WARM GLOW

It has been another difficult week (my life is full of them this year). Got another dreaded phone call on Tuesday morning - Mother was being rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack! One of my colleagues drove me to the hospital. So scary seeing Mother hooked up to so many monitors and screens and wires; truly horrendous! Thank God it turned out to be no more than a strained muscle - but that wasn't established until Wednesday night by which time I'd spent almost as long at the hospital as she had! Barely ate all day Tuesday with all the worry. Nice that Middle Sister, Youngest Sister, Brother in Law and Eldest Neice all got the chance to visit and see how Mother was faring but it was a very dodgy 48 hours I can tell you. Anyway, she is home now. Her confidence has taken another massive knock but I am sure she'll bounce back - she usually does.

I have woken up in fine fettle today. Perhaps it is partly because Mother is ok. But I also think it is because Hubby and I are having Eldest Grand-daughter and Youngest Grandson over for the weekend. Youngest Grandson is now crawling, pulling himself up and navigating his way round by grabbing anything he can along the way - table-cloth, speaker-stand, CD rack, you name it. Eldest Grand-daughter, now three and quite the little madam, has learned (according to her mum) how to be defiant and stubborn and a handful. So Hubby and I have certainly got a busy weekend ahead. Not that we would have them any other way, you understand. But I have a feeling we'll be exhausted by Sunday when they go home.

And finally, very quickly, it is good to see a bit of sunshine don't you think? I know it isn't very warm - but it certainly looks pretty as the sun catches the golden leaves on the trees and the emerald wing of the parakeet.

Wow! I must be feeling good - I am thinking like a poet again!

LONG TIME NO SPEAK!

How are we all? I feel incredibly well-rested after our two weeks in the Channel Islands. Got back last Saturday evening around 8pm. Was shattered Sunday and, after first-dayitis at Day Job, shattered Monday night. Having a quiet five minutes right now, so thought I'd steal a bit of office time and at least make a start on a new blog. I don't want to lose touch with my Blog-spot Buddies.


Gosh - so much has happened since last I wrote that I don't really have a clue where to start. I won't give you a blow-by-blow account of our holiday except to say that I have positively lost my heart to Alderney. Hubby did too. I think it is because it is like a little bit of Olde England! There are no traffic lights, no roundabouts, no regular bus route and there's only one town - St Annes, which largely consists of one street - Victoria Street. Hubby and I got there late afternoon on the Friday before last and left there late afternoon on the following Monday. But - and it is a big But - such is the quality of pure unadulterated Time over there, it actually felt as if we'd been there for weeks and weeks. Doctor Who would understand. Alderney is the Olde Worlde answer to the T>A>R>D>I>S. It is less than four miles by two and only around two and a half thousand people live there! What's more, by the end of Saturday we were on first name terms with virtually everyone we met. It is so idyllic and laid back and unbelievably unspoilt that we just didn't want to leave the place! If you are stuck for a vacation next year and don't know where to go, and you like the quiet lifestyle (half-day closing Wednesday, two hours lunch break every day and a cinema that is only open twice a week), then for goodness sake pay them a visit. Stay at the Victoria Hotel on Victoria Street and give Jenny our love! It is quite ironic that Alderney was the island where we spent the least time (Jersey six days before, Guernsey five days after and one of those was given over to that other little gem Herm) yet it is the one place we cannot stop talking or thinking about. For such a tiny place it surely made a truly huge impression


Good news where the Lollypop contract for the second and third Yuck books are concerned. After much wrangling, wrist-wringing and tearing of hair, Writer, Sarah the Publisher and Ashley the Illustrator are in agreement. What a relief! It has taken us weeks to get there and both sequels have been written. What a culture shock it has been to become a fully-fledged author! But it has been worth every irritating, infuriating and truly wonderful second. My plan now is to try and get some kind of funding that can take me out of work for at least six months to really promote the series and make a good start on research for the new book - not to mention the long-lamented Historical novel.


By far the best news of all and the most magical way to sign off for now is to tell you about the arrival of New Baby Grand-daughter. She was born the day after my last blog and weighed just under 6lb. That was on the Thursday. On Sunday 17th, we hot-tailed it up to Peterborough to meet her. It was a real family get-together, with Youngest Step-daughter, Clever-Son-In-Law and their two little ones also making the pilgrimage. Hubby's parents were unable to make it as they had an appointment with Buckingham Palace (they truly did - will explain another time) - but it was still quite a house-ful for Eldest Step-daughter, Laid-back Son-in-Law and Eldest Grandson to contend with. New Baby Grand-daughter behaved perfectly and received her stream of guests with enormous good grace considering she was only four days old! Oh but she is a little beauty! And I am not at all biased.......

ONE YEAR ON.

On 23rd August - which is actually the day we fly out to Jersey - it will be one year since I pledged on my blog that my goal was to be writing full time by that date one year on. Well - as we all know it hasn't happened. This makes me sit back and take stock of what actually has happened in that 12 months and I am not actually too sure where to begin really. Obviously the Yucketypoo book being published, printed and bound must be the first thing mentioned really - and I still carry the first copy I ever got around wih me because I still get days when I can't believe it has actually happened. Writing-wise, I am pleased that I finally got the two sequels written but we are still not certain the second one will be out by ths Christmas which is something of a worry. Other successes in that area are having another poem accepted for inclusion in a new anthology and the fact that two editors have actually come up and asked me if I'd be interested in writng for them. Robert Hale said they wouldn't mind seeing the fist three chapters and a synopsis of my long-planned but as yet unwritten historical novel so we will have to wait and see if anything comes of that.

On the whole, I am quite pleased with what I have achieved writing-wise but it pains me to relate that I still have not succeeded in finding an agent who is prepared to take me on! I know I still have a huge amount of writing to do - but the problem is lack of time, as ever! And on particularly busy days at the day job, I do wonder sometimes if I am ever going to be able to be really free to just be what I believe God intended me to be. I know He moves in mysterious ways - I just hadn't bargained for all the detours along the way! Again - I will just have to wait and see. I cannot believe I have come this far to just let it all fall by the wayside.

Importantly, I have discovered a whole circle of lovely Blog-spot Buddies who have cheered with me during the high times, brightened my mood during the low times and generally put up with my grumblings, so thank you all.

And now I suppose, I shall just have to start making plans for the next year.

Just one question - does FIFTY ONE & NOT OUT have the same ring to it? Hmmm! That's a poser. Answers on a postcard please!

BLACKPOOL & BACK

What a great week we have just had in Blackpool! The weather was good - only a sprinkling of showers and one heavy downpour - the rest of the week was brilliant sunshine. Blackpool is definitely a 'happening' place; loads going on there and plenty to do and see. Hubby and Eldest Grandson loved it, too. Not quite sure how I ended up going on the Pepsi Max Big One on Pleasure Beach - it is 210' at its highest point. The 'G' force on the first downward sweep is short but very VERY intense! Afterwards, Eldest Grandson and I stood underneath it and wondered how we'd had the guts to do it. I must say in the obligatory photograph which is taken randomly as you start to drop, Eldest Grandson looks terrified whilst good ol' granny (ie - me) has a somewhat inane grin on her face. I actually think that grin was petrified into place because it didn't leave me until we were safely back on terra firma. I almost expected to find I'd wet myself in sheer terror! Hadn't though, thank goodness, so I can forget about the Tenas for a while yet.

After The Big One (210' at its highest point!!!!!!!!!!Ahggg!), the rest of the rides we went on were somewhat tame. Not that we went on that many. We also went up the Tower and did the Walk of Faith on a thick pane of glass set in the floor with clear views all the way down to the street 310' below - at least Eldest Grandson and I did; Hubby (who has no head for heights at all) just closed his eyes and stepped across one corner before opening them again. We also went to the zoo. I am not a huge fan of zoos but I must say this one was quite impressive. The animals are in large spacious enclosures and there are conservation notes up everywhere that tell visitors how they are cared for and what their chances of survival are for the future. I am pleased they are not kept in cages anymore. And having read that elephants might be extinct by 2020 (which would be a tragedy), it is nice to know that future generation will still have the chance to see these magnificent creatures, albeit not in the wilds. Other attractions enjoyed were the Sealife Centre, the Waxworks place (horrible bit in the Chamber of Horrors, though, where you have to walk through a dozen or so corpses wrapped in cellophane and hung on meat hooks in order to get from one part of the grisly exhibition to another. I knew they were not real corpses of course but it sent a singularly unpleasant shiver down my spine as they whumped into me and left me feeling queasy for the next hour), the Ripley's Believe It Or Not exhibition and the Doctor Who museum. One of the best bits of the whole holiday was when we went to see Queen tribute band QEII at the North Pier Theatre on Thursday night. As huge Queen fans all three (even Eldest Grandson), we waited in the bar afterwards to meet up with the band members. Such nice fellas! We ended up chatting for almost an hour and exchanged contact details. Hubby even invited them to come and stay with us if they are ever performing in the South East - and they said they would!

All in all - a great holiday, thoroughly enjoyed by all. On Saturday, we dropped Eldest Grandson in Peterborough on our way home (no sign of Eldest Step-daughter's baby yet, though she looked HUGE, bless her) and finally got in to a very welcoming Cat at around 6pm. Sent out for a Chinese (naturally) for dinner, then slept for most of the weekend! Or at least until Hubby went back to work on Sunday night. The count-down now begins for our two week trip to the Channel Isles which begins on 24th August. And of course by the time we get back from that, Christmas will be peeping round the corner again. Where does the time go?

I am aware that I have almost hit the one-year deadline I set myself when I started this blog last year but I'll look into that next time I write.

Till then - adieu!

SAM, BLACKPOOL and the EX-ARMY OFFICER

Hello everyone. Sorry - I seem to have missed a week somewhere. Maybe escalating time goes hand in hand with escalating age, huh? Or perhaps there is some truth in the old adage that menopausal ladies are just a bit forgetful? Who knows?

It has been a strange couple of weeks. I think my psychic ability - very prevalent in my mis-spent youth - has come back full force. I saw a man in a green jumper this morning who wasn't there the next second; but he was definitely there, standing in a neighbour's garden. He was in his fifties, quite tall with a full head of grey hair and quite distinguished features - as if he'd been a high-rank officer in the army. He watched me walk by. I didn't know him, didn't recognise him (in my little neighbourhood we all know each-other's faces even if we don't know each other's names) but thought I'd nod at him to acknowledge his presence - then he just wasn't there, anymore. I thought to myself 'I wonder who that was?' and carried on walking, as if ex-army officers in green jumpers just pop up out of nowhere every day of the week! Then there's Sam.

Hubby and I moved into our house ten years ago and within weeks of getting there, I started to become aware of the presence of a small boy. I figured him to be about seven, quite slight, fair-haired and mischievious. He never freaked me out. I hung the name Sam on him because it just felt right. At first Hubby was very skeptical. He had always known that I'd had various experiences. I spooked him one day when we were walking along and I said "Who is that man?" "What man?" he asked. "The one that's following us," I told him. We looked round - no man. "You're weird," Hubby said. Anyway, his explanation was that Cat was opening the cupboard door - which fine until we started noticing it when we got up in the morning knowing full well Cat had been shut in the living room as she is every night.

But I think he began to be swayed when things started disappearing, or moving from one place to another. Walking up the stairs one day, I found one of my Lilliput Lane cottages on the top step, for example. I mean no-one in their right mind would deliberately leave a Lilliput Lane cottage in the middle of the top step, would they? More recently, Hubby put seven one pound coins on the dining room table which weren't there when he went to retrieve them. He seriously began to think he'd lost them. Then, one night, a week or so later, we got back from a show and there on the table, were the seven one pound coins. Another time, he knocked an ornament off of the upstairs shelf which he saw go, I heard go but then neither of us could find it. That reappeared in the downstairs hall about a month later, just out of the blue. We get the occasional knock or rap and sometimes Cat's eyes seem to follow something across the room that no-one else can see. I usually say "Is that you, Sam? What are you up to now?" There have been quite a few knocks and raps over the past couple of weeks, actually. Our house is post-war and around fifty years old - I know that exactly because my lovely old neighbour Lily told us she moved into hers when it was brand new. I don't know how to find out the history of a house that is relatively young, so I am not sure how to find out who Sam might have actually been. I'd like to - just to see how close I am! There have been other things but I won't go into them all now. If you want to hear more, let me know, but I don't want to sound like a loopy old lady! I just find the whole thing fascinating.

Next week, change of subject, Hubby and I are off to Blackpool with Eldest Grandson for a week's holiday. We are making the Pontins site our base and we're going on a half-board basis so we won't have to worry about cooking or washing up - apart from the odd cup or glass. There is a lot to do on site - swimming, crazy golf, go-karts, pool, snooker etc plus there's entertainment every night. But I expect we'll do what we usually do and just go out and about and see what's around. Whether Eldest Grandson will persuade me to join him on the roller-coaster at the pleasure beach remains to be seen, but I do know we are going into the tower both to explore it and to see the circus based there. And there seems to be a lot around the area to do and see, so we are all very much looking forward to it. And I will tell you all about it when I come back.

So I'll see you then, blogspot buddies. Have a good week!

FIFTY-ONE AND STILL NOT OUT

I turned 51 on Tuesday 8th July.On the Friday before, Hubby took me for a lovely meal at Dizzy's Diner in Beckenham and then we head into London on Saturday. I quite fancied a trip to the Natural History Museum in Kensington but it was wall-to-wall people so we left after just a couple of hours - and ended up smack in the middle of Gay Pride. The atmosphere was electric and some of the costumes were amazing. At one point we had a dozen or so theatrical surgeons bypassing us, complete in Greens and masks - as well as a number of gents in full stockings, suspenders and basques who quite outshone their similarly dressed female counterparts. It was like finding yourself in the middle of a Rocky Horror set! I looked out for Gay Colleague, who is one of the sweetest, kindest, nicest people I have ever known, but the throng was too great and I didn't see him. Last year Hubby and I got caught in it and walked into Graham Norton who was talking on his mobile phone and looked exactly like he does on TV - if not a little taller.



Tuesday itself was much quieter in comparison. In the evening, Eldest Grandson rang to wish me happy birthday and Grand-daughter called and sang it down the phone - along with a remarkable performance of Do-Re-Me from The Sound of Music - which she evidently sat through on Sunday and became obsessed with. A couple of months ago it was Mary Poppins and for weeks she walked around saying "Spit-Spot" to anyone who left a shoe out of place. I had some nice cards and lovely gifts. I have been reading Linda Lear's biography of Beatrix Potter for weeks and weeks and Hubby bought me a beautiful hard-backed Beatrix Potter journal from Past Times which contains facsimiles of many of her letters and journal entries, family photos and a re-production edition of her privately published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, all laid out like a scrap book and a perfect companion to the biography. I received a number of Smiths' vouchers, a couple of cheques and Mother gave me a gorgeous personalised pen. I also got a photo-mug featuring lots of cameo photos of Grand-daughter and Youngest Grandson, laughing and giggling. So I have, without doubt, been thoroughly spoilt again.

Of course, for every silver lining, there is a cloud and mine came yesterday when I woke up with yet another cold. And this one's a real humdinger. Even so, I managed to convince everyone, inlcuding myself, that I looked and sounded a lot worse than I actually felt, but today, I have got a searing sore throat so there's no hiding it anymore. I have just bought some tyrozets and taken two and they worked like a charm for the first five minutes, numbing the pain completely. But once the effect wore off, I was back to square one again and I can't take anymore till about 5pm this evening. So I am stuck with it. I don't know what is up with Hubby and I in 2008. He has had one cold after another yet a few years ago he was unlucky if he got one a year - and that was usually over Christmas. And it is only a matter of weeks since my horrendous bout of neuralgia. Basically we are falling apart at the seams so God alone knows what we'll be like ten or fifteen years from now, if we don't watch out.

Anway I will be back later with some news. See you then, blogspot buddies.

GOOGLE YUCKETYPOO!!!!!

Hello ya'll!

Since beginning my new role at Present Company, I am often so busy that the entire day passes me by in the blink of an eye and I am left bemused as I settle down to dinner at home in the evening! Very very occasionally, I get two minutes to check my emails or surf Google and the other day, during a very rare quiet moment, I came out of one site where I'd been trying to source linen bags for a client and idly tapped YUCKETYPOO into the search box. I nearly fell off my chair! There were pages of it, in everything from French to Japanese and who knows what all in between. If news of the book is hitting foreign book sites likes these, why aren't I earning more commission from it? I was flattered, horrified and completely astonished all at once. So then I tried Yahoo and there it was again! So it does look as if word is steadily creeping through, despite the fact that I often feel completely disconnected from it because I hear so little about what is actually happening.

As it turns out, my Google discovery co-incided almost supernaturally with the arrival of some of Ashley the Illustrator's latest offerings by email which are just brilliant. Sarah the Publisher thinks we may still have a chance of launching the second in the series this year after all which would be a huge relief. There are other things going on that I can't actually tell you about at this moment in time but I will update soon as I can. If they come off, it will be a major step forward. The good thing of course is that all this activity has fired me up again and it is my intention to make a list of schools, book shops, Beaver and Rainbow packs and local libraries by the end of this week so that I can line up some visits, talks and maybe book signings. Fingers crossed.

Watch this space.