Blogtember September 3rd Day 1 – Who am I?

Tuesday, Sept. 3: Describe where or what you come from. The people, the places, and/or the factors that make up who you are.

I am a middle child and the only daughter. (Which also makes me the only niece and only granddaughter on one side.) I have an older brother and a younger one. We grew up in a small town in the middle of England. Surrounded by countryside, memories of walking up hills that seemed like mountains to my young legs. I think the factors that made me (apart from the obvious) are events, lots happened in my childhood. When I think about it some of the events were down to me. I created them and the result – cause and effect.

The first one I don’t even remember but it is a demonstration of my strength, stubbornness and darker side – I held my breath as a child, because I couldn’t get my own way. My mum called for an ambulance as I had passed out. I was fine, but she was told she had a highly wilful child (I wasn’t even a toddler) and the WORST thing she could do was give into me. In hindsight my childhood may have been easier if I hadn’t revealed my hand so soon! 😉

We learn a lot from our parents, I guess my mother helped mould the woman I am today. She is strong.

I am one of those people who aims and fires but doesn’t always get the target so I have to work for it and if I really want it, I will get it in the end. Once you have the success you tend to forget about the hardship you confronted along the way.

I am headstrong and have plenty of good role models in my life!

I have also learnt the importance of surrounding yourself with people who bring out the best in you and to turn to friends and family in times of need.

Just found out about this Blog Challenge whilst posting an advert for INKSPILL. The Blogtember icon will explain the challenge and this bright pink INKSPILL

will tell you all about the writing event I am marketing, which I hope will be an annual event.

Daily Post – My Chosen Cause

Today’s daily post can be found here

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/daily-prompt-help/

If your day to day responsibilities were taken care of and you could throw yourself completely behind a cause, what would it be?

This is a thought provoker – because it has made me realise that the charities I give to and the causes I support are not necessarily the ones that I would get behind if I had a chance to be involved.

Many years ago I belonged to a Youth Theatre, we were responsible for organising a charity event (being ambitious 15 – 18 year olds) we tried to get U2 involved and in fairness to them the response we got if it we had asked over a year in advance they would have been involved. In the end it was a much more local event with bands from the town and our sketches and fundraising in between.

We researched homelessness by taking action, working with homeless people in a day centre and talking to homeless about their experiences of being on the streets and the back stories are wide and varied. It was an experience that I will not forget. I think if I had time to throw myself into a cause I would choose to help the homeless.

SOLC – Slice of Life Challenge – The Beginning of a New Chapter

Today has been such a busy day – I would get yourself a drink (and a biscuit) before you start to read this.

 

 

Last Friday I started to sort work life out and as with most people – this involves a whole paper trail when starting somewhere new. Over the weekend CV’s and emails were all sent efficiently and fast via technology, then last night I received the ‘what I need to take’ with me today and I started the paperwork treasure hunt. We moved house and I still have a few (understatement) boxes to unpack and most paperwork from the past few months was not so much filed as stuffed into a few folders.

So this morning I got up early and continued the search followed by more work online. I also phoned my old place of work – they were all back there today and it felt really strange to speak to them and not see them. I sent an email.

I also received a parcel (I love getting post and it is one thing I miss from pre- e-mail days) to be fair I placed a book order on Amazon whilst completing some writing research, I was taken in by an advert banner and a 1p book! I hadn’t expected to receive any until the 6th at the earliest so it was a nice surprise! I hadn’t got time to open it as I was getting ready as it arrived.

This afternoon I had an interview, after which I went to check my apartment (which is on the market) and collect lots of post. I also found some unwanted guests of the arachnid variety. I went to the Estate Agents to find out the latest on marketing of my property and discussed this week’s viewings (of which there is only 1).

Then I called a friend – who moved to my old town just as I moved out and we met for a soft drink in the sun! Then I went for a walk in the park en route to my Gran, who I had called earlier from the flat. She has one of those spider removing gadgets (it doesn’t harm them) and as I have no ladders or feather dusters in the apartment anymore and all the spiders were in the corners of the ceiling I needed some help. I saw some other members of my family who were over with my Gran and after catching the spiders, I (eventually) came home!

I had missed most of the sun in the garden as it was near 7pm when I got home. Mr G and I went up to the garden anyway to peel potatoes and top and tail home-grown French beans. The sky was amazing, a beautiful sunset and pink clouds.

Yesterday I made my first ever crumble (which I thoroughly enjoyed doing) – I knew where my kitchen apron was, I don’t know where important certificates and my passport is, both of which I use more regularly than a kitchen apron, in fact I bought it 3 years ago and have worn it 3 times and one of those was on a food tech course! Our neighbours are lovely and in exchange for some of our cucumbers, we have had cooking apples, blackberries and yellow plums. The apples and blackberries made a wonderfully tasty crumble, which took three days to get around to cooking. Tonight I had the pleasure of Mr G cooking tea with all our allotment ingredients – beautiful, I love this new, simple life!

I am also busy writing a short story and this has inspired me to create some HOW TO posts which have been linked on many other blogs, which is flattering. A big thank you to all who posted related article links or commented on how useful these posts were.

Tonight I am catching up in Blogland and hope to read some slices!

Ask and you will Receive … or at least Pay and it Will be Delivered!

I am hoping to get online and post a real slice of life as today has been packed!
For now I am on the phone, as light fades in the Garden prepping home grown produce dinner with Mr G and am mostly excited about the parcel I received today…
One of the writing books I treated myself to on Amazon and I only ordered it yesterday!
I could argue with ‘very good condition’ but I cannot fault ‘speedy delivery’.
Today I love technology!