August

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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?

Alice in Kessingland

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Sorry for being a day late, but I'm here Celebrating The Small Things that have happened over the last week.

Firstly, my week started off on the wrong foot, pretty much literally.  I was walking along the beach and it was quite a misty, foggy day.  Suddenly I found myself falling.  I'd got my foot caught in a rabbit hole and managed to collapse on the ground and twist my ankle.  I laid on my back for a minute or so and then got up and walked home.  Everything was fine and then my foot/ankle started to ache after dinner.  So we strapped it up and I went to bed.  But I couldn't sleep as the pain was so severe.  I couldn't put my foot flat on the floor or put any weight on it.  So my mum took me to A&E and I sat in the waiting room for a couple of hours, in pain, wanting to go home and cry.  I then got my ankle x-rayed, and waited a little bit longer.  Finally I found out that I'd damaged the tissue around my ankle, so thankfully it wasn't broken.  I was given some crutches and I managed to hobble about, although I spent more time hitting myself in the foot with the crutch than actually walking anywhere!  But it's all better now.  So I'm celebrating being able to walk.  You don't realise how important something is until you don't have it.

I'm also celebrating the wonderful weather we're having.  The sun is out.  I'm in a good mood.  I have a bit of sunburn on my back, but it's not too painful.

I've also had a nice week with 'the boy'.  It's the end of the month so we don't have much money, but we've been on some lovely walks along the beach, through parks, and we got lost in a wood (resulting in us nearly being chased by some angry guard dogs!!), and had picnics.  And we went to see The World's End at the cinema.  It's a Simon Pegg and Nick Frost film, so if you like Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Paul, you will really like The World's End.

http://www.scificool.com/edgar-wright-and-simon-pegg-vs-aliens-and-pitchers-of-beer/the-worlds-end-2013-movie-banner-poster/

What are you celebrating this week?

Write and Wrong

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This week's prompt from Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog hop is ...

What is the most frustrating/satisfying thing about being a writer?

Hmm, this is a tricky one.  I have a love/hate relationship with writing.  I do it for two main reasons; I enjoy it, and I'm not much good at anything else.  I guess that's why people do most things, right?  But it doesn't come without its struggles.

Writing enables you to invent worlds for yourself that you'd never be able to live in real life.  You can create people and places and events that extend far outside the realms of reality.  And by doing this, it helps you to escape your own life for a short while.

I also get very excited when I have an idea and I can't wait to get it down on paper (well, computer screen).  And then the story takes on a life of its own and goes off in unexpected directions.  At that point, I get really excited.  I always have an idea of where I want a story to go, but most of the time it flips and turns and twists and I just let it flow.

And then when I've completed something, I love love love getting hold of my red pen and editing everything.  I think editing is the best part of writing.  You get to mould and shape everything until it's perfect, and then you work on it some more to make it even more perfect.  It's a bit like raising a child, but you get second and third chances if anything goes wrong.

On the negative side, I think my main frustration is people.  And by people, I mean people who aren't writers or readers.  

People:  So what do you do?

Me:  I'm a writer.

People:  Yeah, but what's your real job?

*grr*

Yes I have a day job, and thankfully it's one that I really enjoy.  But I do that to pay the bills.  My job is a writer.  I don't make money from it, but it's my raison d'être, it's my focus and my aim and my drive.  People who aren't writers (or artists of any description) don't seem to understand why people want to be writers.  They seem to question the point in it all.  I am confident-ish, but criticism from a non-writer is always difficult to deal with, and I feel like I have to apologise for what I do, and justify it somehow.  I know I should ignore them, but sometimes it's not that easy.

So that's why I'm so grateful for any support I get, and I always try to support writers whenever they feel a bit defeated.  Writing isn't easy, but things are often made more difficult by critical non-thinkers.

Don't Look At Me

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This weeks question from Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog-hop is ...

What is the biggest challenge you face socially?

I have quite a few social anxieties.  My main one is having people look at me.  I've always been tall.  I'm 5'11", which I know isn't abnormally tall, but when you're 7 years old and you're at least 6" taller than the rest of your friends, it can feel like you're a bit of a freak.  

It wasn't until I was at high school when the boys started getting their growth spurts, and finally I wasn't the tallest person in my school year.  However, I've still not felt comfortable with my height, and I tend to stoop quite a bit.  My Pilates teacher doesn't approve of the stoop, and I do manage to stand up straight in her classes, but when I get back into the real world, by spine starts to bend so that I can hide away from staring eyes.

I'm slowly coming to terms with it.  It's not something I can change so I just have to get used to.  I just get a bit paranoid that people are looking at me.  I'm quite happy to hide in the background but my height hasn't allowed me to do that.  Perhaps I should just embrace my height and stop hiding!

http://osbertabumere.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/meet-worlds-tallest-teenage-girl.html

Who's Hungry?

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This week's question for Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog hop is ...

Whether watching a movie at the theatre or at home, what's your go-to snack?

I love snacking, regardless of whether or not I'm watching a film!

When I'm at the cinema, it has to be pick 'n' mix.  I know cinema pick 'n' mix is stupidly expensive, but it's a must-have treat!  My favourites are giant strawberries, white chocolate jazzies, and strawberry milkshake bottles, but I shovel in a scoop of pretty much everything (apart from jelly beans - bleurgh) so that I get a surprise.  But they are so moreish that I always end up eating all the sweets through the previews and don't have anything to eat during the film.

www.telegraph.co.uk

When I'm at home, I eat pretty much anything that's in the house!  My go-to snack at home is always a packet of crisps.  I'd never eat them in the cinema as it really irritates me when people eat loud food when I'm trying to listen to a film.  At home, if you miss something because you're crunching too loudly on a crisp you can at least rewind the film.  And then I have some ice-cream, some chocolate, some biscuits, some more chocolate, and then I pass out in a sugar coma.

Plans

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This week's question for Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog hop is ...

What are your plans for the 4th, if you celebrate, if not, what do you have planned this week?

Being English, we don't take part in 4th of July celebrations.  So this week I will mainly be working (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday).  I like this week, as I work the first half of the week, and then I'm not back at work until Thursday of next week.  I get a nice seven days off every four weeks.  Lovely jubbly!

I will also be going to the gym.  My Pilates teacher is off in the Pyrenees this week, so no Pilates for me this week.  I do enjoy my Pilates classes, so that will be missed this week.  I will be going swimming and working out in the gym though, and if the weather stays like it was this weekend, a nice swim will be very much appreciated.

On Thursday I will be meeting up with a friend and fellow writer to have a brain-storming session about how we can better promote ourselves as authors, and get our books sold.  We have some ideas; we just need to think about how to get them off the ground.

A group of us from work are going out on Friday evening for a couple of bevvies.  This is my first 'work' outing so it'll be nice to get to know them on a more social level.

And of course I will be reading, writing, watching television, and spending time with my pooch (but not all at the same time!)

Press Play

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This week's prompt for Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog hop is ...

What band, singer, or group would be featured most in your WIP or life?

I love music.  I always have to have music on in the background.  Silence freaks me out.  I collect and collate my music with the help of last.fm, and every week, month, or year I can see a list of what I've listened to.  I tend to put my music on shuffle so that I'm always surprised by what comes on next.  If you're interested in my last.fm profile, you can have a looksee here.

last.fm has been tracking my music since 24th May 2006, which is quite a helluva long time.  According to this list (which obviously isn't exclusive, as I listen to the radio, watch music television, and spend a lot of time on youtube) my most played artistes are ...

1 = Buck 65

(2,342 plays)

2 = Placebo

(2,228 plays)

3 = Sonic Boom Six

(1,854 plays)

4 = Hilltop Hoods

(1,195 plays)

5 = The Faint

(965 plays)

This list does not encompass my taste in music, but it's a bit of a start, and all of them are worth listening to.

And as for my WIP (currently untitled) ... it's the sequel to my first novel, Lexa Wright's Dating Sights, and Lexa, the main character, is a big fan of 90s brit pop, so while she's going about her life there's no doubt that she's listening to ...

Shed Seven

Pulp

Suede

The Divine Comedy

The Bluetones

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

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This week's prompt for Dani and Jackie's Express Yourself blog hop is ...

What are some questions that you get asked time and time again?

• Have you been sunbathing under a sieve?
• What's the weather like up there?
• Do you sleep with your feet in a grow bag?
• (at work) Do you have any bus timetables?
• (upon finding out that I studied literature at university) Do you want to be a teacher?
• (looking at my dog who wears a pink collar and has a pink lead) What's his name?
• (at work) Have you got any books on *insert obscure topic here*?
• Can you read through this for me and check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation?
• What sort of things do you write?
• What's your book about?
• (upon finding out that I taught English as a foreign language) How many foreign languages can you speak?

Yay For Netflix

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This week's prompt for Jackie and Dani's Express Yourself bloghop is ...

What are the last two movies you saw?

I think there's a semantic difference between 'seeing films' and 'watching films'.  For me, 'seeing' a film takes place at the cinema, and 'watching' a film takes place at home.

As I haven't been to the cinema in absolutely ages, I can't remember the last films I 'saw', so I'm going to write about the last films I watched at home.

This past week or so, I've been nursing a cold.  I know a cold isn't life threatening, but I haven't been unwell in a very long time, so it's a bit of a shock to the system.  Whenever I have a cold, I curl up under the duvet on the sofa and watch films.  And when I say 'watch', I mean that I start the film, watch the first few minutes, and then fall asleep!

So here's a selection of films that I've watched (fallen asleep to) over the past week.

I don't have a particular taste in films.  I give pretty much anything a go, apart from really gruesome, bloody, violent things.  I've never watched any of the Hostel or Saw films, and I don't think I ever will.  Sometimes I want something silly and other times I want something scary.  But when I'm ill, I do tend to veer towards children's films as it reminds me of when I was little and was suffering with all of those horrible childhood illnesses.  I'd have time off school and spend the whole time off in my pyjamas, on the sofa, under the duvet, with an unlimited supply of Lucozade.  Mum would go to the video shop and pick up a variety of films to keep my company during my period of debilitation.

And now, thanks to Netflix, I have a video shop in my living room!

Sushi

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This week's prompt for Jackie and Dani's Express Yourself bloghop is ...

What could you eat every day & not grow tired of?

I used to think that I could eat McDonald's every day and never get tired of it.  That was until I had a job at McDonald's and I was eating it every day.  We got a food allowance there, for food to eat on our break.  We didn't have to eat it, but it was free so who am I to pass up on free food?  But there are only so many times you can make your way through that menu before you get bored.  It wasn't long before I started taking my own lunch, and passing on the Big Macs.

Now I have a new food love.  And I honestly think I could eat it every day because there is such a great variety.  I can't remember when I first had sushi, but I know it wasn't the real deal.  It was a tray of supermarket sushi.  But it was nice.  And from that moment on I knew I had to eat the proper stuff.

My favourite restaurant is called Yo! Sushi.  If it wasn't so expensive, and so far away, I would certainly eat all of my meals there.  The food goes around a conveyor belt, and you just help yourself to whatever catches your eye.  Most of it catches my eye!

A couple of years ago I went to Japan on holiday.  Being able to eat the real deal was awesome.  I tried things that I never thought I'd try.  And it was all delicious.  The raw fish thing has never bothered me.  I just have issues if food has eyes.