I Am Loving Summer 2012 :-)

Yes I am!  I don’t care if the weather is a bit shoddy.  So far I’ve had a fab birthday and been given a load of lush things including chocolate and books and cds and coffee cups and sandals and smelly stuff.  And I even got given Andy Warhol by my cousin.  Truth!  And then the bloke and me went on holiday.  To Slovenia.  I’d never been there before but I have to say it’s absolutely totally and utterly lush.  And the people are nice and the mountains are nice and the cakes are nice and the ice-cream is nice…  And one of the best things was that there was a nest of little black and white baby birds (Swallows?) right near our balcony and I got a bit obsessed with watching them poke their heads out to cheep at me.  And then one day, while I was sitting there with my feet up reading Louis Sachar’s The Cardturner (lush book), they all flew out – one after the other - and all these baby little black and white birds were flying round and round in circles near my head.  It was a bit like Alfred Hitchcock’s classic old horror film The Birds – except cuter and not actually scary at all.  And then they all went back into the nest again!

And then the Olympics started.  To be honest, I wasn’t that fussed because it’s just a bit of running and jumping and hopscotch and stuff… but then I saw Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony and WOW!  I thought it was A-MAZING.  Especially when Daniel Craig rocked up.

(Hi Daniel, if you’re reading this, I really want you to know how much I admire you as an actor.) 

And what I really really liked was that Danny Boyle – and Frank Cottrell Boyce as well – reminded the world of the two things which any wealthy and decent society ought to provide for its people – namely, free healthcare and books.  So the NHS and Libraries then ;-) 

Thank you Danny and Frank for making that point on such a public stage!

And the fun didn’t stop when I came home because I bought a bike.  Oh yes I did!  And it’s a thing of beauty.  And I carefully rode it home and locked it up and then when I went to look at it and smile at it half an hour later, I saw that I’d somehow got a flipping puncture!  How the heck did that happen?  So now I have to learn about taking wheels off and mending punctures L

Over July, I ran a competition via my fb page to win my Queen of Teen tiara and some signed books and sweets.  I used a very fair system of writing people’s names on bits of paper and then scrunching them up into bits and picking one out.  And the winner was BECKY FLOWER of Felixstowe!  I met her last month.  She goes to the school I once went to.  This is not a fix though.  Just Felixstowe serendipity I suppose.  So Becky message me via fb with your details and I’ll send the stuff on.

And before I go, here’s news of another competition.  And it’s truly great.  The people at www.movellas.com and www.mykindabook.com have come up with a fantastic opportunity for young film-makers.  All you have to do is read What’s Up With Jody Barton? – or the extract on either website – and make a short trailer for the book which doesn’t give the twist away!  And me and the winner get to have a slap-up lunch together in London.  And the winner also gets a load of books from Pan Macmillan.  There are runner-up prizes too.  So what the heck are you waiting for?  Get your cameras out, please, I’m starving…

Competition details are here .