Back Home

Last week we went to Chelmsford, Essex for a few days to visit some old friends. We all first met when we lived down there forty years ago. Forty Years! Where have all the years gone? We have moved to several other places since then, but they have stayed put.

Staying put has never been my thing. Moving house was a hobby of mine. I loved looking at different houses, packing up and then moving on. Of course back then it was easy to buy and sell houses. Nowadays, once you get into a chain, you get stuck and no one can do anything,

But I digress. I was going to blog about our visit to Chelmsford last week. We had a lovely time. Our friends took us all over the place. One day we went to Aldeburgh in Suffolk. It's a lovely little seaside town. I gather fishermen go out to catch the fish and then sell it in small huts on the sea shore. Another day we went to Clacton, to see some people we had met a few years back. They have a small zoo of kid goats, alpacas, rabbits, guinea pigs, hens, chickens etc, which run around freely at the base of the Watch Tower on the see front. Visiting children adored it and I understand local kids come back regularly to see how the animals are getting on. There is also a cafe, where you can have something to eat while the children look at the animals.
We also went to hear an excellent Jazz Band, a quiz night, and, somewhere in between, we saw the movie, Salmon Fishing on the Yemen, which I really enjoyed.

Considering we ate and drank like there was no tomorrow, I was surprised to find I hadn't put any weight on. Anyway, we are home again now and enjoying the rest. Now back to editing my novel and hoping it will get published.

Tomorrow I am off to Newcastle. Hopefully the sun will shine, but if not, then what the heck, I'll enjoy the trip anyway.

Have a good day wherever you are,

Cheers!

The End of the Beginning

The end of the beginning! I think I have got that right. 


Last night I finished writing my novel - Divorcees.com. But this not the end, is it? Surely this is only the beginning. Now I have to go back and edit the whole thing, before trying to find a publisher willing to take it on. So, yes,  I have only reached the end of the beginning. 


Of course when I reach the stage of finding a publisher, then I can say I am at the beginning of the end, which really means I still have some way to go. But in the meantime, the end of the beginning will have to do. Best I leave it there before I confuse myself.

Anyway, the story is about four divorced, thirty something women, who decide to set up an online dating agency for divorcees. I have tried to make the tale light and quirky - a total contrast to The Trojan Project. So if any of you out there have any ideas of finding a publisher for this type of book, then please let me know.

The rest of my news is like the weather, dull and wet. The only highlight is that I have bought a netbook, which is how I was able to finish my novel a little earlier that I thought I would. I have been sitting beavering away, while watching repeats on TV.

I suppose that's the one good thing about repeats on TV. When you have seen a programme so many times, you kind of know what's coming. Which means you don't need to have all your wits about you to be able to follow the plot. By the way, if you are wondering why I am watching repeats on TV it's because there is absolutely nothing else to watch.  I am sick of Food Shows. If another cookery show starts up I will go bonkers. The way the chef prepares and cooks meals puts me right off. Does anyone really feel like eating the food when it's cooked? I certainly don't. For a start, I wonder whether it has been cooked long enough. Another show I have never watched is Big Brother - ugh! Or I'm a Celebrity - Get me out of Here. And the list goes on.

Enough about the TV. In fact I think that is enough about everything for the being.

I hope you are all having a great day, wherever you are.

Cheers!

Long Time - No Write

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted on here. Where are all the weeks going? And more importantly, why are they going so fast? There are things I want to do, things I want to see, but at this rate, the year is going to be over and I will be still thinking I am still in the month of June!

Last week we went away for a few days to Nidd Hall, near Harrogate. We love going there, as it is place where you can do as much or as little as you want. This suits me perfectly. I can spend the day, watching the more energetic as they stride out to the golf course, the shooting range or even the archery targets, while I quietly sit back and sip an extremely large wine. And then at the end of the afternoon, I enjoy a dinner, which I have not even had to think about preparing, before going to watch the entertainers in the Pavilion. It is a blissful way to spend a few days,

But then, I came home!

Don't get me wrong, I like my home. It gets a little untidy at times - okay, it gets a lot untidy most of the time, but it's lived in and it's ours and that's what counts. No the untidiness wasn't the problem. The problem was the company who I use to host my Website, have, what they call, upgraded and now I find I haven't got a Website at all. Yes, the domain is there and it says it is mine, but I am not there at all. Instead, what you see is where to look for comparisons for insurance.

From the emails I received before they embarked on their mission, I was under the impression that after about a week, all would be as before.  However this is not the case. My husband, who set up the site for me in the first place, filled in one of their online forms, asking what was going on. But except for an online acknowledgement, he hasn't heard from them again. 


So yesterday, I took the helm and wrote again and this time, I got a reply within a few hours asking for certain information for security purposes. I have now sent that on; therefore I am waiting with bated breath to see what transpires. So anyone logging onto my Website will need to be patient for a while longer. Watch this space!


On Wednesday, I went to Newcastle to meet my sister and cousin. We tend to meet up once a month, just for a coffee and a chat. The weather wasn't too bad, so I quite enjoyed the day. However, yesterday it rained and it rained and forgot to stop. How thankful I was I hadn't chosen that day to go to Newcastle, as I gather roads had to closed and trains were forced to stop running. The drains in the road where my sister lives, couldn't cope and the water lapped mere inches from her front door. She and her husband must have been worried it would pour into their house.


I think that is all the excitement for the moment,


I hope it is dry wherever you are,


Cheers!

Jubilee Celebrations

I do hope everyone enjoyed the Jubilee Celebrations last weekend. How wonderful it was to see how many people turned out to celebrate with Her Majesty The Queen. It was such a shame the weather turned so bad on Sunday for the River Thames Pageant. Yet despite the rain soaked streets of London, people stood on the embankment and watched until the very last boat sailed past. The Queen was outstanding. She stood in the cold and wet until the very end.



While all that was going on, we were at a lunch with forty-one friends and neighbours. It was held in our social club and I have to say the committee did a wonderful job serving a three course hot meal without the aid of a cooker. Don't ask how they managed it. But it was brilliant and a big Well Done to them all. We had a brilliant afternoon. The photographs were taken at the Lunch. One shows me and a friend, while the other shows a member of the committee.  You can tell we were all in good spirits.



My niece and her husband were at the concert in the Mall on Monday evening. They were fortunate enough to have tickets. Thankfully the weather stayed dry and I believe they had a wonderful time. I saw the  whole thing on TV. But I think it must have been absolutely fantastic to have been there among the crowds. The atmosphere must have been electric.

Now everything has quietened down and we are back to normal. Well, as normal as we can can be with the world being in the state it is. But that is another story!

However the whole weekend Celebrations were perfect and made me very proud to be British.

I hope you enjoyed it wherever you were,

Cheers!!

A Nostalgic Trip!

Low Fell - Gateshead

We spent a few days in Newcastle earlier in the week. I wanted to go back to visit the place of my birth and then go on to another town where I spent my teens.

The photo shows me standing next to my sister  (in the pram) I must have started school as I am wearing a gym slip. My hair is in ringlets and note the large bow of ribbon - how could you miss it?

It was good to go back, but the street wasn't at all how I remembered it. It was longer and wider back then, at least that is how it seemed at the time.

We had a large back garden complete with a hill, where we played Cowboys and Indians or whatever else we had seen at the Saturday morning matinee. It was fun running around on make believe horses or jetting off with Flash Gordon to stop Ming the Merciless taking over some planet or another. Do children ever do that anymore?

When we moved to Whitley Bay on the North East coast in 1953, we only had a back yard. But that didn't stop us. We had the beach to play on, though as I was reaching my teens, cowboys and Flash Gordon were a thing of the past.
                           

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Whitley Bay

This was the street I lived in until I was married. I took this photo on Monday, when we stopped off to take a look at what they had done to the place. The street hadn't changed at all. However, it's a pity I can't say the same for the rest of the town.

In its heyday, Whitley Bay was a lovely seaside resort. The golden sands stretched for miles until they reached the lighthouse. People came from Scotland and Yorkshire to spend their summer holidays there. The beaches were always packed. Cafes selling food or ice cream, were dotted along the Promenade, while the Fun-fair was a great attraction to the youngsters.

Today all that has gone, A school now stands in the grounds where the fun fair was. It replaced the one I went to, as they pulled it down - I'm not sure why as they haven't built anything else on that piece of land. And the shops that are left look as though they could do with a good coat of paint. The whole place needs brightening up.  It's all so very sad. Best I leave it at that.

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The Quayside - Newcastle-on-Tyne

On the other hand, the changes they have made to the Quayside have been for the better. At one time it was like almost any other shipbuilding area - dirty and dismal. However, today, the place has a Continental feel about it.

People were sitting outside in the sun enjoying a glass of wine or beer, while others were wandering around the market, something which has been held on a Sunday morning forever!

Opposite is the New Sage building and the Baltic Art Gallery - once a Flour Mill.

Isn't it amazing how something so ugly could be given a new lease of life, while Whitley Bay, which was such a lovely, thriving town, could be allowed become so... tawdry and lifeless.

I think that is my rant for the day 

I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine

Cheers!!

Weight, Hair and all that Jazz!

I found I had lost another pound in weight when I jumped on the scales this morning. After losing 4 lbs over the last two weeks, I thought I might have stood still this week. But no, thankfully my weight is still on the downward track.

We went out for lunch with the MS group today. This time the venue was the Tankerville Arms in Wooler. (The town where my novel, The Trojan Project is set)  Not only do they serve the most wonderful roast beef, but they cut it in thick slices. You actually know you have some meat on the plate. The whole meal was delicious. We should go there more often.

I saw my hairdresser on Friday, so I was able to have a chat about my hair. It had been doing the most weird things. I simply couldn't do a thing with it, no matter how hard I tried. Coaxing it into some sort of style was out of the question, as it had made up its mind to be awkward and believe me it was! I suppose it gets that from me.  The hairdresser told me that it had grown so much since I was last there, it was little wonder I couldn't manage it.

So you see I was right when I said my hair had decided I was paying too much attention to my weight loss. In a fit of rage, it had grown out of all proportion. Anyway, I had it cut into a nice neat style, so now it is happy - and if my hair is happy, then so am I.

At the lunch today, I wore one of the two new dresses I had bought since I began the diet. So, what with that and my beautiful new hair-do, which behaved itself wonderfully, despite a gale blowing, I felt like a million dollars. Well, perhaps not a million dollars, but certainly a few hundred!

Have a lovely day, whatever you're doing!

Cheers!!

Hair and Other Things!

Last Sunday morning you could have heard Whoops of joy at the end of the road when I stepped onto the scales - I had lost another 2lbs. I had thought I might manage to lose 1lb - if that. But there it was, as clear as day, 2lb less than the week before. I jumped off quickly for fear the scales would change their mind. So now that I have lost 22lbs in weight, I haven't really got much further to go.

And if that wasn't pleasing enough, I went out on Tuesday and bought myself a new dress! How about that?  Also, just to make sure I was celebrating in style, I bought a new pair of sandals to go with it. How could I resist. All that hard work deserves some reward, otherwise what is it all for? Now all I need is some sunny weather so that I can go out and enjoy the new me!

The next thing is to find out what is going on with my hair! It has suddenly become extremely fine and doesn't know what to do with itself. I keep trying to coax it into place, but it doesn't want to know. So, while have a nice new figure, my hair has gone to pot. Is there a connection, I wonder. Can it be that my hair has become jealous because I have been concentrating on my weight?  Is that possible? And if so, what can I do about it?  I can only concentrate on one thing at a time.

The time when I could do seven or eight different things at once and do them well, has long gone. When I was at work, I could hold two conversions at once. One with the person standing next to me and the other with an irate administrator on the other end of the phone, while doing a calculation in my head. But things aren't the same any more. Nowadays I tend to keep my mind on one thing at a time.

When I try to do a few things at once, I end up doing nothing right. Or things are left half finished. There have been times when I have wandered around the house only to find things I have started and then left, because I have gone on to do something else.

But enough of that kind of talk. I'm not ready for the scrap heap yet. I have things I still want to do and one of them is to walk down the street, one sunny day in my new outfit :D

Well I think I have rattled on enough for the moment and it's only Wednesday. I will get back to you later in the week and let you know what else has been being going on in my world.

Meanwhile, enjoy your day,

Cheers!

Hoorah!

WOW! I found I had lost 2lbs when I stepped on my scales this morning. I have been stuck for the last three weeks, but today I had moved two whole pounds down. I should think so, too. Enough is enough. I have been really, and I mean really carefull over the last week, so I think I would have tossed the wretched scales out of the window if they hadn't shown at least a glimmer of weight loss! Perhaps that's why they relented this morning. They probably got the message that I really meant it this time!

I think I would like to lose another two punds and then I will call a halt - I don't want end up with a scrawny face and a neck like a turkey :)

On Wednesday I met my sister and my cousin for a natter in Newcastle. It is always good to see them both and of course it is doubly good because I get to go to Newcastle. Again, after our chat, I took a quick look around the shops. It wasn't quite so busy this week. So it was much easier to get around. I guess the M&S sale on Per Una clothes has finished :D

Apart from that it has been a quiet week. This means I was able to get back to my novel, Divorcees.com. I have been doing a re-edit, before deciding where I am going to take my ladies next. I sent the opening chapters to a networking friend in the USA to read through and she seemed to think it was fun to read, which is exactly what I am aiming for, so I appear to be doing something right.

Tomorrow, I am meeting some writing friends at a hotel in Kelso for coffee. We usually have a natter about everything and nothing and, sometimes, we even talk about writing. But is it good to hear about what other writers get up to, while they are struggling to find new ideas for their stories.

Well, I think that is me done for the moment,

Whatever you are upto, I hope you enjoy it.

Cheers!