What Have I Been Doing?

I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing…

I did my civic duty (under duress I may add) and sat on Jury Service for the first time. Now, in the interest of my own private security I’m not going to reveal the case I was on on my second week – but suffice to say, the national press have reported on the case in great detail, and yes, the defendant was as guilty as a guilty person can be, wearing a guilty hat and coat, sitting in the guilty chair, drinking a cup of guilty coffee and reading a guilty book.

I finished that brilliant manuscript we are publishing late this year. The title hasn’t been decided as yet, but it’s an absolute joy, very romantic, very nostalgic, very heart-warming – and Ali Harris (the author) is going to be huge.
Me and Him were invited for a rather scrumptious lunch date with Bernie S (and her people) and Lou C (and hers)and I managed to rope both of them into doing the Shine midnight marathon walk with me… bless 'em. Please sponsor me at the Just Giving site, if you can spare a few quid, and think about all three of us come October this year, eating cakes and drinking cocktails whilst tottering around the O2!

I took The Mother to see the Matthew Bourne version of Cinderella again, and as ever, he didn’t disappoint. It’s a slightly different version to the one I first saw in 1997 (ish), but it was great, as are all the Adventures.

And finally, The Girls had a great night at Paramount to celebrate Mel's birthday. £330 bar bill worth of great night. Ah, the Roseberry Fizz champagne cocktails. Much better on the way down than the way up, according to Lorrie!

New Year, New Stuff, Same Stuff

So. Christmas came and went in a puff of pj's, snacks and sofa action.... in fact, I think the very most action that took place in the Virtue household was the day we turned on the Wii, played a round of Sword Fighting (for the record, I beat him... again) and turned it off again to resume the slumped position.

I think I watched enough Poirot, Marple, Midsummer's and Columbo to last a lifetime - and I never thought that day would come.

Santa was very generous - bringing a host of gorgeous things like a weekend away, (more) Asics trainers, a Cath Kidston purse, Tiffany earrings, a new leather bag, electric toothbrush, the very softest slippers you've ever felt in your whole life and a lovely wedge of cash, and the Christmas meal with three meats and more trimmings than was entirely necessary went off without a hitch - despite forgetting the red cabbage till teatime!

And now it's back to work, back to tube delays and price hikes, rain, increased VAT, bills and the longest time till pay day.

But there is new stuff too. There's this thing at work. All a bit hush hush really till Valentine's Day... but it's kind of mine. My idea, my project, my passion. So I've got to learn some Twitter stuff, and have a Facebook fan page, and help design a microsite, and start writing some articles - and then I'll be leading it, and developing it - and running wild and free, and I'm so excited I'm fit to bursting. So if you are a tweeter (or whatever it is) I'm at @bookminxsjv - so please follow me, or whatever it is. Thanks.