WARNING: This post features excessive cheesy grinning by me.
My biggest news of 2006 was that I signed with an agent. I also started writing for Shiny Media blogs, most importantly book reviews for Trashionista. (I’d always wanted to read books for a living, but couldn’t have imagined anyone would pay me to do so.) I also had an essay accepted for an anthology about Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books and was nominated in the first Manchester Blog Awards. Big writing year.
In May me and David went to Canada for a long weekend. It was wonderful.
And in June, I went to Paris to meet up with lovely friends Severine and Gabrielle and to see Robbie Williams in concert. Also wonderful.
We also had a flood, so it wasn’t all good. (Although we did get the whole of downstairs redecorated on the insurance… which was nice.) (Sorry, I just can’t help myself!)
September saw us decamping to Devon for a couple of weeks. We had a fabulous time and I got to meet Luisa and her lovely family.
In October, David’s brother got married and Harry got dressed up.
In November, my (old) blog was nominated for a Manchester Blog Award (but I didn’t win). Pah.
In February, I achieved another dream and FINALLY passed my driving test. Third time lucky.
We also had our first holiday with the baby – to Cartmel in Cumbria.
In April I was back in New York (I know!), this time with my sister (and without the baby!).
(This was the house from The Cosby Show, which, we were informed, was also Josh’s house in The West Wing!)
In May David took me to Barcelona for the weekend. It was billed as a romantic weekend away, but in fact he’d got tickets to see his favourite singer Todd Rundgren who was playing with Joe Jackson. I didn’t really know either of them (apart from Jackson’s Stepping Out), but I absolutely loved the gig and we had a fabulous weekend.
In September we ventured abroad with Harry and had two weeks in Portugal. It wasn’t an unqualified success (too hot for the baby), but I went out on a dolphin boat, which was nice*.
Love the menacingly pointed toe on the picture on the right.
November saw me finally finishing a novel – FORGET ME NOT – a young adult book that I wrote for National Novel Writing Month. In fact it was a bit of a turning point year, writing-wise. I signed up with Suzy Greaves (a life coach and a brilliant one), started a chick lit group on WriteWords and did a YA writing course with Lauren Barnholdt. All things which were to change the course of my writing life… (Duh duh duhhhhhh!) And In August my first freelance article was published in Essentials. AND I quit my job to write full-time. Phew.
* Fast Show reference intended!
I still think of Film ____ as belonging to Barry Norman, don’t you? And, for some reason, I think of it as Film 1997. Still. God knows why I’ve stuck with ‘97, but I have. Anyway, this isn’t about that, it’s about the films I’ve watched so far in 2010. And, unusually for me, it’s LOADS! (Don’t worry, my “reviews” will be nowhere near as long as old Bazza’s.)
An Englishman in New York
This was a TV movie shown on ITV and I loved it. Inspirational, funny and sad.
Only You
An oldie (ish), yes. And I’ve seen it before but didn’t remember much about it. Robert Downey Jr (fab) and Marisa Tomei (sweet) in Italy (gorgeous). I sat on the sofa with a blanket and a hot chocolate and told David to take the kids somewhere, anywhere. And he did. *sigh*
Charlie Bartlett
More Robert Downey Jr and Bird from Huff (he’s got a real name, obviously, but I can’t spell it). Very entertaining. Recommended.
Milk
I knew next to nothing about Harvey Milk before I put this film on. I got a bit bored halfway through and started flicking through some magazines. But then I was devastated by the ending. I can’t remember the last time I cried so much over a film (Titanic?) I cried for 20 minutes after I’d turned it off.
The Hangover
Not my kind of film, I didn’t think, but I loved it. Not PC in lots of places (although nowhere near as bad as some movies and it didn’t wind me up as much as Superbad, which I was loving until that ridiculous period* bit), but very funny.
Slumdog Millionaire
So far behind on this one, probably one of the last people to see it, but I really loved it. Found it more upsetting than “feel-good”, but it was still very good.
Alvin & The Chipmunks 2: The Squeakquel
Meh. I like the first movie, but this one was not great.
Hamlet 2
I read that this was meant to be Steve Coogan’s breakthrough movie, but no. He was pretty bad in it. Like Ricky Gervais in Hollywood movies, he seemed to be doing a comedy character, rather than being natural and it pulled me out of the story. But Elizabeth Shue (remember her?) was gorgeous in it and, even though it was pretty bad overall, I kind of liked it in the end. Could have been much better.
Tootsie
I was a bit bewildered by Tootsie. I’ve been hearing about it for years and I really did enjoy it, but then I read it got loads of Oscar nominations and even won a couple and I have no idea why. It was good, but it was in no way Oscar good.
(500) Days of Summer
I was really looking forward to seeing this and I did enjoy it, but not as much as I hoped. I love Zooey Deschanel usually, but I found her a bit irritating in this.
It’s Complicated
I really loved It’s Complicated. Really. I laughed a lot, I loved Meryl and Alec and Steve (although not his appalling plastic surgery) and I’d love to watch it again. Fab.
Toy Story 2 (in 3D)
* “Period” as in menstruation, not as in Jane Austen.
At the beginning of the year, we went to New York again, again with Jo and Andy. Jo was also pregnant and this time we stayed at The Plaza (which was disappointing… but I’m still glad we stayed there). We went to Central Park Zoo, The Planetarium and David and I went to The View, New York’s only revolving restaurant. It was fabulous: the view was amazing (obviously) and the food was delicious. Jo and I went on the New York Movie Tour while Andy and David headed off to New Jersey on the Sopranos tour.
I'll have what she's having
Note kid in background mocking my girth!
In May we saw Bill Bailey on his Part Troll tour, which was absolutely the comedy show of the decade, as far as I’m concerned (and much better than his Tinselworm show we saw a couple of years later).
In June, our son Harry was born:
In November we achieved a long-time dream and bought a house. And so we moved again. But for the last time in a while, thankfully.
Harry’s been sleeping in with us for a couple of months now. His room doesn’t have any heating and it’s been F.R.E.E.Z.I.N.G. So he’s sleeping on his mattress, at the foot of our bed. Except part-way through every night, he gets up and gets in bed with us. Or rather, with me. Because when Harry gets in, David gets out and sleeps in Harry’s bed. I don’t even notice anymore. I just go to bed with David and wake up with Harry.
But recently I suggested to David that instead of Harry moving back into his room, we move in there. It’s tiny so there’d probably only be room for a double bed, but the room could be ALL BED! How cool would that be? You’d open the door and just leap on the bed. David, however, not so keen.
But look at this bedroom I spotted on Apartment Therapy. Mary’s parents built this bedroom for her when she was eight. It would have been my absolute perfect bedroom when I was eight and I’m not sure it’s not still my perfect bedroom now. I don’t know why, but I love rooms within rooms. My perfect office would be in, say, a tent in the corner of a room. Or even one of these.
Virginia Wood talked about needing “a room of one’s own”. I think I want a den of my own.
In 2003, I had to go back to my old accountancy job. I loved Waterstone’s, but the pay was dreadful. Thanks to a challenge from my new colleagues, I found myself taking part in the 10k Great Manchester Run. And I am not a runner. I loved it though. (And I was featured in our local paper. Slow news day, obviously.)
In May we went on holiday to Samos (a Greek Island) where we heard some Americans trying to order their meat very rare and the waiter (who looked like Louis Theroux, so obviously I had a crush on him) asking, “Still… alive?”
Our rather Mediterranean back yard
The big news came in September when I found out I was pregnant with our first child and then, since our Marple landlord didn’t allow children, in November we moved to Ramsbottom, Lancashire. We’ve lived in a lot (a LOT) of different places, but Rammy was my favourite.
View from our front window
I’ve been trying to think of a regular featured post type of thing. Mainly, I’ll admit, so I can do lots in advance and then, on one day a week at least, I don’t have to think of something to blog about. Because last Friday I made a list of the books I’ve started writing and what needs to be done and there are ten. Ten books in various states of written-ness (it’s a real word!).
At the top there’s DELLA, which is obviously finished, but still has a few things to be done, like ordering promo material and trying to get hold of fabulous things to give away as competition prizes on this blog.
At the bottom there’s a brand new idea. Well, kind of. Years ago, I started writing a book set in a certain place at a certain time. Sorry to be so cagey, but I don’t really want to give anything away yet. Anyway, nothing came of it, but it’s always been in the back of my mind as a book that I will write “someday”. Then, last week, I saw a photograph that I thought looked like a character from one of my other books. And I started thinking that I might like to give her her own book one day. And then I started to wonder if she would work in that book. You know. The one set in A Time and A Place. 
And I got a bit excited.
And then, on Saturday, I went for a walk with my husband and had the following conversation:
Me: So she can’t just go there. She needs to go there for a reason. But what could the reason be?
Him: Er…
Me: I mean, it could be for [this] or [that], but that seems a bit boring. What about if she had to find [something]?
Him: Um…
Me: Yeah. What if she had to find [something] and it turned out that [something] and then [something else]? Ooh! I like that!
Him: …
Me: Yes! That’s it! Thank you!
Him: No problem.
So anyway, this was supposed to be about Wanting Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, I’ll blog about stuff I, you know, want. And while you’re reading about it, I’ll be off writing about Something happening to Someone, Somewhere. You know, in theory.
[And, yes, the picture has got something to do with it. And it's from here]
