Busy, but not writing PALS

I did mean to work on PALS this weekend, but it's looking unlikely... it's been a long day today because (and this is good news for us!) we finally went up in a hot air balloon! The flight was an AM one though, so I've been awake since 5am. Which means I'm somewhat lacking in motivation to write interesting articles right now. On top of that, I'm currently not getting very many (well, any) articles to add to the next issue of PALS - so it may be a very short one... If you're reading this and have anything to say on any of the topics (see the Press Release below), I'd really love to hear it! I know I've abused some of you with e-mails/ requests in letters - please respond!

The other reason for not working on PALS this weekend is because we're now going to be spending most of it in North Wales, hopefully at the top of Snowdon (although considering the weather we may give in and catch the train - or stay in the pub). Being that we'll be in a tent/ on a mountain, I won't have much computer access. I'll do my best to catch up next week, but right now I think I need some sleep!

Oh, and there will be photos on our website in the near future, probably of both the hot air balloon flight and Snowdon. Watch this space!

Bit tired now

Well, I've had a productive day at least! In an effort to get all the things done that I've been failing to find time to do, I got up before 9am on my day off. Yes, that is a rare occurence. So far I've managed to find time to hunt for jobs (there are still none), fit in some piano (OK, keyboard) practice, learn some Italian, reply to a whole heap of e-mails and work on the next issue of PALS.

Most of the work on PALS has involved putting together begging letters for contributions to the next issue, but I also wrote up the next Creature Feature, which was quite enjoyable. I didn't have to think about what I was writing for a change (as I was just copying out an article written by a pal), but I did get to learn a reasonable amount of info about the two toed sloth. Seems somehow appropriate considering I went to see Ice Age 3 on Wednesday!

Anyway, if I've sent you e-mails about it recently and you haven't sent me contributions for the next issue of PALS (not many have), don't be surprised if you get a begging e-mail in the next week or so - or I'll have nothing to put in the next newsletter!

Bristol Photos

Last weekend Dan and I went on an 18 mile walk around Bristol. Crazy, I know - especially in that humidity! Needless to say we got very hot and sweaty. But we did also manage to take lots of photos of the city, from the train station to castle estates to pretty churches. It's taken me a week or so to get around to doing it, but you can now see some of those photos on the Bristol section of our photos website. Hope you like seeing a bit more of the place we live in!

PS Oh, I wrote a piece on the walk for a future newsletter too - it's 3 pages long so a bit too much to say on a blog post. It took us 10 hours, so I think 3 pages is justified, considering how far we went!

Press Release 3 July 2009

I've had to come up with a few ideas for the next issue of PALS that will hopefully involve a number of contributions, as this time around it isn't a special - and I wasn't sure what to put in it! Therefore, the Press Release detailing the kinds of contributions I'd be interested in receiving are below - anything you'd like to say I'd love to hear!

Other than that, I have made a start on Issue 31 - just formatting things like colours and pages, ready to start adding content. When I have some!

PRESS RELEASE – 3 JULY 2009
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS – A 3-PARTER!

For Issue 31 of PALS, due for release at the end of August, I’m looking for opinions on the 3 subjects below. If you have anything you’d like to say, please let me know by e-mailing me at the address below and I’ll make sure I include your comments in the relevant article:

1) Where do your pals come from?
This time around there will be a Q and A article on where in the world people write letters to. Where are most of your pals from? Is there a particularly unusual part of the world you have a pal in? Is there somewhere you’d like to have pals in, or somewhere you have a pal that you’d always dreamed of having one?

2) Travel advice
Do you enjoy travelling? I know a lot of us do! Do you have any tips on how to make travelling a better experience – anything from good ways to pick hotels to ways to make long airport visits more bearable?

3) Movie/ book suggestions
Do you enjoy reading, going to the cinema or watching DVDs? Are there any books or films that you love? They can be in the English language or not, it doesn’t matter. One article will focus on the things in popular culture that you enjoy, and the reasons you love it. It doesn’t even have to be a book or movie necessarily – it could be a piece of art, or a song you love. Anything you like!

If you’d like to contribute to any of the above articles (and I’d love to hear all your stories and thoughts), just e-mail me at acevenusbabe@yahoo.com. It doesn’t matter if what you have to say takes a sentence, a paragraph or a page!

Anna

Issue 30 of PALS on-line...

Eventually. A large part of me wants to sell anything that relies on electricity (except maybe the fridge and oven- oh, OK, anything that's electronic and designed for "pleasure") and just buy a piano. Well, it's a dream...

After many hours of swearing at Dreamweaver for refusing to do the simplest of tasks (in order to create links on the latest newsletter, I had to resort to copying and pasting text from old newsletters that were already links, as apparently adding links to pre-generated text is NOT ALLOWED). Hence my now very frustrated mood, which results in things being thrown... it was nearly the computer itself...

Anyway, Issue 30 should now all be working and available to look at. If you find any problems, please keep them to yourself. I am wasting no more time "fixing" it! The actual newsletter was fun to create this time around - it's all about my pal Katie's trip around Western Australia back in August last year. Enjoy the read more than I enjoyed the upload!