Now that feels a little better. These past seven weeks have been busy. So busy. And I’m guessing that, due to the lack of posting, you’ve noticed. Yup, I am back to working to the point of exhaustion and not having a moment to read for pleasure never mind putting any written thoughts to paper. The stories are gathering dust. But hopefully not for too much longer.

Half term has come upon me with something of a surprise, but just in the nick of time. So far this break Steve has watched me sleep for a remarkable amount of time – not in that weird, ‘I’m watching you’ kind of way, just because I’ve done nothing else. If he blinks he misses the moment I drop from conscious into a sleep induced coma. Having said this, today I feel a little closer to ‘normal’, a little closer to that chilled, content state I have been cultivating these past two years! I also think this has something to do with being back in my Birmingham nest – as boy orientated as it now is (clothing storage seems to have seeped into most rooms) – as sense of life as it should be. It may only have been a matter of weeks but the living apart was really beginning to take its toll. I have a week now, not only to rejuvenate the mind and body, but (with more than a little hint of cliché) the soul as well.

I’ve also brought two books down the M6 with me – not that I think I’ll be able to complete two, but I thought I should give them the chance none the less. I really want to get to grips with Sabriel and read more than the 100 pages I have managed thus far (averaging 12.5 pages a week is just depressing). I think it has really good potential to be one of my favourite teen spooks. But also, shiny and brand spankingly new, is the third in William Hussey’s Witchfinder series, The Last Nightfall. I am a little devastated that this final instalment of my most recent fave author has been out since September and I have still, in nearly November, to turn the first page. I can promise that merely looking at the cover of this book will be not nearly as exciting as reading it contents!

The book pile has continued to grow though, with three Philip Pullman’s, two Robin Jarvis’ and a Philip Reeve piled on top of the other Garth Nix books I have accumulated. Not sure how long it will take me to actually, but if we approximate 250 pages per book at my current reading rate then somewhere between 3 and 4 years! Ok, something has to change here – even if it means stopping the school work at 8.30pm rather than 10pm and actually finding my life again!!

As for today, I am going to get to grips with my Viking unit of work for the next half term (quite excited!!) this morning, then treat myself to a wander into the city this afternoon. I think a long sit in Waterstones and possibly an indulgent hot chocolate may be on the cards!!

It is fascinating seeing the writing process in its rawest form, seeing the development in language, which I have to say is seriously lacking in general amongst our TV fed youth. I remember, so vividly, whilst carrying out such tasks, why I am so devoted to stories to begin with. The reasons I love to share books and teach writing are the same that spur me on to accomplish my own writing tasks – they’ve just got a little misplaced beneath the ever increasing pile of paper which is my new life. Particularly amongst the more talented of my writers, I find their humour and skill and inspiration which drags me back into the realms of my own dreams. Today was an especially fine example. We have been watching Star Wars to understand how mood and pace can be portrayed in film and in writing; the mood element has entertained me greatly.

The task was set for children to adapt verbs and adverbs (in the first instant) to alter the mood of a scene. Before long we had Darth Vader donned in pink capes or floral ensembles, skipping merrily through the Death Star, his voice no longer a deep rasp but squeakily breathing like a mouse with a sore throat. Luke Skywalker, no longer trembled with fear but jiggled giddily on the spot as if he was desperate for the loo! Some of their scenery descriptions were even more stunning; the malevolently blinking lights of the surrounding console suddenly shimmered and sparkled like soft, animal eyes; like the galaxy of stars shining in the bright night sky beyond. I hasten to add, these suggestions do indeed come from the brightest of stars – those who actually choose to read! Not exactly rocket science, but so very, very important.

These children use their reading experiences to inspire their writing, it creates sponges of talent which absorb every little element of detail you can throw their way. It is so wonderful to experience and so unbelievably incredible to know that in some small way, this writing is being honed by little old me. It is by no means perfect but it is such a motivating experience! It gets my typing fingers twitching and my own creative juices working over time – if only my brain were not so saturated come the evening. My down time so far has not even seen my knitting skills put to any use, despite having a brand new book to play with. It has been so exhausting, these first few weeks, that I have only managed to read in erratic fits and starts. But its all good. I was chatting to a friend tonight (ok, so might not have worked allllllll night. I have also had three mini calls with Steve. And had to get y brother to rescue my petroless car from outside my flat – technically not my fault. Angles and gravity played a BIG part. So yeah, not really worked all night. Really can’t moan then!) and he asked, like others, if I was happy. And I am. So very much. Obviously there are a few tweeks I would make to my existence, but then who wouldn’t? And happiness, lets be fair, is the biggest hurdle to get over – without it we will accomplish nothing.

As it is, I have accomplished a vast amount in these past six weeks and those positives need to be put pride of place, instead of focussing on the myriad of things we have yet to accomplish. This was always part of my negativity – I forget the good in place of the bad (gosh my Literacy set would be complaining about my poor adjectives there!) but I genuinely believe my mind set has altered, permanently. And this mutual inspiration is partly responsible – if I can keep my class enthused and creating and happy, they in turn will push me on to greater things. They might even convince me to actually post out my submissions! We can hope!

Right, waffling done. Night all.

Steve had joined me ooooop north and along with my brother and E, realised that it was far too perfect a day, far too rare an occasion to waste inside a one bedroom flat, despite the bonus of Sky. We didn’t go far but had a walk through the reservoirs and trees of Rivington to the mock Norman Castle ruins, basking in sumptuous sunshine. Its a while since we clambered walls and climbed up trees (to be honest, that was mainly the boys) and certainly even longer since we care-freely gathered conkers and twizzled long sticks between our fingers as we walked by the long grass. Scents of hay and summer lingered long on the air despite the colours and tones glowing softly of autumn, the distant swell of winter somehow a strange anticipation. We knew our time was short; it was exciting – like those extra five minutes in bed once the alarm has rung, the rebellious feeling of leaving work while others slave away, that extra biscuit no one watches us eat! It may have been an old haunt and a well trodden path, but this was genuinely one of the best days the year has offered up.

According to my brother, this is his album cover!

It is of course not a real castle (although my wishlist will count it as such!) but it fits with the fairy tale feel which goes with much of the surrounding area. William Lever, the first Viscount Leverhulme liked his follies. Not only did he have constructed a twisting, turning, mesmerising series of oriental staircases, bridges and monuments around the wooded hill (The Japanese Gardens) leading to a particularly well known local site, the Pigeon Tower, Leverhulme also wanted a castle. Begun in 1912, this particular indulgence was apparently designed to resemble Liverpool Castle, and is named accordingly. I don’t care that its not real. I do care that although it was never completed, vandals over the years have broken the ruins even further so as to unpick so much of its beauty. It has been made ‘safe’ over the years so still maintains some majesty, but not on the scale it deserves.  However, it stands proud on the bank of the lower reservoir, it is still a favourite place to visit, an inspirer of memories and fantasy.

Such a wonderful day; swiftly followed by mild rains and the potential of snow before the week is done. Odd it is indeed, but so bloody marvellous its untrue. Cherish such days for they are those of lasting memory; of scents and tastes and laughter; of family, of friends and a splice of happiness which will linger, always.

Steve commented this evening that I should try hard not to let this page go . . . I haven’t, I promise but I hadn’t actually realised that may be how it is being perceived. I hadn’t actually stopped to think about the gaps in my blog and the lack of thought passing through my head as to it’s maintenance. I think that’s ok, for now, I have enough to keep ticking through but I think my balance is coming. In so many ways it feels like I have never been away from teaching, I am loving it – the seeing room for improvement and the plotting and planning the fun activities which address it. I love my new role, somehow I feel a sense of confidence and belonging which has not been part of my teaching world for the longest time. But it is so strange having to get used to this level of work again – being self motivated and self challenged is definitely easier on the little grey cells and one’s sleep patterns than the work created by others. But it is different, there is a certain level of self-motivation involved which was missing under previous employments, a sense of control which provides a little extra room to breathe – although my Numeracy books won’t exactly mark themselves!

I guess everything in life is all about balance. Afterall, without the downs and the lows, how can we ever begin to appreciate the positive and bright. Without work when will we learn to better use our free time. Without the gaps in my writing, how will you or I ever learn to miss it?!! Heehee!

The sleeplessness often remained, but with an excitement only usually reserved for Christmas eves or pre-holiday giddiness – I just couldn’t wait for my next day to start. I simply could not wait to wake and start my new day of creativity and contentment. No longer occupied with the thousands of unwritten tasks but with the prospect of opportunity and the unknown. I am not missing those nights as such because I am entering a new phase of Sunday emotions. So far they have been calm – incredibly sleepy, but calm; serene with a hint of happy anticipation for my each new Monday. The flat has embraced me and made me relaxed and content in a very different way. It is still hard to drop off because the lists have begun again – but they are not filled with resentment over their incompletion, rather a mental organising of that part of my brain solely occupied with education – it has yet to infiltrate the other sections, but I am sure occasions will arise. Thus keeping me in some form of control.

However, last night (or now, as this was written) was different. As much as my body, weary with cold (yep, the rain and bitter wind, coupled with the new term bugs have given me my first ill of the academic year) was yearning for sleep, as much as my head lolled and eyes drooped, as soon as I hit the pillow I was wide awake. For the bed suddenly felt bigger than ever. This was the first weekend in which Steve had visited the North. The final piece of the puzzle was in place making this flat my home. My counterpart, my other half was here. His shoes lay in the middle of the room. His toast crumbs on the kitchen counter. His unwashed mug on the book case. It was complete. But then came Sunday night and his train home to Birmingham. Even though I have not really noticed the time apart these past couple of weeks as it has flown by in a moment, tonight I felt the void as I drove away from the train station. It is probably more to do with the desire for someone to feed me chicken soup, but everything suddenly felt quite empty. I couldn’t sleep. We’d had a lovely weekend, seeing lots of people, mooching an antiques warehouse, eating proper meals (we neither cook well when alone); but not even the happy thoughts of this helped soothe me into a very much needed slumber. Once again, Sundays suddenly suck.

But if they didn’t, Fridays wouldn’t be quite so exciting.

CLICK ME

I missed out as a giver last year although was lucky to receive copies of The Blind Assasin by Margaret Atwood and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. But this year I would not only like such books to pass through my hands, I would like to share the love! You can currently vote for your top ten books, books you think should be added to the list of suggestions currently being compiled. The top one hundred (see below) are and interesting bunch and do contain those that I would also suggest, such as Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, The Woman in White, The Handmaid’s Tale, Rebecca, amongst others. I have had a little ponder and I am still not too sure of what others will make my voting list but I think it is a worthy waste of my relaxing time this evening! I always find it interesting how highly To Kill a Mocking Bird ranks. Not because I doubt its worth, I think it is a remarkable book which of course everyone should read, but because it was the only book Harper Lee ever published; ever wrote as far as I know. It was THE book which brought my teenage laziness into check, it was the teaching that really got me back on the literary journey; it should (and is) currently heading the World Book Night recommended list. It is just completely astounding to me that nothing else of greatness ever came from such a great hand and mind blowing to think of just how many more lives have been affected by it. I will certainly be adding it to my voting list.

So, voting is happening at the moment with short listing due in October 2011. It is during this month in which we register as givers – I think even if you do not intend to be a giver of the reading joy, you should definitely get to voting! The actual World Book Night next year, I believe, will be April 23rd. If nothing else, have a ponder of the top 100 and see how many you have read, or how many you would quickly disregard!

Dates in the diary people – free books, free joy! Can’t be bad.

The 2012 Long List – ordered by number of votes:

1    To Kill a Mockingbird    Harper Lee
2    Pride and Prejudice    Jane Austen
3    The Book Thief    Markus Zusak
4    Jane Eyre    Charlotte Bronte
5    The Time Traveler’s Wife    Audrey Niffenegger
6    The Lord of the Rings    J. R. R. Tolkien
7    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy    Douglas Adams
8    Wuthering Heights    Emily Bronte
9    Rebecca    Daphne Du Maurier
10    The Kite Runner    Khaled Hosseini
11    American Gods    Neil Gaiman
12    A Thousand Splendid Suns    Khaled Hosseini
13    Harry Potter Adult Hardback Boxed Set    J. K. Rowling
14    The Shadow of the Wind    Carlos Ruiz Zafon
15    The Hobbit    J. R. R. Tolkien
16    One Day    David Nicholls
17    Birdsong    Sebastian Faulks
18    The Help    Kathryn Stockett
19    Nineteen Eighty-Four    George Orwell
20    Good Omens    Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
21    The Notebook    Nicholas Sparks
22    The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo    Stieg Larsson
23    The Handmaid’s Tale    Margaret Atwood
24    The Great Gatsby    F. Scott Fitzgerald
25    Little Women    Louisa M. Alcott
26    Memoirs of a Geisha    Arthur Golden
27    The Lovely Bones    Alice Sebold
28    Atonement    Ian McEwan
29    Room    Emma Donoghue
30    Catch-22    Joseph Heller
31    We Need to Talk About Kevin    Lionel Shriver
32    His Dark Materials    Philip Pullman
33    Captain Corelli’s Mandolin    Louis De Bernieres
34    The Island    Victoria Hislop
35    Neverwhere    Neil Gaiman
36    The Poisonwood Bible    Barbara Kingsolver
37    The Catcher in the Rye    J. D. Salinger
38    Chocolat    Joanne Harris
39    Never Let Me Go    Kazuo Ishiguro
40    The Five People You Meet in Heaven    Mitch Albom
41    One Hundred Years of Solitude    Gabriel Garcia Marquez
42    Animal Farm    George Orwell
43    The Pillars of the Earth    Ken Follett
44    The Eyre Affair    Jasper Fforde
45    Tess of the D’Urbervilles    Thomas Hardy
46    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory    Roald Dahl
47    I Capture the Castle    Dodie Smith
48    The Wasp Factory    Iain Banks
49    Life of Pi    Yann Martel
50    The Road    Cormac McCarthy
51    Great Expectations    Charles Dickens
52    Dracula    Bram Stoker
53    The Secret History    Donna Tartt
54    Small Island    Andrea Levy
55    The Secret Garden    Frances Hodgson Burnett
56    Lord of the Flies    William Golding
57    Persuasion    Jane Austen
58    A Prayer for Owen Meany    John Irving
59    Notes from a Small Island    Bill Bryson
60    Watership Down    Richard Adams
61    Night Watch    Terry Pratchett
62    Brave New World    Aldous Huxley
63    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time    Mark Haddon
64    Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell    Susanna Clarke
65    The Color Purple    Alice Walker
66    My Sister’s Keeper    Jodi Picoult
67    The Stand    Stephen King
68    Cloud Atlas    David Mitchell
69    The Master and Margarita    Mikhail Bulgakov
70    Anna Karenina    Leo Tolstoy
71    Cold Comfort Farm    Stella Gibbons
72    Frankenstein    Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
73    The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society    Mary Ann Shaffer
74    The Picture of Dorian Gray    Oscar Wilde
75    Gone with the Wind    Margaret Mitchell
76    The Graveyard Book    Neil Gaiman
77    The Woman in White    Wilkie Collins
78    The Princess Bride    William Goldman
79    A Suitable Boy    Vikram Seth
80    Perfume    Patrick Suskind
81    The Count of Monte Cristo    Alexandre Dumas
82    The God of Small Things    Arundhati Roy
83    Middlemarch    George Eliot
84    Dune    Frank Herbert
85    Wolf Hall    Hilary Mantel
86    Stardust    Neil Gaiman
87    Lolita    Vladimir Nabokov
88    Midnight’s Children    Salman Rushdie
89    Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone    J. K. Rowling
90    Shantaram    Gregory David Roberts
91    The Remains of the Day    Kazuo Ishiguro
92    Possession: A Romance    A. S. Byatt
93    Tales of the City    Armistead Maupin
94    Kafka on the Shore    Haruki Murakami
95    The Magus    John Fowles
96    The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas    John Boyne
97    A Fine Balance    Rohinton Mistry
98    Alias Grace    Margaret Atwood
99    Norwegian Wood    Haruki Murakami
100    The Wind-up Bird Chronicle    Haruki Murakami

I may be shattered and beginning to feel a little weight of all the things I still don’t know (a frustration I have to quickly admonish) but I am quite a happy camper right now. The new job and living situation is definitely a challenge – a refreshing one but one without its undoubted weariness. I think I fell asleep on poor Steve during several times over the weekend!! More than ever my weekends feel like a prized commodity and my time with the boy already feels so precious. Tonight, brain numb and swimming in all the new terms and concepts (I am thinking though, they are not really new, just renamed! I’ll crack it!) was the first night I came home and was really very gutted that my shoulder wasn’t there. Not that there was anything wrong, far from it, I have done nothing but buzz since I started; however, there is an additional warmth to coming home to a place which has those whom we love. Dearly. But it shall get easier. As with everything. I will learn the terms and expectations of my new roles, I will find my rhythms and regain that last missing snap of confidence which can only come with knowing my new life back and forth.

My little flat is a great comfort in these changing times; it is a little nest of me! Filled with all my odds and ends, photos and mis-matched furniture, it is in itself a snug blanket keeping me safe and warm. My bedroom is so tiny and my bed so big that I feel every night like the Princess and the Pea, clambering into a huge mass of duvet ready for a winter hibernating. It is possibly the most difficult I have ever found dragging myself up in a morning! And a dangerously cosy reading place – already more than once I have awoken with my book spilled open and lights still on. Not that much reading has taken place of late, but some – it is certainly there, just not in any great quantity. My current read is Sabriel by Garth Nix – a book I have owned for years but never actually opened! I have also recently added an absolutely stunning copy of The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly to the pile and am pining for that first glimpse of William Hussey’s The Last Nightfall. I did venture into Waterstone’s at the start of the month, but the hallowed pages had still not crossed the threshold. Maybe this weekend? Or maybe we’ll just shut ourselves away and watch all the many (MANY) hours of TV I have already recorded on my new sky box!!

I shall endeavour to call in more regularly from now on – I have lots to catch up with I am sure. Just right now, I need a cuppa, a biscuit and a book flump in my fairytale bed. Sleep well world!

(Below details from Greenmetropolis.com)

"The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood.

The Robber Bride

by Margaret Atwood

Category: Fiction / A – C
Publication date: 19961101
Number of pages: 480

Description:
Zenia is beautiful, smart and greedy, by turns manipulative and vulnerable, needy and ruthless; a man’s dream and a woman’s nightmare. She is also dead. Just to make sure Tony, Roz and Charis are there for the funeral. But five years on, as the three women share an indulgent, sisterly lunch, the unthinkable happens; ‘with waves of ill will flowing out of her like cosmic radiation’, Zenia is back.

What the papers say:
‘It stirs depths that Cat’s Eye did not reach, and grants deeper stronger powers to women’s friendship in distress’ MARINA WARNER

In Stock: 1 copy

The Almost Moon

by Alice Sebold

ISBN: 9780316677462
Publication date: 16 October 2007
Number of pages: 304

Description:
A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this searing portrait of a to-the-death struggle between a mother and a daughter. Clair Knightly and her daughter Helen are locked in a relationship so unrelenting that it has sucked the air out of both of their lives. And as this electrifying novel opens, Helen crosses a boundary she never dreamt she would even approach. But while her act is almost unconscious, it also seems like the fulfillment of a lifetime’s buried desire. Over the next twenty-four hours, Helen’s life rushes in at her as she confronts the choices that have brought her to this crossroads. A woman who has spent a lifetime trying to win the love of a mother who had none to spare, she now faces an uncertain and dangerous freedom.In “The Almost Moon”, Sebold explores the complex ties within families, the meaning of devotion and the fragility of the boundary that separates us from our darkest impulses. This is an unforgettable novel, a raw and powerful story, written with the clarity and insight that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

Author’s Biography:
Alice Sebold is the author of the number one bestseller The Lovely Bones and the memoir Lucky. She lives in California with her husband, Glen David Gold

In Stock: 0 copies

Sun, sea and hopefully a little sangria in beautiful Mallorca.

My summer holidays already had a lot packed in, with moving house and organising my new classroom, but two weeks ago I had a surprising offer; an extra holiday. A girls’ holiday with a difference. On Saturday morning I am flying out to Mallorca for a week of relaxing, reading and sandcastle building with my Mum, Aunty, Cousin and her three little girls. It may have made my organising days a little more compact (hence the rubbish posting this week) but I am really looking forward to it – who knows when this kind of opportunity may present itself again. So poor Steve has been abandoned sooner than planned as the move to the new flat happened yesterday. My internet may not be sorted for around three weeks (hopefully not longer) so I will only be able to post when in an internet range. Needless to say, I shall be back in touch as soon as humanly possible – hopefully with plenty to share. Take care all, and I shall see you soon!