Writing

Hi all,

Just in case you're interested I've posted some old stories and poems on MaJaTo Scribes, which is also undergoing a design refresh too.

Disappointed

Disappointed, to say the least.

I thought England had done enough to win last night's football match.

Before the absolute howler from Green we looked very comfortable and dominating. Cracking early goal from Stevie Gerrard and he seemed to be playing really well for the first 30 minutes.

But after Green's error, the game seemed flat. England still did most of the attacking, but seemed to lack something.

To be fair, USA were pretty well organised, and hard to break down. That's how they set up their stall (only one player in the squad is classed as a centre forward/striker) so that made it difficult, but there was hardly any threat to Green's goal (only Green himself!)

I blame the damn Vuvuzelas!

Oh well. A draw is a point. So, all we need to do now is spank Algeria and Slovenia and everything will be cushdy.

Beckham gets told off for kicking a football

As we all know, Beckham is out of the worlds greatest competition, Football's World Cup, after he ruptured his achille tendon in March, but he couldn't resist having a few kicks of the ball despite an on-hand medic warning him against it. Footage can be seen at the link below.

Beckham gets told off for kicking a football

I suspect I'm not the only English fan who watched this and thought, bl**dy hell, wouldn't it be great if they announced he was fit before Friday (staight swap for Wright-Phillips.Sorry Shaun.)

Disney

Piccy of us on recent visit to Magic Kingdom - if you click on it you'll see the e-card version with fanfare n'all!

Yay for me

Here's a link to a caption competition I won recently.
http://www.footballfancast.com/caption-competition-gallery/attachment/capcompwinner26feb-2
Of course, like all Football fans (especially English ones!) I'm gutted for Beckham who is unlikely to feature in the World Cup in June because of a torn achilles tendon.

Here's a link to an article for the local newspaper where I took the photo (from the top front seat of a double-decker bus!)
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/eveningnews24/norwich-news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=xNews&itemid=NOED12%20Mar%202010%2010%3A52%3A07%3A910

I am of course hoping for other things (i.e. stories) to get published this year, but the small amount of kudos for anything published no matter how small is always appreciated :-)

Autism

Here's a really interesting article I read about Autism - well worth a read.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1194841/I-helped-son-beat-autism-making-weetabix.html

I actually found it when searching to see if anyone had ever won anything on the weetabixonemillion competition - I found no one who claimed to have won.....

Anyway, I digress. The article inspired me to find some useful links on autism. My boys are fine but I do know people who do have autistic children and I can only imagine the difficulties they encounter.

http://www.defeatautismnow.com/

http://www.adders.org/natrem_aia.htm

http://www.autism-pdd.net/autism-treatments.html

http://www.whale.to/vaccines/aia.html

Silly sausage

Ben (pointing at me) : Daddy a boy!

Me: S'right. What about mummy?

Ben: Mummy a girl!

Me: Well done. What are you then?

Ben: Ben a boy!

Me: Okay. What about Luke?

Ben (pointing at his brother): Luke's a sausage!!!

Good and sad

Yesterday my brother and his wife were gifted with their second child; a little girl. So, now they have a son and daughter, and I'm pleased that they got what they wanted.

However, this good news was massively over-shadowed when I heard the tragic news that a close friend's wife gave birth to their first born on the 5th but he passed away 3 days later. I'm absolutely gutted for them because I know they will be great parents and I was so keen to see little Harrison playing with Luke and Ben one day. My thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

Shark!

I felt the need to dig around for footage of rare sharks earlier (like ya do!) and when I saw this I had to post it.

It's a "Deep Sea Frill Shark" - I remember seeing it on the news a few years ago (I took a picture of Luke stood in front of the TV because I thought this shark looked super-cool!)

Not happy with Ebay

I went to sell a couple of DVDs earlier and was informed that I had to post them for free because all the big businesses who sell 99.99999% of DVDs on Ebay do so.

Pardon my french, but the cheecky beggers at Ebay can kiss my spotty botty. I may as well just send a cheque to Ebay and throw the DVDs in the bin.

For info

happy new year and all that Jazz.

Sorry, I don't have time for proper blogging as usual.

Just thought I'd mention a new (i.e. old) poem has been added over at MaJaTo Scribes

Shock and Awe

Shock 1
Actually not really a shock - a pleasant surprise. Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the name of" reaching the no'1 spot in the UK singles chart for Christmas - all in aid of stopping another bland Simon Cowell X Factor "song" from taking the festive spot. Okay, I'm pretty sure some people reading this blog won't be fans of ROTM's music (and I personally would've loved a Christmas song to be the anti-Cowell weapon), but Cowell had to be stopped sooner or later and the smash the system theme of "Killing..." captured the imagination of the public. ROCK ON!!!

Shock 2
The tragic news of Brittany Murphy dying at the age of 32. A total shock.

Shock 3
Again not a shock, more of a "sods law". I (and several members of my family) have the flu just in time for Christmas. At least there's a couple more days to get it out of the system and on the bright side I've finished my shopping and have nearly wrapped up all the presents!!!

Awe
Awesome actually - less than 100 days to go until I'm in sunny Florida for the 6th time!!!!! Yeah for me and my family too!!!!!

Feeling festive?

Little Ben's got in the spirit. Frequently throughout the day he walks up to people and says "oh oh oh, erry mistmas!" Bless :-)

Here's a picture of the festive little fellow last Christmas (at the grand age of 1)

In writing mode

After a few years out of the habit I've started writing again.

Writing time has always been limited, but with the two nippers running round the house and increased day-job demands the small amount of time available became almost non-existent. During the past 6 years I've written a few stories here and there, but they've felt forced, and the end result was stories I wasn't happy with and didn't have the time to work on them properly.

The challenges of parenthood has brought opportunities too. Over the last year I've somehow found time to write a couple of very short stories (for the young picture book market) and these went down well with the boys.

It's only recently that I decided to revisit one of them and put some effort into refining it and submitting it to a publisher, which has given me the buzz I've been missing.

Yesterday I sat down and wrote a new picture book story in 30 minutes, and after a review with my in-house Editor (handy having a teacher for a wife!) it was refined to the point of being fully satisfied with the story within 2 hours. A publisher has been identified and I'll be submitting that story in the next couple of days.

That'll be 2 submissions in a week!!! The only pain is waiting 6+ months and potentially never hearing anything.

Still, that gives me plenty of time to work on the next stories. I've already got 4 more in the pipeline and hope to complete them by the end of the year! :-)

The stories are now written for my boys; getting published will be a bonus! :-)

Visit MaJaTo Scribes

Wear your old band t-shirt to work day! 4th December 2009

BBC Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq has declared December 4th as the second Wear Your Old Band T-Shirt To Work Day. Oh, man, too much choice. Carter USM, Pixies, Frank Black, Nirvana, Pop Will Eat Itself, Mudhoney, Tanya Donelly, Honey Buzzards, Kingmaker, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins.....they're only the ones I can remember off the top of my head.....the list goes on and on and on....!