Flylady : Schmylady!

Some days it is really hard to focus.

This pretty much represents how today is panning out for me:




So far, in order to avoid real work I have cleaned my kitchen and all three bathrooms, sorted a couple of boxes of stuff the kids don’t want into what is good for passing on and what is only fit for the bin, stared out of the window for a bit, contemplated cleaning the car (but it’s raining so I thought better of it), compiled some WMP playlists, prepared some stuff for an upcoming interview on a friend’s radio show (in spite of not yet even having a date for said interview!), sent out a few random BS emails about nothing in particular, written a poem and an article, completed a couple more future posts for this blog and blown out an hour on Youtube.

As for the job I am supposed to be doing: well, I have scribbled 3 pages of notes and opened somewhere in the region of several firefox tabs containing useful information and websites of interest… but I need a particular book – I know where it is, it’s in a box in the gym – might just have a run whilst I am out there!


On the plus side, look at what a productive day I’ve had!

Kicking the Flylady in the teeth; who says you need a plan and a clean sink to get anything done? All I need is a tricky topic to avoid writing about...

Like Hot Buttered Toast…

Every wonder if you aren’t spreading yourself a little too thinly?

I do… but have never really let it worry me until now when I find myself wondering if I need to hone in my hoarder spirit a little.

Being an eclectic person, I have made conscious efforts to avoid pigeon-holing myself by genre or demographic; I have worked with equal pride and gusto on projects for children and adults alike; I have put together basic instruction guides aimed at complete morons incapable of sussing which is the “on” switch of a new kettle to full technical guides of which I understand little myself; I have written poetry, prose and short stories on many themes, from sci-fi through to trashy romance and beyond; I have published articles on a huge array of subjects, some relevant to my own skills and experiences, some completely research-based. I have started, though, to look at whether I need to actually start to fit my writing neatly into a little box so people can find me easily.

I think it’s great to have the freedom to write about what I want, when I want but is this just the slightest bit lazy?
It probably is. If I do not declare a genre, I do not have to follow rules of that theme. In fact, I mostly just write without really thinking about what it is I am trying to say. You may tell from the here-and-there nature of these posts!

I was asked the other day “Do you not worry that you won’t build up a reliable fan-base?”
Now I see the point in this question, especially given that the person who asked does have quite a cult following of their own, but honestly; no.

I do not write for others, I write for me. Even in the case of reviews as I write here and in other shady corners of the internet I do not write them to inform others, more as a way to make my opinion heard – and let’s face it, who doesn’t want to be heard?

But yes, maybe I do need to decide who/what I am; maybe I need to focus on one thing at a time; maybe I should be writing for a market rather than for myself.

Or maybe there is enough of me to go around and as such I can spread myself as thinly as I choose.




It isn’t only my work which is affected by my ‘bits and pieces’ nature.

Having a deep love for words and language, I could not resist recently snapping the hand off a friend who was selling a Rosetta Stone bundle with a heap of language packs. I think you normally buy just the one language, but this had some twenty or so. The obvious start-point for me was Welsh, so I have worked through that set of lessons and have now commenced both Polish and Vietnamese.

I did not see an issue with learning two languages concurrently; after all we were made to do it at school and that was not so long ago… But my friend challenged me on the decision: “Would it not be better to just do one at a time?”

Um… no! Because then it would take an age to complete ALL of them, which I fully intend to do.

“But when will you use all those languages?”

And she is possibly correct, maybe I won’t; but at the moment I fully intend to.

Yesterday, after discovering my ALISON account had some 17 active courses on it, I decided to have a clear up. I finished the accountancy diploma and claimed the certificate for that, then deleted some of the others which seemed irrelevant to where my life is now, still leaving me with four ongoing courses.

Added to that I have not yet finished the final stage of my PLT training, am trying to expand my Makaton beyond that required in schools and am still planning to complete my degree once things are settled here I certainly need to do something about my hotchpotch gathering attitude!

But I have made a start at least!

Gardening the Brazilian Way

I think we already established that I do not need any more books, but my constant will to rescue the needy and my inability to stand by and see an injustice made me stop in my tracks when attending baby’s school summer fayre last week. In glancing at the spread of books laid out (with great care, I must say!) I was horrified to see a copy of Tony Hawks’ “Round Ireland With A Fridge”. I first read this book too long ago to pin-point and my ownership of a copy had dissolved along with the friendship of the person who borrowed it. So technically, buying this book would not be adding to my collection at all, would it? And to see this piece on a table-top sale definitely qualified for inclusion in my rescue programme, even without having filled out a needs assessment form!

Oh, but look; more books with interesting titles and brooding cover pictures; more from those countless lists of books you should have read; and so it was that the “every item 50p” stall stole another £5 from me.

I immediately wanted to re-acquaint myself with the long-since-forgotten wisdom within so bumped the book I was part-way through to make a start on it. I won’t go into a detailed review of the book itself; that is for a whole separate post, because if you haven’t read it yet, you certainly should - but I will say that I am glad to have regained this particular piece.

Re-reading is not something I take lightly. It can often go so horribly wrong, as with watching a childhood television favourite. That horrific moment you discover the naivety with which you originally experienced the volume can leave one feeling cheated, vulnerable and a little ridiculous but in this case it worked out well. In fact, having changed my entire philosophy and life perspective since, there is so much more to be gained; least of all, the synchronicity of finding this book right now with its deeper messages calling out to me, regarding taking action, living your life and doing what you want to do.

And so it was, then, that on the first day of sunshine after around eight weeks of solid summer rain I found myself taking a short break from my gardening to read a quick chapter or two whilst drinking a deserved cup of tea. Four hours later; book read, too much tea consumed and a new skin tone slightly resembling a boiled ham and I realised I hadn’t made the best use of what could well be Summer. With so few of these days, it did not do to waste them and after all, reading was something one could do just as easily indoors in the rain, whilst gardening is much harder to do from the living room.

Not that the garden is a huge concern to me. Unfortunately my neighbours lack my vision and are not at all convinced by my attempts at suburban farming. Thus they cannot see the value in creating a beautiful hayfield of my lawn. I tried selling it as an issue of conservation- that these were all meadows once and for the sake of heritage we should all adopt this attitude, to no avail; neither are they embracing it with the same middle-class ecofriendly passion reserved for cycling, Hessian shopping bags and GYO vegetables in spite of my casual throwing around of words like ecosystem and natural habitat. So having frittered away much of the sunny day and with this one clouding over as I consume more time writing this, I now appear to have created an entirely new concept.

The little I achieved yesterday was a masterpiece of lawn edging. I skirted the mower around the outer boundary of the lawn itself, strimmed and trimmed the parts where grass meets border and am left with what my teens are calling a Brazilian garden; although with a centrepiece long enough in which to lose a small child, it seems more of a European armpit garden, but that does not have quite the same ring to it!

Avoiding work much?

As if life wasn't already riddled with enough distractions, I found myself off on a huge tangent today!

Firstly, I am running on a brand spanking new computer, so of course had to spend 12 hours sorting my files.... well, technically I didn't, I could have just transfered the files directly, but when better to have a good clearout of all my half-completed projects!

In a lot of ways, it was quite a cathartic task. Whilst trawling through the incomplete, I stumbled across ways of combining old part-written scripts and stories with the projects I am currently working on and have found a great new way to approach a couple of my bigger jobs.

But reading every last word of every poem, note and flash-piece I have written over the last 20 years or so takes a little time... especially when some of it is such utter drivel!

I also found myself wandering through old link listings, to discover along the way that the fabulous Mark Watson is appearing not so far from home next month... "BRILL!", thought I "I'll get tickets!" So after much more piffle and time wasting, I find myself back on Mark's website... hold on a moment, another list of dates later in the year... and he's actually in my home town, saving me an hour's drive! And more importantly, it's on my olderest, besterest friendling's birthday so I can justify treating myself in order to give her a fab birthday!! Everyone wins! Ok, everyone doesn't win, as my kids would want to come along too and guess what, they can't cos it's for my friend... bonus points to me then!

Two tickets bought, front and centre!

So as a result of all the sidetracking, I am now ready at almost 10pm to start the work I was commencing at 915am.

And more annoying is that it is wind-down time, yet all this snooping through old stuff has me buzzing with inspiration so I will be writing into the wee hours!

Mark Watson's dates can be found here