Class 4 E-Circle

  More great smells coming out of my kitchen today, Class 5. I have been making a delicious granola/ muesli thingy. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. There's a refillery shop in the Tannery, Food For Thought, where I often get groceries. They have these labels you can put on jars, in English or in Te Reo. I started putting the labels in Maori on my jars- Murihi means Muesli. And it's funny how these things go, initially, my bubble said "Why on earth do you bother, just call it muesli, okay". And a couple of weeks later, we all talk about the murihi which is so delicious. A little bit everyday goes much further than a lot once and awhile. My friend Nick is learning Te Reo for the third year in a row. In Nick's house, everything has a label in Te Reo. The table (tepu). The coffee machine (purere cahwe). The door (kuaha). The toilet seat (pae hamuti). Why do these things matter, you might think, I know them in English, don't I. And learning t

 This weekend I became slightly obsessed with Toilet Fizzies. 'KDANG!' I hear you think, Angela is now officially losing the plot. Too long in isolation maybe? Who in their right mind writes about TOILET FIZZIES???? Sush- I'm fine, trust me. Toilets are part of life. No-one likes a dirty toilet, no-one likes to clean the toilet. I personally have a strong dislike of the smell which is put into toilet cleaners, even the eco stuff. Never smells like standing in a pine forest to me, just simply like ghastly toilet cleaner. YUCK. It started actually with bath bombs. One of the very best side effects of lock down is that I can have a bath whenever I want and how often as I want. Daytime baths are just SO luxurious. I was looking for recipes to make bath bombs with whatever I had in the cupboard. Win win win here really. I had fun making them, I have now delicious bath bombs which smell fantastic and make your skin nice and soft and the whole house smelled beautiful while I was m

When we went into lockdown, our oldest daughter Zoe was staying with us, which means she is stranded until we are in Level 2. That's very good news, we love having her here. In particular someone white and black and hairy is very happy, because it is Zoe who took him on as a rescue pup.  It also means that half of our bubble consist of university students. This gives great conversation over the dinner table, because they spend a lot of time on Zoom and with that, a lot of bloopers happen. Mostly when people are still lying in bed during their meeting and turn their camera accidentally on, or they forget to mute themselves while they are saying "My God, this is SO boring". If you have ever zoomed, then you know that the one who makes the noise comes into the centre of your screen, which is very funny, unless it is you who forgot to mute and made a rude comment. Apart from zooming, university students do a lot of essay writing. You know what all of them find the hardest? Th

  Creative processes are hard to fit in a strong schedule. Sure, you have to do that butt thing, but if your mind is anywhere close to mine, it is hard to predict exactly what part of your book you are working on. For example: I work on three blog posts at the same time. One is nearly finished and I work on proofreading, lay-out and finishing touches before I click 'Publish". The other is a rough draft with jumbled ideas, loads of illustrations of which I probably delete half, badly written sentences that not even a Dutch person will understand and which need serious re-doing and lots of highlights which means: come back to this. And then there's a halfway draft somewhere in between which is starting to fall into place. Neil Gaiman writes all his first drafts in fountain pen in a note book. Because he thinks it more fun that way. Most of my writing ideas don't happen when I'm writing. I find them on my walks, during pigeon post in my online yoga class, while I do d

  Neil Gaiman Norse Mythology, Unfortunately the Milk, Interworld, The Graveyard Book (Emilia's Book review),, Cinnamon, The Blueberry Girl. I can go on and on and these are only the children's books, he has also written loads of adult fiction and together with the late Terry Pratchet he wrote about a million books- if you haven't tried them yet, give them a go, they are SO funny. Neil doesn't only write prolifically, he also speaks about writing and mentors young writers through the process. He has brilliant tips on writing. This is why today's blog post is going to be The Neil Gaiman's Guide to Writing, instead of Tips from the Teacher. Spoiler alert: you will see that many of my suggestion come from him.  Let's start with the 8 rules of writing Love it that there is a rule for no rules: a man of my heart. Just to remind you: Another important tip: Recognise the 'butt in the chair?' from Elissa? So many great writers can't be wrong! A favourite

 Ata marie Class 5, I hope this finds you all well- let's be honest, when the sun is shining, the tulips are flowering, new shoots on the roses are shooting and you have a great bean bag on the deck, lockdown is quite a treat, don't you think? I love it that you are all enthusiastically looking at Egypt and writing books, but make sure to enjoy that sunshine and make the best of that relaxation- it won't last forever... One of the strange positive side- effects of lockdown is that I connect with so many different people. That happened last time as well. The Theory of Angela is that normally, my day is so full of people (you!) and I am so satisfied on the People-Meter by the end of the day, that I don't really reach out much. Now of course, the People Meter is close to empty. And there is something magical in making connections- things happen. I am going to tell you the true stories of two connections with a magical touch I made in the last week. And if you're thinki

Happy Birthday to Mayanna! Morena Class 5, great to see how many of you have read the blog. If you can leave a comment below, even better, feels like we are in class having a chat. Love to hear what you are up to! This morning, when I cuddled up in my Morning Coffee Chair, there was an amazing gorgeous spiderweb in my garden. The sunlight bounced off the string, making it all sparkly. Which made me think of Charlotte's Web and how I don't care when we do it, but we definitely are going to do it.  I hope you took your script home and you can read the characters with your family, using different voices. Try to get really familiar with the script okay, so when we get back we can start cracking. The spiderweb also made me think of a great exercise I do about every 6 months. It's a sort of check in with yourself, seeing if your Web of Life is nicely balanced or very wonky. If it's very wonky, you need to put a bit more effort into the part of the web which is weak. Check th

Kia ora Class 5! I am experiencing this very strange mix of feelings: grieving that bookweek came to such an abrupt ending but enjoying sleep-ins and slow breakfast coffee in the sun, enjoying walking through my quiet neighbourhood and connecting with all the roads I did become so familiar with last year. This lock down I have a dog on a leash, and Merlin really doesn't enjoy a leash, so walks are somewhat more adventurous this lock down. And I was completely surprised about the ions of happiness flowing through my veins when I opened this blog! Hope you are happy to be back here too, we are going to have a lot of fun. After last week's inspirational visits from Elissa and Joanna, I bet you guess what's coming. I have started the Treehut Publishing Company.  Let's  Make a Book You've learned all about the process, you've seen the drafts that authors revisit and revisit, you've seen Joanna's AWESOME illustrations- which weren't even used for the book,