The pen is mightier than the keyboard

This whole writing malarky is challenging... First off, I have to decide which potential masterpiece I'm going to focus my efforts on. As I'm the queen of ideas but lack any ability to finish anything, this is proving difficult. I have one I keep returning to, but others tempt me away with promises of being easier to write. This I know to be a lie, but just because something is an untruth doesn't stop me believing it.

The next challenge is finding the time. Being a girl that likes a plan, I have of course written a schedule. Not quite stuck it to the fridge yet, but I may have to as things like sleep, work and knitting keep getting in the way. Plus of course I get easily distracted by reading books about how to write. Helpful. Still, I've got 23 months and 2 weeks to do this in...no problem.

And finally, I still haven't committed to either the notebook or the laptop. Which at the moment means I've got three different bits of writing going on. It's good to carry a notebook around for those flashes of inspiration, but transferring them to a single file isn't really happening at the moment.

Discipline, that's what I need. Now, any suggestions as to how I get that??

Knit one, purl one...

As it turns out, purling is a bit ambitious yet, but yesterday I had my first knitting lesson and so far, so no dropped stitches! The idea of sitting around at a lunchtime in the office with a few colleagues - including one token male who yesterday was absent due to his partner's waters breaking - was a fine one. Knitting as it turns out is indeed the new yoga . So much so that when I got back last night after what was strangely quite a stressful yoga class (it was a whole ujjayi breathing problem), I sat there watching David Attenborough's new series with a cup of warm milk and my knitting needles clicking away....I think I must have been channelling! Still, my current enthusiasm bodes well for a jumper somewhere down the line. Although it is only day one.

On another note, I also started going through my 'memories box' at the weekend. So far I've limited it to my gig tickets - of which there are many - some cards I've saved and a few other bits and pieces. Leaving aside the piles of photos still to be explored, the next issue is how on earth I'm going to present them. On the advice of a friend I Googled 'scrapbooks' and came up with a ridiculous range of options. More research needed methinks...

Narrowing things down a bit...

Having spent the day slaving over a hot oven, I'm slightly ashamed of the fact that I seem to have lost the ability to bake. Yes, it's been a while since I've really made an effort, not generally being a pudding kinda girl, but back in the day I could rustle up biscuits and cakes with a certain amount of confidence that they would turn out just fine. I had a mum and a nan who, like most women of their generations, were queens of the stove with seemingly little effort, and I soaked up some of their skills when I was younger. But as my efforts today will show, I was somewhat cocky to think I had some residual level of ability left! Practice does indeed make perfect, and so I'm thinking maybe my 'new cuisine' should be recapturing the skills of baking...


On a separate note, it seems once again I completely missed the whole Glastonbury registration/ticket buying deadlines....so I'll be holding out for 2011 to complete that one. Somebody please remind me!

The beginning...

Hello!

I'm lucky enough to have had the best birthday celebrations this week, and for those of you that don't already know, I now have 2 years, or 24 months, or 728 days until I'm 40! Now we all know how quickly that will pass (yes, you'll be 2 years older too!), and I wanted to make sure that when I raise that glass of champagne on the morning of my 40th I'll have some fun, some laughter, and some learning to look back on. Some of you have suggested things for me to do, for which I'm - mostly - grateful, and I ended up with way more than the 24 I was looking for. I've narrowed it down a bit and, at last, here's the final list:

Master the headstand
Take the sleeper to Fort William
Write a book
Go to New Zealand, Canada and Australia visiting friends
Go to Glastonbury
Busk in Trafalgar square on my recorder
Drink with someone famous
Ride on the back of a motorbike
Build/make something to last another 40 years
Learn a new cuisine
Put together a scrapbook of my life to date
Sell a photograph
Get into the papers with Susie - on 8 August
Knit a jumper
Learn to juggle
Watch the sun rise from London Bridge
Wear false eyelashes & get a spray tan
Sing karaoke
Figure out the solar system and explain it to Stuart
Follow in the footsteps of HV Morton
Pony trek across Dartmoor
Hot air balloon ride
Run a half marathon
Go to Old Trafford

I'm hoping some of you will be there to take part in or witness some of these events (maybe not the jumper-knitting, I'll keep that private!), and I'll definitely need photographic evidence to prove I've done them. I'll be providing regular posts on progress over the coming months, so keep your eyes open. Now I'm off to decide what to do first...suggestions welcome!