Gentle nudge - 50 things that make me happy...

Totals...Twitter 2 so far this morning - obviously only because I am avoiding doing anything actually productive...Facebook...one status update but many comments on friends threads once again a ploy to avoid any actual work!...Actual productive writing...nothing (hangs head in shame) studying and wedding planning eating all of my time.
Cups of coffee...2...cupcake...1 (home made gluten free with mini dinosaurs on it!!)
Mostly on Spotify this morning...Birdie, James Bay, John Mayer.

So in an attempt to once again re-kindle my motivation for blogging I have been sent a proverbial kick up the rear by a friend https://peachjones.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/50-things-that-make-me-happy , thank you so much! But here goes with my list...

Wilbur

Archie invasion

Milo rocking his bow tie

1. I am going to steal this one! (sorry Peach!) but my pets no matter what the day brings they can make you smile in an instant! Archie (the tabby) thinks that my writing cave is his own and that when I enter it gives him licence to lay across everything ensuring that nothing actually gets done. The fact that he is currently asleep gives me chance to do this!

My Dad

Me and my fiancée!

2. My family, friends  and my husband to be!
I don't have many family members that live close by apart from 

My Mum and Milo

an aunt, uncle and cousin the remainder of my family live
in Devon. Since moving here I have made some amazing friends and they fulfil the role of surrogate family and I truly value the friendships made.  But I don't think I have really appreciated how far away my family live, that is until recently on one of my many  'Bridezilla' mega meltdowns! The fact that by default I get to become part of another amazing family very soon makes me feel really happy.


3. PENGUINS!!! obviously! I can't help it and think as the years pass I may actually love these little creatures even more, and besides my pets they also have the ability to make me smile even on the most rubbish of days!

4. Baking.
There is nothing better than coming home from a stressful day than baking, at the moment I am trying to perfect my decorating skills in readiness for tackling our wedding cake for October. I guess I am basically a feeder, but people seem to like my cakes and I get the practice - what's not to love?!

 5. The Water, growing up almost a stones throw away from some of the most amazing beaches in the UK I think I was spoilt, so nothing makes me happier than being next to the sea or any body of water. I could sit for hours and am sad that
I haven't done that as much as I would have liked recently. Definitely something I intend to change.

6. Norwich, my new (or not so new) town. I have been reliably informed that you do not become a native until you have lived in Norfolk for 30 years + so having been here for a little over five years I guess I have a way to go yet!

7. My paid  job, I guess I am in a lucky position in that I really enjoy the job I do and like Peach this is in the NHS and I feel privileged that I get to play a small part in our patients recovery.

8. My unpaid (at the moment!) job, as much as I hate to admit my writing has really taken a back seat to studying and wedding planning at the moment. My first novel has been completed for some time I am just waiting to finalise the cover then make the decision on self publishing or not. There is no doubt in my mind that I am a happier person when I make time to write so I am going to have to make a conscious effort to fit more in.

9. Making things, many of the things I have been making recently I can't post on here yet as they are top secret until the wedding, but making things remind me of my Nan who is sadly no longer with us. I always remember her making something!

Hummus & avocado waffle  

10. Books/reading, I can't believe I have not put this earlier but books make me really happy, I have a kindle ap - I don't have an actual kindle. I love books too much and guess it come down to wanting to see  my book in a physical form.

Chocolate mousse waffleyloviness

11. My writing cave, it's kind of my little sanctuary, no boys allowed!

12. New York - my favourite holiday ever, and hoping to go back in the new year.
13. Dinosaurs! I haver n no idea about the why or the origin of this but I am the proud owner of a triceratops called Trevor who sits on my bookshelf in my cave.

14. Fairy lights, not just at Christmas!


15. Tea, I drink lots.

16. Noodles made from courgettes my new favourite thing.

17. The Waffle House in Norwich.


18. Music, I can totally be without a television but would be miserable without music or a radio.

19. Wagamama's enough said!

20. Spin classes (needed to balance out the food!!) is it wrong to enjoy 45 minutes of being beasted by a fitness instructor?21. Walking home in the rain.

22. Snow.

23. The fact that I graduated completing a foundation degree while working full time and actually enjoyed studying!

24. Plymouth Hoe, one of my favourite places when I go home.

25.  Ice cream.

26. Getting my nails done.

27. Lazy days off with nothing planned.

28. Being spontaneous.

29. Crazy golf (my new favourite thing!)

30. My pj's!

31. Meeting and making new friends - took me a while when moving to a new place.

32. Old friends and the fact you may not speak often but when you do it's like nothing has changed.

33. Train rides.

34. Things that are spotty and meant to be that way!

35. Crazy cousins.

36. Unexpected gifts.

37. My Dad on Facebook.

38. Knitting - when its all going to plan.

39. My obsession with Ryan Reynolds (sorry David).

40. My obsession with Sandra  Bullock (not sorry!)

41. Not having to work nightshifts anymore.

42. Brussel sprouts

43. Yoga.

44. New notebooks and my fountain pen (normally means I have found some time to write).

45. Purple.

46. My bath tub its huge!

47. Laughing so much it makes you cry.

48. Covering my grey hair (thanks to my Dad's faulty genes)

49. Cinema trips.

50. Peach Jones the  person who nominated me  for this!

Back to reality...

Totals...Twitter 7 Tweets ... Facebook...2 status updates ...blog entry...one in progress...actual productive writing of my novel...nothing I'm editing! Cups of coffee...1 Cupcakes ...0 (Replaced with carrot cake today!)
Music mostly on my itunes this evening; Marcus Foster, Chopin (Yes really!)

I have to admit I've been fairly lax with the blog updates over the past few days. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly it has been my birthday. They don't seem to bother me now, I had a really issue on my 29th birthday right up until a month before my 30th and now I don't care! (I was 35 this birthday in case you were wondering!) I had a great time, got thoroughly spoilt, spent a considerable amount of time in my local Waterstone's in Norwich spending my birthday voucher (making my inner bookworm very happy!) and then went out for a celebratory waffle with friends in the evening. So my day in pictures went a bit like this...

My birthday (cake) provided by my Auntie who I met for breakfast at 0800hrs not realising that I could have actually had a lie in but never mind we sat and yawned together and it was nice to see her!

These were actually cookies in the shape of cupcakes (major sugar overload) and were a gift from one of my housemates who said he'd cheated and bought them as his cooking is rubbish! Never the less they were lovely and provided much needed substance later in the day when returning from dinner after much wine was consumed.

Completely spoilt!! Lots of prezzies and lots of books to keep me busy for a little while while I edit, and have a breather before I start writing again.

Birthday waffle, mushroom and cheese sauce, very nice!!

Birthday dessert waffle, chocolate mousse with cream and banana and chocolate sprinkles. Well it would have been rude not too!

Finally after all the trauma with the printer, here it is. The first draft of my second novel I would give you the title but I'm not sure I'm feeling the love for it yet so may change it still. However that being said I am now starting to work my way through tweaking things a little before it gets sent on its merry way to be edited professionally! It was a weird feeling and actually kind of emotional seeing it all printed in front of me, not sure I will ever get used to that, not that I think I'd ever want to feel less excited at the achievement!

Sadly now my holiday is almost over, I go back to the day job on Sunday and it will be nice to see everyone but I know I will be itching to get home again each day to get through with this first draft as soon as it's now going to have to take a bit of a back seat now that I am returning to the job that pays the bills and keeps a roof over my head!

It will also be a bit of a relief to have the cakes and chocolate and everything else gone and get stuck into the healthy eating again and get myself back to the gym which I have to say I have neglected for a little while and I am starting to feel guilty so it must be time to go back! The idea for the plot and the main character for the book pictured above came to me while I was actually at the gym swimming (very slowly, I can swim for ages but I'm not very fast and I'm a boring swimmer I use the same stroke). It was probably because of the repetitive motion I was able to just switch off and after about forty-five minutes had to get out and grab my notebook. I scribbled furiously until I'd written as much of the plot and character information I could remember before it drowned in the abyss of my brain never to be thought of again. If it's successfully published I suppose I will have the gym to thank but until then I will probably continue to return begrudgingly.  

bump back down to earth...

Totals...Twitter 9 Tweets ... Facebook...1 status updates ...blog entry...one in progress...actual productive writing of my novel...2500 words and finished 1st draft, Cups of coffee...1 Cupcakes ...1
Music mostly on my itunes this evening; Westlife, Ed Sheeran, Christina Perri.

Today has been a bit of a roller coaster, it's the first day of my holiday from the day job and I've planned nothing except a birthday dinner but that's not until next week so I thought it would give me ample time to sit and focus on meeting my self imposed deadline to finish the first draft of the novel I am currently writing.
Then today this happened...

Well, it happened in as much as I went to the counter and purchased them. I am sure you will agree it is a fine looking breakfast? I then sat and wrote like a woman possessed and something happened. Amazingly I finished my first draft a week early and ended up with cramp in my hand for my efforts but it was well worth it. I then walked around in the sunshine with a cheesy grin on my face feeling very pleased with myself. Not only does it mean I get to crack on with my edits now but I get my wall back...

Admittedly its not a great picture but what you are looking at is my storyboard of sorts. I got tangled in time lines for this novel so the easiest way around it for me was to map it out with the different characters and plot lines to make it more simple to manage and it worked too. Now I have a big empty wall and need to find something to put in it's place.

If this wasn't exciting enough I am getting to grips with Twitter (I think!) and last night joined in with a chat to Deborah Harkness who wrote my favourite book of the moment, A Discovery of Witches http://deborahharkness.com/ I will willingly admit I have read it more than once and also gave it to my mum for mother's day and she read it in three days and had the same reaction as me that she was gutted she had finished it and we're not able to read the next instalment until it's release on 10th July this year. I was very excited that I got responses to my questions, hopefully one day someone will have the same reaction to something I have written? I can live in hope!

Then this evening while celebrating my achievements...





Red wine. Of course!
Mid first glass I look at my phone and have received a text from my mum. She tells me her auntie had sadly passed away this morning. Right off I have to admit I have not spent much time with the relative on my mums side of the family as many of them live near the top of Scotland and I have only ever been as far as Gretna Green for a friends wedding. But of course I was saddened to hear the news and just makes you realise that no matter what is happening to you in your life good or bad there are always others worse off. From the nice things that my mum has said about her auntie she sounded like a lovely lady who had endured a difficult life at times but treated those she knew and met with immense kindness. So tonight and through this difficult time my thoughts are with those left behind. A somber note to leave it on this evening but I feel it's only right to stop here.

Hacks and sugar rush!

Totals...Twitter 9 Tweets (actually by me apparently many more when my account was hacked)... Facebook...1 status updates ...blog entry...one in progress...actual productive writing of my novel...0(ish) words, Cups of coffee...3 Cupcakes ...0 but photographic evidence below of lunch more than makes up for this!

Music mostly on my itunes this evening; Maroon 5, Elbow, Muse

I'm feeling a little vulnerable today after realising my Twitter account got hacked, it's a little annoying and I am hoping now all is sorted - but I suppose it served a purpose to make me be more vigilant in future. I realise these people's intelligence far exceeds mine but I'm at a loss really my life isn't even that interesting!
In any case the rest of today has been great - and would only have been made better if the sun actually came out! I can guarantee it will come out tomorrow and the reason I know this is because I am back at the day job tomorrow! So as is pretty much always the way we will have sunshine and amazing temperatures I am sure!

Today's photo comes courtesy of my lunch...well it was about 1130am so it was close enough!

It was pretty good, gooey chocolate mousse, nuts and bananas topped of course with maple syrup (it would have been rude not too!) I decided that this was a worthy replacement of a cupcake today thanks to the culinary expertise of The Waffle House in Norwich. It was also great to spend the day with my parents and nephew too hopefully I will get to spend more time before they return back down south on Friday. Not sure I could handle another waffle though!

I'm starting to feel a little guilty at the lack of writing so I really need to get that sorted in the next few days or I'm going to be disappointed to miss my deadline which would be a shame when I am so close. So I need to knuckle down to it as soon as possible. I am making a commitment right here that I will write at least something tomorrow, will keep you posted on the progress as always!



numb...

Totals...Twitter 8 Tweets Facebook...1 status updates ...blog entry...one in progress...actual productive writing of my novel...1500(ish) words, Cups of coffee...1 Cupcakes ...1

Music mostly on my itunes this evening; James Morrison, Christina Perri

Having had two days off from my day job (I work shifts so I guess this was my weekend!) and due to the incessant rain of yesterday I spent pretty much all day refusing to go anywhere and refusing to get dressed and had a productive writing day instead which was great. This morning the sun was shinning so I went for a walk to my local park and fed the ducks...

Yes, we have clever ducks here, they even have a special crossing!

In any case after my walk I felt inspired to write again and am amazed at my productivity even if I did occasionally get sidetracked by the lure of facebook and twitter - but 1500 words down and I have broken 100,000 words and am almost through with the intially writing phase of this novel which is very different from my last, in that its funny - well I hope it is I tested the first few pages on a friend who spat out her cup of tea (I'm hoping that was a good sign? Who knows!).

Unfortunately I got lost in my own little world and kept typing and finally got up and realised I must have the most uncomfortable chair in the world - OK maybe not world but Norwich at least because my bottom is incredibly numb...so before any further two day writing marathon's I'm seriously going to have to re-think the chair situation. I have an exercise ball which is quite comfy to sit on, unfortunately I wouldn't be able to reach the keyboard. All suggestions gratefully received and yes I know I should have had a break but I was engrossed in what I was doing and didn't want to stop.

I'm a little sad that I won't have so much time to write over the next few days as I am back at my day job (which I love by the way) but it infringes upon writing time!

As well as this a welcome distraction in the form of my parents and seven year old nephew are coming to visit I've not seen them since Christmas so I will allow myself time off the writing for that, because as it stands it looks like I'm going to meet my self imposed deadline!!!

Time to get up out of this chair, that's all for tonight!

Goodnight.