My point of pain which I feel with both facebook and youtube, is that as a blogger, I have to split my blog name up. So nixdminx becomes Nixd Minx (see below). Because this is a personal blog I just don’t see the need to create a fan page or group, may I should have but it doesn’t seem right. It’s the same with my youtube channel, I really want to rename my personal channel to my blog name but I can’t. It seems such a simple thing to do so why can’t I? Don’t you remember when you could change your IM name on a whim on messenger? It also means that people miss out on me when they’re looking for me. Grrrrr.

Nixd Minx

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Are you sitting comfortably? Are you tapping into your blackberry on the way to the office? Or are you sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the forest?

Funny question isn’t it but it’s also a good one if you’re trying to tap into your creative process and what makes you tick as a writer blogger.

I write all over the place and I can’t stop doing it. Like many other Mummy bloggers, Linda Jones, Sally Whittle and Liz Jarvis, words are my living, but blogging for me is my personal space and exercise yard for writing. It’s also a very solitary pursuit so as a busy working Mum it can be difficult to find time, but I always try to.

When I was a painter, I would have a ritual of cleaning and tidying before I would even start. That is what psychologists call displacement, for me it’s a process. If you’ve ever felt stuck and unable to tap into any vein or train of thought you’ll know how horrible it is. And equally bad is if you have so many ideas – a glut in fact – that you feel that you can’t even being to start writing because it’s all so overwhelming. I have experienced both of these states and frequently.

How do you stop the rot, or the block, or failure to nurture your inner creativity?
Is blogging your tool?
Are you only going to do it for a while?
Is it part of your very soul?

Maternal Tales recently posted some interesting stats on her 365 days post about the short life of most blogs. One of my favourites WorldFoodieGuide stopped just before Christmas – such a brilliant body of work and a very emotional last post too which sums up very eloquently her feelings about stopping. And of course, there’s the Julie/Julia project the 365 day cathartic endeavour into cooking which has now become a successful Hollywood film – need I say more?

Maybe like musicians and authors, some people just have the ‘one’ blog in them that runs it’s course and is completed. Others like me just write for the hell of it.

Sometimes I lose momentum but it’s part of the peaks and slumps of life and I just love to write. I still get stuck and unstuck, I can lose hours to writing as time passes so quickly.

When and where?

Where I’m sitting sometimes dictates the style and content of my work…

Sometimes, if I’m writing, I might be perched uncomfortably on my chaise longue – because of the way I’m posed I write quickly, punchily and wittily.

In the evening, I tend to sit with my legs up on my old Chesterfield sofa, laptop perched on my knees and the tv on for background noise. That’s when I can stay up writing as late as I like with no interruptions.

For the most part and in the daytime, I’m sat at my kitchen table – it’s round and white and I often take the same approach as with painting – I have to clean and declutter before I can start working – but that’s easy in a functional room. It’s also very light and quite like a studio and also my favourite place in the house. I can look out into the garden and have easy access to constant caffeine!

Sunday morning is also a great time to write for me, it’s the lovely time of the week where life has slowed down completely, the noise and clutter of the week has subdued and I can actually think.

And let’s not forget that deadline feeling – usually when I’m rushing out the door to pick up Miniminx and I just need to get the blasted thing finished, then it’s more a case of standing up, hands on the keyboard, body in the direction of the front door!

So how do you get your blogging fix?

Incredibly, this story I am writing is post number 149 which means over the last year I’ve probably written around 75,000 words here. That combined with the other writing on sites and blogs I do probably amounts to around 120,00 words – no mean feat when you look at it. But it’s my no means been a difficult challenge, it’s been a total blast and has helped me get to grips with more than just how to click ‘publish’.

So back to where it all began. Facing a particularly difficult situation; no job come January, a Christmas without my daughter and and the end of my work contract wind down, the months appeared before me like an abyss. It was hard not to feel alienated and a social outcast. Even if I wasn’t one, I felt it. It was no suprise I succumbed to an awful attack of the flu. That Friday, the fever was so bad that I was unable to leave the house for three days, and fortunately Miniminx was away for the weekend.

With no choice but to live online while snivelling and bedridden, I just about managed to survive on what was in the house, ordered some online supplies and kept writing. Just a blog post each day, but it was something.

At the end of day three with the tissue box empty and the lemsip packets crumpled, there was a knock on the door and a groaning ghostlike-heap greeted the delivery man. Yes, it was me, and it was at that point I had a revelation.

Nothing was going to be the same again – I’d found a new tool for survival and wasn’t going to give it up.

Blogging might be easy, but getting started is the hardest part. I determined to say anonymous. And by blog name summed up the sense of futility at that time. My high hopes had been nixed and my minxy life crushed. Clown that I am, I set about writing with humour not despair, it took me a while to get it right and it certainly lifted the dark clouds and put the light back behind my eyes.

There is something really unnerving about putting a story out there in this new cyber world they call ‘the cloud’. I imagined my blog posts would be like raindrops falling from this cloud and evaporate before even hitting the ground and, in reality, no one would ever read it.

But they did and hey ho, I got a visitor or two, and thought

‘Oh my god, I wrote a blog post and someone bloody ready it – shit!’

….and then I got a comment, and thought

‘Um, so what happens next? This is quite scary. Who are these people, they have funny bloggy names.’

I had a look around and found other bloggers. Mummies. With beautiful blogs, stickered with awards. I had discovered the Mumosphere, or rather, it has discovered me.

‘Ahem.’ I thought. ‘Well goodness me. I see I’m not alone here.’

I replied to comments, it was like making invisible friends with lovely people. It was a miracle. I was no longer alone at my laptop.

‘Wow. Wahaaay.’

I had a new job.

I had become the accidental Mummy blogger.

This post of Susanna’s really made me think of times long gone and the games we used to play, so I’ve created my first meme and yes, it’s a nostalgia trip but it’s also a nod to invention and imagination.

1. The game I loved?

British Bulldog – loud, brash, dangerous but great fun, knock down ginger was another fave

2. The game I hated?

Ladders – you sat on the floor, alternately opposite, with legs stretched out to create the ‘ladder’ and some heffalump would run over your legs.

3. The games we made up as kids?

Coming from a family of six children, there’s no shortage of ideas when it comes to imaginary play.

The Holiday Let Prank Call
My parents always left holidays to the last minute. I remember my Dad handing the newspaper to us, small ads for holiday let cottages circled in a pen…my sister and I had to call them up. Oh silly him! We’d take small change to the phone box and call up the adverts in very stupid voices and very silly accents. We rarely made it through the whole call as we’d end up curled up on the floor shrieking with laughter. More often than not, they hung up before we did.

The Free Hearing Test
My eldest brother went to boarding school, then university when I was quite young. We’d spend weeks cooking up pranks to play on him when he came home, not just because we missed him, but because he was so easy to wind up. Our favourite prank was sending off the reply paid ad for a Free Hearing Test. We’d arrange an appointment for when he was home and make sure he opened the door to the salesman. The best thing was his reaction to the salesman who would over enunciate, gesticulate and speak very loudly….still makes me snigger…we daren’t remind him!

Clod wars
It’s really hard to imagine how I would react if I saw Miniminx try and pull this one off, but then again she’s an only child and not part the unruly army that I was. Next door but one to us was another family, with four kids, who we were on off friends with. We bickered and postured and if things got really bad, a battle commenced. We’d embark on all out Clod Wars. Every spade, fork, hoe, rake was dragged out of the garden shed, and we’d hit the rose bed and start digging up clods of earth. Balancing them on garden tools, we’d take aim and fire at our enemies. Being one of the youngest (and smallest), I would often get a mouthful of dirt as my own clods rebounded off the garden fence and hit me in the face.

4. The games my child has invented?

First there’s

‘My name’s Mummy and I’m going to work today and you’re going to have to….blad di blah di blah – yeah??!!’ which is usually accompanied with a pair of my high heels, my handbag and my sunglasses – I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Second, a really silly one in the garden that’s actually hysterically funny is bucket football – just grab a football and a bucket and take aim and fire…a game of hit, miss and fall down laughing!

And third, which is possibly the most natural is when she finds a leaf, or a conker, a dandelion and reinvents a bat and ball which keeps her happy for ages.

So now it’s over to you lovely ladies, please take your badge and join this meme. I’m curious too – have the old games died out? Do we let our children run wild with their imaginations? Are children even allowed to play anymore?

Just four simple questions so answer and pass on to four of your favourite blogs…

1. What’s the game you loved?

4. What games has your child invented?

Here you go, all the founding members of British Mummy Bloggers – play it back if you will x

Part Mummy Part Me, Got Your Hands Full, Maternal Tales,
, A Modern Mother, Jo Beaufoix, Potty Mummy, Nappy Valley Girl, Dulwich Divorcee, Little Mummy, Alpha Mummy, Sticky Fingers, Multitude, Violet Posy, I Promise That I Will Do My Best, More Than Just a Mother, A Confused Take That Fan, Wahm-Bahm, Home Office Mum, Single Parent Dad, Bambino Goodies, The Green Familia, Emma Bradshaw, Almost Mrs. Average, Book of Rubbish Ideas, Wallstory, That Girl 39, Welcome to My World Jan Mary, Mummy Do That Reluctant Mumsahib, Most/Least, Family Affairs, Samantha Smythe’s Modern Family Journal, NixdMinx, Wife in the North, Living Abroad, Bee Drunken, New Mum, Same Old Me, Some Mothers Do Ave Em, Just a Plan Ride Away, Life and Times of Manic Mel, Beta Mum, Highland Housewife, Mothership, Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy?, Smoking Mum, Paradise Lost in Translation, Bush Mummy, Mummojo, Sass-e Mum, Surprise Mum, Working Mum, Not Wrong, Just Different, Crystal Jigsaw, Holly’s Never, Never Land, Raving Mary’s Rage Page, Footballer’s Knees, Elsie Button, Deluded Woman, Bringing Up Charlie, DJ Kirkby, Grit’s Day, Mother of Shrek, MadnStiching, Auntie Gwen’s Diary, Deb Carr’s Daydreams, Thames Valley Mums Blog, London Mums Blog, Expat Mums Blog, Adventure Mother, My Life for the World to See, Claire Lancaster, The Buggy Blogger, Noble Savage, Funky Angel, A Boy With Aspergers, Guienea Pig Mum, Mums Money Tips, Huddle and Bliss, Reasons to be Cheerful, Bramley Mums, Perfectly Happy Mum, Beautiful Spectrum, Kate Morris…

Throughout the Summer I had great plans to overhaul my life – to really make the back bedroom a fabulous walk in wardrobe instead of a dumping ground, to go through all my paperwork and get on top of things. But I confess, there was rose to be drunk – barbecues to be cooked, Summer was just too much fun and sadly, being the child of chaos that I am, I’ve obviously not done it at all. .

After two days of enforced rest with suspected wine swine flu, I decided it was high time to streamline a few things, be a bit more orderly and grow up….

In fact, I have surpassed myself and outsourced the whole lot. I kid you not.

I had to – I mean really had to. You see there is nothing worse than having no food in the house is there, especially when you have a growing child who is constantly hungry – I mean hollow legs is her middle name. Or waking up to no milk for the essential morning cuppa (I can’t function without at least two massive mugs of tea before I leave the house) and the bowl or five of cereal that Miniminx quaffs.

Then, while trying to get myself ready for work, even worse, finding not only the cupboards and fridge bare, but also the wardrobe and I’m rummaging around to find something in a reasonable state to wear when most of my clothes have been hung up on the floor. It just can’t go on.

Yes, I’m a slacker, and that’s why I work. I would make such a bad, bad housewife that it terrifies me and everyone else around me at just the thought. People have seen me hoover and taken the damned thing off me – they even shout ‘You don’t know what you’re doing!’ Imagine that would you? Do you know how it feels to be so perplexing without even trying? It’s embarrassing. And as for washing up, my friends who have seen me in action just smile glibly when I offer to muck in at their houses – as if I’ve offered to straighten their teeth manually.

I’m the kind of person that uses every pot and pan in the house to cook a meal and takes childish delight in moving me and my delightful mess around with me everywhere I go. A total and utter clutter nutter. It’s just the way I am and I decided to get professional help.

So here goes, here’s my 4 Step Programme for Nomestic Godesses and believe you me, it’s working:

Step 1 Fresh Food
Abel&Cole are now taking care of fruit and veg intake (oh and nice organic wine and lots of other sumptuous things) and delivering to my front door weekly – all packaging recycled weekly (no plastic either)

Step 2 Milk, Milk, Milk
Who would have thought that I would find a man called Dean who would drop by my house every so often and make sure I could have a nice cuppa every day. Well I have, by some chance google search, I found Dairy Crest online so now have a milkman who delivers organic milk three times a week and juice too. And no packaging – just give it all back when it’s finished and the bin stays empty!

Step 3 Clean Clothes and Bed Linen
No more dragging sacks of clothes around or wrestling with king size duvet covers and sheets – there’s a new and very reasonably priced laundry and dry cleaning company Wilton Green which picks up and delivers. They even did loads of stuff for free on my first order. I absolutely love them – they even put my clothes on my favourite wooden hangers so none of that annoying dry cleaner hanger stuff any more (and the bin stays empty again).

Step 4 Clean House
I hate mess, it depresses me, and once every few months I go into a zen like trance and clean the house from top to bottom but it’s only for the novelty. Imagine my delight when I got a text from my cleaner. Oh yippe yay she is back in business after a stint selling kitchens that didn’t quite work out…so I’m making use of her as much as I can and the house is clean and sparkly.

And what’s next? Ooh, lets have a declutter. Or maybe I’ll just bag everything up and shove it in the back bedroom…

So imagine my suprise when I began to review my photos of our recent jaunt to Bognor Regis to experience the new Butlins Ocean Hotel & Spa, when I noticed a lot more of a Warhol intonation than Martin Parr in them. As you’ll see this is more of a photoblog than editorial but it does paint a picture of what we did.

The Train Journey

Miniminx was really excited about going to Butlins and as I mentioned in my earlier post, the train ride was pretty action packed and our carriage was carnival-like with a magician, red coats, beauticians and lots of busy people catering to our every whim. Quite an achievement I have to say when you put broadsheet, tabloid, trade and consumer journalists together and then add Mummy bloggers with kids to the mix. We all muddled along nicely and the atmosphere was really peppy thanks to people visiting us regularly to chat.

First Impressions

We arrived at Bognor Regis and transferred to the resort in a mini coach and there was a sense of anticipation among all the passengers. I never went to Butlins as a kid so I had only second hand stories of what it would be like and was very intrigued to see how my daughter would react when she arrived.

Needless to say she was very excited and we enjoyed the party atmosphere and the sun was shining. Music was supplied by this electro-classical trio which played interpretations of pop songs. They were great. And specially created for the day was this lovely Mermaid sand sculpture.

As well as giant seagulls and a giant robot (which I was terrified of), there were also beautiful butterflies wandering around and I felt like we had walked through the looking glass and into a Lewis Carroll creation.

The Grand Opening

We assembled in the vestibule of the new Ocean hotel where the dignitaries sat awaiting the opening speeches.

And our noisy children were entertained by a Red Coat who tried to keep them as quiet as possible throughout the proceedings.

We all moved into the new restaurant to enjoy a buffet lunch.

The Hotel

This is where it gets quite abstract and I was quite taken with a few things. These glass lights really reminded me of the restaurant at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas – but obviously on a smaller scale but I liked the reference whether it is intentional or not.

These mirror balls are also a fabulous touch. As is the disco lift which has flashing lights and plays music including the Bee Gees!

And these very Pop Art occasional sculptures, don’t they remind you of those Iced Gem biscuits?

The Rooms

I love staying in hotels and quite often if it is just the two of us, Miniminx and I have to share a bed which is not ideal. We did a tour of the hotel and were shown all the different rooms but it wasn’t until we were ready to go to bed that the true experience began.

Check this telly in the kids bedroom…so post modern it hurts. Miniminx was entranced by the lighting so it became more an objet d’art and the telly stayed off!

There were two single beds in the kids room, which by the way has no door but is tucked away neatly. Above each bed were these great images with more than a nod to Lichtenstein.

We both slept very well and I loved my bed – very high, lots of plump non feather pillows and the furnishings were pretty cool. I managed to get online which was a big tick in the box as I was posting from the event and sat out on the balcony which overlooked the fountains outside the hotel and the sea.

After a great sleep, we were keen to go and have another look around. Breakfast was great and the restaurant staff, as all Butlins staff are, were enthusiastic and eager to please.

Thanks to everyone at Butlins for inviting us along for this experience, I appreciate all the hard effort and work they put in to make this event happen and I know it has been a long time in the planning.

When we checked out on Wednesday, the place was really open for business and as I was chatting to the staff on reception, I spotted a few people coming to check in. And that really is the main event – now the launch is out of the way, there are lots of people who are very keen to come and see the embodiment of the new Butlins Hotel – it’s bright, breezy and unashamedly bubbly.

I’ll be posting about the spa in a few days, so please come back to read more.

As for Andy Warhol, his Factory Studio was next to an Amusement Park so, I guess he’d feel right at home in Butlins.

I got a text yesterday from a dear friend who I used to work with, we both share a love of theatre, men and good wine.

This text was to tell me that he’d spotted ‘My Blog’ in the Tots 100.

This is quite ironic.

He looked at me quizzically when I first told him about ‘My Blog’. After two bottles of wine I blithered showed him the site and how it all worked and how amazingly clever I’d put it all together and how it runs – he was slightly more won over.

This is also quite ironic.

I was thinking how on earth would he know about Tots 100? How many gay men read parenting blogs?

So I texted him straight back.
‘Sally twittered a link the list’ he replied.

Wow, I thought….then I wondered again.

Sally, Sally, Sally……she must belong to UKPress…because that’s the only list me and my friend both follow…hmmmm.

Bingo – she’s a journo and badabadabing – she created the Tots 100 – I lover her!

And thanks, I am chuffed to bits again to be at number 36 – it matches my bra size….which is also….ironic….

It’s not that I don’t get out much.

I’ve been all over the social-meeja-blogandbeer-scape this week and I’m also popping to Butlins for their Tweet Up in a couple of weeks. I just can’t get enough of it in fact!

What’s so amazing about all this stuff is there’s room for everyone and it’s not just powerful as a new media (think blogs/twitter/facebook/myspace et al) it’s really getting people together and empowering people to connect and share in new ways.

A few weeks ago I went to SMCLondon and was pretty gobsmacked. VioletPosy recommended it to me some time ago and I offered to guest blog. I met a lot of very cool people with a lot interesting things to say. In fact, I hadn’t felt such positive energy among a bunch of people for a long time. This reminded me of the early days of the dot com boom and it’s a totally invigorating feeling and anitdote to the credit crunch.

So this week, I hightailed to my old hometown; Shoreditch, and popped in to see Vanessa and Katie at The Sway event downstairs at The Great Eastern Dining Rooms. Oh heavens above, this was certainly one step close to career nirvana and an evening full of highjinx. I have fond memories of the venue, when it first opened I had lunch with a fashionista friend and we drooled at Isabella Blow who was dining delicately in the corner, and dressed exquisitely.

The Sway brings a touch of Sex and the City to blogging – I kid you not, it was a very glamorous evening and lots of amazing people there too – the chicks who click are hipsters. My Armani jacket (it’s out of the wasdrobe again!!) and killer heels certainly got a run for their money. I was quite taken with Deluxe – a site I think a lot of you out there probably know already, and if not should check out. There was also a free bar and some lovely canapes provided by the sponsor Skimlinks and I was impressed with the company’s slick social networking products which I hope to look into more.

On the same night, there was the London Bloggers meet up at Shish! on Old Street – another flashback to days and nights gone I thought. As The Sway wrapped up, a few of us went to the Meet Up. It was a good crowd and sadly I’d missed the speaker. I got a chance to chat to all of the people there and had some very big laughs too. Andy who hosts it is great fun as are the other bloggers who I met.

It’s a good time to be a blogger!