S-h-o-p-p-i-n-g

Captain Jack is currently guarding my purchases that I made this weekend, for my Ben Nevis climb. Unfortunately this is a small part of what I need, in order to be fully prepared for the climb on the 1st June. Whoever said the best things in life are free was definitely telling porkies!

You Tube

Okay, so I have to confess, You Tube is one of my guilty pleasures in life. I love the concept and I love the fact I can catch up on all those old forgotten programmes I watched as a child (I heart the person who has loaded 'Come Back Lucy'!). So I've registered officially on the site, in preparation to complete one of my tasks (direct a video to go onto You Tube). I'm still a little while off loading anything at this stage, but I have the idea of what I want to put on, I just have to buy the props and film the thing - all will be revealed very shortly!

But until then - here's one for you Caroline. Remember the Donny Osmond post a little while ago? Well this is another 70's heart throb, who was a sexier version of Donny and very gorgeous! God bless You Tube for giving me back the memories!

Anyone For Tennis?

I applied to join the Wimbledon 'lottery' in October last year. The deadline to hear if I was eligible to purchase tickets for the 2008 tournament was March. As it will be April next week, I think I can safely say that I possibly won't be going this year. So that means no strawberries and cream, no champagne (okay, I probably wouldn't be having this anyway as it gives me migraines!) and no Cliff Richard singing. (Actually if anyone from Wimbledon is reading this, then can you make sure that in future years, you don't give me tickets on the same day as Cliff - thanks!).

A Helping Hand

I have a new friend to help me write my novel - Captain Jack Harkness and if I am lucky he may help me write my Dr Who script too.

Unfortunately my husband also thought I needed someone to help write my novel. So now I have two. I did take one Jack to work this morning, but after someone questioned why I had an action man on my desk, I thought he was best staying at home.

So now I have no excuse not to continue writing my novel......

Headlines And Deadlines

I'd love to say that I spent Easter busy writing my novel. I really would. But I didn't. I'm currently on 5703 words and just not feeling motivated to write. The problem is that I have at least half a dozen other writing projects on my mind at the moment. So I have to learn to concentrate on this one first, instead of trying to juggle so many balls in the air.

My deadline for completing the novel is the end of the year, so really, I guess, I should be breaking that down and giving myself weekly targets and sticking to them. So 2000 words a week it is, which roughly equates to about 300 words a day. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

PS Remind me in another months time that I should have written at least 8000 words.

New Look

You may have noticed that I have changed the blog around a bit. First, I've started writing a little more often and about the work behind achieving each task. Previously I just wrote whenever I had completed a task, which was all well and good when I was doing a few tasks close together, but then I tended to find that if I didn't do anything for a number of weeks, sometimes even months, there were huge gaps and any readers that I may have picked up along the way, would have surely grown bored and disappeared. I've also changed the template around and where as I'm not entirely 100% happy with this, anything is better than those stupid dots, that were doing my head in! In the coming weeks, I'm also planning a bit of a photo session, for a new header for the blog. All will be revealed shortly!

Read All Of The BBC Top 100 Reads Part 2

I seem to be nipping through these fairly quickly, so updates will be coming quicker on these. This is one of the tasks that I would like completing for this year. This may be a tad optimistic, after seeing the size of War and Peace in a London bookshop!

Watership Down - Richard Adams - loved it - it was one of the best finds from this list and would recommend anyone to read this tale of rabbit life.
Perfume - Patrick Suskind - a little on the dark side for my usual reads, but still a good story of a man obsessed by smells.
Matilda - Roald Dahl - wonderful tale of a little girl gaining her revenge on a demon headmistress - I love the fact I can read these so quickly!
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - a classic tale of a young girls adventures with weird and wonderful creations - I don't think I will ever tire of reading this one
Double Act - Jacqueline Wilson - my first Jacqueline Wilson read and although the pace of the story was good, found this a bit too cutesy for my tastes
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - again another first time author for me and although I managed to read this within a week, still had problems following the storyline - think I will fair better with his better known novels I have to read!
Middlemarch - George Eliot (not pictured)- did not enjoy this one bit - was too much like Jane Austen for me - too much storyline about the comings and goings of victorian life - found it quite boring and struggled to complete it
Memoirs Of A Geisha - Arthur Golden (not pictured) excellent read, depicting life for a geisha girl thrust into this life at a very young age
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen (not pictured) - I've tried to like this, I really have and every time I go to any literature gathering, it always seems to be everyones favourite book, but I'm afraid it isn't mine. Although I don't doubt that the characters of Elizabeth and Darcy are wonderfully strong, I just don't relate to Austen's warbling about the boring coming and goings of Victorian life (see Middlemarch). It just ain't my bag baby! However, it has to be said that I love to watch any adaption of Austen on tv. I just think it's one of those stories that performs better visually
The Twits - Roald Dahl (not pictured)- Published about the time when I was getting a little too old for his tales, but this one doesn't disappoint at all - I can still remember the worms in the spaghetti!

Currently reading - Clan Of The Cave Bear by Jean Auel

Today.....

I will be mostly eating this monster

Reading Clan Of The Cavebear (one of the BBC Top 100 reads)

Writing some of my novel

Finishing off the forms for the Ben Nevis Mountain Challenge

Recording my trip to the Ritz for Radio Nottingham

Happy Easter!

Temptation

My training and eating healthy, in order to get fit for the Ben Nevis Mountain Challenge has gone slightly to pot this week. Partly because of my new found love for the battenburg and partly because it was my Grandad's funeral this week and my head has been a little all over the place. So I resolve that as from Monday, I will be back on track and super fit for the 1st June. You heard it here first!

The Night My Jimmy Choo's Nearly Drowned.......

My Boss is nearly 40. So we organised a night out in Nottingham and turned it into a mini celebration for him. Balloons, confetti, boob cake and other embarrassing items were purchased for the said night. My boss retaliated by throwing a pint of beer all over my lovely blog inspired Jimmy Choos. Thankfully my shoes lived, however I don't know if my boss will ..........!

Ian Beale & The What I Should Do Next Task.....

Strictly non 40 Things related, but I have to tell you the story of what happened to me, travelling back from London. We arrived back at St Pancras, complete with luggage, desperately trying to find the toilets, when my sister in a huge stage whisper says "look to your right there's Ian Beale." So I carried on walking and took a sneaky look. Then my sister continues "and there's Lucy and Steven Beale" and at that moment I turned round and saw a dirty great big camera pointing towards us - we'd walked into the middle of filming Eastenders. Panic stricken we rushed to the side. Thinking we were safe, we took a look around, only to find ourselves surrounded by a guy with a boom mike and another with a walkie talkie and everywhere we seemed to look, there was another crew member. So we did what any normal person would do, we shuffled across the wall, desperately trying to get out of shot, trying to act very natural and hoping that at some point, there wouldn't be an episode of Eastenders with two blonde girls, complete with luggage, looking very dodgy, sliding across a wall!

40 things related - I am now thinking of the next tasks in mind. Obviously I have the Ben Nevis climb on the 1st June, but after that, no fixed plan of what to do next. I quite fancy either driving the Ferrari or seeing the Shakespearean play. Better start saving now, I guess!

Have Tea At The Ritz In London

When I was five, I wrote to Jim'll Fix It, to see if I could become a Charlie's Angel for a day. The Charlie's Angel thing never happened and I never got the Jim'll Fix It badge, but when I used to watch the show, having tea at the Ritz was the type of 'fix it' that Jim would happily do for someone and I'm pretty positive that's possibly where I got the idea from, that I wanted to do this.

The Ritz hotel has been open for 100 years and having afternoon tea is an institution in itself. This made me very nervous, in the taxi ride to the hotel. For a working class girl from Notts, there is always a thought deep inside that perhaps you are not good enough for a particular surrounding and I was dreading walking in and feeling immediately out of place. I could almost see all the old women, with their glasses perched on the edge of their noses, looking at you, as you walked past.

From the outside, the hotel looks very much like any other in London, but once inside the grandeur and splendour is apparent for all to see. You feel very much like you've stepped back into the 1920's and you can imagine the gentry that would have dined there, as you walk through to the Palm Court. There were no old women judging you as you went past, just normal people, coming to The Ritz as I was, as a special treat.

As we were shown to our table, the china cups and plates were waiting for us to dine. We requested our specific brand of tea (there are over 12 to choose from) and it was brought to us in silver pots and poured through the tea strainer into the china cup. We were then served sandwiches and cakes. Being a vegetarian, there was a limited amount that I could eat. The sandwiches and cakes were nice, but nothing special. The scones were then served and they were definitely worth waiting for! Freshly baked, they were still warm from the oven and as I spread the jam and clotted cream upon them and took my first bite, they melted in my mouth!

As we refused seconds (the waiters will quite happily bring you more selections of anything you required), we took the time to savour the ambiance and have a general people watch. There were the typical foreign tourists, the birthday parties and the courting couple, who could have really done with getting a room, but perhaps couldn't afford one at the prices, The Ritz charge.

All too soon it was over. We paid the bill (a whopping £74!) and said our goodbyes. The door was opened, as if by magic by the two doormen and we braved the chilly, London night, to go back to our hotel.

London Baby

So, it's nearly Friday, so that means a trip to our capital, partly for my little sister's birthday and partly to fulfill another tick off my list - tea at the Ritz. So I've got the old recording system out from Radio Nottingham 'cos I have to do my superstar DJ bit and record the visit. Unfortunately they've changed from a PDA system to a MP3 player, which means learning a whole new way of recording my dulcet tones. So I guess for the rest of the night, I will be practicing - cue 1,2 1,2, clean up on aisle 2, clean up on aisle 2..........

I'm Busy .....

Filling in forms for the Ben Nevis Mountain Challenge, that I should have returned ages ago, but haven't got round to doing. Also the cash match application that goes to our Head Office for approval to match any funds raised. Why so many forms in life.....why?

Today I've Been.......

Mostly watching my friend Dave doing a 10k run and spending time with Frenchy Phil. Ooh, I've also been getting prepared for my London trip next week and my visit to The Ritz for tea, which will be another tick off my list. Think I may also be booking a deluxe suite whilst I'm there at £1945 - not!

The Novel

So I've started to write my novel, after many years of procrastinating. So far I'm up to 5043 words. Caroline Smailes, whose blog regulary makes me laugh out loud, is currently on book 3 and 17312 words. I guess Caroline is winning at the moment.

Still Training.....

Training is still going well for the Ben Nevis Mountain Challenge. I've now lost 9lbs, which equates to losing one of my bellies, just two more to go...

I had a slight dilemma though today. I was hurrying to get changed for my lunch time run and turned round and found my pants floating in the toilet. Thankfully they were not the pants I should have been wearing, but a mere spare pair that had found their way into my training bag and in my haste to pull everything out, had gone for a swim. That could have been a very embarrassing afternoon at work....