Rosie Scribble

A happy ending

Six years ago I left the life I knew and arrived in the Midlands with a two-year-old daughter. Angry with the world, unwell and struggling to cope, I faced a choice. I could battle my way out of my hell or give up.

I gave up. Tired of fighting and battling on, the world felt a harsh and unwelcoming place to be. I’d grown exhausted with the effort of simply existing.

At rock bottom I waited for someone up come along and gather me up, but no-one came.

My anger at the world depended. My previous efforts to get some help and support have proved fruitless. I felt dismissed, unworthy and abandoned to my fate.

But only one person was really in a position to change things: Me. So I decided to fight.

I fought for a further two years for the support I needed. I got it in the end.

Therapy isn't for everyone. It's hard. It’s emotional. It’s challenging. It’s distressing. It throws you off kilter. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's the best thing I've ever done. It's changed my life and saved my life. It’s fascinating, it’s incredible and it’s worth it.

Now with it coming to an end I'm proud at what I've achieved and the point I have reached. It's a happy ending.

It's time up move on and stand on my own two feet. To do the things I've always wanted to do. To live the life I could never imagine I could have, that's now within my grasp. It’s there for the taking. I’ll seize it with both hands.

I'm approaching 40 and learning to live. Really live. It makes the future exciting and the past more than manageable.

The point of this post? Simply this: never lose hope.

Learn how to create an ebook

A new career opportunity has presented itself to me and I'm seeing pound signs in front of my eyes.

No, it has nothing to do with writing and selling ebooks.

I have a throat infection and can only speak with the type of husky voice that commands large fees in voiceover land. So I'm off to find an agent and earn a fortune.

But if you are interested in profiting from the ebook market, then you might be interested to hear that business entrepreneurs Erica Douglas and Antonia Chitty are launching a new From Knowledge to Profit course over the next few days at www.createanebook.co.uk. 

Their From Knowledge to Profit course focuses on writing and publishing an ebook that will earn you a profit. It takes you through the stages of choosing an idea and writing the book through to the ebook’s launch and its ongoing marketing. 

Antonia says:

“We know that writing is a competitive field. This course doesn’t just help you complete your book; we also tell you how to write a book that SELLS. I have personally seen the amount I can charge increase by a factor of 20 since becoming an author, and our business brings in more than twice average author’s annual income EVERY MONTH.”

Erica and Antonia’s courses are always very carefully structured and highly informative. I’ve taken several of them myself. 

If you do go over to createanebook.co.uk and sign up, please mention I sent you and I'll earn some pennies for some throat lozenges and my new voiceover artist business cards.

You need to sign up by 9pm GMT on Wednesday 1^st February to take part!

Moving forward

With a house move on the cards in the not too distant future, I've been considering our options. Without doubt, the fact that I don't drive does limit where we can live. By now I'd expected to be looking at cars and taking the time to compare car insurance, but as yet it is not to be.

A slight crisis of confidence coupled with the uncertainty that comes with moving house and relying on freelance work, has meant it has been several months since I last had a driving lesson.

And I haven’t found learning to drive, as a mother, particularly easy. I can’t help but see children and potential danger everywhere, and at the back of my mind is the fact that when I do pass my test I’ll have a child in the car with me. That feels like an overwhelming responsibility. 

But not being able to drive does leave us both feeling stranded at times and dependent on others to get anywhere. So the plan, once life feels a little more settled, is to pick up where I left off.

IJ has already thrown herself into the job of choosing our future car and is swaying towards the most expensive on the market. Her preference for something sporty and open top doesn’t quite live up to the reality that we are likely to end up with a very practical runaround.

As for our future home, I’m thinking the solution would be a village with enough amenities there would be no immediate need for a car. We’d have a school, supermarket and a station with those all-important transport links within walking distance.

So plans are starting to slot in place and excitement has replaced our initial anxieties. A huge upheaval is now being seen as the chance to start afresh, to make some choices over our future and determine the direction the next five years, or so, will take.

So we’re definitely moving forward.

Sponsored post.

Win a LG Optimus 3D smartphone

Fancy winning a new phone?

To help promote their new capped tariffs, Tesco Mobile has given me a LG Optimus 3D phone to give away. It’s an impressive gadget with an 8GB internal memory, Wi-Fi/3G and a whole range of other features, and it’s worth over £400.

A little about Tesco capped tariffs: they allow kids to have the latest smartphone but let parents control the bill. The main features are:

• Ensuring your monthly bill is never more than the cost of your tariff
• This is done by fixing your tariff so you can only use your inclusive minutes, texts and data
• The ability to top-up your account with a Pay as you go top-up, if you run out during the month
• The choice of capping any contract on any phone across their whole range.

I’m not likely to be giving IJ a smartphone any time soon but it does seem like an excellent way of avoiding unexpected bill surprises at the end of each month, so I’d certainly consider it for the future. 

How to enter

To be in with a chance of winning a LG Optimum 3D smartphone, simply leave a comment telling me how you plan to save money this year. 

In our house, we’ve dumped the magazine subscriptions but you might have a better way of saving money, and I’d particularly welcome a few tips, so let me know. I’ll choose my favourite entry and the winner will receive a brand new phone.

• Enter before midnight on Friday 27^th January.
• I’ll update this post with the winner’s name on Saturday 28^th January.
• The winner will be contacted and asked for their full details.
• One entry per person.
• UK entries only.
• Responsibility for sending out the prize lies with We are Social.

Good luck!

Sponsored post.

Lost

For a while today I was lost.

A sense of unreality descended.

I felt disconnected.

Out of touch.

Alone.

I had little idea of what was going on in the world around me.

A feeling that felt unfamiliar and unwelcome.

And strangely eerie. 

Not nice at all.

So was it stress, drugs or simply a Friday meltdown?

No, dear reader.

I left the house and forgot my iphone.

And for a very long two hours, the world felt silent.

Due to a lack of modern technology at my fingertips, I scribbled this post on the back of a Morrison’s receipt. In pencil. It felt very 1980s and strangely liberating, on reflection.