Ten reasons why I love Twitter

1. I have a totally shameless desire to be a celebrity and to have celebrity friends. Twitter makes me feel a tiny bit of both. I collect 'celebrity tweets' like autographs. I am aware this makes me sound like a complete loser: I care not.

2. I have a very busy life. Twitter allows me to keep up-to-date with the latest news, views and opinions, and all of the ephemera in between.

3. I think the art of writing a decent tweet is underrated. It takes skill to capture a message in 140 characters. It's the modern-day aphorism; Jane Austen would be all over it.

4. I have the attention span of a gnat. After a long day at work, an epic commute, a huge pile of planning/marking, and a toddler to deal with, a sentence or so on a single subject is all I can cope with.

5.#ilovehashtags
#ilovewritingridiculoushashtagsthatwouldnevertrend

6. I've made new buddies and networked like crazy; there's a whole world of virtual loveliness out there. Equally, I like to get a bit ranty or political and Twitter offers a like-minded audience.

7. As a self-confessed telly addict with a huge tolerance for truly terrible tv programmes, I will often spend the entire duration of some trashy Saturday night viewing, 'watching' through the much more hilarious gaze of my Twitter feed.

8. It's been a great way to share and publicise my blogging ventures.

9. Number 8 has sometimes led to public praise and affirmation for my writing. This feels nice.

10. Even after almost two years of compulsive Twitter use/abuse/addiction, I still get excited when my phone/iPad makes the lovely 'you've got a tweet' ding-dong noise.

If you share the Twitter-love, you'll find me there @katywayne

Friends

Parties used to mean something very different to me. As a child, they signalled friends, novelty cakes and party games. As a teenager, they were all about friends, experimental make-up and desperately trying to get a snog. As a student, they featured friends, cheap white wine and grotty houses. In my twenties, parties equalled friends, an attempt at cooking a half-edible meal and some 'hilarious' board games. And now, as a parent, parties are full of friends, teeny-tiny sandwiches and renditions of 'The wheels on the bus'.

Dexter turns two next month: cue party season. The husband and I chose to attend NCT classes while I was heavily pregnant. Yes, we wanted to hear about natural birth. And yes, we did at some point have contact with a knitted boob. But mainly, we wanted to meet other soon-to-be parents and develop a social network of families with children of a similar age.

We were so lucky. Our NCT teacher was fab; the lengthy classes brightened up dull, wintry Sunday evenings; but best of all, we met really, really lovely people. Two years on, as our bumps have turned into rambunctious toddlers, reunions like today, make me feel like a very lucky lady.

This morning's fantastically organised party contained crafting, singing, disco dancing, play-dough and sandwiches in the shape of ducks, and of course, friends. We went from the morning's party to a lunch date at another friend's house. No cooking for me today!

In many ways, I am quite a rubbish friend. I hide behind the excuses of working full-time, of being busy and simply there just not being enough hours in the day. I like to think I am loyal, supportive and considerate, but I could definitely make more of an effort to make the first move and instigate more regular contact with those I love dearly. Perhaps it's time for a (belated) new year's resolution to simply be a better friend. For as days like today prove, the rewards of friendship are certainly worth it.

Snow Business

Having written 366 posts in one year on my first ever blog, Brighton Ramblings, I have been somewhat neglectful of my new venture, having had little inspiration of late.

Change is afoot in our household, but not sufficiently so to write about. The weekend's snow flurries seemed the perfect excuse to wrap up warm, take the boy and the camera out, catch up with a dear, dear friend and check out the white stuff!

It's been snowing all day today, after starting in earnest on Friday. To be completely honest, I'm a bit of a 'snow Grinch': I hate being cold; am clumsy and so fall over enough anyway; I have no desire to try anything remotely 'exhilarating'/likely to cause broken bones. However, I'm sure there's something in some parenting manual somewhere that dictates one must take small people out in the snow for the magical experience and to get some snaps for the family album.

*Whispers*, I actually quite enjoyed myself. It's Narnia-beautiful out there, pleasingly traffic-free and quiet, and the snow seems to make people a bit more smiley and friendly.

Plus, coming home to hot cocoa, apple pie and toddler nap-time/mummy blog-time, definitely made it all worth while.

Tiddly pom...

Ashdown Forest is 'the largest free public access space in the South East' - or at least it is according to its website: http://www.ashdownforest.org/home/index.php

It also features in the 'Winnie the Pooh' tales. As a die-hard Paddington fan, this holds little interest for me. I never really got the rotund little fella with the honey, and I hate Disney, so that never helped. I perhaps identify with the melancholic Eeyore, but he doesn't really compare with the duffle-coated, marmalade-guzzling chap. I admire the chutzpah of Paddington: coming all that way as a stowaway and then finding a terribly nice family to adopt as his own. I digress...

New Year's Day seemed like the perfect time for a yomp in the forest, especially as the sun was shining and the ubiquitous grey sky had been replaced by something altogether more blue and pleasing. It was glorious, bright and very, very muddy!

About half an hour's drive from home, Ashdown Forest is less 'Robin Hood' and tree-filled and more 'Wuthering Heights' and windswept heath. Families and over-excited dogs were out in force today. As a displaced Northerner, I am frequently disheartened by the aloofness of the South, but country walks seem to be the exception. We got more 'hellos' and 'happy new years' than if we'd actually gone out last night: we didn't - I sat in my pjs, marking books and sulking. The former is reassuring, as part of the motivation for the jaunt was to familiarise ourselves with the area - it's where we are hoping this year's house move will take us...

'You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.'

(Winnie the Pooh)

A new door opens...

Welcome! Open the door numbered five, and step inside. I'm quite excited about this first post of a brand-new blog. You may have come across my writing before at http://brightonramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

That was my first blog: 366 posts dedicated to my little boy, Dexter. I've decided to finish my ramblings though and keep them as an archive for my boy - a sort of virtual baby book. Hence, 'Five On The Door' was born.

I've caught the blogging bug, but I didn't really know where to go from here, having had such a clear focus for the past year. The blogs I tend to enjoy reading (I'm totally addicted), seem to be categorised by the somewhat nebulous title of 'lifestyle'; perhaps that's what FOTD will become.

I have no real skills or talents, but I have a keen interest in lots of 'stuff'. From interiors to fashion, vintage to modern, Scandinavia to Brighton (via Manchester), novels to poetry, and people, in all their guises.

An English teacher by trade, I love words and really love to write. I hope to document the things that make me tick, and practise recording them through photographs too (beautiful photos are another one of my 'things').

So why 'Five On The Door'? Well, it's currently the number on my front door, although we're hoping to move in 2013 - naturally, I'll blog about that! Five is also my favourite number (I was born on 05/05), and numbers are another quirk of mine. The number five feels like a good omen to me. The 'door' idea suggests an opening, a welcome, a passageway into a different place. I hope you'll open it and visit. 

Come on in, kick your shoes off and have a cup of tea - always Teapigs 'everyday brew'. Feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy!