so long that I was almost at the stage of just wishing it was over, but everyone gave me a good send off and so I ended up feeling rather sad.

And since then, have I had all the time in the world to get stuck into my wrting?  The short answer is a resounding no.

We go on holiday next week, which I'm really looking forward to - we didn't go away in the summer so we all deserve a good break.  We're off to Lanzarote so I'm hoping for some serious sunshine, swimming and some reading and writing.

But before all that I have to get rid of eight years of clutter.   We have a family of four coming to stay while we are  away, staying on until after we get back, and looking af the house, I was struggling to work out where we were all going to sleep.

We moved into this house eight years ago too - that was a busy year - and since then we have collected all sorts of clutter as the boys have grown and their bedrooms were a disgrace. 

So I spent the whole of last week sifting through lego, plastic toys, marbles, jigsaw pieces and a wool mill full of stray socks under beds.  The bedrooms now look sparkling and woe betide anyone if they mess them up again. 

This week I started on the spare bedroom and tomorrow - wish me luck - its the turn of the kitchen.

I did think that once I finished work I would be able to concentrate on builing up a business and doing some serious writing, but it seems that the house has taken over. 

And that's before I start packing.

I know its only been a week and a half but I don't think I could be a permanant housewife, and I'm hoping all this work now will free me up to do the things I want to do. 

One thing is for sure, once I get settled back after my holiday, I'm going to get myself into a routine.  Because I don't honestly see how writer's can write unless they are in a good routine.  I know this writer can't.

So its going to be a case of learning to switch off housework head and velcro my bum to my desk chair!

Wish me luck.

Linda

Why Am I So Rubbish At Packing?

It's no good, I’m going to have to admit defeat - I’m useless at packing. We’re going away next week – two weeks in the sun for hubby’s (big) birthday. I can’t wait to be lying by the pool chipping away at my tbr pile but getting there is another matter entirely.

It doesn’t matter how hard I try I always take too much. I’ll end up wearing clothes on holiday that I don’t want to wear but feel I have to, to justify their presence in my suitcase. (That’s just reminded me of check in torture wondering if my cases are over the kg limit).

And it’s not just a case of too much or too little – there’s always the question of not enough for the right kind of weather.

We’re going to Lanzarote so I’m expecting warm and poolside. But what if its not and I spend the whole time shivering? And then there’s the evenings when it’s bound to be cooler!!! AHHH!

If it’s bad enough packing for myself I’ve also got to pack for the kids.

I wish I could be more like my husband who throws three of everything in at the last minute but my mind is too busy with the what ifs????? It’s taking over my life!

Is this a writer’s dilemma do you think?