Oh hello, you lot still here? Well it’s been a while hasn’t it – I should probably fill you in with my news.

Firstly I’m still clear.  I have an MRI coming up soon and we had a teeny blip on the radar which means I’m no longer a member of the Two Ovaries Club but on the whole my health is absolutely fine.  Touch wood, cancer or my cancer anyway is something that doesn’t come up in conversation much these days and then it tends to be described as “when I was a bit ill”.

I said before though that there are plenty of things I can be “not quite Ripley” about and I’ve decided to continue this blog and tell you about some of them.

I’m writing this in my study in the home I’ve had since May last year.  I love it.  There’s a desk, loads of shelving for my books, a seating area for reading stuff and most excitingly and extravagantly a wine fridge.  I know! No “schlepping down two flights of stairs when I fancy a cheeky glass of Sav Blanc” worries for me!  The whole room is calm and airy and beautiful and it simply makes me happy every time I walk into it which is useful as I intend to spend a bit of time in it.

The only sounds I can hear is the radio downstairs playing softly and the snoring of two Ragdoll cats.  If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter you’ll know all about Gypsy and Tom Servo.  Quick recap if you don’t.  Went to “have a look” at one kitten last summer.  Came back same day with two – brother and sister, only two in the litter, never been separated, breeder possibly saw me coming.  They are named after two of the robots in Mystery Science Theatre 3000, one of my favourite TV shows which I don’t think ever made it here but you can see it online.  If you’ve ever wisecracked to friends during some old B movie you’ll enjoy it.  Anyway, they quickly filled the void Shelbie had left – a solemn  first “nose bump” one morning was all it took – and now we muddle along very nicely.

My Really Exciting News though is I’ve decided to take this writing lark a bit more seriously.  I’ve just finished an online writing course at the University of East Anglia and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed being hunched over a keyboard while my characters did things I hadn’t planned for them and I went along with it.  A would be writer plotting to murder an agent on a Caribbean Island?  Why not? At the very least it made my Google history a bit exciting –  “slow working poisons”, “availability of Antifreeze in Grand Cayman” etc.

So when the course finished I went online and found a local Writers’ Circle and went to my first meeting on Tuesday.  What a blinking find!  Before I went I was thinking my ideal  would be a combination of support, camaraderie, and humour and I found exactly that. Wine, cake and the most jaw droppingly beautiful setting was a surprisingly added extra.  It’s called Talliston and I’m so excited to be a part of it.

So here I am, all inspired to continue this blog as well as wake up those sleeping characters in my head and tell them it’s showtime.

Thanks for reading.

PS.  Regular readers will remember Vinnie, my well meaning, thorough basher of rapidly dividing cells chemo pal.  In my mind he looked like Tony Soprano so I was very saddened to hear of the loss of James Gandolfini yesterday.  Thanks big fella, RIP.