Life is pretty good right now, with lots going on. Not only is my book doing well (thank you to everyone who has bought a copy – don’t forget to leave a review!) but I also have an article about Christ Church, Spitalfields being featured in the journal of The Whitechapel Society, which is VERY exciting to a committed Ripperologist like myself.

Other good things include lovely times with my husband and beautiful boys and making progress with book number two, which is a bit of a saga about an aristocratic family during the French Revolution. I’m hoping to have it on Lulu by the end of the year.

You want more good news? Well, we are hoping to book our trip to Paris this week – we’re going to be there for a week at the start of June and I have my eye on a lovely and very bijou flat on the Rue de Saint-Honoré for us to stay in. Plans for the week involve researching and taking photographs for this blog and my book, with trips to Versailles, Fontainebleau and St Denis on the cards as well as visits to the Louvre, Carnavalet, Marais, Conciergerie and Chapelle Expiatoire and more.

Typically for me, I have started planning my wardrobe for the trip ahead of anything else. I’m planning to buy some more All Saints tops to wear with black skinny jeans, three pairs of Iron Fist shoes, some bits and pieces from Warehouse including some gold strappy sandals and a great army styled coat, some glittery Converse and some amazing bags. Oh and Philosykos and some new MAC and Chanel make up, bien sûr. It’s going to be a great shopping trip.

I’m also booking an Arvon Foundation writing course in September. It sounds blissful – a week in a beautiful house in the country with just sixteen other writers and a couple of tutors on hand. There is no internet access or mobile phone signal so the mornings can be given over to writing workshops and then the afternoons to writing and talking about writing. How wonderful does that sound? I’m hoping to make some real progress with my book and also learn how to be a better writer at the same time.

Dave and I went out last night for the first time since my birthday last Autumn and had a wonderful time. I wore my new immensely high heels, which gave me an excuse to cling becomingly to my husband while navigating cobbles. We went to my favourite Bristol pub for a pre dinner gin and tonic then went to an Italian restaurant called Aqua for dinner, which was very, very nice although it is hard to entirely relax when you are a strict vegetarian like myself. I started off with ‘ Crostone alle verdure grigliate con caprino’ (crostini with roasted vegetables and goats cheese) for a starter, while Dave had ‘Spiedino di pesce’ (skewered seafood). For a main, I had ‘Gnocchi alla Sorrentina’ and we shall draw a veil over what Dave had. For pudding, I had a ‘Torroncino al cioccolato e pistacchio’ (white chocolate, pistachio and nougat parfait), which was the most delicious thing EVER.

We had such a lovely time and it was nice to eat somewhere that wasn’t Giraffe, Wagamama or Nandos! I think we are going to try out as many of the ‘nicer’ Bristol restaurants as we can over the next year as we both really enjoy it. I’m hoping to go back to the Glassboat, where we had our wedding reception next.

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll through the deserted streets to the Cinema de Luxe in Cabot Circus, via window shopping at LK Bennett for bags and shoes for Paris. We went to see The Wolfman, which was a very peculiar film indeed. I’m terribly bored with the whole vampire thing right now and frankly am sick of the sight and mention of them, but I still rather like Werewolf films so was looking forward to it!

The Wolfman was just so weird though and I am still not sure if I liked it or not. I fully expected it to be a bit B Movie in tone and in that I was not disappointed. The cinematography was often extremely beautiful, with some amazing shots that someone had clearly put a lot of thought and care into. Shame they didn’t pay the same amount of attention to the script, which was a bit embarrassing in places and perplexing in others.

Ultimately though, even though it was rather awful, we still enjoyed it because it was often hilarious, albeit unintentionally so and the story itself was fast paced and interesting. I was looking forward to them setting up home together and her locking him up every full moon, except eventually they would probably have synchronised their cycles like the girls in my halls of residence at university and it would all have gone pear shaped.