My 2019....I hope...

I’m not making any resolutions this year: I’m just going to try to stick to this very wise mantra I read recently: “you are what you do today, not what you say you’ll do tomorrow”.

So to all procrastinating writers - and everyone else who reads this blog -  have a very happy and productive new year. Cheers 🥂

(The photo is of my wonderful family on Boxing Day. It’s the first time ever that we’ve all been in a photo together, with no-one missing 😀)

Happy Christmas encore

Happy Christmas again (because I just had to use this photo of my youngest grandson)!

I am a bald, impotent, randy man

Oh, the downside of having a name which (spelled differently) could be that of a man.

For some time, I’ve  been inundated with emails from comapanies offering to increase the size of my penis (or improve the performance of the one I’ve apparently got) and to introduce me to voluptuous young women from the East. Now, these people have decided that I’m bald, as well, and are offering me a variety of hair restoring products (my hair is actually quite thick). 

In vain do I send messages to say that I AM A WOMAN, but these are always ignored. So I’ll just have to put up with it.

Next time around, I’ve decided I shall simply be called Mary 🙂

HappyChristmas!

These final verses of a beautiful poem by John Betjeman say all that I feel about Christmas. Whether you agree or not, I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and (especially the writers among you) an inspirational and successful new year.

 And is it true,
This most tremendous tale of all,
Seen in a stained-glass window's hue,
A Baby in an ox's stall?
The Maker of the stars and sea
Become a Child on earth for me?

And is it true? For if it is,
No loving fingers tying strings
Around those tissued fripperies,
The sweet and silly Christmas things,
Bath salts and inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so kindly meant,

,
No love that in a family dwells,

No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare -
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

(Apologies to Graham, who kindly replied to a line of this poem which escaped and made a post all on its own.)

Kindle boxset

I have to say that I didn't know there was any such thing as a kindle boxset, but apparently there is, and here's mine! Quite attractive, I thought...?

Sorry about the advertising, but I haven't mentioned the price (I can't remember what it is, anyway), and it's really for interest rather than with any hopes of commercial gain.

Now off to make the red cabbage (my Christmas job). In a couple of hours, I, the kitchen, and every available appliance and surface will be purple. Hey ho (or hey ho-ho-ho?) - it's Christmas 😊

A cautionary tale

I buy a lot of things on line, and frequently send them back. This is not least because I am (as wonderful Chris, who runs a lovely gift shop in Devizes, and is incredibly helpful, says)  “trying to find the perfect present”.  When I receive it, it’s no longer so perfect, so quite often, back it goes.

But there are pitfalls, and this morning I have fallen into  every single one.

1. Forgetting to fill in the form properly; the one that has to go INSDE the parcel.
2. Forgetting to copy the order number from that form onto the return label (which is now inside the parcel).
3. Forgetting to include the form at all. Having packed everything else up, and congratulated myself on doing it so well, I look round, only to see the form still sitting smugly OUTSIDE the parcel.
4. Wondering whether I’ve filled in the form properly after all. This involves opening up the parcel again, just to make sure.

I had to reopen one parcel FOUR times this morning.....I’m still wondering whether I got it right 🤔

(And before anyone tells me that I should buy from proper shops, I do whenever I can.)

A small boast...

I hate people who boast, but today, I’m going to do it myself (I rarely have cause, so don’t worry; it won’t happen often). My novel Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles has been overall no. 71 in Australian Amazon kindle sales, and no.1 in all three of its categories.

That’s all. 😀