Reading old novels

 I haven't written here for ages but wanted to put my thoughts down on a novel I am currently re-reading. I keep certain novels and read them again at about 12-monthly intervals. I make no apologies for reading all my Jane Austen ones every Christmas. Well, to be honest, this past Christmas I didn't read Mansfield Park. It is my least favourite of her works. Reading her novels is like visiting friends but it is better to dip lightly into them when in the mood.

I am currently reading Away from Home by Rona Jaffe. It is set in Rio in 1960 and was published around then, too. I first read it when I was away from home myself - nowhere exotic, only in London, very young, very naive and trying to fit in, more or less like the characters in the novel. Rona Jaffe understood her characters and even to this day and these very different times, readers can relate to the insecurities and the need to trust partners and friends, to be true to one's self. I think that is what makes this novel so memorable. We do learn a bit about Brazil, about carnival, about the cloistered life rich Brazilian women led in those days, although that was slowly changing. Jaffe was a gifted writer (she died in 2005, I think, although I could be wrong) and her novels build into fascinating stories with very logical endings. She did not criticize the mores of her generation, she simply recorded them and let her readers do the thinking. 

I know Away from Home by heart and I always feel inadequate as a writer when I read it. She brings to life the sounds and smells of Rio, the craziness of carnival in that city, the life of American expats trying to fit in, trying to make the best of their exile while their husbands worked. 

I'll be sorry when I reach the final page of this novel even though I have a stack of "must-reads" which I know I'll enjoy even if they don't quite do for me what this novel does.

The most wonderful time of the year, yes, Christmas will soon be here!

 Christmas is coming! I haven't posted here for twelve months, so I should have a lot to write about. I'll do my best.

I can tell you that I am writing a Christmas novel but I won't have it finished in time for Christmas. I decided last year that I would not write another Christmas romance and as you will have guessed, I have not stuck to my decision. The trouble with writing is that these characters keep walking about in my head, demanding that I write about them. The only cure is to sit down and start. I've been busy with a lot of stuff so I have not had time to really concentrate. However, I am up to Chapter 8 and writing all the odd moments I can.

I visited my daughter in Germany last month. It was wonderful to see her and my grandchildren after a two-year absence. I was really worried about travelling this time. Usually, I take it all in my stride but I got myself into a panic about having to put everything on my mobile - I could just see my phone collapsing and me not allowed on board the airplane because I couldn't show my boarding card, or my vaccination cert or something! In fact, all went very smoothly. Which is a huge relief, because I am going back for Christmas. Hopefully, the current surge in Covid infections will have abated somewhat by then.

When I got home at the end of October I discovered a small rash on the side of my neck and I also had some pain in my neck and shoulder. I decided that a) I had got a mosquito bite while in Germany - the little blighters were coming in out of the cold and buzzing around everywhere and b) my neck and shoulder pain were due to sitting in a draft at some stage of my travels. Imagine my surprise, when I visited the pharmacy to get a cream for the rash which was refusing to go away and I was told I had shingles. I learned that shingles is caused by the chicken pox virus which stays in the body and can flare up, very often due to stress. Well, I have never had chicken pox, so it is still a mystery to me how I got shingles, although I did stress myself out on the travelling bit. Everything cleared up in just over two weeks. I know I was very lucky because anyone I have spoken to who has had shingles tells me how painful it is. Apparently, there is a vaccine against shingles but I did not know that. I learn something new every day.

I am getting into the spirit of Christmas at the moment and I hope that all my readers are too. Although I don't have a new novel out, I have written a few Christmas romances. Have a look and see if one of them appeals to you.

 Winter Walk

I love walking on the river bank at this time of year. The tide is pushing the water upriver creating slivers of silver and sable patterns. A black cormorant flies up river, intent on some errand of his own, flying close to the water. Further along, a group of seagulls float about together, mewing occasionally. Jackdaws chatter on the river bank.

On the side of the hill, the sun is setting behind the houses. The street lights come on, gold globes in the dusk.  And there is the tangy smell of smoke as people light their fires in preparation for a cozy night at home. 

I turn for home, feeling at one with it all. A peaceful evening walk at the end of a frosty day.

Saying goodbye to your characters

 I have finally completed my Christmas novel CHRISTMAS ROMANCE AT WINDFALL LODGE. I have edited it at least ten times, if not more, and each time I have changed something or found a mistake in spelling or grammar or a "he said, she said" too many.

Finally deciding it is fit to publish is always a big step. It is like sending your child to school on that first day. You feel they should do fine but you are just a teeny, weeny bit worried. That is what I felt like when I completed my last edit. I didn't think I could polish it any more but still, there is always this nagging doubt. Could I have, should I have?

 

I get a lot of fun out of writing. It is the only time you can actually change the outcome of certain situations. And I get really attached to all my characters. Some of them are planned from the very beginning while others just show up, as in my previous Christmas novel A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER.

 

I hope that my readers get as much kick out of reading my novels as I do writing them. In particular, I hope they enjoy this latest offering of mine.

It won't be available until October. Here is a preview of the cover:

Christmas is Coming

Well, it is done and dusted. My latest Christmas novella is now available on Amazon as an ebook and in paperback. It has been a lot of fun writing it. I became so attached to the character of Aunt Kitt that when the novel was finished, I backtracked and changed a few things in the story.
I must admit that I do get attached to the characters I write about. Sitting down to write is like opening a door into someone's living room and hearing them talk. Writers occasionally talk about "writers' block" or how much hard work it is to finish a novel. It is never easy, some days everything just flows and other days you're floundering around, wondering where you want to go with this plot line or that character. That is why I love writing Christmas novellas, I think. First of all, they are not as long as novels and secondly, the characters show up and practically write themselves. I often change things about when the story is almost finished and then have to go back and make sure it all matches. But that is part of the fun. I suppose it is the only time that I can control how things work out for everyone.
I get asked sometimes if I base my stories on real people. The answer is no, I do not. But I most likely based them on "bits" of real people. They are a patchwork of people I have known down through all the years and I doubt very much if they would recognize themselves even if I knew myself which bit was vaguely based on which person. As some clever person once wrote "everything is grist to the writer's mill" or words to that effect. By the way, I wonder if anyone knows any more what "grist" means? A lot of words get lost in our automated world. I'll be reading Pride and Prejudice again some time around Christmas and I am always struck by the change in the meaning of "nice" today and in Jane Austen's day - in the late 18th century and the early 19th century, apparently "nice" meant fussy or choosy. 
For now, though, A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER is out there with all the other Christmas novels. I hope readers enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Families and Other Creatures

Families are important and my family, including my extended family, is very important to me. I want to make that statement at the outset. But family members are not always the ones you turn to in times of crisis. Very many people have completely different lifestyles to their nearest and dearest.

I spent most of my late teens and and nearly all of my twenties co-sharing flats in Dublin and London with three other girls. Different girls at different times, naturally. None of my siblings has done that. When I start telling stories about that Chinese girl we had as a flatmate who thought that garlic kept away evil spirits, who dragged me to church every Sunday morning when my body was screaming for a lie-in, all because we once had a discussion on religion and I said I was a Christian, I know my family think I'm making it up. I could tell them about the party we held at New Year when the darts team we played with arrived unannounced and uninvited dragging two kegs of beer and my Scottish flatmate dashed in late and let the haggis she'd brought fall on the kitchen floor - we salvaged most of it and I must say it was very tasty.  Or - less fun - the night I was locked out because someone's mum who was staying with us thought it safer when in London to snick the lock on the door. We lived in the basement and the bedrooms were all at the back so no one heard my calls and knocks. I spent the night on the basement steps and I was never so glad to see the milkman and his float appearing in the early hours to make me feel human again even if I had to wait another hour before someone in the flat got up.

Anyone who has not co-shared will not understand how any of this could happen.
I think my experiences made me more tolerant of other people. I never put a notice on a piece of cheese in the fridge at work warning people off. As far as I was concerned, they could help themselves as long as they left some for me as well. I never got into a tizz as I've seen a work colleague do, over how people put paper in the printer. Yeah, some people make a pig's ear of it and the paper gets stuck and you think you've printed that report off just before the meeting and when you come to fish it out all you hear is that awful bleep bleep. We've all been there but hey, most colleagues get it right and we are all bad at something.

I think the inspiration for my second Christmas novel (untitled as yet) which I am currently working on came from all the different personalities I have met through flat sharing. Two of my flatmates are still close friends after all these years. If I am at a crisis, I can rely on them to give me some down-to-earth advice. After all flatmates very often know you much much better than your family do.

Christmas in the summer

 I have finally completed my last edit on my novel A MAN CALLED GREGOR - preview of the cover here:

Lauren's search for her uncle makes her question everything she believed in.
Available on Amazon as a Kindle and as a paperback from June 2019.

This means that I need to start on my Christmas novel, the idea or perhaps I should say the ideas for which have been going around in my head for a good few weeks now. It is a bit strange to write about Christmas and frost and snow when outside my window the swifts and swallows are dashing about, proclaiming that summer is here. But once I get started, I become lost in the world I'm writing about.

I usually start out with a character and a problem they are experiencing. I don't plan out the chapters, as some very organised authors do. Instead, I write by the "seat of the pants" method, which means sitting down every morning with no clear idea where the story is going to go. By the time I have done my tenth or twelfth edit, the whole thing will be completely different to what I started off with.  I'll have written and discarded tons of pages, well let's say around a hundred or so. Some of the characters will have been axed while others are added or changed to be completely different to my original idea. Yes, it's hard work but it is also a lot of fun. And viewing the finished product is worth all that sweat and all the hours put in.

What are you reading today?

I returned from a trip to London last month and came down with bronchitis, so I have been keeping warm and reading anything I can get my hands on.
For Christmas, one of my nephews gave me A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles. I  enjoyed this book very much. It is really a set of stories about Moscow with a lot of insider tales. Towles is a gifted writer - reading this book felt like sitting chatting to someone who had been in revolutionary Russia and seen it all. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea but I can certainly recommend it.
Apart from that, now that I am feeling somewhat better, I have continued with the editing of my novel A MAN CALLED GREGOR, the tagline for which reads: Lauren's search for her uncle turns into a nightmare. I wrote this several years ago and had put it to one side, as writers sometimes do. Now, having re-read it and spotted some of the holes in the plot, I am having another stab at it. I don't know if it is easier or more difficult to edit an existing piece of work.  I still have some way to go with it but I now do have the cover. See what you think:

I am using the name Peggie Biessmann as this story is more international than my crime and romance novels, which are set in Ireland. this one moves from London to Frankfurt to Croatia.
The only other novel I have written under this name is SPATE OF VIOLENCE which is set in Germany.
Anyway, now that I have the cover ready, I am motivated to get cracking on the editing. I hope to have it available on Amazon as Kindle ebook and paperback by Easter.  Still lots to be done, though.

Valentines for Singles

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. How could we forget with all the hype in the shops? Red heart balloons drifting about all over the place and beautifully romantic cards displayed on every corner. Judging by the advertisements, you can link Valentine's Day to almost anything, except maybe a dose of 'flu.
I read somewhere recently that whereas in the old days, it was all about being single, Valentine's Day celebrations are now more about couples:  dining out in the most romantic restaurant, bouquets of red roses, champagne, jewellery, short weekends away in the sun.
Do singles feel left out nowadays, I wonder? Of course it's not the same if you do your flirting via an app on your mobile. Have we lost our sense of the romantic, of the mild flirtation? I reckon the best thing to do if you don't have a partner right now, is to collect all your single friends, male and female and cart them down to the pub for a few drinks. And I mean the very best champagne.
The (slightly) older generation will remember the times when you met that nice guy and had been on let's say three dates with him and you were starting to get stars in your eyes when you thought about him. And then on Valentine's Day you got this card in the mail, usually humorous, not a mad declaration of love and passion by any means, just nice, it made you smile, you know? But wow! It still gave the old heart strings a bit of a jangle. Maybe you didn't end up together after all but it was fun while it lasted. Even if you cried when it was over.  That was Valentine's Day.

New Year Resolve - A Plea for Slackers

We're a month into the New Year. Remember how we greeted it? Champagne, fireworks, New Year resolutions? Are you smiling smugly and saying, yep, I've kept up my plan. I haven't touched a drop of alcohol since January 1st, been to the gym for a workout every second day, haven't eaten a chocolate...
If you answered "yes" to any of that, I take off my hat to you! Well done you! You are one of those strong-minded disciplined people who are destined to go far. I say this with admiration and a teeny bit of envy.
I do not belong to this wonderful group of people.To quote Oscar Wilde (everybody does, it seems): I can resist anything except temptation. Oh, I'm not proud of it. But I'm not ashamed of it, either. I think I am realistic enough to recognize that there are so many different kinds of people in the world and each of them has a contribution they can make to their immediate society.
It's not that I am swayed by every temptation, you understand. It's just that, having cut down on sweet calorie-laden stuff, I will suddenly decide, what the heck? let's eat a Mars bar. I don't feel guilty when I do this and I don't go back to eating chocolate. It's a one-off thing. I find, too, that the less chocolate I eat, the less craving for chocolate I have.
I'm a firm believer on moderation in everything. I once stayed with a friend who was into healthy eating (the term makes me shudder, I must admit). She even ground her own flour. It took hours to chew what she served up. I'm sure I wore out at least one molar in the process. I'm convinced that she served up grass for lunch one day. Was she any healthier than me? I couldn't tell, I must admit. And that is a comforting thought.
You see, I believe it is the quality of your thoughts, what your interests are, how much you enjoy the company of other people, all of this is what makes you healthy. Of course you shouldn't eat too much fatty foods, you should get enough exercise and keep an eye on your weight, but my reckoning is that you are going to do that if you love life enough.
I'm sure all the experts will be tearing their hair out at my remarks. But look around you, I say. Get involved, get interested in something outside yourself, that will make you happy. And you can "reward" yourself now and again with your favourite food without feeling too guilty about it.
Life is fun!

Post Christmas Blues

Have you ever noticed how many articles are written on "improving your health" after the Christmas and New Year holiday season is over? In the past week, I must have read about half a dozen on the subject of "dry January". Mercifully, there are not as many articles on losing weight. This year everything seems to be concentrated on drinking less alcohol and getting more sleep. Two good ways to start the New Year, I have to say.  But then, I don't drink that much. I like the occasional glass of wine with a meal, I like an Irish Coffee now and again after a meal, and I like to drink a shandy with pasta or pizza. But not every day, you understand. Just whenever I feel like it.  So that's one New Year resolution I can skip.

Regarding sleep/not enough of: I have to admit that I am a bad sleeper. In my heyday (we won't go into how long ago that was!) I needed a good ten hours which I never got owing to having two kids and working a busy full time job. Now, as a retiree, I can sleep all day, except I can't!  I sleep a really deep sleep for maybe two hours then wake up to go to the bathroom and then it's a toss of the coin whether I get back to sleep again fairly quickly or whether I like awake listening to the radio (I have heard some really fascinating stuff on BBC's world service at 4 a.m.) or if I feel too unsettled, I'll pop into the sitting room and turn on the TV to some news channel (France24 is a favourite). I usually read before I put out the light at night, so I don't feel much like reading a book or writing for that matter. I have several books of poetry and I might read through one, or - my favourite occupation at any given time - I'll trawl through my Oxford Book of Quotations. I'll crawl back into bed when I feel sleepy enough and then I will sleep until 9 a.m. I don't let my disturbed sleep pattern disturb me despite reading some of that new book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker where he reckons we all don't get enough of the proper kind.

I haven't seen as many diet suggestions this year but I always look through recipes in magazines. The only thing is, I find that some of the suggested ingredients puzzle me. For example, there was this one for a salmon dish - and I love salmon - but where am I going to find Aleppo pepper and if I do find it, how will I recognize it? Then there's an ingredient for another dish: half a Jalapeno it says blithely with an accent over the n. Where would I get that? Certainly not from my local supermarket which is strong on peas and carrots and potatoes but anything remotely exotic is not to be found there. And let's be honest, in a country town, people are more traditional in their cooking. You've guessed it: I end up substituting what I think belongs in the recipe and it usually turns out fine.

Now that schools are back and the month of January is advancing at the brisk pace of a born-again jogger, we'll all have forgotten whatever it was we decided we had to do for the New Year. Let's start looking at summer holidays. Not long to go now.

Christmas Cards

This blog is also posted on my Peggiesweb blogspot site.

Since the beginning of December I have been getting a trickle of Christmas cards from friends and family. This is a lovely tradition, I always think, and it is such a pity that with the popularity of social media it is dying out.
As an ex-pat, living in Germany, I was often starved for news of friends who wrote once a year at Christmas and updated me on their lives. Even more valuable were those who gave me a thumbnail sketch of what was going on in the country they were living in. Of course, you had the one-liners who simply wrote on the expensive Christmas card "we are all well" and added a pious hope that my family were equally healthy and happy. But even these few lines meant that they had thought about me and my family for a couple of minutes at the very least: they had to pick a card to send from the pile they had bought  and in order to write something, they had to call me to mind. I am a great believer in the power of thought or prayer if you want a better word. I remember when I was in hospital following surgery for breast cancer that I could almost feel the get-well wishes pouring out to me.
But I digress. So here I am thinking about the niceness of receiving Christmas cards and the fun of reading how those friends and family who only contact me once a year are doing. How was it all those years ago, when receiving a letter at any time was a big event? When the post coach with its four horses plied between the cities and towns and delivered news of loved ones far away?In those days, far away really meant just that. Many Irish people who emigrated to the USA never came home again. All they and their families had were these letters, cards and well wishes, all of which were read over again until the next time.
I sometimes think that we kept in touch to a much better extent before the advent of email, whatsapp, skype, etc. Letter-writing is an art, of course, and there were people who, because of the lack of education or abilities, simply could not write a very coherent account of themselves. Nowadays they'd simply send you an emoji - enough said!
I still write Christmas letters to friends or family members who I don't get to see very often. These are getting fewer, though, I have to admit. This is partly due to the fact that the cost of travelling has really come down over the years, and let's face it, it's much nicer to see people face to face than to write to them.
This year I have written all my Christmas letters and sent off all my cards except the very local ones. I hope I have made a few people as happy as I am to hear from them.

A Cozy Christmas Read

The blurb on the back of my Christmas novel CHRISTMAS AT CASTLEDARRA says:

Molly O'Neil is looking forward to a family Christmas at Castledarra. It will be the first time for a number of years that everyone is at home for the festivities. She has some important things to tell them but little does she know that her three children are all at a crossroads in their lives.

The idea for this story came to me some time in the Spring of this year. We all have such high expectations of Christmas or indeed of any major family gathering. Yet we forget that our relatives and friends come to these events with very different feelings. There is a theory that all that advertising of happy faces and close families causes disappointments to spill over into family rows. The beaming faces of the people sitting around the dining table with the perfect meal in front of them and the adorable children hugging everybody do not mirror reality, at least for some families. Aunt Mary is soon going to start complaining about the noisy children, mother-in-law is going to sigh over the undercooked vegetables, sister or brother is going to roll their eyes at their sibling's behaviour. After a couple of glasses of wine, the Christmas spirit will have disappeared up the chimney.

Now, I don't want to be a spoiler, but people are only human, aren't they?  If we realised this, we might not take it all so seriously. The more tolerant families simply laugh at the eccentricities of the other family members. More importantly, it doesn't have to be perfect. The decorations, the Christmas dinner, the whole thing need not look like an advertisement. The most fun I have had in past seasons was one Christmas Day when the electricity went off. No lighting, no cooking. Fortunately, like so many people, I had a huge stock of food bought in and we all had great fun making sandwiches and making do. It brought everyone closer together. And the kids were more than relieved at not having to eat that Christmas staple in many homes: the Brussels sprout.

So this year, decorate by all means and cook the traditional turkey and ham and serve up Christmas pudding or whatever the usual fare is, but don't forget to relax, take time to laugh and more especially, more time to chat to family members who you haven't seen for a while. The festive season should be a people time not a present-giving, eating spree.

Christmas in the Air

There is something very magical about Christmas. We all love the colourful decorations, the candles and the bustle. For my part, at this time of year I love to settle down in front of a log fire, sip a glass of red wine (as sweet as I can get it) or if it is frosty outside, to indulge in a mulled wine and have a plate of mince pies within easy reach. Could anything be cosier on a dark December afternoon?

Although I am a fan of crime fiction, at this time of year I look for gentler stories. I am currently reading an old Robert Goddard novel Hand in Glove which is intriguing to say the least. Goddard is a very talented writer and tells a tale as convoluted as any author I know. In other words, this is a page turner. When I've finished it, it will nearly be Christmas so I'll either pick up a nice family story or I will go back to Jane Austen. Whenever I am feeling fragile, I start to re-read one of her novels. I haven't read Mansfield Park for a long time and it is thicker than her other works, so I must get this out for the festive season. Yes, I know the story and how it all ends happily, but it is a bit like visiting old friends, like putting on your pajamas and sliding your feet into those comfortable slippers.

What do you like to read to wind down at Christmas?

First Taste of Christmas

I spent a long weekend in Frankfurt recently for a family celebration.The Christmas market had just opened so I paid it a flying visit. I really love these markets even if I don't usually buy anything other than mulled wine and a Bratwurst (fried sausage) or a pancake filled with cheese and ham. Yummy.
 But I love the smell of all the spices - cinnamon, aniseed, roasted almonds and of course mulled wine.
I went to Sunday morning Mass in the Dom, Frankfurt's cathedral, which is a huge tourist attraction. This historic cathedral served for 300 years as the site of coronation for Holy Roman Emperors. Although it was more or less destroyed in the Second World War, it still retains that venerable feel of times long past. Guided tours take place when there is no church service being held. The inside is awe inspiring. There's a museum and you can climb the 95 meters to the bell tower to view the city. A word of caution: the stairs are narrow and very steep so if you are a bit creaky on your knees, it's probably better if you skip this. If you can do the climb you'll be rewarded with a breathtaking view of Frankfurt. I must admit I didn't have the energy although I would have loved to be able to view the city and its Christmas decorations.
I love the whole area around the cathedral and the Roemer, with its half-timbered buildings. This time, the Christmas market stalls had been set up but were not open until next day. It all made me  feel how close we are getting to the festive season.

 I am currently editing a novel which I wrote some years ago and a small part of which I have set in the Roemer. I mention the St. Nikolas church, the Nikolaikirche, in the story. It is such a lovely building and very typical of Germany, I think.

All in all, my short trip put me completely in the Christmas spirit so I decorated my apartment today and now I am all set for this happy season.

Christmas Novel

I love Christmas. Today I had to force myself to pass a shop which had a wonderful display of festive decorations including a cute little Christmas tree. There was just no way I would have space for it in my little apartment.
One of the reasons I started writing my Christmas novella, Christmas at Castledarra was because of this love for the family season. Thinking about my childhood and those walks to Midnight Mass when the sky was bright with frosty stars, and later when as a young adult I came home for Christmas, I asked myself the question nearly every writer asks when they are planning their novel: what if? What if Molly has dreams for herself and her family? What if her children have very different dreams and difficulties? Will all of these dreams come true? How will it all end?
And so I sat down and wrote the story.
One of my readers told me the other day that it was her favourite of all the novels I have written so far. "You have to write a sequel", she said and proceeded to speculate on how the story continued. I was both touched and surprised at her interpretation of each character and told her so. She said she felt like they were her personal friends and she would love to keep in touch with them.
These somewhat rare experiences of meeting readers face to face and hearing how much they enjoyed what I wrote has to be one of the most uplifting experiences in my life. It more than compensates for all those times when I sat in front of a blank computer screen or deleted pages of text because that wasn't where I wanted the story to go.
Readers, please, when you finish a book, leave a review even if or perhaps especially if it is a critical one. No writer claims to be faultless. But your feedback is essential and very welcome.

Tea in a Foreign Country

I think it is only the Irish and the British who are enthusiastic, ritual tea drinkers. Nearly every emergency is met with by making a cup of tea. And we have our set rules for making this aromatic drink.
First of all, if you are a genuine tea drinker, you will have a china teapot and loose tea leaves. The kettle is boiled, a drop of boiling water is swirled around the teapot to warm it, then the loose tea leaves are added (I learned: a pinch for each person and one for the pot) and then the boiling water is added. After that, it is a matter of whether you like it "weak" or "strong", with milk of course and very often with a spoon of sugar. If you were careful how you poured it our, most of the tea leaves stayed in the pot and a few only ended up at the bottom of the cup. There was a tradition (almost certainly not in the finest families) of upending the teacup into its saucer and telling your fortune on the shape of the tea leaves which fell out. My mother could always make out a ship or an airplane or a bag of gold in the messy wet tea leaves, all of which caught our imagination.
Nowadays I use teabags because they are less messy although I know a few true blue tea drinkers who buy their tea leaves loose. But I still "warm" the mug before pouring boiling water on the tea bag. And I like to sit quietly and enjoy the tea. Now, coffee is a different matter. I drank a lot of coffee in my working days and I always associate it with working at something as I drink it. 
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea is a quote from Henry Fielding and there is a lot of truth in it. What better way to pass an afternoon than gossiping about all our acquaintances while sitting around a tea table with a cake stand in the middle which groans under the weight of delicious little tea cakes of all kinds? 

Mainland Europe does not have the same affinity for tea as we do. Recently, when I was in Amsterdam, I stopped at the Tourist Centre and ordered Dutch apple tart (delicious!) and tea. This is what I got, fellow tea drinkers, prepare to weep with me:

 

Actually, it tasted quite good despite appearances but give me the real thing any time! And I used some of that cream on the apple tart to put in my tea. 

Time for a cuppa!

Getting Back to Normal

I can't believe that I haven't written anything in this blog for a month!  It's amazing what I find to do instead of sitting down and writing and all the time I feel guilty because I haven't been editing that novel I wrote some years ago nor have I put finger to keyboard to write this blog. So here goes.

I spent a wonderful week in North Holland with my daughter and grandkids at the beginning of October. We had a few stormy days (just like real life) but otherwise the weather was pleasant. Lots of walks on the beach which stretches for miles and miles along the coast. The children had plenty of dips in the sea and especially enjoyed sliding down the sand dunes. We went to a fairy-tale themed park which they just loved and also to a maritime museum where they could admire the various fish swimming about as we walked through glass tunnels. In the evenings we strolled down to the beach to watch the sun go down and they enjoyed running around in the dusk.

We stayed in a holiday village in a nice big house with a garden and patio, and I did most of the cooking. With two fairly small children, it wasn't worth going to restaurants and in any case they preferred home cooking. Lots of lazy evenings drinking wine when the kids were in bed.
Holland is a great place to spend a holiday with children because they are equipped for both good and bad weather.
On my way home - I flew in and out of Amsterdam - I had a stroll around Amsterdam. Here is a picture of Amsterdam Centraal, the main railway station, quite an impressive building.

Now I have to roll up my sleeves and get down to doing some writing. I have completed my Christmas novel CHRISTMAS AT CASTLEDARRA and it can be ordered on Amazon as a print version and the Kindle version will be available from the middle of November.

Incidentally, while in Holland, quite a few people asked me for directions which makes me think that mothers - and grandmothers - have that universal  'can I help you?' look. I don't speak Dutch but am fluent in German so more or less guessed what was being said. I replied in English which everyone seems to speak over there and with a bit of sign language and a few laughs, we communicated.

Right, now I really must dig out that manuscript and start work on it. Christmas will be here in no time....
Have a good week everyone.

What are you reading at the minute?

I am reading Jane Austen's Persuasion again. I had been reading crime novels, watching true crime on television and looking at news bulletins - possibly the most depressing of all - and I decided that what I need is some TLC in the form of a book where love wins the day and everyone lives happily ever after. We all need something, some scrap of comfort to hold on to when we think the world has turned on its head. And sometimes we just need to curl up with a book which we know won't disappoint us. I will read Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility later on in the year when it is dark and cold outside and Christmas still seems that bit too far away to feel the warmth of the season of good will.
In the meantime, I have been to a few charity shops and my reading list currently is John Grisham's The Brethern. I have to say that I am not a big fan of Grisham, preferring the film adaptation of his novels. He does write an intriguing story but somehow I never feel much empathy for his characters. That is what writing and reading is all about - it is like picking your friends. There are lots of people you enjoy meeting now and again but you consider them acquaintances, whereas your friends, with all their faults and all your own faults, are still your favourite companions. You turn to them with pleasure whenever you can.
Next on my reading list is Joanna Trollope's An Unsuitable Match. Trollope is a prolific writer - this is her twenty first novel. I have read several of her books. I like her style. I seem to breathe the perfume of an English garden when I open one of her books. She writes about the complexities of family life and family loyalties and although not everything turns out as the characters hope or expect, the endings are always highly satisfactory.
Last on my little reading list is a novel called Corridors of Power by C.P. Snow, first published in 1964. I have never read any of his works. He once wrote that "if you pursue happiness you'll never find it."
I don't know what to think of Corridors of Power, whether I will like it or even finish reading it. I know it is going to be about politics and those involved in politics. Snow himself served in the British Civil Service and in the government. I will have to be in the mood for this sort of book, I feel.
That's the thing about reading. It's like a journey you set out on, not quite sure what or who you will meet on the way but that's what makes it a big adventure.
What are you reading and what made you decide to read it?

Losing Weight

I have lost weight. Yes. I really have. I have dropped a dress size into the bargain. How did it come about?  A bit by accident, really. I have never liked the word "diet" or the words "you must cut out..." and have thus avoided all those suggestions which appear every week in women's magazines.
The first time I found I'd lost a pound or two was when I was dog-and-house-sitting. I took the dog for a walk and combined this with doing my grocery shopping. Which meant leaving the little darling in the car for a short period of time as he refuses to be tied up outside the supermarket. I didn't like leaving him there for any length of time. This, in turn, meant that I practically jog-trotted the five minutes to the store and jog-trotted back to the car - this would be twice the speed of my normal sedate walk. I also had chores to do around the house I was looking after which meant I was active a bit more than normal - not a lot, mind you, but I wasn't lolling around quite as much as usual. When my dog-and-house-sitting was over, I found that I had lost nearly two pounds!  Couldn't figure it out for a while but then I tumbled to it: that little bit of brisk walking every day plus the ten or fifteen minutes of chores around the house was enough to make me lose a small amount of weight.
I lived on the top floor of an apartment block so I took the lift every day. When I moved to where I am living now, I had no lift and have to walk up one flight of stairs to my place. I have to walk to get to the laundry room, too. Mindful of the unintended results of my previous brisk walking, I do now move at a faster pace - I don't get out of breath or anything.
In addition, I have cut down drastically on snacks of any kind. I substituted porridge/cornflakes for plain yoghurt/fruit for breakfast which meant I lost another pound or two. I still eat chocolate - maybe once a week I'll treat myself, but for the most I will eat a maximum of three digestive biscuits with a cup of tea after my evening meal. Apart from that, I have always eaten vegetables and salads and not too much meat and I don't drink sugary drinks like coke or lemonade, so I haven't changed much in the way of my eating habits. Perhaps cutting back on snacks is the most important and also the most rewarding because it shows up on the weighing scales after a week or so.
Lesson learned: you don't have to go crazy on activities or drastically reduce your food intake. If you get the bus to work, try getting off a stop before your usual one and then walk the rest of the way at a brisk pace. It is trickier if you drive and have an allotted parking space at work, if you don't just finding a space to park near the office will usually mean walking a bit, so make sure that you walk briskly. Just be inventive in increasing your walking time.  It will make you feel good and you will lose a pound or two.  If you work on the second floor, try walking up one flight of stairs and after a week or two try running up that one flight. Later you can walk up both flights and you'll find you don't get out of breath - this takes perseverance, but again, you'll lose weight and feel good.
If, like me, you have a sweet tooth, wean yourself off of those sugary snacks gradually and give yourself a treat once or twice a week. After a while you'll notice that you won't crave these things as much and you'll get used to doing without them.
I am low on self-discipline, so I reckon that anyone can do what I have done. The most important thing is that you do everything gradually and that you keep doing it- and don't cheat on yourself by bypassing the brisk walk or having the sneaky bar of chocolate. It's worth it to see where the needle on the weighing scales points next time you check.
Most important of all - have fun!