Silly me...

I have been noticing that my hearing has been a little fuzzy recently so I got myself to Boots The Chemist to get some ear wax remover. Which you will agree is sensible, I'm not clogging up the NHS with my clogged up ears.

I followed the instructions and waited for sound to become sharper.

I'm still waiting. In fact I am now existing in a muffled world, I slept through my alarm clock and have spent the day saying "Eh?" rather too much for a non-Canadian.

So I'm off to the doctors on Monday morning... ho hum.

So if you could all speak a little louder that would be helpful.

BOUNCE!!!

First recording session under my belt! Two more sessions in the diary... *does happy dance*

Jelly and Ice-cream

The recording date has been brought forward to tomorrow morning!! YAY! Go Me!
Although I'm feeling a cold coming on... *cue worried face*

In other news... I am celebrating another year passing, yes it is 29 again *cue much heckling*

Date is set

The first recording for radio is in the diary for next Friday.

Blimey... this really is happening.

O Frabjous Day! Callooh! Callay!

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"

He chortled in his joy.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

And why am I quoting from Lewis Carroll?

Well Mr Chesney is once again single. The Jabberwock is slain ;-)

Go here for the rest of The Jabberwocky

... And The Crowd Went Wild!!!

Have had some good news this week, I have been offered the opportunity to do some voice work on a digital/internet radio station! YAY!

This is the first step in THE PLAN!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Mmmmm.... books

Today I hit my version of a crackhouse... the bookshop. Mmmmm lots and lots of books. I just went to browse. Honest. But then I saw a few books that I just HAD to have. The world would have ended if I hadn't, really. I can see you don't believe me but I KNOW I have averted the Apocalypse with these purchases. And what are these miraculous books?? I've kindly listed them below:

1. Voice And The Actor
2. Peoplewatching: The Desmond Morris Guide to Body Language
3. Middlemarch

Great for blocking the path of the Four Horseman. Guaranteed.

Exciting Times!!! Skippity Hop Hop!!

Lots and lots of things happening in Biddy World!!

skippity skip skip skip

More updates when more concrete information available.

hoppity hop hop hop

A long way to go but I'm sure I can skippity hop hop there...

On The Skids

I'm confused at the moment (which I hope is just down to al-key-hol) but when I hear a KaiserCheif's song there is a small tennage part of myself that hears The Skids. And Richard Jobson is a hell of a lot more attractive than that bunch of bozos!!

slinks off to her cavern

Mother Nature

So I've finished 'Far From The Madding Crowd' and I have had a thought...

Hardy writes books with women at the centre of them but they are intrinsically flawed. The women seem to be the reason a man makes bad decisions. But Hardy is also interested in nature and the natural world. He sees nature as female. Are his female characters Mother Nature, flawed? Seducing men away from their lives??

Answers and observations on a postcard or large bar of Green & Blacks!!

My Well-Read Veneer

I am known to be a bookworm. I think all writers are also book-aholics and by being writers we can call all that reading "research".

However recently I realised being a book-aholic did not make me well-read. I have no depth to my knowledge, the last classic I read was Jane Austen sometime back in the mid 1990s. Charles Dickens got ditched after GCSE and a too close acquaintance with Philip Pirrip in 'Great Expectations' (although having a character called Biddy made it a little more palatable).

I haven't read Hardy, Eliot or Lawrence and the Brontes were read back when I was 12. I do have quite a few poetry books ranging from Donne to Brian Patten. I had my F Scott Fitzgerald and Salinger moments as a teenager and I've passed them by ever since.

And when it comes to the modern... ne'er a one has passed my retinas.

This isn't bad. I am not against all those wonderful books that I have devoured with great pleasure It is just that without a working knowledge of some of the other books, without seeing the way language has been used, without flexing a muscle in my brain and pushing myself I feel as if my own writing is getting flabby.

So in an effort to exercise my brain along with my body I have invested in my own "Mind Gym".
The equipment so far:
1 copy of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' by Thomas Hardy
1 copy of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy
1 audiobook dramatisation of 'Richard II'
1 audiobook dramatisation of 'Coriolanus'
1 audiobook dramatisation of 'Alls Well That Ends Well'

So far I am halfway through 'Far From The Madding Crowd', I'm enjoying it but it is slow going. My mind isn't used to having to work. 'Richard II' and 'Coriolanius' have both been listened to. They are due another go because I have now dipped into the plays and want to go back and find out what I've missed.

I want to expand the "Mind Gym" so I am open to suggestions. Anyone??