new week, new book – and a sugar rush!

Current work: starting medical continuity
Listening to: Julian Lloyd Webber
Reading: Finished Trisha Ashley's Chocolate Wishes (enjoyed thoroughly); Nina Harrington's Hired: Sassy Assistant (again enjoyed, and it was intriguing to see how someone else handled a deaf heroine); Barbara Samuel's Madame Mirabou’s School of Love (enjoyed very much – especially the elements of perfume, and thought the beginning of each chapter where there are perfume notes are very cleverly done)

Am going to start my new book today. As it’s a continuity, I need to make these characters ‘mine’, so it’s always more of a challenge at the beginning than the ones that walk out of my head. But challenge is good because it makes me think outside the box. And of course I have my new bead (cough) to inspire me - was going to buy it in person on Friday, but neither of the Pandora stockists in Norwich had the one I wanted, so I ended up buying it online (and lovely postie has just been to see me).

I finished the Essex book on Friday (and hence have a huge pile of stuff to take to the post office later today), so I did the unthinkable: took a couple of days off. (Ish.) Daughter was in the mood for baking, so she looked through her recipe books and chose what she felt like making. End result: sugar rush! Blueberry muffins (which were very tasty – see below) and cupcakes. Yum.


Apart from that, I’ve had a delicious reading binge (see above). Also watched a fairly weak comedy on Saturday night (I’m tired and in need of a holiday and didn’t have the energy to suggest turning it off. Matthew McConaughy is a wee bit typecast nowadays – and I still think the best romcom he did was ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days’) plus the first half of Dorian Grey (very interesting to see Colin Firth as a baddie, playing something a little different from his normal typecast roles; though wasn’t altogether convinced of Dorian’s motivations – if you’re going to stick a backstory in the film that isn’t in the original, you could at least make sure it fits the character’s motivations).

The kids have had a growth spurt and needed more clothes before we go to Venice, so yesterday was the six-monthly ‘drag children out and make them try on new clothes’ day. We decided to take one child each – son’s so tall now that he’s wearing adult clothes, so he went off with DH while daughter and I hit the girly sections. Madam discovered a gorgeous pair of purple suede boots in the sale (if only they’d been in my size, too, sigh).

Plan for today: break my outline into chapters and start sketching them in, maybe play a bit of guitar, and ice my back, as I’m a wee bit creaky today.

Oh yes - and one more bit of foodie stuff (am going back on the diet properly this week) - on Thursday, crème brûlée was on the menu BUT apparently their sticky toffee pudding has won awards (and that's one of my other weaknesses). Very nice. Small portion so didn't feel guilty, and beautifully presented.