First Week Off – well 6 days! SOLC Slice of Life Challenge

SLICE OF LIFE CHALLENGE – it is ages since I submitted a SOLC, I am attempting to get back to the Blog challenges I haven’t had time for over the next Month or so, I miss them and all the bloggers involved in them.

It has been so long they have this new and juicy logo! It’s active, so click away if you want to find out about this weekly challenge from TwoWritingTeachers.

 Last week I finished work for a week, celebrated Mr G’s birthday and Valentine’s (kind of) and I had an unscheduled break from the world of writing, 6 whole days, 4 of which with no internet/laptop usage at all!

Detoxed, well read and well slept, I am ready for the world again and just as well, after looking in my writing diary this morning I am reminded of the busy week ahead. This is half term week, so at least I can balance life/writing without having to factor in work as well!

Thursday Night, Mr G’s birthday – we went to my brother’s bar in Birmingham for a Comedy Night – it was fantastic, lots of spots, lots of side splitting material and abundant talent – by the end of the night I wanted to change career path (again) and go into Stand Up…. I have funny yarns to weave! It was great chatting to the performers and it is fair to say Mr G enjoyed his night tremendously!

He has the wisdom (of age 😉 ) to book the next day off. On very little sleep I got up and worked a whole day!

I managed to get home in good time to start celebrating Valentine’s Day  I came home to a dozen red roses – deep, deep red – almost blood purple (a colour I just made up) and some Thorton’s treats – personalised chocolate cupcakes & a chocolate heart, as well as a bouquet of lollies, a magazine and a little bit more! SPOILT!

Now, much as we love a Hallmark occasion- and we do, we have long since wised up to restaurants charging double and gave up eating out for V-day years ago. Instead we treat ourselves to a takeaway and a romantic night in.

Well…. I fell asleep in the armchair before 6pm – woke up at 10, very apologetic – warmed up a couple of supermarket takeaway curries and then watched Mr G doze off…. needless to say we have postponed Valentine’s… we are thinking March!

Then came the weekend – now I cannot pass judgement on extending birthdays – I have done it for years… the best, my 21st, 21 days of parties (oh for that stamina now)! We caught up with friends we haven’t seen in a long time (over 12/ 18 months) and had a great day at our local pub.

I slept for 12 hours and the next day had a 3 hour mid-morning nap too! Mr G and I had already declared Sunday as a Duvet Day! I managed to catch up on reading and just relaxed.

I had planned to start working hard yesterday, but slept again until the afternoon, I spent most of the afternoon reading and made it through another novel. I have now started Amy Rainbow’s book and can’t wait to review it for her, it is a great read!

There is so much I need to do!

 So here I am spending an hour writing a blog post!

I need to:

• Write a 52 poem (before Midnight Weds)
• Write some children’s poems or child content friendly ones at least (for Poetry For Lunch, Thursday)
• Learn my set off by heart for Hit the Ode (Thursday)
• Write dance poems for the Gallery opening (Friday) – there are now 15 poets involved, it is going to be a crazy night.
• I also have to get to the library to see the current display as mine is due to go up on the 1st March and no doubt I will need it dropped off before then!
• In addition to this I have an end of February deadline for about 8 pieces I am hoping to submit! And a few more open mic spots booked!

 

Great timing for an impromptu week off!

Here’s to my writing elbow and fingertips…

 

Birthdays, Winter Colds & Christmas Preparations

Today is my youngest nephews birthday – he’s 6 and spending the day at a chocolate factory with his friends! 🙂
Despite still being full of winter cold, I woke up at 6:30 and felt quite alive! (Due to a 9hr sleep plus sleeping through most of yesterday!)
I had to get to my brothers early before they all went out to collect excited children and eat chocolate! Fin had asked for a Thor fancy dress costume WITH hammer, which I managed to get- it was a real shame because he wanted to put it on and couldn’t as he was party dressed ready!
He is such a sweetheart.
Although my visit was quick (especially as I didn’t want to share my germs!) it was filled with love and smiles.

 Bless him – he was so excited to have a birthday to celebrate before Christmas this year!

Then I headed for the supermarket (make as much use of being up and out) -it wasn’t open for half an hour but I took my writing magazine with me to read in the car park. I went for a few last minute Christmas bits, medicine and milk. I came out half an hour later to a manic, thriving car park and was on the way home before I realised I had forgotten the medicine!

 We have treats to eat today – which is fabulous because I was far too tempted by the Christmas stock piles out in the conservatory! Actually we did both have a bowl of wasabi peas and crisps last night whilst watching a film.

Today I making myself feel better by being up & dressed… I plan to write Christmas cards (far too late to send them on time) and wrap Christmas gifts. I am surfing the net looking for some homemade table decorations for Christmas (I still need to collect the table!) and after all that, if I have any energy left I may treat myself to some writing time.

A Birthday Party for a very Special Lady!

My Gran is having a very special party today to celebrate her 90th!

We asked her what she wanted – my brothers and I are planning on taking her out for a day somewhere she wants to go. She has suggested BUNGEE JUMPING as something she has never done!

We are planning to put a clause in that prevents her from choosing an experience that will turn her grandkids and great grandkids grey!

What a woman!

Privileged to share some of her genes!

Back on the Main Frame!

I am back after a lovely birthday weekend. I will wait for the SOLC – Slice of Life Challenge, tomorrow, to share my latest news. Monday is a popular and busy time online – I hope to catch up with some writing challenges I missed over the weekend. Although, my time online is limited! (Until later.)

Exciting artwork for ‘Inkspill’ has been completed. I have pinned a SAVE THE DATE post to the top of the blog. I am excited that the poll results showed INKSPILL was the most popular choice of name for the online writing retreat, it was my favourite! I can reveal that now.

You will hear more about this event over the next few weeks and I would also be grateful for  reblogging of marketing posts or sharing of artwork on your own blogs to spread the news of the retreat. I am looking forward to you taking the opportunity of a free writing weekend too.

I am currently in the comments dashboard and I hope I don’t miss any of your comments out. Thanks again for following and splashing about in the Fountain whilst I was offline growing old(er)…

Celebrate – Not Old Enough to Be A Wise Owl- But A Hoot All the Same!

It is my birthday! I am awake ridiculously early considering I got home after midnight and wasn’t in bed until about 3 hours ago – I am surprisingly awake also…. Not falling for it though! With more celebrations later I am heading back to bed as soon as I have posted a this in blogland.

I don’t know whether I will have any online time later. I may update from the mobile. Then again I probably won’t. Maybe I have woken at this dark (in the summer!) hour just to be able to leave you all a message! My message is this;

 

 

Celebrate

 

Celebrate today.

Think of all the good in your life,

Make a list if you want to,

A gratitude list.

 

Enjoy the day,

Embrace the weekend.

Smile at strangers.

Feel happiness seep into your heart.

 

Say one good thing

to everyone you talk to today.

Be kind to yourself.

Think well of yourself.

 

Spend a moment alone.

Fill it with something you love.

 

Write,

Think,

… Be.

 

Celebrate.

 

I hadn’t intended to write a poem, more a list of instructions. You decide. I will write about my own celebrations in one post at the end  of the weekend – last night was fabulous though.

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and … lie about your age.

 Enjoy your day!

The Birthday Celebrations Begin!

The heaven’s opened this morning and treated us to a monsoon, which I appreciate as it means the allotment crops have been well and truly watered and I may not have to go and tend to them over my birthday weekend. My other waking thought was that Mr G would get soaked on his way to work – so an un-presidented event occurred and I got up and out of bed before 7:30 a.m

By 9 a.m I was back home having done the supermarket / birthday treat food shop and narrowly avoided a flood – thank goodness I am living in my hometown again after 18 years away, I know it well. The main by-pass was flooded and I had to go through the end of the waters at the height of my car headlights… I made it as it was about 8 metres until the road was clear but the traffic behind me was at stand still and a mini opposite had attempted it and got stuck. Scary stuff.

We FINALLY built the bed last night it was too tempting so after unpacking the shopping and a breakfast of birthday treat cereal (my inner 7 year old made me buy it! Chocolate pillows filled with hazelnut and chocolate mmmmm mmmmmm, a bowl of diabetes right there!) I went back to bed with my book. Of course it wasn’t long before I had to put it down and catch 40 winks. But now I am up again and plan to use the next 3 hours before Mr G is due home from work wisely!

I have been very tired recently and have been attempting to conserve energy for this birthday weekend.

Tonight I am meeting friends at my dad’s Jazz gig – that was another concern this morning in the rain… it is in a marquee outside the pub/hotel. Mr G assured me the weather was meant to pick up and be sunny for the rest of the afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon I am spending dividing my time between blogland, my inbox, chores and more unpacking. I am about to make lunch – my favourite cuisine is Chinese food so I have bought myself a sweet and sour chicken take-away from the supermarket!

The rain has stopped and the skies have brightened up, there’s hope yet for later on!

What Is Your Wish?

Last night I had the joy of babysitting my nephews so my brother could celebrate his birthday. My youngest nephew (now 5) and I were drawing. He was drawing and I was writing a story for him at his request. He had already drawn me a Medieval castle in purple (my favourite colour as he pointed out, then looking at what I was wearing said it was pink – his favourite colour is pink – we have so much in common! Probably because my inner child is around about 5, I remember it as a fun age to be – and I have just spent the year teaching his age group too.) The castle also had heart shaped windows on one turret (bless!) I loved it and it was put on my fridge proudly as soon as I got in despite Mr G trying to serve up hot supper in the kitchen!

He had asked me to write him a story and draw superman – he went to fetch a book (thinking I may have no idea of this superman – it was my era!) He couldn’t find it, so solved the problem by choosing another book, he requested SquareBob Spongepants (a particular favourite of mine!) and handed me that book.

I wrote a story about Taekwondo (which is a favourite past time of both boys, the eldest has just come back from winning Gold and Silver in a tournament in Edinburgh, Scotland!) SpongeBob came to Taekwondo and was partnered with my nephew – he didn’t want to fight his favourite cartoon, but his dad cheered him on, He beat SpongeBob and won the Gold Medal  (every younger brother that has just watched his older brother win wants one. Later that evening he pretended all of his brother’s football trophies were his – I went along with it! It was no small wonder he tried to extend his bed-time, he must have thought Aunty is really stupid, she didn’t even ask why I kept my awards in my brother’s room, I can get to stay up late easily!)

He loved the story – not my best work of fiction but I only had 1 side of A4 and my illustration of SBSP (SpongeBob) was very big (and accurate – I was quite impressed with myself) …

Later on (in the dark) he had me copy his Match Attax football card – I did quite well. By then I was looking after both of them.

The wish….

Part way through our creative time drawing he turned to me and asked;

‘What is your biggest wish? What did you always want to be?’

I thought for a moment and then tried to explain that my biggest wish is to have my books published. He asked what I meant and I explained about writing books using his SBSP book – he then understood.  Thought for a moment, turned back to his desk and within seconds turned around and asked – what else did you used to wish to be?

 

– Obviously knowing the ambitions of his classmates were easier to draw! I had never considered how difficult ‘author’ was to illustrate!

I told him I always wanted to be a ballerina, a ballet dancer.

He smiled, seemed okay with that and turned back to his paper. I carried on with my story and was quite looking forward to having a ballerina to put on my fridge. (He’s 5 remember…)

A while later ‘Look!’ he proudly holds up a picture of scribble. (Don’t all 5 year olds love to regress, it is almost like they have keyed into the fact that they have had the best part of childhood already and want to put the brakes on!)

‘Ohhhh, tell me what it is.’

He smiles at me and then looks at the paper to decide. ‘It’s a Tornado’… as we don’t have them in this country I was quite impressed by this analogy – of course he is CARTOON mad and they happen in those every time a character leaves the scene!

I told my brother he could add the short notice babysitting to the Birthday presents – but really I did it for myself! These boys are brilliant – despite both playing up about bedtime. I just hope they stay treasures as they walk through their lives.

What do you wish for?

 

I smiled – thinking to myself that I had never considered how difficult the concept of AUTHOR is to draw.