Catch Up Coffee

Monday has been devoured by time lords and I am desperately clawing away time to catch up with you before the week disappears. Grab your beverage and let’s meet at the yellow sofa for a quick catch up.

Monday Coffee

Hello! I am so happy to see you back here in the coffee house. It is great to see the decor has changed: the new paintwork and art lifts the atmosphere as does the new furniture. Dibs on the bright pink patchwork sofa near the bookshelves housing our resident authors’ books. If you’ve ordered your beverage, why not join me on the sofa. Tonight, we have the singers from This Is Jinsy entertaining us.

The first two weeks of studying have passed swiftly and I am thoroughly enjoying it. My love of history is growing with every assignment and meeting the other students and my tutor have secured my confidence in the course. What have you been up to over the time I’ve been away? I have been trying to keep up with bloggers and authors, dipping in and out of their blog pages and FB. If I haven’t managed to visit you or say hi, please forgive me. You are definitely not forgotten – I will get to you as soon as I can.

With us sailing swiftly towards November, my Writer’s Club at school is brimming with excitement. We have spent the month of October preparing for our exciting new novels and I am happy to say we have new children attempting the great feat of writing their own stories over the next month. Many are now veterans and are so helpful in prompting the younger ones (my youngest member is 7!) and have such a mature attitude to the writing process. Many have won prizes over the past year through different competitions run by the Young Writers. The challenge this year is going to be to reach 5000 words which is a lot to ask for any junior child. I have great confidence in them all and wish them the best of luck. Unfortunately, this year I will not be competing as it will be too much with assignments, work and the clubs.  Don’t think I could push for more things to do. Plus, it will be my birthday month!

Are you planning on challenging yourself over the month of November? What genre story do you plan on writing? Does your mind stumble and you find yourself stuck with only one idea? Well, there have been so many good ideas floating around the net about how to write and Robyn Paterson has shared great formulas on crime fiction. The best advice I can offer, if you feel some trepidation, is to enjoy yourself. Pace yourself and try not to fall too far back on your word count each day. If you do, don’t worry. Find the time to make up the word count but don’t leave it to the last week or the last few days! Try to give yourself enough time to load your story and verify your word count at the end and hey presto – you’ll be a Nanowrimo champion!

Now, let’s sit back and enjoy the last song of the evening before we have to return to our normal lives. Thanks for joining me and I’ll catch up with you soon.

 

Saturday

Raise your cup with me

Avoid the green spittoon

For dancing full of glee

We forget under the seduction of the moon
Raise your cup with me

Fair Sporalls of the night

The whiff of hoof and wee

Forgotten and out of sight
Raise your cup with me

Ye fair maidens with hidden gems

Gents fall at your long toenailed feet

Bidden by the temptress to rise again
Raise your cup with me

Hairy hollers to the divine

As we frolic beneath her beams

And succumb to music and wine

Musical Delight

Imagine reaching the wedding venue and after the lights are set up and the last minute details finalised, you find a baby grand piano just sitting there, waiting for someone to stroke its ivories.

Meet a close family friend, Matthew. He’s our talented musician that brightens our family parties with his music. I had the pleasure of capturing him in action, taking in the incredible view out of the Stamford Plaza in Brisbane, whilst playing a few tunes just because he can!

​​​​​​https://youtu.be/PXvso3g0DIc
Enjoy.

Book Tuesday: Trent’s World

Hello and welcome to Book Tuesday.

This week we are digging deep into a fellow blogger’s writing files and picking out wonderful stories that he has written over the past few years.  Trent from Trentsworld has been an inspiration to us all, creating his Weekly Smile to boost positive, humorous stories into our weekly digests. I have to add, his blog is a reason to make me smile every week.  With his constant support for 1000Voices, he tirelessly finds ways to post positive thoughts and words that motivate others to smile and feel happy.

Trent has been writing for many years and has a collection of stories for our delectable delight.  He has a few words to describe himself…

Although I often portray myself as a man of all arts, when you get right down to it I’m a writer of fiction. My character driven stories often have a bit of the fantastic to them and sometimes can be considered fantasy or science fiction. I’ll let you be the judge on how to classify them. 

Now, because I don’t want to drag you away from his actual blog page and I would encourage you to explore his work,  listed below will be a few links for stories from his page. Take your pick – they are all excellent.  I hope you enjoy them as much please, give Trent a lovely surprise and leave a message for him to let him know what an awesome writer/blogger/musician he is!

The Halley Branch

It started as a dream.  It was strange and vague, as dreams often are, but I knew I had to use it for a story.  I wrote out the scene, changed from the dream, but realized it had to be part of a longer story.

That is how the Halley Branch started.

Fiction (No Discription)

(Note – This has the same content as the main fiction page but there are no descriptions for the main stories.)

 

A New Life
A series of tongue in cheek stories about a poor, misunderstood creature. Most of these stories are all 750 words or less.

Please refer to the  “A New Life – AKA Frank” Page

I hope you give Trent’s blog a thorough read and find all the gems hidden within.  Let me know which story or blog is your favourite and don’t forget to let Trent know too!

Join me again next week when I will find an interesting book, blog or author to feature on Book Tuesday.  Thanks for joining me today.  Have a great evening.

Monday Coffee

I missed you!  Last week was very busy and I wasn’t able to join you for a coffee.  Instead, I posted a Monday Motivational from the wonderful Rose B. Fischer, to keep you company. Hopefully, it had the desired effect. I hope you’ve had a chance to visit Silver Threading’s Mindful Monday post to discuss ways to improve your health and well-being.

Why don’t we make our way to the coffee house tonight so that we can catch up with some friends.

It’sGoodToBeCrazy is handing out cupcakes and holding a Lifestyles link party at the moment.  It looks like quite a few interesting people have been linked.  Might be worthwhile going over for a quick coffee and meeting some new folk in the group.  Of course, there’s the advantage of those lovely cupcakes too!

Now that we have hobnobbed with the Lifestyle bloggers, let’s move onto another table. Ooo! Let’s go see Existentiallens‘s photogallery.  Nathaniel Gough has a wonderful selection of photographs capturing life in a most beautiful way. Kev from kcmusicnbooks is playing his new song, Elaine, that has been released on the 10th February this year.  That beautiful music is the perfect accompaniment to the photographs.

Right, shall we go sit with Teagan and Alex?  There is a special reason for this.  As you might know, my Hubble doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day.  The whole, “It’s a commercialized holiday” and “Why say it on one day of the year when we can say it any day we please?” are his usual responses to this special day.  Teagan and Alex have written posts that remind me why it’s so important to take any moment you get to celebrate your love for someone special. And I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the extra slices of cake we are taking to the table too!

Coffee or tea for you?

There are a few seats left.  Come on.  Let’s go!

 

 

Monday Coffee

  It’s dinner tonight at our favourite coffe house and everyone has turned up in their finery.  This might just constitute our version of a Christmas Party, but I do believe we will be having a few more of these in the near future!

My table is packed with authors, singers, artists and musicians.  Everyone has something to say and I must admit the noise levels are beyond comparison.  I built a bookshelf today, a beautiful white one with six shelves big enough to fit the majority of the children’s books. It might seem like a small achievement, compared to rebuilding my patio, but I’m so pleased with the end result. Everyone is cheering and congratulating me.  I feel silly even mentioning it – I guess it’s my way of compensating for failing at NaNoWriMo this year.  The Hubble pointed out to me that even at the start, I didn’t have a solid idea of a book and was grasping at straws, desperate for an idea.

I can see Lance raising an eyebrow at me.  He was kind enough to suggest a fantastic story, but I knew he had passion for the story, something I didn’t have. Lance is celebrating St Andrews day and has brought some lovely treats for us to try at this special dinner. Even the loudest person at the table shuts up long enough to sample the treats and we can’t resist going in for seconds.  

Suddenly, Rob breaks out into song and we all join in the chorus of Beautiful by Christina Aguillera. The other tables join in and the place is rocking with the voices of people from around the world. Suzie, Cindy and Jason shush us as Hugh takes the stage to make a speech and announcements about the year gone by and the lovely summer bash.  We are all excited to hear that there might be another summer meet up next year. He makes us laugh with the different signs that have been sent into his blog from his lates post and ends off his speech with a lovely rendition of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.

I hope you’re having as much fun as I am and don’t forget to leave a comment to let me know your favourite part of the evening.

Hotel California

Hi!

Artistic talent comes in many forms and I enjoy finding talents that wow me.  This particular acapella group sing Hotel California.  It is fascinating because of the ability of the artists to contort their voices to the sounds of the instruments in the background.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Music for a Friday Night

Right, I’m kicking off the evening with a classic.  This is a song that brings back fond memories of me dancing to my dad’s guitar as he sang this song to us.  I was the go-go girl and my brother accompanied my dad on guitar whilst my mum was the back-up singer and sometimes the percussionist!  Fun around the BBQ or as we called it – the braai!
Hope you enjoy it!

The house of the Rising Sun

Another song comes to mind…

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Please join me around the fire.  What would you like to hear?

Image from patheos.com

Saturday Night Confessions

Playlist for My Little Bird

Today is the second week anniversary of the flight of my little bird. I am caught in an emotional trap. I am nervous as I set about putting together the playlist for her wake. In my hand I nurse a brandy and coke, my father’s drink. In my head I spin the songs that I will play for my little bird.

My Saturday night confession: I hate crying. I don’t do crying unless someone opens that ridiculous door and allows the little crybaby inside me to escape.  In the deepest, darkest catacombs of my mind there are very few opportunities to escape, but once in a blue moon a little bugger of a crybaby escapes. 

Tonight my mind is on high alert. One of those little crybabies has escaped.  So, to distract the escapee those little people who live in my head have decided to make a playlist.  It isn’t possible to be sad when you’re listening to a good playlist.  I’d like to share the torment with the little people who live inside in your head. 

Who said I wasn’t a caring, sharing, giving person?!

So here goes. Get ready to sing along, and to dance when the moment takes you.

Tonight, I present to you, for your pleasure and mine, my playlist for my mum, my little bird, who escaped her cage and flew away.  She is happy now, I know, but please share my songs and my tears.

1. Leo Sayer – When I need love
2. Bread – Make it with you
3. The Eagles – Take it to the limit
4. The Platters – Only you
5. Eva Cassidy – Songbird
6. Leo Sayer – One man band
7. Andrew Gold – Never let her slip away
8. Chicago – You’re the inspiration
9. Air Supply – Without you
10. Tina Charles – Dance little lady dance
11. Bread – Everything I own
12. Brotherhood of Man – Save your kisses for me
13. Eagles – Hotel California
14. Randy van Warmer – Just when I needed you most
15. Deep Purple – Child in time

I will close this playlist with yet another Deep Purple song, which just seems right for the moment,

Deep Purple – Bird has flown

I could go on adding more superb songs right through the night, but I am going to leave it there for now. What one song would you add to my playlist for my little bird?