Sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest sources

I’ve come to the conclusion that I'm a bit like a goldfish in some respects. Not in the ‘being able to swim really well and hold my breath underwater for long periods’ (like, maybe indefinitely) ones, but certainly in that I completely forget things I really like 15 seconds after they’ve finished. (Except Ikea’s Dime Bar cake. I sooo remember how much I like that.... Anyway, I’m digressing)

Take The Apprentice, for example. Not being a business-minded ball-breaking kind of a girl, it’s not something that automatically flashes up on my viewing radar, but a couple of weeks into every series I tend to find I’m hooked. This time it’s happened more quickly, but I suspect that my instant enslavement has more to do with the candidates themselves than with the programme’s intense focus on cut-throat business practise . Because, is it my imagination (or my hormones) but are a couple of the blokes surprisingly hot?? (You can largely ignore the front row here...)

It's surprising because, unlike The Palace, The Apprentice is a programme I collapse onto the marital sofa alongside my lovely husband to watch. It’s not supposed to be a full-blown fantasy-fest, and yet, I'm finding that I’m strangely inspired. On first glance you might think that super-suave, smooth-talker Raef was going to be the alpha male hero of the piece. Er, hell-o? I think not. Check out world-weary rough diamond Alex, or tall, chisel-cheekboned Lee standing at the back here....

The really great thing is it's on for another ten weeks! Yippee! Let's just hope that Alex stays in (and that one of the tasks involves a beach, surf shorts and oil...) and we'll all be happy!

*(I apologise for the shallow and un-politically correct content of this post. Naturally, here at IndiaGrey.com we would like to offer our best wishes to all the candidates, regardless of their gender or the excellence of their cheekbones....)

Isn't it time these children were back at school??

How come that, although Easter now seems about a squillion light years ago, the easter holidays are still only halfway through?

One of the things I promised myself I’d do while the kids were home and writing was pushed down the agenda was try to get to grips with the music element on my website. (Slightly hysterical laugh.) However, Project Playlist has clearly identified me as a perennially un-cool suburban housewife who wouldn’t know an MP3 folder if it stood in front of her waving a banner, and is conspicuously refusing to have anything to do with me. (Sigh) I don’t blame it really. I think daughter #1 feels the same.

So, now I need to add 'Drastic Website Re-write' to my list of things to do. In the meantime I have at least worked out how to pop a little bit of youtube on here, so can actually bring you the fabulous Nickelback song that so brilliantly seemed to sum up the relationship between Angelo and Anna in The Italian’s Captive Virgin, and was played-- a lot, loudly-- when I was writing the early stages of the book.

Not much else to report... Yesterday I turned the fact that the children (and I) still hadn’t got dressed by 1.30 to my advantage, and made them throw open their wardrobes in ‘Posh-Outfit Challenge’; an attempt to find something to wear for a family party we’re going to this weekend, and my brother’s wedding in a few weeks time. Within moments they were all parading around in an assortment of half-forgotten items and managing to look irritatingly gorgeous. Daughter #1 unearthed a little chiffon smock top thingy I’d bought last summer (and never wore because it rained for 3 months solid) and put it on with footless tights and a miniature lilac cardigan (aged 4) which looked fashionably cropped, while Daughter #2—whose taste these days wavers between hippy and rock-chick goth—discovered a long Indian print dress which, when teamed with gold shoes, managed to look both laid back and glamorous. Daughter #3, happily stockpiling all items rejected by the other 2 as being too small, was totally spoilt for choice—torn between a raspberry pink velvet skirt (outrageously expensive, and daughter #1’s Christmas present six years ago) and a little silk shift dress.

I, meanwhile, found nothing that didn’t make me look like a farmer’s wife from a storybook or an ageing Russian shotputter.

Where did it all go wrong??

(Ah yes... I remember now. The biscuit tin.)

Back to business

Up early this morning to catch up on the wip after a manic long weekend of hilarity and chocolate (I still ache in unaccountable places—though whether this is from laughing, late-night dancing or extreme baking I’m not sure....) It's amazing how a few days away can seriously disrupt the flow, so its probably just as well that the children are going to spend the day at Grandma’s today and I can get seriously involved with my cynical Argentinean again.

Last Thursday, just before the Easter madness began, there was an interview with me in the Liverpool Daily Post, which (apart from the laughably gruesome photo!) was nice. My previous experience of newspaper interviews had made me anticipate the whole thing with a kind of doom-laden resignation, but Emma Pinch did a great job of making sense of my inarticulate ramblings and was lovely to talk to. I emailed my husband immediately to point out excitedly the part where she refers to me as a yummy mummy. He emailed straight back to point out that the interview was done over the phone.

Children are now trailing downstairs demanding breakfast, so I’d better go and oversee proceedings to make sure that this consists of cereal rather than chocolate. I'm unimpressed with their argument that eggs make ideal breakfast food. (For growing children, of course. For mums it's entirely different.)

It's all good!

My enthusiasm for the current wip has meant I’ve been holed up for so long in my office-in-the-attic with no internet connection (but with a great office chair) that I’ve completely lost touch with blogland. So on a swift catch-up visit this morning I was very excited to read over at iheartpresents that the judging for the Instant Seduction competition is complete. Huge respect to the editors for reading upwards of 600 manuscripts in such a short space of time, and even huger respect to everyone who submitted and has been waiting for the results—because to you that short space of time must have felt like three centuries. I can’t wait to find out the name of the winner, but almost the best bit is reading how brilliantly high the general standard of the entries was, and that there are going to be a number of runners up who’ll receive some editorial input. Well done to everyone.

So, I’m back to that stage of the book where real life has become, frankly, a bit of an imposition, which is just gorgeous (although admittedly slightly inconvenient) and a BIG relief after the struggle I had with the last book. Of course, it’s all about to go very much the shape of the pear again with the imminent onset of the Easter holidays (daughter #1 breaks up today!) but I shall just have to be very brave and stave off creative frustration with plenty of wine and Mini Eggs.

I love Easter. It’s like Christmas without the pressure, and with more chocolate and better weather. Am hoping that the Easter Bunny will bring me this egg from Hotel Chocolat but let’s face it, if he’s a friend of Muffin the rabbit I’ve got no chance. Muffin and I are barely on speaking terms thanks to his habit of eating every attractive thing in the garden, and my habit of yelling at him for it.


Perhaps I should be a bit more tolerant in future....?

What day is it?

Apparently it’s Friday, which seems nothing short of outrageous to me. This week's gone a bit pear-shaped due to the fact that we took the kids out of school for a couple of days (*hangs head in shame*) and headed off up to Edinburgh last Friday for a long weekend for the Calcutta cup at Murrayfield.

My family has a long-standing passion for rugby, (specifically for Scotland) and thankfully also a long-standing debenture for Murrayfield which means they have access to some really cool seats. Daughter #1, going for the first time, was blown away by the whole thing. She couldn't believe how close she was to the action...

In the run up to the trip she’d kept changing her mind about who she was going to support, being Scottish on my side, and St-George-flag-waving English on her father’s, but in the end she showed herself to be a happy combination of both parents by choosing England because they were the best looking team. That’s my girl! Jonny Wilkinson’s kicking may not have won the day on points, but his looks certainly contributed to victory of a kind!

Displacement Activity

The saying goes that 'discretion is the better part of valour', but I reckon it's also the epitome of wisdom and maturity too. I’m not good at it. I just know that if I’d been around during the second world war I’d have been far better employed digging up turnips than cracking secret codes at Bletchley or being dropped into occupied France (they wouldn’t have had to bother with torture, just get the kettle on, open the biscuit tin and say, ‘so—what’s the gossip from England?’)

Don’t you find that when you’re desperately trying not to give something away, it becomes the only thing you can think about and you know that the minute you open your mouth (or begin a new blog post) the details are all going to come spilling out? I’m really not allowed to give any details of the book I’m working on at the moment, which is so difficult because I’m having great fun with it, and it’s one of those ones that has just SO many possibilities that it’s a bit like standing in the middle of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and having to choose one thing (actually—that would be easy wouldn’t it? I’d take Johnny Depp dipped in dark chocolate, please...)

Anyway, while I’m not mentioning it, I’m trying to think of other things to talk about instead. Like the series that just finished this week on ITV1 called The Palace. I must admit I was slow to get into it, but by week 3 I was totally hooked. The almost- gorgeous Rupert Evans helped of course, but the whole premise of the thing was so gloriously Presents, and it reminded me of the glory days of Dynasty and Dallas, but with Brits in tiaras. What’s not to love?

Sadly, it’s finished now so I need something else to fill the gap. Any suggestions? What’s everyone else watching these days?

I think I may need to get out more...

...because surely it can’t be normal to get so ridiculously excited about having a new office chair? Completely on impulse (it’s what passes for wild recklessness when you’re 37) I dragged the rest of my protesting family to Ikea on Saturday afternoon and made them sit on every office chair in the entire store, testing the up and down zoom motion and the twirl-ability of them all.

We finally settled on this one...

...mainly because it's cream leather and I can imagine sitting at my desk wearing a plunging evening dress and diamonds, and spinning round in it saying, 'I’ve been expecting you Meester Bond.’

(Must remember to buy Ruby a diamond-studded collar to complete the picture.)

Am hoping that as well as being about a squillion times more comfortable than my old one and helping to keep the dreaded RSI at bay, it might also inspire me to stay sitting at my desk for more than 12 minutes at a time (last week's record). I have a book to write!