No Sun, Please - We're British!

OK.  We live in England.  I get that.  I also get that you can't plan anything around the weather - I haven't been a Londoner for over fifty years without learning that.  But when you've been planning an event for the end of July - after a heatwave - and the long-term weather forecast has been promising 'abundant sunshine' you kind of hope that you just might be blessed.

Nope!  The day dawned and we rose at 6am.  The sun was trying to poke through the clouds but a quick look at the weather forecast told us what we'd been dreading.  Rather than the gloriously sunny event I'd envisaged in the church grounds, we'd need to rejig and get the 40-odd stall holders inside the two halls.

Thank goodness we did, because from about 11am set-up time until the end of the fair, the skies opened and refused to relent. The poor bouncy castle/carousel man (who had paid me to be there!) didn't have one customer and the ice-cream van sold 2 ice-creams!

Despite that, locals braved the rain and paid their £1 entrance fee to enjoy the vast array of goods/activities I'd booked.  My stallholders all told me they had a great day and many have emailed to say how well it was organised - how they couldn't have smelt the panic from me or Mr Misfit, I will never know!

All in all, against the odds, it was a great day and we hit our £1K target, bar a couple of pounds.  Would I do it again?  If I lived in a country with a reliable climate, yes!  I loved every second of the organisation and the majority of the day but I can't do with the stress of weather-watching!  So, I think I'll be sticking to my evening events where we have a roof over our heads and the weather can do what it jolly well likes!

Massive thanks go to:

Costa Coffee - supplied 200 cups for tea/coffee
BannerBuzzz - free banner
Domino's Pizza - supplied staff and free pizza raising £67 for us!
Little House of Baking - donated £20 despite being unable to attend
Putney Women's Institute - donated half of their takings - £88.50

And love & thanks to:

Mr Misfit - for supporting my mad-cap idea and being as wonderful as ever.  Also for making 4 A-boards and two directional signs for under £2!
Ben & Kiki - for knitting (!) and running the kids' crafts / organising parking.
Elizabeth - for making 'Guess the weight of the cake' and doing a fab job of running the cafe and bar.
Virinder - for getting soaked on parking duty and general help.
Bee - for coming all the way from Cambridge, running a stall, washing up and mucking in.
Elaine - for selling almost all the jumble and making a child's day by donating her unicorn from the Tombola.
Marylou - for running the Tombola and winning / sharing the cake!
David - for getting soaked on the gate and engaging people with your winning banter!  Also for organising the kitchen for our after-event meal.
Victoria - for manning the cake/dog/sweet stall and looking after Alfie!
Toby - the little whirlwind!  Thanks for all that you did and for being so ready to help.
Johnny - for the muscle work, turning up so early and bringing Sarah to spend money!
Ann (my mum's vicar) - for letting us have the grounds and halls at a massively reduced price, for attending and for your donation.
Putney Man - for attending and for your generous donation.
Suzie - for setting up a table and buying nearly all the Prosecco!
'Fenella' - for your support leading up to the event and the ice-buckets and bunting.  Don't ever book a holiday again before consulting me!
And to all those who contributed who would like to remain anonymous.

When Mr Misfit put our signs up, the sun was still trying!

 

Our fantastic banner from BannerBuzz at the venue - the church where we married.

 

One DE-LICIOUS cake.

 

A-boards for under £2! - the cost of the hinges.

 

Hall One.

 

From another angle.

Front of Hall One.

 

From the back of Hall One.

 

Hall Two.

 

From another angle.

 

My lovely Twitter buddy, Bee, on the Mummy Misfit stand.

 

The BBQ in the rain!

 

Forlorn outdoors!

The Outlook's Sunny!

It’s been a good week in the Misfit house - and I mean a really good week.

I wouldn’t say it’s been a lazy one, because I don’t ‘do’ lazy, but it has been a little more laid back than usual and it’s given me time to come to terms with decisions I’ve made and let them gel.

My December release is flying along but my next big job is to get started on the editing of my Christmas novella which will be out in October - never a dull moment here.

So what else did my week bring?  Aside from seeing my son leave his much-loved school, we had SUNSHINE!  Don’t you just love it?  Unlike the yummy mummies who holiday (at least) thrice yearly, I haven’t set foot out of this country for 15 years so when the sun comes to me I jump for joy - OK, with the temperatures we've been having in London, it’s a bit of a lethargic jump, but I still do it.

Of course I dream of heading off to sunnier, more exotic climes but every penny I earn goes to our mortgage and I also need to be here to care for my mother so that’s not possible right now.

But as a writer, I’m lucky enough to be able to set up the office in the garden and enjoy the concept of a holiday while still working - it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?  There aren’t many jobs that allow you to do that!  And apologies if I’ve made any of you green with envy.

With the arrival of the glorious weather, we entertained some close friends with a meal in the garden on Saturday night and took part in music wars with some neighbours who were having a family barbeque a few doors down - their reggae trounced our Dean Martin hands down but we accepted defeat graciously and had a giggle with them about it the next day.  The evil mozzies also had to back down from battle as I’d managed to find a very effective insect repellent and, although we all stunk and could well have gone up in a puff of smoke with one ignition of a lighter, we all remained bite-free.

I also featured on two blogs.  Here and here. And my friend Jamie Dougan moved his blog to a new web location so if you haven’t caught up on the piece I did on ‘My Writing Essentials’ check it out here.  He’s also doing a free promo of his short story ‘Grande Plage’ from Thursday and I'll be interviewing him here at the end of the week.

But the BEST thing this week has been my book sales.  Good grief!  If I could have more weeks like that, I would be one happy Misfit Bunny.  Paperback sales at Lulu have been great and I’ve also been hovering around the two to three thousand chart rating on Amazon (which, when you consider that there are over two million Kindle books in the UK Amazon store, isn’t too shabby a position for an Indie). Then on Sunday I was over the moon to see that I was at #4 in paid Chicklit (released in the last 30 days with 5* reviews)  How cool is that?

Apart from that, the teen is applying for jobs and not hearing back from anyone - probably something to do with his hair colour (!) and I bought a pair of size 12 jeans (not bad for a fatty!)

AMENDED on 10th July - the week just keeps getting better.  Sales have gone mad and we also received a letter telling us that our son has been given an award at school.  We'll attend the drinks reception and ceremony on 17th September.  We're such proud commoners parents! 

2nd amendment - added 7.50pm on 10th July!  I have also been quoted on the Daily Mail webpage, ranting about the vile Ms. Hopkins!

So … life’s good.  Who needs fancy holidays when you have a laptop in the sunshine?  Putney suits me just fine.  Oh, and the cats quite like it too.

 Check out my books here - everyone needs a light read in the sun. All under £2!