Nicky Bond's Blog, page 9

Stressful Joy and Stomach-Churning Pride...

Steady on, it's just a book.Regular readers will know I drop a Long Ramble every month. This is usually a post where I get to do a proper delve; the Weekly Update format gets ditched. But because May's Long Ramble has been and gone (about my Eurovision picks a few weeks ago) I'm unable to go deep or geek out about anything this week. It's run of the mill, business as usual, and the Weekly Update subheadings are here. Except this week is SO not run of the mill or business as usual. This week is B...

Lead Me to the Experts...

Bear with me. I'm going to start with a topic that I opened with a few weeks ago. It's brief, I promise, and leads to a wider point. Ready? Cool.
Yeaaahh... I could do this.I'm the only person I know - IRL - that's obsessively following the former US prez's 2016 election interference trial. Why's that do we think? Is it because even on a general level I find US politics fascinating and this is way beyond general? Is it because my schedule is so flexible I can spend afternoons and evenings, four d...

Getting to Grips with Eurovision...

I can only assume I am too.Nothing lasts forever, amaright? Morning! Sorry to start on a bleak note but we are where we are. Twitter, which was once responsible for signposting me to every piece of news, opinion, and shared cultural event, has been out of my life for over a year. Mostly. I've continued to post my blog and book promotion stuff - hustlers gotta hustle - but I've stopped scrolling. And Lordy, how I miss it! Many people would view a reduction in screen time as positive event, but no...

The Beautiful Build-Up...

Same people, same place, 
same weekend. 2023.Exciting times ahead! The annual family caravan shebang is mere days away. Twelve people, three caravans, and a boot full of Prosecco. It's the same every year so I know how this goes. I know that the anticipation of the event is always better than the actual weekend away. I LOVE the build up. All week I'm going to be giddy and excited. I'm going to buzz off making lists. I'm going to pack the car whole days before I need to. I'll be looking up the rou...

Gene Hackman was my Teacher...

Have you ever watched the film,  Runaway Jury ? John Cusack and Rachel Weisz getting their revenge on a tragic, historical injustice via the US judicial process? I have. And it's because of that film, that I know EVERYTHING about US jury selection. Honest to God. Known to us legal experts as voir dire, it's the process where the defence, prosecution, and judge whittle out potential jurors they feel may have bias that could result in an unfair trial. Gene Hackman taught me everything I know. (He al...

The Highs and Lows of Cycling...

The life cycle? The lunar cycle? The menstrual cycle? Isn't the world just a series of repeated cycles? Hey Scientists! Ponder that, why don't you. 
But before all that, let's cycle back for a moment - intentional pun! I once wrote a post that went viral. A bit viral anyway. It got shared on a writing website so its reach was wider than my usual bubble. The topic? The editing process. It was split into three parts. The early stage, where you're chipper and up for the challenge. The middle stage, ...

Soz to the Envelope Buyers of Speke...

Me, repeatedly, in WH Smiths.If, last week, you'd been on the search for a medium sized Jiffy bag in Speke WH Smiths, I'm sorry to say you'd have had a wasted trip. Damn book tours! I cleared the shelves of all their mid-sized padded envelopes on Thursday as I prepared to send out copies of the new book to the reviewers who had signed up. 
I quite like having to complete a list of admin tasks. As well as emptying envelope shelves, I spent the weekend filling out address labels and writing thank y...

New Terms and Temple Bods...

We really have, Joe.
No more cake for breakfast. You can take the girl out of teaching but you can't take the teaching out of the girl. Or something. OFSTED nightmares aside, I rarely think about my previous life. Except for one thing. My body clock remains automatically attuned to term times. We've just had Easter. Like September and January, there feels a natural renewal to this week. And you know what? It can't come soon enough. What with birthday shenanigans and the weekend eggs, there's bee...

Triggered in the Good Ways...

New year, new me! That's my vibe today. It's the first day of my 47th year, what with me turning forty-six several hours ago. And what of this brave new world? Well it's early days. What I do know is that forty-six is the new eighteen because I feel exactly the same on the inside as I did back then. On the outside? Well, there are a few aches and pains but that's superficial stuff. The inside is where it's at.  
Remember feeling
 like this or just me?Despite this, there's something slightly trigge...

Aunt Bants...

I can only assume this is 
what my baby neph is
thinking whilst he sets about
learning the ways of the world. Unto us a nephew is born! Yes, an excellent thing happened in my family. I'm an aunt for the fifth time! Even though I'm happily free of my own spawn, I do enjoy the role of Aunt. Of course, if any of my nieces or nephews ever called me Aunt or Auntie, I'd laugh in their face. It's just Nicky, you see. Why put up unnecessary barriers? In reality, it's probably not that simple. There'll be g...