In memory of Whiskey

Nobody knows the real me

Typical! *sigh*

Been trying to use Poser 10 since I got it through the post from Amazon but can't get the flippin Download Manager to work so I've just emailed the producers and I'm hoping it'll be a quick fix but knowing my luck it'll take forever to work out what the problem is and fix it!

*sigh*

So tired!

I'm completely done in so I'm going to have a really early night for a change!

Coffee

I've just had my first half cup of the mellowest coffee available since early childhood.

I put 2 sweeteners and a small amount of cold water in it to cool it down and sweeten it a bit.

It wasn't as bad as I'd been thinking for the last 3 decades... still bitter but hopefully the soya milk will take the edge off it.

Apparently the coffee that Steve got is the mellowest you can get and the whole jar is mine because Steve doesn't like it!  lol

It'll take a lot of experimenting but I'll hopefully get there in the end!

Just bought 100 batteries and 24 colouring pencils on eBay and...

...it only cost me £7.33!

Loyalty schemes are so worth it!  lol

Think I'm becoming...

...ambidextrous!

Just added PSP X8 to my Amazon wishlist...

...ready for when I get my new laptop.  Until then I'll keep using X2... it'll be a steep learning curve again but hopefully it will be worth it!

Just installed Manga 5 and...

... it looks a lot like PSP X2 which is comforting but I'm no good at drawing and the examples weren't immediately obvious so I'll have a bit of a play with it today and hope that I get the hang of it by the time Poser 10 and Manga studio for dummies arrive tomorrow.

Assuming I can make Manga Studio work I'll use that for my picture books and early readers and Poser for novels and stuff.

Wish me luck!

We've got a spectacular little puppy!

We left our little girl alone for 10 hours today and she had plenty of toys, food and water as well as a chew but we were expecting to find puddles of wee all over the floor, poo everywhere and everything ripped to shreds out of frustration at being left alone all day.

She was a spectacular little girl and didn't leave us any nasty surprises at all!  She just greeted us with her little tail wagging into a blur!

We both missed her like crazy but she was an amazing little girl all day!

Thank you Steve!

My wonderful hubby has just put the Amazon table together for me, so I can now use my laptop on it and have a bottle of water or whatever on it too so that I don't have to keep bending over my laptop or reaching to the floor to get the drink!

Expensive but worth it already!

Yucky weather out there! :-(

Took Mitzi for her walk this morning but she wanted to come home after we'd been out for the first third so I'm going to try and take her out again now... wish me luck!

Just got another rejection email *sigh*

I think I'm getting used to all the rejections now but 2016 will be my year to be taken on by an agent - there's nothing to hold me back now!

2016 will be the year I...

...concentrate on my writing.

January to March I'll finish the Toni trilogy
April to June I'll edit all my novels
July to September I'll email agents
October I'll plan my 2016 NaNo novel
November I'll write my NaNo novel
December I'll have a break and get ready for Yule and Christmas!  lol

The table from Amazon

The wheely table I ordered a couple of days ago arrived this morning and I'm not waiting for any other deliveries now so I can relax until after Christmas and only answer the door to Steve's carer now!  Yay!

Hope you're all having a blessed Yule today!

I was wrong to think it was Yule yesterday... it was Mother's Night overnight and Yule as of this morning... oops!

Given up on the defragging now

Only 2% was analysed overnight so I've given up now and I'll try again at the start of 2016 then I'll defrag, virus scan and malware scan every month after that!

After more than 24 hours, the defragger is still analysing!

If it doesn't start the defrag by lunchtime today I'll give up on it!

Just started the defragger again, and...

...I'm going to keep it going all day this time!  lol

After trying to get it done all day...

I've given up trying to defrag my laptop until tomorrow now.

Doing a defrag, so...

I may not be able to post here for a few days... sorry!

From Facebook

Mitzi's walk this morning

I took the pup for her walk this morning but every time we passed the front door, the poor girl wanted to come in and sent me on a huge guilt trip every time I carried on walking... she couldn't get in the door fast enough the last time, bless her!

Just ordered the ice cream maker

Just used the Amazon voucher for the ice cream maker which'll be here on Saturday then I can start practising making my own ice cream ready for Summer!  Yay!

Me mum's Amazon voucher will be used for...

... an ice cream maker so that I can have home-made sorbets and ice creams using soya milk at a fraction of the price of supermarket ice creams and I'll be able to use whichever flavours I want instead of boring vanilla!

Only another single clothes size to drop before I'm a perfect 10!

Just looked at the label in my trousers because they are sliding down just in the few steps it takes to go between the living room and the front door.

They are size 14 which means that I'm now size 12 and the only exercise I do is walking Mitzi up and down the street 3 times every morning and I'm not even on any sort of diet either!

I'm slowly loosing my bum too because my bum was holding up my size 16 clothes when they fell off my waist when I first dropped the clothes size down to 14 but the size 14 is only just held up by my bum now!

So, starting after Yule, I'll be buying size 12 skirts and trousers which will hopefully mean that I'll be back to being size 10 by the end of 2016!

It also means that I've now dropped 8 clothes sizes without even trying since coming out of hospital in 2003!

I really can do this!

That's all today's deliveries sorted now

There is a huge but light box which I'm guessing is the tinsel and 2 small boxes which will be Steve's lightbulbs and the rest of the decorations for the tree and I found the other white stars in my tidy-up earlier on so that really is it now.

No more buying until Christmas Day when I top up my Amazon vouchers now!

I've got 3 deliveries today and Steve's got 1 so...

...I'm going to be up and down to the door all flippin' day!

Total waste of money

The tree is obviously fake, poorly made and doesn't look anything like the picture.

The tree topper is battery powered and there's no way to remove the battery pack to make it just a star.

The purple glittery stars don't come pre-threaded and the knot holding all the bits of string together is so tight that I can't undo it.

The bauble wreath is the best made bunch of crap that was delivered today!

I just hope that tomorrow's deliveries are better quality than today's!

Already causing arguements

The Yule tree arrived this morning and it's already causing arguments!  It'll have to stay where it is now and I'll just decorate it a bit at a time.

I'd planned for it to go in the main bedroom or at the top of the stairs but Steve decided this morning that it would go on top of my set of drawers.

If he'd said that a couple of days ago I would have got a 3 foot one and no fairy lights!  But no, everything happens in a rush again!  *sigh*

In less than 5 minutes...

...it'll be blast off for the first Brit in space!

Just ordered a 5foot Christmas tree and decorations so...

... that really is it now, no more spending on anything until next year!

If only more companies/councils around the world were like this!

This could be a better world if...

This is so true!

Another one from Facebook that's so true!

OK, so Mitzi is nowhere near 85lbs but it's still true of her no matter what she weighs!

Why?

Just why?

I can *so* do this!

I get £750 a month in benefits.

Bills come to £550 a month

Which leaves me with £200 a month, yeah?

I'm going to put at least £50 into each of my savings accounts every month

Which leaves me with £100 to buy whatever I want

I'll move any spare over to my secondary account each month so I only have £100 max to play with each month and I'll still be able to increase my savings.

Just got to learn to say no to charities now!  lol

That's Yule sorted now...

My mum's gifts are on their way to her, Steve's is wrapped up and the gifts are all ready to hand over to C and H next time I see them.  I've got enough in my bank account to cover my bills and I'll still have £200 to spend how I like!  I can now officially enjoy the festive season until little H's first birthday in April and still be able to put £75 in each of my savings accounts.

I haven't been stingy with the gifts either!

2016 will be my year, starting right now!

Expecting DHL to come and pick up...

...my mum's Yule gifts today, just got to remember to find out when it'll be delivered so that I can tell me mum when to expect them!

Had 4 readers on one of my posts overnight!

Whoever my readers are, thank you!

I've got my symbols and sounds back now! Yay!

It's amazing what changing one thing can do!  My symbols work and I have sounds back just from changing from American English to UK English can sort out!

I'm currently running a virus scan then I'll run a malware scan tomorrow and hopefully I'll remember to do it every month to keep things running smoothly!

That's the keyboard issue sorted out and hopefully...

...the sound works now too but I'm going to run a scan for viruses overnight just in case one has slipped past AVG then I'll run a Malware scan and a Firewall scan just to make sure everything is groove and cooly with my machine still.

Wish me luck!

Tomorrow - can someone remind me please

I'm going to make easy, low-fat treats for Mitzi tomorrow... can someone remind me that to convert temperatures between Celsius and Fahrenheit you just double the C to make the F so the 180C will be 360F please?

Got my mum's Yule gifts arranged to be collected on Friday

Just paid for DHL to collect my mum's Yule gifts on Friday and I'm hoping it'll be delivered at the weekend or maybe Monday but that's it now... it was only sixteen quid but that's it now until April!

That's Yule sorted, just need to send off my mum's gift and I can relax!

Just added the bubble wrap to me mum's fragile gifts and re packaged them so just got to send it off now then that's it until Christmas Day when we'll go over to Steve's family on Christmas Day then that's it for spending money (other than to top up the Amazon vouchers I'll get) until April when it's my nephew's first birthday!

So sleepy!

I'm definitely having an early night tonight... I'm thinking I'll head to bed as soon as the shopping has been!

Sound problems on my laptop

Been having issues with the sound on my poor old laptop.  I've asked Steve and he can't find a way to fix it either so it might be my laptop dropping rather large hints that I need to replace it soon!  *sigh*

I'm a short arse and I love this image from Facebook!

So proud of our little girl

I bought our pup, Mitzi, a couple of games from Amazon and Steve's just given her one of them and filled it with her food... she was right into finding it straight away, using her nose to move the pieces on the first side and she just gently moved one the pieces on the other side with her mouth... such a clever little girl!

Steve's just said we'll do it again tomorrow... she's such a clever little girl!

Another one from Facebook that's so true!

Yule gift buying is all done and dusted now!

3 of them will be delivered tomorrow, prolly while I am out with C and H then the other 2 will be here next week.  Just got to send my mum's gifts off now then that's it for another year!  Yay!

Something I've just seen on Facebook

Wearing ankle boots for the first time since childhood right now!

My Amazon ankle boots delivery arrived literally a couple of minutes (if that) after I'd finished talking to my mum on the phone.

I used to love my pixie boots as a child but stopped wearing them when I got to secondary school because they rubbed my ankle bones raw and I haven't worn them since.

Until now!

I love my new ankle boots - just got to break them in and they won't be off my feet now!  As soon as they are broken in I'll be wearing them when I take Mitzi for her morning walk and I'll only take them off when I have a bath or shower or go to bed!

I don't believe what the effing council are doing to my mum's village next year!

While I was living in MB there was 2 buses a week to Banbury and one every day to Oxford, there was a village shop and 2 pubs as well as a health bus to the nearest GP surgery.

By June my mum will be stranded with no buses to any where, no shop, no health bus, and not even a pub.  She will be totally stranded and my arsehole of a brother who has a car and lives a lot closer to her than we do, doesn't seem to give a damn about our pensioner mum who isn't exactly healthy or young any more!

I've just asked Steve about suggesting my mum moves over to Gloucester - she would have a choice of GP surgery, a hospital, pubs and a shopping centre if she lives close to us and a bus every 10 minutes to Cheltenham every day of the week as well as being able to order things online and knowing they will reliably be delivered too!

Next time I talk to her, I'm going to suggest to her about moving over here... it'll be a huge shock to her system but at least she would be safe and healthy and able to see a GP or hospital whenever she wants to!

More than 200 quid!

I'll be £212 better off than I am now come January 'cos that's what I've spent on gifts in the last month!  It's an expensive time of year for me is December!

Yule

We are currently having a discussion on a Pagan forum about Yule and one of the moderators, Moonhunter, has written an amazing blog post about it in a way that I never could.

Basically there are 6 celebration dates over the festive season for us and Moonhunter's blog post explains it brilliantly! 

• 11th December
• 12th December
• Solstice Eve
• Solstice
• Christmas Eve and finally for the season is, of course,
• Christmas Day

Moonhunter has explained more about it in her blog so go and take a look!

Apparently we are at war again

Steve's just said that we are now at war again, with Syria this time.  Apparently it'll just be a "small war" like with Iraq but any war, no matter the size, is still too big!

Yule is very nearly sorted now

All the gifts are wrapped up, just gotta send me Mum's off and get something for C and H et voila!

The sellotape thing has just arrived so I'm going to...

...go and wrap the Yule gifts up now and it's only the second of December!  lol

Expecting 4 Amazon deliveries in the next 8 days then that really is it until next year

Still waiting for the sellotape dispenser which should be here today, the ankle boots which should be here tomorrow then that's it until next week when I'll get the amethyst bed and quartz geode so that I cleanse my crystals then that has to be it so that I can save up for the new laptop next year.  I can't see that being all that I buy though!  lol

Apparently, at this time tomorrow...

...we'll be at war again.

Why do the higher-upperers feel that war is the only way out... why can't they just get around a table with a mug of hot chocolate each and a plate of shortbread and, you know, talk?

Why do they always resort to violence?  It's a pointless "who can piss higher up the wall" that kills hundreds or thousands of innocents and it creates more problems than it solves!  It's a dick measuring contest that they should have grown out of by now!

I found this on Facebook this morning and...

...if Steve agrees, I'm going to start another blog to chart his progress and support him in any way I can!

It's a really long video (more than 20 minutes!  Yes, seriously) but it's so worth it!

You can do this Steve... I believe in you and I'll do whatever I can to help and support you!

From Facebook again - how I now feel about M

From Facebook - animals

From Facebook - Karma

Just had a delivery of the things that Amazon said would be here on Friday

Still waiting for the sellotape I bought on Prime on Saturday though!  lol

From Facebook - describes Mitzi so well!

The bloke at the end of the street again

When I took the pup out for her walk this morning the bloke at the end of the street was out with his wife again.

He blocked the top of the street just in case I took Mitzi all the way up.  I just walked up to where we usually go then turned around and walked to the place we always walk to.

The bloke and his wife saw how far that was and didn't like it so they walked down as we were walking back up the street.

We walked up the street again to our usual position then turned around and the bloke was standing blocking the bottom of the street this time.

He's now seen where I take the pup on our morning walks and we've got the phone number for the police if he starts on me and Mitzi again.  He's already used the excuse of Mitzi upsetting their son's dog, he's already got the RSPCA involved so if he does it again tomorrow we'll get the police out to him again.  We're not doing anything wrong - the police, council and the RSPCA have all said that and he saw himself this morning that we aren't doing anything to upset his son's dog as well as following his own demands so the ball is in his court now!

From Facebook via Paula Hughes

Found a great laptop for under £500 last night

8GB of RAM
2TB hard drive

Does that sound good to you?  I'll be able to afford it in the new year!  Yay!

You can find it here if you want to?

Was going to wrap up the gifts this morning, but...

... when I opened the package the tape wasn't in it so I couldn't!

I've just ordered tape and a dispenser from Amazon that'll be here on Tuesday so hopefully that'll be all I need then and I can wrap up the gifts and send them off.

Wish me luck!

Bad jokes alert!

Cor lummy! That was an experience!

I love going to the Harvester.

It's my favourite eatery.

We haven't been for literally years because we don't have a car atm.

Steve found a place that does delivery of some of Harvesters stuff.

We both forgot just how big the portions are and how filling everything is too.

I had button mushrooms with garlic dip, sweet potato fries and a veggie burger that came with nacho's and chips.

We were both thinking in terms of our usual take aways where we're full, but only just.

I was full by the time I finished the mushrooms but wanted to try the sweet potato fries to see what they were like then made the mistake of making a start on the burger too... I only got half way through it before I was bloated!  lol

It cost a lot just for the two of us and we'll definitely halve the amount we order next time - not because of the cost, but because tonight has just been too much but now that we know what to expect it can be an occasional treat rather than a daily expense when we've already got food in the house!

It was very yummy though!

Oops!

Just had a letter from one of the charities I support to say that they had had a break in and things stolen that had my name, address, email address and bank details stored on them!

Not good!  :-(

Part one of Mitzi's stuff has just arrived

... and she's got 2 intelligence toys in her toy box, a smaller Kong and 2 cans of Kong goo in that one and she's already taking up 1.5 drawers in Steve's set of drawers with all her treats!  lol

I've also put her original Kong filled with goo and treats in the freezer to see what she thinks to that tomorrow!  lol

Can you say spoilt?  lol

2 different experiments for Mitzi

I'm going to try using scrambled eggs in version one and tap water in version two, to see which the pup prefers!  Wish me luck!

Mitzi's home-made treats

I've been thinking that maybe I should use tap water instead of eggs in Mitzi's treats so that I don't accidentally poison her by using uncooked eggs and it would be cheaper too!  lol

Just added Mitzi's treat things to...

I've just started a new order with Mitzi's treat ingredients, foil, a container, a mixing bowl, mixing spoon and 2 baking trays to the shopping order ready to try making them next week!

Wish me luck... I think I'll need it!  lol

Home-made Mitzi treats and an experiment with her Kong

I've just bought some Kong paste and an extra Kong for Mitzi 'cos I'm going to try filling the new Kong with the paste then freezing it to see how she gets on with it... see if it'll keep her entertained for longer than room temperature Kong and paste!

I'm going to try making some home-made treats for her too and it'll only be 3 ingredients!  Tuna in oil, wholemeal flour and eggs!  We need to get a mixing bowl and spoon first though!  lol

2016 will be the year I...

I've just decided that 2016 will be the year that I finish all my WIPs, edit my finished manuscripts to be better than they are now, then concentrate on being taken on by an agent for the rest of the year.  That will be my New Year's resolution I reckon.

Namehog are ace!

I love and appreciate my webhosts so much!  Thank you Namehog!

I asked about redirecting most of my bought domains to one of my 2 websites that I've got hosting for.

The first ones were sorted out last night and the rest of them (other than the 2 .healthcare domains) have just been sorted too.

Thank you so much for bearing with me, Luke J, and sorting it all out for me!

Charms in memory of my twins

An A5 envelope has just been posted through the door with 2 charms in memory of my twins... I'd forgotten I'd even ordered them!  lol

Me bum

I reckon my bum is shrinking as well as me belly y'know?  I'm not on a diet and the only exercise I do is walking Mitzi every morning!

I'm tired and aching all over now, but...

I wouldn't have had it any other way after H's christening yesterday!

Lots of firsts this afternoon!

My first time on a motorway with my FIL
My first time to Tewksbury
My first time to a Christening
My first time in a Church that looks like a Church based on the Churches I went to as a child since leaving Oxfordshire
My first time in a Church service that accepts that there are other beliefs out there
My first time that I didn't take part in the prayers or singing the song
My first time that the vicar didn't shove Christianity down my throat
My first time that I've felt able to walk with just the quad cane without clinging for dear life to Steve
My first full, upbeat service in a Church

Basically it was a great afternoon and not as "believe or burn" as I was dreading!

Only another 4 years before...

... I've paid off one of my credit cards in full!  Yay!

I can't believe what I did last night!

I'm a very grateful member of SCBWI and last night I posted to their Facebook page about arranging a social over here in Gloucester!

What have I done!  I want to meet up with other members for sure, but I'm very shy at the best of times!

For M and B and J

Private Health Insurance

Just got me policy for another year's worth of Private Health Insurance and they've given me free extra options and a 60% no claims discount for another year and I still get the priority patient cover as well as the extra's for less than a tenner extra a month!

I've been with them since 18th December 2012 so I'm covered for pre-existing conditions too!  Yay!

Namehog

I bought myself another couple of domain names this morning... I love Namehog I does!

I've just opened a support ticket with them to see if I have to buy hosting to re-direct to another domain I've got with them or if they can work their magic and I don't need to buy any more hosting from them.

Either is fine, I just don't want to spend un-nessarily if I don't need to is all!

The moon...

... is incredibly beautiful and powerful tonight.

Thank you Luna!

Edumacation

Just asked for some Open University prospectuses which will hopefully give me something to focus on during the rest of the year that NaNo isn't on.

I'm hoping, in the end, to get an Open Degree so that I can study the things that I'm interested in and not do the things that don't which will hopefully keep my brain active so that I don't turn into a slippery pile of mush now that I don't have my online communities to keep me busy!

I'm thinking I'll concentrate on creative writing and childcare with the odd philosophy and counselling module thrown in for a treat occasionally!

Bloody cricket!

Yet again I've got to put up with the cricket muted on the telly and listen to it on Steve's laptop! 

Second non-creative day

I've still got 50k words to write before the end of the year!

Used my Blue Badge for the first time in half a decade this afternoon!

I went out for lunch with C and H this afternoon and used my Blue Badge for the first time since getting it again so we parked right outside Pizza Hut and it had a dropped kerb so it was a lot easier to go in and back to the car without relying on clinging on to C's arm the whole time!

Totally awesome!

It's weird, TBH

This is my first full day of not writing and it feels like something big is missing?  Does that sound weird?

It's my first non-creative day in 15 days and I didn't realise how close I'd got to Hannah and Tom in those 2 weeks!

*ahem*

After exactly 14 days, I've just finished my 50k word challenge for NaNo... I can now relax for the rest of November and only write as much as I want and when I want.  No more 4k a day unless I want to!  Yay!

Only 3,946 words to go and I've completed NaNo this year! Yay!

Just under 4k to write and I'll have completed the NaNo challenge in half the time the challenge allows!

Do fish ever feel thirsty?

Just had a drink which got me to wondering if fish ever feel thirst and if they do, how do they drink?

Last night

I had a small knot in the left hand side of my hair for about a week but I kept loosing it by the time I got to the bathroom.

Not last night though!

My hair is knot free again, at last!

Yay!

Only 2k written today :-(

Ho hum... try again tomorrow then I can start having a social life again!

I've decided that when I've written the 50k for NaNo, I'll...

... check my email and meet up with C and H again and relax my writing and watch TV and take Mitzi for longer, more relaxing walks and just generally catch up with real life again.  I've got all fifty chapters planned out so I can dip in and out whenever I want to after NaNo!

7,733 is my target word count for today!

The minimum I want to write today is 7,733 to get me back on target for finishing on 26th November, but in an ideal world, I'd like to write 9,733 to take me up to finishing the NaNo challenge in under two weeks.

My main character is about to be interviewed about living away from her mum for the first time in her life so that she can live with her best friend instead.

Did that last bit up there ^^ even make sense?  lol

Just over 40k words written now, so...

...I'll only be 2 days behind tomorrow which is only 8k words which is definitely doable in the next few days and I'll have written 50k by the weekend which is the NaNo target and I'll be half way through the full word count for the novel!

Yay!

Heading to bed now... nite nite!

Ideally I want to write another 6k before bedtime, but...

...I'll be happy with 2k if necessary.  It's only 4.25pm so the 2k should definitely be do-able!

6,570 words left to write today now

It's taken 7 hours to write about 2,500 words so I don't hold out much hope, but that's what I'm aiming for today!

37,260 words now and...

... I'm aiming for at least 40k before I go to bed tonight, wish me luck!

36,020 words now

As long as I can write 8k today then I'm back on track!  Yay!

35,714 words written now

Didn't write as many as I hoped today but it's still better than nothing and I'll hopefully catch up tomorrow... 44k ain't too much to make it up to in one day is it?  It's only 9k, right?  I'll be getting to a twist by chapter 20 which is only just over 4k away then it'll be one twist after another until the end and it'll end in a twist too!

5,988 words to write today,

then I'm back on track to write 50k by the end of the week and the 100k before the end of the month... yay!

Stinky poo on Mitzi's walk this morning!

We walked up and down the road 7 times this morning but Mitzi did a stinky poo on the second time... yuckerama!

32,051 words in 8 days! Yay!

Still on target for writing 100k by the end of November but just doing the NaNo word count challenge is my first target which will hopefully be done by Friday!

Is it weird to...

...be more creative and inspired during the day with the curtains closed and the main light on full blast?

I wrote more today in artificial light than I did yesterday with the curtains open and the light off!

As of last night, I've written 30k, but...

...I've now been struck down with writer's block  :-(

26k written now

26,521 written so I've only got 1,500 more words to write then I can go to bed hopefully for an early night tonight!

Today

I'm planning on writing at least 6k today then back to the usual 4k tomorrow so that I'll have written 30k by the weekend!

Wish me luck!

Tomorrow and Friday

My original plan was to write 4k words a day which has gone well so far, but just to round the week off I'm going to try to write 5k a day tomorrow and Friday then back to 4k a day from Saturday.

I'm really in Hannah's head now so hopefully I'll be able to do the extra 1k a day without too many problems.

Wish me luck!

Only 4 days in and...

...I'm already a fifth of the way to my own personal target and almost half way to the NaNo target!

I've already written 20k words and it's only been 4 days so far!

In theory I'll be finished the 100k by 20th November which is 5 days sooner than I'd planned and 2 days before the christening!  It also means that I'll have written the NaNo target before next weekend too!

I really can do this!

16,032 now!

I'm well away with the manuscript for NaNo now!  I've only been writing for 3 days but I've already written over 16k words!

Yay me!

Time to catch up with my email and forums now though, for the first time in 4 days!  lol

Only 3 days in and I've already written 15k for NaNo!

That's 15% of my own personal target (100k) and almost a third of the official NaNo target (50k)!  I'm already getting into Hannah's head too!  Looking good so far!

1,990 words to go before I can go to bed.

Already written 2,010 words today and I want to write at least 4k every day so I'm well on my way to finishing today's 4k nice and early then I'll have a bath and head to bed for an early night tonight.

14,010 words and counting up!

Third day of NaNo and I'm hoping to take my word count to 16k today

I'm at 13,352 right now and I'm hoping to take my word count to at least 16k today so that I can stay on target for H's christening on 22nd.  Wish me luck!

Second day of NaNo and I've already written 9k!

I've written 9,107 words so far and it's only the second day!  lol

I'm hoping to have written 12k by the time I head to bed tonight but I'm already 1,000 words over my planned target so it's no great shakes if I don't.

First day of NaNo and I've already written almost 6,000 words!

My aim for months has been to write 4,000 words a day for a 100,000 word novel and I've already written 5,417 words in the last 12 hours so I'm going to finish the chapter and head to bed ready for another early start tomorrow!

Maths question

100k words written over 4 weeks is 25k words a week yeah?

25k words written over 5 days is 4k a day, yeah?

So it's 100k words in 25 days?  Or is it?

I hate maths!  lol

Dental phobia

I definitely need to see a dentist again because not only do I have half of one tooth but the filling in the tooth behind it came out last night too!

*shudder*

I'm seriously thinking about getting a full set of false teeth/dentures instead of my natural ones.  No more chipped teeth, no more fillings and no more pain.  It's expensive (£500 for a full set) and I would need to still go to the dentist and brush my gums and tongue but hopefully that would be all I needed to overcome my dental phobia.

*shudder*

Not a good start to the day! :-(

I woke up at 7.15am and came downstairs, almost fell off the toilet, then Steve's carer came to the door and Steve put Mitzi's lead on, I came in here and took it off.  When Steve's carer went I put Mitzi's lead back on her and saw that Steve was in the bathroom but hadn't closed the door.

When we eventually got out on Mitzi's walk she did everything she could to trip me up then squatted down for a poo... she was constipated.  I brought her back home and went to get a nappy sack and the long handled pooper-scooper and went to clear it up.

It was almost welded to the street.

When I eventually got it up and into the scoop, I put the nappy sack over the scoop like always and tried to empty the scoop.

The nappy sack wouldn't come off so I shook the scoop and bag together which didn't achieve what I'd hoped, it just made the poo come out of one of the handles so I let go of the handles and as soon as I did, the nappy sack fell to the floor and Mitzi's poo all came out and the rake bit fell over and onto the pathway.

Almost the entire bag of poo came spilling out.

Which put me into a foul mood.  Again.

When I eventually re-bagged all the poo and binned it I came back in and washed my hands then took Mitzi out again to finish off her walk.

Just as we were almost finished, Mitzi started barking and whining and pulling at her lead.  I looked and saw a cat so I brought Mitzi home and gave up.

It's only 8.41am and I've already had enough!

I've been eating out of habit and boredom, not because I'm hungry, so...

... I need to get out of that habit and my belly will shrink!

How do I know that?

Because I've just asked Steve what we're having for tea even though I'm not hungry so it's greed rather than hunger that I've been eating for since I stopped the acai berry pills!  Just need to get out of that habit again and everything will be fine again!  I hope!  lol

Yep, the Maqui Berry pills work the same way as the Acai Berry pills

They are both appetite suppressants so I'll just slowly build up to taking the 3 a day and get out of the habit of eating for any other reason than hunger like boredom and pressure and stuff.

I want to get down to size 10 from size 14 so hopefully I'll do it without having to order another 180 pills!  They aren't expensive or addictive or anything, I just want to shrink the internal organ and get out of the habit of eating just because I'm bored or whatever.

Wish me luck!

About to take my first...

Maqui Berry supplement from Simply Supplement.  I can take up to 3 a day but if they are anything like the Acai Berry pills I'll only need to take 1 a day!

I'm size 14 now so we'll see what happens in the next few months!

That's a relief!

Had an alert from Equifax this morning saying there had been a change to my credit report so I freaked out and logged on to find out what was going on and who had been stealing my credit card details.

The alert was positive in that one of the companies on my credit report have said that the account is now settled and inactive.  Yay!  So that's another positive point on the credit report, just got the credit cards and stuff to deal with now, but they come out of my bank account as Direct Debits each month, so as long as I don't go overdrawn again everything will be great!

Second cold of the year :-(

Just had a sneezing fit and my throat is dry and my eyes are watering and I'm snotty and just not feeling very well  :-(

Simple but effective explanation of consent care of Thames Valley Police

Sexual consent isn't as simple as "yes" or "no" sometimes and the Thames Valley Police have come up with a simple but very effective way of getting the point across in this video. 

Watch, listen and take note!

What I need to remember about M via Facebook

NaNo is 50k not 40k!

I've just found out that the NaNo challenge is to write 50k words in November so I'm not sure where I got 40k from!

I'm challenging myself to write double that this year though so it doesn't really matter!  It'll be done on 13th November going by the NaNo word count and 26th November for my personal challenge which will leave me a few days to go to my nephew's christening and get out of Hannah's head and back into my own!

More positive than I was expecting!

I submitted one of my novels opening lines to something in SCBWI and I got a surprisingly positive review of it... the only negative was that I'd aimed it at the wrong age group and made the writing more difficult for myself so I'm happy with that!  I know I've got good writing within me, I've just got to be more careful about the age range I'm writing for is all!

Yaaay!

Just cancelled the online counselling's free trial but...

...I'll definitely go back again!

Especially if I qualify for reduced pricing!

I just want to get NaNo and Yule out of the way first, then I'll start properly again next year... just want to get this year out of the way now then start afresh next year.

Just bought meself...

... 6 books but that really is it now until all me mum's gifts have arrived then I'll send the gifts off and that will be it until 2016!  'onest!

Mitzi is now legal

I read online about 10 days ago that it's the law in the UK now that dogs are microchipped and have a tag on their collar with the owners details on it.

The microchipping was done as soon as we got the pup, courtesy of her vet and paid for by the Dogs Trust but I didn't know about needing to be tagged too!

She's got both now though, so she's legal at last!

Almost fell over on Mitzi's walk again this morning

Exactly the same thing happened as before... you would have thought I'd have learnt after last time!  lol

Steve got more photo's of our little nephew, so....

... I'm going to download all of them, save them to my external hard drive and code the pages ready to upload when Andrew and Jacki say it's OK instead of rushing through at the last minute and screwing everything up unintentionally.

Scratch the post about the charms for my twins

I've just seen an email from the company I had asked to do the memorial charms for my twins and they offered to just put my twins names on plain charms!  Bullseye!  That's what I wanted anyway!  lol

Mitzi flooded the street again this morning!

Apparently she went out for a huge wee in the early hours, but the poor girl was desperate for another wee on her walk this morning!  Poor girl!

I'm the girl who...

Just bought meself one more supplement from Simply Supplements

Been pondering on getting another weight loss supplement for the last couple of weeks and I've just bitten the bullet and ordered 180 Maqui Berry pills from Simply Supplements.  I need to take 1 pill 3 times a day so it'll be 60 days supply yeah?  Is my maths right?  Hopefully the combination of those and walking Mitzi every morning will help me to loose my stomach and I'll be able to drop at least one clothes size again.

I'm size 14 atm and I'd like to ideally get down to a size 10 but even size 12 wouldn't be so bad... it's not so much weight I want to loose as much as clothes size! 

I used Acai Berry pills and Milk Thistle pills last time but they aren't suitable for vegetarians any more but the Maqui pills are so I'm giving those a try this time.

Wish me luck!

Ho hum...

Just heard from one of the agents I emailed and they don't want to take me on  :-(  *sigh*

I'm still waiting to hear from another agent and then SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices but this is a test of my positivity.  I'm down about it, but it's not the end of the world and there are still plenty of other agents out there, I've just got to find the right one at the right time is all!

I'm going to write my NaNo novel, celebrate Yule, do a mammoth editing session,  then invest in the Artist and Writer's yearbook and start submitting again.

I will be taken on - just gotta keep submitting!

Oh :-(

I've just had the place I ordered my twins' memorial prints from... they wanted to take my finger prints to make the charms but Steve isn't the father of my twins and I'm not in contact with the father any more so I've cancelled the order  :-(

Going to give online counselling a try

Just signed up for a 7 day free trial of online counselling which is then charged at £25 a week, billed monthly but it means I can contact the counsellor whenever I want to, as often as I want to and it will be £100 a month which will be so worth it if I get on with the counsellor!  Just having someone impartial to talk to about M will be worth it to me!

Memory permitting...

...I won't whine about my illnesses in this blog any more because I've just set up a new page and blog at Caring Bridge that is purely about my illnesses and disabilities other than things like colds and aches and pains that everyone feels at some point that can be fixed with over the counter stuff.  The Caring Bridge thing is purely for my illnesses that the Neurologist diagnosed me with when I came out of hospital is all.

Got another couple of Yule gifts through the post this morning

One for Steve and one for me mum... just waiting for the rest of 'em now and hoping that I really do get paid on Monday to cover it all, then I'll have about £250 spare in November that I'll move over to my 2 savings accounts ready for Yule as long as I don't spend any of it!

Wish me luck!

Have you ever wondered...

...what a keyboard from the other side of the world looks like?  For example I'm guessing that American and Australian and Canadian keyboards all have the same QWERTY keyboards as the UK but what about Europe or Japan?  What are their keyboards like?

If only I knew their addresses...

... I would send M, J and B this but I don't know their addresses or I would have already done it!

Whoever thought up the idea is a genius!

I hope you're proud of me!

I know how to use computers and install stuff and check my email and stuff but everything else is done under Steve's guidance and supervision.

What I'm about to say may not seem like a big deal but it's the first time I've done this totally alone!

I changed both ink cartridges on the printer!

All the way from researching which ones to order, finding somewhere that sold them and then fitting them in the printer!  Literally the only thing Steve did was cut the carton and bag for each of the cartridges, but I did everything else on my little ownsome!

Yay me!

Return from Rainbow Bridge via Facebook

Mitzi almost flooded the street this morning!

OK, OK, so that's a bit of an exaggeration but her wee was as wide as her and two and a half kerb stones long!  It's standard for Mitzi to wee a lot, but this morning was a lot of wee even by her standards!

Another birthday gift from the new mum and dad

A mug that says "Awesome Auntie" on it... so so cool!  It's my little nephew's christening in just over a month's time and we're definitely going this time 'cos I couldn't go to the wedding!

Yaaay!

NaNo will have to wait for one day... I'm planning on getting the 40k written in the first 10 days so the rest is just a bonus!

Just got my Blue Badge! Yay!

I've now got a Blue Badge!  Yay!  That means I can get the person I'm in the car with to park in disabled bays that are a lot closer to where we're going!  Yay!

Yay!

Both of my regular readers are back... thank you both, whoever you are!

For M via Facebook

Dog's Roolz via Facebook

Didn't realise but all sorted now, thankfully!

Mitzi is microchipped but I've just read on the Dogs Trust site that the Westminster Government is making it compulsory for all dogs to be chipped in England and Wales which is amazing but the thing I didn't know is that all dogs must legally wear a collar and tag with the owners details on it... apparently it's not a new law either so I've now bought Mitzi a tag from Amazon with our details on it so that we don't keep breaking the law!  I wonder how many other dog owners don't know about the chipping and ID things?

Almost fell over this morning...

...on Mitzi's walk!  Fortunately there was a car on my right and a wall on my left otherwise I'd have gone down like a sack of spuds!

I usually walk by putting the quad cane in front of me, leaning on it walk alongside it then repeat.  This morning the quad legs bit hit my foot before I put it down which unbalanced me and I got wobbly.

Fortunately I stayed on my feet and held on to the car so that I didn't fall over but it's been a long time since that happened so maybe it was a "take more notice of where you're walking" thing today?

Oopsadaisydandy!

When I went to the door to get our take away (yes, again) I came back in here and stepped too far back and accidentally knocked Steve's lamp and my laptop off the table!  Oops!

Thankfully my laptop seems to still be working and hopefully so will Steve's lamp, but he hasn't tried it yet so we don't know for sure either way!

Apparently I've got a very robust little machine here for it still to be working after the drop!

Semi relieved now

I've just seen that one of my regular readers is back... whoever you are, thank you!

I hope my 2 regular readers are OK!

I usually have 2 people reading my blog every day, but they didn't read it yesterday so I'm worried about them!  Maybe they are on holiday or ill or something so they couldn't read it and it's none of my beeswax so I just hope they are OK!

Mitzi's lead works!

On Mitzi's walk this morning, she met a visitor of our neighbour who saw the lead and the pup went up to the visitor and she got stroked and talked to and her little tail was wagging the whole time!  So cute, bless her tiny little puppy dog paws!  The lead has earned it's price now!

Just bought meself...

... calcium, magnesium and iron from Simply Supplements 'cos I don't think my usual multi-vitamin tablet have them in and the oral spray I got from Amazon doesn't have them in either and I've only ordered 120 days instead of 360 so hopefully I'll be able to order the calcium, iron and multivitamin together or near enough - just got to remember to keep taking them now!  lol

I've put the open tub of multivitamins on top of my two prescriptions which I've got to order on Tuesday too and the unopened one on top of the external hard drive instead of keeping them both in the kitchen and forgetting I'd bought them!

What's even better is that the delivery was free and they don't take the payment until the tubs are in my hands!  Not many companies do that now!

Out of date cooked pasta

I've just eaten a pasta pot that is a day out of date and it didn't taste right so I binned it... is it possible to get food poisoning from out of date cooked pasta though, please?

Happy birthday Steve!

Just given Steve his birthday book and he seems to like it!

It was a personalised book of reasons I love him and he said that he could open it up at any random page and he would find something new so he seems to like it!  It's a hugely thick book with loads of pages and totally unique to him... I am ace!  lol

I could get used to this!

Just ordered some party lights too with the same place that will be here tomorrow too and again, they were free, I just need to remember to give an honest review and mention that I got them in exchange for the review.  I hope I get to keep all these things!  lol

So exciting!

I'm with an online review site that you can buy at a very reduced price or even free from Amazon in exchange for an honest review and one of today's things on offer today was a vegetable spiraliser...

OMG!  I've wanted one of those for months or even years!  It'll be here tomorrow and it didn't cost me a penny!  Just got to remember to say that it was in exchange for an honest review so that I meet the requirements of getting it for free... can't wait for tomorrow now!

I was wrong

The £43 wasn't for the charms for my twins, it was for my usenet reader and something at Amazon.  I've just moved some money over to my savings accounts now so as long as I don't spend anything for the rest of October and November I'll be able to get amazing Yule gifts for everyone and still be nicely in credit to start 2016!

I can do this!

Grief - from Facebook

What do you want me to write about in my blog, please?

I realise that most of my posts are only a few sentences with the occasional rant but I don't want to bore you and I'm grateful for every reader, I just don't know what you want to read about!  Any thoughts or ideas or comments will be fantastic and I promise to consider each one, openly and honestly!  So, over to you!

The £43 is for the 2 charms in memory of my twins

There's £43 that has, in theory, come out of my bank account in the available credit bit but hasn't been taken out of the money that is in there atm. 

I bought 2 necklace charms a couple of weeks ago in memory of my twins that haven't been delivered yet but other than those everything that I've ordered has now been delivered so that's all I can think of!

I was paid today and I'm pretty sure I'll be paid again tomorrow so that will cover my direct debits as long as I don't spend anything else!  lol

If you won the Euromillions, what would you do with it?

Steve said last that he sometimes ponders on what he would do if he won the Euromillions lottery which is about £50 million on rollover weeks... I think he was spending more than he would get though!  lol

So, what about you?  What would you spend £50 million on?

Me?

• I'd give some to both sides of the family to clear the mortgages and credit cards and stufff
• Then I'd donate some to the Dogs Trust
• Then I'd look for a bigger house for me, Steve and Mitzi
• Hire a chef to cook home-made meals for us, instead of relying on take aways
• Adopt a couple of children
• Get meself a huge laptop
• Then let the rest of it gain interest in the bank!

So I'm selfish am I?

If that's how you see me then that's OK, but please finish reading this post before you say it or think it about me.

I gave up literally everything I'd known all my life to move to Gloucester with Steve almost 17 years ago.
I gave up seeing my mum regularly.
I gave up 2 jobs I loved and was good at.
I gave up friendships.
I gave up my pets.
I gave up seeing my friends every day.
I gave up being able to see my family.
I gave up being able to visit my dad's grave.

I basically said goodbye to everything I was.  I said goodbye to the person I'd been becoming for 21 years.

When I moved to Gloucester aged 21 I was starting afresh again.  Nothing was the same any more.

I then found out I had Endometriosis so I'm probably infertile.
Then I became ill which lead to a disability that I'm unlikely to recover from.
Then the depression kicked in and that lead to psychosis.

I haven't seen my mum for 5 years but Steve sees his family at least once a week.

Steve's sister comes over most Monday's to help Steve put the food shopping away and most of the time I can't put a foot right with her... either the house doesn't meet her expectations or I'm not doing enough for Steve or I need to care for and support her brother more because he can't do everything himself.

Well I'm sorry Marie, but the only thing I don't do here is to... I don't even know!  Steve works from home and has got leg ulcers that a carer changes every day but he's more able to do things physically than I am, yet all he does is sit on the sofa watching TV or snoring away in his sleep.

It's me that does everything while Steve stays in here doing bugger all.  Steve's more able to do stuff than me but he can't even empty the kitchen bin when it's full.  I'm not tall enough to do it which is the only reason I don't do it but Steve's more than willing to take the credit for things I've done and doesn't even attempt to correct Marie when she praises him!

I've had as much as I can take from both of them now and the next time Marie blames me for not helping Steve I'll say to her that he won't mind doing it for just one more week while I don't do the things I've been doing all the f**king time that she's been praising Steve!

I still stand by what I said about doing everything and I didn't give Steve credit for emptying the kitchen bin because it's been literally months since he last did it and he doesn't even ask his carer to do it yet she's more than able to fold our clothes and put them in a box for him!

I give up.

Hugs as therapy care of Facebook again

The average length of a hug between two people is 3 seconds. But researchers have discovered something fantastic. When a hug lasts 20 seconds, there is a therapeutic effect on the body and mind. The reason is that a sincere hug produces a hormone called "oxytocin", also known as the love hormone. This substance has many benefits in our physical and mental health, helps us, among other things, to relax, to feel safe and calm our fears and anxiety. This wonderful calming is offered free of charge every time we have a person in our arms, who cradled a child, we cherish a dog or cat, we're dancing with our partner, the closer we get to someone or just hold the shoulders of a friend.

Care of Eryka Stanton from Empowered Living in Australia

For M from Facebook

Chocolate is one of your 5-a-day! Courtesy of Facebook

The delivery has just arrived, so...

...I'm heading back to bed now!

Beauty - from Facebook

So tired!

Took the pup for her walk this morning then checked my bank balance but I'm so tired now!  Steve doesn't understand the tiredness because he falls asleep whenever he wants to but I'm not allowed to go back to bed even though I do more in a day than he does in a month!

It's too addictive!

Just been playing Pet Rescue Saga on my Kindle Fire again.

I spent 3,000 coins and £30 on it before I had to drag myself away from it. 

Must stop playing it!  lol

It was better than free!

Just bought meself another watch and it didn't cost me anything!  I'm with Quidco and Top Cashback and I asked them to pay the money I'd earned so far.  Quidco paid it into my bank account and I had an Amazon voucher from Top Cashback for £15.64 so I went in search of a watch and found one for £15.60 and used the voucher for that so I'll be getting it tomorrow using Prime and I've still got 4p left to use too! lol  It's a simple little watch that was in the sale so I saved 64% on it too!

Total aceness!

3 hours later and Mitzi is home at last!

She's home!  She's home!  She's home!

Her fur is very short now but we were expecting that 'cos it's how it's done every time we have her groomed but the poor pup is exhaustapaytid and really sleepy now but that's normal for her too.  She's got huge eyes now and she's already using them to great effect!  lol

I'm missing her already!

The pup has just gone for her spa day and I'm missing her already!

Walked the pup this morning and she had...

...a conversation with the dog at the end of the road again - I can just see the police coming back again because the people at the end of the road will say that Mitzi was upsetting their dog again.  Mitzi is a well-loved pup and the police and RSPCA have both told us we aren't doing anything wrong so hopefully they will say that if the people at the end phone them about this morning.

We keep the pup warm and dry and she's part of the family.  The dog at the end is out in all weather's at all times of the day and night so it's them that the RSPCA should be investigating!  Their dog barks constantly and it doesn't seem to matter to them that it's raining or snowing or late at night or the early hours or whatever!

*sigh*

Mitzi is going for a spa day tomorrow afternoon

She's booked in for her jab at 2pm then she's going to be groomed after that so she'll be a lighter pup with less fur by this time tomorrow and she'll be sleepy by the time she gets home so Steve'll have a peaceful night's sleep tomorrow!  lol

Apparently...

...I've got a pea-sized stoney heart because I said I wouldn't close the back door!

Almost forgot!

When I went out for lunch with Chris and Hannah on Monday for my birthday, I decided to accept compliments gracefully instead of throwing it back in the complimenters face by denying it and I'm going to be a more positive person too.

I've had 38 years of being negative so it'll be hard going, but this year I'm going to do my best to change that!  If someone compliments me, I'll say thank you and smile instead of denying it... it won't be easy but hopefully it will be worth it!

Wish me luck in changing the negatives to positives please!  :-D

All backed up now!

Less than 24 hours after getting the external drive, my whole laptop is backed up and I've got my documents copied over too and I've barely touched 1tb so far!

I could get used to this!

The last 10 days...

...have gone better than I was expecting, thankfully!  Not too many tears, not as depressed, no psychosis, and I haven't even had things to keep me busy with online communities either!  I'm proud of myself for coping better with it than I have in the past!

Took about 6 or 7 hours to...

...back up the system files yesterday so I'm backing up my files now so that I can just back up the files that I change and delete most of my email accounts in WLM so that I can open it up every morning along with the other programmes without having to wait 15 minutes for it to load up!

It's already earned it's price by backing up the system files so assuming it keeps working I'll be a very happy bunny!

D'oh!

It was installing the software not backing things up!  It's definitely starting to backup things now though!  lol

Let's see how long a full backup takes

I started using a free backup tool at 3.15pm... let's see how long it takes!

Just bought meself...

...2 jeggings from BHS because my skirts and trousers seem to mysteriously disappear as soon as I put them in the washing machine.

No kidding, literally the only bottom-half clothes I've got now is one skirt and one pair of trousers!  Yes, seriously!

I just hope the jeggings will fit over my huge thighs!  lol

Thank you Marie!

The external hard drive has just arrived along with an Amazon gift card from Marie that I've used to buy loads of potentially addictive bargain basement kinda games like Theme Hospital... the graphics prolly leave a lot to be desired but I don't care about that - it's the playability that I want from games, not the look of them!

Just waiting for the Blue Badge (which'll be here tomorrow at the earliest) and the charms now!

Just waiting for...

...2 charms in memory of my twins, the blue badge and the external hard drive I ordered yesterday but then that's it until December and I'll still be nicely in credit to start the New Year!

Animal rights - from Facebook

I know this is controversial and you may not agree with me.  That's totally OK by me, but please don't have a go at me about this if you don't want me to have a go at you in return!

Been spoilt rotten today!

Got £120 worth of Amazon vouchers, a meal out with Chris and Hannah and I've bought myself a 5TB external hard drive with the vouchers that I couldn't have afforded any other way!  Just got to put the grocery shopping away this evening and then I can have an early night ready for tomorrow!

Happy birthday to me!

38 years ago today I was born, kicking and screaming, and I haven't shut up since!  lol

Poor old hubby!

Apparently Steve slid off the sofa and on to the floor at 5am this morning because he was sat right on the edge of the cushion instead of right back and he found it really hard to get back up, bless him!  I'm just waiting for him to fall asleep and bang his head onto his laptop now!

Shouldn't laugh, but it's funny!  lol

Know what I'm getting for everyone now!

Just spotted my mum's Yule gift, I know what I'm getting for Steve and 3 friends all from the same place so I just need to remember the url a bit closer to Yule now!  lol

I know what I'm getting everyone (except my mum) for Yule now!

Just found a new to me site that I'll be getting my Yule gifts from this year!  I know what I'm getting for Steve and 3 friends, just need to find something for my mum now!

Other than almost tripping me up...

...Mitzi was a spectacular puppy on her walk this morning!  I hold her lead in my left hand and she went round the front of me then behind me and wanted to keep walking!  I had to turn 360 degrees to get back to normal then we carried on with Mitzi's walk, bless her little teddy bear feet!

We'll soon find out if...

... we can recycle toilet roll inner tubes or not 'cos I've just put 13 into the green kerbside recycling box instead of the bathroom bin!

Steve's just said that he didn't think we'd make use of the recycling box when it first started, but I've been putting out at least 1 (we've got 2) green recycling box every week and I'm loving it!

If they take the toilet roll tubes then I'll love it even more and we can recycle magasines, envelopes and junk mail too so I'm going to try that next time as well!

Assuming that all that is taken, we might need a third box!  It only takes seconds more than normal and we're doing our bit to help the environment too... what's not to like!

Much better value for money!

Just found a 5TB external hard drive on Amazon for just over £100 which means I can back up my entire hard drive and delete most of my emails and PSP tubes but they are there if I need them in future.  That'll give me at least 200GB more than I've got atm on my laptop at the same time as saving myself more than £1000 on a new laptop... great going by me I reckon!

Just waiting for...

...the charms now 'cos the bra's and keychain turned up this morning, the Bumbo chair came last night so that's all I'm waiting for now!  No more spending other than Yule gifts for my mum and 2 friends then that's it until Valentine's Day then June and then that's it until October... bet you a whole English pound that I spend before that though!  lol

Just gotta get...

... my mum and 2 friends Yule gifts now then that's it for the year!  Don't know what to get them though!  lol

My nephew's chair has arrived so...

... just waiting for the smaller things now!

I'm waiting for several deliveries...

I'm waiting for:

1. the Bumbo seat thing for my nephew
2. the bra's I ordered this morning
3. the charms I ordered in memory of my twins
4. the keychain I ordered from Amazon
5. anything I get for my birthday through the post

but that has to be it until the end of October though!

Spenderama again :-(

Spent another £75 in memory of my twins and I got the bra this morning so that's it now, it has to be!

Just had to buy meself...

... another couple of bras 'cos the under-wiring in the bra I was wearing this morning came out under my arm and was irritating me, so I spent £25 on 2 new bras that have got under-wiring again.  I would have preferred non-wired but because I'm a G cup instead of a D that doesn't seem possible!  :-(

Me poor mum's ill again :-(

A few week's back me mum was ill and went in to hospital.  The procedure went well but whatever it was seems to have grown back and she's ill again  :-(

If you pray, please send out a prayer for Ann that she recovers quickly and that the doctors hands are guided to wherever they need to go again.

If you don't pray, that's totally OK, please just keep me mum in your thoughts?  Please?

Love you mum! I'll be thinking of and praying for you!

That's a relief!

I played Pet Rescue Saga on Facebook a few days ago and tried to use my secondary account to pay a couple of times.  It was rejected the second time so I thought I'd gone overdrawn.

I've just checked my balance online and I'm comfortably in credit... nowhere near overdrawn so I don't know why it was rejected!

I'm in credit with my primary account too so I've just got to not spend anything else and I can comfortably move another £100 into each of my savings accounts too!

There is definitely a Higher Power out there looking after me!

Another one from Facebook

I'm in tears now, but...

... I've just emailed a dental phobia place about having my teeth sorted out - I just hope it doesn't cost a small fortune!

I'm seriously considering asking to have all my teeth taken out and just having a full set of dentures instead.  Yep, totally serious.

Dentists

I've had a phobia of dentists since early childhood.

I've got 1 tooth that needs to be filled and another one that needs to be taken out but I'm too petrified to see even the nervous patient dentist and I dread to think how much it will cost that I just can't afford right now!

Hopefully I'll go down there and ask them to refer me to the hospital to have it done under a GA 'cos there is no way I could cope with it otherwise! 

For M from me via Facebook

Had me hair cut short yesterday, and...

... it's going to be a rough 8 days for me because today and 6th October is when I lost my twins 19 years ago and I'm infertile so we can't have any children any more either.

I had me hair cut into a short bob yesterday though which I love the look of!

Mitzi is definitely a fan of...

... her monthly Bark Beats boxes!

At £15 each they aren't cheap but she knows it's for her as soon as I let her sniff the bag the box comes in and she follows me until I open the bag and box and let her have a sniff!

She got 2 doggy croissants and I broke a bit off one of them to see if she liked it and it was the best thing since last months box!

Steve's got the rest of the croissants in his set of draws along with last months treats but Mitzi is definitely a fan even though this was only her second month - Bark Beats definitely know dogs!

This post is number...

... 1234 so my OCD is happy right now!  Yay!

Such a clever little girl!

Our little girl has got a cardboard "toy box" in the hall with all her toys in it.

She wanted to play so Steve asked Mitzi to bring Miss Piggy in to play with from her toy box.

She went out and came back in so Steve asked her to bring Mr Squeaky Chicken instead.

She came back in again so me an' 'im thought she couldn't reach her toys so I went out to help her.

I walked around the corner and she'd got both of them out of the box and the chicken's legs were crossed with her toy pigs legs.

I certainly haven't taught her to do that and I'm pretty sure Steve hasn't either... she did it all by her clever little self!  Mitzi is one clever little puppy doodle doggy!

Paganism

I'm a Pagan.

I've never made any secret of that to anyone that has asked.

I've just seen this on Facebook and wanted to share it on my blog... not to cause offence to anyone, just to set a few things straight is all  :-)

Mitzi is such a good girl!

I've just de-gunked Mitzi's eyes and she kept her eyes open with my finger so close to her eyes to get the gunk out that I was almost touching her tear duct thing in the corner of her eyes without moving or flinching, and as a reward I offered her 2 treats, but she had to work for those too... she sat and waited for 30 seconds for the second treat... such a spectacular little girl!

That's another 750 words written

Going to try and finish the Toni tween trilogy by the end of October, ready for NaNo on 1st November when I'm hoping to triple the required word count by the end of November (120k instead of 40k) which means I need to write 4k words a day to get it finished... luckily both the Toni and the NaNo novel are all planned out, I just need to find a less distracting start to the writing day is all.

Another 7 times this morning

Just got back from walking the pup and I would have been happy with 5 times up and down the street, but Mitzi wanted to keep walking so we did another 2 times then we came in.

I also think that Mitzi only needs half as much food as the vet has prescribed because she only eats half of what I put down for her every morning!

This is what I want when I die

I know it's not a nice subject to read about on a Saturday afternoon, but I've just had a read of this and it's definitely what I want when I'm gone.  I realise that it'll prolly be expensive but I love the idea of helping wildlife even when I'm dead!

That's the birthday gifts bought for the rest of the year now, so...

... I've only got Yule gifts to get for my mum, husband, Chris, Melanie and Katie now.  I've already got a Yule gift for my little nephew!

Impressive stuff IMO!

I've written 31k words since 8 September to yesterday which is only 17 days... impressive stuff or wot!  Couldn't have done it without the SCBWI BI members though!  It's not free to join but just these last 17 days has been so worth it!

Quick edit of the first draft

The combination of numbers and words in Speckles' Diary was annoying me last night, so I've just edited the first draft and made it more... what's the word... samey?  The word begins with an s, I just can't think of what it is now!  lol

Walked Mitzi up and down the road again this morning, but...

... I lost count of the number of times we went up and down so I followed her lead and came home when she was ready instead of the number of times we walked.  She didn't know she was born, bless her!  We walked for just under half an hour and my legs are killing me now! lol

Just finished Speckles' Diary and I'm now in tears

Just over 51k words written and it's finished how I wanted it to finish so now I've just got to get out of Speckles' head in October, write 120k in November for NaNo then start editing and start work on my other WIP during 2016!

I now have Windows 10!

Thankfully it's saved all my settings and stuff and it looks a lot like 7 other than the task bar is about half the width so it can fit more icons on it, I've just had to change the date setting 'cos it was showing the American format but other than that it's brilliant!

Another OCD number

This is post 1221 which is an OCD number for me.

Next up is 1234, so that's only 13 more posts!  Yay!

That's a relief!

Just got back from the assessment and it went really well.  The assessor said she didn't see any reason that I won't be accepted for the Blue Badge which was a relief and there weren't any steps to go up or down which is what I was dreading most but it took my FIL a good half an hour to get to me because of the traffic and I was sat down for all of five minutes before I was called in.

The assessor was really understanding about everything I told her and she walked me out to my FILs car because she could already see how difficult walking was for me.

She was wonderful to me and will get a five star rating from me if I'm asked!

Just over 48k written now, so I'm on track for finishing tomorrow!

I'm very nearly finished writing the first draft of the novel I'm writing... just under 2k to write tomorrow and that's it until November.  I've had a bath today and still managed to write the 2k words and I've got an assessment tomorrow morning then write the final 2k and it's done!

Dodging the showers on Mitzi's walk this morning!

Me and the pup got wet on our walk this morning so we did it in 2 parts again.  We walked up and down the street 7 times eventually though!

That's today's writing done then

Just finished writing today's 2k words to take the current word count to a huge 46,052 so far.  So close now!  The end is in sight a week sooner than I was thinking too!

That's the domains cancelled then :-(

I've just cancelled the domains that were going to cost me £400 but I've still got 2 domains for my 2 rare illnesses but they don't come up for renewal until April 2016.  I would have loved to have kept the domains but I'm not using them so why keep paying for them?  *sad sigh*

Very nearly £400!!

I've ordered 5 premium levels 2 years ago and it's time for their renewal at the beginning of October... costing almost £400!!!

If I cancel them now I won't be charged for them but I still want them though!  What I think I'll do is cancel them and try ordering them again at the beginning of next year and hope that no-one else has bought them by then!

That's Steve's birthday pressie ordered

Just ordered Steve's birthday gift which will be here around about 1 October.

I hope he likes it!

Yay! I'm so close to finishing it now!

I've now written a total of 44,025 words in my Dogs Trust novel so in less than 6,000 words I'll have finished the book and get ready for clearing my head in October, ready for November's NaNo when I'm planning on writing 4k a day to make 120k by the end of November but it's already planned out and I don't have online communities to worry about any more so I can just concentrate on clearing my mind for my NaNo novel throughout October and write it in November.

I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed writing but the last couple of week's have re-awakened my muse and I've got the time and space I need to just concentrate on that now... it's been literally years since I could last do that!

I'm planning on writing at least 2 novels a year starting in 2016 as well as picture books and early readers too.

10 times this morning!

Took the pup on an extra long walk this morning... a huge 10 times up and down the street instead of the usual 5!  Not only that, but she ran around after Mr Chicken after that and she hasn't been to sleep since we got back either!  She's on the back of the sofa watching the rugby again now!

That's me pills taken as well, so...

... I'll just read the forums now while I wait for them to kick in.

Just over 42k words written now

Just finished today's 2k words so I'm going to take me pills, read the forums and head to bed now.  I definitely prefer writing first thing in the morning... I'm more creative, wordy and motivated then and it gives me a couple of hours to do what I want to before heading to bed!

392 words to write now then that's it until tomorrow.

The writing has gone really well today so I'm going to finish the writing in the next hour or so then take me pills at 4pm, head to bed at 6pm and see what time I wake up tomorrow!  I was asleep by 7pm yesterday and awake at 7.30am this morning, so I will, in theory, be awake at 6.30am tomorrow so I'll take the pup for an early morning walk then come home and start writing before 7.30am ready to have a shower when I've finished the writing in readiness for getting my hair cut on Monday.

If that works out, it's what I'll do every day 'cos I find it easier to write either first thing in the morning or last thing at night.

890 words left to write today

I've written 41110 words on 198 pages so far, so I've got 890 words to make it to 42k words today then 4 days left to write 50k words before the end of September... wish me luck!

It's a beautiful, crisp morning out there

Just taken the pup for her walk and it's a crisp day out there with just a hint of fog at each end of the street.  I came home feeling just right instead of hot like I usually do then I was hit by a column of heat as soon as I opened the front door!  Thank you Steve!  :-/

40k written now, 10k to go

Aiming for 50,000 words which means that by the end of next week I'll have finished my novel, had my hair cut and have been for the Blue Badge assessment.  Then in 2 weeks I can start getting out of Speckles' head and into my NaNo headspace ready for 1 November!

740 words left to write

Poor pup was choking on her walk this morning! :-(

We went on our normal up and down the road, but Mitzi was coughing and choking and panting hard on the second trip up, poor girl!  We stood still while she caught her breath and stopped choking but it made me worry about her so much!

Steve reckons it was because she was pulling like normal, but what if it was more than that?  What if there is something wrong with her health?  :-(