Googled!

I am writing this from a wi-fi cavern in Bristol, also known as the lower floor of Starbucks. It’s not the nicest; for the purposes of having access to wi-fi and for this post I’m trying to envisage myself as a hardy news correspondent a la Kate Adie or… April O’Neil. It’s a mite chilly in here too.

I’ve not written a lot recently, partly because I’ve been doing behind the scenes stuff for XSRS, and partly because of Christmas preparations (completed the shopping now, time to breathe a sigh of relief and start imparting smug advice to all around me – as is evidently a tradition). It’s also because I’ve been doing more whizzing, but of a motoring variety; up and down the M4/5 between Bristol, Devon and Wales visiting my Pa and Sis, some Devonian friends, and, of course, m’Boy.

Despite my neglect, which will soon be up there with my deprived house plants, the site has now had well over 1000 hits. I confess, despite my previous post that I didn’t know who the 1000th was, and probably neither did they, but I did still give them a smacker on their anonymous noggin. In other news, I now have *repeat* custom (HURRAH) and scripts are (very) slowly trickling in.

The most exciting revelation has to be, however, that Google has now accepted me into the fold and XSRS is now a searchable site!!

To a layperson you would think that the two go hand in hand, but nooo. For days I typed keywords in to try and find me, to discover I was linked through other people’s blogs before my own, or just not there at all. But this is all in the past now, as people can search for me! Sure, any “Xandria” searches are probably either looking for the sex toy website or the German metal/rock band, but who’s complaining? I can be Googled!

999…

…visitors to my (other) little web blog.

I would kiss the 1000th but I don’t know who it will be, and they probably wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.

Script reading and star gazing

So the weekend brought another couple of customers to the site; very pleased! Another trip planned with The Bloke before he starts his swish new job next week but literally en route to Devon I got a call to come back to Cardiff to help out for the week on a film about stargazing for  The One Show.

I needed the money, despite being fairly busy with script stuff, but actually the thing that swayed me most was just because of old Auntie.

Ever since I watched Casualty every Saturday with my mum and popcorn, ever since I watched Pride and Prejudice (the definitive version – the one with Colin Firth), ever since, well since I can remember; I’ve wanted to work for the BBC.

I’d applied for jobs. Very occasionally, they’d offered me jobs too. My Bloke has worked with them for years. Somehow, though, it had never worked out between Auntie and me. Until now.

Even though its not the career direction I want to go in, and it’s just a week’s work I’m really pleased; it feels like, somewhere, the 11-year old version of me just thanked her lucky star.
P.S. Official thanks to Lovely Bloke for… well,  just ‘cuz…

Launch!

Xandria’s Script Reading Service is now live! It is all very exciting; after weeks(!) of WordPress, Paypal buttons (still a sore subject) and now finding I could have assembled a Weebly account in minutes*, there is a laugh or cry moment there. However, I, several mates and Wonder Bloke have prevailed and my first day produced 300 visitors and 2 customers!

I know I should be British and stiff-lipped but I’m just so damn proud!

Right best go, Gavin and Stacey is on now.  When in Wales…

*average assembly time.

There’s no place like Wales…

So I’m back in Wales, and it’s nice to be at home. Home cooked food. No longer is my entire residence in the same room (except the bathroom, obviously, that was never the case). In a way that only happens when you live on your own, treading on someone else’s routine, or having yours trod on: “That mug goes on the first peg of the mug tree… I always use two towels…”. Good times!

Although it is indeed very nice to be home for Christmas, I’m adamant that crashing with my mum will be short term so I’ve left all my boxes packed. Combine that with a slightly scatterbrain memory and “Where did I put that scarf..?” turns into an adventure all of its own.

I also think that my mum’s house is possessed. Okay, so it’s very cold everywhere at the moment and it’s a nice Victorian house, but that I can’t feel my toes with two pairs of socks? Definitely poltergeist activity. And the simply comedic happenings: I can’t get wi-fi unless I’m downstairs; I can’t get mobile signal unless I am upstairs (hanging out of a window). I’m practically a techno-whiz – literally whizzing around my house to get signal like Kris Marshall in that BT ad.

Because of the sheer amount of “stuff” in the study, my “desk ” (where I sit with my laptop) consists of a chair pulled up to my old side table – it’s only just big  enough for my laptop, a cup of tea and my glasses (folded). Can’t help but think it looks like Tonka’s My First Desk, although I did make the analogy that starting my own business (of sorts) and launching a website feels like being an 8 year-old in Mum’s pearls and heels. I’m sure this is normal…

The thing that is keeping me sane is the promise of a wood-burning stove fire tomorrow. Toasty feet and ER boxset; thank god for Friday!