It's Saturday night!  WOO HOO!  So, what are your plans?  A romantic meal out with the love of your life?  A pint down the pub?  Or a night on the town, dancing until the wee hours?  Well, it all sounds very appealing, but tonight, my friends, I am staying in, on my own, with nowt but a bowl of olives and a glass of wine for company.  Why?  Because such a night is well overdue...

Last weekend I came down with tonsillitis - AGAIN.  I was at my mate Darrens' catching up with my old chumlies when I woke up feeling decidedly ropey.  My mates blamed the Red Stag I had been drinking the night before (I strongly recommend the Black Cherry variety) and I put it down to being a bit run down.  By the end of the day I was dropping penicillin and huddled under a duvet next to the barbecue.  NOT fun.  
Of course I tried to push through it, but Alison made me go to bed for a few hours.  Very sensible.  Lisa then pointed out that maybe my immunity would be a bit better if I actually took it easy once in a while.  I have no idea what she means.  Okay, so I'd been out late on the Thursday, attended an evening meeting on the Wednesday and enjoyed a bevvy or two on the Tuesday, but that's normal.  Right?

Maybe she has a point - maybe I have been burning the candle at both ends.  But then, maybe it is a symptom of my recent rise in the responsibility stakes.  Okay, so I've had a job that requires a level of maturity since I graduated, but this home ownership thing has thrown me.  All of a sudden, I am responsible for the upkeep of the roof over my head, owe Virgin Money more cash than a bear to imagine and not only need to get Critical Illness cover but a Will to boot!  Well, I'm sorry, but whilst I have to accept that this means I have reached a new milestone in my life, I refuse to "settle down".  In fact, I think I am rebelling against the notion.  
That said, my nesting tendencies have also kicked in.  I spent the last week decorating my lounge with my dad - and it is looking fantastic.  Of course, this means that I have an overwhelming desire to paint all the other rooms, go out and buy more furniture and get all my pictures up... whilst still wanting to go out and party.  Along with my creative pursuits, I guess it's no wonder I'm falling apart at the seams.
Yes, I need to slow down - so tonight I am going to stick on a DVD and do my best to keep my diary as free as possible for the next couple of weeks.  Okay, so I have plans on Monday (pizza!) and Tuesday (plumber!) but after that nothing for over two weeks other than an appointment to give blood and a date at a spa.  And I plan to keep it that way.  Sadly, to quote Oscar Wilde, "I can resist everything except temptation" - and there are tasty morsels of fun all over the shop.
Wish me luck...

Well hello there...
So I trust you all had a smashing Sunday?  I spent it commencing "Project Upcycle" - yep, that's right, I've given up on the decorating and decided to start having fun with my furniture instead.  Today I've been covering one of my bookshelves in pages of a novel and an A to Z atlas whilst my mate Nic made an iPod cover out of old bits of fabric I've collected over the years.  I've by no means finished, but think I've made a good start - and can't wait to revamp the table I acquired off Freecycle this week.  Yep, as in I got an extendable table, gratis.  LOVE it!

That isn't the only project I have started this week - but, alas, I can't tell you much about the other two, especially "Project Difficult,"  which has the backing of politicians, writers and media moguls alike.  No word of a lie.  I just hope that the campaign, directed at young women in particular, gets off the ground.  It could be big...
Oh yes, and on a less grand scale, me and my mate Chris have started making plans for a web-based comedic campaign.  Yep, we're going to take on all those dating gurus who, in a nutshell, tell women that the only way to bag their man is to play to his needs and big up his ego - all at the expense of their own.  Okay, so I'm over simplifying things, but you get the idea.  Personally, I can't wait.  Chris, on the other hand, has a lot of reading to do before we can start!

Well, I think I may have said too much already, so I shall stop - and maybe get back to the upcycling, email my partners in crime at "Project Difficult" and send Chris his reading list.  
Bring it on...

Happy Monday!
Okay, so maybe not - but wasn't the weekend great?  Well, sorry to brag but mine was - not in a particularly flashy way, but in a rather smugly satisfactory way.
First, there's the writing.  On Saturday I finished the first draft of my second novel.  Yes, you read that correctly.  FINISHED.  And I admit without shame that I did a little jig once I'd hit the save button.
But that's not all:  I have made an appointment to meet with a professional editor who has agreed to look at novel number one.  This is somewhat terrifying (what if she says it's shit?) but really rather exciting...
And then, my dear friends, we have my other creative pursuits.  I have started a new painting AND am planning to record a podcast with mate and stand-up comedian Chris.  You see, after a rather heated (and alcohol-fuelled) debate about the advice given to women on dating by supposed experts, I thought it would make a rather amusing discussion - as well as future blog (watch this space!).  And Chris, I know you read this blog, so there's no getting out of it now:  We've gone public.

Then, of course, I have to say something about my little flat (come on, it's been a  least a  week since I last did...)  Whilst the flaky paint situation continues to flout my attempts to decorate the kitchen (I suspect it hadn't been treated with much TLC by the last owner), everything else is coming together - it was only half an hour ago I received an email confirming that my service charge had finally been sorted after a two month battle.  And, to top it off, the more time I spend in the area, the more I like it.  Yesterday I headed back down to Hackney for a swim in the London Fields Lido and a mooch along Broadway Market - a lovely morning topped off with a walk along an achingly cool bit of canal.  Yep, I admit it, East London has got me hooked.
Funnily enough, my happily hectic weekend has left me rather tired, even if in a  rather satisfactory way.  And, what with all the warm weather and paint fumes in this flat (oil + emulsion = interesting concoction), I think I may have to love you and leave you so I can head off to my pit.  Or rather, my lovely boudoir in the making.  As soon as I get that bloody kitchen finished...

Three minutes to go...
I'm watching the World Cup Final, or rather have had it on whilst I natter to Lisa on the phone, finish painting my nails and do my ironing - all things I should have probably done a bit earlier on during my week off.  Sadly a bad dose of tonsillitis left me with only a couple of days to get done every thing I had planned.

I admit that feeling like I had a load of nails stuck down my throat, a bag of hot coals of my head and lead weights danging from my limbs for the first three days of my week off left me in a bit of a funk.  But one thing that kept me going was thinking positively.  One of my mates challenged me to post three positives a day on Facebook and, whilst it was a bit tricky when I felt unable to do much more than crawl from bed to bathroom and back again, I managed it.  And, although as weeks off work go it could have been a lot better, I'm pretty pleased with what I have achieved, all things considered.

Firstly, I finally finished my Peru collage.  For ages I've been trying to figure out what to do with the background - the newspaper print on its own didn't really do it for me yet I couldn't get the addition of sky blue watercolour quite right.  I tried to wash off what I had done - and quite liked the patchy effect, especially when the excess water was sponged up with a bit of kitchen roll.  It's all about technique, you see...
Then, I got my shower fixed - and for about £200 less than the first plumber had quoted me.  Bearing in mind that this cowboy was also going to replace completely the wrong thing and would have left me £350 poorer and STILL without hot water, I'm pretty chuffed.  

But the thing that I'm really excited about is that I've finished the penultimate chapter of my second novel - which means I'm nearly done.  In fact, I could have quite happily polished it off today, but was determined to get at least part of my kitchen painted (it was supposed to be a week of decorating, after all!) - which I did.  And, despite the odd hiccup (let's just say the walls were NOT in a good state), I'm pleased with my progress and reckon I'll get it all done over the next two weekends.  Then I only have four more rooms to go...
So yeah, all in all, things are going pretty well - and this time next week I may well have finished the said novel, set a date to meet an editor about the first one (watch this space!) and have my kitchen done and dusted!  Along with a handful of social engagements in the diary, next week is looking to be even more positive than this one.
Just a shame I have to go back to work...