Back in the writing groove

I'm feeling very psyched right now.

Can I say psyched? It sounds very american-football-esque. Maybe I should go with 'energised'. No, that sounds like I've just come out of a management team-building session... ok stick with psyched.

I'm psyched, for want of a better word, after my evening class last night.

Firstly, it's a blinkin' novelty for me to be able to get out of the house of an evening midweek. Without B's dad around any longer to take up the child-minding slack, I've come to accept that midweeks are for browsing the blogosphere or catching up on ER on Sky+ (I've only got 18 episodes to get through...).
 

(Note to self: 

may be watching too much ER. 

Had 'odd' dream about ginger-haired doctor Archie Morris

last night. Not Kovac or Carter. Archie Morris. Hm.)

[image credit: nbc.com]

But B's dad and I managed to agree that when he comes up to our house to see B on a Wednesday, I can get out of the house for a couple of hours to do something for me. It's taken almost a year to find something I want to do which is on a Wednesday and doesn't finish too late (B's dad chose to move a bus and a train journey away and doesn't have a car and I can't be bothered with the "i'll miss the train" moaning every week...).

I've been really wanting to start writing again. I started about 3 years ago, did an intensive summer course to get the 'creative juices' flowing, and carried on for about 6 months. Then, all hell broke loose in my life... but that story's for another day (or lifetime).

Needless to say, I may have collected a load of great story ideas, but my head has not been in the right space to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) until recently. Starting the blog was the first step back on the writing path.

And so the 10 week writing course run by the university has come at just the right time. I may even have been a little too keen, as I turned up at the class a whole week earlier than I should have. D'oh!

Two weeks in, I'm amazed at how easy it has been to get back into the writing groove. Within the confines and guidance of the class, at least. I was so scared to start writing again, my confidence having scarpered long ago. But the class is just the kick up the wotsit that I need to get going again and I'm damned if I'm going to give up this time. We also have a bit of 'homework' to do each week. It's been a looong time since I had homework. I never thought I'd say that I'm looking forward to doing it!

[imagecredit: writersbreak.com]



I might even have a stab at the odd Three Word Wednesday or another writing bloghop when I'm feeling bit more confident.

p.s. to self: I will return to this post every so often if I'm feeling a bit of writer's block, may be good therapy.

Silent Sunday

Listography - Top 5 Biscuits

Wow, good Listography by Kate Takes 5 this week, has me salivating at the mere thought.

Top 5 Biscuits.

My big weakness is biscuits. You can keep your crisps, cake, etc, I couldn't live without my biscuits.

My top 5 are (in no particular order, as that is putting way too much thought into this...):

1. Jaffa cakes
Love dark chocolate, love orange. Easily shoved in the mouth in one go. And used to be only 1 WeightWatchers point! (pre-Pro Points)
Bubbablue  beat me to the 'full moon, half moon' thing. Still cracks me up! There's even a Facebook page for it! (see image credit below)




[image credit: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Full-moon-Half-moon-Total-eclipse-Jaffa-Cakes/232186933135]


2. Ginger nuts
In my mind - maybe a bit controversial here - the best tea-dunking biscuit. 'Nuff said.

[image credit: telegraph.co.uk)


3. Bourbons
It's chocolate, so that's a good start. Of course, you gotta take them apart and lick the chocolate creamy bit off first. And then they become dunkable too! Bonus!

4. Chocolate chip cookies
Even better when they're double choc chip, but delectable either way. Far too easy to polish off a whole packet of these.


[image credit: da.wikipedia.org] 


5. Thought I needed to include a proper chocolate biscuit in a wrapper type biscuit, so I'm going for a Breakaway. Loved these as a child, my ex used to hate them so never bothered buying them just for me. Now I can have them whenever I want, yippee! (No, not yippee, waistline does not agree...).



I'm in serious need of a cuppa and something dunkable now. I have two out the five above in the house right now. Let me at 'em!

Head on over the Kate Takes 5 to see more scrumptious favourites.

Wakin' up in style

I did something the other morning in bed that I hadn't done in a while.
(No, get your mind out the gutter... )

I did a bed-dance.
What is a bed-dance, you ask? It's simple. A dance. Whilst in bed.
And the reason? Simple too. A fantastically upbeat and catchy song on the radio.

Normally, when the alarm clock radio springs to life at 7.04am, I'm already dodging B's sharp little elbow or knee as he clambers back and forth over me, as he brings armfuls of trains or cars, or a good proportion of his cuddly toys (and there's LOTS) through to my room to "help wake me up"... No time for bed-dancing. But this tune came on, one i'd not heard before, and I found myself jiggling my shoulders and flapping my feet (those are official Bed-Dance moves, dontcha know...).

B wasn't so keen on my song choice sadly.

That's not to say he's not into his current pop music. He has recently gone through a Bruno Mars phase (why Bruno was putting 'his hand down his pants' in The Lazy Song was a toughy to explain...). He has also been obsessed with Adele for a while too. Currently, his favourites are 'Moves Like Jagger' and 'Run for your Life' (Matt Cardle version). I'm sure he'll be on X-Factor in 10 years... (there's a thought, that X-Factor will still be going in 10 years, god help us all!)

Back to the song. The singer sounded like Michael Jackson a bit, I thought maybe it was a song he'd recorded but never released or something. So I continued my shoulder-jigging, leg-bending bed-dance until the radio DJ said who it was.

Never heard of Lloyd before, am I showing my age??



You have to admit, it's VERY catchy!!

The Gallery - Eyes

The 'eyes' have it, in Sticky Fingers' The Gallery this week.



Found these photos from Hallowe'en time last year, B had great fun with his googly eyes!

Messy Monday

It's Monday 16th January today. All Day. And apparently officially 'the most depressing day of the year', now that Christmas is well and truly over, still two weeks from next pay check (for those of you who actually get a paycheck worth mentioning...), and it's cold. And it's Monday, pure and simple!

Fortunately, it was a beautiful, crisp, bright day round these parts, which ALWAYS helps! I'll take freezing cold but sunny over milder but dull any day.

It was also my first day back volunteering for a pre-school Messy Play group, run by a local Community Health project. I've been volunteering with the group for about 7 months or so, for local parents to come along for an hour with their wee ones and have some free, messy fun without the hassle of cleaning up at the end! It's a great project, aimed at helping parents become more confident at doing messy, creative play with their kids.

It's hard work though, the kids like to make a LOTTA mess! Today, for example, it took 2 of us a whole hour to clean up! But the best bit is being able to have fun with the children: watching them pouring half a tub of paint on their mum's shoes, throw 'fireworks' with coloured shredded paper, or failing to make play doh and making gooey gloopy gluck instead!

What I took out of today, after a month off, was that I really enjoy working with children and want to continue to do so, but ideally, get paid for it! It's something I've been pondering over the past year since I was made redundant. And a year on, I feel I definitely want to follow this path.

I know I don't want to become a nursery or primary teacher, for various reasons, not least being the uncertainty of finding a teaching post.

So my big problem is finding a role which will fit. Not an easy task it seems...

The Gallery - Phone Photos

Phone photos - The Gallery's theme this week.


I don't have a magical i-phone, but the one i have is not too bad. (Better than its predecessor anyways). I've managed to get some decent photos over the past year with it ... but the subject matter has to be very still to avoid 'blurrage'. Not always easy with a 5 year old who finds it imPOSSible to be still for more than a few nanoseconds. (and that's when he's sleeping...)

Still more difficult when he decides to go all camera-shy, just when there's a good photo opp!

So this one was a fluke. The chimp (beautifully carved into the tree, he sits with a few other wooden friends outside the chimp-house at Edinburgh Zoo) kinda shows off B's mood perfectly at this moment!

And given the 'hoo-ha' (around these parts, anyway) about the arrival of certain black and white cuddly creatures from China, can't resist adding this photo too...

(This was as animated as this one got ...)

Reasons to be Cheerful

I've just found Mummy From the Heart's 'Reasons to be Cheerful 1,2,3' (#R2BC for short) this morning.

The January Blues have definitely been lurking about our house this week, so I feel I'm in need of some cheeriness!

Why am (or should) I be cheerful today?

1. B actually said he wanted to go to school this morning. Given the very different reaction on his first day back on Tuesday, this is a big achievement! And it meant we both left the house with smiles instead of grumps. A much better start to the day. Hopefully it'll continue once school's out later!

2. We have a huge tree which came down during last week's stormy weather. You could describe it as "conjoined tree twins", joined at the base of its huge trunk, and one of the 'twins' came a-thundering down last week, with an almighty crash which had both B and I running to the window to see what was happening. The reason I should be cheerful is that, given both our block of flats and the one opposite were both built within 'falling' distance of the tree, it missed both, landing instead on the grass in between.

Obviously there will be clear-up hassle (particularly given the ongoing problems with the company that is contracted to upkeep the grounds... but that's a whoooooole other story), but the fact that no damage was done, and more importantly that it came down when no-one was out in the garden - THAT doesn't bare thinking about - I do breathe a huge sigh of relief. Especially when hearing and seeing other stories of the carnage and upheaval caused by a few hours of crazy weather.

3. B had a follow-up appointment with the orthopaedics department at hospital yesterday. He's been walking on his 'tippy-toes'  for almost year now, it doesn't seem that there is any particular reason for this, but obviously I'm concerned it will lead to problems with his muscles/bones in his feet/legs. We've just to keep an eye on it for the next 6 months. Walking through the hospital, it struck me that so many parents and children go through a lot worse than tightened calf muscles. Might sound a bit worthy, but I am grateful for my child's health!

Ok, so that's my first #R2BC blog, I feel better already!

And congrats to Michelle at Mummy From the Heart's as it happens to also be her one year #R2BC Blog Hop / Linky (is there a difference between the two?) Anniversary!

Resolution - Failure!

Day 1 of Resolution (see previous post)
Result: FAILED

Didn't take long, did it? O what a failure as a parent I must be.

In my defence, B was obviously aiming for the Gold Medal in the Most Bad-Tempered / Stubborn Boy Competition this morning in his reluctance to go back to school. A competition he surely would have won by a country mile.

My patience and calm (outer) appearance was eventually shattered, as I tried to coax him into the bathroom while he stomped, humfed and then eventually punched (ohhhh yes...) his way round the flat for a good half an hour or so. Not even threatening and then following through on removing his most prized Santa present (a playmobil Knights Castle) encouraged him to change his ways. Oh the humanity!

So my gold medal-winner ended up going back to school with a dirty face and no teeth brushed. Luckily he relented enough to at least get his clothes on. Believe me, if I'd had to take him in his robot jammies, I would have.

So it's back to Square One tomorrow re: Resolution. I must dig out that Mediation book...

Normality resumes...

Thank the Lord, finally back to school tomorrow for B, after 2 and a half weeks of holidays, about time too!
Christmas hols always go by too quickly, but this past week has not exactly flown by... been a proper struggle to keep him busy and occupied. And no chance of a lie-in! 5 year olds (or at least, mine) don't do holiday lie-ins...

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to try not to shout at him so much! More than anything because it does no good and just makes him more stubborn than before... But I have given myself a reprieve until after school starts back as we have both been driving each other cuh-ray-zee this week. So Resolution begins tomorrow!

Of course, back to school for B means back to 'work' for me. I say 'work', cos sometimes it doesn't feel like a "proper" job. After 10 months with no work, I AM really grateful to have a job. But I know this one is a short-term thing only, and because of that, I'm struggling to commit to it like I should. Not helped by the fact that it's limited hours, cr@p money, no desk-space of my own. God, never happy!!

I have to put some serious thought into what the heck i'm going to do to get some decent flippin money in 2012. I don't want to flounder in a job I don't really want for too long, but if I don't figure something out soon, I'm going to end up doing exactly that. I thought that would be my life in 2011, don't want it to go on for another year.

Lots to think about. At least my other Resolution of trying to re-start the blog is kinda working...