Fox on a Boat

I had an urge to start a new blog today. I somehow thought that it would make it easier for me because I had set my standards too high and I could start lower. But I already have two blogs and neither are well know. Yet. And then I figured, it is my blog. I do what I want! So if I don't want to stick to a theme that I doubt I ever even really had, so be it!  Last Sunday I went to Portsmouth with my friend of 16 years. I find it hard to be spontaneous, so I wanted to change that, and impulsively decided we should go to the sea, right now, and then we happily planned it for an hour and booked tickets a week in advance. As we approached the date, I became more and more excited, because I absolutely love the sea, and we had been having an almost Indian Summer and things were going to be fantastic and glorious, of course. Then they predicted a half good, half bad weekend. Saturday was amazing. I was in Edgware for the day, and it was cold-ish, but in a good, healthy, g...

Let's face it, I am terrible at updating blogs. I am quite good at coming up with excuses, though, such as work. Ah, work! I think it secretly is a practical exam. To test endurance and patience. How many popcorn boxes can you pick up before you want to ram one down the next customer's throat? And the still full drinks that manage to slip from your grasp and spill all over the carpeted stairs and your shoes, and the bottom half of your only pair of work pants. The full ice cream tub that spills and gloops all over the place and makes your hands sticky, as you are radioed incessantly about the screen you are cleaning, because customers are waiting and getting very angry because the film is supposed to start in 20 minutes... Which is no better than the customers who come barging in and buy food, then tell you to hurry up for crying out loud* as they are late for their film. And then hurl abuse at you for twenty minutes, even as you give them the food and just want them to pay so ...

During Poetry Parnassus here in London, at Southbank, I went to a poetry workshop run by Poems On The Underground. I joined a small group of people led by an older woman, armed with clipboard, paper and pen. Thanks to London's wonderful transport system, (and admittedly, my own slight lateness), I'd missed about 5 minutes of the workshop, so arrived as the group was completing the first task: Write three lies about yourself. I listened as the group all lied in turn, and we moved to the next task, which was to write three fantasies. I slightly misunderstood and wrote three big lies - but what we had to write was three IMPOSSIBLE things. My statements were all possible, but they still did their job, which was to spark a poem idea. One girl wrote about her pet lion called Jeffrey, which was pretty cool. She'd written it from the perspective of a rejected lover, and the mixing of the two 'plots' was nicely done. Another wrote about a pink unicorn, which was slightly...

...I can't write. I have no time. I have nothing to write about. Already I can hear some of you telling me none of these are true. And yes, time has to be made, and there are many things to write about, and if I'm honest with myself, I don't write so badly as to give up writing completely. However I have been finding it rather difficult to write recently, especially with work. One big problem is that I have a deadline, the end of June, to write enough words to fill a small book. Any words. I was going to mix and match non-fiction as well as fiction, but I am very rusty on the fiction. My childish aspirations of becoming a writer fade away more and more with the passing of time. I also tend to have random moments of intense creativity, in the sense that I suddenly want to make 101 things all at once. (So none get finished.) I then have moments where I just want to sleep and do nothing at all, and I have long discussions with myself about why I am useless at art and writi...

Globe to Globe festival timeline I have not been updating this blog as often as I'd like to.. These last few weeks have been crazy busy - new job, exam preparation, writing and sending off coursework.. I sat my first exam today, one down, one to go. I am not sure about how well I did, only time will tell. However this does not mean I have more free time, as I now have to get prepared for the next one, which will be harder and for which I feel much more baffled. As well as college work, I now seem to be living at work, who delight in giving me long night shifts. I fear I shall turn into an owl soon - though this wouldn't be so bad if I had the eyesight to go with it, and I quite like owls - however I now have no more life, social or otherwise. I can't even socialise with myself any longer, something I greatly love doing.. I suppose it will take time before I get used to this change, and find a way of managing it all so I still get my much needed 'alone time'.. ...

Spring Blossom I've not written for too long. It's not necessarily that I have nothing to write about, it's just forming it on the page that can be difficult.. I can sometimes get really excited about certain things, but then I am unsure of how to phrase them , phrase the experience, the feelings that passed through me then.. Writing is perhaps easy, but writing well - Well, I suppose the same can be said for many things! Poetry, for example. Can you write a poem? Sure you can! Can you write a good poem? If not now, you probably will at some point, if you keep trying. That is what I tell myself, when I look at my poetry and feel talentless. In November, I mentioned I was participating in NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month, where the challenge is to write 50,000 words or more during November. I did write those 50,000 words, and hopefully it helped me somehow. This month I learnt about NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month , where the aim is to wri...

I saw a lovely oil painting of a cat the other day, it inspired me to try and paint some 'blocky cats'. I like them when they look simple. They are both watercolour paintings, but I am working on some acrylic ones, too. :) I plan to paint more often and will be adding paintings to my 'Block Cats' collection in the next weeks or so. :)