Happy New Year - especially to J & S xxx

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2008 and hope that it is a healthy, happy and fulfilling year for everyone.

Thank you to everyone who has kept me company and read my (almost) daily ramblings. Also thanks for all the encouragement I've received this year and for the messages posted here, please keep them coming.

Dh, the boys, Grumpy and I will be spending the evening eating a Chinese meal, consuming a bottle of champagne and saying a toast to absent friends/family members who are busy elsewhere. I look forward to ds and dd - who are enjoying a holiday snowboarding in Austria - returning home and telling me all about it.

HERE'S TO 2008.......................

Reading Paige - Draft 1 - Finished

Hurrah, I've finished my first draft of Reading Paige. I wrote over 5,000 words yesterday and thought that I'd finished for the day. However, one of my sisters phoned and chatted until 9.25pm and then wanting to catch the last half an hour of the divine Richard Armitage in the Vicar of Dibley (so funny and yes I know I shouldn't have a television in the shed but what can I say... I did turn the tv off as soon as VOD finished) and ended up working on my m/s until 1.05am this morning when I finally reached The End! I'm so thrilled because I had hoped to have it completed by the end of the year and to have done so is marvellous. I shall now leave it for a couple of weeks and carry on with my 101 other writing projects that I want to get on with, ie course that I've still only done three assignments on, redrafting other m/s, etc.

In celebration of the fact that I was too tired (not to mention nearly blind) to creep out to the shed this afternoon, dh, boys and Grumpy went with me to St Ouen's where we walked along the beach (see pic of Grumpy on his usual route march) and then sat outside at The Watersplash and ate lunch - very tasty it was too. It wasn't too cold in the sun either - as we know, I don't do cold.

I shall now light a fire and settle down to watch the documentary on JK Rowling (one can always dream) and "The Shadow in the North" with Billie Piper and then hopefully get a good nights sleep so that my eyes can recover a tad before starting work tomorrow.

Robin Hood Series 2 ends!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo! Okay so I know I'm a sad, pathetic fool but its been a long time since didn't have something to look forward to featuring Richard Armitage. Now that the Robin Hood series has finished I feel thoroughly fed up. I shall have to contend with gazing at my Sir Guy model and his faithful horse in my shed for the time being. Mind you I did watch a trailer on tv earlier today for PS, I love you staring my other hero - yes, I did say I was pathetic and I'm not ashamed - Gerard Butler. So I suppose I do have that to look forward to but it won't be the same not having the divine Richard gracing my tv screen every saturday night.

I have, however, after a week of very little work on the writing front managed nearly 5,000 words today and aim to finish the first draft of Reading Paige at some point tomorrow. It means that I have been rather anti-social today - not answering the phone and not joining dh and the boys when they went out today but they were happy that I disappeared off to the shed and I felt great at the end of the day for having managed to write so much. That was until tonight when my programme finished, of course.

I'm getting used to my ipod and spent a couple of hours listening to it last night when dh was out. The only problem is that I feel compelled to sing along to the tunes and my (unmelodic) voice singing along with the cast of Les Miserables sounded wonderful to my ears but made me think of all those contestants on X Factor that thought they could sing when in truth they sounded like strangled aliens or similar.

Blink & you miss it

Well, that five days off work flew by! What a shock to the system being woken at 7.15 a.m. this morning by my hated alarm clock. Mind you, even though it only takes fifteen minutes (during school holidays) to drive to work, I still only managed to race into the building at 9.25! Then managed to lock myself out of the computer system and when our fabulous IT chap came to the rescue and asked why I didnt write my password down somewhere and keep it in a safe place, I had to admit that I did but couldn't decipher which password it was - I have so many of the damn things.

Mind you, one coffee and a deep breath later and I was well away and didn't feel as if I had been away from the office at all. Great! Have now met up with step-sons, dh and my two, had a quick (if you call waiting 1 1/2 hrs for a pizza) bite to eat and have now returned home, packed a case and am about to take my two to their father's house. Grumpy is hysterical and if he doesn't stop barking I shall lock both him and me in the shed until all the excitement dies down. Four teenagers who haven't seen each other since August and who only have approx four hours to catch up with each other is rather exhausting especially for a bossy small dog and even bossier, rapidly aging woman!

Have not progressed at all with the word count and so shall work on that tonight and tomorrow for a bit. Mind you having now finished Stephen King's brilliant On Writing, I feel that I should start all over again immediately without finishing the last 10,000 or so words.

Boxing Day - relaxation & walking the dog

Christmas Day went well - huge sighs of relief all round. Dd finally went off to sleep on Christmas Eve at 1.30am and woke us at 8am. One I had made cups of tea we ransacked the presents and were each duly delighted and satisfied with our gifts. My own consisted amongst other things of an ipod, that does films etc. I have no idea how to work this pretty object but have been assured by children that it is easy when you know how. Also, dd and ds - knowing me and my Richard Armitage crush so well - surprised and amused me with a Sir Guy of Gisbourne model and horse (with galloping motion!).

The children duly delivered to their father, dh and I went to enjoy a perfect lunch at The Atlantic Hotel with m-i-ls and f-i-l then having collected Grumpy ventured forth to meet up with various other members of my family that (as another member recently commented) remind one of characters out of a Mike Leigh film once the odd bottle of wine has been merrily consumed. I know every family sports the odd eccentric but I do believe that my family have rather more than their fair quota. However, I do thoroughly enjoy these get togethers and would not miss them for the world (probably because I fit in so well with the rest of them). These occasions are what feed my imagination so much of the time and are invaluable in so many ways.

Dh, Grumpy and I returned home, thoroughly amused and opened another inspired present. A jar of hibiscus flowers in syrup. You take one hibiscus flower, place it in a champagne flute adding a dash of the syrup. Then fill the rest of the glass with whatever bubbles take your fancy and watch the flower open up. It is not only pretty to look at and tasty to drink but you may also eat the flower that has a slight raspberry taste to it. See pic of mine.

Today we have taken Grumpy for an envigorating walk on the beach where a large alsation launched itself at him only to be hauled off by dh who is rather a large chap. Grumpy did his best to hold his own though so full marks to him for bravery. Dh let the lax owners of the offending canine know in no uncertain terms what he thought of them. I took some photos of dh and G (on the beach; not fighting) and collected a bag of drift wood. I've hung up several gifts in my shed to add to the rather eclectic collection I already keep in there and the children have returned home over-tired and irritated and now I have to somehow get them to help me pack their case for their trip away with their father.

CHRISTMAS EVE, stockings & bubbles

Well, I've wrapped all the presents, prepared bedrooms for ds-s No2 & No4 who are coming to stay and partially packed a case for ds & dd who will be going on holiday with their father in a couple of days. Unfortunately this year their paths only cross for a couple of hours, which is a shame as they do get along so well and usually have approximately ten days of fun together.

Christmas stockings are ready for Santa to fill and the fridge contains my favourite tipple! A tin of chocolates have already been consumed and I can't believe that we are almost ready for Christmas Day. Temperatures have lowered and sniffles abated and apart from rather a little over excitement and anticipation by some of the younger members of the family, everyone appears to be in fine fettle.

So, once again, I would like to wish you a hearty Christmas filled with all that you wish for and a fabulous, healthy, fun-filled, successful 2008 for one and all. xxx

Shopping lists, breaking up & TBR pile

My bag, pockets and work surfaces are littered with shopping lists. I'm nearly there with the Christmas shopping, but not quite. I may not be organised but I am happy. Why? Simply because I've broken up! No work until next Thursday. Okay, I realise that five days isn't exactly a lengthy break but I'm thrilled not to have to go to work for a few days and spend some time at home.

I've been working hard on my wip and thanks to Lane and The Finishers have managed to write over 50,000 words. I never would have managed this without the incentive of having to admit my word count each Friday. Such a brilliant idea and a great help. I still have a few days to make more headway and now that I've nearly done all my jobs - thankfully I won't be the one slaving over a hot stove this Christmas so don't have to worry about feeding people - I can hide away in the shed and get on with it. So exciting. Then I shall take a break from RP and concentrate on the course I should have been working on and after that I can go back to it afresh and sort out all the mistakes and garbage that seemed so good when I first typed it.

Not many parties on the horizon, so hopefully this Christmas will be a calm, affair with no sickness - was ill from Christmas night until New Year last year, such a drag - rather a lot of delicious food, alcohol and reasonably decent tv and two tbr piles that reach my waist. Can't wait. I think I'll start with Lesley Cookman's Murder in Midwinter as I thoroughly enjoyed her previous two novels.