I ummed and aahhed over doing A to Z this year (For those of you not familiar with the blogging challenge, you can find out all about it here. It’s a very simple concept, one post a day except for Sundays, starting on April 1st for a month, and the subjects of said posts need to follow the letters of the alphabet – so say first post about Apple, second about Badgers, etc)
The reason for my hesitation is that I’m away for the first couple of weeks in April, so that will make things tricky. I’ve now worked out the subject of all my posts and written out the first two week’s worth (unlike last year where I winged the whole month – that was exhausting), so I’m jumping in! I probably won’t be as active visiting other blogs while I’m away but I’ll catch up once I’m back.
The theme I’ve chosen for this year is Childhood Stories. So little stories and anecdotes from my childhood. Most of these will be real, a few will be fictional but based on the kind of things I imagined as a kid (I’m sure you’ll be able to guess which is which, mainly because the fictional stories involve some kind of magic or supernatural creatures)
You might have also noticed that I changed the title of the blog — I wasn’t a fan of the previous title since it was (let’s face it) very dull. We’ll see how this one goes, I might change again later. I’m entirely useless at titles (coming up with book titles is a headache of epic proportions)
And lastly, for those of you who wanted to know where I’ll be going for the start of April, the answer is the USA! I’m super excited. The Husb and I are doing two weeks in California, including a brief visit to Chicago to see friends of ours who live there. I’ve only ever been to New York so I’m super excited to discover another part of the US, especially a part that I’ve heard and seen so much of through TV/movies/photos/articles.
Part of the holiday will involve driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles along the coast (of course, I don’t think there is a single tourist who doesn’t do that when coming to California), and other than the stunning scenery, I’m looking forward to stopping a road side diner. If we can manage it, the kind of place a trucker would stop at, although I’m not sure there will be many truckers driving from San Fran to LA. I really want to sit in a booth and order pancakes with bacon and maple syrup from a waitress who wears an apron and has that glass carafe of coffee (I don’t even like coffee), simply because I have seen SO many of those diners in movies. Very silly, I know (well not so silly since there will be pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, which I used to think was very weird and I now realise is just heaven)
It’s a funny thing visiting the US. With no other place have I had this many pre-conceived ideas and impressions. Normally I have at best a vague idea of what it might be like and then off we go to explore and discover. In this case my head is full of images and there are loads of specific things I want to see simply because of the sheer amount of TV and film that takes place in big US cities. Like San Francisco (The Rock!), Beverly Hills (Pretty Woman!), Chigago (Gotham!). Although I’m sure my impressions will be really quite wrong or skewed so I’m looking forward to seeing it all for myself.
Right I’ve strayed off topic there, but in conclusion, other than excitement regarding upcoming American travels, I’m very much looking forward to A to Z and to seeing the posts you all come up with!!