A Fresh Start! A Fresh Photo!

Today is a fresh start to a new and exciting blog!

The week has been a relay of cock-ups. From lost correspondence to unknowingly unpaid bills and general administrative muck-ups that I would rather not think about – but that is what has got me in to this mess in the first place, so perhaps it would be better that I did…
The fresh start, therefore, starts with a new photo to the blog – an hilarious one of me in my youth when I played rugby for Neath. Here I am, hacking along the wing of the Gnoll, in my dad’s rugby shorts and an old gum shield that I found at the side of the pitch after the blokes had gone home. Note the look of determination. Marvel at the lack of muscle definition in my thighs.
In accordance with the fresh start, I am asking that you play your bit too please. I am looking to whack up the numbers of lucky folks who get to read this occasional nonsense – so why not make a commitment to stick the url at the bottom of your email signature? Send it to friends as something to help stall the start of tucking into work. Pop it on your office intranet and show yourself to be a cut above the other cattle. By sticking it in random places on the Internet, I am told that it increases the likelihood of people stumbling across it – just think of whose day you can cheer up!

I have now written off the week as a lesson to be learnt. My new, improved week will have me reading my correspondence, rather than putting it in a safe place for when I have a little time. I will set time aside for filing. I will clean up as I go along. I will also tidy my bedroom, phone all my old friends and eat raw alfalfa for breakfast.

I did a talk for the Llanddewi Ystradenny WI on Monday night, as part of my strategy for gaining a world bestseller. I spoke about my travels abroad and my experiences of being published and showed them a few photos of Peruvian potatoes and some pet guinea-pigs being fattened for restaurants. They were lovely ladies and I hope that they enjoyed it, but I have a horrible feeling that I mis-judged the best spoon competition – I lay in bed that night feeling sure that I should have put the silver one with the flowers on in second place and the brass one with leaves on in third. Never mind – I suppose it was simply another indication that this week was just not going to be perfect, but it is a shame that other people have had to suffer…

The Difficult Second Novel - it's on its way!

Evenin'

An exciting time as last night I checked the phone messages and found two from members of my family saying "Well done, but why didn't you tell us?" It turned out that my newest and second book, Eating Blackbirds, is now on Amazon, to be published in July! I hadn't actually told them, as I didn't know myself, knowing only that it would be coming out sometime this year - so it was brilliant news and made it all quite real at last.

Eating Blackbirds draws on my time in the Council - and the main character is the cliche bloke who is doing as little as possible whilst he waits to retire (no-one in Powys was actually like that, well - apart from me). His runaway neice arrives on his doorstep with a new baby and turns his ordered dull little life into chaos. He looks for somewhere to retreat and ends up stepping into the life of the husband of a woman he has met when he visited her second home through Council business. When he actually does retire he has to carry out all the plans that he has been putting off for the last forty years..

The title Eating Blackbirds is because the hero is very frugal and mean (I wonder how I managed to write such a convincing character?) and "not does" things in order to save the money that he would otherwise spend. (Again, where DOES that imagination come from?).

I started writing the book about three years ago, so this is fruition of a lot of work over a long period of time.

Check it out on Amazon - and save yourself £1.60 on a pre-order!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eating-Blackbirds-Lorraine-Jenkin/dp/190678406X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232278040&sr=1-2

Now for that celebratory cup of tea...

Bad Backs and muddy jeans...

Morning.


I've had a bad back for a number of days now, brought about by being gung-ho and thinking that I am still strong and fit - why would you ever carry one child on your shoulders and a massive bag of shopping in your hand, whilst running after another child so that you can shout at them a bit more, unless you were prepared to get a bad back?


Anyone who has suffered in this way will know that even bending down to pick up a stray sock is something that has to be thought about - not only whether it is worth it, but how you are going to do it and, more importantly, how are you going to get up again afterwards...


Imagine, therefore, my misery when I looked out the window yesterday to see a pair of my jeans blowing off the washing line and landing in the muddy sheep field behind. I hobbled out in inadequate shoes (as the thought of pulling on my wellies was inconceivable) only to see them stuck in a puddle along with the lid of the compost bin and a few socks. I should have just grimmaced, climbed over the fence and fetched the damn things, but I didn't. I hoped that the helpful farmer would pick them up, take them home, launder and iron them and return them to my doorstep the next morning - but of course the lazy shyster didn't, and I had to go to bed knowing that sheep were probably eating them / lying on them / laughing at the size stated in the label.


During the night it stormed, and now they are probably sunk in three inches of mud with a sheep lying on them for warmth.

This will bring smug pleasure to my dad as he predicted the rise in temperatures and the storm, reminding me of one of his grandfather's sayings about it ne'r blowing easterly over a full moon. Huw was less impressed, saying that he could have told me that as he saw it on Ceefax earlier that day.

Happy New Year!

Hello folks, and happy new year to you!

It's been an exciting Christmas, starting with scooping tomato skins from every crease of the car seats, going via giving my dad the bug for his Christmas gift, then to doctors, hospitals and pharmacists. Christmas was then spent mainly scraping things off blankets and washing towels, with scrambled egg for Christmas dinner. Great.

I was going to write my New Year's Resolutions, but then realised that they would be pretty much the same that they were when I was ten - and I didn't tidy my bedroom after them then either...

Our village has frozen. Our pipes froze and we had a few exciting hours of wandering round to neighbours with empty kettles with some very kind offers from people saying that we could come and powder our noses in their bathrooms if things got desperate. Luckily, we spoke to the bloke across the field who used to have family living in our house and within the hour he had phoned a dozen people and found out that we have two incoming supplies, so a kettle of water on an outside tap did the job and we are back to normal.
Not all good as I was getting used to weeing in the garden.

Have a happy 2009!
Lorraine.