Monday 26 April 2010

My Rubbish Diet Challenge

The weekend was good for my rubbish diet, esp yesterday. I decided to sort out one of my cupboard drawers downstairs and got rid of lots of papers and 2 old natural brochures. Now the drawer is looking very tidy. 3 more drawers to go. Also I took some old clothes and sandals to the textile bank when I went shopping at Sainsbury's. So very good clear out at the weekend. I have been composting tissues still but try not to put too many in, about 2 a day, and a couple in a bin and the rest down the toilet. Although my mum disagrees with that because tissues are a different paper to toilet roll and don't break down easily, so I tear the tissue up first before throwing it in the toilet. I do the same when I put it in the compost.

Well, must get on with work now.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Allie update

So far I have managed to get the words down to just over 32,000 and with the revisions I have recently done I feel quite confident that I am on a roll and can make it to 30,000. I have emailed the publisher I intend sending it to, and she has replied that I can send the whole ms not just the first 3 chapters. So, things are looking up.

Now that I have done these cuts to Allie I know what I need to do for Georgina's story once I have finished typing it up. Can't wait.

If you have seen my comment on Facebook, I have now booked a third Chatterbooks session for 5th June. I have also come up with the idea of a library tour with a group of children's authors, whom I had contacted last year about book signings. I will be contacting them to see what their thoughts are on it and if I get great interest then I will find out how to go about setting it up. So watch this space....

Back to filing now.

Monday 19 April 2010

Rubbish Diet Week 5

So how am I going with this challenge? OK so far I believe. I am now able to compost more tissues and kitchen roll, because Mum mowed the lawn at the weekend and put tons of grass clippings in the compost bin, so we need more browns in it to mix it up. So have been doing that. I managed to buy most fruit and veggies either loose or in recycleable bags yesterday, apart from the carrots that was.

You can find out how I managed during Weeks 1-4 when I guest blog at www.rubbishdiet.co.uk later this week. I also hope to be guest blogging at www.myzerowaste.com next week about recycling at work, which I have yet to draft out. So watch this space...

Back to work now.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Impressions

On Saturday I had a meeting with the librarian at my local library to go through what I had planned to do with the children on 30th April. The librarian was quite impressed with what I had planned as she said that it was a well thought out programme and she was going to suggest to me that if I didn't know what to do she was going to tell me to do craft activity. No need for that now. It went really well and I came out pleased with myself.

Other news. I have a letter in the current issue of Writer's Forum, which I've not received yet but have received prize notebook that you get when a letter is published.

Allie - have now got it down to 32,905, and doing my hardest to get it down to 30,000. Be doing some more revisions today and tomorrow.

Back to filing now as some of our systems are down.

Monday 12 April 2010

The Rubbish Diet Challenge

If you have been reading the last few entries here you will know that I have been trying to reduce my rubbish that goes to landfill. I had been doing quite well until yesterday. I had been putting dirty tissues and kitchen roll in the compost but it has proved to been too much and my mum has asked me not to put any more in for the next few weeks. There has to be a good mix of whites, greens and browns to get the compost to break down properly, and there is too much white stuff in there now. So yesterday I tried not to use too many tissues and kitchen roll. Started off OK. Didn't use kitchen roll when I ate a nectarine, and used a plate to put the pitta bread to thaw out and cool down on, and for putting the egg shells on for dinner, before putting them in the compost caddy. We shall see how it goes the next few weeks. I think so far in the bin there is one bag of rubbish and a small dirty cloth, but there maybe another bag put in there today from all our bedroom bins. I still think that we recycle more stuff than we send to landfill. My aim is to get it down to maybe a bag a fortnight.

Watch this space...

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Good news!

I haven't got inflammation of the liver. I saw my consultant yesterday and he was very doubtful about the previous scan results. He said that scans aren't a good way to find out if there is anything wrong with the liver as they are hit and miss and blood tests are better, and my test results were all normal apart from one thing, which meant it was OK. He said that he was doubtful the tablet was causing me any harm after all this time, even if it can happen. I then went to have another scan and it showed that my liver was fine, no inflammation whatsoever. So I left a very happy bunny but confused.

I received my prize for my star letter last week. It wasn't all that I expected. It was meant to be all Manuka Honey products but due to being v popular some of the items were out of stock, so I got some honey, some lavender, some tea tree and one pomegranate. I will use all of them anyway.

I have now managed to get Allie down to just under 34,000 words. Am working hard to get it down to 30,000 and determined to do so.

Back to work now.