A right royal occasion plus a sigh of relief!

I don't think I said in my profile, but another of my interests is the Townswomen's Guild (a bit like the Women's Institute but with an undeservedly lower profile). I am a member of our local Guild and although it is a small Guild, we are an active and friendly bunch. On Tuesday, 10 May, another TG member and I went to a national event held in Newark, Nottinghamshire. The theme of the day was 'Women of Vision' about how the movement had started soon after women got the vote. The morning session was presented by a semi-professional group who used  women's clothes of the period to demonstrate the transition from the Victorian suffragette to the thoroughly modern miss of the 1920's. It was both amusing and informative - and we loved the clothes! During the afternoon, various TG members presented their own favourite Women of Vision. These included Bess of Hardwick; Octavia Hill, founder of the National Trust; Sister Dora of Walsall (not Warsaw as it said in the press releases!) With us for the afternoon was our Patron, the Princess Royal, who said she had thoroughly enjoyed her time with us. For all of us, though, the highlight of the day was a personal introduction to Princess Anne! We were all organised in small groups with a leader who then introduced each member as Princess Anne came round to  each group. Everyone said how pleasant she was, no airs and graces, and very chatty. Read about the day here. Chatty Princess charms

My other snippet of news is that this last weekend, I finished the first draft of my follow-up novel, Bitter Sweet Fellowship! I shall leave it alone for a few weeks, using the time to catch up with a few jobs I've put off to complete the task. Then it will be down to a rewrite/edit. Just to finish the first draft gave me a lot of satisfaction though.

A senior moment? or sheer stupidity?

On Saturday, 14th May, I should have been going to Birmingham to meet up with fellow writers' from the Romantic Novelists' Association. Like everyone else, I'm being careful about money these days. According, I ordered my train tickets online in April. Imagine my horror when the tickets arrived and I found that I had ordered them for 12th May not the 14th! I am doing something else on the 12th which is why I got confused. I immediately rang up to ask if I could change them for the 14th but was told it would cost £10 a ticket (ie there and back) which would cost almost as much as buying new tickets. So, rather than incur more expense, I am not going. I'm most disappointed as it's always encouraging to chat to fellow writers. Is it any wonder I felt totally stupid?