40 - it's fabulous

Hi guys, yes, yes, a day late but for the last time, I promise. I arrived home from Dublin late last night, having celebrated my 40th birthday in a three day stay. I loved it. The people, the places....in fact everything, I couldn't name a thing I didn't like. My birthday, which was Friday, was jammed packed with business (as in busy bee, not work), hubby surprised me with an IPad2 OMG was I shocked, then a trip around the Gunniess storehouse and the 'Gravity bar' to enjoy a pint of the black stuff. Heading home we jumped into a horse drawn carriage ahhhhhhhhhh, a first for me - which was a lovely way to arrive back at the hotel. On the evening  we visited the Gaitey theatre to see 'Fiddler on the roof' which was an outstanding performance by the cast - standing ovation lasted for ages.

Anyhow, I return home thoroughly spolit, well rested and eager to put pen to paper to complete the poem on Pooley. The deadline is this Friday, so I'd like to complete by Thursday night as I am away this week in Bath. As you know, I've tried on numerous occasions to draft a piece but with so much information buzzing about my head it is proving more difficult than I'd imagined. Tonight I shall spend some time returning to my current jottings and see what evolves. I'll lay my stall out for you, so far I have a free verse, the framework being the characters that have lived in Pooley. I have added a few lines from Shakespeare's prologue to Romeo and Juliet as a hint of the Shakespeare connection between Burdett and Cockayne. I've added in sound from the spring cuckoo calling Co-kayne, details of named rooms collected on my visit, the lattice windows; handcrafted and blown an age ago. All this divided into two stanzas much like the original build and the 1509 rebuild. Add in a few details about comedies, tragedies and poems by Sir Aston, a chapel blessed by Osanna and Pope Urban IV and you can see I've got a whole host of characters within 20 lines. So tonight, I have my work cut out to sculpt this poem into a suitable piece.

But before I go, I have devised a novel list of 40 'things' that I must complete during my 40th year - humour me, please. Anyway, I've listed a whole load of 'things' that I'd like to accomplish this year, some big, some quite everyday but all worthy on my list for one reason or another. I have decided that as I complete each 'thing' I shall write a chapter about it's completion and compile a book as I go - so 'The April Fool List'  has been offically started, I'll bring you up to date as and when I cross things off.

Right, I shall love you and leave you for now - I've got a poem to edit.