Day 27: I was a teenage werewolf...

So, not long left to go, and I will have fully completed my challenge! 

Just time then to fill you in on how it's going on my latest project!

I may have mentioned last night that I have started work on a six author collaboration that is a kind of companion piece to the Vampire one, Feral Hearts - remember that name- that WILL be coming out in print and E-book sometime in the next few weeks!

Well, today have had a good day writing out a rough plan, and starting to tell my opening story that sets up my character and begins her story. In fact, wrote over 2,000 words and almost completed the first act of my two act beginning.

Dead hyped about this. It was a project I was originally not involved in, but which had come to a stall. It started getting off the ground last October.

Well, I helped persuade Catt to dust it off the shelf if I could be involved in it and help her get this out to tie in with the hopeful future success of vampire novel, Feral Hearts.

I really WANT to get my name out there, and if people will not step up to the bar then I will get involved and utilize it as another prime example of all my work and my writing!

I am so stoked now to finally be involved, and dead excited that I have my opening all done in my head already, bar typing it up.

Until tomorrow,

laters 'taters!

Hello, hello, let me introduce myself (again), so good to know you....

So, it's fair to say that it has been a while since I last touched base and, by now, many of you who regularly follow my Blog have probably long given me up for dead and abandoned any hope of me ever returning. No such luck!!

In my defense, it has been a very busy year!

Firstly, because of a nice little return on a P.P.I claim I received back in January I was able to take myself, my wife and my daughter Emilie off to Disneyland, Paris. We were there for five days and had an absolutely awesome time that was quite simply out of this world and that now feels like a beautiful dream I had except for the fact that I have bucket-loads of photos to remember it all by! I even had my photo taken next to Darth Vader which, for a Geek like me, you can well imagine was like all my Christmases rolled into one! If you haven't been and can afford it I can recommend it- it was an experience I will never forget and I was just glad I could treat Emilie....especially in light of what has come more  recently!

 Since then, I have been concentrating on my new writing career that I started to tell you about in my last Blog post. I now have an Amazon Author page here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Woods/e/B00F5ZCMAG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_11?qid=1382973066&sr=1-11 where you can easily locate all the Anthologies my short fiction appears in. I have a piece of Flash (very,very short) fiction and another story appearing shortly in yet another Anthology that will be appearing soon but that is not yet published and am working on my first of three intended novels; the first of which will offer something Zombie related but very, very different from anything else out there! Just to whet your appetite, my newest short story to be published soon is called Dairy Of The Dead (no typo) and features Zombie Cows. The anthology it will be appearing in will be called MIDNIGHT REMAINS.

I also have a Facebook Author Page so you can connect to me here too: https://www.facebook.com/markwoodsauthor?fref=ts  and keep updated on all my latest writing news and projects. There are too many to mention here but I have at least two more projects in the pipeline that are set to be published by year end! One is currently in Editing, the other is a collaboration with FIVE other authors and will be ready in the very near future!

Something else I have been doing is Editing for my good friend Catt Dahman at her Publishing Press http://www.jellingtonashton.com/ 

This is lots of fun and not just a little bit hard work at times trying to fit it in with my already hectic, busy lifestyle but we have some truly great authors on board and you should really check out the website for some brilliant reads from likewise up and coming authors. Some, if not all of these names, will be BIG!

In between all of this, me and my family also went back to Lego land this year (you may recall we went there way back in this Blog's early days) - this time for two days, staying in a swanky hotel for a couple of nights between visits! This again was lots of fun and Emilie could enjoy it more now she is older so that was all good!

So you see - I haven't exactly been resting on my laurels. I do have SOME justification for never writing, not calling etc, taking my readers for granted but I am willing to make a change and be here for you more often...but on one condition. I want you to be here for me.

Remember when I blogged openly about my depression? Well, something else has happened recently that has thrown all the good things that have happened to me this year firmly against the wall and, once again, I want to share with you my most recent experiences frankly, openly and honestly. I will talk more about this in my next Blog Post but my young daughter Emilie was recently diagnosed as a Type One Diabetic. 

This may not sound too serious to some of you but that is why I want to share. The last three weeks have been a tense, frightening and tough period of time to cope with and have required a lot of readjusting and reassessment of our lives. Many people don't realize just how tough living with Type One ( or Type Two Diabetes either for that matter) can be. Not just for those affected but for everyone around them too...

In my next Blog Post, I will be sharing just how we found out and what we have had to deal with in the last three weeks. If you read it, please share it with your friends and family or with any others you may know who are in a similar situation. I will not be going into medical details or offering any medical advice (I am not a Doctor and that would be both remiss of me and wrong!). All I will be doing is sharing my wife's and my own experiences of Living With Type One in order that maybe just maybe I can help someone else in the same situation or maybe help somebody be diagnosed earlier by explaining the symptoms and events that lead to Emilie being diagnosed...

Until next time (soon), keep your chins up guys!

xxx Your mate, Sparky 

Oh...did you miss me?

So....it's been a while and there's not really any excuse except that life has kind of gotten in the way these past few months and I have neither had the time nor inclination to Blog much. Still, there was no way I was ever going to abandon you completely and so, with Emilie now starting Reception class at School full-time, hopefully I should have more time to myself and be better able to keep you updated with my life and reading habits...

I have several books that I want to add to my 1001 Books And Authors To Read Before You Die list and of course it might be nice to update you with some of the stuff that has been happening since I have been AWOL but all that can wait...

First of all, I want to talk about a book I have just finished called The Skin Map by Stephen Lawhead.

I have only had limited experience in the past of Mr.Lawhead, having tried, and then promptly given up, to get into his Pendragon cycle once several years ago.  The Skin Map though is an absolutely fantastic read that had me gripped from start to finish! The basic premise is that travel through alternate versions of our reality is possible through the use of Ley Lines; those invisible lines of Energy that cross the surface of our world largely undetected. Kit is standing at the crossroads of one of these Ley Lines in a dark London alley when he is approached by his Great Grandfather. Cosimo explains to Kit that he is involved in a search for something called The Skin Map that charts the course of these Ley Lines and needs Kit's help. This is the reason why he mysteriously disappeared decades before. He has not aged because Inter-dimensional travel slows down the ageing process. 

Kit fobs off his Great Grandfather, even after an example of such travel is demonstrated to him, but later returns to the alley with his girlfriend in an attempt to convince her he is not making it all up. But when the pair are separated when they pass through the gateway, Kit suddenly realises that now HE needs his Great Grandfather's help instead of the other way round if he is ever to see his girlfriend again! Mix in a nefariously evil bad guy who has his own reasons for wanting to obtain The Skin Map and what we get is a brilliant and expertly imagined adventure story that takes you on a roller coaster ride through Time and Space...

Like I say, I really enjoyed this and got a lot out of it. It was not without a few flaws (for example ~ how comes no one ever falls through these Ley Lines by accident, surely that would be happening all the time if they are scattered around everywhere? ) but still I enjoyed it immensely asnd canhighly recommend it even if it isn't quite worthy enough to make my 1001 List. Oh, and a big thank-you must go to http://booksneeze.com/ for supplying me with a free E-copy in exchange for this review! Now I just need to read the next book in the series, The Bone House, which continues the story.....

The Last Supper.....

So, last night I had to attend this Company do to say thank-you to some of the staff for all our hard work at The Hotel this last year. All the upper and lower echelons of management were invited which meant that Heads Of Department and their Number Twos got to go ~ hence my invite. The gathering took place at our Sister Hotel in Norwich and consisted of a three course meal with Champagne and Canapes to begin. Sounds alright doesn't it? Actually it was one of the most boring nights of my life!

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but the thought of spending time with the majority of the people I work with in an environment outside of work REALLY does not enthrall me at all at the best of times, let alone at something as formal as a sit down meal!

It didn't exactly help that I was pretty much informed by H.C (Head Chef) that I had to attend! Those of you who know me will know that I am not particularly keen in conforming and if you tell me I have to do something then it makes me less inclined to do it!

Basically what happened is this: I walked in to work the other Friday and there was an envelope waiting for me with my invite enclosed. I opened it, looked at it and thought "What a nice gesture, that's actually quite nice of them for a change....first I get a small pay rise, now this!" Then I considered who else would be going!

Thinking about the people I might have to sit next to filled me with dread. Out of all of them, there were very few people that I actually wanted to be near. I mean sitting in a room with Fingers (nicknamed that behind his back because he is missing a couple of digits), Miss Piggy (with whom I have a bit of a shady working  relationship with at the best of times) or our Function Un-co-ordinator let alone my immediate boss, H.C, really did not appeal. Still I thought maybe it wouldn't be sooo bad.....

Then H.C comes out with a little comment about how it was the kind of thing that you couldn't really say no to, assuming I am going to turn down the invitation before I have even made my mind up, and tells Richard The Manager that he has told me I have to go! To be honest, one of the things that swayed it for me was when Richard turned around and said he was surprised I was going to go as I didn't normally do these sort of things. This kinda made me want to go so I could stick two fingers up and say "Naaah ~ see I did turn up!" Also, I was curious at seeing the other Hotel and having a swanky meal cooked for me!

The best thing about the evening was the food! After Canapes we were treated to an Amuse-Bouche of a pea and mint soup and cheese straw then given a small choice of starters and mains. I had Cajun Beef Skewers which were very tasty and a Rib-Eye steak, Medium-Rare, with Bearnaise Sauce and it was all cooked to perfection. Finally we were given a pre-dessert, a refreshing Sorbet with some Strawberries on the side, and again a small choice of desserts from which I chose Poached Pear with Ginger Ice-Cream which was simply sublime!

The food was the dogs bollocks and looked amazing and tasted really good but service was sooo slow! We sat down a little after 8 PM to eat and sweets went on the table about 10.30 PM-ish. Which was fine except I spent most of the evening bored off my tits. Not just because I wasn't drinking but also because I just found conversation with the people I work with extremely tiresome and there was only a few sparse moments where I felt relaxed and actually enjoyed myself.

I guess I went because I didn't want to look ungrateful and wanted to show I did appreciate The Company taking time out to show how grateful they were for our efforts especially as my job can often be a thankless task at times but they were still going at around 11 PM and by then, I really had had enough! It was all I could do to stop myself from just going to the toilet and making an escape without looking back! In essence, it was four hours of my life that I just lost that I could have spent sitting with my wife and daughter!

I know how this makes me look ~ it makes me seem ungrateful, selfish and a bit spoilt but you know what, who gives a Frak! This is my life, I get one chance to live it how I choose to and why should I spend it doing something I really don't enjoy? I think I summed the whole evening up aptly twice ~ first when I texted Mrs.Sparky to tell her it was "Food off of MasterChef but with the company of CrimeWatch" and then later at home when I told her I would rather put my nuts in a blender than sit through all that again!

There is a reason I don't socialise with people from work, or rather THOSE people, and last night proved it! There were exceptions, I did get on with a few of the people I spoke to there but as a whole I really could have done without all that and don't think I would do it again if I was invited. Or maybe I would because the food was pretty much top notch but I had a chance to escape a bit earlier when Mrs.Sparky's colleague Sarah made her excuses and left and I thought I would stay a bit longer so that I didn't look rude. Big error and one of two schoolboy mistakes I made last night! (The other was trying to gauge where to sit and ending up at the top of the table right next to the two Directors, only one of whom I enjoyed talking to ~ the other being his usual self, a bit of a prig!)

Needless to say, I will not be posting this Blog Post on Facebook! I don't particularly want the wrong people reading this after all and taking it the wrong way and I cannot be arsed to frak about with the Privacy settings just so only the select elite few get to read it! If you can't come on here to read this then that's your let-out and really you're not missing much by not reading this....But I do think I should add that the evening was a very nice gesture but too much about brown-nosing, networking and earning a few precious Brownie points for my liking!

I really am NOT a people person and last night kind of proved that to me! Like I tried to explain to Richard last night I do do eating out, I am just selective about the company I keep. And last night, the company really wasn't to my liking....

This is Sparky signing out and asking:  Do You wanna die young or would You rather have fun? I know what my answer would be!

Home truths.....

This week, I have mostly been discovering that I am no longer as young as I once thought I was!

To quote Samuel.L.Jackson, "Example...."

On Monday, on Radio One, it was announced that this week was Dubstep week. This basically entailed all the Radio One D.Js' promoting Dubstep and playing examples of the genre whilst also guiding listeners to the Radio One Website where you could play around with some bangin' tunes and sound effects yourself and lay down your own Dubstep track with some pretty funky beats. Monday night also saw Dubstep artist Nero playing alongside the British Philharmonic Orchestra for a one-off performance on Zane Lowe's show. Remembering how Portishead once did something similar with the New York Philharmonic, (as did Metallica I do believe > Actually I have been informed it was the San Francisco Philharmonic with Metallica!< ), I thought I'd check it out. Needless to say I was not overly impressed!

I think I must just not be cool enough for school to listen to Dubstep! The Philharmonic Orchestra was awesome but the bits with Nero really just didn't seem to fit! With Portishead it worked and, from what I have heard of the sessions with Metallica, this also was pretty awesome and amazing. With Nero....not so much! I really don't think I get the whole Dubstep Genre....it just sounds like a more grimey version of Drum And Bass of which I am not paticularly a fan but have heard a few decent examples. (I'm thinking here of a Drum And Bass version of Careless whisper I own on a Ministry of Sound album!)

It makes me sound old I know but Dubstep mostly just sounds like a noise to me! One of the worst tracks around at the minute, and apparently one of the most recent examples of Dubstep, is The Bass Cannon which, to me, just sounds like mental torture! I have to change stations whenever this comes on ~ it is just atrocious!!!!

The other reason why I think I am getting old is because on Tuesday night, traditionally the night before me having two and a half days off from work, I decided, as per usual, to play Xbox. Not a problem except that I was close to completing the main storyline on Fable 2 and was determined to finish it so that I can Download the extra content for next week on my two weeks off from work. Hmmm....well, anyway, I finished playing at 3:45 am Wednesday morning!

Wednesday I was fine but Thursday, I felt like I had a hangover! I went to bed fairly early on Wednesday night and got a good nights sleep, more than I normaly get on average, and yet still all day I felt exhausted with the fringes of a headache just bordering on the edges of my frontal lobes! I really must start to learn that I am no spring chicken any more and cannot keep behaving like I am still in my twenties! My main problem ~ I am still a really big kid!! The thing is.....I'm not sure I'm ever gonna learn........

Silly Sparky......xxxxxxx

One sorry and a surprising sex-pest shocker!

First of all, an apology. In talking both to my wife and other people at The Hotel, it now turns out Bea is not the same age or older but younger than me! Ooops!

Mrs.Sparky was at great pains to inform me that the woman in question is about a year younger than her making her around thirty or thirty-one not thirty-seven plus......errrm, whoops!

My excuse is that she is South African so exposure to the elements has perhaps made her look a little older than her years but still feel I should aplogise anyway for any offence I might have caused! 

And I probably deserved the response from my wife I got when I happened to blurt out that "She must have had a hard life then!" Sometimes my brain should really engage before my mouth decides to operate! 

Anyway, it's all good and I would just like to say I am heartfeltedly sorry but basically that's just me and if you don't like what I have to say then you know where the door is!

Meanwhile, in other news, I have been greeted by the shock revelation that someone who worked at The Hotel until last year in a management/ supervisory role has been revealed on a Predators Exposed Blog as a sex pest who has been having explicit chats and camming with underage girls on teen web-chat sites!

There are full text transcripts and creepy Web-Cam pictures here of exactly what he has been getting up to!
http://predatorsexposeduk.blogspot.com/

How creepy is that? The guy left The Hotel allegedly because of stress and that he no longer wanted to work there with no goals or aims or even another job to go to! It was alleged he had few friends outside of work and was a bit of an Odd-Bod but still, no one expected this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone else who works at The Hotel was directed to the site and fowarded it to all to the Duty Managers by Facebook P.M. By now, word has spead round most of The Hotel as Gossip often does and everyone is now aware of it!

Talk about freaky! It just goes to show you never really know someone but I doubt anyone ever expected this! Many of the text transcripts are very recent too!

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This about sums up my reaction! 

Found out about this last Sunday at work but when got home, the Blog had been shut down to all but invited readers ~ no doubt because someone was alerted by all the traffic they were getting as word spread around the staff but now the Blog is up and public again! Paul has been allegedly informed and, strangely, has disappeared off the face of Facebook as we know it! At least under his real name!!!!!!!!

Have decided to follow the Blog and keep tabs on any new developments! But is sooooo freaky to think that only a few months ago I ws working with him and that he was working alongside all the 16 and 17 year old penquins!


Just goes to show...you never know who you think you know and you should ALWAYS be careful whom you talk to online!!!!

It's only a game......

Why are some people soooo obssessed with their Gamer scores on Xbox Live? True, it is nice to have lots of G Points but who REALLY cares if you have a lower score? Not me! I get just as much enjoyment if not more out of just playing a game rather than trying to get all the achievments.

For those who are unitiated in the ways of the Xbox360, when you play a game on your console you can earn up to 1000 points per game for performing certain achievments. These can be anything from completing individual levels of a game to rolling your car 5 times or achieving a certain amount of head-shots. For every game the maximum amount of points you can get is 1000 but often some of these achievments can only be done by playing multi-player games online or completing a game on Hard mode! Sometimes a game only has 5 achievments, such as completing every successive level in a game, but these still have to add up to 1000 points so you can see sometimes it is easier to get all the achievments on a game than on others.

One of the women at work, call her Bea, has a husband who requested to be my Xbox friend; this means we can see when each other is Online and what game we are each playing and also can look at each other's Gamer Cards which record our scores. Lately she has become obsessed because my score was only like 3000-something. She and her husband lent me this game where you only had to play 5 minutes and press  one button to get all achievments and an easy 1000 points. Fair enough. But they also lent me Terminator:Salvation and told me it was easy and that their kid completed it in like 3 hours or something. Both games were lent me so that I could "get my score up!"

So okay, I load it in and yes, it is fairly easy but it is slow to load and you can't skip the cut-scenes between playing so that every time you die and reload your last save, you have to sit through them all again! Boring!! I like played it for an hour, got a bit bored and went back to Batman:Arkham Asylum which I had nearly finished and was enjoying more instead!


Anyway, I bump into her today and Bea is like "So what's taking you so long with Terminator?" and I'm like "Well, like....I've not played it since Tuesday night because I was trying to get to the end of Batman!" and so she's like "Well I'm going to get my own Profile and I'm going to like thrash your score really quickly and beat you!" and so I'm like "Big Fracking deal!"

{Aparently, her and her husband were watching my Profile the other night to see how many Achievments I got on the games they lent me. Errr...like...hello? Sad much?}


I mean this woman is older than me and always bitching about her husband playing like loads of Xbox but still is giving me shit because my Gamerscore is a little low. And I'm like thinking "Jeez girl...back off and get a life!" I mean I like Xbox as much as the next guy but I want to enjoy my games not just play them to build up points on my profile! And maybe it's just me but as much as it might be nice to have a high score, I have a life you know and cannot be arsed obsessing about how I can get more bragging points which is basically all G-points are! They are no good for anything else!


Well, I know you are all bored now with my geeky Xbox talk so I'll wrap this up but honestly....when you start getting that obsessed with G-points, and not just your own or your husbands but someone elses, then you really need to have a harsh word with yourself! I mean there are other things I like doing too, yeah? Like spending time with my wife and daughter or reading...I mean it's not like I've got two ton of books to get through or anything? Friends from RISI will know all about that little obsession, I'm sure!


Anyway, until later......wah wah wah wah wah.....Game Over!


C U Next Time Blog Pals xxxx NarkyMarky

Back from the brink......

Well, I'm back after an extended annual absence that always seems to happen around the December-Janaury point of the calender due in part to Xmas being my busist time of year and also to me finding it inordinarily difficult to start Blogging again after so many weeks not doing it! 

Much has happened whilst I have been away. The big thing in the last week is that Emilie has begun pooing on the potty after weeks of creating and refusing to go in anything other than a nappy! She would go for a wee on potty or toilet but not poo and I don't know what has changed but a bit of patience with her has certainly paid off and now, once she has realised she can do it, she is going on the potty all the time! We have made sure we give her lots of praise and encouragement and all of it is genuine. I am soooooo nproud of my little sweetheart for takling this big step and now can stop worrying about whether she was ever going to be fully trained!!

The other big thing is that I smashed my K.A up in the recent bad weather over December. I was coming down a slip-road that had not been properly gritted, hit black ice and spun out of control. It was quite worrying and when I saw a white van headed towards me, there was a moment when I thought my number might be up!! The van hit me at the front end of the drivers side but very nearly managed to miss me! I mean we are literally talking about a matter of milli-seconds! My car would not start, the wheels were locked into place and the other drivers ending up calling an ambulance because they were not sure if I was hurt. I smacked my head but otherwise was thankfully unharmed! My K.A however was a write-off!!

Take a tip ~ DO NOT EVER EVER TAKE CAR INSURANCE WITH FIRST CENTRAL INSURANCE! 

They are absolutely awful ~ insisted me going through the claim over the phone in the ambulance before they would recover my vehicle for assessment despite the Police telling them it was a hazard and needed moving; point-blank refused me a courtesy car because it was a write-off but also held off organising me a hire-car until their own Independant Assessor could confirm this and were nothing but a nusiance to try and communicate with! They are the worst Insurance company I have ever used but be warned ~ were the number one cheapest on Comparison site, Go Compare! In future, I will check out Martyn Lewis' website before I go with a company I have not heard of before as there were lots of disparaging comments about them on the forum there. Either that or I will go with a reputable company whom I have heard of before even if it does cost me a little more! Either way I would neither use First Central again or reccommend them to anyone! And, when I get a few moments to spare, I am also going to be writing to Watchdog, the Ombudsman and anyone else I can think of complaining about the level of service I have recieved! Basically the company was just forking me off so they didn't have to supply me with a car and that really isn't good enough!

Luckily, mum was able to lend me some money until a settlement came through for my old car and I was able to find a little Corsa relatively quickly with low mileage and for a reasonable price! It has only a litre engine meaning it has no real guts and takes an age to get to speed, but will be cheap to tax and is slightly more economical than my K.A was especially in these times when petrol prices are going up and up!

Anyway, that's about all for now.....nothing else immediately springs to mind that I wish to share so until next time....

Sayonarra folks!

I don't normally use Twitter, but if I did......

So, been a bit of an Internet recluse these past few months for a variety of reasons that incorporates XBOX LIVE and a busy time at work but am off on holiday this week so am taking the opportunity to revisit my Blog and try and be more proactivewith it! With that in mind, I have also decided, for this week only, to try and use my Twitter account a little more than I might have done in the past to Tweet everything that I get up to. For those of you who don't follow me there (sparkymarky1973) but do follow my Blog either on Facebook or at Blogger.com, I have decided to simultaeneously post my Tweets on here. So be prepared for a few random Blog posts, some mundane observations on life in general and a complete Blog overdrive as I flood these pages with the intimate details of my experiences this week!

Tweet @ 10:27 am ~ Is it wrong that on the first day of my holiday, I have so far acheived absolutely nowt?

I don't belieeeeeeeve it!

Can it be possible? Can it have been nearly six weeks since my last Blog post?? Sorry, I've no excuse for not being about much but it's true I have been a bit distracted lately and it is just sooo easy to forget all about this whole Blog thing when you have other things on your mind! And then of course, the longer you leave it the harder it is to get back in the swing of things!


There is so much I could choose to tell you right now....I could tell you about how I seem to be making a habit of upsetting people at work of late (three .... ahem, four so far this year); I could tell you about the two young waitresses at work who allegedly slept with a couple of the long-term residents at the Hotel (which considering their young age, was the result of much gossiping and scandal amongst the staff); I could tell you about H.C who has returned to work this week after a knee operation following two operations earlier this year to remove cataracts; or I could tell you about my determination that, now me and Mrs.Sparky can't afford to move like we planned, there is nothing to stop me keeping my eyes out for another job...one potentially with better hours so I can spend more time with my family! I could even tell you about my friend, Samantha who has just had a little baby girl called Lola Grace in the last few days and whom me and Mrs.Sparky are going to visit tomorrow. Unfortunately, I cannot really be bothered so you are going to have to fill in your own details for now.....


Have been reading lots of books of late, too many to mention, but some of those that I have picked up include.... Drood by Dan Simmons (engaging and entertaining period tale about Dickens' final years that ends rather unsatisfyingly), UFO In Her Eyes (a strangely disappointing book, set in a China of the very near future, all about how a close encounter with a flying saucer affects not just a simple  peasant girl but all her fellow villagers as well), Red Azalea by Anchee Min (a slightly lacklustre biography all about the author's first sexual experiences whilst living under the reign of Chairman Mao in the midst of the Cultural Revoloution that was no match for the vivid imagery of the far superior, Wild Swans) and Gail Porter's autobiography which is an okay read but not as good as I thought it might be with only scant mention in the closing chapters of her experiences with Alapecia.


Will be back soon (I promise this time!), but for now I've gotta go.....y'know what they say... the devil makes work for idle hands and all that!

A new start...

In the last few weeks I have kind of over-indulged and slipped into naughty habits of just buying stuff that I want with little thought to consequence. Hence this month, money has gotten a little tight and I am very glad that I am getting paid on Monday!

With this in mind, I have decided that for the next month I am not going to buy anything for myself! No books, no matter how cheap, no DVDs, no sweets ~ nothing! I am going to really deprive myself. I don't need any more books, I have loads on my TBR as well as all the books I am re-reading at the moment, and if any do come out there is no rush to buy them~ I have to learn that I don't need them there and then; I can wait!

My aim is not to buy any more books unless I sell or mooch some of the vast number of books on my TBR! And not to buy any more DVDs until I have watched some of those I have bought and not even seen yet!

I am also going to try AGAIN to keep a record of everything I spend starting from Monday when I start another weeks holiday. That way I can keep a note of where all my money is going and see where I need to cut costs! I am determined to try and get my expenditure down. We may not be able to afford to move right now but maybe I can help make this seem a little bit more likely by not treating myself and only buying essentials. I have tried before to keep records unsuccessfully but always lose heart, cannot be bothered after a few weeks and always end up giving up! This time though, I am going to try again and by posting that I am doing it on here, hopefully this will help my motivation!

Anyway, I will keep you informed how I get on and try to keep you updated with my progress. Until next time.....ciao peoples xxxx Sparky

Thank you for loving me!

Lately a few things have happened in my life (that I don't want to go into here in part because there are some things in my life that I truly believe should remain private) that have lead me to realise how lucky I am to be married to Mrs.Sparky! She is so kind, thoughtful and understanding and sometimes I really don't think I deserve to be with her or to share our beautiful daughter, Emilie, with her. This is a little bit to do with the self-doubt that runs through the very core of my being but also as much to do with the fact that I don't always appreciate her as much as I should. I know, or suspect, that all of us are guilty of this sometimes but with her feeling a little down at the moment, I wanted to take this opportunity to publically declare just how much I love her and tell her how glad I am that she came came into my life! I may not always tell her but I like to think she knows these things. Sometimes though, I guess it is just nice to have these things affirmed. Which is why I have decided to write this post! And also why I think the lyrics of Bon Jovi's "Thank-you for lovin' me" are so appropiate to my relationship with my wife!

"It's hard for me to say the things
I want to say sometimes
There's no one here but you and me
And that broken old street light

Lock the doors
We'll leave the world outside
All I've got to give to you
Are these five words when I

Thank you for loving me
For being my eyes when I couldn't see for
Parting my lips when I couldn't breathe
Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me

I never knew I had a dream
Until that dream was you
When I look into your eyes
The sky's a different blue

Cross my heart
I wear no disguise
If I tried, you'd make believe
That you believed my lies

Thank you for loving me
For being my eyes when I couldn't see
For parting my lips when I couldn't breathe
Thank you for loving me

You pick me up when I fall down
You ring the bell before they count me out
If I was drowning you would part the sea
And risk your own life to rescue me, yeah

Lock the doors
Leave the world outside
All I've got to give to you
Are these five words when I

Thank you for loving me
For being my eyes oh, when I couldn't see
You parted my lips when I couldn't breathe
Thank you for loving me

When I couldn't fly
Oh, you gave me wings
You parted my lips when I couldn't breathe
Thank you for loving me

Thank you for loving me
Thank you for loving me
Oh for loving me"

One of the things getting Mrs.Sparky down at the moment is the fact that it is looking increasingly unlikely that we will be able to afford to move in the next few years and, in order for us to have another child, which she really wants, we would need a bigger house. I know sometimes you can overthink things and that sometimes you just have to go for them because otherwise what you want will never happen, but you also have to be practical too and our house really isn't big enough! It distresses me too, maybe not as much as Mrs.Sparky it is true, but I am trying not to dwell on it too much. Right now, all I am thinking about is how lucky I am to have such a lovely family. My depression has not surfaced so far this year and ideally I would like it to stay that way! Sometimes you just have to be thankful for what you've got and shouldn't try to dwell on things that could be, but on the here and now!

Okay, I lied....

Maybe I won't be Blogging every day, lol! One day into my holiday and already I have missed a day's post! Still yesterday wasn't like a proper day of my holiday because it was a bank holiday and more like a bonus day! We had intended to go out, the three of us ~ me, Mrs.Sparky and Emilie, but it was such a miserable day that we didn't bother in the end! Instead we all had a day of doing very little. Me and Ems played with her Duplo and took a little trip to the shop to get stuff for tea but that was it! It was sooo nice and relaxing!

Last night, watched Ferris Bueller's day off again! What a classic eighties' movie. The late John Hughes was a brilliant director and every thing he touched in the eighties seemed to turn to gold. And, of course, I take Ferris' message to heart- Life moves fast; sometimes you need to stop and look around once in a while or you might miss something!! How true!!!!

Yes I AM still here....

Just to let you all know that I haven't abandoned you, just not really had a lot to Blog about lately that is in any way, shape or form interesting. Nothing new there, I hear you say, but hey, you are sooo gonna regret that next week because I have a weeks holiday and I intend to write a Blog-post EVERY SINGLE DAY to make up for all those I've missed these last few weeks!

Actually, I really need to get a move on with my list of 1001 Books And Authors You Need to Read Before You Die!! Especially as we are only up to no 7 right now and we have a loooong way to go! Other things I intend to do next week include doing some proper writing (I have a couple of short stories logged in a word document that I really ought to be finishing!!), finishing my Dark Tower painting (and showing you guys my autistic...I mean ARTISTIC....talent) and spending lots of quality time with my daughter of course. I would include my wife there but she is going to have to work for most of my week as normal as that is just the way things have worked out this year!

A right royal pain in the.....back!

So, people who know me on Facebook and have read my status will know that I have had a tingling sensation and some pain in my left side since Monday just gone. I thought I had pulled a muscle or had a trapped nerve or something.Then Friday, I started to get this itching sensation on my back and when I got home, I asked Mrs.Sparky to take a look to see if anything had developed. That was when I first became aware that I had got a rash......now some of you might have already guessed what these symptoms suggest but I wasn't sure so decided to take a trip to the NHS Walk-in centre the next morning in case I had had some kind of an allergic reaction or in case I had developed anything contagious. They were a little confused at the centre to say the least but they did settle my mind that I had not pulled a muscle. As for the rash, they suggested everything from insect bites due to bed-bugs down to some kind of heat rash. I asked if it might be Shingles but got told there it was unlikely!

Anyway, I get home after work on Saturday and Mrs.Sparky had looked up my symptoms on the NHS website and come up with a diagnosis that actually confirmed Shingles which had been my first thought.

Basically, the symptoms start off with pain and discomfort down one side for several days followed by a band of rash and irritation in the same area thast can last several weeks! Shingles is the adult form of Chicken Pox and can only be contracted by people who have had that as a sprog. The cells lie dormant in your body until something acts as a trigger to reproduce the virus as Shingles! On Saturday, I was in a lot of pain unless I dosed up on iboprufen and Sunday morning I was really hurting when I first got up and that pain came and went all day. The best way to describe it is like shooting pains every few minutes going through your body or like someone constantly poking you in the side every few minutes. Not nice!

Today I started a weeks holiday from work and got myself down to the doctors as soon as I could get an appointment. The Nurse Practioner I saw as the same one I saw last year when I was depressed and confirmed the diagnosis from the NHS website. Yes indeed! Sparky has got shingles!!!!

I can't say I'm happy about it, the pain is really starting to get on my nerves and my spots on my back are starting to fill with fluid and are really itchy but at least Ihave a good excuse not to do much on my holiday! Problem is, sitting on the sofa without lots of cushions is really painful and I am developing chronic back pain especially if I lean forwards so playing GTA is awkward! Still, at least I don't have to do much this week without feeling too guilty about it!

Today I watched the extended version of The Fellowship Of The Rings and am looking forward to watching the other two films in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy in the same format later this week! I had forgotten how great those films are and the extra bits just make them even better! I also hope to try and write lots of reviews on Dooyoo. I am just waiting for my points to go through and, in a few days, I will have earned another fifty quid!! Just for writing about stuff I would have read or watched anyway!

Talk about money for old rope......thats all for now ~ catch you all laters, Sparky xxx

Leave the lights on, if you're the last one alive......

Well, it's been a couple of months since my last post and there must be some of you out there who must have thought I had given up on this whole Blogging malarkey! No such luck....though I do feel at pains to at least try and explain my absence. Basically, December is really hectic in my job as a chef and paticulary stressful for all of us involved in the Catering trade. Therefore I was not really in any kind of a suitable mood to be writing in my Blog even if I did get time to do it. In fact, I barely touched the computer over xmas and my time on Facebook was pretty much shelved which, as anyone who knows me will know, is totally unheard of. I think it has done me a lot of good though being away from FB as it has helped to cure me of my Farmville obsession and going back to Facebook now, I have barely even touched that paticular application. I'm still Scrabbling though and still losing as many games, if not more, that I win but it is good to know that my Scrabble buds kept our games open while I was away and had wondered where I was! There's nothing quite like being missed......and it's good to be back playing word games again as I really do enjoy it, sad as it may sound!

Of course, Xmas has been over several weeks now and I still haven't made an appearance up until now so you might be forgiven for wondering what else I have been up to....not much is the answer. One thing I did seriously develop over December was a renewed obsession with GTA4 so I have been getting in a lot of XBOX 360 time when I can, right into the wee late hours of the night and the beginning of the next morning on many a occassion, and trying to complete that especially as I got several other games for Xmas which need playing. There is something very satisfying and relaxing about GTA that really chills me out. It sounds bizarre but there really is nothing like going on a mad killing spree, completing a few missions or just trying to exterminate all of the 200 flying rats that can be found across the city to really relax me. So far, I am on about 64 % completion so have a way to go but I want to get it finished by the end of next week when I am on holiday or I will not be best pleased.

So anyway, I still haven't really explained where I've been...well the computer has started to play up so we have needed to get my brother-in-law to take a look at that so he could fix it but also the Laptop has also started playing up. My B-I-L has fixed the laptop and has the computer at mo but that does mean that me and Mrs.Sparky have had a conflict in interest over who gets control of the sole computer in the house. This is an argument she justifiably always wins as it is HER laptop but that does mean that sme of my computer access has been limited. Also, to be very fair, I have just not been arsed to come on here and write anything and the longer I left it, the easier it was to forget about my Blog for a while...

Still, I am back now so heaven help you all ~ expect lots of Blog entries next week as I intend to try and catch up for lost time. When last I left you, I was reading Stephen King's Under The Dome. Well, since then I have decided to re-read all his back catalogue starting with Carrie. Over the last few weeks, I have re-read The Tommyknockers and Dreamcatcher too; finished the last Mo Hayder thriller ~ Skin~ which was okay but got better the further I progressed through it and am now reading the latest Robin Hobb fantasy, Dragonkeeper, which I will talk about further at a later stage. I am not trying to hedge or nothing but I have a new set of themes and ideas that I am want to use in 2010 on my Blog that incorporate some thoughts I had last year but never got around to putting into practice! This means therefore that I will be discussing my love for Robin Hobb, amongst others, in much more detail soon.....

Till then.....be fair or be square! Ciao Peeps!