What's a little bit of rain...

Today has been a good day!  

It started with a lovely lay in, and some chill out time with my book (see #mycrazyreadinghabits on Instagram) before getting up to spend the day getting mucky at the yard!  
Clearing out the stable and tidying up before the new arrival next weekend was on the to do list, and boy was it going to take a while.  Lucky for me, I even had breakfast provided for me :) Coopland's pastries to put me in a good mood before getting there and seeing just how much work we had to do.  Looking back now, I'm a little disappointed that we decided against taking before and after pictures, because it looked awesome by the time we were done. 

Vicky has had to spend another day in my amazing company, though totally for her own benefit, and we started where it seemed most appropriate... in the doorway and worked out way in.
After just over an hour and a half of clearing, moving stuff, mucking out and general tidying of the stable side, we had a car full of rubbish and hungry tummies.  So we headed for the tip and more importantly, to Subways for lunch!  

What came next was perfectly timed.  We had to shift the rubber matting in the stable, which is chuffing heavy I'll tell ya.  It took us both to move the pieces, and could have done with another person to be honest, as it had to be the most awkward thing I've ever had to do.  There was a lot of shuffling and 'To me, to you' moments.  Timing is a wonderful thing though... Just as we got the last one outside ready to hose down, the heavens opened and it absolutely bounced it down with rain...
Thunder and lightening tripped the power so I stood in near darkness whilst Vicky went to fetch Rosie in from the field.  By the time they got back it looked like they'd both been hosed down.  Clearly already a little on the damp side, Vicky cracked on sorting the rubber matting out while I continued to try and work in the dark!  
When the rain chilled out a little bit we sorted our power issues and I refrained from quoting "Let there be light" as I wasn't sure it would be appreciated at that particular moment.  

Next came the tack room... Many bags of rubbish later, a destroyed rat home, two dead rats, (of which I had to deal with because someone *cough cough* mentioning no names *cough* Victoria *cough* doesn't like rats!) and moving enough rugs to clothe the entire yard full of horses, we had another car full of rubbish and a lovely tidy tack room.  All swept up, stuff put away neatly and everything!  And all of this was done in the pouring rain, so we were in need of dry hoodies by the time we were finished.

A second trip to the tip (a different one, due to miserable chuffs who worked at the last one) with all the rubbish left only the rubber matting to be put back in.  Now by this time we had already been at it over five hours... so you can imagine... We were wet, cold and had just about had enough.  And just in case I didn't make it clear before - that matting is super heavy!  So, whilst trying to lift them, get them in the right places (one seriously odd jigsaw puzzle!) make them meet without overlap, and get them to tuck in at the edges, it was no wonder hysteria broke out!  

When it was all finally in and everything put away, we stood back and looked upon our handiwork with smiles on our faces... We stunk of shit and Jay's Fluid, were absolutely filthy, and ached everywhere - but it had been a very productive day!  

Now, sat in my comfy pajamas, after a luxuriously long and hot shower full of nice smelling bubbly stuff, and a relax on my bed with my book; I feel much better.  Not really knowing what to do with my clothes that I'd been wearing, I bundled them all up and put them in the wash - hoodies, jeans, underwear, gloves, scarf - the lot... All as one load, which is now drying on the radiator, smelling much better than before.

So, there is just one thing left to say... WOAH BETIDE VICTORIA JAYNE IF THAT BARN GETS THAT BAD AGAIN!!  I'm all for 'what are friends for' and have no problems spending my time up there, but I am not, I repeat... AM NOT doing that again!  (She says with the utmost sincerity, knowing damn well that if she needed me, I'd do it all over again.)  

Now it's time for tea... I'm starving! 
Bye all,
Louby x

If you Dare to Dream...

Well here's an insight into how my mind works... I was sat at work the other day thinking about 'my dreams' and making one of my many mental lists of things I need to get done in order to accomplish mine!  And t got me thinking...  Dreams are such a funny thing really… I mean, what is a dream, really? 

The online Oxford dictionary defines a dream as:

• a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep
• a state of mind in which someone is or seems to be unaware of their immediate 
• a cherished aspiration, ambition, or 
• an unrealistic or self-deluding 
• a person or thing perceived as wonderful or perfect

Now on some level, I can relate to all of these definitions; I have been known to have some seriously weird and wonderful dreams at night, (the most recent one definitely taking the biscuit there I’ll tell you).  I have been known to walk around in a serious dream state some days; I’m about as ditsy as you can get normally, never mind with the help of not being fully aware of my surroundings!  My intended goals for the future are definitely counted as dreams, and could, in some ways probably be described as unrealistic; but hey, everyone needs to reach for the stars right?  And the person or thing being perceived as wonderful, I can definitely relate to one of my kids at school being a dream!  It happens occasionally anyway :)

But seriously, taking the two most common definitions; to dream at night, and to have a dream, there is definitely a lot to be said, and has been said about dreams!

 http://fungerms.com/dream-quotes/

 http://funlava.com/dream-quotes/

Good old Walt Disney eh?  And he was right - anything is possible when you believe you can do it!  I truly believe that.  And Oprah Winfrey, known best for her talk show in America, made it clear that without your dreams, is a life without adventure!  There are thousands out there if you look for them!  The two above were Google finds, hyper-linked from the websites that they are currently on. 

Thinking about dreaming at night; to dream, a supposed involuntary action that is your body’s way of blowing off steam basically; people say that you can’t control your dreams, but that they are your subconscious thoughts or feelings that work their way up to the surface whilst you are asleep.  Now seriously, fair play, most of the time you can usually explain where a dream has come from, an interest, a stress, a worry or a seed of doubt planted during your waking hours.  But on the other hand, there are the seriously weird and eluded dreams that are surely just figments of your imagination!  There is no way some of them can be explained, and if they could, it would be a seriously loose connection that would be there solely as your reasoning behind an otherwise unexplainable path. 

I’m not gonna lie, even when they are so far past explainable that even the depth of my imagination struggle to comprehend any logic behind them, I love waking up and trying to dissect them and work out where the clues or truths in them are and try to link them to real life events going on around me.  Call it delusional, call it crazy, but I am a firm believer in fate and everything happening for a reason; dreams have to be a part of that.  Whether they are trying to warn you about something or bring something to the forefront of your mind to force you to deal with it is up to personal interpretation, but I do believe that they are completely intentional.  None of this – ‘Oh it was just a dream’ – There has to be a reason for them otherwise they wouldn't exist.

I had my own personal reminder to always believe in your dreams tattooed on me to make sure that I never take them for granted!

I had this tattooed on my left shoulder back in the summer of 2010, it was a relatively spontaneous decision, something I generally wouldn't advise when having something permanently inked into your skin - but there was no doubt in my mind about whether it was right!  My tattoo's all mean something to me, (something I will do a blog about one day) and this one was no different.  It is always with me and one glance reminds me to have faith in my dreams; I know I am capable of achieving them, as long as I never give up on them!

Looking at the second most popular definition of a dream – to have a dream – I also believe that everyone should have one.  Celebrities throughout history have all said something in their time about dreaming or having a dream, I mean come on, Martin Luther King is still on the syllabus for schools and we all know what he was famous for… He had a dream of course!  I’m not going to make a big thing about it, we all know what his dream was and what he did for the civil rights movements in the 1960's with his powerful speech.  (If you are interested in reading the whole thing you can find it at;

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

If you take one thing away from my rambling here today, it has to be to have faith and believe in yourself and your dreams.  Without your dreams you have nothing, everyone has an ambition in life, go out there and grab it with both hands, and in the words of Milton Berle (don't ask me who he is - this quote is on the front of a notebook I have) "If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door" In other words; damn well go out there and make it happen!  You are the only one in charge of your own happiness.  Don't let your life pass by without accomplishing something that you are proud of!  

 http://thedailyquotes.com/post/6159

So, the next time you're feeling down, don't rely on someone else to pick you up again... Take a good hard look at yourself and what you want out of life, and make it happen!  No excuses!

:) Louby

When you find the time you have to grab it…

Well, here goes, I had a bit of time that I decided to put to good use today, and using inspiration from my Year 8 English lesson first thing this morning, I decided to have a go at the descriptive piece of writing that they had been completing from last week.  The task was to write a short piece about traveling in a time machine to another time, and describing the place where they landed.  Success Criteria was all about using varied sentence types and the appropriate punctuation and leaving the story on a cliff hanger. 

My first problem was I’m not really a sci-fi kinda girl, so I was struggling for what my time machine might look like.  So, doing the obvious thing; I googled ‘Time Machine’ and had a look through the cars, make-shift sleighs and tardis’.  None of them really grabbed my attention; this however had my mind crawling with ideas immediately.  

(No copyright intended - the image belongs to Chris [Sparco2] on Deviant Art and I hope he doesn't mind me using his awesome artwork as my inspiration this morning)

Check out this link to have a look at some of his other work

http://sparco2.deviantart.com/

So, here you go; half an hours work!

   The world went blue as I concentrated hard enough to feel the beginnings of a warp headache begin to pulse behind my eyes.  Changing the time and date to around 150 million years ago, I planted my feet firmly on the ground and stood with my back against the cold brick wall of the alleyway. 

   Time started to speed up and I watched the hands spin on the clock that was perfectly in focus in front of my eyes.  Faster and faster, the hands began to rewind in time and I pressed my hands against the rough brick behind me in the hopes of grounding myself in both time and space.  I hated this part.  The overwhelming sickness descended upon my stomach in a gigantic wave as images started to flash past my eyes. 

   The scenes, along with softened noises and acute smells, disappeared as quickly as they arrived, making them hard to focus on, only adding to the pressure headache that pressed down behind my eyes; one I had nicknamed a warp headache, as I only ever felt it when travelling through time and space.  The icy blue haze that clouded my vision affected all the images zipping past, making me feel cold, not physically, nothing that was actually tangible; just an overpowering feeling in my head that made me shiver.  I fought the urge to wrap my arms around myself, knowing that breaking contact with the wall would make me stumble and fall when I landed in the Mesozoic Era. 

   With a thud that reverberated up my legs, I landed firmly on what appeared to be a parched landscape.  What should have been lush green grass beneath my feet was dry and scratchy against my bare ankles as I shuffled my feet to gain my balance. 

   There was no longer a wall behind me, and the disorientation that swept over me had me falling to my knees for support.  My fingers clawed the dusty earth as I put my head down for a couple of seconds to breathe through the pressure behind my eyes.  I blinked away the blue haze, no longer in need of the time device until I wanted to leave again. 

   Looking up from my position on the floor, I scanned the horizon.  The sun was disappearing slowly, casting a warm orange glow across the already burnt out plains, setting the edges on fire with colour.  Smiling to myself I made to stand up, locking my knees against the jelly-like feeling that always resided there after travelling so far. 

   The air around me was fresh and peaceful in a way that I had never experienced before living in the heart of a busy city.  Where I would normally smell exhaust fumes, factory rejects and hear the hectic bumble of people milling around, a fresh breeze carried the scent of pine trees and the faint smell of salt water.  If I listened hard I could hear the water running in what I could only assume to be a river crashing its way through the valley. 

   I began to turn slowly, taking in the luxuriously plain views around me when a rush of hot air on the back of my neck made me freeze. 

   Breathing slowly, I turned at the most sluggish pace I could manage, not wanting to alarm whatever stood over me.  Watching the floor carefully where a huge shadow had completely drowned out my own, I spun till I was face to face with the creature. 

   My history lessons raced through my head in an attempt to put a name to the beast standing in front of me, as if that was going to make the situation easier to handle.  I took a tentative step backwards and got a full view of the dinosaur that had taken an interest in me.

   My eyes were immediately drawn to the two long horns protruding from the top of its head and the shorter, stubbier horn half way down its nose.  A loud clicking noise filled my ears as it opened and closed its mouth in confusion.  Flat black eyes peering out from a burnt orange reptilian like skin roamed my body, trying to sum up my worth as prey and I took another step backwards, tumbling to the floor in a cloud of dust.

   The drastic sudden movement caused the dinosaur to huff out another loud snort of hot air and it took several shuffled steps forward until it was stood over me.

   Panic flitted through my body as I tried to summon up the time device to get me as far away from this beast as possible.  I took several deep breaths, closing my eyes to the view in front of me in the hopes of it being a nightmare, but when I opened them again, it still stood staring down at me. 

   I tried again to bring the time device to the forefront of my mind, but I knew better, I had to concentrate hard to gain control, and concentration was the last thing on my mind right now…

Hope you enjoyed reading my randomness.  Don't ask me why I picked the dinosaurs, because I know absolutely naff all about them, lol, but hey ho, I enjoyed writing it!

:) Louby x

The life of...

The sun is shining; the sky a clear blue with beautiful wispy clouds and the music is turned up!  Today is a wonderful day!  Now don’t get me wrong, I haven't actually been outside yet, I am under no illusion that it will be sub zero temperatures out there, but for now, I am happy sat at my desk, looking out of my not so clean window at the pretty winter's day.

Statistics be damned, I am still on the straight and narrow for my Resolutions.  I've kicked the bad habits to the curb, doing reasonably well with the Healthy Eating that has descended upon the Brown Household.  I'm not gonna lie, there have been cakes, and plenty of chocolate still, but as far as meals go, they are staying healthy, and as far as the chocolate is concerned, the swimming three times a week has done a good job of kicking any guilt I might have felt into touch.  In short; I feel good!  My life is finally starting to become my own; I'm in charge and I am the one who is keeping me smiling!  With a little help from family and friends :)  I'm enjoying spending time with my sister, and this week we took my Auntie to the pictures which was different!  We went to see Delivery Boy - hilarious film!!  A lot of my time is spent with good friends too; they know who they are, and cinema trips, pub trips and random outings are just what I need to keep making awesome memories this year.  There are also a few people who I haven't had chance to see this year yet, and I plan on changing all that before the end f January - the main example being my Momma and baby Squeak!  I need to get my arse into gear and get the hell to Lincoln before they up an move further away from me!  

There are a few things left to fall into place to make my life complete, i know that, i'm not disillusion in any way, but I have time to wait for those.  For now, I am happy with the way things are, and more than happy with the way I feel.

Today I have had the house to myself for a few hours.  The sister has been out all night, and the parents went shopping, far too early on a Sunday morning if you ask me, but they didn't ask me to go, so I can't complain.  Anyway, quiet, empty house… what would you do?  Anything that you wouldn't normally do when the house was full I hear you say; for example, crank up the volume on the music!  That's what I thought when I found myself being seriously boring…  What did I do with this few hours of freedom?  Well, I stayed in bed and read far too many chapters of my book, (see #mycrazyreadinghabits on Instagram for book details,) got up and stripped my bedding, sorted the washing out and swapped loads from the washer to the tumble dryer so that I could put the washing machine on again, had some breakfast and caught up with The Tomorrow People on Sky.  The most rebellious thing I did this morning was steal two of my mum's Hot Cross Buns for my breakfast!  Dare Devil or what!!  I think I'm getting old lol!

Now I am sat watching the fluffy clouds drifting across the sky, with the music on at a reasonable volume, pondering the idea of spending my entire day being a typical writer and barely moving from my desk.  I'm trying hard to make sure that I have done all the productive stuff first, because I know that once I get started I probably won't surface for hours!!  I can get lost in my world for days at a time and only come up for air for the necessities.  That is where I intend on spending the majority of my day; in my world, with my characters from my book.  I am determined to get this thing sorted and ready to be seen by the world.  So far it has only been seen by my mum, who is doing me the huge favour of reading it and telling me where it needs improvement from a reader's point of view.  I think she's enjoying it, she's nearly half way through and I only gave it her three days ago!  That's normally how I judge a good book - the length of time it takes to read it!  Here's hoping!!  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I know this is talking about a motorbike, but when I saw it, I could totally link the feeling to horse riding!  I've always said that the adrenaline from knowing that you are entrusting your life to an animal over five times your size and weight is exhilarating.  The mixture of trust and relationship you have to have with the horse is one that is hard to understand if you haven't tried it.  But I am under no illusion when I am in that saddle, that as much control as I think I might have, it is her that holds all the power!  And I trust her with that as much as she trusts me.

(I got this off the internet - No copyright intended)

In other news, Vernon has been on another adventure since the last time I blogged…  He accompanied me to Ilkley yesterday to see a horse with Vicky.  A horse that I am pretty sure is now a firm part of her little family!  Anyone who knows her well only had to take one look at her face while she was with the horse to now that she'd found the one!  I can't complain at all, means more rides out in the fresh air as the weather slowly starts to improve.  There really is nothing to match the feeling. 

After visiting Molly the horse was, we went up to farm to see Rosie, and I worked hard in the school to master my canter.  I'm not gonna lie, I'm awful at it.  Either I panic and pull too tight on the reign which slows Rosie down again or I can't keep my ass in the saddle to save my life.  When Vicky taught me to ride she told me to imagine that I was sat on a twenty pound note and I had to keep it on the seat.  Well if that was true I would have lost a hell of a lot of money by now I'll tell ya!  I complain a lot, and swear a lot while I'm up there getting it wrong, but I won't give up; I love it up there, I still can't find anything to rival the feeling of freedom up in that saddle!  I'll keep you informed as to whether or not I master the skills!

I suppose I should get back to reality and do some work.  The washing calls and I have a pile of edited draft sat at the side of me that is calling to me to get it sorted.  Smiles all round; it's exciting stuff!

Well, till next time :)  Keep Smiling!!

New Year’s Resolutions – The talk of the school

Well, as seen as my original intentions for this blog got lost somewhere back in September, I have decided to dust it down and revive it as part of my New Year’s Resolution. 

English lessons at school have been taken over by the idea of New Year’s Resolutions and blogging as part of the creative writing module for Key Stage 3 students.  At the beginning of last week they were posed with the question ‘Are New Year’s Resolutions a waste of time?’  There have been some fabulous answers, but my favourite had to have been, ‘yeah’ – no explanation, no justification… just ‘yeah’.  Personally, I love the idea.  In the past, I’m not gonna lie, I have enjoyed setting myself ridiculously unachievable goals that I have taken great pleasure in failing at.  But this year I decided on something a little different.

I set myself a relatively straightforward resolution this year; simply to live the year for me!  Keep smiling, and live each day as it comes.  My intentions are to fill this year with happy memories that are all centred on keeping myself happy! 

Live life for me; Do what makes me happy!

It started with spending more time with friends and family, taking lots of photographs and to remember to keep smiling.  This I have managed so far, so I have beaten the statistics :)  According to lesson this morning, statistics show that most people lose ‘umph’ after only nine days… and on day thirteen I am happily enjoying my resolution!  I took a spontaneous trip to the seaside with an awesome friend, and spent the turn of the New Year sat on the beach!  Since then I have stuck to slightly less crazy movements, like going to the pub and out for tea; the important thing is that they were reasonably unplanned…  I have taken to spontaneity like a duck to water, and am quite enjoying living in the moment. Spontaneity!  I’m telling ya; it’s liberating!

(I got this off the internet - no copyright intended)

From the simple idea of living in the moment, I developed this idea into taking Vernon travelling.  This is Vernon!!  I bought Vernon from Matlock Bath Craft and Gift Market near the end of summer last year.  He is a one of a kind, handmade bear from a little family run business called Fluffy Bearz.  (You can find more information on Furry Bearz at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fluffy-Bearz/286067334871827?fref=ts - They're well worth a look!)  When I saw their stand at the market I fell in love with their bearz, and simply could not resist Vernon.  After picking him up and feeling his weight in my hands; yes that sounds ridiculous, but he is weighted in his feet and his bottom so that he stands and sits in place.  His little head, as well as his arms and legs all move so that he can sit or stand in whichever position is best for him.  The woman on the stall, Kaz, made a joke about him coming home with me, but there was no question about it.  From the moment i picked him up he was most definitely coming home with me!!

I loved him from the get go, and this year, decided that I would show him the world.  Well, the country anyway.  So far he spent the turn of the New Year with me in Bridlington, and he has been to the Farm and made friends with Rosie; he even got a little ride once she was all saddled up.

If you’re interested in Vernon’s year then you can follow him on Instagram at #Vernon, though I am very aware that there are a lot of photos with this hash tag – and have looked into a new hash tag name which I have posted on existing pictures,  (#Vernonsadventure) and will use on all the new ones to keep everyone in the loop.  If you don’t have Instagram – never fear – as I will mention him on here too.

Some careful deliberation into what I was most well-known for, gave me another idea for documenting my year.  Instagram strikes again… using the hash tag #mycraztreadinghabits I have started to document what I read.  When I pick up a new book to read, I will take a photo of the cover and upload it to Instagram, stating the title of the book, (and series if it belongs to one) and the author.  If you check out the hash tag you will find that in 13 days, I have already read three books, plus the one that my Year 10's are studying – and I am due to start the fourth tonight and will upload later.  As far as I am aware, the hash tag I am using for this is unique; I picked it because no one had used it before, so if you follow the tag, it is my photographs you will find. 

Though not a resolution as such, with a little help and encouragement from my not so little, little sister, I have finally got myself back into the water!!  We signed up to the local gym last week, Aston cum Aughton Leisure Centre (who you can find on Facebook) to start going swimming.  So far we have been twice, and it is on the agenda for later this evening.  I will get fit this year!!  Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with my weight as such, but I am incredibly out of shape.  All I want is my swimmers stomach back and to not be so out of breath when I make the slightest attempt at running - I don't think that is an excessively unreachable goal...  Hmmm... We'll see I guess!!

On top of all of this – my aim for this year, rather than my resolution, is to get my book out there.  My book is the main reason why this blog went quiet as I stopped writing one off short stories or extracts to concentrate on finishing my novel.  Having accomplished this at the tail end of last year, my intentions for this year are to get it edited and get it out into the world.  Doing this is no mean feat I’ll tell you!!  There is a ridiculous amount of work to do to achieve this, and despite doing a little bit most nights, it is a very slow process.  If the mood takes me I might even keep you updated on this, but then again; I might just upload the cover when I finally get it published!!  Note my choice of language there – WHEN, not IF.  This is my year and I believe in my work! 

Anyways, as and when I do get the odd free moment to do some off task scribbling, I will blog my fantasy creations.  I realise that this blog was set up solely for that; but hey ho – it is my blog, and I will do with it what I want…

Till next time :)