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No, it's not a flipping snow flake, it's a special speckle, and it happens to be named Charlie. 

So, it's been a week since I last wrote a blog and whilst the world has not shifty immensely in that time, well, not in the grand scheme of things, little things have been happening, and we all love Little Things, (yes, this version, but not only this version) don't we?

I'm sat here with a cup of loose leaf Ceylon (all those who don't drink tea, just read as "fancy tea") thinking about the past week and partly all the stupid things I have done. In case you don't know, I'm a bit of a spanner sometimes, and the joys of that include messing up a hotel booking because the website crashed and I panicked, because I just wanted it sorted so I could go to sleep before my early driving lesson, and stalling the car in the middle of a junction and then just panicking.

But, spanneriness aside, I travelled to Portsmouth on my own (so proud), had a wonderful time at a lovely friend's birthday, chatted with her lovely friends and shamelessly promoted my novel as I have been told I have to but truly detest doing!!! I've also cleaned and half tidied my flat, which is a God, Jesus & The Holy Spirit working in unison kind of miracle. And I have been writing. And missing a laptop. Not the Craptop so much, and definitely not the ridiculous keyboard I bought for my iPad, but a portable computer of some variety that I can fit in my bag. Though if I do look at getting one to work alongside my computer - which, let's face it, is going to present all sorts of technical problems that I don't want to fluff about with really - the key component is going to be the weight of the thing because my old Toshiba was like lugging a bag of bricks everywhere and I don't have the energy for that. I didn't back then either, but not the point. 

Also, do I need another piece of technology that I have to check is not under my pillows before I go to sleep at night. Phone, tablet and fitbit are quite enough, I think.


Anyway, after a week that felt like being on Oblivion at points (video there for those of you who haven't been on it) I'm now trying to turn my attention towards Saturday the 31st of October. No, I don't mean Halloween, I mean Midnight/MyLifeIsOver-NaNoHasBegun NaNo 2015. Oh yes, back to that bittersweet pain in the ass. I think it will be my fifth year to compete. I think. I'm not certain. Meh, that doesn't really matter. What matters is that after being devastated at being only a few hundred words off of a 15k day a few years ago, it's going to happen. I will make it happen. I already have a special tea pot to help. (I much prefer loose leaf tea, but it's a real pain to make it cup by cup, so I can just make it in my tea pot and the have enough to last me through a writing stint. 

I'm kind of worried about this NaNo, because I didn't actually write last year, which felt alien and weird and I regretted so many times and considered trying to catch up, but it wasn't going to happen with my dissertation as well. Also, I've got about three things that I'm really enjoying on the go, but one is too far gone for me to write an additional 50k, one is too involved and my brain would be falling out of the nearest exit and the other one, I don't want to rush, because I've felt like writing it before, then just decided to let it stew for a bit. 

Maybe, if I'm lucky, I can do another Fairies trick, be clueless until day 3/4 and then just play a bloody blinder and have something kind of wonderful pop out of nowhere, but I'm somewhat reluctant to do that. Losing NaNo is not something I do with any kind of poise or grace. I don't know. There's still some time yet. I need to go food shopping between now and then... The last thing I want to do is have another run where when someone asks me when/what I last ate, I can't actually remember what it was or say for certain it was that day. 

This could be a lot of fun...