Apologies that this blog is a bit late, but it’s been quite a few days! All will be revealed in due course, along with the winner of my most recent competition, but if I had posted this on Friday, I wouldn’t have had this snowy scene to share with you. As you can see, we’ve only had a light dusting of snow but if you’ve been snowed under, I hope you are keeping warm. Look closely at the picture and you can probably spot a robin sitting on our eagle sculpture and a tit in full flight. I hope you’re feeding the birds? They really need us when the weather turns so cold that the ground freezes.
Don’t laugh, but I had a bit of a Carol moment when the snow started to fall. If you’ve read my first Christmas novella, Christmas at Carol’s, you may remember a moment where Carol asks her dad if the Christmas tree she has bought will be alright outside in the snow before she brings it inside to decorate. So, in answer to the real or faux question I posed on my last blog we decided to go for both and the small real one is outside on the decking as it’s a bit early for me to put up decorations – hence my concern for its wellbeing!!
We’ve bought a seven-foot pre-lit faux tree which is going to be in the family room and the small real one with roots will be in the lounge. The intention is to plant it out each year and hope that eventually it will grow to be as tall as its faux counterpart – it could take a while!!!
Today is very cold and icy, but last Monday was a good ten degrees warmer and very bright and sunny which is why we decided to head down to Brighton for some sea air. It was lovely walking along the front although the sight of the remains of the old West Pier always make me feel a bit sad for its past glory. We did go on the Palace Pier where we played ‘shove halfpenny’ as a tribute to me now being an expert at Tipping Point which I’ve watched most weekday afternoons while I’ve been off sick. It was fun, but we didn’t win anything.
So, in some respects I was The Woman on the Beach which leads me nicely into mentioning how successful the recent Amazon Gold Box promotion deal was. The reduced price propelled her up the main chart to number 17, her highest ever position and she was also at number 1 in all three of her sub categories which meant she regained her orange bestseller banner for a few days.
And, she now has over 1000 ratings/ reviews, a first for me. When I last wrote, The Woman on the Beach was on 945 and today she has 1038 – thank you so much if you helped push her past this significant milestone, it really means a lot to me.
As promised, let me explain why I’m a few days late writing this blog. I went back to work at QVC last Friday for the first time in eight weeks following a positive appointment with my neurosurgeon. I’m not completely out of the woods yet, in fact I had to have more blood tests on Friday morning before heading into QVC, and I still need to have the cataract in my other eye removed, but it felt really good to get back to a bit of normality. I was absolutely shattered when I got home though, even though I’d only done a couple of hours on air.
Then on Saturday it was my son’s birthday. Before you get the wrong idea, this photo is from thirty-two years ago when he was three! I don’t know where the time has gone. He looks pretty excited at the prospect of digging into the chocolate birthday cake which I used to make for all his and his sister, Sophie’s birthdays growing up. For the past three years though the cake-making duty has fallen to his girlfriend, Katie. This year she made lemon, elderflower and white chocolate and it was utterly delicious.
They had come for lunch at our house, along with Sophie and her family which gave me the perfect opportunity to make our Christmas cake. We have a tradition of having a stir and making a wish, but of course last year we weren’t able to do that. The cake smelled delicious while we were eating lunch and Dan was opening his presents ably assisted by their puppy, Quin who had great fun ‘helping’ with the unwrapping!
He completely tired himself out which was good news for Chris and I as we were puppy-sitting for the evening while Katie and Dan went to see the Christmas illuminations at Kew Gardens.
Look at that face! Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Actually, he was a really good boy settling down to watch Strictly Come Dancing… I’m torn between Rose, AJ and John.
Anyway, the cake turned out alright, but we won’t be seeing it again until Christmas Eve when I cover it in marzipan followed by royal icing. I know some people ‘feed’ their cake in the few weeks leading up to Christmas, but I just douse mine in six tablespoons of brandy before putting it to bed – it usually tastes pretty good even though I say so myself.
Before I finish, it’s time to announce the randomly selected winner of the competition on my last blog to win a signed copy of The Parents by Claire Seeber who featured on Between the Lines. Everyone had the correct answer, A View to a Kill, but there can only be one winner and that is, Anne Graham. Congratulations!
By the way, I’ve yet to hear from the winner of the previous giveaway of a signed copy of The Woman on the Beach and the Matthew Williamson notebook. If anyone knows Lynn Carroll maybe tell her to check her junk mail!
Well, that’s it for now. On my next blog I’ll be introducing you to author Erin Green who I met at a writing retreat we were both on in the Spring of 2017 shortly before my book, Alice in Theatreland was published. And I might have a Christmas giveaway for you which could involve chocolate.
Much love
Julia xx
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