What day is it supposed to be again...?



Birmingham Christmas Market 2011

I love these days between Christmas and New Year when it stops mattering whether it's Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday; when the fridge is still full of lovely food and there are chocolates, nuts and hunks of gorgeously seasonal cake all over the house; when friends  arrive to swap presents and catch up over coffee; when you don't have to leave the house unless you really want to; when the Christmas tree still has needles on and the lights are still working; when you can stay in bed until you are ready to get up and stay up late until you are ready to go to bed!  I have ventured out for haggis (for Hogamanay!) and smoked salmon from the supermarket but other than that I've been holed up in front of the fire, toasty and warm, working my way through Christmas biscuits and lots of books on Shakespeare for my uni course.  It's all going to come crashing to an end before long, and I'm going to have to turn my mind on Monday to the mundane nature of the rest of my life, but at this present moment, it is truly fabulous to be so indolent and self-indulgent.  Best cake :  Dundee Cake from Aldi, dripping with orange syrup, packed with fruit and studded with almonds.  Delish! (and cheapish too!)

EXTRAS! EXTRAS!

Want more info on this year's story?  Visit the extras page!

I didn't believe my ears...

Sitting wrapping presents early this morning beside my lovely Christmas tree, I thought my ears were deceiving me when I heard this on the radio news. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16302375

See?  Drover is not as daft as people think!  And there's at least one other good plot there... 

Copies of the new story arrived yesterday and are being posted out to the usual suspects today- pleased with the way it looks!  Extras page will be up and running by tonight so pop back soon and have a look!

Christmas story? Find it here!!!

Murkton Christmas lights...?

Hopefully clicking on this link should take you straight to the PDF.  Then just save as normal! The Grouse and Partridge Story for 2011!  9I've managed to get round the lulu ebook hassles although the cover is horrible!!!)

(You can buy print copies, if you want one, at Lulu print edition  but it'll cost £2.50 and whatever they decide to charge for pand p! - I'd go for the download, myself!  If you are one of the 'usual' suspects who gets one in your stocking every year, never fear - it's on its way!!)

The Kindle edition is here Kindle edition although I'm not that happy about the formatting and I may well have another try at it before Christmas to make it a bit better to read. Kindle won't allow me to give the story away so you'll be charged 75p if you select it this way!  Again, I'm working on ways to get round this...

For every copy bought or downloaded this year, I'm donating to Crisis (as usual) and also to the MS Trust.

Merry Christmas

G and P get Kindled!

I was on strike yesterday, like a lot of people in the UK, but because I'm struggling with a foot injury at the moment I wasn't up to marching the streets and waving placards.  Instead, I stayed at home, with my foot up, and among the amazing things I found time to do, I decided to have a go at transferring the last Grouse and Partridge story to Kindle.  It was actually surprisingly simple to do (although the prospect of doing an entire novel is rather daunting!) and it is exciting to announce that, as of this morning, 'A Snoo-Tappit Hiddy-Giddy' is available from Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Snoo-Tappit-Hiddy-Giddy-Partridge-Christmas-ebook/dp/B006GIUWV2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1322771429&sr=1-1  for the princely sum of 86p - they wouldn't let me set the price to free!

When I finish this year's offering (Saturday's job!) it too will be available on Kindle at the same price. The usual free PDF will still be available on lulu.com along with the print version, probably from December 17th. 

Best cake?  The sweet mince pie my pal Helen forced me to indulge in with our now traditional Thursday morning coffee from Costa!  That girl is a bad influence!

Advent approaches...

and as the world goes into Christmas hyper-drive, Hamish and I just can't get worked up about it.  I've got too much work on to even start thinking about Christmas and Hamish... well, let's just say I've put him in rather an awkward situation in this year's Christmas story and really he's already got enough on his plate trying to deal with that, with the inevitable 'Secret Santa' issues, the perennial 'What do I buy for Marmalade?' problem and the inevitable cranberry scones thrown in for good measure.

http://www.theliterarygiftcompany.com

Yes: I am writing it.  No, I haven't really got the time (redecorating kitchen so entire contents scattered from one end of the house to the other, a mountain of marking and planning threatening to engulf me and a university course I should be devoting much more time to!) but when has that ever stopped me?  However, if the TUC decide to cancel strike action on Wednesday next, it may well be necessary to postpone Christmas
till January - I'm banking on that day to finish the story and lulu it!  Hoping it will make it to Kindle this year as well... watch this space.  (Only, not too intently!) ( Oh, and Marks and Spencer Key Lime Pie : has to be tasted to be believed!!)

It could be worse of course: this time last year we had SNOOOOOOW!

A (virtual) trip to Killin!

When I was writing 'Scotch Pine' I used the MacNab burial ground at Inchbuie, Killin as a setting for the final scenes of the book.  I'd never actually been on the island itself, although I'd taken photos of the entrance gates and had sourced some photos on the internet.  However, this week I've finally been able to 'visit' Killin, through a BBC TV programme which was first aired in 2008 - Railway Walks.  The episode starts in Callendar at the 'Dreadnought' hotel and travels through scenery very well known to Hamish as it is part of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, before arriving at the Falls and venturing across to the island in the company of the Laird of Macnab.  I was entranced!  It's fabulous and just exactly the way I'd imagined it when I was writing.  If you are in the UK, you can catch it on the BBCiplayer for the next week or so : see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fd1dd for more details.

It made me very 'homesick' - my heart is still in the Highlands!

Completely classic

I've spent this weekend trying to pull together resources to teach one of my all time favourite novels to my Year 9 class.  Jane Eyre is flavour of the month at the moment (although I didn't realise it would be when I chose to do it!) and so, as I've waded through my resources, updating and tweaking them a little bit, I've been thinking about why I love this story so much!

Normally, I'm quite twitchy about film and TV adaptations of classic novels, but with Jane Eyre I don't really mind so much because I actually saw it before I read it: a made-for TV film one evening in the summer holidays between leaving primary and starting secondary school.  It starred the unlikely combination of George C Scott and Susannah York as Rochester and Jane, both excellent actors but (with hindsight!)totally miscast.  However, the story captured my adolescent imagination and I borrowed a copy from my local library.  (Libraries: remember them?  They were so good...).  To say I read the book might be an understatement: I devoured it, although how much of it went over my head at the time is hard to say.  I have vivid memories of sitting in our back garden, in a makeshift tent, eating chocolate biscuits and living the story...

When I was around 14 or so, the BBC produced their adaptation starring Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke which I still consider to be the definitive version. In fact, when I read the novel now I cannot do so without hearing their voices speaking the lines!  Much later, Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson stepped into the roles in a production which was just about perfect until they mangled the ending.  (Like North and South all over again:  why can't scriptwriters trust that Victorian writers actually knew what they were doing???) 

It's one of those books - like Great Expectations and Little Women and To Kill a Mockingbird - that I have to go back and read again every few years.

I know why my twelve- and fourteen- year old selves loved it so much - it was entirely down to that complex, saturnine, brooding hero with his dark, dark secret  - but my now (much) older self finds that I'm drawn more to Jane's character  - I am impressed by her feisty-ness, her determination not to lower her standards even if  the cost is a devastating one, her capacity for forgiveness and the depth and complexity of her love.  Oddly, too, St John Rivers - the character I originally felt to be completely unnecessary to the plot - fascinates me now: a man who loves deeply but ultimately rejects love as a merely unworthy character trait, missing out on so much in the process.  

And what of Edward Rochester? Well, I still adore him - of course - but I can see him a little more clearly these days.  He's really a weak man, wounded and vulnerable, arrogant and proud, not really a proper hero at all, when all's said and done.  And, in truth, all the better for it.

A book of contradictions, it is far-fetched and contrived: a gothic romance - but somehow also very real in the way it deals with the themes of love, betrayal and inequality. It has events of pure melodrama but lines that ring with truth in your ears long after the book is closed. It is a real masterpiece.

And so I'm off once again, taking up my proverbial candlestick and stepping out into the dark, shadowy corridors of Thornfield Hall, in search once more for the truth behind that 'praeternatural laugh' and the deep dark mystery hidden on its third floor - I can hardly wait!

I never knew this until today...

but having sat down and flicked through 'Scotch Pine', I suddenly realised Allan Drover is left-handed!  It had never occurred to me before, but when he is attacked by the mousetraps in the biscuit tin he damages his left hand - he keeps pressing the 'a' and 's' keys together because his little finger and ring finger are taped together!  Now panicking in case I've made him right-handed at some other point in any of the stories!!

Summertime, an' the livin' is easy...

...which makes for something of a refreshing change!  I've been off work for ten days so far and I must admit that a disproportionate amount of that time has been spent sleeping to try and get over the exhaustion of the end of term.  We had a very emotional last two weeks with lots of goodbyes and surprise presents and meals out and bouquets of flowers... and then the holidays came crashing in and now we're in the middle of them and I'm not quite sure how we got here! 

This, by the way, is a deserted Covent Garden market at about 11pm last Wednesday night.  We'd just been to see the wonderful Tam Mutu as the Phantom in 'Love Never Dies' (again!)and walked up from the Adelphi through the Market.  I just had to stop for photos!  The night before we'd been lucky enough to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate in the hugely enjoyable production of 'Much Ado about Nothing' at Wyndham's Theatre in Charing Cross Road, a late Victorian gem of a theatre - and one I'd never been to before.  Fabulous seats for both shows (although LND wasn't full the audience were vociferous and the cast as brilliant as ever!  This show does NOT deserve to close!) London was lovely and worked its usual magic: we explored Chelsea this time and, having been flattered by the attentions of a group of utterly charming Chelsea Pensioners, were given a personal tour of the Royal Chelsea Hospital Chapel and Great Hall!

From there we went to the Chelsea Physic Garden, a place I've always wanted to visit.  It is a haven of peace and tranquility despite being right on Chelsea embankment, beautiful plants and lovely places to sit and enjoy it all.  And there, in the Tangerine Dream Cafe (yes - really!!!!!!) was the Cake of the Week - probably of the month - Lemon Drizzle - perfect with a strong black coffee although the other options all looked just as tempting! 

It cleansed the palate just as London always cleanses my mind: somehow things seem much clearer after a couple of days of refocusing there!  Came back and ruthlessly savaged the 'new project' and got it to a place where I think I can continue with a first draft.  Don't know why I'm so scared of this one - I have to keep forcing myself to write it!!! Finally, I've made a rather unexpected decision to enrole for a university postgraduate course - part time and distance learning - to start in September.  Part of me thinks I'm certifiable, but I feel if I don't do it now, I probably never will!  We'll see what happens...

This last photo was taken just after the last one - and seconds later they switched the floodlighting off!  It's St Paul's Covent Garden, the Actors' Church - the one that features in the opening of Pygmalion/My Fair Lady - and it's one of my special places.  I've never seen Covent Garden this deserted: I half expected a ghostly coster to show up on the photo, carrying baskets on his head as they did when it really was a fruit market...

End of term catch-up!



Salford Media City about 10pm. ( You can't see the dalek from here!)

 Just two weeks to the summer hols!  Has to be the fastest year yet.  As always, I'm overwhelmed with the amount of stuff which still remains to be done before we break up. This year as well, several people I've worked very closely with during my years in my job are retiring, leaving two more holes in our department.  I know there's a theory that no one is irreplaceable, but that isn't actually true.  Physically there may be people sitting in their rooms, doing the same jobs they did, but those new faces cannot replace the old at all.
Not going to get all philosophical about the state of education here or how my job has changed beyond belief in the last five or so years.  Instead, I'll sing the praises of the wonderful Hazelnut and Raspberry cake we ate at the Sage music centre yesterday afternoon to the accompaniment of a massed ukulele band!  Gloriously over-pink icing but a real raspberry taste!
Other than work (ie Ofsted inspection and aftermath) and cake what has gone on since April?  Well, the Kindle has become part of the family and a constant companion on my daily commute to work.  I think I truly love it! 
We've done Manchester in the pouring rain, wind and low low temperatures for ballet, staying in the heart of the new 'Media Centre' in Salford and met a 'real' dalek. 
We've done Birmingham in the baking heat 2 weeks later - again for ballet - and discovered a gorgeous part of the city we'd previously overlooked. 
I discovered the joy of buying old postcards on ebay and sang all the verses of 'American Pie' with Don McLean without having to brave Glastonbury mud. I photographed the Hogwarts Express and got up very close to Mallard at the Shildon railway museum.
I've narrowly missed out on seeing Ian Rankin in Edinburgh in August but managed to get a ticket to see Alfie Boe in concert in January, survived the experience of being in a theatre with 2000 Paolo Nuttini fans (has to be experienced to be believed!) but managed to avoid Take That (even though we started to suspect they were following us round!) Finally, I protested about the early closure of the wonderful Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Love Never Dies - and hastily rearranged a trip to go and see it YET AGAIN before it closes!
And  - last but not least - thirty two years after I fell head over heels in love with Adam Ant I finally got to see him live on stage and he was as amazing as ever.  I don't think either of us are wearing too badly! First gig I've ever been to alone - although there were people there I knew - and, surprisingly, it was fun!  This gentleman was the support act and for a while I did wonder if he was just a figment of my imagination...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOad0FU9zF8   I can only imagine what Grouse's comment would be!

Not a bad list, really.  Not very surprising that I didn't find time to blog!!

Kindle wakes...

After a week of trying to get the e-reader to talk to the router I finally brokered an agreement between them in the early hours of this morning and (touch wood!) they're still on speaking terms... Watch this space!

Spring Flings!

My camera, pointing straight up to the sky in the middle of Kensington Gardens last Tuesday, managed to capture this blossom-laiden tree and the blue above it.
It's been a wonderful, settled spring and it felt like summer here today, down by the river in Durham where the trees were all in leaf and the birdsong was orchestral!

I'm already into the second week of my Easter holidays - although thanks to the extra long Royal Wedding bank holiday weekend, I'll only be back at work for three days next week.  Last week was dominated by the London trip - marvellous exhibitions at the V&A and the Imperial War Museum and theatre in the form of 'Love Never Dies' - again!  Batteries recharged and soul restored, this week sees Birmingham Royal Ballet in Durham and York and the chance to interview one of my long-term dancing heroes!  And there's chocolate after that...

And did I manage my 'no book' resolution during Lent???
Well, it's not been easy.  There's been plenty of temptation thrown my way.  But with three noteable exceptions (listed below!), I've done quite well - well enough to have ordered a Kindle!  I still, however, have a very long wish-list...  Happy Easter!

My Lenten lapses

1. A book from the fabulous 'Pleasures of Past Times'  run by David Drummond in Cecil Court, off Charing Cross Road: the shop specialises in 2nd hand theatre books but isn't open at weekends.  Since we were there mid week and it was open it would have been criminal not to go in and once in...well, I'm only human!
2. The catalogue from the V&A Aesthetic exhibition.  As it is a catalogue, maybe it doesn't really count as a book?  Also, the paperback is only available from the exhibition shop and is almost half the price of the hardback so again it would have been foolish to wait till next week.  If it makes it any better, I've left the cellophane wrapper on for now!
3. No excuses for this one - in my internet browsing I came across a book called 'Victorian CSI' - a reprint of an 1890s book on Forensic Medicine.  I needed it.  Immediately.  It arrived yesterday. I'm half way through already and it's wonderful...

Elbow and after

Wednesday of this week was a very special evening.  Elbow - the best band in the world, ever, without question (no -this is not open to debate and everyone is entitled to my opinion!) - played Newcastle Arena and for a couple of hours on a cold misty drizzly night in March I was transported to the foothills of heaven.  The after-glow lasted until today - now I just wish I could repeat the experience.  My brother and I have seen them play live four times in a variety of venues and every time it's magic. Even the barn of a building that is the arena didn't manage to dim their brilliance.  I came out smiling and walking on air.  Fabulous.  We started off the night in a Persian restaurant which was delicious so cake of the week has to be the baklava we woolfed down in record time - sweet, sticky, cardomum-y - yummy!  Not too worried about the calories - I think I probably danced, sang and clapped them off before the night was over!
http://elbow.co.uk/

40 days and 40 nights...

I couldn't get through my front door tonight.  There was a big parcel wedged behind it with the Society of Theatre Research's annual publication in it.  STR is a wonderful organisation for theatre history junkies like me because they send you a gorgeous hard back book every year as a present - it price is paid for by your annual subscription.  Thisyear's offering is about Pantomime and I'm drooling already at the prospect of starting it.
It's come at the right time: Lent starts today and once again, I'm giving up buying books.  It makes sense: I need to find homes for all the volumes that have wandered in since Christmas and give the postman a bit of a break from the endless Amazon deliveries.   
It isn't going to be a problem. I can do this. I don't need to buy books.  I really don't.  I've got plenty to be going on with.  In fact, my final spending splurge from the weekend should be arriving any day now...

To Kindle or not to Kindle?

That is the question.  Yes, I'm debating about whether I should join the e-book revolution and become a Kindle reader or not.  I'm fascinated, I must admit and the list of pros is outnumbering the cons at the moment.  I'm still up to my ears in research and it would be very much easier to do it via Kindle - and probably cheaper in the long run. It would be portable - meaning the train journey could be put to better use. A lot of the stuff I'm reading at the moment is on PDF anyway - and  is out of copyright. And there's the fact that my poor over-loaded bookshelves couldn't cope with another 3,500 volumes...However, the literary Luddite that is me is holding out a) until the price comes down a bit b) until I'm sure Kindle isn't going to be a Betamax c) until I can have a test drive on someone elses!!  So today (last day of half-term holiday so work avoidance technique #1) I've been downloading more old, potentially unloved books from the internet and spending a little more of my ill gotten gains on Abe books.  Kindle might be instant, but there's still something satisfying about ordering, waiting and then unwrapping the brown paper/envelope/jiffy bag from a new book!  I don't want to lose the romance of re-homing books in a flurry of e-reading!  Maybe I'll just wait a bit longer...

Mourning The Book Inn, Billingham

One of the best little independent bookshops I've ever been in has closed, leaving Billingham Town Centre an even greater cultural wasteland than ever before.  I had many dealings with the Book Inn over the years, taking advantage of their fantastic ordering service, friendly staff and serious bargains.  When I first started work, I was in there at least once a week, buying a book to get me through the next week's train travel. I always bought book tokens there and they did some excellent deals for our staff reading group. It was a tiny shop, not much to look at, but always crammed with good stuff, it smelled of paperback books - ink, paper, laminated card... There was a little stationery section at the back, and a friendly (sometimes!) cat who would look at your purchases with distain as they were bagged up to be taken away.  I loved it. I never came out empty handed.  Sadly, Billingham has lost yet another retailer and the town seems destined to be bookshop-less from now on.  What has happened to the town centre in general is nothing short of scandalous, but the loss of The Book Inn is an absolute tragedy.

Cinderella, but Matthew Bourne style

I am tired.  Very very tired.  And, for once, it's almost entirely my own fault!  Left work last night and headed straight to the Theatre Royal in Newcastle to see this production - a 3 act epic of a dance show - and then hung around until almost eleven as Matthew Bourne was doing a post show talk.  I adore his work - it always feels as if there's a heart and soul and intellect behind it - and this was as fabulous as ever.  The stunning Prokofiev score, played at just the right volume augmented by Blitz sound effects, a magical re-invention of the story in a very credible setting, the hallmark humour and pathos I've come to expect from this company, some deft references to two of my favourite films of the 40s ( A Matter of Life and Death and Brief Encounter) - fabulous frocks, and some exquisite dancing - one of MB's very best pas de deux.  Oh, and a scene on the London Underground and a celestial motorcycle and sidecar!!  FABULOUS!
We were up in the Gallery - the only seats we could get - and that was wonderful too - I spent many happy evenings up there as an impoverised but theatre obsessed student.  The Gallery is going to undergo a major refurbishment as part of the renovations which begin in March and so it was lovely to be up beside the muses above the proscenium for one last time before it changes forever. 
It was well past midnight when I crawled into bed and had officially changed into a pumpkin and had no concept of where my shoes might be.  When the alarm went off this morning I was bleary-eyed and seriously weary.  But if it wasn't entirely sold out, I'd be back there tonight!!!
When it's magic, it is MAGIC!
www.new-adventures.net/productions/cinderella

Burns Nicht, books and bread and butter pudding

It was the Bonnie Bard's Birthday on Tuesday and so we celebrated with my annual Burns Nicht bash on Friday 28th, much haggis, lots of laughter and a very large pannetonne bread and butter pudding.  You would not believe how hard it is to find a pannetonne once Christmas is past.  I ended up with a kilo sized one from Marks and Spencer which ahd been reduced to about a fifth of its original price.  It was fantastic - but there's an awful lot of it left!!
Burns night is also Hamish's birthday, of course.  I'm sure it was a good one for him: I don't like to think of him getting any older than he is in my imagination, so I'm not going to embarrass him by counting the years!  I suspect there may have been a bit of a shindig at the But and Ben in the Trossachs...
Tidying up for the party this week, I've realised that I really am at book saturation point: there is nowhere left for them to colonise! I need to have a 'weeding my reading' session at half term, although I'm loathe to part with any of them but as parcels still wing their way in from Amazon and Abe books, I'm beginning to wonder if I ought to just abandon the house to them and move myself into the garage...
I'm still on track with my 100 book challenge despite the increasingly heavy demands the day-job is making.  Sadly, writing has stalled completely.  I won't have anything ready for the Debut Dagger competition this year and my word count on the new book is at a stand-still!  I'm still researching like crazy and just crossing my fingers like mad that I'll be able to have some time in the coming weeks - and enough mental stamina to put pen to paper!


That's us reflected in the glass of the Lowry!

Last weekend was BRB at Salford which was lovely: excellent performances and an amazing free exhibition about RB founder Ninette de Valois which was fascinating.  BRB aren't coming here this spring, and the RSC have just announced that they're not doing the annual Newcastle season because of budget cuts.  The Theatre Royal is also getting ready to close for a full refurbishment. It's beginning to feel like we're in a cultural desert!!! 

A book I made

As well as buying books with compulsive regularity, reading books whenever I can grab a minute, writing books - sometimes, anyway - and worrying about where to put them all, I also sometimes make books.  I'm a member of a quarterly book arts group called QUARTO (there's a bit of a pun there if you think about it!) and every quarter we produce hand made book to swap on a pre-arranged theme.  It's a real challenge to come up with ideas sometimes, but it is brilliant to see what the other members make of the theme and to 'steal' ideas from each other.  There are some incredibly talented book artists in the group as well as keen amateurs like me.  Anyway, this is the latest book I've made for the swap this month.  The theme was weather.  You may recognise the front cover...! 

January brings the snow...

 What a surprise that isn't!  To rearrage a line by John Lennon, 'And so that was Christmas...' It comes, and then, suddenly, it goes again: the decorations are all packed away, the tree is heading off to be recycled, the house looks vast and bare and inhospitable and we're all back to work: its like none of it ever happened!

Except there are still a few edible goodies stashed around the place and I'm still reveling in my Christmas presents. One of the best this year was a reprint of the 1900 Baedecker Guide to London for tourists: it was L.P. Hartley who said the past was a foriegn country and if he was right, I really thought I ought to read the guidebook before I went. It's amazing and fascinating to read alongside my Dorling Kindersley London book to see what has changed and what has not! I've spent this weekend up to my ears in research, trying to kick-start some life into my writing.


My herd, grazing on chintz!

 I've had some lovely comments from people about the Christmas story - which has now disappeared from Lulu, as the festive season is behind us - and I did spend a day before I went back to work re-reading the work I'd done last year on the new book and making some changes. I really want to do this - and the only thing stopping me, really, is me...I think perhaps I've wanted to tell this story for so long, I'm no longer sure how to!Thanks to everyone who bought/downloaded the Christmas story, a sizeable donation was sent to Crisis just before Christmas and a (rather smaller!) donation is ready to go off to the Wurlitzer Trust. The extras page will stay open for a bit longer, even though the story is no longer available.

Always makes me think of Grouse!

To my amazement, I discovered the other day that the partner of one of my regular (and very loyal) readers is not only an organist, but actually knows someone who has a Wurlitzer in his front room!! If only I'd known before, I could have relied a little less on Wikipedia!! Should I ever need to re-write, I know where to go for help!
Finally, I'm going to try the '100 book challenge' this year and use this blog to keep a record of what I read - that'll get a page to itself too!

The pictures are my decorations on Twelfth Night, just before I dismantled everything: I just wanted to make the festive season last a little longer!

Happy New Year!

Birmingham again...


I'm having a 'vegging out' day today, sitting by the Christmas tree, watching the daylight slip away. A very quiet New Year, 2011 simply wandered in without much of a fanfare and seems to have settled itself in quickly! Am facing the fact that I'm back at work in 2 days time - and I feel as if I've just started the holiday. Lots of New Year Resolution-y things about reading, writing and not getting ground down by the day-job but it remains to be seen whether I can do anything about them! http://www.bookgeekblogger.blogspot.com looks fun as does www.eurocrime.blogspot.com 's selection Just trying to decide which - if any- to sign up for!! As for writing: well, I'm going to try to go back to it tomorrow, honestly...