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!

Putney Summer Fair

Those who follow my blog will know that I lost my mum last year and wanted to find a way to celebrate her life.  As a Putney resident for most of her life and a volunteer for Age UK's Be-A-Friend scheme (even in her 80's!) I decided that supporting Age UK, Wandsworth would be the most fitting way to pay tribute to her.

Last year's Vintage Evening was a massive success - you can read all about it here - and it spurred me on to hold a Summer Fair this Saturday 22nd July and a 50's Evening in November.

Years of organising school events has given me the experience but going solo has been a real learning curve.  Basically I need about 3 carbon copies of myself and Mr Misfit, along with the lovely friends who have volunteered their services on the day.

I'm feeling quietly confident, a tad frazzled, excited and terrified - all in equal measures.  I'm also doing regular sun-dances to ward off any threatening clouds.

So, if you're a Putney resident pop along and introduce yourself to the wild-eyed, manic one - I may well be in the bar!

 

Sowing the Seeds of Love

England, we are led to believe, has four seasons - although sometimes it can feel like one long, wet, grey never-ending winter.  As my Aussie husband loves to say of our weather, 'Summer is my favourite day of the year!'

I'm a great fan of winter.  I love the dark, cosy nights, the rain, hail, snow and cloud. Yes, I really do!  But I do get to a point, when we change the clocks, that I start to yearn for a bit of sun, a cool breeze and long evenings enjoying our garden.  We have a very small, typical townhouse garden but we utilise the space well and take full advantage of it whenever we can.  Dinners seem longer, chat seems less distracted and life feels better during an alfresco meal or drink.

So yesterday when we found ourselves with an unseasonably warm day for London, we set to work on preparing the garden for our long-awaited summer.  Tubs were emptied, borders cleared, leaves swept, plants chopped and seeds planted.

As I dug my fingers into the earth, covering seeds and pulling out weeds, I could almost smell the approach of warmer days.  Oh, I know we have a lot more of the grey stuff to get through before we can have that first drink outside but ... it's coming!  It's on its way!

My garden looks a bit like an empty stage awaiting its actors at the moment but it's exciting and I love the thrill of watching new shoots pop up or new life pushing its way through the soil.

I then got to thinking how much tending a garden is like writing.  It all starts with that first seed.  You plant it and give it time, love and patience.  Lots and lots of patience!  As it grows you trim it, prune it and tame it.  Sometimes it gives you a scare and you think you may lose it but then it suddenly bounces back with a surprise.  Within time, that tiny dot of nothingness has a mind of its own with strong roots and it's ready to face the world.

The only difference is, I can choose when I want to plant in my garden.  Sadly (or maybe, happily) I can't with writing.  I wasn't looking for a new plot but the germ of an idea popped into my head yesterday and I think it's already settling itself in the soil of my brain and preparing to sprout.

Ah well!  At least I'll have a lovely scented garden to work in.  Now pass me that notebook and a box of fertiliser!

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!

Take a letter, Miss Misfit ...

I’ve seen the new craze going around where bloggers write snippets of letters that they know they will never send - just to get stuff off their chests.

I like this idea so I’m jumping on the bandwagon and churning out a few of my own.

Remember, these are my personal thoughts - if you can’t relate or don’t agree, piddle off and write your own.

Dear Employers

You are totally passing my husband by because of his age.  This means that you have lost out on one of the most decent and hardest workers I have ever known.

But that’s fine.  It means I’ve had him around me for longer and SOON, when everything goes OUR way, he won’t be looking for your poxy jobs anyway.

Dear Husband

You are the best (and more) than I could ever have wished for.  Every day with you brings a smile and I feel totally cherished as you promised all those years ago.  Times have been tough but together we can face anything.  I owe you an Aston Martin with bows and nipple tassels!  One day …

Dear Doubters

School phobia is very real.  This is the last time I hope I ever have to say this but it is not naughtiness, petulance, mollycoddling, ‘trying it on’, hating school - NONE of those things.  Live through it with a child or see someone experience a full-blown panic attack and then get back to me.  A slap doesn’t solve everything and this condition has not just been brought to the public’s attention because of sodding ‘Emmerdale’.  Get a grip!

Dear Son

How proud I am of you that you would come through such a difficult time and turn it into a positive - to be happy to chat to newspapers/radio and appear on TV in the hope of helping another child who is going through the same thing.  I think that says an awful lot about you.  Weird, whacky, a mind of your own and someone who will go far.

Dear Readers

Thank you so much for taking a chance on me and (mainly) loving what I do.  Every great review makes me smile so broadly, I wish you could see me when it happens.  Your words mean the world to me and spur me on to write more.  The support that you give me via blogs, email Facebook and Twitter is one of the greatest feelings ever.  Thank you.

Dear People who harm children, animals, the old or vulnerable.

No punishment is enough for you.  You will rot in hell.  Enough said.

Dear Putney Mums

You’ve been talking, I know you have.  That’s fine.  It was always going to happen.  There is no ONE individual represented in my books.  You are not Character A or Character B - but if you recognise a sprinkling of your traits in any of the people within the books’ pages, are you nice or nasty?  YOU decide!

Dear Daddy

Not your fault I know, but no girl should lose such a lovely dad at eighteen.  You are in trouble when I reach the Pearly Gates - listen out for the shouting!  Thank you for being the best and making your presence felt every day in some small way.

Dear PPI

STOP ringing me!  I don’t have any money due to me!  Do you not think I would have taken it if I had?

Dear Friend in Scotland

You are a mess and I am ashamed of you.  Thirty years of friendship is about to go down the pan as I stand by your husband and your son.  The alcohol needs to take a back seat and you have to remember that, first and foremost, you are a mother.  You have gone from ‘one classy lady’ to a candidate for the Jeremy Kyle show.  Stop and think what your parents would be saying.

Dear British Summer

We haven’t seen you for a while.  About three years?!  Get your bum into gear and hit us with a humdinger this year.  I have books to write and a garden to write them in.  What I don’t have is a passport, money to go overseas or the time to travel - I need you to deliver to my front door and this time, if you don’t, I will be writing a strong letter to The Times - enough’s enough.

Dear Family

Your mother/grandmother is not getting any younger.  Things can be left until they are too late and nobody wants that.  Do they?  We are ALL guilty in our own ways for being where we are, every one of us, and I think she deserves more.  Every single member of my family who reads this should take stock and ask themselves some questions.  Every single one.

Dear Blog Readers

Phew!  Bit of a marathon this week, wasn’t it?  If you made it this far, go and grab a cuppa or a glass of something lovely (depending on the time of day - I’d hate to encourage early boozing) and while you’re at it check out my books on Amazon!  Gotta keep that leaky old roof over our heads!