Fly Me To The Moon

In my giddiness of the past week, I forgot to mention that I have another task coming up. On Thursday, weather permitting, me and hubbie are going on a hot air balloon ride. Courtesy of Virgin Balloons (I hope the balloon is owned by Richard Branson and not because the pilot has never flown before!) we take off from Wollaton Park in sunny Nottingham. We are allowed to assist with getting the balloon ready and then we will take a tour of our lovely city. Slight bonus if it does happen on Thursday is that the Goose Fair is here, so hopefully we will be able to go over the site. According to the blurb, we also have a champagne toast, but are advised to park the car outside of Wollaton Park itself, due to the park closing at sunset (cue me forgetting and trying to climb over a park fence no doubt!)

Coming back on Saturday I also found out by accident that I will be doing another task this year, courtesy of the envelope marked 'RSC' that I picked up off the floor as I collected the post. Oh well at least I'm not sure which play it will be! (walks off muttering, Hamlet, Hamlet, please let it be Hamlet.....)

The Day I Got Excited About A Fridge Magnet

The Internet is a marvellous place. Not only can you gain any information you require at the touch of a button, you also get to meet a whole host of people that ordinarily your paths would not cross with.

Take this Saturday. I was excited, almost giddy in fact. I was going to meet Caroline Smailes at the signing of her new book, Black Boxes, someone I've been blog buddies with for almost a year. I even chose a suitably non freaky outfit to wear, not that I have freaky outfits in the first place you understand, but first impressions and all that.

Armed with my sheep poo bookmarks (a present for Caroline) me and hubbie set off on a road trip up to Cheshire Oaks. Then we met C and it's kinda of weird when that happens, 'cos you feel that you've known this person for ages, because of this whole blogging thing, but really you are only meeting them for the first time.

Then we went back to C's house for cake and it felt even weirder, but in a nice weird way. Her house was full of bloggers! There was everyone there, from Badger to Trousers to B and a few more besides that I didn't get chance to say hi to. C wore a 'I Heart Lesbian nurses' t-shirt and I got two new fridge magnets, which I have to admit, I got a little bit giddy about (not quite sure what would have happened if I'd got a lesbian t-shirt as well!!). I also saw Captain Jack riding a dinosaur, but I may have dreamt that, or perhaps there was a secret ingredient in the cake, that nobody told me about??!!

Anyways (oh gosh, I can feel myself going giddy all over again!) I heart blogging people, I think they are ace. Even hubbie commented as we drove away, that very much like the Flickr folk that we meet on our travels, we didn't meet one bad person and we managed to get home to catch X Factor, how good is that?

So now the fridge magnets are pride of place next to Captain Jack and my signed Black Boxes is being kept safe on my special 'signed' section of my bookcase in between 31 Jewell Street and In Search Of Adam.

I had a lovely day, thank you Caroline and the rest of the blogging folk!

The Same Routine

Roadworks/traffic lights suddenly appeared in the village where I work, without warning last week. Nothing unusually about that, I hear you say. Apart from the fact, the village is on the main A60 Loughborough road and I work on quite a busy business park. Everyone leaves at 5pm, so chaos prevailed and it was taking up to 90 minutes to travel 2 miles. I was not impressed. We had the usual memo sent round at work, saying that we would have to factor this into our working day???!!! We then got a complete U turn memo suggesting that Managers accommodate the working hours, so we weren't all trying to leave at once. I chose to work 8-4pm. I hate it. I've got nothing done in the last week and I'm no better off, although I'm missing the build up at the traffic lights, the traffic is still as busy on the ring road, as it is if I leave at 5pm.

It occurred to me today, what the problem was. I'm out of my routine and I hate it. I have to rush round to leave early in the morning (I like to wake up gradually!) and then it completely throws me for the rest of the day. I usually go on my bike for 30 mins in the morning, which gradually wakes me up and also means that I can read my book and then I'm usually set for the rest of the day. In for 9am, break at 10am, lunch at 12, break at 3pm, leave at 5pm. A creature of habit me. But I feel I need to have a routine in what ever I do in life and I need to feel comfortable with things, for me to be happy to do them. My writing is an indication of this. For years I thought of writing a book, but I didn't feel comfortable in doing it for a variety of reasons. I just needed to get a routine going with my writing and suddenly it feels like second nature to be writing almost every day. In fact if I don't get to write in what ever shape or form, then I feel a little lost, as if some thing's missing.

So tomorrow, I'm back to 9-5pm. The traffic lights have gone and I'll be back in my old routine. I least I did try to change, that must account for something!

I Name That Tune

It was my third appearance on Radio Nottingham today. So, although I was a little nervous beforehand, apparently I sounded like a true professional! They picked the two songs that I thought they would, Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only and The Backstreet Boys - As Long As You Love Me. I picked Chesney as I think this best sums up my personality - it's taken me a long time to accept who I am and I love the line 'nobody I'd rather be', as I'm happy being me. I picked The Backstreet Boys, because I associate this song with my husband, it doesn't really matter what sort of day I'm having, as long as he's there to love me at the end of it, that's all that matters. Thankfully I didn't swear live on air, but the only thing was, it ended up sounding a tad corny as they concentrated on the Backstreet Boys choice, more than poor old Chesney (apparently it was Chesney's birthday today as well - how spooky!)

I've just been to Radio Nottingham to collect another recording device to record my hot air balloon ride, which weather permitting is happening on October 2nd and then hopefully it's back in the studio to do a paper review and for listeners to hear my report.

I'm having a writing day today, so hoping to get to nearer the half way mark in my novel. Certainly that's my goal for the end of the week.

PS I love not being at work - I could quite get used to this!

And The Beat Goes On......

So, I'm scheduled to appear on Radio Nottingham on Monday 22nd September at 11:30am. They have also suggested that when I do my next recording, I can appear again, but this time I will be reviewing the papers. Nothing very exciting usually happens in my life, so I'm a little bit giddy to say the least. Where will it stop? Could be Richard and Judy next!

Be Careful What You Wish For.....

I heard back from Radio Nottingham today in reference to the recent recordings that I've done. They will be playing the recording of my Ferrari task on Monday at 11.30am and..... they have also asked me to get involved with a music piece they produce called 'Play It Again Fran' (stay with me on this one!) I have to answer the following questions and they will ring me on Monday and choose two of them to discuss on the show - how cool is that?

1/ What track most sums up your personality and why?
2/ If you're having a less than brilliant day, what record is bound to lift you up?
3/ Is there a track that makes you cry? Why?
4/ Is there a record you associate with someone you love? What is it and why?
5/ Is there a song you associate with a particular time in your life, good or bad? Eg. what was the record playing at your first dance/wedding? Can you remember a record of a holiday romance, birth of your child, celebration of divorce etc...

I've spent the best part of the evening, trying to figure out which ones I would choose and in the end I went for the ones that first came into my head. Once I've made the final decision, I will let you know my answers!

A Master Class

It was once stated on one of my appraisals that 'Janette enjoys the social aspect of working' and who ever said that (the feedback was confidential!) was absolutely spot on. I love the fact that I work with such a diverse mix of people at my current role. Take for instance today, I spent the majority of my lunch hour, talking to one of the temps, who is a recently graduated film student. There we were, in between mouthfuls of food, discussing the virtues of You Tube and how I would film one of my tasks. For a novice like me, the advice was invaluable. I know what I want to film, but haven't got a clue how to go about filming it, so Mr Film Student gave me a few pointers, that will hopefully put me on the right tracks. Now, if only I could work with someone, who knows Take That........

Another Day

Ah, another day, another dollar - don't you just love Mondays? No? Actually neither do I! I've been trying to write this report at work for the last week and finally today, I started to get somewhere with it. It feels a bit like that with my book at the moment. No, I didn't manage the 5,000 words yesterday, due to The Hills new series being available on line (I'm addicted!) and getting the urge to watch Dead Man Shoes (another Shane Meadows' classic and my fave film at the moment). I did manage to write some words, so I guess something is better than nothing!

I still worry that I'm going to fall short of the 80,000 words, that I've set myself as a target. I'm not even sure that's how many words a novel should comprise of, I just felt that looking at other writer's, that seemed to be a fair target of what they were setting themselves.

The best bit about writing the novel so far, is the fact that the main character is semi based on my own childhood. So, I've been dredging up all things that I used to get up to when I was younger, which has put a smile on my face, when I remember what I used to be like. I would love to say that I've grown up now, but I don't think that's ever going to happen! I'm still known as the girl who bought a cabbage from a bloke in a pub, whilst on a works night out and long may that never change!

PS I don't think the last bit will be going in my novel some how!

Sunday, Sunday

Ah, Sunday mornings - I love them! No work, husband is out doing the Robin Hood marathon all day (taking photographs, not running it!) and my back is currently playing up, which means none of the house stuff I had planned to do today, can get done. Mmm, whole day full of writing it is then - ah this is the life!

Apologies to my blog friend

Sorry Caroline that it's taken me nearly all week to display the fine widget (on the left hand side of my blog) for your new book. I hope this special non - 40 things post, makes up for the fact! If you haven't already tried it, then please have a go, go on you know you want to! Just press on decide and this will lead you through a set of questions that will in turn take you to another blog person, that answered roughly the same.

And for those of you who are in the Cheshire Oaks area on September 27th between 12-2pm, then please do go to Caroline's book signing of 'Black Boxes' at Borders. Her first novel, 'In Search Of Adam', was stunning, so I can't wait to grab a copy of this one.

PS I hope one day Caroline can write a blog post about attending my book signing

Normal Service

Wednesday already, where does the time go, eh? For the eagle eyed readers of my blog, you may have noticed that I've reached the 30,000 words for my novel - hurrah! (can I hear a whoop, whoop?) I'm pretty pleased with that, seeing as I've lost the way a little with that in recent times, so it's good to pull it back and know where I'm going with this, well, at least I think I do!

I'm made a decision over the recent weeks. I've decided that instead of trying to do one hundred and one things at once (slight exaggeration I know!) I'm just going to concentrate on the things that I really want to do with life i.e. write my novel, write this blog and attempt to do the tasks set. I had all sorts of plans and things I wanted to do, which has started to eat in to the time I have spare to do the novel and blog, so it's goodbye to all those other things in life and now I can get on with the important things. Hopefully that will mean a lot more blog posts, as I know I have been neglecting things recently. Thanks for bearing with me, normal service will be resumed shortly.

There It Went......

So my week off, went faster than an X Factor's contestant's career and here I am, back at work tomorrow, feeling that I haven't had any time off at all! The week off has been a bit of a strange one. I've caught up with a few friends, seen Somers Town again (still as brilliant second time round), saw the new Guy Ritchie film, got drenched a few times and yesterday my husband was in a car crash (thankfully okay, but the car is no longer). Needless to say, I'm a little down in the dumps at the moment and when I feel like that, I tend to look at my list, to try and motivate myself into feeling better.

I want something to happen with this list, but I'm not sure what exactly! Perhaps a bit like when I got the call from Radio Nottingham, who were so excited about the whole project and what I was going to do for them. I've considered approaching a TV company to do a documentary, but because of the length of time still running (approx. 3 years) I don't know if any would be interested.

I currently have three tasks ongoing/in the pipeline:- reading BBC Top 100 Reads (just got out War and Peace and Bleak house from the library, which both look like doorstops!), writing my novel and a trip to NYC. I now can add a fourth - a ride in a hot air balloon, which I purchased for my hubbie's birthday and will attempt to do in October. A fifth would be perhaps the You Tube video and a sixth will be either learn a new language or learn the tango - if I can't get in at night class for beginners French, then I'm going to sign up for a dance class. As a side line, I'm also going to research my Granddad's time spent as a Military Policeman in the RAF during the Second World War, for a possible documentary idea I have.

So there you go, see I told you I only had to look at my list to start motivating myself, now just got to get my head around being back at work tomorrow (sigh!)

The Time Factor

So, it's day two of my week off work and I don't honestly know where the time has gone. The only blog related thing I've managed to do so far, is to pop my latest recordings into Radio Nottingham. I should hear back this week if they want to use them, or they may just get me back into the studio again, I'll let you know!

With time in mind, I've been mulling over my list. I have just over three years to complete it and with ten already done and dusted, then I am on course to complete the others within the timescale. Although there are tasks that are multiple ones i.e visit all fifty states of America that are probably going to be the trickiest. But I didn't make this list to be easy! I'm planning to complete another five by the New Year, so stay tuned and I will update you as and when I tick another one off my list!