Kate Morris

Watch this if you want to laugh

2012-01-15T20:12:00.000Z

Every time I watch this video, of a little girl shouting her way through a nativity, I laugh. My children love it and my 7 year old makes us watch it all the time. It's absolutely brilliant. Watch it and see.

Skating Makes me HAPPY

2012-01-03T12:43:00.000Z

Skating is the one thing I love doing, that makes me feel like a child again. When I was young, I had regular skating lessons, at Queensway in London, and even learnt to skate backwards and dance. A few years ago we started skating at Kew on the outdoor rink, and loved it all over again - first we would toddle around with the small children which was a little boring, and then me and my husband would return for a date on the rink, which was really fun. Kew no longer has a skating ring, but this year I've been skating twice, just to feel the thrill, and now my children dash around too without any help - my seven year old daughter is a real whizz in fact.

I've just returned from France where we skated on the outdoor rink in St Tropez. It was very cheap - 2 Euros for as long as you wanted to skate (officially meant to be an hour, but no one knew). It was surrounded by twinkling Christmas trees and fairy lights, lovely. However, the rink was run by a trio of maverick men, who admitted it was never cleaned and so it was easy to trip up on the mounds of ice that mounted up. Also there were gangs of teenagers playing "it" which was terrifying. The first time we skated I fell over twice.

Much safer and brilliant in this rainy weather is the indoor rink at Westfield, which closes this Sunday the 8th. It's reasonably priced and not too crowded. The rink is smallish, but the ice is beautifully smooth. We rushed around the rink and didn't feel scared once. Great Fun and well worth a visit.

Two Tickets to Discover Dogs at Earls Court to Give Away.

2011-11-01T16:51:00.002Z

The other day I saw a man treating his small white labrador, really badly -yanking it into the air by its lead - then making it stop and sit for no apparent reason - the scene haunted me for 24 hours. I felt helpless and pathetic, particularly that I didn't say anything. He was a horrible aggressive man, and I was wary, sure that if I confronted him, he would hit me or something.

Luckily most people in this country love their dogs or their cats. Personally I am a cat person, but I know most people are passionate about their dogs.

So I am offering two adult tickets (Worth £11 each) for the Discover Dogs show at Earls court on either 12th or the 13th November - (Under 12's go free). There will be over 200 types of pedigree dogs to look at and meet and lots more to do and see. The event is now in its 16th year and is the biggest dog event in London - they are expecting over 3,000 dogs.

Highlights will include the Scruffts Family Crossbreed of the Year competition and the Rescue Dog agility competition. There will also be hundreds of trade stands selling products for dogs and dog lovers, and opportunities for children to try out different dog sports in the Young Kennel Club ring.

There will also be a series of seminars throughout the course of the two day event, covering topics such as dog training using the Tellington Touch technique, which recognises the link between posture and behaviour and uses techniques to release tension and promote a feeling of calm and well-being within dogs. TV vet Marc Abraham, will be talking about dogs in war, and Lance Workman, psychologist from Bath Spa University, will be talking about the psychological benefits of dog ownership.

www.discoverdogs.org.uk

To apply for tickets answer the question: What would you name your dog? And follow this blog. Competition closes Saturday 5th at 12noon.

Bicycling 22 kilometres along the Canal

2011-10-31T15:20:00.000Z

Me and the kids bicycling along the canal to Camden

This Saturday, we we were invited to Proud in Camden for their new weekend kids lunch. My husband persuaded us all to bicycle rather than drive the car and at first I was reluctant. It seemed like a long way - it was a long way. We set off down the Uxbridge Road in Sheperds Bush, and then hit the canal, which is perfect to bicycle down with children. It wasn't all plain sailing, there were roads to cross, and hills to climb, but it was the best fun I've had for a long time. It took us an hour and a half to get to Camden(mostly along the canal) but it was worth it. At one point we passed the Zoo, and saw birds in the aviary and some wolves prowling along in their enclosure. I felt happy and free as though we were in the country.

Belle being made up and entertained by Lucky

I don't think I've ever been to Camden Market before, despite living in London all my life, and wow it's busy. More LA than London, but without the good weather. We found the old Horse Hospital and then the Proud. It's a music venue, bar and restaurant. On Friday evening they have burlesque, which is apparently really fun. The old stables are now separate lounge areas, where men were watching sky sport. At the other end is 'the Kitchen," a laid back dining space. We chose from a reasonably priced small lunch menu - £4 for a kids main course. My children loved it. They loved the food, the vibe, the entertainer, a plucky girl called Lucky, who kept my daughter amused. My son enjoyed the swing that hung from the ceiling and the sport that was on in another room. Huge Success.

A Five Star Pampering Alternative to Botox

2011-10-25T10:42:00.002+01:00

About a year ago, I looked in the mirror and saw an angry, tired, face staring back at me. I wasn't actually angry that particular morning, it was just the two lines between my eyes resembled a furious frown that made me look stern. I took the plunge, did a bit of research and booked botox with a trained doctor at a clinic. It was expensive, clinical and quick. The botox in my forehead felt tight and strange for at least six weeks. A couple of friends noticed that my face looked 'fresh' but I haven't been back. Maybe I will, but for a more gentle, approach I decided to try a brand new package, that has LITERALLY just hit the market.

The initial three hour package consists of facial acupuncture, facial massage and nutritional advice from a pair of lovely ladies, who are working in tandem, just moments from where I live in West London. They work in rooms above Kite Studios and the whole atmosphere is much less exhausting and trying than rushing to town, and waiting in a room filled with back copies of Tatler, Harpers and some wretched flowers trying to survive in a vase filled with not quite enough water. Star Gifford is an experienced acupuncturist who used to work at the Zita West Clinic, where she met Melanie Brown who was working there as a nutritionist. They both left Zita West to pursue independent careers and together they have come up with a unique pampering package to enliven your skin.

First you see Melanie for a nutritional talk, (She will give you a form to complete before you visit), she also gives you loads of notes with delicious recipes and wise suggestions on how to live well. She advises on anti-ageing skin nutrition and the best supplements for you and all kicked
off with a fantastic skin restoring diet, (I have tried out both the recipes she gave me, and they were both delicious.) Next you go to see Star, who will address your face, with fine needles, that don't hurt at all. The atmosphere is gentle and soothing, restful and peaceful. The acupuncture session ends with Star rolling a jade roller across the skin which feels so soft and smooth its as if she is massaging your skin with the best oils money can buy. I was zonked after my session with Star and you get to keep the jade roller, to use when your skin is feeling puffy or tired.

Next Melanie gives the best facial massage I have ever experienced in my life. It literally takes your breath away and it feels as though it's definitely doing good, for the tired and/or stressed skin. She ends the treatment by giving you a little pot of bespoke facial oil, that she has made herself. Divine. I give this treatment 10 out of 10. My skin is literally dancing for joy!!!

Need to Know:

First appointment will be nutrition, acupuncture and massage of an hour each, which can be booked separately and the whole package is £170. Subsequent treatments of the massage and acupuncture are 45 minutes, costing £45 each and can be booked together or separately.
Phone numbers for appointments Mel 07968 369 076,

Disney bag of Goodies

2011-10-07T12:48:00.004+01:00

A rucksack of pens and stationary, a dvd, au audio tape, and lots more!!!

Disney Junior Channel are turning Disney memories into cash for Great Ormond Street Hospital. I wrote about going to see the Jungle Book at the cinema, it was the first film I ever saw and I absolutely loved it, particularly Baloo the bear. I also read and reread my Mary Poppins book which had little flaps which you lifted up to reveal tiny stories about Mary Poppins. Each memory is worth £1 for Great Ormond Street hospital and when a million memories are recorded they will turn it into £1million for the hospital. You can post your own memory on the link - Then duplicate in my comment box or on Twitter KateMorris1 so I can choose one to send a goody bag to.

Science Festival

2011-09-09T11:25:00.000+01:00

My ten year old son loves science and can talk eloquently about black holes and electricity, seeming to fully understand what he is saying. I am ashamed to say I am pants at science, and did extremely badly in biology GCSE. We had an inept but rather nice biology teacher and we run amok, when she was in the classroom. I remember one incident when we all ran out of the lab screaming, when she produced a rat or something to dissect.

The British Science Festival takes place in Bradford this year. Where is Bradford exactly?

Sadly we can't make it this year, but I urge anyone living anywhere near to go. It runs from September 10th to September the 15th and will include workshops for kids including meeting birds of prey, to learning about stargazing and the solar system. If only Professor Brian Cox was going to be there I'd be sprinting up to learn about the stars.

There will be talks by Professor Robert Winston and Sir Ranulph Fiennes though and also the cast from BBC's Bang goes the Theory. Sounds fun and entertaining and I know my kids would love it.

A little bit scary

2011-08-21T09:29:00.000+01:00

I have been neglecting this blog for a while because I was invited to be a featured blogger on Mumsnet where I'm writing about beauty and health. We returned from a sunny holiday in France nearly a week ago - we left in the middle of the riots, and I was terrified our car would be smashed or house set fire to - we live near Westfield and I'd heard that it had shut early and was barricaded against potential rioters! We've been back a week and I've been told that my marriage column in The Times, will not be running from the beginning of September because they are losing a page in Life. My editor said it had been a dream to edit, and had been running longer than any other column (18 months) but I am sad and a little scared too - perhaps they were just bored of it. I loved writing it and the monthly income was good too. It's scary to suddenly lose it.

I would like to write it somewhere else - Just putting that out there and holding that thought!

My Brit Mum Post on tips to writing a novel

2011-07-29T19:48:00.001+01:00

When Susannah invited me to write a blog about novel-writing tips, I sat down and wrote a list. What this list perhaps doesn’t convey is how it has to be something you really want to do - you can’t imagine life without writing a book. I know this sounds extreme. It has to, because the whole process of writing a novel is hard but even harder perhaps, is getting published. Inevitably you will have to face rejections from agents and then later publishers, before your novel is accepted. If you don’t manage to find a home for it, you need the strength and will to dust of the rejections and persevere. If the first novel doesn’t sell, then perhaps the second one will, or even the third, or fourth. Even after all of this, it will be competing with hundreds of other books and for all this effort – it is quite likely that you won’t make a fortune. Of course there is always a chance that your book will be one of the tiny minority snapped up at auction! And go on to be bestseller. There is always that hope. If you are still determined then go ahead, and good luck. Here are my tips to help you on the way:

· Make a commitment that you are going to write a novel.

· Just start

· Decide a time of day/night to write and stick to it. Give yourself at least one hour daily- two would be better.

· Write at least five times a week if you can.

· You can’t write a novel half-heartedly. Take yourself seriously or no one else will.

· Don’t answer the telephone or make appointments during your writing time.

· Join a writers group, where you can get feedback and support.

· Go on a writer’s retreat or a good writer’s course.

· Research. Talk to people, interview them if you need to, read, make notes.

· If you find writing dialogue hard, say it out-loud to see if it sounds real.

· Don’t worry if it’s not an excellent first draft; just get it down on paper.

· Don’t read back and despair. Or if you do despair, don’t give up; persevere. All writers I know go through the idea of thinking their work is crap.

· Keep going to the end.

· After every 20,000 words or so (or whatever works for you) print out and read to retain a sense of all the strands of the novel.

· The secret of novel writing is in the rewrite. Don’t be afraid to edit, cut back, rewrite.

· Note places where it doesn’t seem to make sense, or where you need to add information. Cut out anything superfluous. Cut again.

· When you think you have finished and are dying to show someone, wait and do one more rewrite.

· After that you could show the book to a few choice friends and get their feedback

My novel, Seven Days One Summer is out now with Short Books. Please buy it and take it on holiday with you!

Author Interview

2011-07-08T13:12:00.000+01:00

My novel, Seven Days One Summer has been out for 24 hours. Yesterday the official launch day, felt quite flat, it was raining and my husband was away. I had expected some kind of fanfare - Penguin sent me some flamboyant flowers for my last novel that came out in 2009, but not a squeak from Short Books. I went to Waterstones in Chiswick and found my latest novel in the 2 for 3 offers, displayed on a back table. I asked the nice woman behind the till if I could sign them and she was thrilled. I cheered up a bit and went home! Hoping and praying that someone will buy a copy!!

Lovely David from Paragraph Planet, did an author interview with me and here it is!

Acem Meditation

2011-07-05T10:26:00.002+01:00

Breathe in, breath out, breath in, breath out. I have to keep reminding myself to do this as my heart is palpitating and there is tightness in my chest. I can't sleep, can hardly eat, and am generally fraught. My third novel, Seven Days One Summer is coming out on the 7th July. There is part of me that wants to hide, right now, in a hotel bedroom. I would lock the door, lie on the bed, and spend the day reading, writing and meditating. I have always been an incompetent sleeper, someone who can't sleep during a full moon, or after too much caffeine and so when my friend Rebecca told me aboutAcem Meditation a couple of years ago, I went along for a weekend course.

Acem has been developed in Scandinavia over the last thirty years. It is claimed that if you practice this form of meditation you will be more relaxed and have increased energy and that your immune system will be strengthened. Acem is non religious and non profit making which appealed to me and the course was inexpensive. A group of us learnt the method of repeating a selection of meaningless sounds, returning to the sound whenever thoughts got in the way. By doing this repeatedly the body relaxes. One woman shared that she had managed to solve a nagging problem while meditating. I found that I did relax deeply and its true that you do feel more energized afterwards.

Dr Svend Davanger, Associate Professor at the Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience at the University of Oslo, co-authored the book Fighting stress. Reviews of meditation research. He explains, “We all go through ….stressful situations every day. Meditation seems to be very powerful in resolving the tensions that are left behind in your mind and body... Meditation shifts the balance towards spontaneous resolution of tension and worrying thoughts, making room for rest and sleep”

This method of mediation is so much easier to practice than the method I tried before which was based on ancient geometry and was really hard to remember how to do. The difficult part is committing to actually doing it. Acem suggest either one session of 45 minutes a day or two of twenty five minute sessions. At first I found that it was best for me first thing in the morning. I was sleeping well almost immediately.

I no longer practice every day and often when I do, I fall asleep for a ten minute nap, but always feel better afterwards. I never manage to do 45 minutes a day or even two lots of twenty minutes but it doesn't seem to matter. Breath in, breath out. Writing this post has made me realise I need to meditate right away.

Mumsnet

2011-07-04T20:59:00.000+01:00

I've got a new health beauty mind blog over at Mumsnet. It's one of the featured blogs which is great, as I'm there along with some great writers. Go take a look.

Book Launches and Girls in Red Dresses

2011-06-20T23:08:00.001+01:00

This is the cover of my book, Seven Days One Summer, which is coming out on the 7th July! At first I didn't like the headless woman, but I've got used to her now. In fact I've grown rather fond of the lady in the Red Dress. So far there is a great review in Tatler magazine, which described Seven Days, as the ultimate summer read. Right now, I'm dithering around wondering whether to have a book launch. I don't want to spend a fortune as I'm not getting a contribution from the publishers.

Seven Days One Summer

2011-06-10T12:01:00.000+01:00

This is us almost exactly a year ago on holiday in Connemarra in Ireland - We'd just climbed to the top of Diamond Mountain, which took two to three hours. I love my husband's holiday beard! Can't wait to be wild and free again, hair blowing, children a bit feral.

My novel, Seven Days One Summer is out on July 7th but you can preorder on Amazon. Please do. It's a story set in a villa in Italy and it's a good read. I promise. It's the story of friendship, betrayal, unrequited love and ends with a mind-blowing revelation. Slightly excited, slightly apprehensive. Can't decide whether to have a book launch.

A Distracted Writer

2011-05-25T10:14:00.000+01:00

I am meant to be working on a novel I am writing. It doesn't have a title yet, but it's about twin sisters. I am about 40,000 words into it, which I consider to be about half way, probably a little less than half way. No one has looked at it yet, which is a little scary. I am still very much in first draft mode and quite stuck as to how the second half of the book should unfold. I am finding it just so hard to concentrate. The passage that I am meant to be writing about takes place in LA, so I am spending time reading blogs about LA, looking at clips of LA on youtube, and generally farting about.

I would love to know if there are any bloggers out there who live in LA?

Just another excuse to ask them lots of questions and not really get down to writing.

I have been watching Jamie's Food Revolution on television, partly because it's set in LA. He seems like a passionate, genuine guy on a mission.

Neom Organics for insomniacs

2011-05-24T21:01:00.000+01:00

During my role as Beauty and Health writer for International Life, I discovered a brand that I really love and use: Neom Organics. At Christmas, I gave my friends and family their reed diffusers for making rooms smell wonderful; they are ingenious and really stylish and produce three subtle smells, depending on which one you choose. All the products are organic, but also luxurious and beautifully packaged. Their bath oil and skin cream is sensational and is perfect if you want to feel gorgeous and pampered. They have just come up with a new concept - a box containing a candle, bath oil, body moisturizer and pillow spray to help people like me, who have trouble sleeping. Magic. I really like to know that I am covering my body with something that doesn't contain synthetic smells and toxic ingredients.

Wicked Young Writers Award

2011-05-19T14:12:00.000+01:00

This is a great writing competition for children, and the dead line is at the end of July. I've just been reading the anthology with all of last year's finalists and the standard is high. So high in fact, it's hard not to believe that some of them have had some help. The youngest category is 5-11 and goes up to age 25.

My son will be entering his poem about a made up monster!

75 Words

2011-05-18T16:31:00.001+01:00

Creative writing website for authors and readers. 75 words, changing daily. Submit your
paragraph today.

The opening few lines (slightly edited to fit 75 words) of my new novel, Seven Days One Summer, posted on this site today (Wednesday)

Street Party Competition -

2011-04-20T13:53:00.000+01:00

Innocent Smoothies are hosting a competition to send their new orange juice and champagne, to street parties celebrating the Royal Wedding. Just send 40 words on why your party should win to Innocent Smoothies.

Good Luck!

Ten reasons why families should move to Sheperds Bush

2011-04-12T15:41:00.010+01:00

1. The Park Club in Acton is a good reason to live in this area. You will never need to go away again because there are 27 acres of outdoor space in this fantastic family Health Club. There are adult classes, yoga, pilates, zumba, (anything you can think of) and if you have children you won't feel the pressure to get out of city or move house, desperate for a bigger garden. It's all here. They have play equipment, sand pits, tennis courts, ping pong, football, tennis and the piece de resistance - an outdoor swimming pool. It's not cheap but your children will be happy. Really happy. And as you sit on the terrace or sunbathe by the outdoor pool, you will be too.

2. Excellent schools: Brilliant state primaries -St Stephens Church of England School, run by renowned head Michael Schumm. He's an inspiration, loved by both parents and children. They had their own talent show this year judged by Davina McCall, Ollie Murs and Oritze from JLS. My son Jude won with his stand up comic routine. Brackenbury, John Betts and Greenside are all in close proximity too. Also there are two new state secondaries opening in September - The Hammersmith Academy and The West London Free School. Excellent private schools too -Harrodian, St Pauls, Latymer, Colet Court, Ravenscourt Prep are just a few.

3. Ravenscourt Park and Holland Park. Both have cafes and playgrounds for toddlers, preschool and older children.

4. Bush Hall. Spent many years taking toddlers here for music time with the heavenly Emma Raworth. Also have groovy music gigs for grownups and music courses for children.

5. Kite Studios . Good holiday and term time art courses for Children, run by magical Auriol.

6. Westway. Love it or hate it, it's here to stay and is really convenient.

7. Proximity to Chiswick and Turnham Green, packed with specialist food shops and good restaurants and cafes.

8. Arts Educational School - runs really good drama and music Saturday school.

9. The Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith offers free first nights to residents. The Bush Theatre is moving to bigger and better premises on the Uxbridge Road, and is opening this year.

10. Easy to get to M4, M3 and M40, Heathrow and the central line to town.

Hop

2011-04-01T14:48:00.026+01:00

We were lucky enough to see Hop in preview the other day. It comes out today and is a great Easter Holiday film. I was worried that my 9 nearly 10 year old son would find it babyish but he really enjoyed it and he also appreciated the fact that there was no love story, no kissing or smooching or boring old romance. My six year old daughter, who is actually seven tomorrow, said it was her 'best film ever." As an adult, I found it charming but was irritated by Russell Brand's kind of mockney/estuary twang doing the voice of the cute EB the reluctant teenage Easter Bunny. I loved Hugh Laurie voice as EB's Dad though!

James Marsden plays the live action lead of Fred, the lazy twenty something who won't get a job. And ends up doing guess what? Becoming the Easter Bunny. Totally unconvincing, but the kids didn't care!

http://www.hopthemovie.co.uk/

Leibster Blog Award

2011-03-30T20:50:00.003+01:00

Was just sitting down this morning, contemplating another day of looking at a screen and trying to think of things to say, when I checked in on my blog and found that I had been given an award!

Am thrilled it's called a LIEBSTER AWARD and it was given to me by one of blogs I really enjoy reading There are Cuckoos in My Nest - which is a lovely, quirky, honest blog about being a "reluctant stepmother," amongst other things.

Part of the award involves nominating 3 to 5 blogs with less than 300 followers which you enjoy reading.
If you get the Liebster award you should link back to the person who gave it to you.
It's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise be seen or ones you want to share with others.
As a recipient you must share the love and pass it on by:
1. Creating a post where you blog about the Liebster award & reveal your 3 - 5 blog picks.
2. Let them know you chose them
3. Copy & Paste the blog award on your blog or as in my case make it into a photograph and attach it.

My Awards Go To:

My 9 year old son The City Boy

My lovely neighbour who writes the Bush Babies Blog - love her blogs.

I Heart Natural Beauty always has something wise to say.

And last but by no means least. Older Mums Are Fun....

Just ate some mini easter eggs and thought it maybe an idea to find some alternative Easter Gifts!

2011-03-29T18:21:00.002+01:00

Lavender Easter Chick Small

I thought this cute chick would make a fab Easter present and the site has other cool easter gift ideas too.

SEVEN DAYS ONE SUMMER

2011-03-18T11:15:00.002Z

HURRAY HURRAY. I've finally finally finished going through the proofs for my new novel, Seven Days One Summer, which is published on July 7th with Short Books. I will never have to look at it again. But I hope you will. It has a cover of a girl in a RED DRESS and its about unrequited love, friendship, the trials of summer holidays with tensions running high in the heat, rivalry, long term relationships and betrayal. There is an unexpected and strange revelation at the end.

Of course I am terrified, exalted, exhausted, tired, sleepy, nervous and all the rest.

Now I don't know how to get rid of this strange white background!

RSS FEED

2011-02-04T15:17:00.002Z

Help! How do I get a RSS feed? Anyone

On a Snowy hill that looked like a scene from Narnia, I crashed into a Tree!

2011-01-13T15:04:00.014Z

On Christmas Eve we went tobogoning (still can't spell that word) and I crashed into a tree with a huge thud on my right thigh. I lay there for a moment, unable to get up and wondering if if was broken. I broke it once before aged 16 in a car crash. I hobbled back to my room and went to bed with a painkiller. But when it was time to get up, I couldn't walk. It's hard to describe pain, but when I accidently knocked the top of my thigh the agony was unbearable and shards of pain went shooting through me. I began to cry and my 9 year old son who was with me, burst into tears. I sat on a chair, unable to move forward or back. An ambulance was called and the drivers gave me gas and air which momentarily dulled the pain but not enough to get up from the chair. After two hefty doses of morphine, they managed to carry me to the ambulance, while I tried not to throw up. The nurses were in festive mood, covered in toy antlers and coiled with glitter. Thankfully nothing broken but a huge hematoma (like internal bruising) and three weeks later, I'm still limping. It hurts at night and some nights more than others. It hurts in the day and going downstairs. In fact now both knees hurt going downstairs. The whole incident makes me feel so old. I was just trying to have fun with the children, but am too heavy and not lithe enough.

Today my lovely friend STAR gave me acupuncture and tomorrow will have a bit of physio, got to remember to be pleased that my femur isn't broken again. Last time was in hospital for three months!

Get Santa

2010-12-14T11:21:00.003Z

We were invited to the Royal Court to see the seasonal show "GET SANTA." I took my fairly jaded 9 year old son who reads Dickens and was fresh from Dick Whittington the night before. 10 year old Holly -played perfectly by Imogen Doel, who is straight out of drama school - lives with her mother and step father who just happens to be a dog named Bernard. Her real Dad turns out to be a cat! Holly doesn't like Christmas and doesn't want presents, all she wants is to find her real father and she thinks that if she traps Santa he will be able to tell her where her father lives, her reasoning being that he knows where everyone lives. My son loved the teddy who turns out to be a malicious, desperate teddy with a Russian accent, who accidently comes to life, when Santa's son Bumblehole turns up at Holly's house. He claims to be Holly's father, stuck forever as a teddy after a witch cast a spell on him. There follows a strange plot twist where Teddy realizes that if they trap the real Santa they could use strands of his magic beard to keep him alive for ever. What teddy doesn't realize is that the spell will only last one day, Christmas Day, and so we see Christmas Day turning up again and again, the adults becoming more and more weary, "I suppose we better open the presents again - Bernard takes to wearing all the hats he's received one on top of another. Of course it's all resolved in the end, without becoming sentimental. We both came away feeling more festive than when we had arrived. Great fun, quirky and original - perfect antidote to the normal Christmas pantomime. For ages 7+

Movie Survey

2010-12-01T15:40:00.026Z

I LOVE MOVIES

If you have a few minutes spare you could do this movie survey which takes a few minutes and is fun. It's from a site that sells all sorts of movies, including cult films. It asks all sorts of multiple choice questions like what was your favourite film of 2010 and what was the scariest movie out of a choice including the Omen? I couldn't watch The Omen after the scene in which the nanny jumps out of the window and I've never been able to watch the Exorcist. What was sad though, was the question how many times do you go to the cinema? I never go to any movies any more unless it's a children's movie. Before we had children we used to go to the cinema at least once a week - now never.

My top two films are Days of Heaven with Richard Gere and Sam Sheperd and Fanny and Alexander by Ingmar Bergman. What are yours?

Boggle Flash - Genius Christmas Present

2010-11-30T13:49:00.006Z

I was sent a boggle flash to review and when it arrived we played it and all became addicted. Literally. You have to make words out of the five letters that appear on the cubes and do it against the clock. The letters change every time you reset it and play again. The boggle works out how many words you managed to make and how many you could have possibly thought of. It's really clever as you can't just play once and it appeals to all ages. It says 8± on the box but my six year old daughter loves it. You can play together or alone. We took it out to a pub lunch the next day and soon my 9 year old son had a small crowd of children looking over his shoulder all waiting for a go and helping him out.

Its a genius present: It retails at £24.99 but you can find it on amazon, which I have linked above for £10 less.

An extra hour of sunshine please

2010-11-09T09:56:00.004Z

I am supporting Lighter Later, a campaign to trial double summer time. There will be a vote on December 3rd in Parliament and they need as many MP's as possible to vote yes. If you go to their website you can find information to help you lobby your MP.

Personally I can't bear these dark afternoons and think of all the energy that could be saved if we had an extra hour of light. A trial of double summer time is supported by many motoring organizations including the AA, as trials have shown there are fewer road accidents when there is daylight for longer in the evenings.

Ok, so the school run maybe a bit darker in the mornings, but at least it won't be shutdown, staying in to play when they get out at 330.

So go on lets brings some light into our lives.

Give Away

2010-10-21T09:23:00.008+01:00

Very exciting to actually win something in a blog competition. Thank you Metropolitan Mum I am waiting breathlessly for my bed of nails to arrive, which will massage and comfort by back. I really can't wait.

In the meantime slightly less exciting, but still free, and very useful if you have school age children and get those pesky little letters in the book bags, warning you that someone in your childs class has nits. I am giving away 20 bottles of 100ml Vosene nit repellent shampoo - closes as soon as we reach 20 names or by the 28th October - UK only. I've tried the spray deterrent on my daughter and it really smells good. The first twenty to become a follower (don't bother if you are already a follower obviously) and your address will receive a bottle. Do comment too if you feel like it.

Ps My cat has fleas. We have tried everything, cat collars, spot on. I have resorted to getting them out with a nit comb. They are endless. Any tips?

My niece and half sister mucking around at Granny's 100th birthday lunch.

2010-10-13T17:12:00.010+01:00

My niece and half sister with photocopies of their faces

It was such a lovely day and Granny was so thrilled. The photograph above is my current favorite, because it's quirky and weird. I thought I'd add the other two as well, as they are all from the same day, two weeks ago.

Me and Granny with her two cakes

My beautiful daughter - Belle in the stripes

MAKE A ONE MINUTE FILM

2010-10-11T22:03:00.001+01:00

Wecan is a climate campaign group I am involved in and this is me a couple of years ago when we campaigned at Heathrow airport. The founder members were eight women, including me, who were all part of a reading group and wanted to do something about stopping the proposed third runway. We all have children and are worried about their future on this planet. There is a one minute film competition that launched last year with the help of Wecan, and is launching again this year. Its called One Minute To Save The World. I helped judge entries for the final short list last year, and the films were brilliant, some simple, some weird, funny - anyone can enter, you don't have to be film maker.We had entries from children and primary schools, from amateurs and professionals. Have a look at the website below.

Make a 1minute film on climate change and you could win £5000, laptops, Flipcams and the SONYNEXVG10 HD camcorder. Winning films will be screened in front of world leaders at COP16 in Mexico and be part of an on-line campaign going out to millions of viewers, they will also go to International Film Festivals in 2011. 1 Minute To Save The World is an international competition, open to all ages and free to enter. Judges include award wining film director and climate activist Shekhar Kaphur, Passion Pictures, Ben Kott (Google Europe Environmental Operations) and the UK Copenhagen 4 (youth climate change activists). Competition deadline is 17th December (12th November for under 18 age group).

In partnership with Unicef, Passion Pictures, United Nations Development Program, APE (Artist Project Earth) and Sony.

http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com

Marriage

2010-09-28T15:32:00.006+01:00

Tuesdays are the days that my Times column - Marriage - comes out in the Body and Soul Section. Today it's about how my husband bought me a bicycle on ebay - two years after he promised me one for my birthday. I wrote that I was suspicious of his motives, just to spice things up, but actually I was thrilled and have bicycled every day to school and back feeling smug and happy not to have to walk down the busy Uxbridge Road, or use the car which is so wasteful.

We went to a preview of a animated children's film called Despicable Me which was utterly brilliant. It's all about an "evil" Russian villain who wants to steal the moon, but his terrible ways are tempered when he adopts some children from a children's home. The special 3d effects are superb, there is a scene where they all dip and dive in a rollercoaster and we were all squealing in terror and delight. The movie opens on October 15th.

Diet and Detox

2010-09-21T09:59:00.000+01:00

I came home heavy from the holidays and bloated and huge. Too much fish and chips, soda bread and wine. But wow it was fun. Then a week later I went to Italy for three days for a friend's special birthday. Eleven girls and three men and I have never weighed so much. Or eaten so much. So when a special offer for a detox diet landed in my email box, I paid. The food for four days arrived in a cardboard box. Cinammon and blueberry flaxseed with soya milk and grapefruit for breakfast day 1, followed by mediterranean lentil stew and vegetarian burgers for lunch. It seemed easy. But by day three I had a killer headache (probably from not drinking caffeine) and on day four when there was just soup for dinner, I was cheating. A Godiva chocolate here and another one there. A tiny bit of cheese on an oatcake here and another there. Life is too short to spend it hungry. Although I am now back to the weight I was before the summer. I'd like to loose another 10lbs but it seems like too much hard work and I read a report in the newspaper yesterday which said that scientists have now discovered it's easier to loose weight by diet than exercise, and you'd have to exercise as much as an olympic athlete to really see the benefits. Anyone have any ideas?

Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part I)

2010-09-07T14:23:00.003+01:00

We are back from three blissful weeks in West Ireland. When I thought about returning to London, it was with dread. I wasn’t looking forward to the pollution, the dirt and the noise. However it was time. I’d got fat and lazy in Ireland, just lounging around, reading (I recommend Sofia Tolstoy's Diaries) eating, and jumping into the freezing Atlantic sea for a few freezing seconds.

Reasons to Be Cheerful:

My Cat: – She’s fatter too, but paradoxically refused to eat while we were away, even though I’d arranged for someone to feed her. She’s an old slapper and was probably being fed somewhere else.

Friends: Loved going around to see old friends last night and finding out they are expecting a baby.

My desk: I find it hard to concentrate anywhere else but at my own desk. I feel like a character out of Rear Window I can see all the neighbours coming and going as I try to concentrate on my writing. It’s like watching a very slow soap opera. It’s very different to seeing the giant hare and the odd seagull out of the window from the house in Ireland.

A normal Diet: In Ireland I ate vast quantities of soda bread with smoked salmon, cheese, and homemade jam. We had real foodie guests and they wouldn’t stop thinking about food and cooking food. I put on at least two kilos. It really was time to get home.

The Park Club Even though we went for hearty walks (we even climbed Diamond Mountain in Connemara) and swam in the freezing sea, I didn’t really exercise. I missed my health club with it’s huge outdoor swimming pool and every class imaginable. It’s good to be back.

The Street Party: We were just back in time for our second street party. We had one last year. It’s easy to arrange - you just have to do a collection for charity and the council will shut the street down for the day. It’s really good fun and the children loved having the road shut so they could bicycle up and down, play ping-pong in the road and rush into each other’s houses. Shame it can’t be more like that all year round. We all ate together and I met a man of 83 who’s been living in the street since the Blitz! He said in the old days, when he was a child, they had two street parties a year – one at Christmas. When I looked shocked and wondered about eating in the cold, he said they didn’t notice things like that, they were just so pleased to escape the tedium of work.

Back to School

2010-09-06T11:26:00.000+01:00

Back to school and to reality. Here I am again, sitting at my desk looking out at my street. I have loved the summer holidays, the hightlight being watching the dolphins swimming near the horseshoe shaped beach in Connemara, in the West of Ireland. It was lovely to be able to read, walk barefoot and pick blackberries and apples from the garden and make crumble with organic spelt flour (makes you feel less bloated than normal flour) and dig for mussels on the shore at low tide.

My 6 year old daughter Belle had long sun-bleached hair, uncombed for the last three weeks, and knotted, but she had it chopped off yesterday, in time for school, and immediately looked more grownup and less carefree. For the first time ever, I was weirdly efficient and bought school uniform, including winter trousers and thick tights at the beginning of the summer, but had a mad rush to buy school shoes yesterday. School uniform seems to run out by the September and last winter I couldn't for love or money find winter tights in the right size for my daughter.

These are the changes I would like from supermarket school uniforms:

More choice of narrow-fit/slimline trousers for skinny boys like my son and with standardized waist adjusters and offered in different lengths.

Warmer school trousers for the really cold part of winter

Warmer school shirts, made of viyella. (Perhaps they exist?)

School schools for girls with rubber on the toes.

If you haven't yet bought all the uniform you need, you can use Vouchercodes for free delivery on school uniforms from Marks and Spencer and also log on for a sale of kids clothes http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/debenhams.com

Thank you

2010-08-10T20:07:00.001+01:00

There are times when I want to shout thank you, thank you thank you. My daughter and I set out today in the pouring rain to the Coronet Cinema in Notting hill. We wanted to see Toy Story and today seemed good as it was raining and Tuesdays are half price. I walked, she scootered, and finally we took a 94 bus. We queued at the ticket office, got to the front and with a sickening sense of horror, I realized I had left both my cards at home. And I had no cash. I feared the worst. A disappointing journey home, no Toy Story, a rainy disastrous day, nothing day. Except.... the lovely lady behind the counter said I could just go in and "if I was honest" and I could pay later. Bless her. I just spoke to her paid and she said thank you! I told her she had made my day.

Stuart the Gardening Angel

2010-08-01T09:25:00.001+01:00

After sticking the gardening widget in my last post and moaning and complaining about my overgrown jungle,(patio) I went to the ice cream cafe where all the St Stephens parents go after school for endless ice cream treats(in my day you had an ice cream twice a summer). We were sitting having tea when I met a man called Stuart, nanny and gardener and hired him on the spot. Not to nanny my children, I'm well past those kind of days. I know I could have done it myself, but it had got to the point where it would have taken me several days and just looking at it overwhelmed me.

He actually turned up, hours before guests were arriving for a barbeque and sat down for a half an hour to tell us about his career as a nursery nurse. It was turning into a tea date and the guests were arriving soon, so I showed him the jungle, and he didn't bat an eyelid, even though there were no gardening gloves and the barest of tools. I didn't have to pay him £10,000 (the price quoted as a minimum by a garden designer I read about) actually a tiny tiny miniscule fraction of that for two hours of weeding and plucking and clamping and cutting. The garden is transformed - well manicured, hemmed in, edited. He's coming back for more. Funny isn't it, when you set you heart on doing something or changing something it all seems to fall into place.

What to do with the garden?

2010-07-29T08:01:00.003+01:00

I was looking at our "garden" yesterday (more of a patio) and was full of despair. Its more like a small jungle and a big mess. We have a wonderful Olive tree that we bought from our first house so it's now about eleven years old and we have some lovely bamboo growing along the back wall and sheltering us from the neighbours, but everything else is unruly. There are giant weeds, that look as though they should be growing in Costa Rica, and old pots, stones and a ladder gathering dust. I read about a garden designer who specializes in small spaces and fantasized about commissioning him, only to discover that most of his gardens cost between £10,000 and £20,000 pounds. So when I saw this widget it seemed very serendipitous.

This widget requires javascript and flash to be installed

Design a Fantasy Sofa

2010-07-16T18:07:00.038+01:00

The other day, quite out of the blue, a man emailed to ask if I would like to judge a competition! I have never been asked to judge anything before so was curious. Why me? I wondered. The people at sofa.com were at the final judging stage for a competition they had launched for children in London, to design a fantasy sofa. They sent 4,000 A3 design template drawings to children at local schools and received an amazing 1,000 back. I agreed to go because I've never been a judge before and I actually need a new sofa as ours is eleven years old and so embarrassing that I even wrote about it in my Times column. I wanted to check out the sofa.com sofas as I've only seen them online before.

I went to the newly designed showroom in Lots Road Chelsea. They are situated in a huge kind of groovy loft covering an entire vast top floor. I was given two piles of drawings to go through and a few in 3d. Wow it was very hard to choose, particularly when you knew that the prizes were ipod nanos for the children and sofas and camcorders for the winning schools.

A couple of the designs were suspiciously too good. One five year old had done better than I could with glitter and glue, and had far too much help from Mummy or perhaps Daddy. Sadly we vetoed the design even though it was fabulous. We were all impressed by Zaid of Flora Gardens School in the 9 to 11 category. His sofa was covered in a batman design which I could see in my 9 year old son's room. He came second but it was very close because in the end, we decided the winners' sofa was more of a fantasy. But my favourite was the winner of the 5-8 category. The nature sofa with the last minute insertion of T was upbeat and kind of magical. Well done Anna! If you live in London, look out as they will be running the competition next year.

So much has happened

2010-07-15T09:50:00.001+01:00

I don't know where to start. I have to start with the best news which is that I sold my novel, Seven Days One Summer to the lovely people at Short Books and it will be coming out next Summer. Hurray!! This will be my third published book, so I can actually feel justified in calling myself a writer.

And don't be fooled by strange men coming round to the house and asking you to sponsor them. I turned into a super sleuth and caught one man who did just that. He was perfectly nice, came round with a sponsor form, and asked me to sponsor him to kick goals at Fulham for action aid. I said I would pay him after the event, but my neighbour paid straight away. My son asked if he could go and watch and was told the tickets were sold out which made me suspicious.

He came back two days later and when I asked to check the charity registration number he stormed off saying he wouldn't be back. I called the charity the next day and they said they had done no such fund raising.

Horrible.

A poem

2010-06-11T10:57:00.003+01:00

This is a poem wrote this morning, very quickly, looking out of the window at the street below. I haven't written a poem since I was 17!

Front Window

The hedge, the bike, the blue and silver cars,
The parking sign, the blind, the motorbike,
The black cat, the ginger one, the one-eyed tabby from next door.

A slight rustling, not of net curtains, but of the ivy that grows up number sixteen,
Me and my neighbour Juliet were sad when Mike tore it down last summer, leaving the nesting pigeon perched precariously on a branch, exposed to the harsh summer sun. He says he doesn’t like urban vermin.

The parking attendant, dressed in black and white,
Long ponytail, black cap, up and down the cul de sac
Making tracks under the light grey sky.

A white van, a delivery at number ten,
Mum of three tired, wired, takes it in.
Other people’s children trail by at four,
My own come knocking and shouting at the door.

The Square, Bath

2010-04-27T17:11:00.001+01:00

I want to warn people off a "designer clothes' shop in Bath called The Square, which sells absurdly expensive clothes. It's run by a really really difficult, and dishonest woman and her equally dysfunctional business partner. I did a reading there last December and sold 20 books through her till and for four months she used every excuse not to pay me for them, even though she knew I had to pay Penguin. I had paid £60 to get there and the books would have only covered my expenses. Finally after threatening legal action she sent a cheque, but only for 16 and backdated the cheque so as to make out she had never received the letter. This was after months of wrangling and her making up different stories and her business partner hanging up four times on my husband. She at one point sent a cheque written in the wrong name and for the wrong amount. At one point she said I had to pay her for using the till, even though she had never warned me.

Please if you read this, don't go there and warn everyone off it. A friend of mine who lives near Bath, said she once went in and this same woman was really rude to her.

I think in some karmic way, something, in some way, will get back to her. It has to.

I have never in my life had to deal with someone like this, and I have never written such a rude email as I just wrote now, after months and months of her screwing with my head.

Sorry to rant, but sometimes you just have to.

Marriage under the ash cloud - Times Online

2010-04-21T23:07:00.000+01:00

Marriage under the ash cloud - Times Online

Easter Hols

2010-03-31T11:55:00.006+01:00

I’m going away to visit my mother for Easter, which sounds fabulous but I have a serious case of body crisis. It’s going to be hot which means taking my clothes off. I am dreading revealing my white mottled skin, the winter flab, the un-toned arms. It seems atrocious that I will have to walk around in the equivalent of a bra and pants for two weeks, after a winter cosseted in many many layers. I have booked a few last minute beauty appointments including an inch loss treatment that promises to work, a hair cut, pedicure and wax. I always think it’s so weird to hurtle many miles across the sky, and enter a different time zone and a totally different climate. During my years as a climate campaigner, I haven’t been much further than Morocco.

I returned from my universal body wrap. I was literally smothered in mud and wrapped in bandages, and looked like an Eypyian mummy. The woman measured me before the treatment and said that my waist measured 38 inches!! I protested as I know it’s 31 and she insisted and after the hour of being wrapped up, so tight my ribs hurt, she said I had lost 13 inches all over, which frankly I found hard to believe. I couldn’t take her seriously after what she said about my waist size.

It’s the last day of school for my children. I have just returned from the Easter Bonnet parade, (it only feels like a few days since book parade). I thought they had done well: Jude wore a red cowboy style hat covered in chicks and had plastic eggs on string hanging down from the rim like a joke Australian) but their hats were nothing compared to some of the others, which included giant size papier mache eggs and hats with huge flowery stalks. Note to self: Make even more effort next time: Hire a costume designer.

Lastly please check out a campaign that is petitioning to give this country more daylight and therefore stop wasting energy lighting our dark streets so early in the winter. I am right behind this as I think there is nothing more depressing than short winter days.

Screening 1st Nanny Mcphee for bloggers this Friday (plus entertainment)

2010-03-23T20:18:00.000Z

I had the following email and thought I'd pass it on:

The details of the event are below, any bloggers can RSVP to me at stella@thinkjam.com as we have a special reservation for bloggers – anyone else can reserve seats at events@foyles.co.uk.

To celebrate the release of Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang, in cinemas on 26th March, we’ve teamed up with Foyles to organise a fun filled afternoon for all the family at their London Charing Cross Store this Friday - day of release! To put you in the mood for the return of everyone’s favourite magical nanny, we’ll be screening the first Nanny McPhee film in The Gallery at Foyles Charing Cross on March 26th from 4pm with refreshments and entertainment for parents and kids alike!

If you would like to reserve a place for you and your family at this event please email events@foyles.co.uk to reserve your seats.

In Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Oscar®-winning actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson returns to the role of the magical nanny who appears when she’s needed the most and wanted the least in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world.

In the latest installment, Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother, Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny McPhee discovers that Mrs. Green’s children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in and refuse to leave.

Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant who turns up in the oddest places, Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.

For more information on Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang please go to official website: www.nannymcphee.co.uk

Nanny McPhee

2010-03-17T14:32:00.004Z

We took the children to a preview of Nanny McPhee And The Big |Bang and they loved it. I really admire Emma Thompson who stars at the wart-strewn nanny, and wrote the script. It was as English as a film could be, and sunny and set during the 2nd World War, when children took pleasure in picnics with ginger beer, and watching pigs fly (there is an amazing scene in the movie when pigs fly and dance and swim). It made me nostalgic for that era, when children didn’t have the need for computers and Wii’s and top end gadgets. I know I could choose not to let my son play on things like this, but he would be a freak amongst his peers so we give him limited periods of time when he can. He’s nearly nine and it is quite depressing, but at least he really enjoyed the film, more than Alice in Wonderland but less than Avatar. It was strange seeing Maggie Gyllenhaal as the harassed but rather beautiful mother in a gloriously innocent children’s movie, as the last time I saw her, she was playing a secretary who was having a sadomasochistic sexual relationship with her boss. He whipped her on the bum as she leant over his desk and that was the least of it.

I have started writing a column in the Times called Marriage, which let’s face it is based on my own with a few little twists and turns. It comes out on a Tuesday in the Body and Soul section. My husband is very cool about it, as I passed it with him several times and of course its exaggerated and things are taken out of context and manipulated but still its quite strange writing candidly about our life. I felt the need to do it after talking over the years to my girlfriends who are either married or in long term relationships and are comforted to know that not everyone has a perfect relationship. I used to write a single girls column and it was entirely fictional, the girl was maddening, mad, wild and weird, but people still used to think it was me!

Wedding Belle

2010-03-10T10:16:00.009Z

My five year old daughter Belle got married about two weeks ago, to a little boy called Adam who lives round the corner and is also in her class at school. She told me proudly that they had snogged!!!!! Well first she said they had kissed, then she said, "and you know, what's that word? Snogged? We snogged." I was quite shocked, as you can imagine and asked her what snogged meant, hoping,praying, that she didn't think it meant a full on kiss with tongues. Luckily she told me it meant kissing on the lips.

A few days later she said they had an argument and she no longer wanted to go for a sleepover. I was slightly relieved, as was worried what they may get up to in the same bedroom. Yesterday she said they weren't friends any more. This morning, my husband walked to school with his mother and he said they prowled around each other, Adam, asking Belle to chase her etc. and then getting cross when she did. His mother said that at breakfast Adam said, "I don't want to set eyes on Belle again," his 7 year old brother retorted, "that's cos your marriage broke up!" Hilarious.

This is a link to my second column in the Times. Its about the real stark dark, funny, up and down reality of being married!

Marriage column in the Times

2010-03-05T11:22:00.007Z

My first column on marriage started in the Times last Tuesday. It's a lighthearted look at the difficulties of living with someone day in and day out. I know from talking to girlfriends that not everyone has the perfect sex life or the most amazing marriage all the time, and who would want to read about that anyway? Surely that would be boring and slightly smug.

So far the only two comments underneath the article have not been positive. Clearly though these people want to read about a loving, perfect marriage but I just don't think that's a true look at the reality of a long term partnership. They say that it is a depressing look at marriage, but its meant to be funny and sad and true. I think the last line shows that they still love each other. If anyone manages to read it I'd love to know. There will be more on Tuesdays.

Heating and Haiti

2010-01-21T11:26:00.002Z

We have been living without heating for eight long days. This happened after a series of errors on the part of our boiler insurance company. On day five my husband telephoned the CEO of the company. We didn’t actually get to talk to him, but we left a very severe message with his PA. My father always told me that if you have a problem, go straight to the top and yes he’s right. Afer the call, things started to move. But we still had eight days huddled together in the sitting room, where we ate, played, argued and cooked. My husband even slept on the sofa, as my daughter had to bed down with me because her room has an outside wall and was literally freezing. The cold began to get to me: my husband and I argued, the children went stir crazy in the one room. The sitting room was relatively cosy, if we kept the the heater and the oven on, (our kitchen and sitting room merge into one) but the corridors and bathroom were freezing, like being suddenly thrust into Antartica. But at least we had a roof over our head.

After I read the following account of what it is like to be Haiti, right now, I was ashamed to complain about my heating. This message was posted on facebook by a friend of a friend: “My  four sisters, brother, and father are down there; (Haiti) they have lost their  home and are now sleeping and wondering on the streets with a bunch of  dead bodies, rapists, and many more. My sister had a 3 storey building fall on her, and was trapped for 18 hours. She  now has a really bad infection in one of her legs. She told me that she is at the airport asking the air-force people to  help her, but they told her that they are helping Americans first, so  they refuse to help her. Having an infection is really bad, it could  even kill her. I hope she finds  some antibiotics or sees a doctor right away. It ’s really hard to see all that happening and not being able to do  anything.”

My children’s primary school are holding two fundraising events today and tomorrow, for Haiti. I wish I could do more.

Tis the Season to Be Festive

2009-12-16T10:07:00.006Z

I have been very busy being festive: Buying presents, hanging a wreath, and also making my own paper chains with the children which for one wonderful moment made me feel like a woman who knits her own socks and bakes her own bread. I have also spent a good deal of time searching desperately for costumes for various nativity plays and end of term drama productions. My son was bad santa and insisted on a black santa costume. I was just about to slog off for the dye, when somebody mentioned Poundland and yes, unbelievably they sold black santa hats! My daughter was a dancing cat yesterday, but on Friday at the after school drama production, she will be a duck. I haven’t got any further than buying a big yellow squashy envelope and deciding that she can wear her brown sleeveless shaggy jacket from I Love Gorgeous, because it kind of looks like duck feathers. If I was someone who baked bread, I would know how to make the yellow envelope into a beak, but I don’t bake and have no idea what to do next. For one awful moment in the middle of the night, I wasn’t even sure that ducks do have yellow beaks.

I’ve been buying presents here, there and everywhere, starting in November at the Victoria and Albert shop and finishing last night, when a lovely girl called Clara delivered some beautiful hand made bath bombs, made from natural ingredients. ref="www.beauty-by-hand.com/">://www.beauty-by-hand.com/ and presented in a stylish brown box with a silver ribbon. I’ve spent so much money that I now have the definite feeling that I couldn’t possibly buy anything for myself. For a long long time I’ve wanted a new vacuum cleaner. Mine is old and smelly and cumbersome and I somehow dread it. My husband would definitely have said keep it, so I planned to get a new one secretly.

The new one arrived in a box and I was confused because it was so light. It’s a thing of great beauty, like a piece of sculpture, and it makes my old Henry seem quite archaic. It has a battery that you charge up and then it races around, bagless and beautiful. Even my disgruntled cleaner agreed that it was divine. I feel like I’m living in 2025. ://www.vax.co.uk/shop/product/upright-vacuum-cleaners/life/LiFE-Cordless-Upright-U91-LF-B"

One Minute to Save the World

2009-11-10T10:29:00.005Z

Apparently since 2000, the recycling rate in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has shot up from %8 to %25. And if you are the kind of person who doesn’t particularly care about recycling you maybe interested to know that H and F council spends an incredible £4m each year sending waste to landfill and landfill rates have doubled in the last two years. If the council were able to recycle twice as much as they already do, it would save 2m a year in landfill charges and mean lower council tax charges for us. It makes me angry that people can’t be bothered to put a can or some newspapers or a glass or bottles in the orange bags. It’s so easy.

On Sunday I was one of four or five member of Wecan . who watched about 50 shortlisted, one minute long films that had been entered for our film competition, One Minutcome to Save the World. The 50 had already been whittled down from 200 entries that have been entered from filmmakers all over the world. There were films from amateurs, professionals, companies and under eighteens. One of my favourites shows a little boy playing with a paper boat, flying it in the air as the earth has dried up and is barren and parched. We then see him dragging it along by a string. It is really poignant. We chose 27 which will now go to our panel of judges including Franny Armstrong, director of Age of Stupid and Bruce Parry. Some of them are brilliant, some charming and some very sad, but they all make an important impact. You can view at http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com/ The winning entries will be shown at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December.

A really great book for London families

2009-10-22T12:50:00.000+01:00

For five years our weekends and most holidays were spent at a tiny coastguard cottage on the Solent. It was in the middle of a row of ten. We shared front gardens with our neighbours on the left and back gardens with our neighbours on the right. For some reason the weekenders used the front gardens, which faced the sea, and the full time residents used the back gardens, so we never really had to share at all. But there were long expanses in the mid winter when we simply didn’t use the cottage and felt guilty when we weren’t there, in fact felt guilty whenever we went anywhere else. When it was cold we couldn’t face the drive, the weather and the wind. We gave it up in January, as it didn’t make sense to be paying for two houses in the middle of a bleak recession. At first it was exciting to be in London with so much to see and do. I liked tramping the dirty pavements and going to cafes, and seeing random last minute films. There were friends to invite over and museums to visit, but having exhausted trips to the country to stay with out of town friends and with a five year old and an eight year old to keep amused things became tense. Our small garden, (well more of a patio) is not enough to contain them for more than a few minutes. When we had friends over for lunch the other day they spent quite a lot of time playing on the flat roof outside Belle’s room. The adults ate lunch and pretended not to notice or to care about the potentially life threatening situation.

I heard from a friend about a brilliant little book: Adventure Walks for Families in and around London by Becky Jones and Clare Lewis. Last weekend we drove to the Chilterns in the rain because I was determined and desperate to get out of the city for a hearty walk recommended by the guide. We had decided to do the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Walk. At first the children were reluctant. My five year old sat at the bottom of a hill and refused to budge. We coaxed her up, (well my husband put her on his shoulders) and as we passed the windmill used as a location in the film, she cheered up, and climbed down, and I told her a few back to back stories, until she really got into the walk and sped down the hill towards some grazing black cows, that really did look like an art installation. I forgot to mention that by now the sun had come out and the landscape was stunning. The children ran and laughed and looked for items for a scavenger hunt: a feather, a shiny stone, a piece of animal poo etc. (again advice from the book) and then their moods changed and by the end of the walk they were smiling, happy and rosy cheeked. Luke and I had our usual discussion about moving to the country (which actually never goes anywhere). The walk was two and a half miles and completely restored us. The book also recommends pubs to visit and things to do in the car. Genius.

Nightmares

2009-10-13T14:37:00.001+01:00

My husband often has bad dreams, but I rarely do. However the last two nights I've had terribly anxious making dreams, not quite nightmares but dreams that I have been really really relieved to wake up from. This morning I dreamt that I was a director of a film about to be shot, but I had no experience of being a director. I knew everyone was relying on me and I was in a state,because I was in charge of this huge production: actors, extras, producers, crew. I woke quite slowly realizing that actually no, I am not a director. HURRAY! Although I have to admit I was a little disappointed. But HURRAY that I did not have this huge responsibility and could breath again. I also felt admiration for my friend Martha who is a real director! The night before I dreamt I was on a boat, and there was someone kind of gliding above me and I was holding the string that kept him afloat, and I was suddenly scared that I would blow up into the sky, so I let go of the rope and he went crashing into the sea and I thought he was DEAD. He wasn't dead but shaken, and I couldn't admit it was me. Awful.

What is going on with me? I think I've been going through quite a difficult time, but perhaps that time is coming to an end. There is never enough time to do this blog properly, I sometimes find it hard to write all day for a living, and also write the blog. I still have to answer some questions that I was tagged with a while ago, which I will get round to. I want to read so many blogs, but now, I have to run to pick up the children, bring them home, than rush back for parents evening!

Talking at the new Sheperds Bush Library

2009-10-06T19:18:00.000+01:00

Last week, my friend Josa, me, and a friend of hers, did an event at Nottinghill Waterstones. I couldn't sleep the night before as I had never done anything like it and was SO nervous that I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest. I invited my mother, brother, sister and two friends from school to come along, incase no one else turned up. Josa did an introduction linking us together as apparently we all write about "modern heroines." When it came to my turn to talk, I tried to concentrate on the Waterstones subtext: Feminism meets Chicklit, and I'm still not sure if I was making sense. I was trying to say its still hard for a woman, because half of her wants to stay at home with the children, and half of her is frustrated that she can't get on with her career, (I know alot of women actually like staying at home and being with their children and actually I really approve of that) because in most cases its not going to be the Daddy who stays home and worries about sports day and the costume for assembly,and so if you don't stay home, you will have to hire someone else to do it.

I read out a paragraph from one of Potty Mummy's blogs posts on being a stay at home mother, in which she tells us how hard it is after being a career girl to then be at home, but how she has come to accept it, and be good at it. It is a really interesting read, as are the comments underneath. And of course being a mummy at home won't be for ever. Ellie the character in my book, The Seven Year Itch is shocked when she hears herself walk into Gap and say, "It's a shame you don't do those shirts with the teddy logo any more." It is at that moment that she thinks her life must change, as it can no longer be all about teddy bear logos. She is also motivated by the fact that her husband, the irrepressibly selfish Jack, has lost his job starring in TV soap. She reflects about her time at home that no one praised her for being a good mother and no one reprimanded her for being a bad one, which made her feel truly invisible.

On Thursday (tomorrow) Josa and I will be appearing at the new Sheperds Bush Library at Westfield in London. We are starting at 630 so if any of you can make it, please do. It will be so excruciating if only three people turn up!! Yikes. A weird single man came up to me at the end of the last one, and said you won't like me saying this but it's very Desperate Housewives. I was thrilled.

My 8 year old son was really rude to me yesterday. He was tired and moaning, and walking at 0 miles an hour to school, so I lost it, and was really mean and said "I can't wait for you to be at school," and he retorted, "I can't wait for you to die!" which really shocked me, but later when I regaled the sad little story to my reading book girls, they all laughed, including me, and the wise Denize, mother of two teenagers said, "you have to learn that they will always come back at you with something more hurtful, than what you've said to them" and later when the conversation had moved on and we were talking about parents and children Rebecca said she had read somewhere that "All parents are destined to love their children more than they love them!" Makes you think!

New Book

2009-09-16T10:23:00.000+01:00

I have finished a draft of my new book, and have given it to a few people to read, and only one has got back to me so far! I look at the pages and scroll through them and can't seem to find the energy to do anything with it, so I write this instead, or clean up, or ring the vet. And then I check my emails, including the junk box, and then sign into facebook and then check my bank account.

And then every time I do look at the "book" (Its not sold yet) there is something that could be improved on. Always. I don't even know if it's any good any more, because I can no longer be objective about the plot or the characters. A brilliant girl called Deborah Susman from my writing group went through it for me and made some brilliant observations, but she didn't reference her comments with any page numbers so I am desperately looking at her remarks, like "Jen tells Jack to ask Ellie directly about the boyfriend but I thought he already had" And a) I can't remember writing that and b) I don't know where I wrote it. There are 80,000 words.

Its 1031am and I have done nothing but sit here and read other people's blogs and think about ringing up the cat insurance people to give them the vets fax number.

And I'm not sure about the title of the new book, it could be The Holiday, or The Summer Holiday. Some days I think its a brilliant title perfect for reading on a summer holiday and other days I think it's boring? Is it? The story, by the way, is about a group of people on holiday and how all their lives change over the week they are together.

I suppose I'd better get back to it now. If anyone feels like reading it and making comments good and bad, please let me know.

My new healthy lifestyle

2009-09-15T10:25:00.001+01:00

I am sitting here, drinking fresh pear and apple juice made from my new juicer. Its delicious. I gave my husband and children a glass each at breakfast because I am worried about the onslaught of winter, and swine flu and trying to keep them healthy. Yesterday we drank carrot, apple and nectarine, although the nectarines only provided about a miniscule drop, the size of a pea, and my daughter refuses to drink carrot. She is a girl who likes “cookies” and honey and sweets.

Once years ago, when I was trying to conceive, a very nice homeopath advised me to drink truckloads of beetroot, carrot and apple juice. I seem to remember I was meant to drink it twice a day. And so I bought a small juicer and diligently set about making and drinking the juice. And God it made a mess. And it took half an hour just to chop up all the fruit and process it and then clean it. I had to scrape out great big chunks of pulp and clean everything by hand, which took ages. After a couple of months my skin was glowing, but I gave up juicing. The process of cleaning and chopping just took too long. (I finally conceived through a Polish acupuncturist who dug in the needles and twisted and some harsh Chinese herbs, and visiting a kind of celebrity nutritionist who made both of us give up alcohol, caffeine and almost all forms of enjoyment except sex!)

Anyway for the last six months, I have been buying a large glass of freshly squeezed orange and apple juice from my lovely local café, Cupboard, in a quest to give up Diet Coke, but it has cost me a fortune. So I decided to invest in a professional juicer. And wow it is good. It is designed by Antony Worrall Thompson, for Breville and it has a big chute so you can put in the fruit whole and two speeds and a separate jug that collects all the pulp, and most of the parts can be put straight into the machine. Genius. £109 from Argos and other retailers.

The Trials and Pleasures of Camping

2009-09-03T15:23:00.000+01:00

I am a woman who likes a hot bath, a comfortable bed, and a flushing loo. I am also someone who is prone to feeling cold in June and I am not the best sleeper, even in the comfort of my own six foot wide bed. Not the ideal candidate for camping then.

“You’ll hate it,” my husband repeated over and over again, as I suggested a camping trip a few times last year. Secretly I thought he was right, although I protested thinking that the children would have deprived childhoods if we didn’t let them sleep under the stars. But last November my friend Sophie announced that she was having a camping party for the August Bank Holiday Weekend, and because she always does things brilliantly, I said we would go. And then I promptly tried not to think about it or do anything about buying a tent, or a blow up mattress or a pump or a torch or all the other things I later discovered are needed for a camping holiday.

Then two parents from my sons class asked us to join them for a June camping weekend and because we were new parents at the school, and keen for Jude to bond with his friends, I rashly accepted. The time drew nearer and suddenly we realized we had nothing to camp with. We borrowed two small tents and a gas cooker and taking the advice of friends, we packed our car with duvets, pillows, blankets and sausages. I also telephoned my doctor and asked for sleeping pills. Packing for two nights took five hours!

Things I liked about my first camping trip: Eating a ton of bread and sausages and not caring.
Drinking quite a few glasses of wine.
Getting to know my camping friends: The lovely Jane and the gorgeous Emily.
Waking to the sound of bird song.
Children out all day from 7am
Grownups out all day from 8am
Swimming in the river
The cream tea café on the camp site.
The camping glow
Watching the Stars.

Things I don’t like:
Blow up mattresses
Taking sleeping pills
Queuing up for a shower
Washing up without gloves or a dishwasher.
Putting down and putting up the tent.
Not being able to find anything when it gets dark
Piling up the car with almost all the contents of a house.
Feeling exhausted for two days after getting home.
Having to walk across a field to pee at night.

But it can’t be that bad. We have since been camping to Glastonbury, Dorset and just back from Yorkshire for the bank holiday camping party which was the best four days ever.

My tip: Rose hip moisturizing oil is perfect for rough skin that’s been out in all weathers and the oil is extracted from rose that grows in the Andes Mountains. It’s in a roll on bottle so won’t spill if you are travelling. I used it on my cracked heels and on my dry legs, although you can use it on your hair and face. I wish Aubrey Organics would make it in a bigger bottle!

The need to Diet and Rest after a Tuscan Holiday

2009-08-07T16:57:00.000+01:00

I am just back from an Italian hamlet near Cortona where I spent 10 days in 40degrees heat. We stayed in a beautiful tumble down farmhouse, the garden was exquisite, but I have returned exhausted and with a desperate need to diet.

I couldn’t sleep; it was too hot. I also had constant headaches, and was on full alert as one of the other guests had told me my room was haunted.

The lunches were huge. We thought nothing of tucking into parma ham and melon, tomato and mozzarella, fine thin bread, bread in the shape of a disc, figs, cheese, and variations on that theme. Dinner could be pasta or pizza at the local tavern or grilled pork in Cortona. I started off with a keen need to swim 100 lengths a day, like Maggie Fergusson another guest, and author of the brilliant biography, The Life of George Mackay Brown. But by day 10 my girth had ballooned but my will power had slipped and I was only swimming about 4 lengths a day and at best 10.

Sure I read a few great books and saw some heart-stoppingly beautiful Piero della Francesca murals in the Basilica di San Francesco, Arezzo, and more stunning frescoes in the Brancacci chapel in Florence on the way home. I also managed two half a mile walks up a hill but other than that spent most of the time supine.

I have just finished a first draft of my new novel, The Summer Holiday, set in a house party in Italy, so no doubt some of the details, like the different kinds of bees that buzzed across the lavender and the church bells striking the hour of day, will find their way into the new book. Please if you haven’t already, buy my current novel, a great summer read, The Seven Year Itch.

Beauty Tip: I was sent a travel pack by Incognito, who specialise in deet free mosquito products, which also smell really good. Their moisturizer doubles as an anti mosquito cream is great because it cuts down on the exhausting effort of piling on moisturizer and then anti mosquito - http://www.lessmosquito.com One less thing to do in the heat.

Giving Birth

2009-07-15T13:13:00.000+01:00

I wrote an article for the Daily Express about the horrors of giving birth to my two children and it came out yesterday: My birth stories
Actually they have cut some of what I wrote and it doesn't quite cover the absolute horror and fear of that time.

I know of a woman who just had time to take a painkiller before she gave birth and the baby popped out really easily.

What are you experiences like? I went to a yoga prenatal class where those who had given birth would come back with their newborn babies and regale us with the experience of giving birth. I don't remember anyone returning who had had a lovely easy time. There is always the woman with the painkiller, but she is the only one I know of.

If you happen to read Vogue, there is an article (August Issue) on climate activists. There is a huge photograph of our group Wecan and we are really pleased with the story.

Reasons to be Cheerful

2009-07-06T09:11:00.000+01:00

Am ridiculously thrilled. The Seven Year Itch has been chosen under the romance category of recommended summer reading in Prima Magazine. I have never bought Prima Magazine, but Luke's aunt cut it out and saved it for me. Yeh!

My five year old daughter Belle was ridiculously thrilled to receive some pink Bratz accessories for her hand me down bicycle. I won them in competition run by fellow mummy blogger, Denyse (I have spent at least fifteen minutes trying to tag her blog, but it just keeps not working) I will come back to this. Anyway there was a seat, a hooter with a very annoying blast, a helmet and a bell. Brilliant. Christmas an birthday all over again.

I cried when I read the children's reports. They were so good. Luke spoilt it by saying he was sure everyone got really good reports. The formidable Miss Shaw, reception teacher, said the Belles behaviour was excellent both in the class room and around the school and she was a model for other children. Wish she was the same at home when we are trying to get her dressed in the morning.

On Saturday I was photographed by the Daily Mail along with the family for a piece about why women marry and then I stood dashed to the school fair in full make up to stand by the apple bobbing stall.

Then back home to prepare dinner as the vicar, Bob and his wife were coming along with some parents from belles class and Sam the piano player at church who also happens to be groovy and in a band called the Hoosiers. I'm not sure if Ive spelt that right. I had invited a date for him and then he turned up with his own, which was a bit odd. But anway!!

On Sunday Luke took the children to visit his aunt for the day and I slept, dozed, read, and watched Roddick and Federer. Roddick deserved to win. But then Federer makes it all look effortless.

Are you Expecting?

2009-06-29T14:31:00.000+01:00

The three words you really don't want to be asked if you are not and I'm not. Admittedly I was thinking this morning my stomach looks a bit bloated and hardly surprising, I've been stuffing myself with sausage sandwiches and baked beans on toast around the camping fire. This always happens when I eat too much wheat and that is why I usually avoid it. We went to camp in the garden of my friends inlaws. They live on Glastonbury and we were there for the festival. But really!! The poor woman who serves at the chemist was more embarrassed than I was. She turned a very bright shade of red and then mumbled something about how she was looking.....but didn't really have the heart to finish. I mean what could she say? Where can you go from there? This has happened twice before, once at a party when Belle was four weeks old, and once around the same kind of time, when I was sitting slouched in a bank. And I made the mistake of once asking a friend, who'd recently had a baby, what was her due date. I wrote and apologized and she took it really well. My rule now is never to ask a woman, unless she offers the information, even is she is about to burst!

I walked home in the searing heat and told my neighbour about what had happened in the chemist. He is a man in his fifties who is a cox in a rowing team and weighs just 8 stone 8. About two stone less than me, though I am taller. He says he hardly eats for the rowing season as he has to be a certain weight to compete. He has mango for breakfast and melon for lunch. He told me where to go and buy the Pakistani mangoes in season for just four weeks. That is where I'm heading as soon as Ive picked up the children. Oh God!!!

A kitten is saved

2009-06-10T14:37:00.000+01:00

I had a heart warming email yesterday from a woman I met in Essaouira about a kitten my son Jude and I rescued from the main square over there. She was a tiny kitten with a broken back leg and can’t have been more than two or three weeks old when we found her. We couldn’t bear to leave her, but returned that evening to find she was still there, crouching outside a café, where someone had left her a saucer of milk. She has now been given to new owners and christened Canelle. What a relief. On the day we found her Jude asked if we could take the kitten home, but instead we tracked down an English woman called Suzy who loves cats and spends quite a large chunk of time finding strays in the streets of the walled city and rescuing them. You could rescue all the cats, as they all look malnourished and dehydrated but some manage to get by with scraps from the fish market and old guts and offal that the stall holders in the meat market throw out. I saw cats with infected eyes and sore looking tails, and half starved. Susie is in touch with a British charity that goes over to Essaouirra www.hsam.org.uk and neuters the strays and gives them medicines. It’s a never-ending job. – Suzy took ‘Canelle’ home that evening, after we showed her where the kitten was, and took her to the vets, and then found her the new home.

We stayed in a wonderful traditional house done up in a funky style and called Da Baida www.castlesinthesand.com .Graham who owns the house with his ex partner Emma says that the cat people should be concentrating on the helping the pregnant women from Essaouira who can’t afford to have emergency caesareans and die giving birth. He has a point, but each to their own and the women who run hsam are vets, so their interest is in animals. I say three cheers to anyone, who has the time, and makes the effort to help.

Post Holiday Blues

2009-06-02T09:54:00.001+01:00

Am just back from Essaouira in Morocco. I was desperately in need of a break after the launch of my novel, The Seven Year Itch. There was a party and several articles to write and photographers who came to photograph the children and me. I was so nervous during the party at Daunt Books, my heart was hammering in my chest and I felt spacey and strange. During the launch I beamed and signed books, picked at nuts and probably drank too much. I had bought a gold dress for the occasion and had my hair done and the dress was so tight, that it was quite an effort to sign 70 books. It was all very heart warming and fun. There is another launch at a local café, Cupboard Café in Oaklands Grove, W12, on June 4th. The café is a haven from the souk that is the Uxbridge Road, and the owner, Natalie, the woman who gets things done brilliantly, has started a series of parties for local authors. Please come.

Essaouira is the most beautiful walled town on the coast of Morocco, where the houses are mostly painted blue and white. It is two and a half hours drive from Marrakech. We have been on really safe holidays since the children were born, so it was great to go to a town that looks and smells medieval where the streets are cobbled and narrow and overrun with cats and where the smell is of mint and sardines and the occasional drain. There is a working port also overrun with manky cats, and fishing boats. I am still thinking of colourful souks, sweet mint tea and the beautiful light. The children started school again today, and I have that sinking feeling, too, as though I am back at boarding school, shivering by the cold radiator.

Easy Living Online Review

2009-05-09T08:34:00.000+01:00

Sorry I do realize I am writing about my book this week, but I won't go on forever, promise. There is a great review from Easy Living Online "It's a laugh-out-loud read with some dark observations on the realities of married life."

I went into WH Smith in Westfield yesterday and moved my book from the shelf to another shelf where the top 5 books were displayed. Yes I know, its a bit desperate, but I need the sales to make sure Penguin buy my next book. I can't think what else I would do.

And I am doing a radio interview at about 1035 on Sunday on Radio London.

5* Review in OK Magazine

2009-05-06T23:34:00.000+01:00

Ok so I don't read Ok unless I'm at the hairdresser and someone else has Vogue, but hey I am THRILLED to get a five star review in OK. OK?

Fantastic Review from Girly Gossip

2009-05-05T12:34:00.000+01:00

The Seven Year Itch by Kate Morris is a tale that is by turn bleak and funny. Kate Morris draws a sympathetic portrait of a marriage that is truly past its honeymoon years and offers real insight and genuinely funny observations on what ‘real’ marriage is like!
A great mix of humour and domestic drama that could easily give Desperate Housewives a run for its money!
Released May 7th

Love this review, really cheered me up. Waiting with circles under my eyes and bad hair to find out when the Express photographer will come and photograph me and the children for a big article in the Express that I have written to coincide with publication date. Feel sick with nerves about EVERYTHING....

6 Days to go until the Seven Year Itch is published.

2009-05-01T14:19:00.000+01:00

I feel so exposed and weird. Its the strangest thing to be putting myself on the line like this and publishing a book next week. The cover looks great, the book is good - funny candid and gripping. I know I'm not being modest, but if I don't build myself up I will wilt and hide. I think it's perfect for a fun and thought provoking summer read. It still makes me laugh and even cry when I read it through. My agent told me yesterday that in the current climate publishers are looking for celebrity biographies and feel good nostalgia. Apparently they are all fighting to get the story of that woman who has caused such a stir on Britain's Got Talent. You know the one, the middle aged woman with the hair! As he said more of an article rather than a book. And very depressing for writers like me. Exactly not what my work in progress - The Holiday, (the one I'm working on i about) is about. The Holiday is set in a villa in Italy and about a group of people who change their lives over the course of a week. It's tense, at times funny and a bit claustrophobic. I suppose its not exactly uplifting but gripping. But tell me is that what you are looking for in a good read. I'd be fascinated to know.

2009-04-25T08:19:00.000+01:00

I've been tagged by Bushmummy and have to answer these questions and then tag 8 more people to do the same, not even sure how to tag, but will try and work it out. The instructions on what to do are at the end of this blog.

What are your current obsessions?
Facebook -sadly, writing lists of people for book launch, worrying about christening for children who are nearly 8 and 5

2. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often?
A black dress with white daisy's that I bought at a friends sale for about £1

3. What's for dinner
I have no idea yet. Perhaps fish pie if I can be bothered to make it.

4. Last thing you bought?
A pair of sunglasses, a blue school dress, suncream and boys swimming trunks.

5. What are you listening to?
Beth Orton

6. Do you have a pet and if not, why not?
We have a ten month old cat who my family call Cuba and who I call Kitty.

7. Favourite holiday spots?
Almost anywhere in Italy.

8. Reading right now?
Neverland by Joseph O Neill

9. 4 words to describe yourself.
Creative, Sensitive, Assertive, Short tempered.

10. Guilty pleasure?
The odd cigarette at a party even though I've given up.

11. Who or what makes you laugh until you’re weak?
My friend Geraldine

12. First spring thing?
Daffodils

13. Planning to travel to next?
Morroco

14. Best thing you ate or drank lately?
Chocolate cake from Clarks and another one from Cupboard cafe on my birthday

15. When did you last get tipsy?
New Year's Eve.

16. Favourite ever film?
Fanny and Alexander and Days of Heaven

17. Care to share some wisdom?
Don't do business with friends. Let go let love.

18. Favourite song?
I just can't think, but right now it would be something by Beth Orton.

Rules of the meme. Respond and rework. Answer questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag 8 people.

2009-04-21T23:10:00.001+01:00

After months of having my old blog in Arabic, my husband has finally found out how to change it back to English. And I've started a whole new blog because my old one had a really complicated title and I never wrote on it. My son is always playing with my computer and I think he is the one who inadvertently changed it to Arabic and then I couldn't change it back because I couldn't read any of the instructions. And this went on and on and I was lazy about it as I write another blog for Easy Living Magazine, but the lovely people at Easy Living haven't posted our new blogs for a few weeks, as there are some changes afoot, so people are still having to read some boring old drivel I wrote in March about giving up things for lent or some other nonsense. I have just restarted an old habit of writing down five things I am grateful for every day. This is a great for someone like me who tends to get moany, groany and negative. However so far today I have only got Beautiful Day on my list. Lets think of some more: 4 More: Well my book, The Seven Year Itch, is coming out in about three weeks, so that's great, and the publishers have said that they will buy my next one if this sells well, so that's not so great. But it could be great if anyone goes out and buys a copy!!!

2009-04-21T23:05:00.001+01:00