On the Nineteenth Day of July, My True Love Gave to Me....

Editor's Note: This is a bit overdue, sorry. It's been sat in my drafts for weeks, and I have a busy weekend to fill you in on too.


On July the 19th 2011, I turned 22. I got completely spoiled. 

Not only did Rob take me out for both Lunch and dinner, take me to see the new Harry Potter film and make me breakfast in bed, he also bought me some wonderful presents.

Firstly, he bought me The Sims Medieval, which I've actually had for a week already because he was nice and let me. Whilst it is very different to what I expected, it is a good game and I am enjoying it. It just feels very close to the original Sims, which of course it effectively is. It's not a development of the Sims, but rather a creation of something new, so I feel it is still fledgling.

That said, it is good fun and has got my imagination rolling. You see, you get to be in charge of a Kingdom. What fun.

I really like the character creation aspect of it, though it is still fairly basic; but, new from the Sims 2, you have to pick two traits and one fatal flaw of each character you create. The traits affect how the character interacts with others, and the fatal flaw can have a specific negative affect on their mood, for example insomniacs never sleep a whole night and gluttons are constantly hungry. 

It got me thinking about character creation in stories, and took me back to reading Christopher Booker's '10 Basic Plots' in writing class; he talks a lot about the fatal flaw aspect of plot, and the driving force behind it. Everyone has one, and it's almost essential to think about the thing that most plagues a character - the thing that they strive to get the better of. 

So I've begun a character review for each of my characters, seeing if all the vital aspects are there and if my characters are as fully rounded as they could be. 

He also bought me the Shooting scripts from the first series in the remake of Dr Who, which I saw years ago and thought it might be useful to have on my bookshelf. I like to get to the root of the story, and seeing the script on paper is really useful, I feel, to get an idea of how television programs come to life. I've not written any screenplays or scripts in the last five years, although it used to be one of my main forms of writing. I don;t really know what happened, but I'm wondering if I might have another bash, even if just as an 'exercise' for my writing muscles. 

Oh there's more. I am a lucky lady. We had been talking about my 'secret' project, which I am about to give an enormous hint about, and I mentioned that I needed some help in the form of books. Lo and behold, what should turn up on the doorstep, but these:

I've read bits from both of them, and they seem like they're going to be really helpful. I've never tackled anything like this before, but have always been itching to. Anyway, that's all I'm saying on that for now. 

And finally, he bought me some beautiful garnet earrings from Past Times. He had been looking for Ruby ones, as it is my birthstone (and I love red), but couldn't find any. And I love my Garnet earrings. 

And.........A partridge in a pear tree.

Thank you Rob. I consider myself well and truly spoiled.