Reality blogging

Scribbler Maxi has nominated me for a Reality Blogging Award. Thank you, Maxi.

As part of accepting I have to answer a few tricky questions:

If you could change one thing, what would it be?

Well I guess, and judging by Maxi's answer, that means something about myself. I think one thing I would change in a heart beat is the lack of romance in my life. A Mr Right would be a very nice thing to have around.


If you could repeat an age, what would it be?

The Elizabethan age, bring back Shakespeare and those fabulous skirts. 

I think I am supposed to refer to a period of my own life though. In which case I'll go for my late teens, I would make a few changes to my school life but would also enjoy discovering all the music I love all over again.


What one thing really scares you? 

Regretfully I have to deal with Thanataphobia.


If you could be someone else for a day, who would it be?

There are two ways to go with this.

One option is pure fun and for that I would love to be Jasper Fforde for a day and find out what it is like to think and work like a genius and successful writer - though I would need to sort of piggy back his life so I could see how he works, not just how I would work in his place.

The other is less fun; I would like to be some one like the Prime Minister or a Cabinet minister to get just a glimpse of the things that are really considered and have an impact in the running of the country.

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And now it's my turn! And, I suppose, I can't nominate Maxi back. So, the blogger I nominate for this is one I read but I don't actually know her:

Debbie Golec

The Bard of Avon, confimed

I have written here before about my conviction that one William Shakespeare was the true author (maybe with some help) of the plays we attribute to him.

Now a book is about to be published by a number of scholars who agree that the man from Stratford not only could be, but most likely is the writer of those great works.

Championing The Bard

What better birthday gift could the Bard ask for?

News about Google Reader

If you use Google Reader for reading and collating blogs such as this one you may be interested to know it will be shutting down in July.

Changes to Google Reader

Click here for details and how to work around it. I personally have decided to try the Feedly extension. It is a bit more complicated than Reader but looks quite elegant and is easily customisable. (I did have to have two attempts to add the extension to Chrome though)

If you don't use Reader, have a click any way as you may be interested in learning how to collate blogs you like.

Or click here to find out about protests and petitions to Google.

Writing

I think it is high time I try to focus and get some serious writing done.

I love the feel of a pen on paper

I have folders full of handwritten text that I need to sort through to decide what to work on, or if any of it is worth dragging back to life. I have notes on stories from a number of genres so I might need to start by narrowing down to a theme I want to develop. Do I want to do modern day or fantasy? Prosaic or epic? A novel or short story? I think I may have had too many ideas for my own good!

But I think step one needs to be to get a bit organised.

I have read about all sorts of methods for making progress on a story. I have generally stuck to just writing it out almost as a stream of consciousness..... although as yet none of my projects have reached completion so clearly I need a new approach.

I think this idea from Emma Darwin is a great way to track characters and events against a timeline and even allows for non-chronological plotting. To save paper or if you prefer working digitally you could create a simple spreadsheet to do the same job. I remember a girl on a Creative Writing course I once took had a spreadsheet with different fonts and colours to represent different people or places.

I love looking at MindMaps and think the theory is inspiring but I just can't get them right myself. I find they all end up the same shape, perhaps my thinking is too rigid.

When writing/re-writing on the computer I stick with good old word. I like to start by altering the page margins to be as narrow as I can make them, except for the left one which needs to be wide enough to punch holes in a printed sheet.
Then I add page numbers (in new versions of Word that's in the Insert tab) and line numbers. (See below - you can see that an edit is required on line 4)

Line numbers  in Word 2010 on NetBook

(If you can't read it try zooming your browser window)

So, with a plan and a document set up ready to write I'm going to try to get some of my writing sorted out.

Are you a writer? Do you have a tried and tested set of tools to help you get from idea to oeuvre?

It's the little things

I like this

It is a part of why I like to pass on information I find, you never know how sharing something might make a difference to someone's life and all it costs is a little time. The rewards could be lifelong.

The future of the world

I read this fascinating article on The Guardian website.




Food for thought for sure but it invites as many questions as solutions at this stage.

• First up is the thought 'how many times has something similar been said in the last century or more?'
• I can imagine that there have been many great thinkers from Adam Smith to Jeremy Bentham and even Malthus who have posited that profit can not be the only aim of business in a civilised world.
• Then, is there any real way to get all the world's business and political leaders around the same table to make it happen?
• In a week when the London Underground proposed later running tubes only to be shouted down by the unions, people whose livelihoods depend on the same system in the same town, can the diverse interests and fields of all business and communities really be brought under one umbrella set of regulations?
• Can we ever reach a point where all the experts agree?
• Even today there are people in power and experts who can't agree on the realities of climate change. Some are absolutely convinced it is not happening, others believe mankind has had a huge and continuing impact.
• Can we be sure that any ideology proposed by any one nation or company is not imposing something entirely alien on others?
• The simple idea of consuming horsemeat has this week shown divisions in Europe that are cultural and historical and that neither side would view as being wrong or negotiable.

It's a noble idea to make the world run on more ethical terms and one I wish more people subscribed to, but is it realistic to expect so many diverse interests to be able to come together and make it work?

How would you change the world for the better?

Goodbye my love

Today I have had to say goodbye to my beautiful cat, Sixx.

When my friend told me his cat was going to have kittens, I decided for the first time to have a pet. I went to meet the litter when they were very tiny and was told that one of the cats didn't like people.

I went in and sat on the floor and this little black and white kitten came over to me and crawled on my leg, he was the one who had refused to meet anyone else.

I sat and got to know him and his sister who I was also taking home. I had planned to call them Tyler and Perry after Aerosmith, but as I played with them I knew they were Sixx and Kije.

Despite being named for a rock n roll bass player, Sixx was always calm and affectionate. He would follow me from room to room and was always there when I came in. He loved to cuddle and would climb on my lap in the evenings and would snuggle on my bed at night. He rarely objected to being picked up for a big hug. Every day when I woke up he was there, or arrived when the alarm went off. Tomorrow morning is going to be hard. He was so very handsome and so loving.

At 14 and half he had lived a long and comfortable life. I wish things could have been different and he could have come home today but it was not to be. I hope he knew how much he was loved and how much he will be missed.

Goodbye my love. Sixx - July 1998 - January 2013.

Gainful employment

As you know I am a bit of an information junkie. I love to look up the answers to anything and everything. Whether it's how particle physics works, who Prince Blucher was, how to make sure a guitarist doesn't get his cables trapped under the drum kit or who needs to know about that recipe for jam roly poly, I want to know and share as much as humanly possible.

If you have seen my other blog you might also know I am in search of my dream job. The major obstacle being that I don't know what I want to do with my life and have no clue what job would be a dream for me.

I am, therefore, trying to imagine ways to combine the two. My craving for answers (and disseminating them) with my search for the perfect work.

I'm a bit late to create Google unfortunately, and am not that interested in programming search algorithms anyway.

Please do let me know if you know of a job that sounds like it would suit me to a T!

Happy New Year

About five or six years ago I made a resolution to stop making new year resolutions. So far I've done a good job of sticking to it.
No more stress about breaking new rules, no more angst over a new status quo.

Do you make resolutions? Do you set goals for the year ahead? Do you stick to them?

Whatever you do in 2013 I wish you all the best.

Cooking?

I'm a huge fan of North African food, which means something a lot of people seem to really hate: meat with fruit! Why is pork and apple OK but lamb and apricots or prunes is frowned upon?

Other favourite cuisines are Mexican, Italian, Greek, French, Polish and Chinese. Of course I adore traditional British food, a roast with Yorkshire pud, parsnips and carrots  roasted with honey, toad in the hole, minted peas, really thick gravy and of course, really good bangers with mash. I also love Mountain food: tartiflette, steak hachet, raclette - any cheesy potato combination.
I don't do fish though. Anything that swims, I don't want to know. Who knows what it's been swimming in!

I don't cook though. Well I heat food and occasionally do a pasta dish with fresh filled pasta and a simple tomato passata.











I do however have a bit of a flair for taste combinations.
I recently got my mum, who is a great cook, to experiment a bit. She'd made some cherry shortbread biscuits which were lovely. I suggested she try them with mincemeat instead of cherries and they are now going to be part of our Xmas day.
Then I persuaded her to make apple pie with cardamoms, something she would normally only add to pears. We loved it.


I also like to really go mad and mix up things no one else would ever dream of. My favourite was minced beef with Cinzano.

If I had to choose one food that I love above all others it would be globe artichoke, boiled or steamed and served with unsalted butter. Heaven. (Don't bother with tinned or artichokes in brine. Total waste of delicious food!)

What flavours do you love to experiment with?

What do you read?

What do you read? Do you have preferred genres? 

Looking at my book shelves I have quite a lot of sword and sorcery, several sci fi (I recently got into Philip K Dick), lots of spy novels from Bond to Bourne and a variety of crime fiction. I also like Alexander McCall Smith's and Ian Banks's Scottish stories and humour; Pratchett, Fforde, Idle etc,.

I also have a lot of non-fiction. Some autobiographies - Jackie Chan, Billy Connolly and a dozen or so rock stars.   There are lots of reference books and a huge pile on esoteric subjects from space-time to the history of learning! 

What I don't have are any books written between 1700 and 1900 except Conan Doyle and Gothic novels. I also have no chick lit. 

How are your bookshelves weighted? 

Social media

I've just signed myself up to Google+. Since I already use Google email and Google Blogger to write this blog it seemed like a natural next step. So far though I'm not finding it quite as intuitive as I'd liked.

So if anyone has any tips or knows of good places to find advice please let me know in the comments below.

It drives me crazy

Are there everyday niggles that make you disproportionately angry?

The on that gets me yelling at inanimate objects on a fairly regular basis is a box of eighty matches that has a strike strip that gives out after about forty matches. My guess is that they are designed for eighty strikes but since no match ever lights first time those eighty strikes are up before the box is half empty.




I remember many a day as a kid where the loud and very rude words emanating from the kitchen or bathroom that were a clear indication that Dad was trying to do some plumbing!

What drives you to distraction that really could be walked away from in peace?

Music Formats

As a teenager I was obsessed with records. I am sure most of my pocket money went on buying albums, usually at the local Our Price store.

Once I was old enough to be allowed to go to London on my own I discovered a fantastic little store inside Kensington Market where I would spend hours just flicking through their vinyl trying to pick a couple of LPs to take home. I would wander round the whole market looking at shoes and coats, candles, scarves, models of dragons and wigs in neon colours, and I would often grab a jacket potato as well. But the majority of the time I was in that record shop.

I would also spend a couple of hours a week putting collections of songs on to cassette tapes.

Record sleeves even got books dedicated to them

Then at the end of my teens the Compact Disc began its rise to ubiquity. In a record shop rack they just don't flip in the same satisfying way, a rack would only stack them two or three deep because of that. The case art work was tiny compared to the twelve inch square glorious design you got with an LP. Album art designers (Storm Thorgerson, Roger Dean, Derek Riggs to name just three) would never have achieved such fame as CD artists.  The disc claimed to be unbreakable so there was never the same sense of care of and reverence as there was with a vinyl disc which could be ruined with a single scratch. As long as I still had a working turntable I was reluctant to replace my vinyl albums with CD versions.

CDs were easier to tape from though and I still have boxes of my compilations, and copies on tape for playing in the car.

At University I wrote a dissertation on competing music formats, describing the rise of CDs and going on to debate the relative merits of DAT (digital audio tape) and DCC (digital compact cassette)  - a debate similar to the VHS and Beta wars of a few years earlier, based as much on the access the patent owners had to recordings they could sell their formats with as the technical benefits of either.

At the end of the 90s I bought a MiniDisc machine and spent many a happy hour recording digital compilations from my CDs.

Unfortunately it was not a format that lasted and before long the MP3 took over. A music format with no physical substance at all. Artwork has to be viewed on a computer, there can be no reverence or fear of damage to something that has no form. Consequently record stores are fast disappearing or becoming game stores. My small collection of LPs, though, has become more valuable to me and I am increasingly reluctant to risk damaging them.

The march of progress moves steadily onward but those little  moments of pleasure that are gone forever are memories I cherish.

How is progress changing your world? Are you at the forefront of technological advances or do you cling to the old ways?

When and where writing happens

Hello and welcome to act two!

My good friend Maxi recently posed the question "Does a change of scene help your writing?" I wasn't sure how to answer, I don't tend to try it out. I like my cosy sitting room with a netbook perched on my knee.

Then last night, while in a hotel on a rare night away from home, my brain decided that it works best at 2am after the lights go out! I wasn't best pleased. Caffeine may have played a part as much as the location, since I have been decaf all the way for about five years but there was only full caffeine tea available yesterday.

Taking notes

So as I settled into the nice comfy pile of hotel pillows my mind decided it was the perfect time and place to start writing. It becomes a terrible dilemma. Do you turn on the light and jot down some notes, or dictate to a handy mobile phone? Or do you try to remember what the great idea is as you go to sleep? My mind decided it needed to make a note. Cue scramble for the unfamiliar light switch, a pen and paper and some notes in scrawl that would make a doctor blush. Off goes the light and settle back down. And another idea strikes. Another scramble and more scribbling. Settle down again, and guess what? After about six of these note making fumbles I gave up and made some hot chocolate - what a blessing hotel kettles are. Finally, at nearly 4am, I got to sleep.

I could have tried to sleep and hope I would remember, but I have made that mistake before. About a year ago, after some weeks of struggle, I was lying in bed when suddenly a MacGuffin sprang fully formed to my mind. I was so pleased that this straightforward solution answered so many story problems I was convinced it would still be there in the morning.

How wrong I was. I still can't remember what it was and that story has not progressed.

What I need in this age of technology, is a sound activated dictation machine that then prints out a perfect rendition of the words I speak. I think it can be done with a lot of cash but the cheaper options I have tried have let me down.

So last night I got four hours sleep. Not enough! But I do have about eight pages of notes that I might just be able to decipher and get a chapter or two out of!

Do you get midnight inspiration? Do you keep a pad by the bed? Or are you on the crest of the technology wave and downloading your thoughts direct to an implant in your hand?

New Diary, New Start

Many many years ago when I was a student, I bought myself an academic year diary running from July to July. Because every year my diary ends in July I have always replaced it in the middle of the year, rather than at the end.

Blank pages full of potential

It is nice to open up a new diary, full of blank pages to fill, full of potential. I also think it is actually quite nice to do it at this time of year as well, rather than in December when there is all the chaos of Christmas to deal with and when everyone is wondering what the New Year will bring. I think by June all that optimism and potential has been a bit squashed by the frenetic and relentless rush of life carrying on apace. 
Having a new diary now is a small moment of peace, taking stock and thinking and planning afresh. 
Do you have times that make you step back form life for a moment to think a bit clearly again?

Hamlet

The other day my mum happened to ask me "of all the Hamlets you've seen, which did you like best?"

Not an easy one to answer on the fly. So I thought I would try to answer it here instead. 

In roughly chronological order (I have had to look up dates as regrettably I've not got programmes for most of the performances):

Iain Glen in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Filmed in 1990 but I don't think I saw it until 1998. Not a full Hamlet as it is a play based on the two minor characters that are friends of Hamlet but end up betraying and then being betrayed by Hamlet. Although a comedy, Iain Glen plays Hamlet straight but with a lightness that lets the intelligence of the character shine through. It has become my all time favourite film and I recommend it every time I am asked about films. This is the first time I really felt I had to get to know the Dane better. 
Toby Stephens 2004, directed by Michael Boyd at the old theatre in Stratford Upon Avon (it's been rebuilt now and I really want to go). The ghost was quite extraordinary, being a broken down, anguished, hobbling man painted white with tremendous sound effects accompanying his every move. Toby Stephens is often cast as a man full of contempt borne of an instinctive sense of superiority. This Hamlet was all that, with an anger at the injustices he faces that was full of intensity. 
Ben Whishaw 2004, directed by Trevor Nunn at The Old Vic, London. This was a fairly extraordinary production in that Hamlet had an innocence and despair that I think other performances have not majored on, preferring to cast him as scheming and in some cases gleeful about his plotting. It was also the first I saw that was in a modern setting, though was not as sparely staged as the Toby Stephens version. At the time I thought it was marvellous but it has since been overshadowed by other performances.
Ed Stoppard in 2005, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford. I was particularly keen to see this version, Ed being the son of Tom who wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It also featured Anita Dobson who is so far my favourite Gertrude, played as a belligerent, put upon wife who is sick of being told 'Gertrude, do not drink.' It shone a different light on her, a wife who is a chattel, who is not complicit in Claudius' machinations.
Kenneth Branagh on film filmed in 1996 but I think I saw it in 2007. I think this is a tour de force. It is the full four hours but really doesn't feel like it. The performances are all top notch from Derek Jacobi as Claudius to Billy Crystal as the gravedigger. The setting and costume is perfect and Branagh makes a dashing Prince in his black garb. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is unable to go to the theatre. Branagh, as with his other adaptations, has found a way to make the language sing, and there is not a single phrase that is difficult or awkward.
David Tennant (twice) in 2008, directed by Gregory Doran at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon and the dvd of the production. This was a very funny production, in modern dress, with some stand out moments such as a slightly drugged Hamlet bound to an office chair and rolled around the stage before his banishment. Oliver Ford Davies as Polonius made the old man forgetful and confused, his speech to Laertes about how to conduct himself fragmenting as his mind wanders. Patrick Stewart was also a memorable Claudius. The DVD is not filmed on the stage but in rooms of a stately home and works well.
Jude Law in 2009, directed by at the Wyndhams Theatre, London as part of the Donmar West End series that included: Derek Jacobi as Malvolio and the brilliant Ron Cook as Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Judi Dench in Madame de Sade (which I didn't get to see), Kenneth Branagh as Ivanov which was a sublime piece of theatre. Unfortunately this Hamlet was very forgettable and I remember little except Law sitting in front of a wall for one of the soliloquys.
Michael Sheen in 2012, directed by Ian Rickson at The Young Vic in London. This was a very different staging, set in a 20th century asylum. The Young Vic is a brilliant space for a claustrophobic performance, and at times the whole room was plunged into pitch darkness. The clever use of a greatcoat to signify the ghost/Hamlet's madness and the stage being wholly removed to present a pit into which every one ends up dying were infinitely more memorable than most of the actors though. Sheen and Benedict Wong as Laertes being the stand outs. Claudius was quite oily and slick in public, the contrast to his private moments being very effective. I also took part in the pre show walk, wherein we entered the theatre from the back and walked through rooms set up as rooms of the asylum; the library, gym and others, peopled with members of the cast. This was rather subtle though and I am sure many people on the walk missed almost everything.
In the Michael Almereyda film of 2000, Ethan Hawke is a film student, allowing him to replay soliloquys to himself on his laptop. The setting is New York and many of the locations are ultra modern apartments. Claudius is head of Denmark Corp and the ghost is seen in CCTV footage. It is a much abbreviated text but is very stylish and innovative. Ethan Hawke is moody and petulant, perhaps befitting of a rich kid who wants for nothing in the modern world.


I haven't seen the Kevin Kline film version. I really want to see the Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton films. I am very envious of my dad who saw Peter O'Toole on stage in the 60s. I need to watch the BBC version from the early 80s as I am intrigued to see Patrick Stewart as a Claudius who is younger than Derek Jacobi as Hamlet. I would love to see it on stage at The Globe in London and I think Tobias Menzies would be fantastic in the role (he has done it in the past apparently).

All in all, I would absolutely recommend the Kenneth Branagh film to anyone, whether new to Shakespeare or a lifelong fan. Of the stage plays, it would be a toss up between Toby Stephens and David Tennant. I might go for the latter as so many of the other performances were so good, in particular Oliver Ford Davies.

Have you seen Hamlet? What are your memories of any you have seen?

Feet!

I've recently decided that the trouble I get with my feet when standing for a while can't possibly be a result of aging, I'm not that old, or of a lifetime of wearing heels as the pains are in the wrong places. So I plucked up the nerve to go to a specialist and have been told it is plantar fasciitis. It's not the best news but it does mean that with the right exercises, better shoes when I'm not in my heels and a few sessions of ultra sound therapy I could be back to boogying the nights away in no time.


I've also discovered Ian's Shoe Lacing Methods which have enabled me to customise the way I lace my trainers and boots to ease pressure in some places and improve the degree of tightening I can achieve with my weedy girlie hands. I would definitely recommend taking a look as I doubt there are very many people who have reviewed and analysed the way they tie their shoes since the age of about 6, and this fella has done all the research you could need!
 
(I do love it when I find someone who has really developed an interest and become and expert in something a bit esoteric, makes me feel like a proper Master Of None)


I would also recommend that if you are suffering form any kind of pain or impediment, get it checked out. Perhaps your deafness is caused by wax that can easily be removed, maybe your funny shaped mole would be better removed now than in a year when it's gone nasty, or perhaps your aching feet can be treated to allow you to enjoy what you love doing again. Don't put it off, see a doctor, pharmacist or high street chiropodist! Just go. Now!!!!!

Knit knacks for knit wits

I read a recent interview with Prince Charles (see footnote) in which he said "There are so many cases of people who have been pushed the wrong way by their parents - who've said 'you've got to do that' - and so they've gone into something else and ended up hating it, but then eventually come back round to doing the one thing they really want to express themselves in, and often it is a craft of one kind or another, whether it is stonemasonry or bricklaying or painting or calligraphy. I've noticed just how much reward it gives people...."
I know a lot of people who are very keen on crafting, from simple things that can be run up in a spare hour to major projects.
In the sure and certain belief that somewhere is a piece of information that can change a person's life, I am sharing a few of the crafts sites I know of and I hope that some of them might inspire a few people.
If you know of some good sites I've missed please tell me about them in the comments at the end of this post.

Knitting

The UK Handknitting Association provides free patterns and links to knitting groups.
Stitchlinks promotes the health benefits of knitting and has some free patterns
If you feel you have no one ot knit anything for, knit for Battersea cats and dogs home or various other charities need blankets or garments. 
Look for local groups that meet to knit and natter, find them in your local library, local free papers or online.

Cookery

Baking has really taken off on the telly. If you've been inspired to have a go try some of these.

• The Great British Bake Off.
• The Hairy Bikers.
• National Baking Week.
• And for the basics, try Delia's site. 

Sewing

Try a sewing class from Libertys.
Then have a go at some projects or join a stitching group. 

Beading

Maybe you would like to add beads to a project or make bead jewellery.

Paper crafts

Quilling is the art of making pictures from curled stands of paper.
But there are lots of other paper projects to choose from.

Woodwork

Woodworking requires a few more resources but can achieve some beautiful results. 

• UK Workshop
• Woodworking
• Woodworkers Institute

Other Traditional Skills

Lots of places offer short courses and longer apprenticeships in traditional skills.
The PSTA offers courses in traditional arts.
The Prince's Foundation has apprenticeships in traditional skills.
Or you could try willow weaving or sustainability skills.

General Craft Info

There are lots of sites dedicated to various crafts, try some of these

• Craftzine
• The Crafts Council
• The Guardian's Craft section
• Start UK - sustainable living including upcycling and recipes
• Cut Out And Keep, lots of craft projects in a variety of media
• Love Maxi's craft and cooking blog
• Craft Juice
• Mini Eco crafts

Selling your work

If you're ready to sell your crafts you might want to try Folksy for selling in the UK.
Or Etsy the US site has a Europe section.
If you prefer face to face sales, try finding a market stall.


N.B. - make sure you're not selling something made from a copyrighted design.

____________________________________________________________

What craft sites would you recommend?

www.good-housekeeping-magazine.co.uk/ June 2012 pg 39

TV Detectives

I'm a sucker for TV detective and police shows. CSI, NCIS, Lewis, Midsomer Murders; you name it I watch it if there is a mystery to solve.

One I've recently taken a liking to is Castle, in which the 'ruggedly good looking' man from Firefly follows a New York police detective and helps to solve murders with her.

But back up a minute! Mystery writer.... solves murders. Isn't that Jessica Fletcher!

As it happens I love Murder, She Wrote as well.