Sunday 11 August 2013

Mike and Roses

Happy belated Celebrate The Small Things day.  Yes, again I'm a few days late.  Over the summer my weeks seem to have become busier and busier.  But here I am.

This week has been great.  The sun has been shining which is always a bonus in England.

On Monday I was able to go back to Pilates after having missed a few weeks because of work, and because I fell down a rabbit hole.  I felt great afterwards!

On Tuesday, the boy and I went to London for the day.  The weather was just right, not too hot, not too cold, and it wasn't too busy either.  We went to Trafalgar Square, and saw this very interesting statue ...


We then went on a Rock 'n' Roll walking tour, which took us to various places where The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and many others played back in the olden days.

This is the art gallery where Yoko Ono and John Lennon met for the first time ...


And this record shop used to be The Bricklayers Arms; a pub where The Rolling Stones used to practise ...


Just walking through London you could miss some little gems.  After the tour we went to the O2 to go to the British Music Experience.  It's a museum containing original pieces of music memorabilia from the past century or so of British music.  It's well worth a visit.



As most of you know, I've only been working at my job (at the town library) for a few months and it's great.  I still get excited going into work, as the people are so lovely.  The other day I was helping a customer and he thanked me and went away.  About 10-15 minutes later he came back with some flowers for me to thank me for helping him!  I hadn't expected that at all.  I was just doing my job, but he must have really appreciated it.

And the boy bought me a young Mike Wazowski (from Monsters University).  He's so cute; he's got little braces on his teeth and everything!


These are the things I'm celebrating this week.  How about you?

Monday 5 August 2013

LLBG - July

Sorry for the delay in posting this up.  These past few weeks have been so busy!  Anyway, Lowestoft Library Book Group met on Tuesday 30th July, and discussed A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

I'm afraid to say that I didn't read it.  I read about 50 pages, so I can't comment on the story at all.  I do enjoy reading, but the book has over 600 pages, and the writing is really really tiny!  I know that shouldn't stop me reading a book, but somehow it does.  

From what I can gather, it's a book about a few people whose lives cross.  This does sound like my kind of book, as I like things that make connections.  Maybe one day I'll pick it up and give it another go.

It's set in India in the 70s and 80s, and apparently outlines some of the terrible things that took place there during this time.

I'm sorry for the uselessness of this post, and shame on me for not reading the book!

In August we will be having a meeting, but there is no book.  This is because it's the day after the Bank Holiday, and people are usually away.  So if anyone fancies coming along, they're more than welcome, and we will be discussing books that we've been reading over the summer.  It's on Tuesday 27th August, 7-9pm, in the Navigator Room at Lowestoft Library.

LLWG July

Sorry for the delay in posting this.  I've been a busy little bee, and finally have a few minutes to get this done. On Tuesday 9th July, Lowestoft Library Writers' Group met.  Di, our fearless leader, was on holiday so I stepped into her shoes.

Homework from last month was to bring in 3 pieces of our best work which will be used for a display in September, to coincide with the Lowestoft Library Literary Festival.  Di wants us to showcase our talents.  I took along two poems and a short piece of prose.  I read out this poem.

Need Feeding

My brain isn’t working,
No poem can it find,
The tumbleweed is lurking
Inside my empty mind.

The rhythm isn’t ready,
The structure isn’t right,
The line length isn’t steady,
The metre isn’t tight.

Poem, poem come find me,
Glide from my pen to page,
Present yourself most kindly
At the forefront of the stage.

Let a sonnet be your starter
Followed by your best dressed haiku,
Then a limerick just for laugher,
Main course is a free verse stew.

Nursery rhyme at wine time,
Tongue-twister for dessert,
And after our dinner pantomime
I guess a ballad wouldn’t hurt.

Poem, poem where are you?
Why won’t you come and play?
Perhaps you have something to do,
Perhaps I have nothing to say.

I wrote this poem a few years ago when I was at university.  I was rudely awoken in the middle of the night by people being stupid outside of my flat, so rather than go outside and beat them to death with my shoe, I decided to put pen to paper and write, and this is what I came up with.  Well, this is what I came up with after quite a bit of editing once I was lucid!

***

To start the session, I asked everyone to write for 5 minutes about anything they could think of.  It didn't need to make sense or have a theme.  They just had to write and keep writing.  I tried to set the alarm on my phone to let us know when the 5 minutes were up, but I managed to set the alarm to go off an hour before the group started, which meant that it didn't go off when I wanted it to.  Good job I kept an eye on the clock!  Don't ask me what I did wrong!  I'm not technologically minded!  Anyway, this is what I came up with in the 5 minutes.

Why does it take me so long to do anything on my phone?  I'm supposed to be from the age of technology and yet my sausage fingers still aren't flexible enough to use the buttons on my phone properly.  Perhaps I should give up.  Perhaps I should become an eco-warrior living in a tree, with pigeons living in my dreadlocks, and worms between my toes.  But then I do like a shower and I do like my bed so I don't think I'd be very effective at promoting the 'save nature' cause.  And although I do like nature, it can be quite scary, with all those creepy animals making strange noises at night.  Do they make the same noises during the day.  Perhaps they're like people.  We tend to make strange noises at night.  I had a boyfriend once who said that I snored.  I don't believe him.  Women don't snore.  Well, my mum snores, and it sounds a lot different to my dad snoring.  But I know I don't snore.  I do talk in my sleep but that's probably more coherent than some of the guff I come out with during the day.

***

I handed out a sheet of lined paper to everyone in the group and asked them to write a word at the top.  We then passed the papers to the right and wrote the first word we could think of in relation to the word on the page.  We then folded over the paper so the first word was hidden, and passed the paper to the right.  We continued this process until our papers had gone around the table twice.

My words ...

Book
Worm
Dogs
Cats
Meow
Buzz
Bee
Sting
Police
Car
Jack
Ripper

I asked everyone to write a story which included every work on their list.

Jack the book-worm munched happily on an old copy of Harry Potter that he'd found discarded in the back of the wardrobe.  He didn't really like Harry Potter; he found it a bit hard to swallow, but he was hungry and didn't fancy chowing down on a mouldy old sports sock.  He licked his wardrobe home.  It was dark and comfortable, and above all it was safe.  He shared a house with four cats, two dogs, and a big old bunch of humans.  The humans were all right, but it was those inquisitive, sniffy animals he couldn't get on with, always shoving their big, black, slimy noses into every nook and cranny.  Why can't they just eat books like normal animals?  The worst bit is when Jack has a post novel nap and the cats fill the air with a glass-shattering meow.  There's no need for it.  It stings Jack's ears and sets his teeth right on edge and then he finds it difficult to chomp through his tasty pages.  They sound like defective car alarms or drunk police sirens or a swarm of asthmatic bees.  But on the quiet days, Jack can be happily found crawling around bookcases, scouting out the books that haven't been read in a while.  While some book-worms are page rippers or page tearers or page suckers, Jack is a page nibbler.  He tastes each word, each letter, each piece of punctuation.  It gives him a buzz to choose his words carefully and make up his own story.

***

The homework for this month is to write a story in either first or third person ...

You wake up one morning and find ... (choose 3 things from the following list) ... next to you in bed.  What happened last night?
  • a plate of food
  • a body part
  • an animal
  • a piece of sports equipment
  • an item of the opposite sex's clothing
  • a set of Polaroid photos
  • a bag of jewellery
  • a street sign
  • a plant
  • a wad of cash

We will be meeting again on Tuesday 13th August, with Di back in the helm. 

Sunday 4 August 2013

August

This week's question from Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself bloghop is ...

What are you looking forward to in August?

I know I'm a little bit late in posting this as we're already in August, but I'm looking forward to the continuation of this wonderful weather.  We are having a beautiful summer here in England and I don't want it to end.  I'm not a fan of really hot weather, but I live by the coast so we get a lovely, cooling breeze which helps.  

I take my dog for long walks along the beach in all weathers, but these past few weeks we have been able to sit on the shore and stare out to sea.  It's so relaxing and calming, and looking at the vast area of openness allows you to forget about life for a short while.

So while this sun is here, I'm soaking up as much of it as I can!

What are you looking forward to in the month ahead?

Festive Festivities

Oh my goodness, I'm late again this week.  I do apologise, but it's better late than never to Celebrate The Small Things.

Firstly I would like to apologise to all the lovely bloggers participating in this bloghop.  I have been so busy over the past week with work and work related things that I've not had the chance to visit as many people as I would have wanted to, or replied to all the lovely comments left by you guys.  I will get around to it; I just need to find a few minutes to do so!

So, on to the big news.  This week I am mainly celebrating Lowestoft Library Literary Festival.  I belong to The Friends of Lowestoft Library, and we put on events and help raise money in order to buy things that the library needs.  A few months ago I suggested holding a literary festival, and everyone was extremely supportive.  The festival will take place on Saturday 28th September, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, in the Meeting Room at Lowestoft Library.

We have 8 local authors who will be reading from their work as well as signing their books.  You can click on the authors' names below to find out more about them and their work.


There will also be free children's activities taking place throughout the day; drama games, story telling, colouring, poetry writing.  Plus, the Bookstart Bear will be making an appearance!

What more could you ask for?!


I am so super excited about this festival, as we have all worked really hard, and it looks to be a great day.

Apart from this, I am celebrating the weather - we still have sun sun sun and it's glorious.  Work is still really good, and we went out for a staff meal the other night which was loads of fun. And things with 'the boy' are still going well after a month, so I'm a happy bunny.

What are you celebrating this week?