This is brilliant! My idea of a blog was where someone could sound off about something - a bit of a modern day Hyde's Corner! Trouble is, until now I've had nothing to whinge about but I've just seen a forum where someone is complaining about the difficulty of teaching phonics in New Zealand. Thank GOD I say! What's wrong with actually teaching children to spell and write properly from Day ONE?

It's the baby talk syndrome. A parent spends the first 12-18 months of a child's life telling them that WOOF WOOF is that four legged creature they call Rover and once the child has mastered that they tell them NO, WOOF WOOF is actually a DOG!

Dumbing down? We had no idea what that was - now everyone knows and guess what??????

Delusions of grandeur

I think writing a blog must be a bit like being a radio commentator. I feel a bit like one out of the forties for some reason. I keep seeing myself talking into a microphone that's shaped like a flying saucer and having to lean over to speak into it. For some reason I've got a little black hat with a tiny feather sitting jauntily on the side of my head. And I speak laike the Queen. My people......

I suppose there's a bit of an assumption these days that someone out there will stumble across your ravings while they're looking for something else but before talk-back how did radio commentators know if anyone was listening to them? Until they said something that offended someone and then they knew when they got the complaint.

I'm beginning to get the hang of this blog business - it's like falling down the tunnel! Every crazy thought doesn't now have to be hidden away; I have a blog and madness can reign! :-)

Thank GOD for Friday....

It was my birthday yesterday. Only one more year to make my mark before the BIG one! Ewww!! Being at work today only reinforced my determination to see my plan through - I've allowed my imagination to run wild this evening and let it try to imagine a week without a Friday - can you imagine? That would have to be the ultimate definition of hell.

I'm excited about my first writer's meeting tomorrow - so excited that when I went to buy a 'plate' at the supermarket this evening nothing was good enough and now I have to start baking in the morning!

I think I'm putting off making a driving lesson appointment...... I'm writing more and when I'm not doing it I'm thinking about it and it's usually the other way round... curiouser etc

Speaking of which, I've fallen in love with Alice In Wonderland again recently. It still seems really funny and clever to me and it's easy to see why it's never seemed dated.

It's been an eventful few days! On Monday, I started to clean the laundry window and ended up, four hours later, with a newly painted laundry! It looks great.

Yesterday, we had the house valued - this will enable us to follow our dream hopefully.

Today, I passed my drivers theory test and we bought a new car! That means that I now own a crapped out beamer :-)

I also entered a writing contest for the first time since 1983! I won a cosmetics set that time for writing a bleeding heart letter about how horrible my life was and why I needed a makeover! Oh dear, silly old me. My life was only beginning.

I stopped smoking in July 2009. I've forgotten the exact date but I'll probably always remember the month or the year or, considering I'm losing my memory, maybe I won't. It's been a roller coaster of a ride ever since. I've lost my filter for dealing with people and instead of worrying about them I worry more about myself now. I've gained 4kgs which really isn't much and I'm on a kick to get rid of it - need to kick higher I think! I've discovered that stopping smoking is such a shock to the system that it can catapult you headlong into menopause. That's been fun........ not! Vitamin B6 though... wonderful stuff.

All of those things pale into insignificance when compared to the euphoria that washes over me for no apparent reason on a regular basis. If every smoker could be assured of this feeling if they stopped I don't think anyone would smoke any more! It's the weirdest thing. I soar with happiness and because I don't know exactly what's causing it, when I look around me for the answer I think it could be anything and therefore everywhere I look I find something that makes me happy!

I've stopped smoking before and found that my confidence levels increased and so it is again. I've decided that I'm going to drive and am doing my theory test next week. I'm writing again - something I stopped doing two decades ago - and I've got a PLAN for my future.

Is it any wonder I feel happy?