The Good News ...

The last few days have been chaotic which has meant no time to catch up on anyone’s blogs, let alone my own, but full of friends which has been lovely. Or rather, friends and shopping if I’m truthful.

The good news is that James is going to his daughter for Christmas – we took him out yesterday morning and he devoured his usual coffee and shortbread and tried to tell us about a dream he had last night. Something about losing his watch under the bed, but we couldn’t work out the rest of it. So we went to Tesco where he bought two packets of lurid looking sweets and a huge box of Ferrero Rocher. For him. So at least he’ll be happy over Christmas.

The bad news is that Travelscope has gone bust. This is the travel company I worked for as a cruise ship rep. Mind you, our shifts were cut so much this year that it won’t make much of a difference to my income but a) it was an interesting job and got me away from the computer, and b) I feel very sorry for not only the thousands of people who won’t now have holidays, but the staff who are faced with a pretty gloomy Christmas with large mortgages and no wages to look forward to.

However, I’ve just realised that I still have my Travelscope coat. This is pretty hideous but is waterproof and warm which is a great bonus when dog walking. Then I realised that I also have my Travelscope scarf and blouse. Things are looking up.

So the plan is to wait a few months and put my Travelscope clothing on ebay. Sell it for a fortune, of course. Sort out our financial problems.

Dream on Flowerpot. Go and have a glass of wine.

At this time of year I always remember talking to another writer friend of mine and asked how her festive occasion had gone.

She looked at me, took a large gulp of wine and said, ‘We had a very Polite Christmas.’

Here’s hoping yours is anything but.

A bad news day

This could have been the woods where I walked with a friend on Wednesday - the colours are so vibrant at the moment, like a child's painting. And I felt this was cheering on a grey autumn day.

I’ve been talking about Arthur and Jane with various friends of the writing fraternity and the general consensus of opinion is that the internet is not a safe place to publish it. There is no copyright on ideas and I can’t afford to expose my story to misuse.

So I’m afraid that that’s the last bit of Arthur for the time being. I will continue writing it however and maybe one day it will end up in the shops – I hope. Very many thanks to all of you for your comments and your encouragement that this is a story you wanted to hear. That is most important of all.

I’ve just had a call from a friend whose husband was made redundant yesterday afternoon. She’s in shock, as you can imagine.

‘I’m all hormonal and weepy,’ the poor thing said. ‘I woke up this morning and thought – waterproof or normal mascara? Luckily I settled for waterproof.’

So for anyone else who is going through a rough time, I found the following very cheering. And for all of those writers among us, this is now my motto!

''Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”

Winston Churchill

Enjoy your weekend.