ps

Someone has just suggested that given our current financial straits, we should rename the boat 'The Everyday Value' - which might even attract sponsorship from a well-known supermarket chain and thus help offset the loan repayments...

Hiya, well the end of the month is imminent, so I thought I'd better get another one in, especially as I have news...ooh, what news?
Well, only that I'm not going to be an army wife for very much longer.
No, I'm not leaving my husband to run off with the slightly-plump-but-very-cheery-and-firm-of-calf postman. My husband, who has been in the army for a whopping (yes, I'm going a bit tabloid-speak on you, but the content seems to merit it) 31 years has only gone and found himself a normal job. No more zipping off to war zones at the drop of a weapon. Nope. Which means, obviously, that I won't be an army wife any more. Unless I very quickly divorce him and have an affair with one of the random soldiers I see running up and down the hill on a Tuesday or Thursday morning (not that I look, heaven forfend, I'm a middle-aged married woman, don't you know!).
It's sixteen and a half years since that morning with the hangover and the borrowed suit in the local registry office.
Sixteen and a half years since I thought "Good Lord, what have I done? I've sentenced myself to a life of gel nails, bingo and obsessing about cleaning products!"
Anyway, I haven't quite succumbed to the delights of Mecca Wednesdays, nail art and Mr Muscle, although I do actually hoover the house these days (well, Bertha the robot does), which is an improvement on 16 years ago.
My husband has decided to shake off his military shackles by becoming a water-gypsy. He's in the process of buying a narrow boat. I hope they throw in a pipe, bandana and mandolin as part of the deal. The plan is to call the boat SS Vengeange and get a cat called Admiral Marcus (apparently you will understand this if you are a Star Trek fan). I'm not, however, going to transfer from army wife to water gypsy wife, as the kids and I will be staying dry in a very boring house in suburbia - because it's near to a 'good' school.
Anyway, thought I'd let you know. Exciting, huh? xx

Hi, how are things? Twins have just been out dancing in the rain - we've just had the mother-of-all rainstorms. I love it; it feels all monsoon-ish, and I can almost imagine we're back in Nepal (until I have to get off my bum and do housework, that is). So it turns out that my fake tan application wasn't in vain; we have had what counts as a 'heatwave' in the UK (although in my humble opinion, anything below thirty degrees doesn't really count), and what's happened? Everyone's been moaning about it. "Oooh, isn't it hot?" they say. As if that's a bad thing. Maybe it's because as Brits we're so rubbish about complaining about the things we should (poor service in shops, etc.) that we misdirect our ire onto the weather. It's either too hot, too cold, too rainy, too windy, or - if it's changing from one of these states to the other -  "You just don't know where you are with it, do you?"
So today we've had sunshine and storms and I love it. I love love love the fact that it was worth my while applying my (slightly streaky) fake tan and (a bit chipped) nail varnish to my toes. I love the fact that last night I sat out until gone nine on the grass outside the sailing club whilst two-thirds of my offspring sailed up the river Trent (the remaining third was a refusnik who decided to read 'Pink' magazine instead of having a watery adventure with her siblings, and then came over all emotional when I reminded her that only sailors got to have a can of fizzy pop at home time - at which point all the other people at the sailing club made me feel guilty for making the little cripple cry...). And I love the fact that I'm sat here in a sleevless dress and I don't even have goosebumps.
The summer hols are almost upon us. Bring on the heatwave, and keep it here until September! xxx

ps

would it make more sense to put blog posts on the litfix site, d'you think? Which would you prefer?

Oh, hello, how's it going? I've cracked open the fake tan and tackled my pant moustache, in anticipation of the heat wave that's coming our way. Apparently. So one of my bosses told me the other day. Not sure why I'm feeling optimistic about it, really. The last so-called heat wave lasted all of twenty-four hours, as I recall. Anyway, at least my varicose veins are buffed and gradually turning a slightly less transluscent shade of blue.
What else? Hmmm....the mystery machine is still blinking the orange light in the corner of the dashboard in a sickly way any time I put my foot on the accelerator. I think it just has the vehicular equivalent of feeling a bit discombobulated. I'm sure the chaps at the garage think that I have the mechinics version of Munchhausen-by-proxy syndrome. Or that I fancy them (they may well think that because Twin 1 is convinced of it, and never fails to mention something in an embarrassingly loud voice every time I have to drop the van off there).
Work has calmed down a bit, and I've had a chance to write a bit more, so I've nearly finished the final final final version of the novel. Just one scene left and a bit of tweaking, I think. Yipee, in time for the hols.
Other than that, I've spent a stupid amount of time looking at houseboats for sale and houses for sale and contemplating the future. If I tell you any more than that, I'll jinx it, so you'll have to wait for details.
I'm also starting to have vague thoughts about a sequel to the novel I've nearly finished. I'm just gestating, but I think I have the beginnings of a plan. I know, probably should get this one finished and off with an agent first. Maybe I'm getting a bit previous. But I'm looking forward to starting the process again - it's almost the best fun you can have (and definitely the best fun you can have on your own!).
Right then, hairwash night, better go.
Take care xxx

My bad. Really been off radar for a while. I have had lots of work and various summer lurgies to contend with, though. Not to mention sports days and vague attempts to make it through the ironing pile, as well as tweaking the final chapters of the book, which I am desperate to finish before the summer hols. In addition, all my zero-hours contract jobs have suddenly become, well, no longer zero hours contracts. So I'm doing lots of really enjoyable work - some of it even almost reasonably paid, too - but having almost hardly any time to write/blog/create flash fiction. Mustn't grumble, though, it'll keep the pesky critters in two-ball screwballs and ninety nines this summer, if nothing else. Or alternatively pay for the exhorbitant (hmmm, how do you spell that word?) garage bill for the unresolved intermittent fault, which may - or may not - have something vaguely to do with the EGR filter, or the turbo...
Anyway, I should probably go and sort out PE kits now - it's multi-skills day tomorrow, you know (not to be confused with sports day, which was Monday, and in which my disabled daughter won a race - woo hoo - but only because I demanded that the poor little crippled girl be given a head start, for goodness sakes!). Better go. TTFN xxxx