Well, Storm Dennis has hit today and it’s bloody miserable outside. So far, it’s just heavy rain which – I saw as I was going to my car to drive my daughter to her friend’s house – has flooded the entrance to my garage. This means inside probably is flooded too. Sigh! I will worry about it later, no point just now as there’s nothing I can do about it.

So, how are you all? Hope you’re all well. How’s life been lately? My kids were off school this week – it’s the February holiday – and spent a good bit of it lazing about in their rooms. One is a teenager, the other a pre-teen, so I don’t see much of them these days, just when they are hungry or wanting money.  However, I did have a good week: my friend Val (from Austria) came over to stay for a couple of nights and we had a lovely time. Another friend joined us for dinner on Sunday night and then Val and I spent Monday night drinking wine and watching movies on the telly. We watched Judy. My God that’s a sad story, but a great film. Recommend it. We also watched Chicago, which I love and I’m sure The Joker, but I fell asleep and missed most of it. Of course I wasn’t drunk!! Ahem. What I remember of it was feeling very unsettled by Joaquin’s Joker. Creepy! Anyway, it was lovely seeing Val again. You can stay over anytime, Val.

So Val left on Tuesday morning. And I spent Tuesday recovering from a wine hangover. No sympathy please, it was totally self inflicted. Wednesday, I did a training course with the local Business Gateway folk on Pinterest and Instagram. It was really good. Their courses are great, by the way, really recommend them. I have two Pinterest accounts: D A Nelson, author and D A Nelson PR and Social Media. Please pop over and have a look.

Also on Wednesday, the house was full of teenagers. My daughter had a friend stay overnight, but they had a couple more friends in during the day. I felt like I was feeding the 5,000. They were remarkably quiet and well behaved, though, so that was good. The girl – my daughter – has been remarkably well behaved all week. Might it have something to do with her birthday coming up in a couple of days? Not that I’m cynical or anything.

I’m not sure what I did on Thursday, but you can be sure it involved cleaning and washing clothes. Yesterday, I did a lot of my degree course. I was way behind (oh I remember now, I was doing my OU course on Thursday as well), so spent most of the day catching up. I still have a wee bit to do to get me back on track, but I’m nearly there. I also went to B&M to buy hay for the chickens and dog food for the dogs, but ended up paying £97 for a whole load of essentials for the house. You know the type of stuff: cleaning products, some food, other things. I swear to God, you’d be as well handing your purse or wallet over to them at the door! I go in for one thing and come out with a trolley full, I can’t help it. It always has products I need at great prices. The cashiers say everyone says that. It’s a great shop for bargains!

Today? More OU and I’ve written a short story which I hope to sell to a literary magazine. Or one of the women’s magazines. More likely the latter.

I must admit, a fair bit of my time this week was watching telly. I did binge watch The Stranger, which I loved despite the plot being a little bit woolly towards the end. There were a few unanswered questions, but overall it was great. It had me on the edge of the seat most of the time. I loved that. I’ve also been watching Locke & Key, which, as a lover of fantasy, I have been really enjoying. Hmmm, maybe that’s where most of Thursday went! 🙂 Must look out the graphic novel of it.

Reading: and I am still binge reading M C Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series. They are just the thing for a light read. They are funny, clever and highly enjoyable. I’ve got about eight more to read before I reach the end of the whole series. I may through a couple of more serious books in amongst there to shake it up a bit (yes, my life is so “rock n roll” – not!). Oh no! Torture! Got to read Charles Dickens’ Hard Times for my OU course. It’s not one of my favourite Dickens’ books, but I enjoyed it when I read it before so it’ll be no problem. Can’t wait, in fact, to get into it.

Right, I am going to finish up right now. I have a million and one things to do this afternoon, so I will say adieu and hope the weather doesn’t get you down. Til next time,

Dawn xx