Amanda Prowse's Blog, page 5

Bermudababble Week Sixteen

I’m in BERMUDA!!!!!! It feels like a month not a few days, since I threw my swimming cossie, a couple of oversized T’s and my Primark linen trousers into a suitcase and squeezed the Nairn from its tube (needs must girls!) I then set about preparing the boys to go back to school – each child needs seven shirts, two pairs of trews, two jackets, rugby gear, tracksuit, home clothes… and it all needed laundering and labelling etc. in short I was tethered to the iron for two days straight. You know the opening scene from Les Mis when they are pulling the really big boat – that was me, but with a little less sweat and I was allowed shoes.

Saying goodbye to people you love is never easy and I’ve done a lot of it this week. I actually quite enjoyed the flight – all that time to chat to The Major was lovely, well, I say chat, he just listened and at one point put on earphones, did that stop me? As if. I did have a bit of a dozy moo moment when I patted him on the arm and asked,

‘Do you think all these people are going to Bermuda?’

He shook his head and replied,

‘We are on a plane – on a direct flight, what do you think?’ Clever clogs.

Arriving here in Bermuda however has lessened the upset somewhat. It is BEAUTIFUL inside and out. We have already met lovely, kind people and around every twist of the narrow roads or with every glimpse over your shoulder there is a view worthy of a postcard. It is lush, green and peppered with bright flowers like vibrant Hibiscus and feathery ferns. Despite being an isolated place there are over 8,000 varieties of flower and plant – it’s stunning. The beaches are pink and the water crystal, but what makes this place so amazing are the people.

The Bermudians greet everyone they encounter; it makes it feel like home. I was grocery shopping earlier and waiting at the bus stop when a lady stopped her car and asked where I was going, I told her and she opened the passenger door, ‘Jump in! I’ll take you!’ We chatted as she drove and it was like bumping into an old friend rather than being offered help from a stranger. It’s quite magical and a really nice way to live. It’s the first time I’ve been anywhere where people wave back at me. I am a bit of a waver and so this is very welcome!

Oh and I have two lovely new pets, Cyril and Charles, there were three, but Colin met a sticky, crunchy end… Okay – rewind to our adventure last night – our accommodation is rather basic, kind of like Tenko meets Prisoner Cell Block H. I decided to risk the shower, which hasn’t been cleaned in a century and is full of boxes of Christmas Decorations – as you do. I decided to keep my flip-flops on as I didn’t trust the floor and thank god I did.

“Cyril, Charles and Colin were trying to shower with me!”

I switched on the pipe and as the brown, cold water came plopping out and hit the floor, 3 fat cockroaches crawled up the drain hole and scampered around the shower tray! You might have heard me screaming in the UK. I ran out with a tiny towel covering my modesty and shrieked at Simeon that Cyril, Charles and Colin were trying to shower with me! He came in and splatted Colin – the sound of the crunch will haunt me forever. It was HORRIBLE! – But I survived and went back in this morning to prove I wasn’t scared… much. Urgh – shivering just thinking about it, they were HUGE and they can’arf run fast! Urgh – shivering again!

The Major’s new job is going great. He is really enjoying it and like most of Bermuda is getting around on his moped. I told him he looks fab in his new helmet and then I laughed when he’d gone out of the room, bless. He’s calling it the hog, but its still a moped! All those jokes about Biker Mice from Mars are not so funny now! Don’t worry I shall get lots of photos! Everyone here rides mopeds and cars are scarce – the buses are great and cheap and a good way to see everything and as you would expect, I have already made bus friends.

I’ve been to the beach twice and next week I might even take my jeans off and not just roll them up to the knee. I thought about going for a dip today, but was greeted by a bevy of lithe lovelies doing cartwheels along the shoreline – let me tell you it didn’t make me feel any more comfortable about exposing my cellulite and waddling into the waves!

I’ve been busy writing and have a few lovely things in the pipeline – like maybe a new short story on the horizon to follow ‘Something Quite Beautiful’ but of course you didn’t hear it from me! And if you are reading this Head of Zeus – they made me tell!!!

I shall be Skyping the boys this weekend and am bursting at the prospect – I miss them. I miss them beyond words…

Oh – by the way – if anyone is passing Larkhill, I forgot to put the bins out, if you could just pop my wheelie bin in the road and maybe water my tubs, I’d be very grateful and if you look in the window and see huge piles of washing, un-plumped cushions and a collection of dirty football boots in the hall, this wasn’t me, we must have been burgled.

Grab life and run with it!

Mandy x

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Fifteen

Well hey, my last blog from the UK for a while as this week I leave for Bermuda! My to-do list is so long that its kind of paralysed me and I have done nothing to prepare. I figure things will all kind of happen anyway and I shall jog along with it. (Don’t mention the Tupperware, I think he’s forgotten!)

We took the boys on mini trips to Bournemouth and then Woolacombe earlier in the week. It was just fabulous. Whole days spent with the kids, playing cards in grotty cafes, eating chips on the sea wall and running onto the beach when the sun poked from behind the cloud. The busy beach was the perfect place to indulge in my favourite hobby of people watching and I have been staggered by some of the parenting that I have witnessed.

My three favourites were the very shouty dad, who screamed for hours at his four year old son that if he didn’t stop digging and spraying f*cking sand (YES! On the beach! Imagine!) then he would be ‘sent back to the f*cking caravan on his own!’ The family then started to pack up and shouty dad changed his threat to, ‘if you don’t stop digging sand, we will leave you here on your own while we go back to the caravan!’ The little boy looked rather confused and couldn’t fathom whether he was being left behind or sent away, both prospects sounded quite scary.

My second favourite was the dad who yanked his little boy roughly by the arm and asked very loudly, ‘why do you think its okay to lick sweets you find on the floor, Jake? Do you want to eat dog wee and poo?’ Jake considered this and responded with ‘I don’t want to eat dog wee and poo but I DO like sweeties.’ To which his dad replied in the only possible way to this five year old, ‘you are a f*cking moron, Jake!’ The guy swore and called him a Moron! He was five! 

But the good dad award of the day went to the chap who said to his son with his finger an inch from the child’s face, ‘if you ask for an ice cream, I shall knock you to the other side of the beach!’ I didn’t hear the child say another word and understandably so, if asking for an ice cream got that reaction, can you imagine what might have happened if he’d needed the loo or wanted a paddle in the sea? Probably a firing squad.

I actually cried, I sat on the beach and cried.

Now, I am far far far from the perfect parent, as my sons will testify. I have been known to lose my rag, swear a bit, forget to buy food for the harvest festival, meaning that my boy had to take in a bottle of wine and some sausage casserole mix. I have sent them to school in pants and vests that were nearly dry. I’ve forgotten PE kit and missed parents evening.  On one occasion, I got in a muddle and collected them an hour late. BUT I have never, ever made them feel small or not given them my time or been able to think of a trillion games with which to occupy their time wherever we were, beach or home. I have never manhandled them or hit them and I have always loved their company. In my opinion there is nothing as funny as something funny that your child says and this is still the case with my beer monsters who are over six foot and shaving!

I saw so many mums and dads being impatient or indifferent and I found it heartbreaking. I wanted to scream that they were on holiday, making precious memories! I thought of my own childhood beach holidays, where my large, skint family would eat sandwiches bought from home and swig from bottles of Panda Pop before burying my grandad in the sand. We’d sit in the car at the end of the day with wet, sandy bums playing I-spy and Twenty Questions until we fell asleep and were lifted from the car by my dad who would plonk us straight into bed. Him carrying me up the stairs was one of the best parts of the whole day and even if I was awake, I’d scrunch my eyes up tight and pretend, just so he would hurl me over his shoulder and wrap me in my duvet.

My last ITV This Morning summer read came out this week here’s the link for those who missed it.  http://itv.co/19YlLb6 can I just say a big thank you for all the lovely responses that I have had to my little collection of short stories over the summer and a big thank you to the team at ITV for being so great to work with. For all of those who are asking for more, all I can say is, watch this space…

It’ll be weird writing from Bermuda, who knows how it will shape my blog and my words. I am going to embrace it and get everything out of it that I can, but my heart will be here with you and everyone I love. At the end of the day, no matter how fancy pants the place or how dazzling the view, I’m the kind of girl that likes to play cards in grotty cafes and eat chips on the sea wall.

Go scatter kindness.

With love

Mandy x

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Fourteen

I’ve spent the first half of the week with my head in the washing machine, not hiding, but tackling the mountain of filthy clothes that the boys have ventured home with after a couple of weeks away. I’m not sure exactly what it is they DO with their clothes, but they look like they’ve leant them to the England rugby team to practice in and then worn them straight after for a night of fun at a foam party, followed by a food fight in a chilli factory – yuk!  The upside is they are lousy at emptying their pockets and I have made £3.85 in loose change – result! I shan’t mention the telephone number I have found and binned – sorry Sadie from Liverpool – whoever you are, but even your handwriting looked debauched and you don’t spell telephone with an ‘F’! Nuff said. 

So the boys were back and STARVING but unfortunately I have also had my head in a laptop, when it wasn’t in the washing machine, and food shopping has been very low on my agenda, hence the empty cupboards. In truth, with the kids being away for a couple of weeks, I had forgotten the locust-like swoop that they make on the kitchen every hour, ridding my home of every carb or sugar dusted morsel that they can find.  It was only when I heard the slamming of cupboard doors and the groaning into the empty fridge that I realised my faux pas.  I grabbed the car keys, only to find the workmen had dug up the road outside our house and I couldn’t get the car out! We live in the middle of nowhere and the only option as to cook up a freezer buffet! Yeeeha! This I did with gusto.

…I think my legendary, hash-brown-pea-sweetcorn-spring-roll-mint-vienetta combo will go down in history as the most innovative breakfast ever!

It’s been a tense week for them, we got their GCSE results on Thursday – both seemed outwardly calm, but were pacing the halls like expectant fathers from 6am on the day they came out, (and judging by what I also found in the boys laundry, at least one of them might well be. I’ve started knitting just in case.) They did great and we move onwards and upwards, I told them what my lovely Grandad Joe told me when I opened my O’Level results a hundred years ago… ‘They never seem as important as they do at the moment you open that envelope.’ He was right of course, no one ever seems remotely interested in the C I got for Metalwork or my D in Maths.  My mum however, still proudly shows all visitors the fish slice that I made on the lathe, I personally think it was of at least B grade standard, but those were the days when we hadn’t invented the word ‘re-mark’ and any complaint to the staff at my school, would have invited ridicule from the staff room door while they blew Lambert & Butler smoke in my face.

These are our last few days with the boys before they go off to get cleverer and we go off to the Bermuda triangle (every time I write or say that, Barry Manilow pops up in my head, singing and shaking his maracas – go away Barry!) and we are having two mini breaks – I write from… Bournemouth! Its brilliant! We spent yesterday on the beach laughing, eating chips and building a windbreak out of our Tesco bags for life. The sun glimpsed occasionally from behind the cloud and when it did we cheered. I actually managed to take my cardi off twice! We are staying in a really grotty hotel, with swirly pube laden carpets, sticky walls and plastic notices taped to every surface that covers everything from their smoking policy to why you must not sit outside on the window sill, apparently you might fall. Well, that’s my morning scuppered then.  But you know what? Its all good, because we’ve had chips and one of the boys has been hit in the head by a rogue Frisbee and they had cans of cold cider before they went to sleep. Its been a day for making memories, golden days that when I am far away, I shall re-visit and it will make me smile.

This weeks ITV This Morning short story is a good one – thank you for all your lovely feedback and as usual, for those that missed it – here’s the link http://itv.co/1f2ZoOW

Right, the beach beckons. It’s a bit grey but I’m feeling really sunny as I get to spend the day with my boys.

If you do one thing this week – dance.

Mandy x

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Thirteen

Week thirteen!!! Unlucky for some, but not for me, I don’t believe in bad luck and therefore I never ever have any.  I hear you laugh, but it’s true. When my mum got run over and injured a few years back, I considered it very lucky that she survived. When I got sick, I was just very thankful to get better – that was lucky! When we lost our little girl, I felt very very grateful for how the experience pulled Simeon and I together and the immense joy I felt at the prospect of having her, that was lucky too! It’s not always easy to find the positive and there are days when I want to crawl under a duvet and cry, but I think that just makes me human, albeit a very lucky one!

I’ve been up and down the country this week, from BBC Radio Devon to BBC Radio Manchester and a few stops in between. I’ve made new friends and caught up with some old ones, and I sit here tip tapping, knackered but happy! People are what count aren’t they, spending time and talking to people, that’s IT. And I can already tell that there will be people in Bermuda who I shall love spending time with. I’ve had a fabulous email from the Hamilton Book Shop team, who have very kindly offered to adopt me as they do all book lovers! I feel a tincy bit less worried knowing that I have these fellow readers to hang out with.

The boys have been on holiday or at summer schools this week and are now, stomping in the mud at the V Festival in Stafford. I keep watching the TV to see if I can spot them or their buddies among the 90,000 revellers that are all also wearing wellies and ponchos, with expletives written in neon on their foreheads – haven’t seen them yet.  It was hilarious listening to their festival plans, an age was spent discussing the alcohol requirements and who was taking what. I casually asked if they had organised a tent, they looked at me like it was the first time they had considered their actual accommodation. I was quickly to learn that this was because it was. They had enough beer to sink a ship but not one sleeping bag between them. The Major says its character building; I say its hyperthermia inducing.

This week’s ITV This Morning short story has had some lovely feedback, thank you so very much. I wrote it after remembering a conversation I had with a friend of mine at university, many years ago and I hope I did it justice.

Here’s the link for anyone that missed it http://itv.co/1bxUgSM

Next week’s story is one for all the mum’s out there. I sobbed all the way through writing it. It just touched a nerve for me at a time when the kids are getting their results and planning their futures. I hope you like it, it’s called The Leaving of the Swallows and I think will be out on Tuesday!

I’ve packed and unpacked my suitcase three times, all my belongings are sitting like an abandoned clothes mountain on the floor and each time I look at it I feel a little overawed at the prospect of having to sort it out – it’ll all happen I’m sure, put it this way, if it doesn’t, I’ll be the only person in Bermuda to wear the same sweatshirt and jeans, every day for months!

Yesterday I met up with my best friends for a much-needed catch up.  It’s brilliant isn’t it, when you can sit for hours, gossiping and swapping news and all the worries of the world disappear with a few well-chosen words of reassurance. Good friends are so very very precious. I shall always treasure mine and miss them when I am away. Although I suspect one of them might jump in a plane and land on a beach near me!

I popped into my mums under the guise of seeing her and my dad for a cuppa, but in truth it’s because my nephew Noah was there and I can’t get enough of him! He’s eighteen months and he fascinates me, he is beautiful. He doesn’t like me much and whilst I chase him, trying to squeeze him (ahhh, maybe that’s why he’s not so keen on me!?) he points his finger at me, shakes his head and says NO! – Yesterday every time I picked up one of his dinosaurs, he took it off me and gave it to the Major, who sat with a toy mountain on his lap, loving the fact that he is in the Noah inner circle – I shan’t give up!

We were sat around the kitchen table and someone asked my mum if I’d always liked stories and been a bit dramatic. She told everyone how I used to carry a note around with me, checking I had it every time I left the house. It read; these people are not my parents, please follow me and call the Police!

I was six years of age and when my mum first spotted it, she asked me what it was for? With a very straight face I told her,

‘If I get taken and put into a strangers car or the back of their van, I shall hold up my note at the window and the police will come and get me back after shooting the baddies. They’ll put me in the back of a police car with a blanket around my shoulders and you and daddy will be waiting for me, crying and buy me something because you will be so happy to have me back!’

- She also reminded me that for whole weeks I would talk with a new accent, practicing Scottish, American and Swiss! The reason being if ever I was recruited as a spy, I would be able to play the part better – I was about nine.  …and then there’s the tape of me aged four, reading aloud one of my stories. Every time one of my three brothers, usually Simon, interrupted, I went bonkers and demanded that I start again and everyone had to listen! Cringing at how bossy I was.

So I guess the answer is yes, always liked stories, always been a bit dramatic!

Ok – I got me a book to edit! Better crack on. I wish you lots of love for the week ahead and a whole heap of luck.

Mandy x

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Twelve

We STILL have no Bermuda date! But we know it’ll be within next two weeks. I have a permanent knot of anxiety in my tummy, waiting… I dreamt that the Major shoved me awake in the night, shouting, ‘Go Go Go!!!’ and I had to jump out of bed and straight onto a plane with a minutes notice. I arrived in Bermuda in my nightie with nothing other than my bed socks and a box of washing powder, why the washing powder? It was a dream! How should I know? Jheesh.

I figure as I’m more of a last minute kind of gal, it’ll be fine to leave packing and organising until I have that magical date and I shall then run around like a headless chicken, shoving things into bags.

“I can see there are going to be contentious packing issues. We are taking one large suitcase each and that is all.”

I can see there are going to be contentious packing issues. We are taking one large suitcase each and that is all.

I asked the Major last night if I could take my Tupperware storage containers. He laughed, frowned and then said, ‘No!’

‘But… but I’ll need them for food storage and packed lunches!’

‘No! They’ll take up too much room and you can get some there. You only have one case.  All you need is clothes and essentials.’

‘But I don’t want new ones! I want my old ones with happy memories in them…’

He then reached for the Gordon’s and poured himself a large one.

He shook his head, ‘you can’t take any old rubbish Mand and besides there are more important things that need to be done. We need to sew all the kids nametapes in for school!’ (He says we, he means me)

…I haven’t asked yet about my candle and tea light collection, my favourite mugs, sleepy cushion, photos of my nan and grandad, his old love letters, the kids first drawings or my peg bags, things that are important to me. Might need to get another bottle of gin in.

I have literally had my head in my laptop all week; so much so that my eyes have gone fuzzy and whilst I can usually read and see without my glasses (if I really squint!) there is now no chance! I need an eye break -  she says, tip tapping her computer screen in her glasses.

I have a busy week on the horizon, I am on BBC Devon on Tuesday talking to Judy Spiers and then BBC Manchester on Friday talking to Becky Want – both top chicks so it should be really good fun!

The boys are away. No1 is on the Devon coast, trying to chat up girls and the other is in North Wales, messing about on the water. I’ve had no contact at all and am a bit antsy, wanting to know they are ok or in fact just wanting to hear their voices.

Last night a text pinged! It was No2 and I was delighted! Contact at last. I eagerly scrolled and opened the message, which read,

‘Hawaiian you dickhead.’

I read it once more looking for the hidden meaning when another text pinged in ‘Soz – that wasn’t meant for you!x’

I danced around the room – he’d sent a kiss! An actual kiss! Now I know this was probably done in error, but I’m claiming it.

This weeks ITV Short Story has received some lovely comments and feedback, thank you so very much to everyone who has read and liked it, for those of you that missed it, here we go; http://itv.co/1cGuA84 – happy reading.

I am on the home straight of my new novel A Little Love – I think it’s a goody. My next few books (still all part of No Greater Love Series) continue to focus on women who grab life and run with it. Pru is 66 and falls in love for the first time and her message is, ‘life starts when you let it!’ I really like her and I hope you will too.

I planned to have a big old lie in today until 8am – no kids, no alarm, no deadline… shame no one told the workmen digging up the road about my plans, they started at 7am – Hey ho! It’s a sign. A sign that I am not meant to rest, not until that darn book is finished and I have packed! I’m wondering if I can fill my Tupperware with candles, peg bags, mugs, letter etc and HIDE it in my luggage, yes! This is worth a shot. If the Major asks, tell him I’m sewing in nametapes…

Live. Laugh. Love.

Mandy x

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

 

Amandababble Week Eleven

Darn sunshine is driving me bonkers – I work better ensconced in my darkened writing cave when it’s dreary and grey and I have no desire to step outside, it helps me look inward, I think I was a bat in a former life. As I sit here this morning, the sun is casting a golden glow over our rusting BBQ and our yellow, mossy lawn, is calling me to go and lie on it and have a good old think. No time for that however, I have me a book to finish!

So, the Major and I have some big news… no not the tiny pitter-patter of feet, (now that would be a miracle, with only half a womb and the withered eggs of a woman half way through the change. Too much information? Possibly.) No, our news is this; we are on the move. Again!

Picture this, last Friday evening I am preparing for the 20 or so relatives that were incoming. I was sorting bedding, peeling spuds, erecting gazebos, stringing up fairy lights and crying. I do this when under stress.  The Major popped up with my favourite drink – an ice cold T&T with a wedge of lime (I don’t like gin, so go for a double tonic! Dah!) He was being particularly nice to me, which usually means he’s broken something – I sipped, mid fairy light untangle and waited… he cracked after 30 seconds.

‘We have been posted.’

Now, this is a phrase he has uttered to me at least ten times in the last 8 years and so now I simply shrug and say, ‘fine.’

‘Do you know when?’ I ask casually.

‘We are leaving within the next 2 weeks.’ He mumbles.

I actually snorted my T&T through my nose, ‘within the next 2 weeks?’ I screech three octaves higher than I usual. ‘But the boys are away and I’ve got a book to finish, I need to get all their stuff ready to go back to school and I’m doing the stuff for This Morning and I haven’t got any packing cases and my family are arriving any second and I can’t untangle these lights!’

‘It’s okay,’ he soothed, ‘it will all be okay. It always is.’

He is right of course and out of the two of us, some would say he is the less hysterical.

‘Where are we going?’ I ask, trying to keep calm, while crying on the inside.

‘Bahnngngnnnnfffa’ He mumbled, inaudibly.

‘Sorry, Where? Bath? Birmingham? Brize? Bristol?’

He looked me in the eye, and this time, his voice was loud and clear, ‘Bermuda. We are going to Bermuda.’

‘As in Barry Manilow?’ it was the first thing I thought of.

‘Yes.’ He confirmed.

‘And we leave when?’

‘Very soon.’ He grimaced.

Everyone we have told has sung at me, either the aforementioned Manilow song or the Beach Boys. My message to them all is, please stop it.

So folks, there we have it. We are upping sticks, pulling anchor and packing up our kit bags and heading to this tiny island a couple of hours from New York and seven hours from the UK.  How do I feel? A mixture really…

I LOVE the Caribbean – as anyone that has read my novels knows, so am thinking it might be like that. Living and working in paradise will be wonderful, an adventure!  And I can get to New York easily for work. Ok, here comes the but, BUT, I’m not actually that type of person and would always much rather be sitting in the front room of our 3 bed semi, with all my little bits and pieces around me, wearing my comfies with my kids ignoring me on the other sofa, having my mum pop in for a cuppa and watching a bit of X factor with a Chinese takeaway and going for walks in the fields, meeting up with my best friend so we can laugh until we cry. Maybe I’m a weirdo, but that’s me.

I shall do what I always do when presented with any opportunity or change, from illness to travel to career changes, I shall embrace it, smile through it and wring every last drop out of it. But my heart will remain in this green and pleasant land where the people that I love live.

Blogs will be more interesting – who knows what adventures I might have and I will share every step. Twitter and Facebook contact will become even more important to me; I shall be desperate to hear from Rhi, Ally, Flora, and Liz you know who you are. The boys are staying here as they are starting their A levels, even writing that has caused my tears to spring anew and here’s the thing, no matter how lovely the beach or warm the sun, I’d still rather be cooking their tea and hearing them squabble over the remote control. I just love them.

I shall write a book or two when I am there and already have a few plots swirling in my head, just not sure where I shall find a darkened writing cave. I’ve had a look at several websites and it seems Bermuda is well known for its sunshine.  Grrrrrr….

This week – I simply send love xx

PS – Here’s the link for this weeks ITV This Morning short story giveaway http://itv.co/158fSoW look out for next weeks – its rather special! xx

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Ten

Week ten? How did that happen – time is flying!

I sit here typing among a crowd of loud cockneys- twenty of us to be precise – it’s the annual family 3-day BBQ & get together and its chaos! Everyone is staying here with babies and pets and luggage. We live in a 3-bed semi! Thank God the Major is a whizz at Tetris and has us all packed in like sardines.

I shall be writing to all my neighbours today, confirming that we were having a party and they hadn’t inadvertently woken up on the set of Eastenders where Chas & Dave were making a guest appearance. We like nothing more than a good old get together where we eat, drink and play games like team Pictionary on a giant flip chart with much shouting (and cheating!).  Another favourite is softball in the rain, where my two-year-old nephew was given the job of cuddling as many people on bases to distract them – it worked. We had two dogs running around the pitch and let’s just say more laughing and falling over was done than ball hitting.

I have watched in awe as the new royal baby arrived safely. I didn’t think I was that fussed and if I’m being honest was a little disinterested. But THEN I waited, glued the screen to see them emerge onto the hospital steps with their gorgeous bundle and felt quite emotional. It was lovely, wasn’t it?

The diet has gone a bit AWOL this weekend, so back to it double today – determined to be less blubbery by September!

…Sorry bit distracted, my mum has just run through the room with a sausage up her nose and a union flag tied around her head, not sure why, but my niece and nephew are enjoying it. The torrential rain and flooding of the garden hasn’t dampened our spirits!

Amazon Kindle have placed Clover’s Child in their Summer promotion which is marvellous and it has rocketed up the Kindle chart, which is wonderful – thank you for all the wonderful reviews that continue to ping into my account- it means the world to me.

I don’t have enough time at the moment, the most precious of commodities. This weekend has been really precious, just connecting with the people that I love and who love me back. I feel the pressure acutely of not being able to fit everything in and sadly the things that seem to fly out of the window are the good things, like chatting to my boys for hours or going for walks. Which leads me to last weeks ITV This Morning summer read – giveaway is called ‘The Last Dance’ and has caused quite a stir. People have sent me countless messages to say how much it moved them and I am so glad, without giving too much away, I really hope this is how it is… you can read it here:

http://www.itv.com/thismorning/homeandgarden/amanda-prowse-summer-read-the-last-dance/

There will be a new story out tomorrow and this week its something a bit different.

I send you love and luck and hope your week is fruitful and calm… and if anyone is driving to London via Salisbury, please stop by, I’ve got a few relatives that could do with bundling into a car and shipping back to the big smoke. X

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amandababble Week Nine

Phew what a week! It’s lasted about two days – I think maybe I’ve been living in a microwave and someone pinged me forward in ultra quick time. This might actually be very useful. I can think of a couple of applications, childbirth, root canals, the kids school plays – where every little angel has one line or a bit of a dance and you sit with a numb bum on a plastic chair waiting for your baby to have their fifteen seconds of fame… and the Eurovision song contest, where the only bit I like to watch are the results and the smiling faces of those coming last, as if to say, ‘we don’t mind! It’s just lovely to take part’ whilst crying off camera into their Cinzano and lemonade.

But I digress. This week we launched the ITV This Morning summer read – I was very nervous. Thank you so much for all your lovely words of support, it really made a difference. Everyone made me so welcome and the first Amanda Prowse summer short story is available to read here for free; http://t.co/JvPPSti4Xx if you like it – please LIKE it – if you get my drift!

Look out for next weeks story, which is a bit special and I think you will love!

One of our boys has been on holiday this week with his friends in Turkey – we received an email after a few days which read ‘Hi. It’s hot’ I wish this was précised or edited, but no, this was in its entirety – a man of few words. Let’s hope he’s also a man of few items of disgusting laundry upon his return, ha! Fat chance.

I have spent this week writing all day, every day and the first draft of my next novel ‘A Little Love’ is ready – it’s fab and I am chuffed as chips with it. I have already started the one that comes after that. I’m sworn to secrecy by my publishers and can’t say what its about or who it features, but its so lovely to be spending time with Poppy and Mart again – Ooops did I say that? You didn’t hear it from me!

We are having our annual family summer party next weekend. Thirty of us from near and far, all camping in the back garden and eating burnt BBQ food, bliss!  The Major is in charge of organizing the family Olympics and has just arrived home with Hula Hoops (the playground variety and not the crisps) a stack of beanbags and four air rifles– the mind boggles.

Clover’s Child continues to receive the most heartfelt reviews on Amazon, probably some of the nicest and moving reviews I have ever received for any book – ever. I can feel that Dot’s early story has touched a nerve and I am glad, because she touched me and is without a doubt my favourite heroine, so far. I like knowing what her life was like before she slipped into the icy grip of dementia – how we first met her in Poppy Day.

I had a very funny conversation in the ITV studio when I announced that I didn’t have a telly. You could have heard a pin drop! What? No telly – but how do you watch, telly?!? My answer, ‘we don’t.’  The consensus was that I am a weirdo – could’ve told them that!

Hope this week is full of good things for you and that kindness comes knocking on your door.

Right – off to hunt down the kids old paddling pool as the Major needs it for his planned party game and any snorkels that might be lying around, apparently… wish me luck, I’ve a feeling I’m going to need it.

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Eight

What did we talk about before the scorcher? It is dominating the every word and thought of all I encounter. The lady in Greggs told me yesterday that she had to sleep in the garden or she might have actually cooked, and she can’t wear her regular shoes as her feet have swollen to the size of tennis courts, that’s how hot her house was! My milkman apparently had to canoe out of his jungle like sweltering depot, fighting off crocodiles and stepping out of the way of leaping gazelles. By the sound of it, he had to cool down the cows teats himself with ice packs, or we’d all have been given frothy hot milk, wonderful for your latte, not so good on your cornflakes.  God bless you both, the West Country shall if nothing else be serviced with pasties, cream buns and dairy produce during the big heat wave.

I am actually slightly fed up of people saying to me, ‘Phew it’s so hot!’ I have lost count of the number, but to each and every one, I want to SCREAM, Yes I KNOW! If one more person feels the need tell me that it is uncomfortably toasty, while I stand with sweat dripping from my nose and so much factor 50 smeared across my chops that I look like I’m about to swim the channel, I might just smother myself with a pillow. Yes, people, its hot, we get it, but when the person you are talking to is standing in the same postcode as you, I think its safe to assume they are already fully aware of what the temperature is. I’m actually looking forward to the change in conversation topic, ‘Ooh its cooling down, isn’t it?’ – reaches for pillow.

The boys and the Major all arrived home on Friday, some had been mucking about at an army camp, sunbathing, cooking on open fires, giving their mates, horrendously inappropriate nicknames and not getting enough sleep, judging by their grumpy demeanor. And I’m not sure what the kids got up to.

I have been swamped with dirty army kit and army related paraphernalia and EVERYTHING requires a good boil wash. Our house is a small, three bed-semi, army quarter and I kid you not, I have to navigate lanes of camouflaged camping equipment, dirty boots and mess tins, just to reach the loo.

I have been writing like crazy this week, my new novel ‘A Little Love’ is coming along beautifully and I may have also started the one that comes after which is superb! But if my publisher is reading this, I haven’t, I am concentrating on my current one! I saw the cover for it this week and it will blow your socks off, it’s stunning!

I have big news to share later this week, my lips are sealed until I am given the green light, but as soon as I get the go ahead, I shall be shouting from the rooftops! Watch this space.

Son number two is off on holiday with his mates today, apologies to anyone in Turkey who encounters the pant wearing, balloon toting, cider swigging idiots, at least one of which I gave birth to. Mind you, watching him trying to pack is a real eye opener. So far, he has packed three different designs of flip flop, four packets of chocolate hob nobs and no towel, I shall intervene in a bit, but am letting him struggle for a while. It’s character building.

Thank you for all that have asked how I’m doing on my new weight-loss-get-fit plan, the answer is, FAB! I’ve lost over a stone and feel so much better. I think the success is such a big incentive to keep going. I don’t care about how large or small my bum is, but to be able to run up the stairs without struggling for breath is great!

Right deadline awaits, better get beavering. Things a bit hazy this morning, had rather a late night last night. We were celebrating the 85th birthday of a very special lady. Beautiful on the inside and out, clever, extremely funny and adored by everyone whose lives she has touched, my own included. ‘Happy Birthday,’ to the legend that is Jean Vorderman. x

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084

Amandababble Week Seven

What a week – I am without a doubt burning the candle at both ends and fully expect to fall into a Disney-like snooze, probably on Wednesday next week and will only be woken by a kiss from a handsome prince! Actually it’s more likely to be a cup of tea from a handsome Major, but I’ll take it!  Talking of the Major, we have spent the majority of the weekend huddled together in our rusty, boiling hot Golf, but he has made me laugh – he’s such a dork. I think his best observation went like this, ‘I never really found Sesame Street that entertaining.’ Me, ‘well, that’s probably because it was supposed to be educational – all that number stuff.’ Him, ‘You’re kidding me? I thought it was just like a really boring version of the Muppets!’  How could he not KNOW this?!

The kids are no better – they are at Army Cadet camp this week, the only week of the year they are responsible for their own laundry, cooking and bed making and the reason I love it, is that for approximately half an hour after they return, tired and grubby, and I present them with bacon sandwiches and a hot bath, they smile at me like they actually appreciate me. Bliss.

One of our boys was out on the town this week, and came home in the wee small hours, swaying slightly and smelling of cigarettes ‘I don’t smoke mum, it wasn’t me.’ Me, ‘Why have you got matches in your pocket?’ Him, ‘In case I ever need to start a camp fire.’ I felt embarrassed for asking; of course you should always carry matches in case you need to start a campfire, what was in his other pocket, kindling? No! 20 Marlborough lights. I was wondering who serves him booze and cigs, so he pulled out his fake I.D.  It shows a picture of a man at least 5 years older than him, threes stone heavier and he is French! The genius of this that if a bouncer asks him his date of birth etc., he simply shrugs and says, ‘je ne sais pas!’ in a Clouseauesque manner – and apparently this works! Yee gods!

My new novel Clover’s Child was released this week and the reviews I have received and the messages have blown me away, they are heartfelt and wonderful. To know that I have touched someone with my words is a fantastic feeling – thank you so very much xx

A national poster campaign, advertising What Have I Done? Paperback is everywhere and to see these and my book in Tesco and WHSmith is still the biggest thrill! It makes me feel like a proper author!

Yesterday, we were welcomed by the fabulous people of Liverpool – such a vibrant city and just the place to be in the sunshine. Manchester today and off to Waterstones in the Trafford Centre – hope I get the chance for a bit of a shop – which is actually my least favourite pastime, I have the boredom threshold of a hyperactive teen in a library and would rather have a root canal. But I shall make good use of my time and pick up my son, Jean-Claude Piedmont, the bits and bobs he needs for his forthcoming holiday.

On a personal note, ‘Congratulations!’ to the Issyfox who is officially very very clever! And this sentiment totally contradicts the ideas expressed in my latest Huffington Post Article http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amanda-prowse/the-smug-parent-club_b_3539307.html have a great week one and all!

And finally, it only remains to say, ‘COME ON MURRAY!’ Happy tennis watching folks x

 

©Amanda Prowse – all enquiries PFD ajhughes@pfd.co.uk. +44 (0)20 7344 1084