I got home last night to a nice shock. I was walking up my road to my house when I noticed that something was different. I looked and looked again and shock horror, the tree outside our neighbour's which has caused all the bother recently was just a stump. The council had ordered for it be to cut down and so my mum got a nice birthday present yesterday seeing men chop it down. They jokingly said that they would try their best to hit my car (ha ha). They didn't, so that was good. Apparently they said that bees only burrow in trees if it's already rotten. Anyway someone else will be coming at a later date to take the stump away. Hooray!!!! I certainly didn't think it would ever happen, but it has and I am so pleased. At least I won't have the possibility of any more branches coming down on to my car during the winter.
On the writing front. I am half way through Chapter 13 of Bug and am enjoying it. Can't wait to finish the first draft and get on with rewriting the 2nd draft.
Well, must get on with some work now.
Thursday, 27 September 2007
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Recycling and chemical nasties
I didn't mention before that a couple of weeks ago my mum and I found our local Tetrapak recycling bank, which I'm really pleased about. As family and work colleagues know, I am very proactive when it comes to recycling and I wanted to recycle my milk cartons which were tetrapak. I read in our local paper the other week there were 2 local but mum couldn't find one and we found the other. So now mum goes up there (15 mins walk from home) about once a month to take my cartons.
I have recently decided to try and go organic and green with my cosmetics at home ie face and hand washes etc. I have been reading in the papers and in health magazines about these chemicals called Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate (SLS), aliminium, parabens and propylene glycol all can cause harm to the skin. SLS was in the toothpaste so I bought some organic SLS free toothpaste, aliminium is in deodorants so I bought an aliminium free roll-on, and am now looking at other products that don't have these things in, and a lot of wash stuff does. There is a Neal's Yard Remedies place near here at my work place so I might go and have a look lunch time today instead of writing. I said to my mum last night that all these chemicals are like these E numbers and additives that people are creating about now. Why food producers put all these things in the foods I don't know especially when they are saying they can cause all these problems in children now, although this scenario was brought up years ago.
Well, must get on with some work.
I have recently decided to try and go organic and green with my cosmetics at home ie face and hand washes etc. I have been reading in the papers and in health magazines about these chemicals called Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate (SLS), aliminium, parabens and propylene glycol all can cause harm to the skin. SLS was in the toothpaste so I bought some organic SLS free toothpaste, aliminium is in deodorants so I bought an aliminium free roll-on, and am now looking at other products that don't have these things in, and a lot of wash stuff does. There is a Neal's Yard Remedies place near here at my work place so I might go and have a look lunch time today instead of writing. I said to my mum last night that all these chemicals are like these E numbers and additives that people are creating about now. Why food producers put all these things in the foods I don't know especially when they are saying they can cause all these problems in children now, although this scenario was brought up years ago.
Well, must get on with some work.
Friday, 21 September 2007
My 2nd SCBWI talk
I went to another SCBWI talk last night and really enjoyed it. I found the pub which is only a minute or so from Charing Cross station and had a dinner of rib-eye steak, chunky chips and a bit of salad (tomato and red onion - very hot). Then some water. I had to wait for a while because a few members were having a private chat before I was able to go up to the room to the meeting. I bought 5 books by the author, one of which I got signed, and I caught up with what's happening with a couple of friends I knew via the RNA, and chatted to a couple of other writers I know now. Then was the talk by the author, Sally Gardener, who has written for all children's ages and is now writing for teens. She was a very interesting lady who has had an interesting career. She was found to be very dyslexic when she was a child and because no one knew what was wrong with her in those days she was sent to a maladjustment school. Because of her disability she went into theatre costume design for some years until she wasn't happy anymore then she reinvented herself by saying she always wanted to be an illustrator. That was her second career, which led her to her third as a writer. What I should say that she discovered early on that she had the wonderful gift of seeing pictures of things in her mind which has helped her in her second career. She said that she loves writing for children and wants to continue doing so for as long as she can, and doesn't see herself as writing for adults as she doesn't particularly like adults much, and because of her disability she can relate to children more. She told us that when writing for children, the words should be manageable and gave an example that when she writes and comes across an awkward word she asks herself if little Johnny would struggle with this word and says yes so puts in other easier words instead. Also, we should never patronise because children could be cleverer than the writers. When we think about pacing we should stay on edge, and possibly think of music of its ups and down tempo. She said that we should have a voice which is how we write, and it is best advised to go through an agent because she finds hers very helpful and beneficial. All in all I had a good time, and on the way home I bought a sultana flapjack which I ate on the trains home and really enjoyed, although I didn't think it had as much taste as GM's bars. I got home about 9.20pm and thought my body would be so tired I would sleep through the night but I think I had too much to drink last night and ended up getting up and couldn't sleep that well after that, and now I am tired. Thankfully I am enrolling this morning and it's quite quiet so I can cope. Back in the office and busy this afternoon.
Must go now and get on with enrolment.
Must go now and get on with enrolment.
Monday, 17 September 2007
I'm still alive
I haven't posted here for a while for 2 reasons. 1) Got busy at work then 2) I got sick with a cold-cum-viral infection and have only just returned to work today after being off for just over a week. It started as a cold then once that died off I got tired and weak, so went to the dr's who said it's a viral infection and gave me the rest of the week off. Needless to say during that time I didn't do any proper writing, just notes here and there, oh and final amendments to the story I'd already sent to a small press magazine. Meanwhile I did get a rejection letter from Woman's Weekly but I have another story in mind to send. I didn't do any writing today but probably will get back to work on Bug tomorrow. While I was off I really got into tv cooking programmes and started watching Ready, Steady Cook which I enjoyed. I had already been watching Jamie and Nigella, and have even bought the Nigella Express book, and will probably buy the Jamie book too.
Has anything happened to you that you think it's fate? Well, this happened to my mum last week. She got stuck on a bus in traffic on the way back from shopping and cursed at the time but later changed her mind, because if the bus hadn't have been late returning, she wouldn't have bumped into a woman who works for the council and who she'd spoken to before about the bad tree by our house, and wouldn't have found out that her husband is actually our local councillor. So mum went down the road and spoke to him, in his dressing gown (he had to get up early to contact overseas) about the tree. He said that it was ongoing and thought that it was being dealt with and said he would look into it. Then mum bumped into a neighbour who had already put a claim in to the council about the tree and gave my mum the phone number to check that they'd received my letter. They had and I got an acknowledgement letter 2 days later saying they were investigating the problem. Then my mum finally bumped into another neighbour and found out what had happened to his car which she'd seen being towed away. He'd been in an accident and the front of his car had been seriously damaged causing £3,500 worth of damage. Fate, that was what it was.
Well, must get on with some work now.
Has anything happened to you that you think it's fate? Well, this happened to my mum last week. She got stuck on a bus in traffic on the way back from shopping and cursed at the time but later changed her mind, because if the bus hadn't have been late returning, she wouldn't have bumped into a woman who works for the council and who she'd spoken to before about the bad tree by our house, and wouldn't have found out that her husband is actually our local councillor. So mum went down the road and spoke to him, in his dressing gown (he had to get up early to contact overseas) about the tree. He said that it was ongoing and thought that it was being dealt with and said he would look into it. Then mum bumped into a neighbour who had already put a claim in to the council about the tree and gave my mum the phone number to check that they'd received my letter. They had and I got an acknowledgement letter 2 days later saying they were investigating the problem. Then my mum finally bumped into another neighbour and found out what had happened to his car which she'd seen being towed away. He'd been in an accident and the front of his car had been seriously damaged causing £3,500 worth of damage. Fate, that was what it was.
Well, must get on with some work now.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Camomile and Rosie
I think I have found the culprit for my disturbed nights. I think it's camomile because I was working out what I might have started eating/drinking differently at the start of the year, when I started to have disturbed nights, and the thing I came up with is camomile. I also looked on the internet about camomile and there had been a survey where people were given camomile to drink 5 times a day (I only had been having one a day) and it was found out that these people's urine levels had increased. Which is what was happening to me, causing me to get up during the night. So most of my teabags I had at home I've given to my next door neighbour and the ones I have at work I'm drinking in the mornings to see if it makes any difference. Watch this space.
OK, Rosie is bursting to tell you about her second week at school during the bug period. Here she is.
Hi, I'm back. Well, first thing Monday was our teacher and pupil meeting where we told the teachers what we decided about getting help. They all agreed. So my enemy won't know what's hit him now. My aunt Lucy gave us our first dancing lesson with the jive and I had to encourage the class by mentioning merits to get them moving. My second lesson was ICT and I got a message from my enemy, which I found out what it meant at lunch time. He tried to make my team turn unhealthy by tricking their muses to thinking that junk food was tasty but I got revenge again. Then I started to wonder if Mrs Zabberwol, our head, had powers because I had a dilemma and she appeared out of nowhere, to help me. I decided she did considering I already knew that our PE teacher, Miss Fulmore, had powers. At the end of the day, I made the announcement to everyone about our food experience week and felt that I was winning this battle. But when I got home onto my pc, I had a shocking message from my enemy warning me not to be too sure. Oh, war was on, I can tell you. You wait, I thought until tomorrow...
Right, I shall let Julie talk again.
I'm back. You might have noticed that I've mentioned teacher's names when I've been writing as Rosie from my book Bug and wonder where I get them from. Well, Mrs Zabberwol sort of comes from my old secondary school head teacher Mrs Zackerwich (can't remember if that's spelt right or not), Miss Fulmore for PE, I think that my PE teacher had a similar name. Maths for Rosie is Mr Holroyd, which is a combination of my old maths and RE teacher. I try to think up of names similar to teachers I had or combine them. Rosie has Miss Beesy for HomeEc and I think there was a teacher's assistant at my primary school called that (or like that) whom I really liked then and wanted to portray her as a nice teacher in this book. But for Rosie's ICT teacher I thought of an appropriate name, Mr Byte, as he's a computer person. I'd be interested to know what others think of these names, so if you do read this, please feel free to email me with your opinion.
OK, Rosie is bursting to tell you about her second week at school during the bug period. Here she is.
Hi, I'm back. Well, first thing Monday was our teacher and pupil meeting where we told the teachers what we decided about getting help. They all agreed. So my enemy won't know what's hit him now. My aunt Lucy gave us our first dancing lesson with the jive and I had to encourage the class by mentioning merits to get them moving. My second lesson was ICT and I got a message from my enemy, which I found out what it meant at lunch time. He tried to make my team turn unhealthy by tricking their muses to thinking that junk food was tasty but I got revenge again. Then I started to wonder if Mrs Zabberwol, our head, had powers because I had a dilemma and she appeared out of nowhere, to help me. I decided she did considering I already knew that our PE teacher, Miss Fulmore, had powers. At the end of the day, I made the announcement to everyone about our food experience week and felt that I was winning this battle. But when I got home onto my pc, I had a shocking message from my enemy warning me not to be too sure. Oh, war was on, I can tell you. You wait, I thought until tomorrow...
Right, I shall let Julie talk again.
I'm back. You might have noticed that I've mentioned teacher's names when I've been writing as Rosie from my book Bug and wonder where I get them from. Well, Mrs Zabberwol sort of comes from my old secondary school head teacher Mrs Zackerwich (can't remember if that's spelt right or not), Miss Fulmore for PE, I think that my PE teacher had a similar name. Maths for Rosie is Mr Holroyd, which is a combination of my old maths and RE teacher. I try to think up of names similar to teachers I had or combine them. Rosie has Miss Beesy for HomeEc and I think there was a teacher's assistant at my primary school called that (or like that) whom I really liked then and wanted to portray her as a nice teacher in this book. But for Rosie's ICT teacher I thought of an appropriate name, Mr Byte, as he's a computer person. I'd be interested to know what others think of these names, so if you do read this, please feel free to email me with your opinion.
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