I’m a dragon

Current work: French duo book 2 (and seeing my accountant)

Listening to: Christmas compilation

Reading: Shirley Wells, Into the Shadows (cracking book and am enjoying it hugely)

Yesterday, on the school run, the sky looked amazing with this enormous sun. Got to my favourite viewspot – and this is how it looked (smaller, for some reason, even though there was only ten minutes between spotting it and getting to a place where I could photograph it).

And this is the colour-saturated version – which I love, because it’s so dramatic. (It’s the ‘sunset’ setting on my Lumix, if you want to know how I did it.)

And the dragon? My littlest made me laugh out loud yesterday morning (which was pretty good, because I was on the verge of tears all day). We were walking up the hill to school, chatting, and suddenly she burst out with, ‘Hey, Mum, look, I’m a dragon!’ and then huffed out a huge warm breath into the cold, cold air. Just lovely. And another reason why I’m so thankful for my children. They’re wonderful. (And yeah, that’s going in a book at some point. In fact, it might well be the Sussex one with the castle, the knight and the emergency doctor, aka the one due after this one. And yes, my editor does know about the jousting scene. She hasn't yet said if she's going to make me take it out, so I'm going to make it so utterly compelling and sexy that she lets me keep it.)

The kids are complaining about my Christmas compilation in the car. The first half is the poppy stuff they like (Slade, Wizzard et al). The second half is… um… advent type music. And they say my choices are weird.

Excuse me. Weird?

The Mediaeval Baebes with ‘Gaudete’ ; Christian Forshaw’s version of ‘Mortal Flesh’ (this gives me goosebumps and it would work well with just about any medieval-set film – sadly, not on YouTube, but you can hear the first little bit of it on Amazon here – Aimee Green’s voice is stunning); the King’s College choir singing ‘Gabriel’s Message’; and Bert Jansch’s version of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ (ha, that’s next week’s guitar lesson sorted, then – though a much more simplified version!).

So what out of that lot is weird? (At least it wasn't Sting singing Gabriel's Message. Though I have to admit to liking that. I foresee another CD arriving...)

Lovely morning planned today – mon petit dragon (hmmm… why are French dragons masculine, when in England a dragon tends to have female connotations?) is doing a Samba (music) display with her class this morning. Best of all, parents get to see this. Can’t wait.

Oh, and I do have some more good news. Seems I’m finally going to get to see Pompeii next year, after wanting to go there ever since I was really, really tiny. Am currently in discussion with DH and the kids about where we’ll stay; it’s summer, so my vote is for a two-centre stay – Naples and either Rome or Florence. Am a bit overexcited about this so will shut up...