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 |  My first WDC blog, cruelly abandoned but not forgotten... |
| I'm not as prolific as I should be when it comes to writing, so I'm blogging to try to encourage and motivate myself to write more. Sometimes I'll be ranting and sometimes I'll be pondering... and sometimes I'll just write the first thing that comes into my head to satisfy the demands of the 'Update your blog' email! If you like what I write or have anything to say, I appreciate all comments. |
| My car was broken into yesterday. I don't want to have to change the rating of my blog and I have pretty much nothing to say that doesn't involve an awful lot of swearing so I guess that's all I have to say for now. I am so angry. Why are people such pathetic horrible skanks? |
| I'm pretty busy right now. I'm in the midst of planning my friend's hen weekend (I believe you call them bachelorette parties in the US), which involves 24 of us staying in a cottage in the New Forest (southern England) for three days. I have planned all the money, the travel, a scavenger hunt, a party and various games. I am trying to book a restaurant but about nine people have yet to let me know their food choices (even though the deadline I gave them was last Friday). There's still quite a bit to do. And the event itself takes place in less than two weeks' time. The following weekend, I'm moving house. So while planning all this, I'm also having to try to organise my stuff and get packed. I'm taking the opportunity to throw out things I no longer need (I'm such a hoarder, so this is a good thing) but it's still pretty stressful and difficult to find the time. I am really trying to stick to my plan to write every day. The Winter Writing Warm Up challenge is certainly helping me with this; I think there have only been a couple of days in the past two weeks when I haven't read and reviewed at least one static item here on WDC. I'm also writing a story and poetry for the contest. I'm having to do all this on the train while travelling to and from work, and then find time to type up what I've done and post it on WDC whenever I can. Unlike some of the other stuff I have going on, this isn't stressing me out. But it would be nice to have a bit more time to work on my writing; I hate feeling like I'm not doing my best. On top of all this, I'm really busy at work. I have my regular work to do and a separate project that is supposed to be done this week, but I'm going to have to shift the deadlines as the client has been late with everything so far. So that's pretty stressful too. With all this in mind, imagine the colossal weight of my sigh when I was informed this afternoon that I will be moving offices on Friday. My entire office is being shifted from the third floor to the fifth floor, for no earthly reason that I can fathom. I think the universe is just making fun of me. Seriously, don't I have enough to do already? Right. Sorry. Don't mean to moan. I'm not actually in a really bad mood about this, I just can't believe all these things are happening at once. I wonder whether, by mid-February when all this is over, I'll be shaking with adrenaline and desperately trying to find a million things to do because I'm used to not having a spare second... |
| I'm not just saying this because I'm English — I really love Kate Winslet right now. I'm a sucker for movie awards, I absolutely love them, but tearful acceptance speeches do tend to get on my nerves. Enter Winslet — so overwhelmed by winning not one but two Golden Globes that she tries to list her fellow nominees and forgets Angelina Jolie. It was hilarious. And to Angelina's credit, she seemed to see the funny side. Speaking of funny, Tina Fey's speech was really brilliant....but I wouldn't have expected anything less  |
I've almost no time to blog as I'm so busy with other things at the moment, but just wanted to mention how much I am loving "Winter Writing Warm Up"  . The story writing challenge has really inspired me, and the Snowball Tag reviewing element is helping me stick to my pledge to read and review more statics this year. Perhaps all I needed was a little incentive and motivation, after all! |
| So today was my first day back at work after the Christmas break. I went in with good intentions, planning to work hard, stay fresh and make the best of a new year. Well, that was my intention, anyway... First of all, why did it wait until Monday 5 January to snow? I've spent the best part of two weeks lazing around with no work to do, and would have enjoyed messing around in the snow like a kid. But on the first day that I have to get up early and drive down to the train station to go to work, I had to dig my car out from under a few inches of snow and then drive along dangerous, ungritted roads to the station, then wait in the freezing cold for the (inevitably) delayed train. NOT my idea of winter fun. (Disclaimer: I realise that some of you live in parts of the world where snow is common and therefore better handled. For those people I should point out that south-east England is completely inept at dealing with snowfall. Much as this whole country is completely inept when it comes to particularly hot weather in summer. Basically, we can only cope with mild weather, otherwise everyone gets a bit frantic, the government starts issuing severe weather warnings and the entire public transport infrastructure collapses and dies. It's a sad state of affairs.) Then, when I got to work, I was confronted with a veritable banquet of chocolates. Having spent the entire holiday period stuffing my face I was planning to be a bit more healthy now, particularly considering I'm going to be bridesmaid at my friend's wedding in less than six weeks' time and I need to fit into my dress. But my colleagues have all brought in chocolates and other goodies they've acquired over Christmas, and now my dismal lack of willpower means I'm spending all my time at work stuffing my face once more. I know, I have no one to blame but myself — but that just makes it all the more frustrating. So, my plans to be more positive and healthy this year seem to be falling by the wayside already. But all is not lost. At least I recognise these flaws and can therefore do something about them. Surely that counts for something, right? Oh, sod it. Just pass me another chocolate... |
| Well, after a year that was mixed at best, I feel that this past week has been really good and a nice way to see off 2008. Had a lovely Christmas with my mum, my brother and his fiancee. Just really relaxed and fun, exactly how I like Christmas to be Then I spent the next few days catching up with friends who were home for the holidays, which was brilliant. And today I'm off up north for a few days to celebrate the new year with a bunch of friends whom I've only managed to see once this year, so it will be great to spend some proper time with them. My efforts to write more in 2009 will be helped by the fact that I've joined "The Holding Pond" , which looks like a really great group that will help to inspire and encourage my writing as well as getting me more involved with the community side of WDC. I've already received a merit badge and an awardicon from Brooklyn  , for which I'm very grateful indeed! So that's made me optimistic that 2009 holds lots of excitement as far as writing and WDC are concerned Haven't made much progress with learning French but I've got a long train journey ahead of me today and the entire Michel Thomas Foundation French course on my ipod, so hopefully I'll have some progress to report next time! Right, I had better go and pack (always leave it till the last minute). So it just remains for me to wish everyone here at WDC a very happy new year and a great start to 2009 See you on the other side... |
| I'm sleepy. Today was my last day at work till 2 January (hurrah!) and I'm going to spend this evening wrapping presents, stay up late so I can call my friend in Vancouver for the first time in two months and then sleep for as long as I like. Marvellous. So, other than the general festivities, I'm starting to think about the new year and what it will hold. 2008 started brilliantly for me, and I had some fantastic experiences this year, but it's also been one of the worst and most upsetting years of my life, so in many ways I can't really wait to see the back of it. I've never been one for new year resolutions — I figure if I try to make them, I'll only break them and then feel disappointed in myself. But I am at least going to set myself some sort of aims. If I don't meet them, so be it, but it's good to have something to shoot for! My first aim is related to writing. I've not been nearly as prolific as I'd like to be, so I'm going to make more effort to participate in challenges and write as much as I can. I figure that the more I write, the more my skills will develop — well, I hope so, anyway! We'll have to see how it goes. In addition to just writing, I'd also like to get more involved with the various community aspects of WDC. I've been a member since May this year but have only recently been entering contests etc, and I'd like to do more of that. I'll also try to be more regular with my blog and write more reviews of other members' work. Well, that's my plan, anyway. I just want to get more involved. My second aim is a bit random and has come about because of the ridiculously competitive nature of my boss. Basically, I learned French at school and got an A in my GCSE exam but haven't used the language at all since, so I know pretty much nothing of it now. For a while, I've been thinking of trying to learn it again, because it seems a shame to not remember any of it, and I hate the fact that I don't know any languages other than English. So I happened to mention this at work the other day, and my boss (who is a fluent French speaker) got very excited and the whole thing has escalated. She has turned it into a competition between me and another guy in our office who has been dating a French girl for six months but has yet to learn a word of the language. The plan is that we have until June to learn as much French as we can, then we're all going on a day-trip to France (yes, really) where we will ask random strangers to say who they think has a better grasp of French....and the loser has to buy dinner for the others. This may sound quite ridiculous, and that's probably because it is, but I figure at least it will serve as motivation for me to actually put some effort into learning French, rather than just saying I will and then never getting around to it. Wish me luck! My third plan for 2009 isn't a resolution, just a change. In February I am moving back to Brighton, on the south coast, where I lived for a year when I was 21. My old flatmate has a room becoming available in her house so I'm heading back down to live with her. I'll be keeping my job in London, which means a two-hour door-to-door commute, but that's only very slightly longer than my current commute and I think the improvement in my quality of life will make it worthwhile. It's a big change and I'll be living pretty far from most of my friends, but I feel like I need a fresh start and this might be the perfect thing. I'll be living with a couple of my best friends so it's not like I'll be on my own, and I hope it will give me a chance to sort my life out after the ups and considerable downs of this past year. I've also got three weddings to look forward to in 2009 — my brother's, my cousin's and one of my best friends'. And I'm going to be a bridesmaid at two of them, so I'm very excited about that. So all in all, I'm hoping 2009 will shape up to be a good year. But before all that begins, I've got Christmas to get through. I'm off to wrap up my presents now. I'm sure I'll be back on WDC before the big day but just in case I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry Christmas |
| I swear the weeks leading up to Christmas are significantly shorter than regular weeks. Time is just running away from me, it's scary. I can't wait to have a couple of weeks off work over the holidays to relax and sort myself out a bit. It looks like I might be moving in a few months' time so I'll have a lot to prepare...this is exciting and daunting in equal measure. Good news of late is that I won my first contest here on WDC! The idea was to write a pyramid-style festive story over the first 12 days in December, starting with one one-word sentence, then two two-word sentences and so on. It was great fun but a real challenge, and really interesting to read other people's entries and see the different ways in which people were tackling the task. Other than the contest, I've been reading a few blogs but otherwise neglecting WDC a bit too much lately. So this evening I've uploaded a story I wrote a while ago which is fairly depressing and is pretty much the least festive story I've ever written, so I probably should have waited until the January blues were upon us before adding it to my port! But my contest success has inspired me and I'm going to make an effort now to get more writing on here. I think I'm going to try to add one new static item to my port every week, even if it's just a really small writing exercise. Just need to get my creative juices flowing. So if anyone has any good ideas for writing exercises or prompts, do let me know |
| I've decided that, on occasions when I can't think of anything to write in my blog, I'm going to write about whatever book I'm reading at that time. I thought of this mainly because I've been inspired by the book I'm reading right now. I'm just over halfway through Falling Man by Don Delillo. I'm a big fan of Delillo and generally love his writing, but I'm finding this novel particularly compelling because it's about people coping in the aftermath of 9/11. As a Brit who'd been living in America for just over two weeks when 9/11 happened, I've always felt like my experience of the event was pretty unusual. At the time, I felt more detached from it than the people by whom I was surrounded, because it was so much closer to home for them. But as soon as I moved back to the UK I realised that no one here experienced it like I did, and I've never felt like people understand the extent to which it affected me. Reading this touching story of New Yorkers dealing with this huge and tragic shock is very interesting, and reminds me of what it was like in those weeks and months after the awful event. Thinking about 9/11 is more poignant in light of recent (and ongoing) events in Mumbai. Not that what's going on in India is on the same scale, but it's still very troubling that this sort of thing is happening seven years later. I wonder whether the new US administration will make any difference to the situation, by changing the world's perception of the West. I hope so. |
| I'm English. Born and raised in England. I lived in Massachusetts for a year but other than that I've always lived in England. As a result, I speak English — as in British English, which is similar to but distinct from American English. I joined WDC earlier this year because I love writing but I am not very confident about it, and I wanted to share some of my writing and get feedback from others. I have found the experience hugely enjoyable and beneficial, and I love reading other people's writing as well. The reviews I have received have been thought-provoking and, for the most part, extremely helpful. While my confidence in my writing varies, and I'm fully aware that my sentence structure is usually far too long-winded, if there's one thing I know I can do it is spell. There may be the odd typo in my writing, and I appreciate it when people point this out so I can correct it, but by and large my spelling is near-perfect. For this reason, it bothers me when I receive reviews for my writing that criticise my spelling, simply because I spell things the way they are spelt in British English. Americans criticize where Brits criticise, Americans are judgmental where Brits are judgemental, Americans talk of honor where Brits talk of honour — and none of us are incorrect in this. They are merely different spellings that are correct in different countries. If I make genuine mistakes in my writing, I appreciate the time people take to point out these errors so that I can improve my work. But I really do tire of having people take exception to the fact that I'm from England and therefore spell things in a different way. I'm sorry if you don't like it but I'm not going to spell words differently just because some of the people reading it are American. Please respect that. I don't mean to sound like I'm ranting but it does get to me sometimes. On a lighter note, this post reminds me of a conversation I had with my American roommate when I lived in Massachusetts — for some reason I had written the world "jewellery", and she laughed so much she was almost in tears. "My god, how many letters do you guys need to put in that word?!" She had a point, of course, but it changes nothing. Try writing "jewelry" in England and see the laughs you get then. It's different, it's not wrong. Let's maintain our own languages and respect each other. Thanks. |
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I want to take a long trip so badly. Oh man, I want to hear how the trip went - please! And if you have pictures, I think I might have to squeal a little. 
