Simple things...

Sometimes it isn't big things that puts a smile on your face instead it can be little things like unexpected surprises.

It might just be a little extra with in your parcels or it can be something you've just stumbled upon... as I headed for a bus and found this shop where the Oasis used to be in Chapel Walk.

It's full of Sheffield made food, crafts and hand picked books! Why did I just discover this?

There's also a few slightly bigger things which have lit up my evenings.

The Tardis and a Dalek! Always good thing in my book... as well as a few other silly things such as taking part in my work's festive bake off, turkey sandwiches, lunchtime drinks, bacon butties and lunches with Paul.

 He had a pie Friday and I stuffed myself silly with a lovely tasty burger along with a generous portion of chips.... I was stuffed!

All good tasty festive fun! Now time to crack on with the marathon wrapping and house sorting session and then head out again...

Random Christmas shopping finds.

Recently I've been trying to find presents for a selection of my family and the ginger one so I've been scouring high and low on the Internet.  In the process I've come across a few crazy things, some quirky things and some pretty brilliant things as well.

One of the things that caught my eye and diverted my attention was this...

It looks like fun for my kitties then again it may encourage them to try to take over the house and then the world! (Also it's made of cardboard and requires some assembly...  and they're happy enough with ordinary boxes.)

Then again if this is the sort of thing your feline overlords would enjoy you can get it here for £14.99.

I've also found a half day outdoor rock climbing taster session for  £25.00 here which would be perfect for thrill seekers or me... however, I must remember I'm not shopping for me! Boo!

So I plodded on and then got distracted by this...

Yes, a book full of red heads to colour in! Brilliant! I mean interesting and quirky.  (Yes, of course that's exactly what I mean...) If you fancy colouring in some fiery read heads or gorgeous gingers you can get this here for £7.99.

I also found a solution for taking my tea from the kitchen on the third floor to my desk on the second floor without the risk of being told off by Kev.

Yep, a mug with a lid! Oh and does it look familiar?  Yes I think this would make me look right cool and wouldn't at all get nicked from the kitchen cupboard... or I could just stick with my silver and black mug flask. Boring but practical, what can you do?  If you disagree you can get this for yourself for £11.69 here.

I must admit that these also caught my eyes...

They combine three of my loves baking, biscuits and dinosaurs which makes them amazing!
I Want One of Those had these but sold out but Firebox has them here also for £7.99 as well as...

Muchstaches! A bit late for movember but maybe next year...

Oh and they also have these Ninjabreadmen which would be great for NaNoWriMo write-ins!

Sadly I haven't used my last lot of biscuit and cookie cutters half as much as I'd like to they'll have to remain online and not in my cupboards.

So these have been the some of the surprises I've found whilst Christmas shopping.  What have you found?

Pie is for life not just for Fridays!

On Saturday I was informed that The Nottingham in Broomhill was now doing food and that this food was pie!  I thought this could only be a good thing as I do like a nice pie...

The menu wasn't huge but there were about five pies to choose from for £5.95 with a choice of chips or mash potato and mushy peas if you like that sort of thing. I had a chicken, Serrano ham and asparagus pie and chips which is pictured above.  Shortly after I took this picture I poured Hendersons relish over my chips and gravy on top of the pie.

It was very tasty hearty food and I definitely recommend it if you're in Broomhill!

How not to write a novel the end of NaNoWriMo 2012.

So I ended up finding out a few things this November.

50,000 words is a lot of words. I mean a lot! It's hard to write 1,667 words of fiction a day, work full time and maintain a blog. (As well as buy a new laptop when your old one dies on you!)  Sadly the blog got put on standby a little.

Its taken some writing before work in the morning, a bit more writing during a few of my lunch breaks, a lot of writing in the evenings after work and most of my weekends but I managed to do it.  I managed to write 50,000 words in 29 days!

It was late on Thursday evening after coming back from seeing The Ravonettes that I won and got this badge.

It feels good to win!  Especially after not managing to reach 50,000 words last year.

This year I've found that telling people about my writing, talking to other people who were doing the same thing and looking after myself eating breakfast and whatever I fancied really helped.

I must admit that on the 30th of November I went to work, then got home and crashed.  No writing was done not even a blog post or gig review!  Since then I've fiddled with the novel a few times but have only written a few hundred words. 

I'm hoping to pick up the pace and complete a reasonable first draft by the end of the month or if things don't get too crazy by Christmas. (Mad! I know...)  Still I've promised to let people read this one so I better get cracking!

How not to write a novel: NaNoWriMo day eleven.

Today started a little later than expected but pleasantly as Paul brought me breakfast in bed.

When I eventually came around I got up and started writing and managed to knock out about 1,000 or so words before having a short break to sort out the house a little writing another few thousand words and going shopping.

After returning and playing freezer jenga, wherein you balance half the contents of the freezer around the edges of the open freezer, insert nine pizzas then try to shove everything else back in.

Then I had a cup of tea and some stolen Soreen. (Sorry Mum!) Got cracking on my writing again for an hour before starting to make my tea, a lovely Moussaka...

If you've ever made this you know it's not the fastest meal but on the plus side it makes loads! So guess what I'm having for tea tomorrow and my lunch the day after that...

I fitted in a few hundred more words when the Moussaka cooked in the oven and then finally managed to edge up to and then beyond my word count just after lunch. Brilliant!

OK, maybe I only managed to write 41 words more than my target word count but every little helps right?

So I'm starting the week on a word count of 18,374 and am hoping not to slip off target when I go back to work tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

How not to write a novel: day ten of NaNoWriMo.

Today was an unexpectedly lazy day. All week I had expected to have to get up around 8 and get Paul to work, because of this I had formulated plans to take my laptop with me whilst dropping him off and to write in the library as I waited.

Thankfully he didn't have to work today so I got to have a well deserved lie in.  Then I ended up in procrastination station having breakfast, having a bath, putting the washing on, doing the pots, popping to the shop for bread and milk, making lunch, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, putting the washing out...

Eventually when it came to late afternoon/early evening I settled down to write and managed about 1,000 words before realising I'd have to sort out tea.

So I paused my writing made some chips, wrote about another sentence and then made an omelette to go with the chips and what felt like hours later had my tea whilst watching Burn Notice.

After that I had a bit of a slump and only felt like playing with my cats and reading things on the Internet but I tore myself away from the Internet, made another drink and managed to write another thousand and a bit words.

I could probably write more but I think that the standard might go down hill so it's probably best to quit when your not trailing as far behind as you were this morning and hit the sack for another writing marathon the next day.

How not to write a novel: day nine of NaNoWriMo.

Today has been the first day that I've gotten up early to write and I managed to get a good few hundred words down before I stopped to get ready for work.

Then I lugged my laptop in with me in my big black laptop bag which makes me feel like a turtle and threw a few more sentences together over lunch in the quiet room. (It kind of became the chat about NaNo room for a short while but SHHHhh! Don't tell anybody!)

I was on a training course all day and finished a little later than I expected but this turned out to be a good thing as I met Paul on the bus home.  Sadly my luck ended there as all my will to write left me as I entered the front door.  I don't know what it was but for some reason I could only muster up a few more lines before admitting defeat. Tomorrow, hopefully tomorrow will bring better things!