Back in the Bucket

My Mummies will insist on the bath in the bucket routine. When they are old and decrepid, I'm going to buy a large bucket and make them bathe in it!!
My Grandma was here last weekend. She did nice things like give me a bottle, praise me when I burped and take me for refreshing walks in my new pram. I can tell she loves me.

Writing Class

My homework for tomorrow is to outline two plots for novels. Here they are.
15 January 2008

Mrs. Edwards Sorts the Family

Introduction: a happily married couple of 35 years. Having breakfast. Reading the paper and commenting on some of their children in relation to newspaper items. Husband retired. Wife still working part time as a speech therapist.

Rising Action: husband goes off to buy airconditioning unit for his study. He has a car accident. What is the outcome of this? He ends up in hospital severely injured. Wife goes to visit him. Son turns up. Children living away are notified and they turn up. Wife is going about in a daze. Children are worried about her. Everyone’s back story gets told through flashbacks in deathbed scenes with Dad. Dad dies after five days.

Crisis: All four children worried about what to do with mother. Mother announces after the cremation that she will be spending three months with each of her children in turn. Children are knocked sideways but feel that they can’t refuse. She makes it clear that she will not be with any one of them for more than their allotted three months. She says that they will all meet up back at the family home in one year’s time.

Falling Action: She starts her visits within a week and the next section of the book is about these three month visits. Each one could have its own crisis. Each little family has its own problems which she attempts to set right. This leads to conflict and the realization that you cannot fix other people and they cannot fix you. She comes away knowing herself much better.

Conclusion: A year later, the family meets up and the mother presents each one with a small jar with some of Dad’s ashes. They are each to scatter them according to how they think best. She saves a larger share for herself and announces that she will be taking them to her husbands homeland, South Africa, where she will scatter them.




Raising Annie

Introduction: A woman in her early 30’s is complaining to her husband about her lousy upbringing. She itemizes all the things her parents did and didn’t do to make her childhood a bad one. These are not instances of abuse or neglect, just the run of the mill criticism and lots of moaning. Her husband seems to agree with her. They are a childless couple.

Rising Action: The woman finds out that she could be a subject in a cloning experiment. She looks into it and agrees to do it as long as she can have the child that is produced. A baby is created which is an exact clone and she is given permission to raise it as her own. This is her dream come true. She can raise herself and undo all the mistakes her own parents made.

Crisis: Many incidents can be recounted during the ‘bringing up’ years. It leads in the end to the husband taking the child’s side against the mother to try to save the child from the influences of this woman who has gone bonkers. Can he do this without telling the child that she is a clone?

Falling Action: Many changes have to be made for this child to grow up in any kind of natural way. The parents, especially Mum, must rethink their lives and their choices.

Conclusion: Haven’t worked that out yet. Child grows up well and they live happily ever after? Child runs away? Parents live a life of regret?

I'm not sure which of the two to settle on. The first one would be easier because it is autobiographical, sort of. I know all the characters. The second one would be more interesting in a way but I would have to find out about cloning. I know you can't clone humans yet but I could pretend. Any comments are welcome.

Harry and his Mummies

Harry again

This is Harry in his bucket. It is a trendy baby bath about which he seems just a trifle unsure.

Harry Malcolm Williams

This is Harry the rugby player

This is Harry the intellectual

Computer breakdown

I came back from Eastbourne on Tuesday afternoon and when I tried to set up my computer, the internet wouldn't work. I tried everything I could think of, to no avail. Next day I rang the BT broadband provider people and spent almost 2 hours on the phone with a very helpful woman. Unfortunately, it still didn't work. I had been crying over this tragedy but I decided to pull myself together and call a Geek. He came to the house and spent 2 hours sorting my machine which was completely clogged with processes that were unnecessary. In the end, he succeeded and he was well worth the money I paid him. Back to Eastbourne - I was there for two days and had a wonderful time. It's the first chance I have had to get to grips with Harry. He is a wonderful baby. He feeds like a dream and sleeps like an angel. I tried very hard to get him to smile but he wasn't quite ready. I'll have to pop down again in a couple of weeks. Maybe he will be ready then. His hair remains very red and he is just too cute for words.

Into the New Year

I expected the New Year to see me quietly ensconced in my little cottage catching up on all my chores and projects. But it seems that I've been partying instead. This involves lovely dinners with Diana, Leo, Zoe and other friends. I'm out again tonight. Where will it all end? Adam is having his birthday party on Saturday. I don't know what he is planning to serve for beverage but he did tell me today that he hit his head on a radiator because he had been driving while drinking beer! What was he driving and where did he get the beer?? The children start back to school on Tuesday so maybe we can all settle down then. I’m going to Eastbourne on Sunday for a couple of days to enjoy Prince Harry & Co. I have to be back for Wed. when my writing course restarts. My homework is to think up and write a brief outline of three plots for novels. I have two of them but I’m stuck on the third. Any ideas?

Welcome 2008

Here is Joe and Adam - Opening presents at the Gee's - Charlie and Rosie - Christmas lunch with all of us.




HAPPY NEW YEAR
I woke up this morning with a happy hangover. My Book club had a New Year's Eve party last night and I celebrated the end of a very bad year. I feel so much better to have got 2007 behind me. Rachel made one of her excellent Sunday (New Year) lunches and then I took Rosie for a two mile walk. It was a warm and lovely day. I'm very lucky to have such children and grandchildren. Tonight I'm going next door for dinner with Diana. My neighbours are pretty terrific as well. Darcy took a lot of pictures on Christmas day and I'll post some of them.

Harry - Olivia - Rosie

Almost over --

2007, that is. I won't be sorry to see the end of this year. I've changed from being a family matriarch to a single woman. My attitude is, "Let's see what I can do with it." Darcy and Joe came for Christmas and that was wonderful. They arrived on the 23rd and I took them to the Black Boy for dinner. Joe thought it was a racist pub so I had to explain that the name refers back to chimney sweeps. Very quaint. It used to be an extremely rough pub, lots of fights and uproar. About a year ago it was taken over by new people who have turned it into an excellent venue for meeting friends and neighbours. On Christmas Eve we went into town with the Gee children to have lunch. Adam, as usual, needed his McDonald's fix but Charles and Chloe preferred something a little more upscale. We broke into two groups of three. Darcy took the snooty ones to Pizza Express and Adam and I remained adamantly in favour of McDonalds. We asked Joe which group he wished to join and he said, "I'll go with the CHAV's which meant McDonalds. For anyone who doesn't know, CHAV stands for Council Housed and Vicious. Or in other words, trailer trash. On Christmas Eve I had a few friends and family around for a drink and snacks. I always like Joe and Darcy to meet my English friends. Christmas day found us down at the farm. Joe and I were in charge of vegetable cookery so we took ourselves to Shay's kitchen to get out of Rachel's way at the Aga. There were 13 of us at dinner which mean't eating in Shay's lounge, the biggest room. We sat down at 2pm after champagne and 'whore's ovaries' (that was my mother's pronunciation of hors d'oeuvres.) The dinner was a triumph - a beautifully cooked turkey with stuffing, Charlie's roast potatoes, bread sauce, pigs in blankets and my vegetables. For pudding we had a choice of traditional Christmas pudding, chocolate cake or trifle. The Gee's sitting room was awash with presents and wrappings. Adam was more interested in his Christmas toys than dinner. Darcy and Joe and I came home and collapsed in the peace and quiet of Old High Street. We were up and off to Eastbourne on Boxing Day morning. Unfortunately, not as early as we might have been so the traffic was bad on the M25. It seemed as though everyone in the Home Counties was going to visit someone. Because Boxing Day is a holiday, there were no lorries on the road, just wall to wall family cars. We didn't get to Eastbourne until about 3 so it was too late to go down to the pier. This didn't matter to me as I was thrilled to see the little copper top, namely, Harry Williams. He is just too cute for words and doing very well with feeding (most of the time) and sleeping (some of the time). Alison and Sian are wonderful parents. Alison is shining with happiness and just as funny as she has always been. The next morning, I drove the boys to Heathrow to catch their flight back to LA. For anyone who has stuck with this blog entry until now, I'm finished. You can go back to real life, as will I.