1. I’m lazy. There is a huge psychological barrier to logging into wordpress, finding the Add New tab, composing a post, previewing it, realising it looks shit, editing it and then hitting publish. Far easier to write 140 characters on Twitter instead.
2. I don’t really have so much to say these days. The way I’m using the internet and connecting with other people has changed drastically. I’m sharing far less personal stuff. This blog served the purpose well when the kids were at home, I had limited adult company during the day and I lived mainly in my own head. Now, maintaining a blog is just another chore.
3. I’m trying to channel my writing fu into, you know, actual writing – 4581 words into my current writing project for the win!

Anyway, I’m trying an experiment and moving over to soup.io. I’ve been playing with it and it’s so much simpler and quicker to link to something interesting, write a quick note, share what you’re doing in other places on the web.

So if you’re interested, come on over to pewari’s soup. If you’re not then thank you for a great six years, it’s been fun!

I don’t know why this is. I am not thick. While not a terribly confident driver, I am competent (mostly). I also have issues copying techniques as a mirror image during my martial arts class, so potentially there’s maybe a co-ordination issue going on in my brain.

Anyway, since selling the folding camper, there is now a space in front of our garage. The driveway is narrow and involves reversing round from a weird angle and squeezing between the wall of the house and a large hedge.

Last night, I finally managed to park it (okay, I did about a 10 point turn to get it in, but let’s not get picky), so I send Akra a triumphant text in which it appears my typing is as bad as my driving: “YAY! I managed to park the cat!”

WTF?

Of course, said people don’t always warn you that the marshmallows explode…

… and then other people steal your hammock!

But with plenty of good company, sun, and copious alcohol, you can’t really complain too much, can you?

At the same time, I’ve just started an awesome creative writing class called The Discovery Wonkshop led by Lani Diane Rich over at StoryWonk. It’s all geared around the pre-writing discovery process of writing a novel and even after only one class has kicked my brain into creative mode.

Our first assignment is to create a soundtrack for our story, so I have been spending the last couple of evenings with Spotify, Last.fm and a bottle of wine (as Lani says, “Best Homework EVER!”). I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on iTunes and somehow seem to have ended up with 6 hours of music in my soundtrack. I might need to prune a little.

All good, and all very exciting. Except I’ve just realised that it’s my martial arts class tonight so I need to flip back out of ‘daydreamy plot mode’ back into ‘fighting mode’ and in between find my ‘competent parent mojo’. I think my lead character is going to end up with a split-personality disorder.

Send help. Send chocolate.

I’ve now been going to kung fu for coming up to four months. If anything, I’m coming home after class even more psyched and enthusiastic that I was when I started. I am making clear progress (though every week I find new challenges and my understanding of just how much I don’t know/can’t do expands exponentially the more I learn). I haven’t come home as bruised since that one time, but ice packs are still the best invention ever.

What’s interesting, though, is how much martial arts are permeating other aspects of my life. Some, are not totally unexpected. I’ve been working hard on my upper body strength training just to keep up in class; when I started out I could only manage about 2 push-ups, I can now get up to around 12 before my form goes a bit awry and regularly do around 50 in sets of 10. I bought a chin-up bar and couldn’t even get an inch off the ground, I can now do 7 with a minute’s rest in between. The subtle benefits in life of being that little bit stronger and fitter are definitely a major perk.

I’m becoming quite nicely toned and my body confidence and self-esteem are probably at the highest they’ve ever been. I’m walking taller, sitting straighter and have had far less back problems as a result. I’m particularly interested to see how well I cope with the winter blues this year – will the extra adrenaline and endorphins help combat SAD?

An unexpected bonus has been the way I’m starting to deal with irrational fears. I’ve found that “oh fgs, if you can do kung fu then you can cope with… a spider/the dark/awkward social event/looking like a twunt” is a fine motto, suitable for all sorts of circumstances. Still working on the less irrational fears though: I’ve got another grading coming up, but I’m bottling it on one aspect of the test – still not quite certain whether I should feel the fear and get on with it, or just see it as a sign that I’m not ready yet.

Not bad for something I pretty much started on a whim.

This is being slightly hampered by the fact that we’re down to the last rotting banana and random stuff in the fridge that looks as if it might walk out by itself soon, as next week’s grocery shopping is due to be delivered this evening.

I have also completely run out of Plumathon remains now (well, except for the stuff that still has another 7 weeks to mature, and I’m not convinced that partaking of the plum liqueur in the middle of the day is really going to help anything). This is a shame, as a piece of plum cake would go down a treat right now.

I might have to resort to raiding the kids’ Milky Way stash.

I have spent the last seven weeks slowed down, but now the kids are back at school and I am going fast. I am not in a hurry, I just rather enjoy the sensation of stretching my legs and walking at speed, rather than having to match my pace to people half my height who like to go the scenic route. I am enjoying grabbing my bike out of the garage and speeding down little pathways where I would normally have to crawl past the holiday pedestrians. I like the feel of the breeze in my face and the sense of freedom. I’m relishing in the chance to busy myself round the house, cleaning and tidying, making the space mine again.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you can get just as much enjoyment taking the time to speed up to smell the roses. Just so long as you take care to not knock anyone over on the way.

It rained. A lot.

As such, we have a new plan. A plan that involves a caravan (ooo, that rhymes).

A plan that involves hard-standings, less puddles, less mud, central heating and extra indoor space for the kids to sit that isn’t right next to us.

A plan that lets us go away when it’s sunny and dry but really cold at night. A plan that doesn’t involve 2 hours set up before we can relax.

First step: sell the current car and folding camper.

A very interesting presentation on the realities of business in the social media age. I wonder how accurate the statistics quoted are…

Via TheNextWeb.com

Previous camping trips have seen us being incredibly lucky with the weather – even the year of the floods, we managed to pick a week that gave us bright sunshine most days, with only a few showers and one truly wet day. This time, however, our luck deserted us and it was pretty much a wash out (photos for this review were taken on the only sunny day of the week).

However, I shall try very hard to not let my annoyance at the weather colour my thoughts on the site and surrounding area – after all, it’s hardly their fault that the clouds didn’t co-operate!

And Cei Bach is a very nicely run site. It’s greatest strength is its size (or rather lack thereof) and despite the rather intimidating list of rules given to you on arrival, the staff came across as overwhelmingly friendly, warm and helpful. While the site itself is small, the pitch sizes are generous – certainly the largest we’ve come across outside The Camping and Caravanning Club sites.

The wash-block facilities were average, but (most importantly) cleaned regularly. One of the big draws for us was the onsite pub, however it did have its drawbacks. Special entertainment events can be fun for families with older children, but I would recommend a pitch further away from it if you like an early night’s sleep. There were only a couple during our week’s stay though, so not too much of an inconvenience.

Home-cooked food is available at a reasonable price, but we did find that their descriptions of the dishes sounded rather grand on paper but a little uninspiring in reality! However, again the staff were cheerful and welcoming, which makes all the difference.

The one thing the kids had been really looking forward to with this camping trip was access to the sea.

The site plan available implied that the site was right next to the beach, but in reality the beach is much lower and only accessible by an off-site path that winds down to sea level. This only took about five minutes at a relaxed pace, but not quite as immediate as we’d hoped, and too far to be lulled to sleep by the lovely sounds of the ocean at night.

On the plus side, the beach was clean and didn’t seem to be too heavily populated (although the poor weather could well have been a factor in the latter).

Overall, Cei-Bach Country Club is a pleasant campsite on a very picturesque part of the Welsh coast. I just wish we could have visited it in more favourable meteorological circumstances!

In retrospect, this wasn’t the most environmentally friendly of activities but it was cheap, practical in the most typical of British summers and had a certain spirit of adventure going off the beaten track. It is probably telling that my father used to rally drive in his youth.

It occurred to me, while going down an ever narrowing track (which according to Tom Tom was the fastest route – the map manufacturer probably didn’t factor in the cow crossing) that these days we recapture that simple childhood joy with our sat nav devices.

While on holiday on the west coast of Wales, I don’t think we’ve been taken the same route twice and the sat nav has been taking perverse delight in sending us the most insane way possible. Our best so far has been a side-trip through a “ford” which after 3 days of solid rain more resembled a fast flowing river. The Almera coped, fortunately.

Still, it’s lots of fun and we’re finding some really pretty little places we’d never have known about if we were navigating sensibly with a proper map. We do need a “be f-ing serious, Tom Tom” button for when we’re towing, though!

• gone to the supermarket and bought magazines for us all (Toxic and a Star Wars magazine for the boys, New Scientist for me) and then they spent some of their pocket money on an Indiana Jones toy that was in the sale.
• made a list of all the activities we’d like to do or try in the holidays (okay, most of it is wishful thinking, but if you can’t make grand plans on the first day of the holidays, when can you?).
• practised basic handwriting skills for five minutes (Akra Jr is keen to earn his pen license next school year, but his letter formation is terrible for an 8 year old, so we’ve bought some handwriting exercise books and Li’l Bhaji is joining in too).
• watched Akra Jr learn about home keys on Dance Mat Typing.
• spent time outside with Li’l Bhaji attempting to teach him to ride his bike without stabilisers.
• only had to listen to one major squabble which I refused to referee.

I get a medal for all that, right? RIGHT?