Z is for …

Z is for zzzzz.  I am so, so tired.  This month has been really busy with not one, but two assignment deadlines, school holidays and several writing projects.  Luckily, I go on holiday tomorrow – a week in Greece, hurrah!  Of course, this fact has meant the last week has been spent washing, ironing and packing.   I really can’t wait to get into bed tonight.

Z is also for zombies, the subject of the latest series of Choose Your Online Adventure. (Remember the Choose Your Own Adventure books from the eighties?  It’s like that, but for grown ups.)  I like horror, zombies included but have never really written about them, so it’s proving to be fun. It helps that the group I’m working with are incredible.

I can’t believe April and the A-Z Challenge is over so soon!  I hope everyone has had as much fun with it as I had.

Y is for Yoga

I recently took up yoga.  I’m not naturally the sportiest of people, but I like to try and stay healthy.  I can’t afford a gym membership so I tend to stick to DVDs I can stick on at home.  I usually go for aerobic/dance style work outs, but recently I picked out a yoga DVD instead.  I have to admit that to start with, I wasn’t convinced.  I’m used to jumping around to get my exercise, and it didn’t seem like I was doing much of anything.  I was wrong.  In just over a month, I’ve noticed real benefits.  I’m more flexible, more toned,  calmer and the niggly pain in the bottom of my back has eased.

I know it may sound a little dramatic, but yoga has changed my life.  I try and do at least a little most days and I increasingly find myself looking forward to it – something I never thought I would say about exercise!

 

X is Xylophone

X is for xylophone, the wonderful, not even slightly annoying toy the kid is playing with right next to me.  It makes such a harmonious sound as he bashes it with a wooden spoon, creating such a calm environment whilst not  making me want to throw it against the wall at all.  Lovely.

X is also for Xbox*, which is one of the reasons I get to study and write.  It keeps the boyfriend quiet so I can concentrate.  (Thinking about it, the boyfriend may have a PS3 and not an Xbox, but that doesn’t start with X.)

X also stands for kisses.  X is also for xenium, a present given to a guest, stranger or foreign ambassador.

X is a really hard letter to think of something for.

W is for Writing

What else?  I’ve always written, even if I’ve not always taken it seriously.  When I was at Primary School, we had to write a diary on a Monday morning describing what we had done over the weekend.  Mine were incredible.  Completely made up, but incredible.  From the almost plausible tales of me looking after my little brother and sister while cooking and cleaning because my mum and dad stayed in bed (it’s a wonder Social services were never called) to the completely insane battling dinosaurs and day trips to Mars.  Incredible.

Throgh the years I progressed to writing plays for me and my friends to act out and dabbling in (terrible) short stories.

Almost two years ago, I joined Twitter and found out about the Friday Flash.  After a few weeks of just reading the short stories, I decided to write my own and the rest as they say is history.

I love everything about writing – even the difficult, painful parts.  Whether I’m actually any good at it or not, there is something I can’t help but love about creating little worlds and characters.  I’ve not been giving my fiction writing much attention recently as coursework and real life have gotten in the way.  Not writing makes me incredibly grumpy.  This past week I started working on the CYOA Zombie series and I’ve noticed that I feel slightly less stressed and anxious.  I’m going to make an effort to write a little two or three times a week.

V is for Vacuuming

This is partly because I had no idea what else to write for V, and partly because it is true.  I hate cleaning.  I really hate it.  Even more though, I hate having a dirty, untidy house.  My only option is to stop whining and get on with it.   I don’t like dusting – it makes me sneeze; I don’t like washing dishes or mopping floors and tidying with a 4 year-old in the house is like walking in quicksand.  Vacuuming, though I quite like.  There’s something quite therapeutic about sucking up all that dirt- and trust me, with this particular four year-old there is a lot of dirt.  A quick run around with the hoover can make a big difference.  I vacuum everything - in between the cushions on the settee, curtains, I even cleaned the kid’s chalk board with the hoover the other day.

Plus, when the kid was a tiny, colicky baby the sound of the hoover was the only thing that would get him to settle.

What is your favourite household chore?

U is for Unicorns

I love unicorns and fairies and witches and everything else supernatural (sparkly vampires excepted.)  Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated with all things fantasy.  As a really young girl I would search the garden hoping for a glimpse of a fairy or elf; I believed in the tooth fairy until I was plenty old enough to know better (partly down to my mum’s tiny handwritten letters tucked beneath my pillow).  As I grew older, I loved TV shows like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and later programmes like Charmed. (Which I still love, by the way.  I’m currently working through them-albeit very slowly -n Netflix.)

Now, I like to read supernatural books, most recently enjoying The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.   Strangely, I haven’t written much supernatural or fantasy; perhaps something I should rectify.

I don’t know why I’m so in love with the fantasy world.  While in recent years my tastes have grown a little darker, I still love unicorns and fairies.   Maybe a part of me still wants to believe that they could exist.

T is for Talking

As the BT ads used to say, “It’s good to talk.”  I’m not actually that much of a talker.  Being quite shy I often prefer to blend in to  the background and listen.  Talking is good, though.  When something is bothering me, talking it through with my best friend over coffee never fails to help.  After a bad day, offloading onto the boyfriend makes me feel better.

When I was going through a particularly difficult time a few years ago, I didn’t talk to anyone – not even my mum.  Instead,  I pretended everything was fine or shrunk away from people.  When I finally did break down and confide in someone – my GP – I suddenly saw everything so much clearer and was able to figure out a way out of the situation I had found myself in.  Now, I try and be more open about my problems.  I’d hate to become one of those people who shares every tiny little problem and who is always moaning, but sometimes talking can help us gain perspective.

 

R is for Reading

(Apologies for being late – again;  blame the projectile vomiting kid.)

Anyway, R is for reading.  I know I’ve already had B is for books, but I really   love reading, and this is more about the act of reading.  For example, reading requires more or less undivided attention.  You can have the television on in the background whilst you iron or cook dinner; you can’t do this with a book.  I tried tonight and ended up with a ruined pan, burnt pasta and a sulky kid – oops.  Reading requires thought.

My four year old is starting to bring reading books home from preschool (along with homework, but that’s another rant/blog).  His teacher tells me he’s more than ready to move on to this stage.  He has always loved books and storytime and recently he has wanted to ‘read’ to me at bedtime.  He tells me a story based on the pictures and I’m astounded  by the imagination he shows.  The last week or so, he’s begun to point out letters he recognises.  He looks over my shoulder as I’m writing a shopping list, empties the cupboards and fridge looking for letters he knows and last week went through one of my course books circling all the letter ‘a’s. He recognises names and regularly sends text messages to my sister with his name neatly typed out.  Earlier, as we were looking at a book, he pointed to the word ‘and’ and read it.  I’ve nver been so proud or squealed so loud.  I just hope he keeps this love of reading.

S is for Sunshine

You’ve got to love sunshine.  Today has been lovely - despite the weather forecasts insisting it is cold and rainy – and it’s made a real difference.  When it’s sunny, getting out of bed doesn’t seem like quite so much of a chore.  I feel a little bit happier and a tiny bit less stressed.  The kid can play outside, so he’s happy; I can do the school run or nip to the shops without getting frostbite or drenched, so I’m happy.  It’s a win/win situation.

Of course, I don’t like ittoohot and sunny because I get flustered then I burn and blister.  Mildly sunny is okay, though.  The only downside of sun is that as it streams through my windows, it shows up the dust and dirt.  I’m only a little bit kidding.

Q is for Quiet

Soemthing I don’t get too much of.  Even when the kid is tucked up in bed, he has a tendency to snore/talk/giggle.  Throw in some motorbike owning, rap-music loving neighbours and a boyfriend immune to subtle rolling of eyes and peace and quiet is a rare commodity.  When I do find myself home alone, I tend to be too busy rushing around to make the most of it.

Growing up, I loved nothing more than shutting myself away in a corner to read or write or even just to think.  I always found myself distracted if there was too much other stuff going on.  Oddly, I increasingly find it difficult to concentrate when it is quiet.  I often resort to putting on the TV or radio for background noise, because the silence is so diconcerting.