Calm mum wannabe

I'm just a calm mum wannabe, muddling on through from tantrum to tantrum, one big deep breath at a time. Ommmm....

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Dreamers beware!

They say you should be careful of what you wish for, because it might just come true. Well, let's go back a couple of years: I have a two-year-old toddler and a nine-month-old baby keeping me on my toes, and I'm translating and proofreading as a freelancer "in my spare time". As I sit on the lounge floor, eyeing up the chin-height pile of carboard boxes in our newly rented Madrid flat, I dedicate a moment or two to a little wishful thinking...

I vaguely daydream that by the time we are next packing up all our belongings, the boys will be a toddler and a pre-schooler and I will have somehow found enough regular writing work to make a living from it. I look out over the rooftops of suburban Madrid and wonder if there are kindred spirits out there with whom my boys and I will become close friends. I add an addendum to my daydream to say that if it takes a bit longer than the year it doesn't matter, so long as our ideal house appears in a right-time, right-price scenario. And including a postscript while we're at it, I fondly imagine I will have started writing my novel by the time we are next packing boxes. That, or at least have a fabulous idea for it...

Of course, it was all just an idle daydream. I had no idea how I'd set about making any of this happen. But here we are, not quite two and a half years later and I have regular writing work, my boys and I have made some wonderful friends, and we're about to move into our lovely new house that ticks all the boxes and more. I'm feeling pretty damn lucky actually.

We're moving on to a new phase in our lives now. But I need to tell you about something, or rather someone, that was instrumental in my reaching out towards my writing dream. Her name is Amanda, and she was -is- my coach-friend, and I'll tell you more about her in another post, because this one's long enough as it is.

Oh yeah, and that fabulous idea for a novel? Ahem. Yes, well, I've still got to work on that one. Amandaaaaaaa, come back to Madrid! I need you!