Angel Jem's City Cottage

It's my birthday, one of those big birthdays with a 0 at the end. At my last one, 10 years ago, I was teaching, a mother of three aged 10 and under and swept along on a wave of business and busy-ness. My life has altered so much since. I'm no longer teaching, but working as an Office Ninja. I have time to write, and miss it when I'm not writing (I'm between books at the moment, trying to do a proofreading qualification. I miss stringing my own words together, rather than marking up other people's words) so I have the plan in my head for the next book, just gently simmering away at the moment. I'm more confident. I won't take things quietly, and I'm inclined to speak out on the issues that I feel strongly about.  I'm the mother of three young adults. That gives me a degree of freedom and a level of concern that I haven't had for ages. I'm aware that I have lost a degree of control over their lives and decisions even as I have gained back ...

Whatever else you do today (hello! I'm writing this a day late on Thursday: better late than never) go and vote. I don't care who you vote for, just vote. And if there's nobody you want to vote for, go and spoil your ballot. Spoilt ballots get counted as well, and can be a form of protest. On to Wednesday Wind Up. I've had a bit of a slow wake up this week, I think I either have a water infection or a cold, I find it so hard to get out of bed and into work. Or perhaps the sunny mornings just make me wish occasionally I was still a SAHM. Oh, the things I could do with a few days at home now! Never mind, that's not my season. I work 9 to 4 most days, so that's what I do. What am I reading this week? I finished reading Gone Viking by Helen Russell. It was funny, and touching, and all the things I wanted it to be. A good happy read, so that was fun. I also finished Happy by Fearne Cotton. It was interesting: while I was reading it, I could hear Fearne...

Wednesday is usually a good day in the office. I get in early, after dropping David off at the station at 8 for University at 9.30. I can clean, run backup, get the first cup of tea in and be writing at my desk, all before 9am. I leave by 4, to tutor a child, so the day is even a shorter day than usual. I think my early morning quiet session will be a good time to do my weekly round up. So here I am, only a week later than I thought! What am I reading this week? I had to mostly read Reservoir 13 for bookclub on Monday. It did not go well. I know it's won all sorts of awards and been raved about by people,had prequels on Radio 4 and all the things that meant I should have liked it.... but I just didn't. I don't know whether part of that was I was reading in very short bursts and often late at night in an incredibly busy few weeks, or because the style is deliberately disjointed, with no identifiable main character. I didn'y have sympathy for any of teh character...

There are 74 days left until Christmas!! This came as a bit of a surprise to me when I looked it up today, as I don't feel anywhere near ready for Christmas. Also, is it my imagination, or have shops not got Christmas in as early as last year? I went looking for wrapping paper last week and couldn't see the sort I was after in Tesco, W H Smiths or Asda. In fact, Asda had no Christmas paper and shelves still full of Hallowe'en! That struck me as rather odd, because when it comes to Back To School the shelves are cleared and replaced by Halloween before school even starts. I think I was hoping for something similar with Christmas. So, in an effort to get Christmas juices flowing, I thought I'd share a few things I'm looking to do or get for Christmas. 1. Visit Salisbury Museum. They have the Terry Pratchett exhibition on, until January 13th and my two sons are keen to go. We live in Liverpool, and there's a long distance between the two places, so we...

So I sewed up a pair of slippers instead. As displacement activities go, it is one of my best. A couple of hours stitching, a couple of hours watching 15 to 1 (my quiz show of obsession at the moment) and a good rest. It would, after all, be what the Doctor ordered, if I ever got to see a Doctor. Unfortunately, and I guess I'm not alone in this, my surgery has a new system of appointments so that you can no longer book ahead an appointment unless you stand on one leg in a thunder storm for an obscure hour between gleaming and gloaming on a night that may or may not be a day as well. Or you have a telephone consultation with a doctor who may or may not want to see you that day. But if you do that, you must ring at 8am promptly to join the queue and talk to the rottweiler who may or may not pass your number on to the medic. I am not cross. I am not at all cross. I just hope that I actually never need to use the service until it has collapsed and recovered again. Back to...

It's been so long since I posted a wind up!! I can hardly remember the categories. I'll make them up for today. Reading I'm reading ... well, nothing in particular. I was supposed to read Ben Elton's Two Brothers for Book Club on Monday, but I missed it due to the funeral and didn't have to admit that I hadn't actually finished it. I like it so far. Next month's book is The Alchemist by Paul Coelho. Fortunately I read that a few years ago, and it's short, so I might just quickly read it and then finish the other one. Making Apart from a mess, I'm still supposed to be making the hygge shawls from the Scheepjes CAL this year. Time in the evenings seems to have been at a premium, so my CAL sits in a corner, unloved, unwanted and undone. This weekend, I promise, I'll get my mojo back and go for it hell for leather. If I could just catch up with the embroidery part.... Watching On TV we're still watching Game of Throne...

Yesterday we went to the funeral of one of Mr AJ's cousins. She was called Paddy, although she'd been christened Irene, because her Dad had wanted a boy. Now, Peter's family are a dying breed. We had six cousins in total there yesterday and there were only another 3 or 4 missing. At our wedding, my family could have gone on forever: his was distinctly smaller. And 24 years have only made it shrink more. I'm rambling. Yes. Back to my point. My point is that her true family actually weren't the relatives. There were 5 or 6 neighbours there, many of whom had known Paddy for the 40 years she lived in the house, who talked about her with such love, and sadness at her passing, that it made me smile. They had given her food, took her out for drives, been there for her when the closest family were almost an hour away. Two of them even had power of attorney at the end, because of the closeness and the proximity. I wish we could all say that we had neighbours as clos...

No, not a real baby, of course, but a book baby. I've been absent for the past few weeks because I've been incubating a little project all of my own. It's quite time intensive, this writing business and, I have to say, I think Virginia Woolf had an easy time of it with no children, no guinea pigs and no full time work to get in the way.It took me at least a week to get the first page written, and a few good weeks after that to finish the whole book. Can I introduce you to 50 Ways to Hygge the British Way ? It's a hygge book, of course, but one written specifically from a British rather than a Danish point of view. A book for the hygge-lover who has read Meik Wiking's Little Book of Hygge or Bronte Aurell's Essence of Hygge , loved the idea and is now sitting thinking "Well, that's all very well, but how do I hygge in the UK? We don't have short hours, a good work/life balance or decent Danish pastries in my home town." You know, when...

I had a whole afternoon in Manchester with my beautiful daughter. The Christmas Markets are on,  and Sarah's never been. We had a good time, not least because there was a goodly amount of stopping for refreshment. Sarah's happy as long as there's a bookshop on the itinerary, and I was warmed by gluhwein and a pint of Kronenberg. How tired were we? Sarah slept on the way home, just after saying she'd had a brilliant day, and could we go again next year! My new friend.... Yes, I have what it takes!!! My final Chase from the beginning of the year is in the new book!!! Prize fund was actually £60,000 between 3. I have had such a good year after being on TV and radio. Being named in a book is the icing on the cake! I had a mint tea and a portuguese custard tart as my afternoon treat. The French macarons caught our eyes... and several came home with us! I did promise I wouldn't post a picture.... but I expect I forgot. Hi Sarah! You are too bea...

Fine, thanks. I had a bit of a busy day on Saturday, racing off to collect a daughter from Badminton (the game, not the place; I'm not that rich, you know?) before going to buy some clothes (for Her) from Asda, have an argument in the doorway because she'd lost the receipt and I thought we were going to be accused of shoplifting, before taking Medium Hairy One to the barbers, where he had about half of what I would have said to cut off cut, and then off to visit Ma who was cooking us tea. I hate watching my parents cook. It's one of the most stressful experiences, especially when my Mum limps in with a hot dish in one hand and the cane she is leaning on in the other. It's just simpler, easier and a lot less stressful to have them over to ours. And Strictly!!!! The one shining moment on a busy Saturday. We watched Strictly with our mouths agog to see what Judge or Ed or Louise would come up with. Are you watching Strictly again this year? We've completely lost...

It's funny how you can have waves of shopping, isn't it? There was a year when everything I got was black... or red... or had squares or circles on it. I took Sarah off to Yarndale again this year, so I suppose it shouldn't have been too surprising when the shopping ended up having a common theme to it. But first... Yarndale . Sarah and I were both shattered after a week in school/work (and following on from a weekend away last week) so we cancelled the planned weekend away. We were due to Yarndale (that's a verb, it means spending time browsing yarn and stroking a lot of alpaca) yesterday, but had a pootling day at home instead. My living room is clean and smells nice again now. That only lasts until tomorrow, when the guineas will do their worst. So we decided that today was the day. We were up and out at 10.30, and at Skipton for 12.30. Last year we went on the Saturday and it was packed, like standing room only packed. The fact that we drove straight i...