It's Raining

It's raining here - a lot. I've just worked out that I need to do 48 hours work and 1 tutorial assignment to catch up with my studying. Not good.

I knew there was a reason I got organised for Christmas early...

You'd Better Watch Out... Santa's in Town

We saw Santa! Okay, I know it's a bit early, not even December yet and all that, but if Santa's visiting then it would be rude not to say hello, don't you think! On a visit to one of my favourite stores at the weekend we discovered that the man himself had just arrived, so Miss Lucy and Mr Adam joined the queue to see him. Just look at their little faces...



I think Miss Lucy felt a bit self conscious this year, I'm not sure she will want to do it next year. I guess she's growing up (nooooooooo!)



The store has a huge Christmas display and it's just lovely, and they have bags of those cinnamon scented pine cones all around the place - yummmmm I love it!

Hello!

Hello! I'm still alive. I can't believe it's been so long since I posted, thanks for sticking with me :-) I've been so behind with my studying because of the October holidays, other family stuff and then I had a bit of a health scare where I had to have a mammogram and then wait a week for the results! Thankfully, everything was just fine. So, I have just managed to send off my fist assignment for my course (only a week late) and just need to catch up on my studies and my friends now.

If you can remember back to Halloween, my mum was having a party and we had a great time - dooking for apples, trying to grab doughnuts covered in syrup hanging from a string and bowlfuls of lovely homemade soup and stovies! Brilliant. Here is Miss Lucy in her bat outfit I made - you can just about see her little bat ears on top of her head.



And here she is again being scythed by Mr Adam (aka the Grim Reaper) in his costume - he is in there, honest!



Other momentous occasions lately have included Mr Adam losing his top two front teeth in the same day!



And here is my Christmas cake ready to be popped in the oven!



Other than that I have done absolutely nothing for ages. I'm going to try and catch up with everyone over the weekend and visit all the lovely blogs I've been missing. I've managed to get my connected wirelessly to t'internet now, so I can be really lazy and sit in my cosy bed and surf!!

Bored, bored, bored, boring.......

Well, what to say? Nothing much has been happening here recently. The kids have been playing too much Playstation Harry Potter games (NOT my doing, I can tell you - and it won't be happening again!!). I'm way behind on my course work but I have managed to clean out a couple of cupboards and made a grim reaper costume for Mr Adam. Just to make a bat costume for Miss Lucy now - for Saturday night! My mum is having a Halloween Party for the family and we are all to dress up for the occasion - kids are sooooo excited but didn't want to wear their usual dress up stuff, so out with the sewing machine. The grim reaper outfit came out okay after I had unpicked one sleeve because I had put it in the wrong way round (it was inevitable - that sort of thing always happens when I'm being extra careful not to make a mistake). He likes it anyway. I've a hospital appointment this afternoon, so Lucy's will have to wait until tomorrow.

We have been on a couple of nice walks, one around Linlithgow Loch which was really nice and we saw loads of wildlife (crested grebes, cormorants, etc etc). The funniest bit was when a very large male swan walked (waddled?) up behind Dave and tapped him on the back with his beak - the look on his face was priceless (Dave, not the swan). But, I must admit that the weather is so much colder it's been keeping me inside a lot more than usual brrrrrr!

The biggest excitement of the week (you can tell I don't get out much)was getting my Student Union card - how cool am I? I feel so young and well, 'studenty' now. If only I could still fit into those faded jeans and hippy top...... Never mind eh, I can get an extra 5% off at Amazon, so it's not all bad!

What Planet Are You From?

That's strange, cos' I thought women were from Venus....

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

What Planet Are You From?

B********ocks!

Ballcocks, that is. Apparently we need a new one. For the past week my overflow pipe has been regularly running water out - something to do with the cold water tank in the loft (or 'attic' for those with haunted mansions etc). So every so often I have to turn on a tap to stop the water running out and it should get fixed sometime this week (I hope). Not too disastrous then, just really annoying!

On Saturday I had my first Day School for my Creative Writing course with the Open University (I'm sure I've mentioned it once or twice - lol). It was held at Stirling University which has a beautiful campus - trees, little lakes, wildlife - you can imagine how gorgeous it was at this time of year with the leaves all changing colour. This picture gives some idea (I didn't take it, it was from the internet).



Anyway, I was so nervous I can't tell you. I almost didn't go, but then I thought I had better do the Grown Up thing, so I went. I needn't have worried - everyone was really nice, the tutor was lovely and I think we all had a good day. The worst thing was having to write something quickly and then (worst of all) to read it out and hear people's comments!!!! Can you imagine? Thankfully no one said mine was total pants. I was amazed at what people could come up with in 20 minutes or so - they must have great imaginations. The hardest thing was to think of something constructive to say about peoples work other than 'I liked it' - I just don't feel qualified to comment in any intelligent fashion! I expect that is the sort of thing that, like the writing itself, will take some practice. Apart from the day school, the course is going quite well although I need to get the finger out and increase the amount of writing I am doing on a daily basis (well, to actually write on a daily basis would be a start!). The best thing is that I am enjoying it!

Hmmm, what else have I been up to? I have been working on a sewing project but it's a gift and I can't show it on here - it's coming on reasonably well though. Oh, I know - this is going to make some of you groan but I have to confess - I've almost finished my Christmas Shopping! Yes, I know, sickening isn't it - something is bound to go wrong now - like the year we ate chipolata sausages for Christmas dinner because the pork we were having 'for a change' was off! Oh dear..... fingers crossed then.

For Any Aspiring Writers Out There - Free Advice!

This post is for any of you budding writers out there, for all of you secretly writing the next bestseller in your bedroom, for anyone with any interest in writing at all. And so......

In view of the fact that all bloggers are writers (but not vice versa!), I think you might be interested in a daily post by my good friend David McMahon, based on tips for writers, called 'Telling Write from Wrong' at Authorblog. He would like this to become a central point for writers of any description, any nationality, any age and any interest, to get honest advice from an experienced writer. You can leave your questions as comments - and he will answer them. Here are some questions that you might want to ask David McMahon, and his anticipated answers.

Is he just trying to publicize his own blog?

No, he’s trying to create a groundswell across the globe to let other writers benefit from his experience in journalism, editing and writing novels. I don't know of any other successful novelist who does this.

What are his technical qualifications?

David has written a bestselling novel. He’s been a writer and editor for 30 years. In 2002 he was one of three finalists in the national Walkley Awards (the Aussie equivalent of a Pulitzer) and in 2005 was shortlisted for a National News Award.

Is he just trying to get us (and others) to link to his blog to improve his Technorati ranking?

No, he’s never tried boosting about his Technorati ranking. And he’s never asked anyone to link to my blog.

Thank you for reading, and good luck on improving your writing skills! I for one need all the help I can get!