3BT: books, buses and babies

1. I laugh out loud, several times, on the tram, at The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I am enjoying it so much that I don't care about the funny looks I get.

2. A bus driver on a break opens his doors for me. He's reading a big thick book novel, with his feet up on the steering wheel, tells me to make myself at home, then reconsiders and we clarify that I shall do so within reason. Another bus comes along, due to leave first. "Fancy a sprint?"he asks me, and lets me off.

3. I have a random moment daydreaming about Josh and Donna. Donna is feeding their baby boy orange puree of some description. Josh is excited by the potential for speech in his son. "De-mo-crat," he repeats over and over, and gets excited when the baby says something like "damaca". "I'm trying to get him to eat," says Donna, rolling her eyes. "This is spiritual food," says Josh. Yes, yes. I will write this fic. It was a beautiful moment in my head, though.

Tweets that made me smile today

@bpdreview: Dear musicians, Falling in love before meeting someone is not love. It's hormones. Love, Brian

@purpleclaire: Hey hey. I object to that.

@bpdreview: Well you've gotten to know him so you're fine. I'm talking about songs about people falling in love before knowing each other.

@purpleclaire: I love you. (Though obviously not in the same way as I love him.)

@bpdreview: Probably for the best. You'd run out of energy if you multiplied your love by two.

(It's probably only funny if you're me, and if you know what we were talking about. But hey. I love @bpdreview - one of the wittiest tweeters out there, and one of my earliest fellow tweeters. Plus, Josh Malina once tweeted both of us together, so I feel a special kinship.)

3BT: readers, trains, and decorations

1. I wake up to a Facebook message from my wonderful friend Rebecca, Faithful Early Reader and Editor of "Inevitable", saying she has responded, within hours, to my comments on her comments. "I can't wait to read the next draft" has to be the most beautiful phrase to me at the moment.

2. I don't miss the train.

3. The metro station at Avenue Louise is wallpapered in one huge, red, bilingual "happy Christmas" greeting. Sometimes, Belgium makes me smile.

3BT: tea, encouragement, and who knows what lies ahead...

1. A friend comes to my rescue with some non-posh teabags. They taste like home.

2. The mum of one of my students emails to tell me that according to a teacher, her daughter's work has substantially improved since I've been teaching her. She definitely smiles more than she used to in my lessons, as well.

3. "Nine and Counting: the Women of the Senate": I am reading it as research for my novel, and finding myself increasingly challenged and inspired; remembering a prophetic word over me, "you will speak against injustice"; and wondering if it's entirely coincidental that the character in my book who is a little like me has ended up in politics because of a man called Brad. I am suspecting again that this whole West Wing thing may well be a God thing. I am excited, and a little nervous, but I will try to think of a metaphor that does not involve pregnancy.

3BT: mostly about writing...

1. I am almost up to 56,000 words. I know that you are not that interested, but bear with me. If you've ever been pregnant - I imagine this is a little like reaching the third trimester. And the best thing is, I am not running out of inspiration. I thought I had told all there was to tell, but no. There keeps on being more, thanks in part to Janet Fitch's writing prompts in "A Writer's Book of Days". And I am believing in my book again. I was buzzing for most of the day. I am in That Place again, a place I thought I had lost. It feels good. More than good. It feels beautiful, in fact.

2. Setting up for Christmas-themed Church - filling goodie bags with Belgian treats while singing along to Chris Tomlin. All together now: Glory in the Hiiiiighest...

3. According to a couple of friends, I have invented a new literary genre: lolitics (love meets politics - gosh, I wonder where I got that idea from). The name needs some work, but it made me laugh.

3BT: rather more than three beautiful things today...

1. Today, I have written. I have watched two West Wing episodes. I have drunk mulled wine and eaten flapjack. I have watched snow drift past my window as I sat snugly inside with my coffee and music and my novel-in-progress. This qualifies as a very, very good day.

2. New gloves from a new friend. And they're purple. They're fluffy. They're fab. They're warm. They're a vast improvement on my previous arrangement, which involved a sock.

3. Long conversation with an old friend who has finally, finally finished the West Wing, though she has some unorthodox views on Josh and Donna. (I held firm, though.)

3BT: enthusiatic students, Saturday lie-ins, and books

1. The chattering of my students as they enthusiastically set about to group-write a story based on a random collection of ten English words.

2. It's Saturday tomorrow, and I get to have a lie-in, stay warm, and spend all day writing.


3. The most delicious dilemma of them all: what to read next?

3BT: similar themes

1. The snow, again. Today, not settled snow, but lightly falling snow, like gold-dust, against the backdrop of the night-time sky.

2. Rather than trudge through snow and have my nose bitten off by the cold, I got to come home early and do my last lesson from the comfort of my sofa. A lesson via Skype chat, my first ever: chilled, easy, interesting for both of us, and useful for my student. It's good for me to remember that I love my job.

3. I have been officially reborn as my writing alter-ego, Claire Lyman: thanks, I assume, to Writing Magazine, people are searching for her, and landing on my blog. The transformation is thereby complete.

3BT: Snow and refuge from the cold and a dream coming true

1. The snow. Yes, it's cold, but it's so pretty. I love watching the Christmas-card landscape roll past from the train window.

2. It's a cold, cold day. I'm not looking forward to waiting for the bus - my iPod batteries are flat so all I will be able to focus on will be the cold gnawing my face. Then someone calls from a car window: a student of mine. Do I want a lift?

3. I am published! A published writer. Under my pen name. Writing Magazine arrived today and contains 300 words of mine - the first 300 of Inevitable which shows, says a professional writer, good dialogue skills, an appealing voice, and an interesting relationship to be explored.