Focus - None !

This is what its like to be a writer with too many ideas and all of them jumping around all at once. Focus is something I struggle with on a daily basis just trying to stay with one story at a time but its something I need to train myself to be better at.

Some writers are lucky that all they do is write. They have the ability to support themselves through their art where others must hold down daily jobs and try and write in snippets of spare time. It becomes harder to maintain the spark to get what needs to be done, done.

Not only are you juggling ideas, your juggling time. In that respect I've struggled the most and consequently I haven't written, edited or even read a word for about three weeks. Today I am getting back on that horse and reading over something I started a while back, with a view to writing more and getting back onto this juggernaut that is writing !  

Why is it so hard for people to accept others are happy?

A few weeks ago after a bad few days where everything got to me and ground me down I decided No More !! I was absolutely at an emotion rock bottom where other peoples actions ruled my day and wore it down until I just couldn't take anymore.

So I made a decision.. to be happy.

To wake each morning and smile.

To smile my way through the day and not let anything or anyone change that outlook, no matter what that day threw at me. Be true to myself !

Sounds easy doesn't it. Try it, it's not.

Thing is once the decision was made it was almost like a switch in my brain was thrown from one side to the other. Since that day I have oozed happiness. I have reacted positively to every set back, brushed most of, others I have laughed where as a few weeks ago I would have fumed. I haven't smiled 24/7 but I haven't been glum or miserable. I would describe it as a new found sense of levelness with many hours of happiness.

However it seems my happiness doesn't rub off on others in the main. Most ask, What are you on?

What new pills are you taking?

I'm not !!

Some even say, stop it. Stop being happy. WHY ???

Few believe that I made a conscious decision but I don't care, I will continue on my own path. Walk my own way and be true to myself.

I am the sum of my battles, my scars and my new changing attitude to life. It takes more courage to smile and let things go than it does to be angry with things that you cannot change. Why waste that energy when you can use it positively

So smile !! Life really is too short for anything else

Highway code for walkers

Seriously some people need lessons in walking !! Go to a busy street, find a safe place to watch from, stop and just watch the chaos.  

People unlike motor vehicles don't walk in straight lines. They are constantly wandering off at all angles, tangents in weave in and out of other walkers. You are more likely to get "cut up" by a walker than a car sometime multiple times a day.

Walkers listening to music, staring transfixed at their phones, chatting to a fellow shopper, walking at different speeds, everyone is literally a hazard to be avoided.  

Today I witnessed someones walker rage first hand and for a change it wasn't directed at me but at someone who walked out of a shop door straight into a person who was walking down the street minding their own business. No one looks they just step out, yet you wouldn't do that in a vehicle or on a push bike. Literally handbags at six paces but neither would apologise to the other or admit they were in the wrong.

This happens everyday yet people mill around and rely on others to move out of the way. It seems these days if you are the stronger you walk in your way and everyone else responds accordingly. What the hell happened to all of us?

We need taught at a young age how to respect each other even when doing such a simple task as walking !

They say you make your own luck !

They, the people, say you make your own luck anyone who knows me knows that I don't have the greatest of luck. Its very rare that I win a raffle, a lottery prize or that any thing goes my way however sometime, just sometime a day like yesterday comes along.

1. I stepped on the scales and realised I'd lost close to a stone and a half in about a month. That put me in an absolutely awesome mood and I felt a rush of determination to keep going and lose more to hopefully help ease some aches and pains.

2. I opened a piece of mail from Scottish Gas expecting a letter about the price cuts that are expected in June. However what I got was a refund for gas already bought due to a faulty meter and the promise that a future refund will also be due as the meter cant be fixed for a few months - WOW money back from an energy supplier - what ever next ???

3. I took a header (A fall) from the top of three steps (three and a lip really) flat onto concrete. Now how is this lucky, well I escaped with a few grazes, couple of bruises and sore shoulders as my hands took the brunt of the impact. It could have been way worse as it was a face first fall. Now that is lucky.

4. So I figured after a morning like that buy a lottery ticket. Now the last time I won more than £3 on the lottery (usually £3 is on Euromillions) was September 2008. So the draw was last night, I checked the ticket this lunchtime (because I forgot) and to my surprise I am £25 richer as the ticket matched 3 numbers.

5. Then I got an email to let me know I'd won a bottle of wine for doing a job well done. The email was sent yesterday !! not that I will drink it but I know a young lady that will....

I'm still waiting to find out what the 6th lucky thing was yesterday because they say these things come in 3's so I'm due another one LOL. but even if I never find out I'm so happy with my magic Wednesday !!!

Maybe my luck has finally changed - about time !

Save our national treasure

 

What a farce !!

A sneaky change to the recipe of the chocolate and the removal of the 6th egg from the box is enough to cause outrage of a national proportion. Its not just me I saw a half a dozen newspapers talking about this today including the "Broadsheets". Seem this has rattles a few egg lovers. Personally I haven't tried this "new and improved" egg because I cant confirm its gluten free - despite hours of checking and searching the web and it having no specific gluten ingredients.

Cadbury's can't even confirm - FARCE !! The Creme Egg Twist they actually advertise as gluten free but not the egg - it might be a victim of cross contamination. Oh wait a minute - yeah its going to dance down a production line and tango with a bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk that's got Crunchie bits in it - Ha no it wont because its no longer a dairy milk shell !!!

Even more of a FARCE

So there appear to be an american version, which is a smaller egg at 34g and does not have a Dairy Milk shell, an Australian version that also doesn't have a dairy milk shell and the good old daddy from which they all sprung - the real one a whopping 40g of fondant filled gooey goodness. Can you tell I used to adore them LOL

Now they - Cadburys - well their big bad bosses Kraft foods have tampered with the recipe (no doubt to save money) and made a cheaper version. Their actual excuse - Well we don't advertise that its a dairy milk shell". what kind of excuse is that!

People who can eat them are saying they aren't as good and after what we've been used to for long and weary how could it. Even though the company ran taste tests and consumer tests. Anyone that loves them will spot the difference - pah

But to remove one from the box and sell them in fives - Hod the bus with that !! messing with the recipes one thing but the quantity well that's too much - don't sell them in odd numbers especially selling them for the same price as a six pack last year. That's daylight robbery and I hope people don't fall for this

Yes all companies are tightening belts, cutting corners but there are cost saving measures and damn right cheapness.

I can only hope egg loving Brits show Kraft exactly what we think and stop eating them in such large numbers - maybe then we can force them to at least change the recipe back !

New Beginnings

From the single seed of a thought comes a new beginning. This really is the seed for 2015. I made a few resolutions, which I don't normally do, but these are for my writing more than life itself as  big change needs to happen there and no resolution is going to make that happen.

Blogging was one of them. I like so many others am guilty of not blogging enough and for so many reasons. Family, writing constraints, editing constraints and life in general but not this year. I will find the time and the subjects, be they writing or real life.

Another was to read more. I spent a lot of time last year reading other peoples works in progress and a consequence of that was that I didn't read as many of the published books of my favourite authors as I wanted to and now I want to catch up. Whether it be on my trusty kindle or lying in bed with a hardback or a paperback attached to my hand.

We, as writers, can learn so much from a published book of an author that we love to read and the main thing for me is the point at which I become so absorbed in what I am reading that I just cant put it down. Happens every time and if I have one reader that ends up submerged with any of mine then my job is done.

I have a pile of about thirty books to read, from autobiography's to adventures, chick lit to women's fiction, crime and a few new authors that I liked the look of the story. I will get through as many as possible but it wont stop me buying new ones to add to the pile LOL there is just something about a new book. Its the smell of the paper, the crisp newness of the pages and the promise of whats to come. Some of the books I have read and will read will appear on the shelf that now populates the bottom of this blog

Even at the tender age of three we buy books for my grand daughter and read them to her. She loves it and it is something we will continue to do. You're never too young or old for a new book !!