My Life as a writer - When I'm not scribbling

When I was younger, probably around ten years old I started using make up as a daily part of my beauty regime.   For me the use of makeup was more about creating a mask rather than enhancing beauty back then, but over time and as I grew up make up became more refined less mask like but still providing me with a sense of comfort and some confidence.   Like most teens I generally used drugstore brands, they are affordable and some are excellent.   However, like most teen girls I had issues with my skin and as I grew and my skin changed, it became apparent that I was sensitive to ingredients in some brands.    Lancome Make Up  By my late teens I moved on to more up-market brands, I became an exclusive user of Lancôme.    I used their full range of skin care and makeup.   I chatted with the makeup artists at the counters and often had make overs and skin care routines updated.   My only break in using these products was a six month period during my University Course where I

Now, firstly I must admit when Mark Haddon’s novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time” was released I wasn’t really aware of it.   I saw it in a few books stores but it never really caught my fancy.    Then I heard it was being adapted into a play for the West End and I read a bit more about it.   After seeing a documentary on the production and hearing there was to be a UK tour I decided this was something I’d love to see.   So, over twelve months ago I booked tickets for the opening night at the Sunderland Empire and well I wasn’t disappointed.   Late one night Christopher (Joshua Jenkins) finds his neighbour’s dog dead in the garden, speared with a garden fork.   After being found with Wellington (the dog) he has a run in with a police officer who doesn’t understand Christopher doesn’t like to be touched. He is taken to the police station where his dad, Ed (Stuart Laing) comes to collect him.    Christopher decides at this point to investigate Wellington’

So Thursday night was movie night, which mainly involved indulging in a Venti Starbucks English Breakfast Tea with a dash of milk and a delicacy from their muffin and biscuit range (currently the biscuit of choice is a Nutella cookie) and on this occasion some action filled adventure with the IMF Team.   Now I must admit, I’m not a huge Tom Cruise fan, I think in his career I maybe like three of his movies, namely ·        Outsiders ·        Rock of Ages ·        Top Gun Other than that I can pretty much take or leave the rest.   When it comes to the Mission Impossible series, I wasn’t overly impressed with the first 3 movies.   I didn’t like the way they made Jim Phelps a bad guy.   I was a child of the 80’s and saw the original TV series on re-run and the idea of taking that character and making him the complete opposite to how I perceived him kind of rubbed.   By the time we got to Mission Impossible 5 and the introduction of Jeremy Renner as Brandt and the de

Follow my blog with Bloglovin So I seem to be going from weekend to weekend in these posts!  I promise I do other things but it's just the way events have unfolded! Yesterday, Saturday again, I got the chance to catch up with a couple of my girlfriends and have a nice meal and a killer desert! It's hard sometimes to see your friends when your working, they're working, your trying to fit a million and one things in to life so these moments to me are very precious.   Any way, as it was two of my friends birthdays recently we decided to have a catch up at the local pub and have a nice meal.  The meal was great, but the deserts were amazing! I had an Eton Mess Sunday - believe me you would have your calories for the whole day in this thing.  It was a tower of ice cream, raspberries, meringue and cream which took an age to get through!  my Friend went for the Chocolate Brownie Death by Chocolate and Sunday and my other friend went for Lemon Pie Sunday.  I think by th

So if you're reading my other blog, "My Life as a Writer" you're already following the path I take when writing my novels, this blog is an attempt to illustrate what else I do and love in life. Where to start, well I might as well start off with this past weekend as I indulged in something I do love. I have always had a love of movies and theatre, so on Saturday I indulged my theatrical love and attended the Theatre to see "And Then There Were None" (Agatha Christie). Now this not only plays to my love of theatre but also my love of Christie as a writer, in this 125th Anniversary year her work is still as entertaining and edge of the seat as it was then. The show, which is touring the UK stars Paul Nicholas, Verity Rushworth, Frazer Hines, Colin Buchanan and Ben Nealon, and follows the plot of her famous novel. On a secluded island a group of strangers come together having each received a mysterious invitation.  Following the path of a children