New place

I have now moved to julieaday.blogspot.com.

Please come and visit me there to read all about my home organic life and writing life.

Beaty Addicts and Dancing

Did anyone see that programme last Thursday called Beauty Addicts: How Toxic Are You? I watched and taped it and will say that it was a must see programme. It highlighted most of the chemicals I already knew about but I didn't know about baby wipes and washing powder. I can't wait to change to all natural and organic stuff, most likely next year as I have so much regular stuff to use up still. 2008 is the year for being organic for me and my mum.

Anyone watch Strictly Come Dancing? I just love this programme and I think this year's celeb dancers are better than before, esp the women celebs. They are far better than the men so far and the men have a lot of catching up to do now. I esp liked Kelly and Aleesha's rumbas, oh my they were something. I was surprised to see that Kate was kept in by the public and think she probably got a lot of sympathy votes having been at the bottom of the board. Next week the men and female celebs battle it out between them for the rest of the series. Can't wait. I had to tape the show on Saturday cos I started suffering from exhaustion and had to go to bed for the evening. Last week was busy with one of my colleague's away on leave so I was doing the work of 2 people (still am but less busy so far), then I was out shopping all of Sat morning, and my brother came over with his family in the afternoon so still didn't get time to relax. It was only when I sat down to eat dinner that I relaxed and so did my body and I started to feel very tired. By the time Dancing came on, I had to go to bed. I tried to watch it but my head went fuzzy and went back to bed again. I was still not quite right yesterday morning but bucked up in the afternoon and am much better today.

Going organic

Well, I had a successful couple of weekends buying natural and organic skincare products. So far I've managed to buy soap, body wash, and my mum bought soap and moisturiser, oh yes and I bought toothpaste. Now you might think that buying organic and natural stuff is dearer than usual stuff and some of it is, but some of it isn't. Yesterday I bought from Neal's Yard Remedies near here at work a 100ml tube of natural toothpaste which cost £2.75. This proved cheaper than the first organic tube of 50 ml which I bought for £3.45, and also cheaper, albeit by 10p, than my usual conventional 100ml toothpaste. So if I like the second one I might stick with that. I popped into NYR yesterday and bought a few nice smelly things for my mum for Christmas (yes, I know I'm very organised but Christmas will come sooner than we think). Also, at the weekend I bought a book called A Slice of Organic Life about living green and organic. I've yet to read it but it does have in it pages about the chemicals in everyday products which I've already read about. Can't wait to read it as I am so keen to start going all organic.

I won't be going to Simple Spa again for my birthday next month. I phoned them up last week to book treatments only to find out that they no longer do the simple treatments that my mum and I had in August and now do more involved therapies with mitts and stones, which we don't want. I think I might go back to the hotel we went to 2 years ago but just have a facial and manicure and not the whole spa day as we did then. It's in Westminster so is easy to get to esp we now know where it is from before.

Work is galloping on with Bug, and I am now writing the last chapter. I have just started typing up Chapter 12 so a couple of chapters ahead of myself. Once I've finished this first draft I will go back to the start and revise it all with the notes I've made along the way.

Well, must get back to work now.

Well I'm stumped

I got home last night to a nice shock. I was walking up my road to my house when I noticed that something was different. I looked and looked again and shock horror, the tree outside our neighbour's which has caused all the bother recently was just a stump. The council had ordered for it be to cut down and so my mum got a nice birthday present yesterday seeing men chop it down. They jokingly said that they would try their best to hit my car (ha ha). They didn't, so that was good. Apparently they said that bees only burrow in trees if it's already rotten. Anyway someone else will be coming at a later date to take the stump away. Hooray!!!! I certainly didn't think it would ever happen, but it has and I am so pleased. At least I won't have the possibility of any more branches coming down on to my car during the winter.

On the writing front. I am half way through Chapter 13 of Bug and am enjoying it. Can't wait to finish the first draft and get on with rewriting the 2nd draft.

Well, must get on with some work now.

Recycling and chemical nasties

I didn't mention before that a couple of weeks ago my mum and I found our local Tetrapak recycling bank, which I'm really pleased about. As family and work colleagues know, I am very proactive when it comes to recycling and I wanted to recycle my milk cartons which were tetrapak. I read in our local paper the other week there were 2 local but mum couldn't find one and we found the other. So now mum goes up there (15 mins walk from home) about once a month to take my cartons.

I have recently decided to try and go organic and green with my cosmetics at home ie face and hand washes etc. I have been reading in the papers and in health magazines about these chemicals called Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate (SLS), aliminium, parabens and propylene glycol all can cause harm to the skin. SLS was in the toothpaste so I bought some organic SLS free toothpaste, aliminium is in deodorants so I bought an aliminium free roll-on, and am now looking at other products that don't have these things in, and a lot of wash stuff does. There is a Neal's Yard Remedies place near here at my work place so I might go and have a look lunch time today instead of writing. I said to my mum last night that all these chemicals are like these E numbers and additives that people are creating about now. Why food producers put all these things in the foods I don't know especially when they are saying they can cause all these problems in children now, although this scenario was brought up years ago.

Well, must get on with some work.

My 2nd SCBWI talk

I went to another SCBWI talk last night and really enjoyed it. I found the pub which is only a minute or so from Charing Cross station and had a dinner of rib-eye steak, chunky chips and a bit of salad (tomato and red onion - very hot). Then some water. I had to wait for a while because a few members were having a private chat before I was able to go up to the room to the meeting. I bought 5 books by the author, one of which I got signed, and I caught up with what's happening with a couple of friends I knew via the RNA, and chatted to a couple of other writers I know now. Then was the talk by the author, Sally Gardener, who has written for all children's ages and is now writing for teens. She was a very interesting lady who has had an interesting career. She was found to be very dyslexic when she was a child and because no one knew what was wrong with her in those days she was sent to a maladjustment school. Because of her disability she went into theatre costume design for some years until she wasn't happy anymore then she reinvented herself by saying she always wanted to be an illustrator. That was her second career, which led her to her third as a writer. What I should say that she discovered early on that she had the wonderful gift of seeing pictures of things in her mind which has helped her in her second career. She said that she loves writing for children and wants to continue doing so for as long as she can, and doesn't see herself as writing for adults as she doesn't particularly like adults much, and because of her disability she can relate to children more. She told us that when writing for children, the words should be manageable and gave an example that when she writes and comes across an awkward word she asks herself if little Johnny would struggle with this word and says yes so puts in other easier words instead. Also, we should never patronise because children could be cleverer than the writers. When we think about pacing we should stay on edge, and possibly think of music of its ups and down tempo. She said that we should have a voice which is how we write, and it is best advised to go through an agent because she finds hers very helpful and beneficial. All in all I had a good time, and on the way home I bought a sultana flapjack which I ate on the trains home and really enjoyed, although I didn't think it had as much taste as GM's bars. I got home about 9.20pm and thought my body would be so tired I would sleep through the night but I think I had too much to drink last night and ended up getting up and couldn't sleep that well after that, and now I am tired. Thankfully I am enrolling this morning and it's quite quiet so I can cope. Back in the office and busy this afternoon.
Must go now and get on with enrolment.

I'm still alive

I haven't posted here for a while for 2 reasons. 1) Got busy at work then 2) I got sick with a cold-cum-viral infection and have only just returned to work today after being off for just over a week. It started as a cold then once that died off I got tired and weak, so went to the dr's who said it's a viral infection and gave me the rest of the week off. Needless to say during that time I didn't do any proper writing, just notes here and there, oh and final amendments to the story I'd already sent to a small press magazine. Meanwhile I did get a rejection letter from Woman's Weekly but I have another story in mind to send. I didn't do any writing today but probably will get back to work on Bug tomorrow. While I was off I really got into tv cooking programmes and started watching Ready, Steady Cook which I enjoyed. I had already been watching Jamie and Nigella, and have even bought the Nigella Express book, and will probably buy the Jamie book too.

Has anything happened to you that you think it's fate? Well, this happened to my mum last week. She got stuck on a bus in traffic on the way back from shopping and cursed at the time but later changed her mind, because if the bus hadn't have been late returning, she wouldn't have bumped into a woman who works for the council and who she'd spoken to before about the bad tree by our house, and wouldn't have found out that her husband is actually our local councillor. So mum went down the road and spoke to him, in his dressing gown (he had to get up early to contact overseas) about the tree. He said that it was ongoing and thought that it was being dealt with and said he would look into it. Then mum bumped into a neighbour who had already put a claim in to the council about the tree and gave my mum the phone number to check that they'd received my letter. They had and I got an acknowledgement letter 2 days later saying they were investigating the problem. Then my mum finally bumped into another neighbour and found out what had happened to his car which she'd seen being towed away. He'd been in an accident and the front of his car had been seriously damaged causing £3,500 worth of damage. Fate, that was what it was.

Well, must get on with some work now.