I wouldn’t say that I’m particularly superstitious, but I wasn’t looking forward to yesterday – I had a day of supply, which is the first one since the beginning of October, and with it being Friday 13th I was anticipating that it was going to be a challenging day. My prediction seemed to be coming true when I woke up as we had some snowfall overnight, which was just enough to cause an inconvenience when getting to work…

A kitty feeling very sorry for himself

Up until yesterday it had been a fairly calm week, aside from Poppy – my cat – who caused me to have two trips to the vets in a single day. He had a small lump under his jaw and after losing another of my cats to cancer, where the tumour was under her jaw, I wasn’t taking any chances. This was how it went:

Took cat to the vets
Vet wasn’t concerned about lump, but took the opportunity to give him his vaccination booster injection
Cat got upset and wouldn’t keep still
Took cat home
Cat started shivering and appeared to have a reaction to the injection
Rushed cat back to the vet
Cat suddenly perfectly fine at the vets
Took cat home

The official diagnosis? Cat appears to be a wuss, and although I had a sad little kitty feeling sorry for himself for a while, the lump has thankfully disappeared.

It was clearly payback for me putting a hat on him at Christmas.

Just some of the products that were used!

The Friday 13th fears were also exacerbated by the fact that I’d had a brilliant day on Thursday. I was invited to the Urban Decay store in Selfridges, Birmingham, for a makeover and to test out their products, and then my writer friend GX Todd (@GemTodd on Twitter – I did a podcast interview with her and another friend Tom with ThankBookFor.com last year) had her book launch at the Waterstones next to it. So, I went and had a fantastic time getting my face done, then sat in a Costa while I waited for The Bloke to arrive, editing my pictures and making notes. He arrived much earlier than expected, and had been to pick up my wedding ring on the way. It’s beautiful – plain and simple band that complements my engagement ring perfectly.

Me and GX Todd at her book launch!

We then met everyone at Waterstones and thoroughly enjoyed Gemma’s book launch. I’d never been to an official one before, and it was a really interesting event, giving me a huge insight as to exactly how much work goes into the publication of a book. And there were gorgeous cupcakes – books and cake are the perfect combination. We also bought a copy of her book – Defender – and asked her to sign it, and she’s very kindly agreed to give me an interview in the next few weeks…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s a tough life, but someone has to do it.

However, today was much better than I anticipated. It was nice to catch up with the students that I hadn’t seen in a while, I had some really nice classes and there were a few students who complained that they had me for the lesson because they knew they would have to work in silence. I love it when that happens.

So, I have a few things to write up and, as always, a lot of catching up to do.

I currently have a ‘Social Saturday’ going on in my new Facebook group. There are already loads of people participating and sharing their social media accounts, and you’re all invited! Simply click on the link here!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1803804546533912/