Chocolate Brownies and The Street

See title for two of my favourite things, and two things I enjoyed simultaneosly this evening. Thank god for the chocolate comfort as, as ever, The Street left me in tears. What an amazing series. Very Mike Leigh in fact, although with more of a sprinkle of optimism thrown in at the end. See recipe below for my fave brownie recipe by the way, and The Street can be found on BBC1 every Thursday night at 9pm.
We now have a Christmas tree!! And it's 9ft tall!! Not as mad as you may think as our ceilings (as they are a la Regency stylee) are about 12ft high. We went on a lovely trip yesterday to Wilderness Wood near Haywards Heath and it's one of the best places I've ever been to in East Sussex. Great for kids too and their trees are beautiful and bargainous so get yours from there if you live near me. See www.wildernesswood.co.uk for details...

Chocolate Brownies
100g butter
50g cocoa powder
2 eggs
225g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
50g self raising flour
50g small walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 180oC. Line small baking tin with baking sheet. Melt butter and add cocoa. Mix until no lumps. Beat eggs and add sugar. Mix until smooth. Stir in cocoa mix and vanilla essence. Add flour bit by bit, until combined. Mix in walnut pieces. Pur mixture into tin and bake for about 30mins.

Soundtrack: two Great Xmas singles from bands I know- both are great sparkly festive tunes-
Pocketbooks-Christmas In Your Sights
Priscillas-One Christmas Wish (listen to http://www.myspace.com/thepriscillas)

I am a drinker with a writing problem

As I mentioned earlier in my blogging, since being a stay-at-home mum (makes it sound easy but I've actually spent 5 years running around as though my arse was on fire) for half a decade, my brain has turned to mush(well- the academic side at any rate-some parts connected to irrational fears about paedophiles and anxiety about the correct fit of Clarks shoes have developed beyond their necessity). For example, as you will know if you are a regular reader, I was so enthralled by studying again that the first time I sat down to do my course, I fell into a very deep sleep. The course is now ticking by, and I'm completing my first proper assignment this week. I thought it would be a good idea to go to the library to escape the pressures of housewifery (as an aspiring novelist, the piles of ironing and washing up get bigger but it's the price you pay-and I'd rather have a messy flat and be creative, than live in an ultra tidy flat with nothing happening- if you ever come round to my flat and it's spotless tell me to get on with my writing as I'm obviously not doing enough). It all started off good- I sat down and was just enjoyably (I know- scary) absorbed in indents and en-dashes when red spots started to appear on the page. I was having a f+@"ing nose bleed! My brain was now, unable to nod off, going into overdrive and was so confused by the signals to learn about editing as opposed to the words to 'Little Donkey' it had decided to blow a vessel!
Oh the embarrassment. It's like it's trying to tell me something. I'm off to do the ironing. That will calm my mind. (my neurons: "Ah good- she is doing something mundane again- relax girls. Let's hope she doesn't try any of that wordy learning malarkey again or we might just explode from the shock")

Head Cold

Looking after my friends' kids today which is great in that Sadie is entertained but the place is so noisy! I have retreated to the office for some peace. It's just stopped raining outside- the first time for 24 hours and now I feel a bit cheerier. Dark skies and head colds bring with them much melancholy. Yesterday when it was pissing it down, we had to cancel our first outing to the Rottingdean Smuggler's Night- suddenly wandering around the streets looking at craft stalls in the dark, cold and damp was the last thing we felt like doing, so we got in the car and drove around the rough suburbs, hunting for the best Chrismassy house. It's early days but there are some corkers out there already. I love having a kid for many reasons, but being able to show them the glittering wonderland of council estates is one of my favourite things to do as a parent. Forget disneyland- when you have people who make that much effort making their homes into sparkling tack fests - you have a ready made dreamland on your doorstep, or up the road past the detention centre at any rate....
Children have found me in my cave. Can't think. Must go.

Soundtrack: Billy Holiday-What a difference a day makes

Tinsel Town

Been very creative today, first with the kids at home making mini Christmas trees from bits of tumbleweed from the late Derek Jarman's Dungeness garden, painted silver and hung with mini baubles and tinsel. I know it's not even December yet but it will be in a couple of days and we have to be prepared for it. We're putting our fairy lights and tree up next week. Making the trees brought back memories of our trip to Dungeness a couple of years ago, and I just found a poem I wrote when I got back about our day trip there:

Dungeness
Bleak dreary day
Driving to Dungeness
Where a man laid to rest
And grew a garden full of life
To carry on his memory
Living in Dungeness
How bleak a landscape
How flat and murky
Nuclear power station
Through the fog
Beer and fish and chips
Cowboys in porter cabin pub
Like a technicolor Texan truck stop
In a desert landscape
Flying kite with excited children
Smoked cheese and kippers
Wild rabbit skinned
From a lumberjack with a beard
Black and yellow painted cottage
Prospect place
Next door’s children matching
Black and yellow wendy house
Looking through the windows
A dark and pokey place
A bed with sheets still on it
Where a dying man rested
Tumbleweed as souvenir
Will spruce it up at Christmas
Paint it silver to commemorate
And we will tell everyone
It came from Derek Jarman’s beautiful garden
In wonderfully dreary Dungeness

Not an especially great poem but it sums up our day there.

Been doing some writing today for another project of mine, that is running alongside The Book. It's another book about how to get your kids to eat healthy food, but it's not so much about recipes, although there are many in there, but about tricks and games you can play with your kids to make eating more fun. It's also about the psychology of food and play, and how we can encourage kids to have a more positive impression of meal time. It's called 'Sneaky Goodness'. Am off to do some more now in fact.

Soundtrack: New Order- True Faith

Seeing the bright side

ooo- I was in a negative frame of mind yesterday was I not... but anyway, the results of the poll have come through and votes as to whether I make Alison's boss aware of her lack of personal skills are as follows:
3 people reckon I should forward her unprofessional responses to her boss and get her in do-do (ouch-we are a vengeful bunch)
1 person thinks I should be very annoyed but doesn't know whether I should send or not and thinks it's up to me to decide her fate
2 people(see comment) reckon I was right to feel annoyed but shouldn't take it any further (one thinks I should go as far as travel to Newcastle to give her a hug)
2 people think I over-reacted, thought Alison's original email was "trying to be nice" and so definitely shouldn't carry on with this malarkey.

So, and I had decided this anyway after the venom had been expelled and subsided, I'm not going to do the evil deed, and I will rise above this miscommunication bollocks....

So- no more negativity and back to being fluffy and positive me thinks (see pic of Sadie wearing Planet Boo top to make you smile). Today I was thinking that I can tell I'm broody as for some reason, when what my body really wants me to do is have another bubba, I get really into doggy-woggies (and I'm talking about the small, cute animals, not some sexual position for conception) and feel a warm glow in my heart when I see them scurrying about at the park having a game of fetch. And I don't know if it's just a Brighton thing, but dogs are even cuter at this time of year as their owners see it as a necessity to adorn their canine companions in winter clothing. Some even wear cagoules when it's raining, and if it's a particularly chilly day have a polo neck underneath! It's so funny, and Molly the Lurcher up in Tongue beware- you shall have a little fashionable present under the tree for Christmas this year- I can't resist!
By the way- the accident I came across yesterday on North Street had a happy ending- the Argus reported today that the young man involved is fine, despite walking in front of a double decker bus and hitting his head on the road. These Brighton and Hove buses are very bouncy it seems (as must the roads be)- Sadie survived a double decker bumping into her when she was three THANK GOD. But I do think the council should get onto making it more obvious that the main road that runs through Brighton city centre is now two-way traffic. No wonder people are getting squashed.
Hark at me all jolly and helping in the community- I have evidently been reading Rebs Tully's 'Happy In Twenty Days...' ebook (available from ebay for 99p!)...it's ace and obviously does the trick! Incidentally Rebs has signed up to be my running partner for the 5 mile Christmas Pudding Dash on 22nd Dec so it's 100% happening-eek!! she recently completed a 10 mile run, and me- well the furthest I've done is 3 miles and that was in August. Let the training commence...

Soundtrack: Killers-Mr Brightside

Just finished watching 'Boy A'- a brilliant channel 4 drama about a 24 year old young man, just out of prison after 14 years, after being put away for murdering a young girl, and how he copes readjusting to living in society with a new identity. It was very connected to the Jamie Bulger case. Very unnerving, but compelling and very upsetting. Being a sensitive soul, I had to switch onto Michael McIntyre Live at the Apollo afterwards to counteract the sadness I felt at the end of the programme, as well as the effects of something I saw earlier on in the day that disturbed me somewhat. There had been an accident on North Street in Brighton today and I was unfortunate enough to have to walk past the scene and saw something I wish I hadn't. Luckily, Sadie remained oblivious. So thanks to Michael McIntyre I have ended my rather dark day with a few belly laughs. I don't like to go to bed feeling glum.

It's War!

Oh my god. I am having an email slagging match with a complete stranger and all because I applied for a writing job. She seems as though, and I know emailing can misconstrue things a bit, she's a total cow and shouldn't have a job whereby she has to deal with people. Here are the interactions below- see for yourself. I'm tempted to cut and paste them and send them onto her boss- I have all her details. What do you think readers?

Hi Alison
I hear you are in need of a child-friendly freelance writer for your
project for Ouseburn Valley Children's Heritage Guide and I am very interested in helping you out. I am a freelance writer for magazines and also write children's stories, as well as having a child of my own to bring up, so let me know the details of what you are looking for and I'm sure I can provide you with exactly what you want. I look forward to hearing from you. Let me know if you need a C.V or
want to see my portfolio of writing work.
Thanks for your time
Cathy Swaby
Freelance Writer

Her response:
I'm sending you details, but to be honest, to our great deilight we've a lot
of great locally based applicants have come out of the woodwork and
we'll probably be choosing one of them - more practical for all concerned.
alison

Back to blog: Now is it just me (and I am someone who, as a writer, has had her fair share of work rejections- it's a big part of the territory) or is that slightly rude a response to a job application? Even broadsheet newspaper editors have had the time to respond more politely. I've worked in various personnel departments where I've dealt with job applicants, and I would never be so short with someone- I would at least thank them for getting in touch and say sorry but there isn't likely to be work available, I'll keep their details on file, etc etc. So I responded thus, and then the war began.....

>Thanks for letting me know but you could have been more polite about
it. I'm glad you're delighted you've found someone else but I'm not. I won't be
applying for the position as you have made it sound like it would be a
waste of my time. I suggest that next time someone is looking for work with you,
you appreciate the time they have taken to contact you and the fact that
they are looking for work and might be disappointed to learn that someone else
'got the job'. You may have not meant your email to be so abrupt but it
certainly came across that way.
> Cathy

So she said:

hi cathy, dear me, how grumpy -if you've 50 enquiries to answer in
half an hour when you were expecting 5 the temptation is to delete them all.
sounds like that would have suited you better. i was actually trying to save
you the trouble of applying by writing to you, so think of it that way.. right,
that's enough of a waste of time for us both.
alison

Back to blog: Bloody bitch!! Now do I forward this correspondence to her boss? Lines are open now so get voting....