Monday, 23 March 2015

Not On The High Street Storytime Sounds Competition

It was fairly recently National Story Telling Week, and to celebrate this, and all things book related (including their very own storytime sounds app) Not On The High Street ran a competition. To enter you had to tweet your idea for a story in 140 characters. The winner would get their idea written up into a story and published on the NOTHS blog, and get a £100 voucher to spend on the site. The best bit of all is - I WON!!!! Things haven't been the best lately for a variety of reasons so to have some luck and win such an awesome prize from a major shopping platform was pretty cool.

My winning idea was for a story about an imaginative boy that was disillusioned with teaching and lessons at his dull and uninspiring school - and how he transformed lessons there. It's not quite the same as a writer having my own work published, but still really interested to see what the authors come up with when the story goes up online. Hopefully I'll be able to share that soon, in the meantime - here's what I spent my voucher on - there is so much stuff on that site it seemed an impossible task, but I bought some lovely treats for myself, and a few for the family as well. Thank you to Not On The High Street for picking me as a winner, it just goes to show you have to be in it to win it, and even a little bit of comping here and there can bring some nice treats to your door.



Wednesday, 11 March 2015

Reading List 2015

I love to read, I think as soon as I could I was reading away, and when I was younger I went through all the Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton, Sweet Valley High and Point Horror books I could get my hands on. I used to read for a good while before bed, and sometimes in the morning as well. More recently it's been on the back burner a bit because sometimes I'm just tired or can't concentrate on books, at least new ones. I have re-read some on my bookcase a good few times, which my family think is odd.

Anyway sometimes life gets in the way, but with the better weather coming, everything should be much more relaxed and I'll hopefully have more chances to sit out in the garden or go out and get a drink with a book in tow. So I thought I'd blog the pile of books I have in my pile in an effort to kick start my motivation. Hopefully I will be in a space to relax and enjoy every single page. I might up-date with my progress and some reviews too, but in the meantime here is my pile!



Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Chinese New Year Celebrations - Anglia Ruskin University - 28th February 2015



For some reason my Chinese astrology sign is one thing that always slips through my mind, but I have since found out I was a goat, and it's the year of the goat this year which must be a good thing right? To celebrate I headed down to Anglia Ruskin University to sample their Chinese New year celebrations.

The university are definitely aiming to reach out to the local community more, and why not, it seems like a great idea to bring the community in and get the students and others involved in Chelmsford life, this event however did fall a little flat for me. Don't get me wrong I understand why they put it on at the same time as the University Open Day, but I think the layout and schedule of activities were not ideal. I was greeted as I walked in by a friendly student handing out programmes and fortune cookies, and pointed vaguely in the direction of the activities, but the main foyer seemed a bit over crowded, interesting banners illustrating other famous 'goats' were lost behind a queue for free open day food and drinks, and there was only one opportunity to see dancing which I missed.

There were rooms for origami, a traditional tea ceremony, and craft - none of which I tried as two rooms were packed full of children and families, and a queue for face painting, and the other was empty - I did not want to be the only one in there. So in all honesty I got a little bored wandering the corridors, I would have liked more room so I could make something or the plentiful display space used so I could find out more about Chinese culture.

So far, not so good, but I'm just giving an overview of how I found the event, and there were some good points. I loved the free fortune cookies - one told me I would receive some good news by text, the other my money worries would soon be over - fingers crossed huh. The FREE Chinese food samples I had to queue for were worth the wait as well. My lunch all sorted thanks to a yummy chicken satay, spring roll and chicken wing - yum yum yum.
 I also caught the dragon dancing which was very impressive. I love the way they tried to eat people's camera's, posed, slept (complete with snoring noises), and managed to add variety to their routines. it was great fun to watch and photograph.


Before I left I finally got a look at the famous goat banners - I share goat-hood with the likes of Jane Austen, Mick Jagger, and Charles Dickens - pretty cool huh!

Despite the things that fell a bit flat I still had a good time, and look forward to seeing what other community events Anglia Ruskin have planned in Chelmsford. If you fancy checking one out then visit www.anglia.ac.uk/communityevents

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