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Hello and welcome to my Little Willow blog, well welcome to those who might stumble across it anyway as I have yet to give this address to anyone :) I thought I might try and see how I get along with just writing in it first. It's all a lot of random stuff, but hey, hopefully there'll be something interesting for people

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Wednesday

So we're halfway through the week -well slightly more for me as i have Friday off - Woo! So far the week hasn't been particularly eventful but I'm pleased with that. I know I had the book club on Monday but last night I managed to have a whole night of doing nothing - feels like a very long time since I did that and I think I need to burn that memory on my brain as it won't be happening again for at least a few more days :)

Off to the pictures tonight with Carol to see Date Night, which looks quite funny from the adverts, but we'll see. I made Carol choose the film tonight so that I couldn't possibly be blamed again for another less than brilliant film haha :)

Then tomorrow I'm meeting James but I have no idea what we're doing, so that should be interesting lol

Work so far this week has been ok, although had a mini nightmare today with the scanner, it just died on me with only 2 more files left to scan! Argh! very annoying. I didn't manage to get those files through so I'll have to give it another go another time :( Ah well, on the plus side, I did get to listen to my ipod for a few hours and took some time out to have a think - although i don't think I came to any conclusions about anything.

Anyway just a mini update today as not a lot has happened yet so don't want to bore people...

Monday 26 April 2010

Monday

So Monday came back around again - it always does this, every week :-( I'm so with Carol on campaigning for the 3 day weekend, how nice would that be? As fantastic as that would be without proviso's, I'd even be willing to work an extra hour per day to get it - which I know doesn't add up to a full day, but hey, we need some perks! :-)


But to be fair, it wasn't a bad Monday as they go. Work was mostly busy so the time went quickly, especially in the morning. Then tonight was my book club, which always means escaping to Caffe Nero for an hour with (usually) a yummy hot chocolate, but tonight I went for gorgeous soup and a mango and passionfruit frappe (I think that's what it was - iced drink thing anyway). So I people watched while I ate my soup. Have you ever noticed how happy everyone is in a coffee shop? You always meet in a coffee shop for happy times - you'd never go there and cry about something, or break up with someone, nothing negative - it's a place where friends meet up for a natter, and often a place people go on a first date awww.

I then tried to come up with a few article ideas again and I'm currently leaning towards doing one on phobia's, but more on the side of being objective, rather than my last subjective piece. Just to try something different. At the moment, the only magazine I can think of that might accept an obective article with a bit of psychology thrown in, is Psychologies - yet another magazine I've never read. So I bought one this evening in Waterstones - their last copy, obviously it's meant to be! So I'll have a bit of a sift through the magazine and see if it's suitable, or rather see if I can shape my article around stuff they would accept :) It's all in the writing haha. Plus, I will have a little mooch through the Writers and Artists yearbook and see if there's any other possible targets.

The book club itself discussed The Hellbound Heart. It did not get a good review from most people. The mean score was 3! I think there was only me, who gave it a 5, and Colin, who gave it a 6, who went beyond the 3 mark and dragged the score up a little. I agreed with all the criticism to be fair, but I just didn't really dislike it, I enjoyed reading it - although I think it was too short, and some of the issues brought up could have been ironed out if there'd been more pages to tell the story and go more in depth. Also, the synopsis isn't a very accurate portrayal of the book and it would have you believe that it's mostly from Frank's point of view, when it definitely isn't. I think it would have been much more interesting if we had seen this other world, had the atrocities described to us, not in a sick way, but because it would have made it more science fiction to have gone into another world.
Frank believes he is unlocking the ability to obtain all kinds of pleasures, beyond what humans could even imagine, but he doesn't stop to think that the 'things' on the side of this locked puzzle, might not have quite the same definition of pleasure as you or I have. Also, there are a lot of times when you're expected to believe that someone does something, 'just because' and that's not very satisfying really. But I made my score of 5 comparable to the other books we've read - of which Temeraire was the highest and Snow Crash didn't do too badly. But there were a few I have very low marks to as they just weren't my type of book. But unfortunately, saying all this to the group made them then ask me what I liked to read - which always makes me feel uncomfortable in case they laugh at me or something, but they didn't, which was nice :-)

Anyway Flashforward is just about to start, followed by, what I think will be, an amazing Glee episode, dedicated to Madonna! woo! :-)
xx

Sunday 25 April 2010

So, that's it...

Oh my God - it's gone now, I've sent it off - argh it feels so weird!! I've emailed off my article proposal to Red magazine. As I've said previously I completely expect it to be rejected, I mean what are the chances that anyone gets anything accepted on their first try? At least this realistic approach will help with the rejection lol.

I think I ended up writing a whole load of crap for the query letter as it's supposed to include information on other stuff you've had published etc, and obviously having none, I just had to igore that part. I did write on that I was currently enrolled on the WB course and I don't know whether that's a good thing, showing that I'm writing, or a bad thing, showing inexperience? Who knows, I'll just have to wait and see now. And just as I was writing this, I received a mail delivery notification from the email address I used, saying it had failed permanently :-( I got the email address off their website so that's not very good. I've now sent it again using a different one, so fingers crossed that gets there - if not, it'll have to go the old fashioned way - by snail mail! Hopefully not though, it just extends the waiting time!

I was supposed to be going out today for a wander over the water but James wasn't very well so we've had to postpone :-( Ah well, I suppose it's given me the opportunity to finally send my article off to Red.

Got the book club tomorrow at Waterstones. I really like the Monday's I go to the book club as I get to spend a nice couple of hours in Caffe Nero...mmmm...hot chocolate. I've also bought a couple of the more trashy magazines to have a read through that might help me get a couple of ideas for reader's letters or fillers, so I'll have a look through them in Caffe Nero :-) for Assignment 3.

Well so far so good, not had the second email returned, so it might have got there.
xx

Saturday 24 April 2010

So the weekend is finally here! Was nice to have a day off yesterday, even if it was spent running around sorting things out - but they were bits that needed sorting so it's all good :)

Yesterday was Sara and Neils wedding party in Widnes. It was really nice seeing Sara again, it's been a while now, yet at the same time, it's flown by! But great to see they both got back safe and sound, despite the saga of a journey. They'll probably both just crash today as it all catches up with them -at elast she's off on Monday so has time to get over it.

It was nice helping her get ready into her dress and everything and she looked gorgeous in the dress :) Then later on in the night I helped her tighten it all at the back again but accidentally sliced my finger open and got blood on the dress! Eek! but it was only a tiny bit and I managed to strategically hide it, phew! But I did tell her of course cos my finger continued to bleed and I needed it to stop before I got more all over it.

Thanks to all those who gave their input into which dress I should wear to the party. I ended up going with the majority vote, the red/purple one (the one without leggings) and I think I made the right choice. So the other one will be taking a trip back to the shop now where someone else can give it a loving home :)

Been home for a couple of hours now and managed to watch last night's Lost - can't believe that since it started I've ended up with a social life and have barely seen any of them when it's actually aired! I'm telling all my friends now that I will not be leaving my house the night of the finale - I will be firmly plonked on the sofa at 9pm - I just need to work out which weekend it is now...

Anyway I'm very tired now so I'm going to get off and chill lol
xx

Thursday 22 April 2010

Do you ever...?

Hey people
Does anyone ever feel a bit lost in their day to day lives? It's almost as though on the odd occasion you "wake up" and realise that nothing is happening, that your life is dull and empty and the daily routine never changes. I think we ponder on this for a while, and may even make a pledge to do something about it, but more often than not, these thoughts get suppressed and you go back to the unconscious reality that is normal life.

This is not to say we cannot be happy with our lives - I love my family and friends and am very glad to have them, and there are many great moments that I have, which are usually spent with one or the other, that make me feel truly happy, and I think it is these small moments that help us get through the day to day drearyness (couldn't decide between the y or an i there, never spelt this word and didn't care enough to check it out, but did care enough to write this long explanation haha lol).
I think part of this can be seen when you have something to look forward to - you spend all your time thinking about this "thing" that you fail to notice what's happening right now. Everyone knows they do this as wishing for an exciting thing to come is often followed by someone else saying that 'you're wishing your life away' and I think this is very true. Though I am extremely guilty of this - currently seen by me emailing Becca once a week to say how many weeks it is til we go to Texas - which stands at 10 weeks at the moment, but started at about 15. 15 weeks of my life just wished away, that's a hell of a long time, and when you drag yourself back to the present, you realise that there are loads of little things coming up in the much nearer future that you can look forward to but it's usually the "big" things that take precedent.

To be fair to the argument of wishing your life away, it's generally not fun to be living in the present, which is mostly taken up with work. You will probably only find a small percentage of the population who really love their job, and I admire those people who have been able to get out there and chase their dreams. I really like where I work, but it is the people that have made it great, not the actual job itself, not that I dislike that though, but your work colleagues make a job somewhere you don't mind being. After having a few jobs I really hated, and never really clicking with all my work friends, it's been really nice coming here and finding so many people in one team that all (the majority of the time) get on.

I think that films have made living life quite difficult - how often do you see a film you really like and just wish that something like "that" (insert plotline) would just happen in your life? This is especially the case with romantic comedies I think - I mean who knows of ANYONE who has ever met their partner in a 'movie way'? These things don't happen, and you know this, but you still want it to happen and then when it inevitably doesn't, you're still disappointed and then angry at yourself for being so stupid! But I have even sometimes found myself wishing that something exciting/dangerous would happen (say from a thriller or something) that when you think about it, you definitely wouldn't want it to actually happen to you or anyone you knew, but you justify these thoughts by saying at least it would be different, or it would make my life more interesting if just something were to happen.

I'm not writing this in a depressed state or anything like that, despite it maybe sounding that way, it is actually a topic I've thought about on and off in the last few years and find it very interesting and intriguing as we don't often stop and think about our lives and what direction we're heading in, and when you do, it can be quite hard to swallow.

On the whole I think I'd have to say that I like my life but there are definitely many many things I would change if I had the time over, but since we can't, we have to make the best of what we have, and the choices we've already made, even if they're not what we would choose now. So I will continue to try and enjoy my life and fill it with the things I love, like family and friends, but also fun things to do and just try harder at life.   :-)

Wahey!

Woo, it's the end of my week today and can't wait to finish - looking forward to a bit of a lie in tomorrow morning :)

It's been such a busy week though and now I'm really knackered and I think the antibiotics I'm taking are starting to kick up a bit of a fuss and make me feel unwell :( I'm eating but I don't really feel very hungry (which is great as this is how it all started when I first lost all the weight! but also not the best way to diet lol). And I'm soooo tired today, could actually fall asleep lol. But at least no plans for tonight, just relax and get stuff ready for tomorrow. I will definitely be taking at least 3 outfits with me, which means lots of different accessories etc - it's so hard being a girl! :-p but at least we're sparkly!

So I had a text off Sara this morning to say they'd made it to France and were still on target to get into Dover for 9pm tonight and then travel up to Liverpool for 1pm tomorrow, which is still technically earlier than she was supposed to get in via plane, but they'll be a lot more knackered I'd imagine. So I'll be hot footing it to Widnes travelodge to meet her for 3pm and help her get ready :-)

Laura is coming to the wedding with me as my +1 so it'll be really nice to see her and will probably spend at least a few hours of Saturday with her before she has to head back home - hopefully this won't be in hangover mode - that's so much less fun. Although I've been thinking about it and I don't think I'll be drinking very much - as I had 3 glasses of wine last week, which isn't very much, and i felt quite bad the next day, so again I think the tablets are interfering with my life! Ah well, I'll survive, although probably means I won't be doing much dancing lol - that's probably a good thing for the people there.

I'll be doing something on Sunday too, just not sure what it is yet, we'll decide at some point before then and that's good enough for me right now. The weather is supposed to be really nice and sunny so would be good to take advantage of that somehow, maybe a walk like he suggested.

Had a good night last night - net up with Carol, Sian, Becca, Adam and Sarah and we played a few games of pool and then headed to the Abbey to get some food. I had a burger but wasn't very hungry and then I left early as wasn't feeling too great - but the company was great :) Hopefully we can all do something again soon when I'm feeling more up to it.

Got the science fiction and fantasy book club meeting on Monday at Waterstones Liverpool 1. We'll be discussing Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker which was the book of the film Hellraiser (which I'd like to see at some point). The book was only a short novella (128 pages) and was a very quick read. I did enjoy the book, but I still felt that it wasn't long enough, I wanted to know more about the other world Frank ends up in, I think that could have been interesting and probably quite gruesome. The book had a beginning, middle and end, but i don't think it worked as a novella, it should have been a novel and gone more in depth into the story. Well that's what I think - what am I likely to say? Nothing probably lol :-) I wish confidence grew on trees, how cool would that be? I mean where does it come from? I don't think encouragement is the whole key by any means as my parents couldn't have been more supportive and encouraging of the things I did, but I've still ended up with no confidence...hmmm...must research.

Anyway I'll get off and go and do something else now :)

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Welcome

Quick little message to welcome Terri to my group of followers! I should set up a bar in here I think, that would be fun :)...if only we could drink in here...hmmm I'll figure it out.
Hope you have fun here Terri, even if you only visit this once :)
xx

Monday 19 April 2010

Weekend

So the weekend ended up being quite good, but not remotely relaxing, which is a shame - ah well, there's plenty of other weekends :)

It was a nice day to go to Southport actually, although walking to the end of the pier when we first got there was freezing! but we went inside the arcade place and had a go on a few things. As soon as we went through the door, Ella spotted a Sooty truck (kids toy thing that moves - always outside Supermarkets) and she got in. But then we put the money in and she didn't know what was going on and started crying and tried to get out, awww it was so cute, yet so funny! haha. But she loved the little puppet show and was having a jig away. OH and then she had a little tantrum which was funny, actually did the whole lying down on the floor crying thing -I know you shouldn't because you're giving them attention but I laughed at her :) or with her I mean...phew got away with that :p luckily she got over it quickly and it didn't require disowning her.
Later on on our way back I bought Mike and Ella and myself an ice cream, and it's very interesting to watch children eat ice cream, they take FOREVER!!! so Mike kept having to save it from melting everywhere by eating it...or maybe that was his ploy all along?? Hmmm
And they all came back to ours for dinner so it was a good family day out





Somewhere in the last couple of days I also decided that I needed something to wear for Sara's wedding party this Friday - I always leave it to the last minute and panic buy stuff, but I don't think I could shop for a dress in any other way or I'd stop myself from buying it and ask 'when will I ever wear this?' So I had a quick look in M&S in Southport and ended up with 2 tops - not very helpful really, although they are evening ones, so more like back ups if I failed in getting a dress and could go back to my safety net of trousers!
So Sunday I ended up in town and bought more stuff I wasn't looking for right then in Primark, but at least that was cheap! I wandered around the rest of town and ended up back in M&S to try on a couple of dresses. Now I was almost done and ready to buy a multi coloured dress when the lovely fitting room women got involved in 'helping'. So they went off trying to find clothes for me to wear. And apparently I'm far too young to be wearing Per Una clothes - I really thought they were for young people - is that just me? But no, they're for people over 40! To be honest even knowing that won't stop me liking some of the stuff in there as it's not like I'm a fashion geek or anything.
So they brought some horrible things that you feel obliged to try on because they really are trying to help and they went and got it etc. And they did bring one thing which they all really loved on me but I wasn't overly comfortable in it because it's very girly - but on the plus side, I got to wear leggings with it, so it's almost like a compromise of trousers and dress. So I ended up buying that and the multi coloured dress I was originally going to leave with and I will make a decision on Friday - and of course I'll be taking my back up options too :) I've put the pictures of the 2 dresses up here, let me know what you think - it won't be very easy to see or to imagine the one that should be with leggings (which by the way is the dress with a frill thing around neck and is small floral pattern.) The other is mostly red and purple.
So I felt like we were there for hours - it's a very draining experience when people keep saying you look nice - I don't like it when people do that, I'd rather just be a wallflower and blend in to the darkness - that's my home :) hehe

Oh Carol, you'll be pleased to know that I have started watching Castle as it's just started on Alibi or something. I actually had no idea what it was about, despite knowing you watched it. So seen the first 2 episodes now and so far so good, I will be continuing to watch it. :)

Today at work was a nightmare - I was on reception duty which is bad enough in itself as you have to actually converse with students?!? what's up with that? Anyway, the computer also wouldn't work, so I logged it with the helpdesk people who oh so helpfully said it usually gets seen to within 8 working hours! 8 hours?? What are these people doing? I need my computer, I even got withdrawal symptoms :( so I managed to do a whole lot of shredding today. Previously I have always been in favour of doing a bit of shredding, but I have come to the realisation that it's only therapeutic when you CHOOSE to shred, not when boxes and boxes of it are forced upon you - heed my warning oh listeners...erm readers...erm Carol. :) and because of that whole day of nothing, I'm now knackered! Why is that? I think it's because the day is actually 2 full days inside the one, so you're obviously sleep deprived from working 2 full shifts :p But no receptino for me tomorrow MWAHAHAHA to Fran.

On the very bright side of things though - GLEE IS BACK TONIGHT - how great is that?? WOO WOO!!

Going to comedy club tomorrow night on Myrtle Street I think, should be good fun I hope - plan to sit near back so can't be picked on :)

Wow, mega essay there - anyway gotta get off
xx

Saturday 17 April 2010

Ghost Writer

Ok, talking about the film here, not actual ghost writing.
What did I think about the film? It was ok, not that great and I won't be buying it or anything. I think Carol completely hated every second and now probably hates me for dragging her to see it :-( I didn't hate it, it wasn't on a par with Saving Private Ryan or Kevin and Perry Go Large for me, it was somewhere between there and films I really like lol :-)

I haven't read the book it was made from, but the film had a very book feel to it, and I don't think films can get away with that very well. By that I mean it was very talkie and not much action happened and they seemed to feel the need to have scenes with just normal every day things in it, like him sleeping or something. There was a lot of fluff they could have gotten away without doing and maybe made it a more concise film which could only have done good things for it - it was far too long for a 'talkie' film.

But the film did have some good moments, it was actually more humorous than I was expecting, well near the beginning anyway. But to be honest, I was more excited about going home to watch Lost :-)
I don't think anyone I know would really like this film and I think i only didn't dislike it because of the way I am with films lol. But personally I don't hold much stock with other people's opinions on films so if you want to see it, go see it - maybe seeing some less than good films, makes us appreciate the brilliant ones all the more.

Right well I better get off as we're going to Southport for the day with my brother and niece -I'm hoping it won't be freezing down there by the sea but I just know it will be :-( But it'll be fun nonetheless. Have a great day everyone!

Friday 16 April 2010

Friiiiiiiiday!!

Hello! Yay the weekend if finally here...well in 3 hours anyway :)

I found out today that I had got my first comment on here from Carol - thanks for that :-) I've been waiting for a comment for aaaaaaages lol. I wasn't particularly waiting for anything insightful, just something written on there.


So, had a really good night last night - went to Zizzi's, very nice in there, especially when someone else is paying :) lol - though I  did provide a coupon/save money thingie.

And tonight off to see The Ghost, looking forward to that, although we don't know whether we're going to Liverpool or St Helen's yet, but as long as we decide before 8pm I don't really mind. I'm hoping this is going to be a good film as I really liked the trailer. Must also remember to mention to Carol and Sian about Adam suggesting a cinema and/or drinks meet up on Wednesday - I vote for a pool game in there somewhere as I have been feeling very jealous since I heard about the games a couple of weeks ago lol. Although to be fair, if I hadn't been told about it, I'd never have given pool a second thought, but I was so now I need to play - come on people, let's go have a game?? Please? Though sorry people, I doubt Obama will be joining us :p
Oh and Lost is on tonight as well, yay! more excitement!

Might be going out somewhere with mum, dad, Ella and Mike tomorrow, maybe Southport or something which would be nice - but I can't decide whether to do that or whether to take advantage of the empty house and just relax and maybe get that article sent off? But then I'd feel mean not going on a day out with my parent, brother and niece - I can do the writing thing on Sunday. Feeling very nervous actually at the thought of sending off a query letter to a proper editor of a proper magazine, it's a bit weird and very alien, but if you don't try you don't get and since this is the first thing I've ever sent off, I already know that it'll be do try and don't get lol. But I'm expecting to get loads of rejections, it's just the way it happens isn't it? No one ever said writing would be easy. And to be honest, i don't really think i'm the type of person who will really take these rejections to heart, especially since I tend to expect the worst in most situations anyway lol. You just can't take it personally, there could be loads of reasons they reject it, the least being bad writing and I'm clinging on to my B I got for the assignment :)

Lunch is almost over now :-( Wish we could all just go home now, I mean what's likely to happen this afternoon that couldn't just be fixed on Monday? Nothing i tell you.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Update

Oooh forgot to acknowledge the doubling of my followers yesterday :) Thanks to Adam and Natalie, now it's starting to look like I'm vaguely popular :p Not that anyone will actually read this but hey, looks are important :)
Ok that's it for now as technically my lunch is over - well not technically but actually.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Been a few days...

But I'm back! :) so...has anything happened? Well nothing particularly exciting.

Friday night I went to see the Bounty Hunter with Sian and Terri. Was a good night and not a bad film, quite funny :) Basic plot line is about a man who works as a bounty hunter and is given the task of bringing his ex wife to jail - so lots of running around ensues and the obvious falling in love again along the way - I make that sound as though I didn't like it much, but I really did, it was a nice feel good movie.

Had my hospital appointment on Saturday which went ok although I might have to be on antibiotics for up to 6 months!!! and now I'm just waiting on a CAT scan. Even better than that though, my horse in the National sweep at work won! How brilliant is that - a nice £20 my way :-) I will try not to spend it all at once.

Erm...then Sunday we looked after Ella. Lovely to see her, but exhausting - why do 2 year olds have so much energy? Is it really necessary? and it is spent on rubbish things like screaming at the TV because Lau Lau came on the screen! A weird purple bunny thing from a show called Waybuloo - freaky show. They have "yoga time" where the characters do all these little yoga moves and ask the kids to have a god themselves - amazingly, Ella is actually very good at this and was able to follow most of it. If any of you have to watch it at some point - beware it lowers your IQ considerably. Ella had some good fun playing with the musical stuff I bought her which was nice and she is very cute so she gets away with watching that crap! haha
Also on Sunday I had to drive my dad to and from Anfield for the Liverpool game, which wasn't even worth it apparently and was quite a boring game. Took over an hour to get home! I think people should just get public transport there and be done with it, surely that would be easier? Maybe more so on any other day though.

nd then yesterday was back to work again after another very quick weekend :-( Who's with me on petitioning for a 3, possibly 4 day weekend? But to be fair, the day went quite quickly and I was fairly motivate to work through what I had to do so got lots done.
And finally to today, I think the most interesting thing was that me and Mel went to Caffe Nero at lunch for a Lost/Flashforward chat - totally necessary with shows that have complex storylines to figure out.

And in between all of that, I keep meaning to find out how to send a query letter to Red for my food intolerances article, but just not had a chance, been really busy everyday and it will be the same for the rest of the week - cinema tomorrow and Friday and dinner on Thursday -not sure where yet but I'm sure it'll be nice :-)

Hopefully get back into the swing of this tomorrow so they won't be as long as this one lol

Friday 9 April 2010

Clash of the Titans

I went to see this film on Wednesday - Orange Wednesday in fact :)
I actually quite enjoyed the film, it wasn't what I expected in some parts but it was good.

It's about Perseus trying to save a city from Hades and the Kraken and has to go on a little journey to speak to the 3 witches, while battling all kinds of demons along the way, including huge scorpions and the medusa. I really liked the Medusa bits, was good. To be fair to Hades though, he was given permission by Zeus to wreak his havoc on the mortals as they had started to rebel against the gods and stopped worshipping them, which made them weaker.
Oh and Perseus gets a pegasus and I would like one of those now as well, although I'd still prefer Toothless :)

And on a completely separate note - a 2nd follower! woo! it's almost becoming crowded in here haha lol. My new follower is Carol, who is kindly going to show me what Twitter is all about at some point :D TA!!

Right here we go...another day, but it's Friday so that's always good, but ideally I'd like to go back to bed now lol. But happy things to come - cinema tonight to see the Bounty Hunter and then go home and watch Lost and then sleep! woo! Then off to the hospital tomorrow yay!

Thursday 8 April 2010

So I got my assignment 2 back yesterday - so quick. When I saw it sitting there in my inbox, my heart just briefly stopped beating and my stomach dropped and it did take me a few minutes before I'd open it! But I got a B so yay! So I'm very pleased with that considering I hadn't thought I'd do very well, having found it so difficult and took me ages to finish. My tutor said that the only problem with writing self help articles of this type (to be honest, I wouldn't have classed my article as self help, I was going more for life story that Red likes) is that food intolerance might not be mainstream enough or affect enough of the potential readership that a magazine would accept it. He said that I might get lucky though and send it to an editor who has a similar problem. But on the positive side he said it was well written, highly informative and interesting read :-) so I don't suppose I could do much better - well maybe a whole grade higher haha but only being on assignment 2 I'm quite chuffed!

So I will send a query email to Red and see if they're interested and if not, maybe try to do a little re-write to hopefully fit another publication, but one at a time. I might look at removing the bits that are "self-helpy" and see if that might make it more appropriate. And also get on with Assignment 3, which I think I talked about in my last post - if not I will come back and edit this one :-) so I might need to start going back to the library. Also might ask friends if there's anything they think I'm good at or know a fair bit about and see if any of those could make for a good filler. Also need to check out the freelance market new magazine for the reader's letters section, also maybe think about a tip of some kind I'd be good at...can't think of anything off the top of my head but we'll see.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

YAY...and NAY

Woo! So assignment 2 is finally done and dusted and sent off woo! That does feel really great to have it out of the way, but also scary that now someone will read it and probably have a go at it :( but never mind, I  tried and I can only learn from what they say and keep going with assignment 3, which doesn't seem very different to assignment 2, so yay more non fiction joy! lol It's all good practice - keep the mantra going!

On a plus side, i did actually write a paragraph of the globe story which was interesting. Despite having read hundreds of books, when it came to actually getting the layout right, I had to go back and check in a few books lol :-) but better to get it right now than have to go back and change it all later.

On the NAY side of things, it's back to work today :( didn't want to get up and go out, but at least the mornings have started getting lighter again now so almost back to where we were a few weeks ago. Very nice having the light evenings though.

Going to see Clash of the Titans in 3D tonight, which should be good. I looked up the length of the film to make sure I'd be able to get the last train home as for some reason I thought it was going to be an epic one but it's only 106 minutes so not very long at all! So I'm looking forward to my swalt popcorn tonight yum!

So where to go now with the next writing assignment? There's a total word limit of 2000 words and you have a choice of how you want to do it - can be one 2000 word article or it could be an article, a reader's letter and filler with a combined word count of 2000 or any combination of those types of writing. I think doing a reader's letter might be a good start as it's only about 150 words. As for a filler, I'm not really sure what I would write about or who i could aim it at. As for the article, it'd be back to all the research and analysis again of various magazines. So here I am back to being stuck again :( Never mind...I'll get there in the end again I suppose. Unless of course my article for assignment 2 comes back all covered in figurative red pen and basically needs a re-write :( What to do then? Cry? Give it all up? Watch this space...:-)

Monday 5 April 2010

Easter Monday

So here I am, sitting here really wanting to continue with my assignment - I did do a little bit yesterday and have done some today but I think as I've found it so difficult, I'm just not connecting with it so I keep daydreaming, which isn't very helpful :(

But I suppose the quicker I get on with it, the quicker it will be over with and out of the way! It's so easy to give yourself advice, just not good at taking it :) Well I suppose by writing a post on this blog means I'm doing some writing of some kind which can only be a good thing.

This non-fiction stuff is a lot harder than I'd even imagined. I already knew I couldn't read non-fiction books, no matter how interesting the topic is, I just get bored reading it, but I actually thought writing it might not be so bad - well that's me told. But because of this, I keep going off thinking about fiction stories and have a few ideas now for a couple of short story competitions that are coming up, not that I have even a remote chance of even being short listed, never mind winning, but it's all good practice :)

Anyway back to it :)

Sunday 4 April 2010

Ooooh

A FOLLOWER!! Who'd have thought it? Well...actually me...since I forced her to join hehe :) ah well at least she doesn't need to ever read this.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to all! Hope the day brings lots of chocolatey goodness and that the Easter bunny was kind :-)

So Thursday night was good - we came 4th in the quiz!! amazingly brilliant for us, but also heartbreaking to be so close...especially when we were dithering over a couple of answers and got them wrong :-( never mind, there's always next time...and the time after that. Another great thing about the quiz was the addition of Sian's very yummy black bottom cupcakes with a lovely green cream cheese frosting! Soooo nice.



On to Friday - didn't do very much, watched previous week's Over the Rainbow and didn't get dressed til gone noon. Then I pretty much just messed around til I needed to go and wash my hair before Sian came around. When Sian came, we played Just dance on the wii - very tiring work, but a good work out, especially for the arms, which i'm still feeling slightly today! but on the down side of this great work out, another shower was needed lol. So we got ready and eventually left mine about 9:30pm and got the train in to town and walked down to the Pan Am on Albert Dock. We both said at the end of the night that the experience was good to have had but never again! Everyone was old and retiring or were in their 40s and above and divorced with children!! nd then we got trapped into a booth by this crazy psycho woman dissing us cos we had cocktails and said that our daddy probably paid for them!!!! ha! the cheek - they were out of our own hard worked for cash!! :p never mind, we managed to escape soon after and grab a taxi before she could follow us lol.


Got up the next morning and watched new Lost, yay! go Lost - it was a 2 person episode but won't say any more in case Sian does actually read this one, and I like being alive :) Dropped Sian off at the train station later on as she was meeting Carol in town and I was going shops with my mum, needed a couple of bits from Speke retail park and then needed the missing ingredients to make chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting! Then getting home from Asda was a bit of a disaster, I was carrying a couple of bags from my car to the house and the next second I hear *smash*! The 1L bottle of vodka had made a vodka bottle shaped hole in the carrier bag and smashed all over the driveway!! So we had to clear that up and mum got on the phone to Asda who said as long as we could bring the top bit back to prove we hadn't opened it (when would we have drunk it? In the car on the way home?) then we could get another, which is good as spirits are quite expensive (although weirdly the 1L bottle was cheaper than the 750cl bottle, but I wasn't about to complain!).
Then it was all a bit of a rush to get some lunch and get sorted before Sara came to pick me up to go to her dress fitting, which was lovely and she looked gorgeous in it, Neil will be so chuffed!



Got back home later on and made those yummy chocolate cupcakes and they were so so yummy!!! We've only eaten one each so far and mum already wants another batch making!! lol. Then sat down to watch Doctor Who, first one with the new guy in and have to say i thought he was quite alright in the role and I'm definitely open to seeing more from him and hopefully he'll do really well.




And today is Easter Sunday, not long got back from church, so still have the whole day ahead. I'm going to try and think about doing some of my assignment today although I'm fairly sure I'll be able to convince myself that today is a holiday and I should really leave it til tomorrow, but we'll see :) Have to get at least the vast majority done before going back to work - this is my own personal goal, so wish me luck!!

Catch ya later

Thursday 1 April 2010

Easter Holidays Woo!!

So all dressed up and nowhere to go...for the last 3 minutes of work. Then off to Revolution for one then on to quiz and back to the drinking, wherever that may lead us. Should be a good night all round.

La la la - anyone nothing else to write at the moment so will get off and leave this place for 5 whole days!