It's back to the grind.... and 18th birthdays and University applications. I'm tired already.

September came with a bout of hot weather.  Hooray - an Indian summer.  However, this only lasted a week or so and we were soon into Autumn splashes and storms.    Alex managed to look pretty cool at his prize giving too, dressed in a frock in his senior prefect garb.

Luckily for Alex, it was sunny for his 18th birthday party and we were able to throw the animals (sorry) guests out into the garden:

Andrew started his new job in mid September and I am only just getting used to the alarm going off at the ridiculous time of 05.59.  What is the point of 05.59?  What's wrong with 06.30?  It's so dark at the moment in the morning that it is hard to actually force myself out of bed.

September also means that it is back to the grind of sport.  Hockey and rugby feature prominently this term and Alex has jumped up with much enthusiasm:

He's the number 6 jumping right up.

The university applications have gone off and so now is the time to cut my nails so that I can't chew them down to the quick.

Next month brings NaNowWrimo for me.  What the heck is that you ask?  It's time for me to dedicate a whole month to writing a novel.  Only this time I can do it with the support of millions of others who have signed up too.  The story is planned and researched - I just need to get on with it.  Hmm only 80,000 words or so to do.

So, my dear Blog we are now square and up to date.  Although I will be NaNoing next month, I promise to pay you a visit.

Watch this space...

Wordsworth and Lakes; Orangutans in the Jungle; Sunny Queensland; the Olympics and Menorca: What a summer!

Well - it's been a while since I last posted a blog.  I guess life got in the way a bit.  The last time I posted was July and I had a little rant about the weather.  The rain didn't go away so I suppose it must have rained somewhere on St Swithins day.Soon the summer holidays where upon us and we kicked off with a long weekend in the Lake district.  For this trip it was just Andrew, Harry, Archie (faithful hound) and me.  We stayed in Lodore on Derwent Water.  Great hotel and perfect location.  The really amazing thing was that it was probably the only part of the UK where it wasn't raining.  Alex was up in Scotland at T in the Park getting completely soaked.  Andy Murray was playing a semi final in Wimbledon dodging showers.  But we were walking up the Cat O Bells in glorious sunshine and blue sky.  The views from the top were stunning and the dark pink foxgloves dotted amongst green ferns were truly inspiring:

As was the chance to go to Dove Cottage in Grasmere.  William Wordsworth is still one of the most inspiring poets of all time.

We came back just in time to pack our bags for the next instalment of the Woolley family summer holiday.  This time we were altogether as we headed off to Borneo to meet the organutans.  Our journey to Kota Kinabalu (on the western side of Borneo) was long and arduous as long haul trips always are.  But a beautiful place awaited us and we were soon soaking up the sun and swimming in the South China sea.  We even managed to meet our first organutans - two four year old female orphans who we were lucky enough to get up close and personal with:

A few days later, we reluctantly packed our bags - the resort was so lovely it was hard to say goodbye - and headed on a small plane across the island to Sandakan.  On the way we were greeted with glorious views of Mt Kinabalu (with it volcanic crater) and then further on with not such a glorious view of acres and acres of Palm Oil plantations.  Palm Oil plantations = no rainforest. On arrival at Sandakan, I think Alex thought he was arriving as a famous rock star or something:

 On arrival at Sandakan, we drove two hours into the forest to a lodge on the Kinabatangan river.

 Bilit lodge was lovely (very different from the luxurious resort over in Kota).  Each room was a separate building on stilts with a hammock on each verandah.  We had the river on one side and the jungle on the other three sides.  We went out every morning and late afternoon on a boat in search of animals and birds:

We were lucky to see one orangutan in the wild - just as he was putting himself to bed.  But the greatest discovery of all was the probiscus monkey.  What a creature - what a star.  People come to Borneo to see the Orangutan, but the should really get to know the probiscus monkey.  The alpha males in particular are quite striking - they kind of look like a mixture of Oliver Cromwell, Buddha, Donald Trump and Frankenstein:

They may be ugly but they are endearing and we all fell in love with them.  Let's  not talk about a certain appendage though.


After four days, we left our jungle world and headed to the famous Orang utan sanctuary in Sepilok near Sandakan.  We arrived just in time for feeding and saw two or three young organgutans who managed to show us how to perform gymnastics whilst eating.  It as most enlightening:

We reluctantly said goodbye to them and travelled to Sandakan airport, but  not before we managed to get a tour around the Sandakan Memorial Park.  This is a memorial which pays homage to the Sandakan prisoner of war camp and the brave Australian and British POWs who perished in their long march in the jungle in 1945.  It was very moving and beautiful.  We flew onto to Kuala Lumpar where we had shower in a marble bathroom after having no proper shower in the jungle (got to save water you know).  Then it was off to Brisbane to see friends and family.

Let's get this straight now. It was winter in Australia but the weather was glorious - blue sky and sunshine with the temperature creeping up to mid twenties celsius during the day.

As you can see, Queensland winters are hard work.  It was great to catch up with friends and family especially my best buddy Chris:

And my old school buddy Peta marie:

We're not bad for 40 something

And my lovely family:

And then it was back to the UK in time for our Olympic trips.  We had been getting up in the early hours in Oz in order to watch events in the first week live.  We were finally now able to watch things in real time.  And what a Games they turned out to be:

Sometimes a picture says it all.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, Absent Husband who was coming to the end of his 9 months sabbatical decided we should head off for a week to Spain.  It was lovely to have a few days sun after the dull weather of the UK in August.  It was also amazing to see how many people could read "Fifty Shades of Grey" around one pool.  I prefer "Fifty Shades of Mr Darcy" myself.  

And so, the great summer endeth.  And so does this post.

An Ode to Summer 2012

What can I say?  It's been a wet old July (well, the whole summer has in fact).  So as this is supposed to be a writing blog - here's my creative contribution for the month:

An Ode to Summer 2012

To all you faithful worshippers

Of the golden ball in the sky,
Hear this tale of summer woe
It’s bound to make you cry.

March was warm and sunny

And we thought, hey this is funny,
We’re bound to get a summer hot and long.

But as the spring progressed

No sunshine we were blessed
It was clear that we had got our hopes all wrong.

With a hosepipe ban in place

April showed its spring like face,
With a multitude of showers and wet days.
 
May brought cancelled cricket matches
Which were mentioned in despatches,
And lead to competition delays.

The sun came out for Chelsea

And we thought at last it’s shown us mercy
But it wasn’t long before the clouds came back again.

On the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Bunting hung around merrily
Only to be pelted with very heavy rain.

Half term was rather wet

For those who’d pitched a tent,
And the Isle of Wight became a muddy mound.

School sports days and country fairs

Became things so rare,
As the rain lashed its way onto any ground.

In mid June the sun came out

And we all began to doubt
Our rather mean attitude to the weather.

But alas, it was not to be

We’d planned a BBQ hastily
As July just didn’t get any better.
 
Today is a sunny St Swithin’s Day
Has the rain really gone away?
Are we now destined for sun for forty days long?

But somewhere in this green old isle

Clouds are creeping over gate and stile
As the rain beats out its old familiar song.

So, put away the suncream

Forget the cold beer.
Pack away the BBQ
‘Cos summer’s just not here.

Vanessa Woolley

July 2012

Kayaking, Nail Varnish and Death by Chocolate: A teenage girl's dream party

I wish I had turned 13 last week and had an amazing party for seven close friends involving kayaking for two hours (falling into the lake and drinking hot chocolate), and then going home to eat cake (lots and lots of fairy cakes) and then putting on nail varnish and make up and costumes to play a three hour murder mystery game whilst being served a three course meal.  And don't forget how wonderful it would be to watch a romcom whilst quaffing chocolate and then talk until 1 am.  Oh the sheer bliss of turning 13.

The chances of that happening to me (aged 45 and a half) are extremely slim.  In fact non existent.  But Only Daughter enjoyed her day.

Help - there are three teenagers in the house now!

Yes.  The day is almost upon us.  From Sunday onwards the house will be inhabited with THREE teenagers.  THREE!!

It's hard to imagine that only a few years ago (well, thirteen actually) a lovely older lady spoke to me in the park in Marlow.  Chloe was newborn in her pram and Harry was a terrible two year old running about with his older 4 and half year old brother chasing after him.  Her words were, and I quote "You've got your hands full there love".  At the time I brushed this aside.  Eldest Son was quiet and well behaved and reasonably civilised.  Younger Son was a bit of handful then, but he was only two and his position as the youngest child had been usurped by a creature in a pram.  I thought I was invincible. 

In a way, those were the easy years.  Teenagers with all their demands are far more needy and tiring and annoying. 

And as for Not So Absent Husband.  Well, having him at home is like having a fourth teenager.

Need I say more?

I love them really....

Vanessa x

Always Take the Weather with You

There's something completely predictable about a British summer.  It rains.  It's as simple as that.  This year it is even more ironic than ever.  A hosepipe ban is imposed.  It rains a few days later.  The first test match of the season starts.  It rains. A long bank holiday weekend arrives with long planned Jubilee events.  It rains.  Half term arrives.  It rains.  I sometimes wonder if it might be best NOT to plan any of these calendar events.  Well, at least don't tell the Weather about it and then just sneak an event in when the sun is out.  Anything planned in ink, written down or talked about for months before is bound to be hit by the Weather.

My May was spent dodging showers and digging out jumpers and coats again as the mercury fell in the middle of the month.  The test match at Lords was the coldest I have ever been watching cricket.  Watching the boys in white whilst wearing a scarf and gloves was not quite what I expected for my first time at Lords, still the following week things did pick up for Chelsea flower show and then had to dig out the suncream and floppy hat.  Honestly it drives me nuts and what's worse is having Only Daughter constantly asking me what she should wear - is it cold outside?  It is going to rain today?  Is it going to be hot?

On the writing front - well, the summer house is there ready now for me to find my way down there which I did a couple of weeks ago only to be found by Eldest Son who was at home on study leave.  First of all he was wondering what was for lunch, and then he began to kick the football up against the wall near the summer house.  The constant kick, kick, kick drove me nuts and so I retreated back to the house only to find Not So Absent Husband watching cricket on Sky on the TV.

These pictures prove that the sun did indeed shine at some point in May.  Lovely Chelsea blooms.

So here I sit in a coffee shop - it's raining outside and the windows are steaming up.  I am wondering if all those cricket games scheduled for this week will go ahead.  Anyway, it's back to writing.  Let's hope it stops raining soon or we will all have to grow webbed feet and begin to splash around in the puddles.  Might be more fun than getting annoyed. xx

Deep grass stains and Deep point of view- my day of washing and writing

Ah - the rain.  It cometh like a deluge for at least ten days now and is showing no signs of stopping.  Despite this, Eldest Son managed to play a game of cricket yesterday.  Yes - a whole match was played without rain stopping play.  After four cancelled games, this was good news.  But the bad news is that his cricket whites are now covered in grass stains.  This is by no means unusual for the cricket season.  After all, the ball must be stopped from reaching the boundary and if that means sliding along grass to stop it, so be it.

So it was to the laundry room this morning that I made my way armed with my trusty stain remover Shout.  (Perhaps it ought to be Shout! like Hello! magazine).  As I sprayed generously over the grass and mud stains, I began to ponder about my writing at the moment.  (Curious train of thought I know but I am getting there).

I am currently trying to get my head around the writing technique known as Deep Point of View (POV).  This sounds like some kind of diagnosis and is by no means easy to achieve.  The trouble with having multiple third person narratives is that it is often hard to get the viewpoint right from a character's point of view without saying "he felt", "he thought", "he wondered".  It all becomes rather cumbersome and takes up excess words that aren't really needed.

So, like the stain remover, I am want to go deep into the character's head and get rid of excess, unwanted words in order to create smooth, flowing narrative in which the point of view is clearly felt by the reader.  Simple.  I just wish there was a Shout! for writers.

Vanessa x