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Getting the Party Started!

Bee hasn’t realised yet that a whole week of celebrations have been planned for her third birthday and she is touchingly appreciative of every small gesture to mark the occasion. Tom and I are in Cardiff to get the party started; on Saturday we play football and make pizzas together, on Sunday morning Bee bursts in to our bedroom, delighted to see that we haven’t disappeared in the night, and then with ten-week Iris fed, watered and bundled up (sweet little Iris has already resigned herself to going with the flow) we head off to Cefn Mably Farm Park.

Bee’s had more than her fair share of ear problems in her short life, and although her hearing is regularly monitored (and, my goodness, haven’t Lily and Russ had to fight to get this far) she has suffered a degree of hearing loss and experiences some distortion which makes the world a scary place at times. It breaks my heart when, at the farm, a cockerel lets rip in a covered, echoey space just as Bee is given a guinea pig to hold. The explosion of sounds is clearly quite a challenge to her throughout the visit, however, being Bee she still finds plenty to enjoy.


As a fiction writer, it’s easy to get discouraged and feel as the parties are all going on somewhere out of reach. However, in keeping with my writing resolution to focus on the process rather than the product, I’ve just completed a short, free online course, ‘How to Make a Poem’. I merrily submit my, admittedly, quite experimental poem for review then tackle the second half of the assignment which involves reviewing another student’s poem. I follow the guidelines and write a detailed review which I hope is both useful and constructive then eagerly open the link to the comments about my poem. The three lines on my ‘very unique and emotional and mysterious’ poem aren’t, it has to be said, very enlightening but the course as a whole has been great for enabling me to ignore my harsh inner critic and get some writing done.

Tom’s waiting for a date for his viva voce so that he can, hopefully, complete the final stage of his PhD. In the meantime he’s thinking about painting again and has got started with an overhaul of his website here.

Black Rock Preseli
And finally, it’s that time of year when I start the sixteen week training programme leading up to the Cardiff Half Marathon in October. If I wonder how Bee can possibly be three, it’s also a bit of surprise to find that this year is the tenth anniversary of my first half marathon when, in my head, I’m only just getting the party started!
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maddox pax said…
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25 June 2018 at 02:17
Unknown said…
I’m sure your daughter had a lovely birthday celebration, and she is looking so adorable in these pictures. My daughter also turned 2 a few days ago, and we celebrated her birthday with an amazing party at the popular event space Chicago. It was a very enjoyable event with friends and family.
27 August 2018 at 23:11
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