Australia

Finally moved into our new house on Friday December 14th!!!

Then jetted off to Oz for two weeks from December 20th.... Ahhh.. the summer sunshine!

Its nice to see the folks etc and be able to get online. Hopefully my bro can fix my computer so when I fly back to the UK I can get online at home.

Then I've gotta find another job, dammit! At least I've got a week's work experience at Penguin Publishing.. Fingers crossed that they take me on full time.

Update

The days keep dripping past like a leaky tap, and I'm still homeless. Martin and I are staying in a little holiday cottage (set in the delightful Kent countryside), which is lovely. Its frustrating, though, that we're having to live out of suitcases and we wont have enough time to settle into our new house before we go away for Christmas.
Hopefully we will exchange and complete on our new house before we go away, anyway, so that we can at least have the keys and partially move in.
Its taken over four months so far. We first viewed the house on the 29th July, and had our offer accepted on the 30th.

I haven't had time to get my computer up and running again, and I haven't written anything more on Jerry because there isn't much room left and I've got no where to download it to! So, book-wise I'm lagging. I've started reading 'Eats Shoots and Leaves' which is quite enjoyable. I absolutely adore grammar. I'm hoping to be able to master it one day. I'm still fumbling with it, and it frustrates me so much!!

I came up with a spiffing new book idea!! I know, I know I should finish what I've already got started, but I just cant help it. The ideas just keep pouring into my head!! I'm going to keep the title secret for a while, until I can develop the plot some more. I'm going to keep the plot secret too... just because. Its a special project that I want to keep quiet about until its fully fleshed out. I will give one hint about it though....... It contains elements of time travel. (Its set in modern day, but has a touch of the fantastic about it).

I'm feeling a little bit perplexed. I feel myself leaning towards writing fantasy themes into modern settings, rather than my favourite genre of pure fantasy (dragons, myth and magic! Not demons, vampires or YA stuff, but your classic Tolkein fantasy!). Perhaps thats not the writer I'm supposed to be. I'm still going to stick with it, though. I'm not going to give up on my 'Cloud People' (temporary title) book until I've finished it, shopped it around for about ten years, pulled it apart and re-written it, shopped it around for another ten years, used it as a level under my crooked table, shopped it around some more, and then finally used it to wipe my arse with.

Anyway. Must get on. I will return to writing in the New Year, when I start my week's 'work experience' with Penguin Group UK (YES!). Fingers crossed that they give me a full time job!!!

Re-Pitch For My Fantasy Novel

I dont know why I'm playing around with pitches. I suppose because I'm avoiding having to do any work!

[Title]: Children of the Ether, Book 1

The Kingdom is in turmoil. King Enyard has ensured that his people will subsist the Breaking through a pact made with the mysterious Ethereans, but the dragon wars are weakening the Kingdom’s defences and many are turning their favour towards his charismatic brother.

Ellusia has grown up as the bane of her people. She was the first to survive since the Breaking, and is struggling to keep secret the consequences of the pact her father made. When her brother is killed she must decide between loyalty to her father and her people before the Kingdom tears her and itself apart and falls from the sky.

Re-Pitch

I think I can do better...

Elena Kinsella is on the brink of having the perfect life. Moving away from her controlling Nan, and on the verge of love she becomes the victim of a serial killer, but quickly discovers that there is more to death than it seems...

With the help of a few kindred spirits Elena sets out to discover who her murderer is; and when her best friend becomes the next target she must find a way to stop him before her time runs out.

Hmm.. not sure. I'll keep tweaking it, I think.

Fleeting Life

This is my pitch for my novel Fleeting Life:

Elena Kinsella is on the brink of having the perfect life. She has just moved out from under her Nan’s controlling power, into her own flat, and has spied a future love interest in one of her customers at work. Unfortunately, she becomes the victim of the local serial killer, and quickly discovers that there is more to death when she realises that no one can see or hear her unless she wills it.

Forced to watch the world carry on without her, with the help of a few kindred spirits, Elena sets out to discover who her murderer is before her time runs out. While watching and waiting she falls for James, the handsome customer she met on the eve of her death, and when her best friend becomes the next potential victim Elena must find a way to save her friend, and James, before its too late.

The first draft was finished last November... I'm trying to work up the energy to get back to it.

Comic Relief

Dear IT Support:

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the Flower and Jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as: Football 5.0, Rugby 4.3 and Cricket 3.0.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs; it simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, to no avail What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

-----------------

Dear Desperate:

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.

Try entering the command: C:/I-THOUGHT-YOU-LOVED-ME to download Tears 6.2, which should automatically install Guilt 3.0. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.

WARNING: Beer 6.1 is a very nasty program that will create Snoring Loudly.

CAUTION: Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law. This is not a supported application and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally would recommend Hot Food 3.0 and Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck, IT Support ------------------

Meltdown

I've got one hell of a weekend coming up.

Gotta finish packing and make trips to the dump on Saturday morning. Also got to take almost everything we own to Big Yellow Storage (which means writing out an inventory as well), by sundown on Sunday.

Then on Monday or Tuesday (will find out which day it'll be on Saturday) I've got to be present while some dudes and a big truck come and take away all our furniture that we dont want (two sofas, tv cabinet, two sideboards, coffee table, kitchen table, tumble dryer, and mouldy bed), for a price! Then I've got to dump the rest of our bits and pieces at Big Yellow before going to work.

Tuesday I've managed to organise a cleaner to do the carpets without me having to be present! Then Tues night we gather all our luxuries etc and go to the little holiday cottage I was able to book, and hopefully still be able to go to the pub for silly Tuesday (our weekly chill-out night at the pub!).

Wednesday I've got to meet the inventory clerk at the old house and try to convince her that we haven't ruined the house, and then I give her the keys! Done!!!

Then its just wait wait wait wait wait wait and wait some more until we exchange and complete on our new house. Hopefully we'll exchange today or on Monday which would be fucken great. It better all happen before December 20th, anyway, coz we're off to Oz for two weeks and we'd like to have a home to come back to!

Moving house is a fucking nightmare. Especially so if your tenancy on your stupid rented house expires before you can move into the new place. They all assured me we'd be in the new place before November. I'm pleased that I never fucking believed them because they are all WRONG!

Nanowrimo? Fuck it. I quit this year. No time to even think about scratching my arse let alone writing a novel. I'll aim to have it done by my birthday in April.

Dead Computer With A Silver Lining

Computer crashed yesterday.

Lost everything on it since May.

Including my nano book. BUT - I haven't yet deleted it from Jerry so all is not lost!
Photos, however, are a different story. We had uploaded most of them to Facebook, but a majority of them are gone.. including our anniversary trip to Dublin.

*sigh*

I hate computers.

On the upside we did manage to get two tickets to see Led Zeppelin! This, however, could possibly have been a hoax because as soon as we bought the tickets the computer crashed. But it seemed legit. It was all through ticketmaster etc. Ah well. We shall see!

I haven't written a thing since last week. I'm woefully behind. I feel like the retarded kid in school who is encouraged to run the marathon but ends up looking like the mutant Toxic Avenger gallumphing slowly down the track with all horrified eyes of the audience glued on me like dried fish guts.

No news on the fucking house move either. Two queries still outstanding. One is imminent, the other depends on how fast Sevenoaks District fucking Council get off their fat arses are send the required documentation.

I hate waiting on other people.

I need lots of JD when this is all done. Bucket loads!!!

Stressed With a Capital 'S'

House moving sux.

Our rent agreement is due to expire next Wednesday.. ie 9 days! and we have yet to exchange and complete on our new house due to useless fucking solicitors not picking up their fucking phones and calling each other even though they know its urgent. Why they cant sort out queries over the phone, by email or fax, I have no idea... but I must say they are definitely not worth the bullshit price they charge when they cant get simple queries answered.
The estate agent, vendor, and I all feel like we're match-makers, each of us trying to coax the other into phoning directly rather than writing fucking time-wasting letters.

So, its likely we'll be homeless in 9 days. We've got to spend out on getting all of our furniture taken to the dump, as its not really saleable, and I dont want to be bothered with trying to sell the shit anyway. We've decided that we're going to leave the freezer at the property, because it costs to dispose of fridges and freezers. When we throw the bed away we wont have anything else to sleep on... but anything is better than the mould infested piece of shit we've got at the moment.

So, I'm not really a happy bunny at the moment. I should be spending my time immersed in my Nano book, but this morning on the train I just could not face it (I also had to run for the fucking train again this morning due to some pretty fucked up traffic).

I've no idea what my word count is. I haven't uploaded my words from Jerry for days, but either way I'm pretty sure I'm still under 20k.

I've cancelled the piano lesson tonight, coz I'm just not in the mood. I've been giving myself headaches from clenching my jaw all day every day. I've been on the phone to the estate agent daily (three times today so far) trying to chase up where this house move stands, and I've got so much stuff thats urgent at work as well, so I'm feeling a little stretched thin.

I also had the hangover of hangovers yesterday. Which still seems to be lingering, even now.

I sooo need a holiday.

Nanowrimo aka Disaster-wrimo

I'm sooo behind!

I should be over the 20k mark by now, but I'm still floundering at around 13k. (Haven't updated my word count thingy yet)

I'm not too disappointed about it though. November is bloody stressful, but I am writing every day. I manage to clock out about 1000 words every morning on the train, so I'm slowly and steadily moving along - which is great!

But... 1000 words a day only equals 30k at the end of November, so I'll be 20k short. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, because unlike last year I'm paying more attention to the quality of the work. I've also had to slow down a bit because I dont have it as completely planned out like last year's Fleeting Life was. Writing a fantasy novel is a lot more tricky than I thought. So many things to think about. And I've only decided on three of the characters' names. So I've got many characters called Boy 1 Boy 2, Old Servant, Younger Servant, Queen, Captain, etc. Naming them will have to come later.

After some helpful comments I'm going to add 'No Plot, No Problem' to my Christmas Wish List. I'm also going to re-read Robin Hobb's farseer trilogy once November is over. The reason for this is because its written in the first person, and I've never seen that before in a fantasy novel... and I'm trying it. I must be crazy, but its too late to turn back now.

So, anyway. I may not win Nano this year, but I'm still steadily pumping out words, and I'm happy with that. As long as I'm happy, all is good!

Doctor Who!

We interrupt this Nanowrimo with a special report on Doctor Who!
I went along to the signing on Oxford Street, HMV store, on Monday the 5th. I used my last day of holiday that I have left until April. I didnt get there in time to be one of the lucky 300 people that got a wristband in order to get their DVDs signed, but I went along anyway to see if I could get a sneak peak at him! I managed to take loads of blurry photos, and made friends with a fellow Aussie and David Tennant fan, which was nice.
After the signing I waited like a real crazy geek in the alley way to watch him exit the side door. I managed to get a lovely glimpse of him as he rushed out and into his car - and he looked straight at me!! I could have died right on the spot! Haha!
I'm such a dork! Although I like to consider myself a stealth geek. Not geeky looking, but if you analysed me a little and discovered all my secret obsessions then you'll see I'm as geeky as hell!
One of the signees was this squat greasy-haired woman who had a beard! Yes, a beard! It was horrible!! I pity poor David and Freema who had to sit through the signing with such repulsive creatures coming up and slobbering all over them! I'm glad I kept my cool and didn't shout out or act insane. I was merely casually loiting in the HMV store, and then casually loitering in the alley way. At least, thats what I tell myself!

I saw Alice Cooper that day too! I had a cup of tea in Starbucks in Borders Bookshop and he was there signing copies of his new book. There were less people there than at the Doctor Who signing so I was able to get closer and get a better pic.

Ouch!

I crashed and burned with my pitch on the Bookends blog.

The response was:

Uff da! Too long. My first concern is that your first paragraph makes absolutely no sense to me. You’re dropping in a lot of information that I probably don’t need to know at all at this point and that only confuses me. In fact, the second doesn’t help much either. What’s the real conflict here? When does the story really get going? Does it start moving at the Breaking of the World or the pact with the Ethereans? Is it about Ellusia or about her father? I think you need to clarify exactly who the protagonist is and what the conflict is. It seems to me your pitch is more along the lines of, “Ellusia Carver has led a protected and spoiled life as princess in her father’s Kingdom high above the clouds, but when civil unrest hits and her brother is killed, Ellusia is forced to leave her protected world to battle the beasts so many tried so hard to keep her away from.” Or something that would be of course much better then that. I think you get the point though.

Ah well. Back to the drawing board.

Nanowrimo... Here We Go!

I am so not ready.

I am so not prepared.

I am so going to fail miserably!

I've got a rough outline and about a quarter of the chapters all planned out, but I'm just not mentally prepared for this. I barely have any time to fit it in what with moving house this month, and going to the gym, and being lazy... but I suppose like last year's Nanowrimo I will most likely do all my writing while on the train in the morning on the way to work.

I'm going to try to be more methodical in my approach to it this year and try to write a constant amount of words each day as a base minimum so that any extra words are a bonus (but cannot be classed as granting a day off).

We shall see how it goes at the end of November.

Its currently half way through the first day and I haven't written a word. The hubby has a lot of Facebooking to do tonight (his profile magically disappeared last night... It wasn't me!) so hopefully I'll be able to get my days worth of words down while he's doing that. Thank God I've got Jerry to type on, coz hubby will be using the computer.

The Pitch

Last week I had the urge to sum up the book I'm going to write in November (very bad working title of 'Cloud People'), and I happened to wander over to Bookends and saw the Perfecting Your Pitch post. So, I added my pitch to the comments section, along with 130 others.

Mine is the Seventeenth.

I'm anxiously awaiting it being torn apart.

Since re-reading it I want to tweak it some more, but its not a bad start. It lifts a weight off my shoulders to have it written down like that, but until its torn apart I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I think it needs a more catchy sentence stitched onto the end.

Anyway. For my own information here it is:

Fantasy Novel (Untitled)

Ellusia Carver is the first child born that has survived, since the Breaking of the World. Her father's Kingdom is suspended high up in the clouds with the aid of the Magicians of Tove while the world below them boils in a turmoil of dragons and fire.

The Kingdom is in civil unrest and the King's brother is gaining more favour as he steps up his search for a safe place to settle their fragile land. The King, however, wants to reach upwards and develop the pact he entered into with the Ethereans, who saved his daughter’s life, but at what cost? In the middle of this Ellusia is growing up isolated and confused. When her brother is killed she becomes the sole heir to the throne of a Kingdom that is turning against her.

So Many Things

So many things to write about... but no time (or strong enough urge to stop me from being lazy)

Perhaps I'll get back to blogging next week.

xxx

Inspired To Write

This link HERE has given me a burst of inspiration to get writing...

I know that I'm stuck on my plot though. Its frustrating. I'm fine with getting a back story and loose entire plot organised, its just all the little sub plots and the actual rolling out of the main plot that I get tangled up in.

I need to think.

I need to sit down and think without interruption!

I need to use my brain before it fizzles away!!!

Dream Home?

Seems a little bit computer gamey to me. I like the hedge maze though!

Your home is a Gamer's Manor Your kitchen is stocked with chips, dips, and assorted caffeinated beverages. There's a pantry with emergency backup caffeinated beverages. You also have some breakfast cereals in there, but you haven't had breakfast since last Spring. Your master bedroom has blankets printed with images of Mario and Link. Your study includes unread copies of various gamer magazines, each purchased for the free demo CDs. One of your garages holds your collection of ferraris, and is measured in acreage. Your home also includes a guest wing and private quarters for your servants. Your guests enjoy your collection of every console and associated game ever made. Except the Intellivision -- those controllers drive them NUTS. Outside is your hedge maze and gardens, meticulously tended by a team of world-class botanists. Below is a snippet of the blueprints:

Find YOUR Dream Home!

Idea

I have an idea.

Its just a seed at the moment.

Well, its just an imaginary seed at the moment.

Perhaps, though, I will plant it. And watch it grow and grow.

It could turn into an ivy and strangle the life out of me, but I do hope that it becomes a rose with the most intense scent!

And perhaps. Just perhaps. I may speak of this 'idea' here with less mystery.

But for now... I need to soak the seed and prepare it for plantation. Once I know what it will bloom into then I may speak of it more here.

*I'm so excited!*

NANOWRIMO

Its that time again.

I've signed in and updated my profile (added another year to my age etc! Oh, how depressing. I refuse to update it next year when I enter into my third decade on Earth!)

My profile is HERE

I'm going to try my best at getting my Untitled fantasy novel done... I've given it the working title of 'Cloud People'. I know that in my sidebar it shows I've done 500 words.

I haven't.

I just didn't want to set it to zero. It was just toooo depressing.

I'm still fleshing out the plot in my head, but hopefully it'll be ready to put on paper/screen by November 1st. And hopefully I'll have enough drive and patience to do it. After last year I kind of did nothing as soon as November 30th rolled around. Here's hoping that I dont snuff out my ambition to be a full time writer!

I must get Jerry out and dust him off.

One For The Ladies

This is the best damn thing since sliced bread!!!

Its called a MOONCUP!!!

Forlorn Full Moon

Its one of those days... that full moon feeling of strangeness. I feel dreary and forsaken, but not quite sad, if that makes any sense. I feel like I'm searching for something to be sad about.

Perhaps its because I finished reading The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb this morning. Probably. I always feel a little lost when I finish a book. I'm not going to start the next one straight away. When I'm reading, I dont write. So I'm going to get a head start on Nanowrimo and try to do a bit of a writing blitz. If other authors can write a mile a minute, then I can too. I've been so incredibly lazy all year. All I have done is two measely fairy tales, and I haven't even finished either of them.

I must get going on this writing thing if I want to pull myself out of this 9-5 office work slump!

I must!!!

Double Bubble Toil & Trouble

Went and saw Al Murray on Sunday night, at the Palladium.

It was great.. or would have, if my tummy had not been grumbling and moaning throughout the whole performance!!

The show was being filmed for his DVD, so once we were in and sat down we weren't allowed to leave otherwise they wouldn't let us back in. I tried to go out to the Ladies, but they said I wouldn't have time, so I had to sit through the whole hour and a half show with the worst tummy pains and a rising sense of panic!

I managed to make it through ok, though I squeezed Martin's hand to death. Poor hubby. I think I ruined the show for him!

There were a few people near where we were sitting that got asked a few questions, so when the cameras zoomed in hopefully we'll be seen on the DVD. I do hope I managed to smile rather than grimace at those times. Hehe. We shall see.

Hopefully the next show we go to see (Jimmy Carr in November), I'll be a lot more relaxed!

Robert Jordan

R.I.P.

(and I hope you signed up another author to continue on with your Wheel of Time series!!!)

Language

Has anyone else noticed a change in language once you've published a post? After I publish I post I get this message:

Your blog post published successfully!
Blog anzeigen (in einem neuen Fenster)
Need to change it? Edit post | Create a new post

How odd!

Words That Stand Out

There have been some random words that have been standing out to me a lot lately.

The first one is 'nubbin', which I have been using to describe the number buttons on my new phone.

The second is 'redolent'... I'm not sure why it popped into my head.

Sam at work bought up the word 'lackadaisical' because she watched Ant & Dec on the weekend doing a spelling thing.

I'm sure there was one more word, but I cant remember it at the moment.

The funny thing is is that when I went to bed last night it was early enough to read (see the latest book I'm reading in my left side bar), and all of those words were used! I can understand 'redolent' popping up, though I know for sure that it hasn't popped up in the book so far until last night. But 'nubbin' and 'lackadaisical'?? These words dont really come up often. In fact I've never seen the word lackadaisical written down ever in my entire life. I only know how to spell it here on my blog because I saw it in the book I was reading.

How strange. I wonder what it means.

Random words often stand out to me. Perhaps I should pay more attention. Perhaps its aliens trying to contact me, or something more boring like my subconscious just trying to get through to me. I prefer to believe its aliens. Cool.

Anyhoo. I'm going to see if I can fit lackadaisical into one of my fairy tales, or one of the books I'm writing.

Beloved

I had a dream on Saturday night about the 'Fool', who is a character in Robin Hobb's Farseer/Tawny Man Trilogies. In the dream I was so upset that the Fool had left the Six Duchies to return home without knowing what had happened to Fitz. I felt like I was sobbing until my shoulders shook.

I dont know why I happened to dream about the Fool, or Beloved as he was also know. Perhaps it was just because this character really stands out in my mind. I think he's got to be the most influential character I've ever read about. He's riveting!

I do hope that Robin Hobb writes another book with the Fool in it. Considering the ending to the Tawny Man trilogy it does appear to be left open for more.

Fingers crossed.

LED ZEPPELIN

REUNION CONCERT!!

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

At £125 a ticket I damn hope they play all night long!

I just hope I can actually get a ticket. No doubt the ticket touts are going to make thousands of pounds out of this!

Fingers crossed!!!

The damn 02 Arena website has crashed.. I'm not surprised.

Sorted With Jack

Well, I took today off from work coz I'm feeling poorly. I hate being ill, but at least I didn't have a great deal of house work to do or anything pressing on my mind.

I've done some tweaking on my blog, and I think its ok for now. I'm such a control freak and I love organising and re-organising things. Perhaps its a form of procrastination.. ah well. I'm not going to sweat it. I've also re-organised my Facebook profile. I'm getting sucked in more and more to Facebook everyday. Its great to link up with people who you haven't seen or heard from in ages. Its so strange to think that I've spent so much time with people in the past but now I'm struggling to remember their names. Its like life keeps turning and taking you to different stages. Kind of like chapters of a book I suppose.

I've introduced myself at The Novel Racers, and the comments have been really great. HELLO EVERYONE.

If hubby doesn't mind me neglecting him a bit tomorrow then I'd like to get some fairy tales out of my head and down on paper/screen. I'm confident that I can put together my collection of fairy tales, and finish Fleeting Life by Christmas, as I've promised hubby... but to finish a third book too might be a bit tricky. The fantasy trilogy that I want to write will take a lot of brain work and I dont want to rush it. Its pulling all the ideas together that is taking the time. The writing bit will be quite quick, I imagine. I'm constantly coming up with ideas for it everyday, but it sometimes takes weeks for a really cool idea to claim me... so I know that its not my typing fingers that are slowing me down, its my brain. Hmmm.. not really a comforting thought. Perhaps I should put away the Jack Daniels tonight and concentrate on coming up with ideas.

But its Friday. And it IS Jack Daniels after all.

Mmm.. I love Jack. He always makes things better. Hopefully it can burn out my hideous illness before the weekend fully sets in.

SUCCESS!

YES!!!

Will spend more time tweaking at the weekend.

Then I'm going to write my introduction on 'The Novel Racers' blog.

Upgrade

I'm considering upgrading my blog to that XML thingy where you dont have to mess with the html to change things. But I'm not so sure. I've spent ages carefully organising my blog that I dont want it to fuck up.

The reason I was thinking about upgrading is because I wanted to get another sidebar put in on the left (which I saw was possible from Booksellerchick), but I tried it by making up a dummy blog and I cant seem to get my title picture 'Quilling Time' to stay centred. I suppose a way around it is to make the picture have white space on either side of it, but since my computer was re-done I dont have Photoshop anymore. (GRRRR, thats another story altogether, and one I'm still pissed off about).

Well, whadd'ya know. I just had a look at my dummy blog and noticed that my title IS actually centred. Perhaps I will upgrade.

Awww.. it still freaks me out though. I'm soooo likely to fuck it up some how. If there is possibly a way to fuck it up then I will be the one to find that way!

Maybe I should just do it. Just do it and get it over with. I've already saved the html of my blog how it is, so if it completely fucks up then its all backed up (and blogger seems to say that its backed up anyway and I can change back any time I want.

Fuck it. I'm going to do it.

If no new posts follow this one, then I have gone to blogger heaven.

Migraine

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Please go away!

What Book Am I?

You're Anne of Green Gables!

by L.M. Montgomery

Bright, chipper, vivid, but with the emotional fortitude of cottage cheese, you make quite an impression on everyone you meet. You're impulsive, rash, honest, and probably don't have a great relationship with your parents. People hurt your feelings constantly, but your brazen honestly doesn't exactly treat others with kid gloves. Ultimately, though, you win the hearts and minds of everyone that matters. You spell your name with an E and you want everyone to know about it.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Haven't actually read it... or seen any tv adaptations, or films, or whatever there is. I've heard of the name, but thats about it. Hmm...anyway. Whatever.

Food

I'm hungry.

Martin and I made 21 portions of shepherds pie and lasagne over the weekend.

I cant stop thinking about it.

I'm hungry.

Decay

I get the feeling that my blog is lagging and falling away bit by bit.

I hope not. I dont want it to. Its not even a year old!

I think it must be because Robin Hobb's books stole my time so completely and work gave me limited Blogger access (and so did Martin!)...

But the latest culprit is Facebook.

I must stop. I must slow down. I must not give in to the urges to jump on there every five seconds. I must not open so many games of Scrabble on Facebook, and I must not stare blankly at the screen when there is clearly nothing new to look at!!

I want to keep blogging. I do. I do, I do, I do!

I fear its just an extension of my tendency NOT to write, when I know that that is what I should be doing. I just cant seem to grasp my thoughts together and put them down on the page. I feel like I'm a child jumping up to reach the string on helium balloons, but not quite being able to pull them down and order them systematically (like the way I eat M&Ms.. by number and by colour!).

NaNoWriMo is fast approaching. I must start working on a plan. I have to decide what book I'm going to write. I think it should be the Cloud People book.

I cant believe its September already and I haven't finished the final draft of Fleeting Life. I'm such a slacker. I'll never cut it in this writing world... I'm barely even making it in the normal working world. I'm writing on Blogger rather than working, for fuck's sake.

But we can never run and hide from the working world, so its in my own best interest to keep slogging away at writing, because it is infinitely better than the crap I'm doing now.

I'm attending a Bookbinding Workshop at Worthing Museum in October. *Sigh* another of my little fancies that takes away from my writing. This one is at least along a same avenue as writing. Perhaps if I learn bookbinding well enough I'll be able to make a few limited edition copies of my finished books (if I ever do get around to finishing anything!).

Damn, I'm in such a mood today!

Bookbinding

I've been thinking about bookbinding lately, ever since I read PBW's post on it here.

I've tried to research it a bit, but there dont seem to be a lot of courses out there beyond university courses. I thought there might be workshops all over the place, but there doesn't seem to be. Or perhaps I just haven't looked enough. There is one in Addlestone that gives workshops at The Otter Bindery, which looks promising. I might drop in on their next Saturday morning workshop (for £50) and see what I can find.

There is also a Book Fair in Tonbridge on October 28th, and a bookbinder will be there.

I love that word - Bookbinder.

Hmmm... methinks I have the inkling of a fairy tale coming to mind...

I so wish I had more time to spend learning about Bookbinding because I would love to do it. Not as a career or anything, but just as a hobby. PBW is right that handmade books would make great gifts. What could be more personal than your own book/journal made for you by a close friend/relative!

The continuation paper we use here at work doesn't have any logo on it, so I may have to accidentally drop a ream or two into my bag sometime. Hehe. It would make lovely strong leaves. I could even intermingle some tissue paper, or the coloured file paper that we use at work (pink, green, purple, blue).

The more I think about it the more the creative opportunities appear endless.

I've looked at a few online tutorials, and would be confident that I could sew together a book, but I wouldn't have a clue as to how I would get the pages to line up. When you fold over a few leaves of paper the ends are staggered. I wonder how they get them to lovely and flat. I cant seem to find anywhere on the net that mentions it.

Though I suppose the roughness of handmade books make them all that more charming.

We shall see. ...Though I have to devote the rest of this year to writing, as I want to have three books finished by then, and currently only have one (in very rough draft form!).

Perhaps I could spare a few hours a month to investigate it more. If anyone knows of anywhere that I can learn more about bookbinding, do give me a shout!

At Work

Finally got internet access at work from my desk.

Woo hoo.

Gotta get back to work...

Lucid Dreams

I had a dream the other night that was so vivid and so easily controlled that I almost woke up thinking that it had actually happened.

I've been reading Robin Hobb's Tawny Man trilogy, and I am absolutely enchanted by it. Perhaps its the crush I have on the main character or something, but my dream catapulted me into the middle of it and I was able to take myself through the story as I would have it written.

It was so surreal, yet real too. More so were the raging feelings that were swooping through me! There's just something about dreams that are so acutely passionate. It always makes me wonder if we're supposed to be feeling such strong emotions all the time during our waking hours. Perhaps some people do. Perhaps even I do but just dont realise it. I think not, though. Sometimes I feel quite deadened, which is a bit disheartening, but then again I sometimes even lack the disheartening feeling and just feel nothing about it.

Note to self - drink more hot milk before bedtime to induce more dreams like this. (They're brilliant as inspiration for writing... in fact the idea I had to write my first fantasy novel came from a dream!)

Facebook & The Time Vortex

Where does the time go??

When I'm not entranced with Robin Hobb's 'Tawny Man' trilogy, I'm on Facebook, Ebay or Email. And 'poof'... there goes all my spare time!!

In the last two weeks, though, I've sorted through and thrown out so much junk in my attempt to streamline my life.. so that really has taken up a lot of time. But it seems to be a never ending job. I haven't even started sorting through my clothes. I'm dreading it. I cant bear to part with anything, even though I dont fit most of the crap I'm holding on to and I probably never will again.. I just cant release my grip! I feel like i'll unravel if I get rid of my clothes. My identity. My face to the world. I just cant do it. Perhaps if I procrastinate long enough we'll haved moved house and settled in before Martin realises that I haven't actually sorted through it yet.

I cant believe I have sorted through my shoes already. I was sooo ruthless! It was really quite shocking. When it came down to listing them on Ebay I caved in on one pair of shiney metallic red mary-jane style shoes. I just couldn't bring myself to part with them. Though I cant believe that I'm going to part with all the other shoes I've listed. Its like I've torn out half of my heart.

And dont get me started on the huge load of handbags I sold last week.

My head is spinning!!

So, moving on. Facebook. Pretty sociable. I'm pretty pleased that they've got a Scrabble application. I love it. I've got about 5 games going on at the moment. I just wish I could connect to Facebook from work, and wish I could have more time on the computer in the evening (Martin is obsessed with Facebook!). I cant say that I'm obsessed with Facebook.. coz it only mildly amuses me, and being the socially inept moron that I am I just dont care enough about other people to want to spend hours a day scrolling through profiles of people that I was never really friends with in primary school and dont want to be friends with now. I would much rather rub squirell shit into my hair and smoke foxtails.

..But I do love word games.

Anyone want to have a game of Scrabble with me?? I'm not amazingly good at it or anything, and I can probably only get to the computer twice a day, but if you're not in a rush then I'm up for it! Anyone? Hello?

HELLO??? ANYONE WANT TO PLAY SCRABBLE WITH ME?!?!?!?!??!?!

Ebay - Still! Iron Maiden & Shoes!

Still yet more stuff listed on Ebay.. including loads of my shoes.

*sniff*

I'll be sad to see them go.

If you're an IRON MAIDEN fan then get your arse over to Ebay and check out what Martin is selling. He's getting rid of his ENTIRE collection of Iron Maiden records. Most of it he is selling to his brother, but we've listed some of the rarities on Ebay (and given them a 'rare' price tag too! I had no say in it. They're Martins. His records, his price!) - Oh, and they're all in mint condition!

CLICK HERE! (opens a new window)

EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY

Selling loads of stuff on ebay!

We're clearing out our house of all the useless junk that we either dont need, dont want, or dont have room for anymore.... because...

because...

... we've put in an offer on a house and its been accepted!!!

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!!!

My hunny and I are sooooon to be on the property ladder, and we're absolutely stoked!
The offer was only accepted yesterday, but already we're sorting through all our crap and getting rid of everything we dont want. Its so amazing how much two people can accumulate over just four years!!!

So.

EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY EBAY!

Anyone want to buy my treadmill? £700.. (RRP £900). Its in great condition. I'm such a lazy slob I've barely used it!

Or what about a set of Congas??? £120.. (RRP £225)

Anyway... to find my stuff on ebay just CLICK HERE (opens a new window) My ebay name is 'Witcheryk'

A New Lease On Life

I'm feeling strangely energetic and optimistic today! There must be something in the water...

This house hunting lark is frought with ups and downs. I'm going to have to get rid of my treadmill as its big and cumbersome... but I'll probably just swap it with an exercise bike cos they're a lot sexier looking.

I just wish I was at home right now, sorting through all my shit and throwing stuff away.. its so cleansing! We've got bags of rubbish sitting out the back door waiting to be taken to the dump, which I'll be doing on Saturday. Cant wait.

I'm also going to be listing loads of stuff on Ebay... so watch that space! My username is Witcheryk so keep and eyeball out for some great bargains - most especially my collection of books (mostly fantasy). I'll be sad to see them go, but the fun part will be buying new books! I just cant bear to give them away or throw them out.. we're so desperate for cash that I've got to at least try to get a penny for them!

I'll also be selling some Congas, a huge tv box full of videos, ummm... perfumes, shoes, a Star Wars chess set, magnetic dart board, ummm... lets see what else.. ummm... Hmm. Cant remember. Oh yes - loads of handbags! I'm having a clear out. I simply must! I'll also be sorting through my shoes and having a shoe clearout too. I desperately dont want to, but the box I keep all my shoes in is overflowing and it has gotten totally out of hand!!!

Its great to have clean-outs like this... coz there's the exciting prospect of acquiring a whole load of new shit! Hehehe.

Must make time to write though. I've gotta get three books written this year. Time is tick tick ticking away horribly quickly! - Even though time is a man-made concept and is totally a figment of our imaginations. I wish I knew how to stop deluding myself into thinking the minutes actually tick past one after the other.

Hey ho. Time will tell, though.

Hehehe!

House Hunting

My time has been eaten away by house hunting.

I thought that it might be quite exciting searching for houses, but its turning out to be nothing but misery. We either haven't got enough money, the houses are rubbish, or are already sold.

It sux.

Got another idea for a fairy tale though. It'll be called The Ravenous Oak. Perhaps sometime next millenium I'll get some time to write it.

I've skipped two books in The Liveship Traders trilogy by Robin Hobb to get straight back into Fitz's life in The Tawny Man trilogy. I can see hints at the story in the Liveship Traders, but for now I'm going to keep reading the Tawny Man. Perhaps I'll go back to the Liveship Traders when I'm done.

Ummmm... I'm totally broke.. ummm.. tired.. (which isn't unusual).. umm.. but other than that there aint nuttin to report. I'm really lazing off from Blogger lately and haven't felt the urge to read other blogs much either. Perhaps its just a lull.

We'll see.

Music!

Saw Metallica last night at Wembley Stadium.

It rocked!

I'm not a huge Metallica fan, Martin is though. He has seen them five times. I've seen them three times though.. thats the most I've seen one band. Muse comes in second place - I've seen them twice (and would definitely go again!).

Metallica definitely has grown on me, and I do have a favourite song - No Leaf Clover. They played it with an orchestra a few years back, and lucky enough they played it last night (adapted, of course!). It was pretty sensational.

I'm pretty impressed with the stadium. It was packed, but we were never squashed or anything. We had to wait ages in the beer and food queues though. And although there are 700,000,000 toilets I still had to queue up - but they used their brains when building them and made separate entry/exit doors!!

So, I was pretty stoked to be at Wembley Stadium, watching Metallica rock it the way it should be rocked. I think though that I was more excited about the thought that just twenty four hours before David Tennant was there at the Live Earth concert. Hehehe. I'm so sad. I cant help it though. I chuckled and grinned to myself and kept those thoughts to myself at the time, although now I'm uploading them onto the internet, public for the world to read.

But I dont care. I stand tall and proud about my crush. Hehe.

So. Live Earth. Pretty cool. So incredibly funny that poor old Jonathan Woss ..oops, I mean 'Ross', had to apologise everytime someone swore. Bit disapointing that they didn't show Metallica's full set, but thats mainstream bollocks for ya.

The other highlight of my week was seeing Tori Amos last Tuesday. It was at the Hammersmith Apollo, and its the first time I've seen her. It was fucken cool! She threw herself around raunchly between a keyboard and a piano and absolutely owned the stage. It was pretty funny that she completely messed up a song and had to stop. it was 'January Girl' from the 'Choir Girl Hotel' album. But even so, she was ever so cool about it. Cant say I liked her gold jumpsuit though.. but then again I've never thought much for her fashion sense. She played all my favourite songs though, so I'll forgive her.

So, it was a pretty damn good week if you ask me!

Stories At The Particle Empire

I've updated my Particle Empire blog space to accommodate my short stories and other stuff. Its pretty bare at the moment, but as and when I get the time I'll be adding more to it.

My short story that I wrote for the WriteLink Weekender Challenge is on there.

I re-read it and it makes me cringe. Hehe. It actually kind of makes me want to throw up. How on earth I wrote soppy drivel like that, I'll never know. But it got me shortlisted, so I must've done something right.

Anyway. I've had enough messing with HTML, CSS and this whole blog thing. My eyeballs are starting to dry out and hurt.

Gotta get back to work too.

A Good Day For Writing

Your Horoscope for JULY 03, 2007

If you've been thinking of getting started on a creative project of some kind, Kathryn Wheeler, particularly if it involves writing, this is definitely the day to do it. Your creative energies are really flowing and your mind should be focused and concentrated. The only problem is that once you start on this, you aren't likely to stop and do anything else. Remember to pace yourself and take little breaks.

Shortlisted!

In May I entered a short story competition with Writelink, and the results have just come out.

I got shortlisted!!

WOO HOOO!!!!

I didn't come anywhere near winning, but I dont care. The only other short story competitions I've entered are on The Libbon Magazine website. I only entered two or three and didn't get anywhere, so for my fourth try I thought I'd try the Weekender Challenge at Writelink, and hooray hooray my name has popped up on the shortlist.

I'm soooo pleased.

I'm stoked.

I'm over the moon.

I feel like I've got confirmation that I'm not a total knob head... and that feeeeeels soooooooooo good!! Yeehaaaaa!

Check out the results HERE!! See my name??? DO you seee it???

I'll post my story some time this week if I get around to it.

The theme was 'Falling', so I chose something deeply original to call my story - Autumn Leaves. Hehehe. I tried not to but I just couldn't get the story out of my head, so I had to write it as my head dictated. It was handy that the words just poured out, but also annoying because I felt that my head decided what story I was supposed to write without consulting me first. That happens far too often. I feel like I'm just the hand holding the pen while my head takes me for a ride and makes me do all the peddling. Grr. I'll take back control for the next short story comp I enter.

Hehehe.. Yay, I'm still buzzing that I got shortlisted. Imagine how I'd feel if I'd have won! Ha, nothing would get me down off that cloud for weeks!

Hmm.. looking forward to it!

Well, Fuck Me!

I cant say I'm surprised that I've got a luscious R rating. Although I did at one point have an attack of the guilts and went trawling back through all my posts replacing the word FUCK with F***.

I'm not doing that anymore. This isn't a child's blog, and it shouldn't be viewed by children. Got it, FUCK FACE? Hehehee.

Dont worry.. my words wont hurt you. I just dont want to censor myself when it comes to expression.

Drifting

I'm getting so slack at posting. I think I've started viewing it as a chore, rather than as something that I started voluntarily. I do actually want to post, and I do like posting... but there are just so many other distractions.

So, Dublin was good. Ate lots, drank lots. Enjoyed it lots.

Grrr.. I'm being hassled to get off the computer. I'm not moving. Bugger them. At work there are only two computers (two in the library, and one computer on the fourth floor) and I selfishly like to sit on one of them for the full lunch hour. Some temp chick is blabbing about wanting to check her email and that there should be a time limit. Ha. Fuck off. I was here first.

Man, that's really pissed me off. I hate being hurried. I HATE IT! It may sound childish, but I was here first goddammit, and I will not cut short what I planned to do just so that some stupid temp can do what she wants.

Hmm.. anyway, moving on.

Received a book in the post from Bookseller Chick. I'm stoked! I'm part way through it. I can only read it at bedtime, coz I havent finished reading the Robin Hobb book (The Liveship Traders - Book 1) yet and I read that on the train to and from work. I was actually thinking of starting reading another book that my Mum sent me.. but the only other time I've got free is lunchtime - and I spend that time blogging (and reading blogs and doing other internet stuff coz I dont get any time to do it at home since Martin discovered Facebook).

Books can be so frustrating sometimes. I've got so many I want to read, but so little precious time. NOT FAIR!! I may have split up my train time.. read one on the way to work, and a different one on the way home.

I still haven't seen the last Doctor Who from the weekend yet! I'm sooo hanging out for it!! I doubt I'll get time over the weekend since I've got a hen party to go to, but perhaps Sunday morning I could squeeze it in if I get up earlier than Martin and I dont have a killer hangover.

We started watching Cronos last night.. The same dude who made Pan's Labyrinth. My mind is once again awash with ideas for Fairy Tales. I'm really really excited about writing a collection.. I've just got to find the time to do it. I've also got to find the time to get my bloody Cloud People book underway. There just isn't enough damn time in the day to do anything!! If only I didn't have to work full time!!!!!

I'm definitely buying a lottery ticket or a few hundred this weekend! Definitely!!

Guiness Ahoy!

Thankfully I'm able to walk without groaning with every step! ..and just in time for a romantic Ireland weekend!

I've just booked the long stay car park, I've got all the stuff ready to go... all I need to do now is pack.

Note to self: Dont forget your fucking camera!

So anyway.. sadly, writing has taken a bit of a back seat since I've barely had enough time to scratch my arse recently. I've cancelled one of my piano students coz I just didn't have the time and patience (or will) to teach him anymore, and I've changed my adult student's lesson to be on Monday rather than Thursday. So, now I've only got two students, and both of them on a monday! Hooooorah!!! That leaves the rest of the week freeeeee.

Tuesday of this week was taken up by frivolity at work, and Wednesday flew past in a flurry of too much tv, tidying, and nothingness. While Thursday flew past with the last piano lesson for my adult student on the Thursday plus a trip to Bluewater, then a nice hot shower.

I still haven't packed for the weekend yet.

I'm looking forward to going, but I'm not looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn to be at the airport by 5am. Bugggggger. Why on earth did I book the flight for 7am! To save money I suppose. Thats the thing.. you can save money, but it will always be at the expense of sleep.

Right.. time to relax and enjoy the rest of my lunch hour.

Aching From Head to Toe

Yesterday after work we all went to an 'Its A Knockout' event which involved running around in teams getting wet and foamy.

It was bloody good fun, but I've never seen so many bottles of fairy liquid used all in one place!!

There was an inflatable 'mountain' that we had to run and jump over, but no matter how hard I tried I just could not get over it. At one point I slipped on the matt at the start and just hit the front of it. I bet I looked pretty stupid.

It was good fun even though I just could not get over that damn hill.

Today, though, every single muscle in my body is crying out. I've discovered muscles I didn't even know I had!!!

It just goes to show how unfit I am.

Must get back on the treadmill!! I must!!!

Lazy Weekend

I had a bit of lazy weekend.

Not really that much to report on.

Doctor Who was really cool. It was also pretty damn scary with those statues that moved but didnt!

Also watched far too much Big Brother.

Also watched a film called Deja Vu (with Denzel Washington in it). It was great. It was great. Hehehe.

So thats about it. Should be an easy week this week. I'm teaching tonight, but I'm going to dump my 7 year old student, coz I just dont have the patience or will to keep teaching him. Its too far to drive, and it'd be easier for me to replace his time-slot with my Thursday night student. That way I only have to go out teaching on one day a week, instead of two.

Counting down the days to our trip to Dublin on Saturday! Sunday will be our first year wedding anniversary.

I cant believe its been a year already!!!!!!!

Big Brother

Well... What a series!

Firstly.. Love the house and style and the idea to start with all girls then slowly trickle in the boys.

Secondly... Emily's removal. WTF???????? I'm absolutely apalled by Channel 4! Two words come to mind - Knee Jerk! How on earth could they lump all of the crap they got from the racism row of Celebrity Big Brother onto Emily's shoulders? Why the hell should she be made a scape goat just to save their arses?? She wasn't offensive or bullying in any way. She was joking around with a friend. I think there's a pretty big fucking difference between what Emily said and what those three girls in CBB said. The three girls in CBB were abusive. Regardless of the racial remarks they made, they were abusive. Emily was not abusive. I would even go so far as to say she wasn't even racist. She just blurted out a term that she was comfortable with and had grown up with and did not consider it offensive, and she had not meant any harm. She was being friendly.

IS the whole of the UK full of babies?! Why has everyone jumped up and down about this?? Have we got to the stage where no one can say absolutely anything in case we offend someone?!?! What happened to free speech???

If we're going to go down that path then lets consider all the other 'isms' that are deemed unacceptable but were raised in the BB house. Ziggy seemed to like calling all women sluts and bitches. Charley and Nikki were saying nigger. Shahbaz from last years BB called him self the double-whammy 'paki-poof', and I wonder how long it will take for people to start calling Laura and Carole fat. Is calling people fat going to be an 'ism' too? fatism? Body-shape-ism?

Big Brother has gone overboard. Was it fair of them to question Emily at 3.30am and expect her to defend herself right then and there? Was it fair of them to remove her from the house in her bedclothes? She said she wasn't even wearing underwear. How fair is that? I think BB's treatment of her is pretty damn poor if you ask me.

I was actually hoping Emily would win. She had been vilified from the start, and that little vixen Channelle is the one thats stomping her feet and wailing like a brat. Emily didn't once raise her voice or swear. She quietly stated her fair comments and thats it.

It pisses me off.

But it makes for good tv, so there ya go. Channel 4 are pretty clever. They could have dubbed the whole conversation and not made such a big deal out of it, but nooooo... there's just too much to be gained from something like this. They've got their publicity now. Even though Emily is probably going to be hated forever and will probably find it tough to pursue her career.

They should have just given her a stern warning and then moved on.

I'm moving on now. And the whole of the UK should too.

Phew, what a rant. Havent had a rant like that in ages. In fact I dont remember the last time I had a really strong opinion on something.

Ooops!

I cleverly updated my sidebar to include The Novel Racers... but stupidly forgot to actually put all the links in!

It has been fixed now!

I was pretty damn tired this morning after staying up so late last night. Doctor Who finished downloading at 1.11am and I stayed up to watch it.

It was great. It was oh so touching to see the Doctor aka John Smith being all human and emotional. I swear I almost wept. Hehehe.

*sigh*

I'll have to wait week by week for the rest of the series now. Grrr.

Waiting... Waiting...

Its nearly 1am and the latest episode of Doctor Who has almost finished downloading...

PLEEEEZE DOWNLOAD FASTER!!!

I'm watching Big Brother Live to keep me entertained while I wait.. I've also been browsing other blogs etc.

I've updated my side bar a fair bit recently. I juggled things around and changed my profile picture (again!).

I've also added a list of the Novel Racers. I thought I'd join, so now I really really really should get going on my novel. I'm such a lazy bitch. But, pillow washing really can be quite addictive and time consuming sometimes.

Man, I am counting the minutes til I can get my next dose of David Tennant.

I wonder if he ever googles his name... How cool would it be if he stumbled across my blog and my confessions of love for him. Hehhehee.

HEY, DAVID! CALL ME!!!

More More MORE!

I've just realised that I'm not completely up to date with Doctor Who!

I downloaded all the episodes over the weekend coz I hadn't seen any of them yet, but didn't take into account the episode that aired on Saturday!!

WHAT A DICKHEAD!

But... there is a silver lining.... it now feels like i've found 20 pounds in the pocket of an old forgotten jacket - you know that feeling, that stunning surprise and delight that you feel when you find out that there is 'more'!

If only I could make the damn episode download faster!! I want to watch it NOW goddammit! NOW!!!!!

It Must Be Love, Love, Love!

I've just spent the entire weekend catching up on the third series of Doctor Who.

I'm in love!

Hehehe.

I know I'm terribly geeky (I have a small plastic Tardis sitting on my desk at work and I'm incredibly proud of it) but I dont care. If adoring David Tennant (aka Doctor Who) makes me a geek, then so be it.

I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the new 'assistant'. I dont really have anything against her other than that I thought Billy Piper was absolutely perfect. I suppose it doesn't really matter because its not like I'm looking at anybody else other than David Tennant when I'm watching it.

Hehehehehe!

Nemi Rocks

Lonely Lonely Lonely Writer

I'm on my own now.

Hubby has flown and I've got the house to myself for a week. I hope he has a great time, but I also know that he's flying into the viper's nest!! There are a bunch of girls at the office he is visiting that want nothing more than to get their slutty claws into him!

It annoys me that other people dont respect 'marriage'... but I have no worries with where Martin's heart lies. I've already got three email from him... though that may be just the excitement of having a blackberry! Hehe.

I'm not only lonely from Martin leaving I'm also lonely at work. Wendy is off sick, Sam is out at meetings and then is off for the afternoon, and I've no idea where Matthew is, so I've got the whole office to myself!! The underwriting department is not in the open plan section of the office with everyone else, we're secluded away in an office for just the four of us... but today its all mine!

I dont mind, though. My printer blocks everyone's view of my desk so I sat reading the Metro all morning, and I've gorged myself on three chocolate bars so far (to keep my spirits up, of course!). I attempted the sudoko in the Metro, but it looked frustratingly a little tricky.

I have had a flash of my first chapter for the Cloud People book (its the working title.. very bad one, too!). I'm starting off with my protag at aged 6 daydreaming on the roof of her castle. You see, she's the heir to the throne, so its fitting that she should have a castle. So anyway, she's daydreaming, then enter her friend (& future lover), boy aged 7 (wizard in training), and that leads to the girl falling off the castle...........

I dont want to go into it too much in case I lose my interest/momentum.

I haven't got a name for my protag yet, or for the boy. Or her father, the King. Or the title of the book. Hmm. I do have two names for two wizards though - Carillion & Fenchurch. I got the former name from a claim title here at work, and the latter is obviously a street & train station in London. Although, now that I've mentioned them I think they sound more fitting for army generals or something.

Hmmm.. will have to think on that.

Front Row

I've been invited to Caroline's book launch!

I sooo wish I could go, but its up in Manchester (and I'm in Kent) and I cant afford the time off work. Also, two days later hubby and I are flying to Dublin for romantic weekend getaway for our first anniversary! Cant miss that!

I do hope that the book launch goes well and I'm very much looking forward to reading it! Its been on my Amazon wish list for months now!!

GOOD LUCK CAROLINE!!!

Counting The Hours

My darling hubby will be away for a week from tomorrow morning. I've just booked him a taxi for 7am.

Its 15 minutes before my alarm usually goes off so I'll be having an early morning tomorrow... but its worth it. I've told him recently that rather than sneaking out of bed to go to work (coz he gets up earlier than me) its ok if he rolls over and wakes me with an envloping hug or little tickling kisses. It makes my dreams take a turn for the better!

So, what am I going to do all weekend???

Jack Daniels goes without saying.

I've got to mow the lawn.. which is a pain in the butthole, but its gotta be done. I've also got a few stories on Jerry that need uploading onto the computer.

I also need to back up everything on the computer to the two external harddrives.

I've also got about eight episodes of Doctor Who to watch... Yeeeeeeeee ha!

Oh, and of course, Big Brother has begun. And this time I've got More 4 to catch even more of it.

So, it looks like I'll have all my time filled.

Where are all my friends, I hear you ask... well.. yes, good point. It appears that steadily over the years I've been hemorrhaging friends left right and centre. I seem to have been come quite reclusive. Its not that I dont like to hang out with people, its just that I dont like to hang out with people. Hehehehe.. No, really. I just like to get things done, and I find hanging out with people a compromise on both of our time.

To be bluntly honest, I dont have many really good friends in England. Martin and I together have lots of friends who we can both see separately, but as in a best friend or someone I speak to all the time other than Martin.. well.. I cant really think of anyone.

Its not sad.

And I'm not sad.

It just is.

Besides.... who needs friends when you've got eight episodes of Doctor Who with David Tennant! Hehehe.

BUT!!!! - I must must must make some progress on my Cloud People book and/or my Fairy Tales!

Tarot

I'm sure I've done this before... but since I could have answered some of the questions a number of ways then I thought it ok that I repeat it.

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Back On Planet Earth!

So, I think I'm back to normal now.

The strange illness that strangled me over the last few days took me on quite a trip, but I feel like I'm back on planet earth now.

I've got back into reading the Robin Hobb book, The Liveship Traders, and I'm slowly catching up on a heap of blogs that I like to read...

I almost feel like I've been on holiday, but it wasn't a nice place to go.

I have an inkling that the recent meddling with the airconditioning unit and vents in my work building may have contributed to my downfall. Another girl at work who I chat to quite a bit complained of similar symptoms to mine over the weekend.

Hmmm.

Right. No more moaning about being ill. I tend to moan a lot when I feel crap. It must stop.

Before the weekend I'd made a start on planning my Cloud People book.. so I must get on with that. If I'm to write three books this year then I must get moving on it.

I've also had a few more ideas about some fairy tales to add to my fairy tale collection. I'm hoping that the deal I made with my hubby that I'd write three books by Christmas will be flexible enough to include a collection of fairy tales.

I'm sure I could talk him around. Hehehe.

I'm a Winner!

Hoorah, I've won something!!

I've been catching up on my blog reading ever so slowly since the disappearance of Miss Snark (still getting over her departure!), and I noticed that Bookseller Chick has drawn the results of the Free Books giveaway thingy... and lo and behold whose name was one of two drawn?

IT WAS ME!!!!!!!!!!

Yay... I'm so stoked.

Thats three books I've won in my life now.

The first was a geology book in a raffle back at Uni...

The second was one from Paperback Writer...

And now the third is from Bookseller Chick

YAY ME!

BB for MISS S

I am still feeling a terrible void from Miss Snark closing up shop. It was always nice to drop in and see what nitwits she was battling with. It always made me feel that little bit less stupid to see people asking questions that were stupider than I ever thought possible.

Alas I shall just have to get over it.

Big Brother starts tomorrow. Now, I wouldn't say I'm a huge Big Bro fan, but I do get sucked into it and get addicted like a skinny little rat girl on heroin.

I dont know why, but perhaps I just need something external to hook on to.

I suppose that Big Brother will have to take Miss Snark's place. Although I would prefer to fill that void with something literary rather than contrived shitheads.

Here's hoping to some housemates that are bashful/shy/humble/polite & just plain sensitive. I dont think I can stand another house full of half lesbian, half gay, singer/model wannabes that dress up like women even though they have dicks. Loud mouth love-me-do's just drive me nuts.

Maybe it might be nice to put a mute into the Big Brother house. Hehehe.

Wasted

Well, what a wasted long weekend that was.

I was right, as usual, that I would feel better as soon as work started back. Its so typical it makes me sick.

Perhaps I have an aversion to time off or something. I mean, really, what kind of bad luck is it to get ill at the start of a long weekend.

I feel bad for Martin... I've kept him awake by coughing and choking all night, as well as snoring! He told me that I sounded like Darth Vader last night!! Nice eh. So, I've been keeping him awake all weekend, but haven't gone out anywhere coz I've felt like shit!

We're getting very tired of staying indoors now. We had initially planned to go to Brighton for a day, or Rochester or something.. but I suppose the weather would have spoiled that plan if I'd have felt well enough to go anyway.

The most we got up to was going to Bluewater a few times to get some new clothes and stuff for his trip next weekend (he's going on a business trip to Texas! Fishing!! Lucky bugger!), but at least we bought a handful of new DVDs. We also watched the last few episodes of Lost (series 3) and Heroes. I was thinking of downloading Quantum Leap too, coz we never got to see the finale, but perhaps I'll do that for when he gets back from his trip.

I've downloaded all the Doctor Who episodes so far, so that when Martin goes away to his little Texas fishing trip I can sit at home and drown in a Doctor Who marathon! I CANT WAIT!!!! hehehe.

I certainly am a geek to the core!

Fingers crossed that I wont be ill next weekend too!

Delirium

I had the strange sleep last night. When I say 'sleep' I mean tossed an turned. I was absolutely freezing, but sweltering like nothing else. My skin hurt even from the silkiest touch. I could even hear myself wimpering as I tossed and turned trying to get to sleep.

I had some debit notes running around in my head that I just couldn't get away from. At work, you see, I deal with all the payments etc, and yesterday at work I ha a hard time photocopying the damn things because someone had jammed the photocopier and then just left it.

I was in such a state last night. I kept poor old Martin up too. In the morning, when Martin got up for work, I think I asked him to stay home with me, but I'm not sure how 'conscious' I was. It feels like a dream. I drifted in and out of sleep and I babbled like a mental patient.

I finally woke up at 11am, feeling a little bit more like myself.

I still feel really strange and delirious, and I'm sweating like nothing else, but at least I can feel that I'm winning against this strange illness.

Its a bank holiday weekend, so it was absolutely typical that I would get sick. No doubt I'll start to feel better by Tuesday by which time I've got to get back to work.

At least I've got today off!

S&S & MISS S

Since I dont have a book published I know very little about publishing contracts, but I did know that once a book is out of print the rights generally revert back to the author... but I've been reading everywhere that Simon & Schuster are changing their contracts so that a book never goes out of print, or they hold the rights for the length of the copyright.

It doesn't sound good to me. Then again I am a bit of a control freak.

Methinks I may scrap Simon & Schuster off my 'publishers to submit to' list.

So anyway.. I've been reading around. There is a massive hole in the blogosphere now that Miss Snark has hung up her clue gun. It sux. So I've added a couple more agent links to my sidebar to try to fill the void. The Rejector comes close, but just doesn't use the magnificently colourful language that Miss Snark did.

Oh I do hope that someone fills her enormous shoes soon. ....or even better, that she sees sense and comes back!

Funniest Thing In The World!

Arnold Schwarzenegger Prank Call!

Writing

I just finished reading 'How to Write A Blockbuster' by Helen Corner and Lee Weatherly, and I must say I'm glad that I did. It has some very useful information in the back, including other books to read and contact lists, but the most useful part for me was the section on writing in a passive voice.

I never realised that I always fell into the trap of 'telling' rather than 'showing'. Its when the words 'was' or 'were' are used that the writing takes a passive turn.

I'm so annoyed with myself. I can't believe I have been so dumb and have not even realised it. Even now I'm deleting bits of this post that I'm writing coz I'm slipping into that past tense way of writing where 'I was' doing something etc.

The whole idea is to 'show, dont tell', and the examples listed in the book illustrated how much better the 'showing' paragraph read compared to the passive paragraph.

I'm such a dick.

A flaccid dick, at that.

Well... it can only be up from here.. hehehe..

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I cant believe it.

Miss Snark is retiring.

*sniff sniff*

Just when I find a site giving guidance without the contrite bullshit that goes with it, it goes belly up.

DAMN!

I didn't get to enter the Crapometer either! I soooo nearly did this year, but thought 'Nah, I'll hold off until I can polish it a bit more and then send it in next time'. Little did I know that there would not be a next time.

Bugger.

Oh well. At least she's leaving the site up so that people can trawl through the archives.

Procrastination

I've been fiddling with my other blog, which used to have an exerpt of my Nanowrimo novel posted on it.

I've now given it a makeover to make it look like my Particle Empire website which hosts my short stories and other little diddlies. Whatever a diddly may be.

I really should be writing this short story for the competition I entered.

The wordcount is nothing like I thought it would be. They really shouldn't call it a challenge unless the word count is going to be punishing.

Its only 1200.

But therein lies the difficulty. To craft a short story in so few words. To create complete and satisfying characters. To develop the plot within such constraints. I'm not sure if I can do it.

But I really should stop messing with my blog and start.

I just cant seem to think anything interesting up.

The theme is FALLING

Now, that can mean anything. Falling from a tree, Falling in love, Falling from grace, Falling as some wierd twisted idea revolving around autumn... or whatever. Falling onto something, out of something, into, around, up, down, and out. I dunno. I just know that there isn't a fizzle going on in my head.

The best thing to do is to make the short story fit in with my Cloud People book. That way I'm not only writing something fresh and new, it also ties in as background info for my novel.

Very good idea.

Now. To choose a plot.

And characters.

I should easily be able to make the theme work. The 'world' in my Cloud People book is suspended in the clouds by the magicians, high above the burning earth. Someone could easily fall over the edge.

Perhaps my main character could be falling already and the story relates his thoughts and backstory. It could end with his body splattering down on sharp and jagged rocks covered in molten lava that fizzles through his skin as though it was butter melting on a hotplate. His guts could spill out and burst as the contents boil and froth. His head and eyeballs could explode like eggs in a microwave and his genitals could drop off like a leper having a bad day....

Ooops.. I'm sorry. My mind wandered there. Hmm.. a bit grisly. Perhaps I should think happy thoughts.

Time to log off here. I might jump on the treadmill to kickstart my imagination.

Head in the Clouds

I've had a spark of inspiration ignite in my little brain which completes my plot for my book about the Cloud People.

I'm so fucking pleased!! WOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I dont know why I didn't think of it before!

I cant say though. That would be telling. And I'd have to go on a killing rampage throughout the world to make sure that anyone who read it here on my blog could not live to tell it to anyone else.... and that would be a big and messy job. and i'm far too lazy for that.

I think I'll start fully planning it after this weekend. The book I'm reading ('How to write a blockbuster') has been really helpful in highlighting writing techniques and tips that I had never given much thought to. I've also got a book called '38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes', which I should read before I start writing the Cloud People book, but I can start the planning before reading that... I think.

I've also got book 1 of The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb, but I dont think I'll start reading that until after the weekend.

This weekend I'm participating in a short story competition called The Weekender Challenge, which should be a bit of fun. Basically all you need to do is write a short story between 9am Saturday morning and midnight Sunday night on a theme chosen by WriteLink, but the theme and wordcount aren't revealed until 9am Saturday morning. So its pretty exciting.

I just hope the word count isn't over 20,000 words or anything ridiculous like that.

5,000 would be ideal.

10,000 would be ok.

Anything less than 5,000 would be ok too.

Fingers crossed that my phalanges are loose and limber enough and that the creative juices are flowing like a river... otherwise I just wasted £4.50 entry fee!

New York New York

New York was bloody excellent!

We had a great time and we packed so much into our holiday that its left my head spinning!

We shopped, we went to Times Sq, Union Sq, 23rd St (Flatiron Building - ie the Daily Bugle in Spider-Man), Central Park & Bow Bridge, Dakota Building & Strawberry Fields (John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota Building), Bronx Zoo, Staten Island Ferry (to see Ms Liberty as we sailed by), Wall Street, Ground Zero, Madison Sq Garden, Natural History Museum, Hard Rock Cafe, saw Spider-Man 3 at cinema, Rockafella Centre (Much better than going up the Empire State.. coz you get a great view of the park, and of the Empire State building! Plus no queue to get in!!!!!), Grand Central Station, Algonquin Hotel (where all those literary chaps sat at the round table in the 20s, including Mrs Parker!), Chinatown, Little Italy (mmmm.. good pizza), Canal St markets, walked up Broadway, walked along 5th Ave....

and...

Shopped, shopped, shopped, shopped and shopped some more.

I was a bit disappointed that my favourite shoe shop, DSW, didn't have much that caught my interest. Grrr. Only came home with 4 pairs of shoes. Martin did really well and came home with about 15 t-shirts and 5 shirts. I did manage, however, to buy some men's lounge pants (basically pj bottoms!) with the Jack Daniels symbol splattered all over them. Also got some M&M ones, Duff Beer, Guinness, and DC Comics. They're really comfy and unlike the womens they are nice and long!

So, all in all, it was pretty good.

I had a really bad cold from Monday onwards though. It made me feel like absolute crap, but it didn't hold us back at all... except for Martin always telling me to walk faster. The three blisters that I gained didn't really help much either.

We also went out to dinner at Cafe Taci where they have opera singers belting out the classics during your (overpriced) meal. It was really nice though. We went with my parents on the Saturday night for Martin's birthday.

On the Sunday, Martin's actual birthday, we went to the Nat. Hist. Museum where I was shat on by a bird while waiting outside on the steps. Just my fucking luck eh. Some people say that being shat on is good luck... it came to fruition later that night when we wanted to see Spider-Man 3. It was all booked out in Times Square so we went up to 66th and queued. The board said it was sold out, but we queued up anyway. Just as we got to the front a nice looking couple asked us if we wanted tickets to the 7pm showing of Spider-Man. Turned out that the bird had bought the tickets online but her bf wanted to see if in Imax instead. As it was 6.55pm we thought it was pretty bloody good timing! So we got straight in to see Spider-Man 3!! The cinema was packed with noisy Americans that actually commented out loud with 'Ooo's and 'Ahhh's at all the revelations during the movie. Morons.

It was a hoot though.

The flight home sucked.

Not only did our tv screens on the plane not work (the only two screens that didn't work on the entire damn plane), but when we changed flights in Zurich (NY to Zurich to England... whose dumb idea was that!!) we had to go all the way out to the check in counter and check in the alcohol that we bought from NY. Fucken European Union making things difficult. We managed it though, even though Martin was swearing his head off and stressing me out. I managed to not shit in my pants. Hehehe.

When we got to Heathrow the weather of England was out to greet us. We caught the bus to the car park and just as we walked to the car the heavens opened up in a ridiculously heavy deluge of rain! We were fucking soaked!

At least when we got home we could relax. It turned out to be a great night...

EXCEPT!!!!......

The stupid workmen, who were supposed to have FINISHED the work on the house, had only just started and their crap was left all over the place. We got a very rude wake-up call the next morning. Sunday morning. At 9am. We were woken by the workmen COMING INTO OUR BEDROOM WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I was not a happy camper!!

I managed to talk them into pissing off and coming back Monday, but we had already been woken and our desire for a sleep in was absolutely ruined.

That whole episode made me sleep in on Tuesday until 9.30am (the time I'm actually supposed to START work)... so I didn't make it in to work until about 11am. Not good.

All is pretty much ok now.

Saw Spider-Man 3 again last night. I love it.

Go Spidey Go!

No Time

Been so busy!

I've been running around like a blue-arsed fly!

Cant blog now.

Gotta get back to work. GRRRRR!!!

House

Got some builders coming over next week while we're away to try to fix the mould problem. The estate agent wrote us a cheeky letter saying that they were organising the work done subject to some conditions, one of them being that we cant apply for compensation for damage to our stuff by the mould.

Thank god I work with a bunch of lawyers. I got JS on the job straight away and he's going to draft me up a letter that looks all legal and stuff and hit them with it. Miss Snark's clue gun would come in handy... the estate agent's letter is sly, immoral and totally rude. You cant admit there is a problem with the house (which the landlord are obliged to fix) then say you'll do the work and then attach conditions.

I'm hoping JS gets that letter written by bed time tonight coz if I dont get the letter sent off by tomorrow then the estate agent wont see it until Tuesday (Monday is a bank holiday), and the work is supposed to start on Tuesday. And none of that takes into account if the estate agent has any days off.

I'm totally sick of Savills fucking with us, and the landlord being so fucking lazy about their obligations!

If anyone is reading this and is renting - WATCH OUT! Landlords and estate agents will fuck you up the arse so hard that they'll be sprouting out of your mouth.

Bubbles and Rumblings

My tummy is flip flopping all over the place. I dont know if its the excitement of going to NY, the panic of packing, or the anxiety of making sure things run smooth.

Either way though its the story of my life. I've been blessed with the most stupidest stomach in the world. The moment I get even slightly nervous my gut wrenches, then I panic in case I cant make it to a loo on time, then afterwards I wonder why I was so worried.

Its a stupid endless cycle and despite knowing logically what is going on I still cant control it.

Hopefully one day I'll be able to master my own body, but until then I am powerless and cramped.

*sigh* what I wouldn't give for a tummy that can handle anything. If my mouth could stand spicy food I'd be so annoyed that my stomach cant. Thankfully I dont like spicy food, but thats not the point. I want to have the option of having spicy food without flooding my daks.

This post is turning nasty. I'm logging off here before I start talking about periods or something. Ugh!

Counting The Days

Just two more days til I jet off to NY with the hubs. Cant wait. We're going to be so damn touristy and hideously laden down with cameras and maps that we'll look like cartoon characters. Cant wait!

Surprise surprise I'm blogging from work. I am really lost as to what is blocked and what isn't...

I had to have a half day of work yesterday in order to take two car loads of junk to the dump. It was messy work and quite streneous coz I had to put a whole dressing table in the car without any help, but I definitely feel cleansed. Hooraaaah!

I was going to do a third trip which would have been three bags of normal rubbish (we forgot to put the rubbish out last week) and three bags of styrofoam but I decided to leave it until the normal rubbish collection day, which was this morning.

What a mistake. I was messing around trying to put Tori Amos's new album onto my ipod this morning, so I was late already, then I realised I had to put the rubbish out, so I tried to hurry but one of the bags split open on the driveway, sending old potatoes and coke cans scattering (among many other nasty things!).

So typical.

Needless to say I missed my train and had the smell of rubbish on my hands from having to re-bag the stuff. Totally gross!

Work is mega busy at the mo. I've got loads to do, and I dont know where to start. As soon as I start something people throw something else at me to do. And everything is always urgent. Ah well, better than being bored shitless.

Cant wait til we get to NY.

CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT CANT WAIT

See Saw

I feel like I'm going up and down, back and forth. I'm at work. Its lunchtime. I have access to blogger. On Friday I had access for about 10 mins, then I didn't, now I do again. No doubt in a few mins it'll be snatched away from me again.

*sigh*

I didn't really realise how precious freedom was until it was taken away from me. Heheh.. although it is only blogger, its not like I'm being held back from the very basics of life, so I mustn't complain too much.

Work is the Devil's Child

Not two seconds after my last post (and luckily after I'd clicked on Miss Snark to catch up on her snarkiness) did the stupid computers at work lock me out of reading blogs.

I cant stand being limited!!!

Goddamn these internet-scared bastards.

They put two computers in the 'library' for personal use at lunchtimes (only), but then they go and limit the stuff you can look at, as though they have a right or obligation to filter the internet for you. Fucking cunts. Thats what I say. I cant stand anyone taking decisions away from me. Its like being treated like a child.. Not being able to make up your mind for yourself, and not being trusted or respected.

Drives me wild... cant you tell?

But then again, its probably just the company looking after their own arse and making sure us employees dont look at porn during work hours.

Dicks!

So, looks like I'll have to try to ignore Martin during the evenings and weekends in order to get in my blogging. Not something I want to do, but hopefully I can squeeze in the time.

I'm going to be damn busy in the next two weeks though. Gotta sort out the house this week because while we're away in NY we're having the walls in the bedroom fixed/coated to try to fix the mould problem... so we've gotta move all the furniture out. I'm skeptical that the route the estate agent/landlord is taking will actually fix the problem, but I dont have to pay for it so I dont really give a shit. I just want to be able to sleep in a mould-free bed and grow old without developing brain cancer. Does that make me selfish? Methinks not.

Bought Big Trouble In Little China on DVD today. Fucken love that film. Is Kurt Russell fucken unreal or what! I may even put him on my list*






*List of celebrities that I have permission by my husband to shag if/when an occasion arises.

His list is ten times longer than mine. Men. Hmmph! So shallow!

Work. Fucking Work.

Last week the internet access at work was updated and the bastards blocked out access to blogs/newsgroups.

I was not a happy comper (Thats my new slang work for a computer user. Aren't I clever and inventive!)

But, today it seems to be working ok. Strange. I was just starting to get myself used to the fact that I wont be able to blog at lunchtime when suddenly the damn thing started working.

I'm not complaining! I'm just treading lightly in case they take it away again.

I've just been confirming my flights for my trip to New York next week. Should be fucken excellent. Martin and I have planned out where we want to go and what we want to see, and our schedule is pretty good. Not too tight, and not too loose. And there is spare time for extra shopping. Oh, I cant wait. DSW is my favourite shoe shop, and I plan to come home with at least 5 new pairs of strappy sandals for summer, or whatever other bargains there are. No doubt all the sales will be on for winter boots to clear them out, but I'm hoping I'll be able to have first pick at the new summer ranges. Mmm... I'm going to be dreaming of shoes right up until I leave, methinks!

I'm without a book, though. I just finished The Life of Pi this morning, and I tell ya, the ending was a fucking disappointment. You read the whole book thinking that this bloke spent 7 months floating in a lifeboat on the pacific ocean with a 450 pound bengal tiger, but then at the end when he is being interrogated by the owners of the ship he was on that sunk he blabs on about how he thought the story he told with the tiger and other animals that he was stranded on the lifeboat with was just a figment of his religion-influenced imagination and that he thought it sounded better that he describe his fellow survivors as animals rather than as the people they actually were...

I was soooo pissed off. I still am. I dont know what to believe. The book leads you to believe that it was all true, but then the ending leaves you wondering.

I should have realised it was going to fuck up at the end by all the religious dribble the guy was blabbing on about at the start of the book.

Another reason why I'm not a big fan of religions. They addle the mind!

Anyway, so I'm without a book to read. I know my Mum, who is in NY, has bought me a load of books but I need something to read until then. Hmm.. only a few days though. Perhaps I could take Jerry with me in the mornings on the train to write and finish my fairy tales instead.

Yes. Sounds like a plan.