I'm in the middle of reading Julie Cohen's Spirit Willing Flesh Weak and loving it. I've also read Featured Attraction too and totally adored Oz - glorious hunk on a bike (the type with a motor, not the pedalling kind, I don't think bicycle clips have quite the same je ne sais quois as leathers).

As Philip Glenister was to be a guest on The Chris Moyles Show this morning, I agreed to drive the youngsters to school - yes, the dreaded school run - so that they could listen to the radio. Sitting through the traffic I had to endure questions such as, "Are you sure he was supposed to be on this morning?" and "Aww I bet we've missed him." Unfortunately for them PG was held up in traffic and only arrived in the studio as both teenagers were stepping out of the car. "Never mind," said I doing my utmost to cheer them up. "You can always listen to it later on iTube." They found this hysterically funny and both ambled off up their hills to school in hysterics.

It's the last one of Mistresses tonight, so I shall sit back with a glass of rose and enjoy that. I'm not quite sure where they all get their energy from to be honest, but it's fun to watch.

Beach, Baftas & Brainstorming

Yesterday, whilst dh planted more potatoes (thank heavens I haven't given them up, although I doubt we shall have any to eat until after Lent) I took dd and Grumpy down to Greve de Lecq to give him a trot along the beach whilst dd went and bought the Sunday papers from Colleen's Cafe (great food, especially the fish and chips).

It was a glorious day and there were a few families settled for the day with children digging moats and playing with dogs whilst others boogie boarded in the sea. Then it was home to help with some gardening. My sort of helping is to cut back all the hydrangeas (quite a few) and pull up weeds and dead things whilst a very huffy teenage daughter follows behind picking up all my cuttings etc. At least it was warm enough to eat lunch outside and I then much to everyone's relief and left them to do homework (dd) and clear up after me (dh) and retired to my shed.

Later on, determined to get an early night, I went to bed to watch Larkrise to Candleford (still loving it) and the Baftas. I love a good awards ceremony and although this one was rather spectacular and the awards spread evenly around (according to the chap on Sky), I did find it a little boring although I was thrilled to see Marion Cotillard winning Best Actress for her part in La Vie en Rose. I thought I'd seen her somewhere before then it dawned on me that she had been in, A Good Year with Russell Crowe and I'd only watched that the night before.

I was just dozing off when I glanced at the Pukkapad on my bedside table and saw my notes for the script that I was supposed to be writing and so spent the next hour brainstorming and plotting until I was reasonably happy with the bare bones of what I'd come up with. Poor dh crept in at midnight having just finished work and said, "Why are you still awake?" I rarely go to sleep before 1am, so I don't know why he bothered to ask this, but the poor soul hates it when he comes home, tired and wanting to sleep and I'm still wide awake as I usually start talking. Needless to say, I did ask him what he thought of my plot and he assured me it was great but whether that was because he was desperate for me to shut up and let him sleep or because he actually did like it, I'm not quite sure.

Busy doing nothing

I was sent this pic today with an email saying, "I will be unable to return emails today as something has crashed on my keyboard." So adorable.

As it's Friday (thank heaven's for that) everyone at work was talking about what they are doing over the weekend and when I was asked I replied, "Nothing really." It was only on the way home in the car - stuck in an endless queue of traffic - it occurred to me that my idea of nothing is:

Tonight: Collect J & S from the bus, take J for a haircut and S to the shop for birthday card for friend and food etc, meet J and go home. Cook supper, then drop J off at his job. Write for a bit and put a wash in the machine, collect J then relax and watch tv.

Saturday: Shops for papers, take S to buy her friend a present, home & write for a bit, take Grumpy for a walk, drop S at friend's house, home to write and do more washing etc then collect S later in the evening.

Sunday: Help dh in the garden for a couple of hours, re-pot other plants that haven't got round to doing as yet, bellow at least 3 times to wake J and then drop him off at his job, home to write or whatever then collect J and in between make lunch, supper etc.

That is my idea (like most parents, I should think) of a weekend doing absolutely nothing! Hey, I'm not complaining, I would rather do this that be at work any day of the week.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Happy Chinese New Year. If you were born in 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 - you were born under the sign of the rat. Apparently, you are always busily pursuing a personal goal or ambition, and one of the hardest-working signs in the Chinese zodiac. 2008 is a year for Rats to overcome any recent setbacks and a year in which they can shine, either personally or professionally. What a brilliant year for Rats to look forward to. What a pity that I'm an Ox.

Thanks to Lane for sending me my lovely award the other day (apologies for taking so long to pass it on - thanks again to Lane for her help here too). So here goes: Helen Motherx Phillipa Casdok Ray-Anne L-Plate Author Fiona Chris

I came up with the idea of my next novel a few weeks ago and then was delighted to have one of those 'dawning' moments last night regarding the plot, so shall start working on it. I haven't thought of a name as yet but that will come no doubt.

Happy New Year once again.

Awards, Pancake Day & Being Useless

The lovely Lane forwarded this award to me - my very first award and I think it's great. I'm supposed to forward it on to 10 people and although I've tried - for the past 40 minutes - I know, I know, I am totally hopeless and can't seem to figure out how to link/tag/not sure what it is called, the 10 people's names. So if anyone can help me as obviously I must be having an even blonder day than usual, I would be most grateful.

Thankfully it's Pancake Day and dd and I made up our batter last night and put it in the fridge. I have no idea why I should do that but my grandmother told me years ago that I should and I never thought to ask why, I just do it. So in a minute I shall don my pink polkadot apron and get pancake tossing! We have some glorious maple syrup kindly donated by a Canadian legal firm that I deal with through work and the children have been desperate to try it out. I think more because they like the bottle than anything else.

Groundhog Day...

Monday AGAIN! Oh well, at least work is over with for the day, thankfully. I shouldn't really moan as I had a most productive day today and managed to finish something that I expected would take longer than it did (thanks so someone else's help). The mirrors in the Ladies still disturb me horribly though. I never knew I was so fat or so short. Dh insists that I'm not but he's always been such a kind chap that I wouldn't expect him to say anything else really.

The weekend was great and I sent off two submissions, I shan't hold my breath but I have to start somewhere and at least attempt to get out there. This week I have to seriously move forward with my next assignment for my course as I haven't done nearly as much with that as I should and am seriously behind as I've been concentrating on my books.

Talking of writing, when do you know that your work is good enough to send out? It doesn't matter how many times I redraft a m/s, I'm never sure whether I should do it one more time just to make sure that it's as good as it can possibly be?

My favourite evening of the week!

I'm so excited - as I inevitably am on a Friday evening - I can't wait to slump, glass of rose in hand and guffaw at Jam & Jerusalem, followed by Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach. I've just returned from dropping ds off for training at his part-time job and could see the lights from both Guernsey (from where I dropped him off) and France (when nearly at home). You can usually see them clearer before bad weather (I think that's right, though probably a load of old cobblers, I'll believe anything).

It's so damn cold here (although I appreciate that it is probably warmer than most places in the UK) and our oil is dangerously low. Dh did order a delivery, as no doubt did 95% of the rest of the population once seeing the weather forecast and they told him that they can't deliver until Tuesday. TUESDAY! I only hope that we don't run out before then. I don't do cold/wind/rain/diets...

Talking of diets, I had an extremely unsettling shock this morning when entering the small corridor where the two ladies loos are at work. Strolling in, minding my own business only to be greeted by an aging hag who turned out to be me. Who the hell decided that it would be a good idea to put a full length mirror on the wall facing you as you walked in, especially without giving prior warning that it was there.

On the way out though, I couldn't help having a sneaky peak at how I looked from behind...well, if that isn't a writer's bum then I don't know what is? When did I get to look like this? WHEN! To be honest, I think I've been this way for a while but it's only since moving offices and merging with three other companies, two of which seem to only employ 18 year old, six foot, size 6 model types... SO damned depressing. That's it, I'm off to the fridge to find the wine.