Saturday 30 March 2013

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

First of all, I must apologize for not writing a blog last week.  I was away at a Writers' Weekend and attended a few workshops and panel discussions, all of which were very beneficial to my writing.  In my experience  most writers who have not yet hit the big time show an engaging mixture of hope and modesty about their talents.  And that's the mix you need to succeed, that and a determination made of steel that you will persist writing and submitting your work no matter how many rejections you get.  So, fired up by the people I met at the weekend, I am polishing up on my steely determination and have started a new novel.  This one is a contemporary romance and is insofar a deviation from what I usually write about but I am having fun with it and that's the main thing.

It's hard to believe that Easter is here, isn't it?  To me Easter has always meant feeling the first warmth of the sun and thinking of the promise it brings of long summer days ahead.  Yellow daffodils, primroses, snowdrops and the trees starting to bud -  all these are part of it.  This year flowers are slow to come out and face the frosts and snows, the East wind would take the skin off your face.  And yet, like life itself, even when it's hard to imagine things will ever get any better, the summer warmth will make itself felt at some stage in the not too distant future. It's a cheering thought!  As I write this the sun has peeked out from the clouds and I can imagine the flowers I've planted preening themselves in its rays.  No wonder the poets of old loved to write verses on daffodils and their "sprightly dance".  It is a feel good time of year.
 
I wish all my readers a Happy Easter and hope that you have a special time and that the sun comes out for you.


Sunday 17 March 2013

Little Black Dress

I've been shopping this week.  Real carrier bag, shop til you drop stuff.  Not online browsing, which always seems so clinical to me - and a bit hit and miss unless you're a standard size and know the brand really well.  I didn't actually buy anything to wear for myself just stuff for my grandchildren.  Well, I did buy some body lotion and a new eye shadow but that was about it. And of course I bought a few books from the Oxfam shop, as one of my friends has often remarked getting me past a bookstore is like getting the sun past the dawn chorus. It was great fun. 

I love to shop on my own and take my time deciding what I want to look at.  If I take a friend with me I always feel I'm keeping them from what they want to look at or else I end up trailing in their wake while they look at something which doesn't interest me. And if asked for my opinion I find it hard to give a straight answer.  Choosing clothes is such a personal thing and it's hard to tell someone that a dress doesn't suit her if she is singing its praises while asking your opinion.  So I'm a loner when it comes to shopping.

What kind of shopper are you? While shopping this week I made a few observations.  I saw women with very small babies asleep in push chairs, obviously enjoying a bit of freedom while baby is napping.  Then there were a number of mother-daughter combinations, some very harmonious, some showing signs of unravelling. Then there were the carefree young girls, usually three to four of them, squealing in delight as they each tried on the latest thing and then decided they couldn't afford those prices.  Once in a while I espied a patient husband standing outside the fitting rooms with (presumably) his wife's coat over his arm and looking very ill at ease.  Surely it was a proof of the strength of his character that he didn't cut and run for the cafe upstairs?  Hang onto that man!   To balance this impression, I did see a few husbands who were actively involved in helping their wives find something to wear, making suggestions or shaking their heads. I'm not sure I'd like that for myself.  But as far as I could see, the majority of shoppers were women like me who were simply browsing without intent.  Surely one of the nicest ways of spending an afternoon?

Some years ago an IT colleague of mine told me that in the near future all shopping would be done online and the high street stores would become obsolete to all intents and purposes.  I told him that that was a man's vision.  Us women still love to get out and prowl the stores and get that indescribable kick when we find an item that fits us, suits us and is marked down by 50%.  Online shopping could never give us that!

 

Saturday 9 March 2013

Thoughts on Mothers Day

Mothers Day, that Sunday in the year when you receive a grubby drawing made in kindergarten of a fat-cheeked stick person with red cheeks and the dedication "to the best mummy in the world" with "mummy" often being spelled with only one "m". And you swell up with pride and wonder if your tiny offspring really has got artistic potential and hope none of the other mothers will think the drawing is meant to be of you.

Or you get a sophisticated bouquet of flowers and a lovely card filled with glowing praise of your child-raising talents.  Hmm.  Doesn't seem all that long ago when you were laying down the law about staying out too late and threatening curfew to a few sullen individuals grouped around the family dining table.

All the restaurants which have been advertising "Mothers Day Specials" are booked out on the day and happy families gather together to celebrate.  As you watch them all assemble in your honour, you can't help remembering all those days when you almost had to use a police escort to get the younger members of the family to the table.  How many times did you bellow up the stairs "if you don't come now, I'm going to throw it out!"  How quickly time passes!  We should savour those kindergarten years.

It is very fitting that in the U.K. and Ireland Mothers Day should be in March when Nature is coming out of its winter sleep and the daffodils and primroses are brightening up the still brown earth in preparation for the coming summer months.  It is a month of hope for the future and of fond remembrance of the winter months and Christmas, now seeming so long ago.  A symbol of mothers' role everywhere, I like to think.

But regardless of whether your children are tiny or are fully grown with perhaps children of their own, Mothers Day is a special day.  A day when mothers everywhere are considered with affection and their little faults and foibles are forgotten.  Woman power at its best!

Friday 1 March 2013

Fly me to the moon

I was intrigued by an article I read on the BBC's website http://bbc.co.uk/news today which said a married couple is being sought for a proposed voyage to Mars.  Preferably a married couple and preferably middle-aged.  The trip would take around 501 days (not 502 days apparently, hmm..).  The couple should be compatible and feel they could endure a long period of close contact with no possibility of stepping outside for a minute.

When we get married we intend living in close proximity to our husband or wife as the case may be.  We don't however look down the long road ahead of us.  All we see is someone we care about and we live in the moment, which in my view, is the only place to live.  But if someone said this means you're going to be together for 50 years without a break or even 500 days without a break from each other's company, I think most of us would say "whoa-up!" and start to wonder what that would be like.  Or would we?  Maybe it would be better to put a newly wed couple on that spaceship.  By the time they got back to earth they'd have had all those fights and making up which are part and parcel of a young marriage and their relationship would have matured.

For the keen space traveller there is the possibility of getting to within 240 kms of Mars.  Awesome!  Personally I'd rather a week's shopping in New York or London.  As far as I'm concerned Mars can take care of itself without me going up close to admire it.  But then I guess I am non-adventurous (if there is such a term).  Certainly if you want to impress anyone at one of those glamorous cocktail parties to which you are sure to be invited there is no better way than saying, as you sip from your glass of Kir Royal:  "Moi?  Oh I've just come back from a little trip to Mars."