“I nominate Helen because I’ve never seen such an eclectic bunch of posts on one blog. You name it she’s got it; politics, writing, photography, lifestyle, gripes and much much more. She’s a Lovely girl with a cracking smile. Go seek her out!”

A big thank you to Katie for the nomination. Now I have to follow a list of things to do (at the bottom of this post if you’re nosey) and share seven things people might find interesting. With my current snow brain the best theme I can think of is weather related facts.

1. The most torrential downpour I have ever found myself stuck in was arriving in Edinburgh back in January 2006. It was raining so hard that the steep steps from the station up to Cockburn St had become a stream. To make matters worse the quick 10 minute walk to our hostel on Cowgate took quite a bit longer as my map reading skills failed me.

Once the rain had been and gone...

2. In my teens my cousin Aimee and I went caravanning in Europe with my parents. We were staying in a valley by the Dordogne river in France. One night my parents had gone to bed and Aimee and I were sat out in the awning looking at the lightening over the mountains around us. Aimee remarked “Can you hear the thunder? I think the storms getting closer.” I listened and concluded “That’s not the storm, it’s my dad snoring!”

3. On a HCPT trip to Lourdes we went for a day trip to Gavarnie, a mountain village in the Pyranees. There had been heavy snowfall the day before and it continued to snow on our journey up in the coach. Until now I had never seen so much snow in one place. I had also never felt so close to reliving the final scene from The Italian Job!

4. As a child we did the Eurocamp holidays. One year we stayed at Lake Garda in Italy and the campsite had a brilliant swimming pool with a mushroom water feature. I loved swimming and my parents couldn’t get me to leave the pool despite the high temperatures. That night my cousin and her husband came to cook us dinner. Between the main course and watermelon I threw up. I continued to throw up the whole of the next day. Since then I have tried to avoid getting sun stroke at all costs!

5. At 15 I learned that theme parks and cold weather do not go together. We went on a school trip to Disneyland Paris in mid-February. I have never been so cold in all my life as queuing an hour for Big Thunder Mountain! It wasn’t worth it.

6. A group of us stayed in a villa in the hills overlooking Alcudia, Mallorca back in 2006. One night there was the most amazing storm and with views over two bays it was spectacular to watch it out at sea. It was the most amazing storm I have ever seen.

I believe this was Dan Wood's photo of the lightening that night... thank you Dan!

7. When I made my decision to do Animation I gave up my idea of studying Geography further. I am fascinated by weather and physical geography in general. Part of my frustration with the snow is that I wish I understood weather more! I still hope to study Geography and Meteorology in future (when I find a few thousand pounds hanging around that I have no other use for), and still secretly harbour dreams of being a weather girl whilst chasing tornadoes, climbing volcanoes and studying earthquakes in my spare time!!!

And now for my nominations. But just before I’d like you to check out Katie McCullough’s blog… it is interesting, witty and I’m in awe of the things she achieves. Like the 48hr Film Challenge. She’s a woman who’s spending her life pursuing her passion of scriptwriting and is kind enough to share the ups and downs with us via her blog.

1. Rachael Blogs… her opinion on anything and everything. Always interesting, often amusing. She points me in the direction of things I might like, and steers me away from those I should avoid. And I love her new 365 project on posterous too!

2. Mister Phill – An amazing photographer who accidentally ended up being a wedding photographer too. Below is comment I left on his website back in October
“In the age of Facebook it is all to easy to compare wedding photographs and from friends hear about their experiences. Most wedding photography ranges from bland to ordinary and the photographers themselves rarely get a glowing report. I get bored of looking through wedding photographs, even as a wedding guest. To find someone who can capture a wedding in a way that pleases the couple, can be appreciated by the guests and enjoyed by the rest of us (that don’t have a clue who any of these people are) is truly amazing. If someone had told me I’d have spent this year looking forward to seeing the wedding photos of complete strangers I would have thought they were crazy. But it reflects the pure talent that you have for capturing emotion and atmosphere that makes you better than most of the rest. I’m glad you accidentally ended up as a wedding photographer and I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!!!”

3. Why Miss Jones – A fairly new discovery in the realm of blogs I follow. It was her fantastic reviews of Strictly that led me to her blog and her witty writing on her life and all else that keeps me coming back.

4. Jo’s Kitchen – When I’m stuck for a recipe I know where to head. Jo’s friendly take on sharing recipes and restaurant reviews is a pleasure to read and makes me want grab my kitchen utensils and get cooking immediately!

5. James Inman – Every year James compiles a list of his 101 things to achieve. In 2009 he hit 76/101 a huge leap from 54/101 the year before. I’m looking forward to following his progress this year!

6. Whitespider1066 – Darren’s outdoor blog is full of fantastic photography taken on his walks with his iPhone. Plus if you happen to be a fan of the outdoors he has plenty to share on how he does it.

7. Secret Diaries of a Wannabe Yummy Mammy – I think it’s fantastic that Yummy Mammy used her blog to share and raise awareness of the issues around child custody when you and your ex are different nationalities. Having finally returned to the UK she’s onto the next phase of her life and the new challenges that brings!

So now I’m off to let the lucky nominees know that I think they’re wonderful and kreativ! Hope you enjoy their blogs as much as you enjoy mine. And thanks again to Katie… don’t forget to pay her a visit too!

And here’s the list…
* 1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
* 2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
* 3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
* 4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
* 5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
* 6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
* 7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Despite the inconveniences that snow brings I don’t have snow fatigue yet. Though it was close today, but that had more to do with the office being freezing at work. I shouldn’t blame that on the snow. Even if the weather wasn’t sub-zero outside we’d still need hot water bottles, fleeces and slipper socks to keep warm at work the first day back after Christmas.

In fact yesterday I thought the snow was rather wonderful. As usual I went to the Co-op to stock up on essentials and as I walked along I realised how lovely it was to have fewer cars on the road and more people on foot. People were out en masse walking to do their food shopping. The usual noise of traffic was replaced with chatting and laughter. People smiling and saying hello to each other. We are so used to having everything instantly these days and snow slows that down. It’s not as easy to escape our own communities so we talk to our neighbours. As I walked back people were stood out on their streets chatting. It was lovely.

And today my brother-in-law and I decided to walk to work. The buses are unreliable at the best of times so we thought walking might be just as quick, plus give us a chance to do some morning photography. Some of the results are below and you can see more in my flickr photostream.

Narrowing it down to my five favourite images has been tough. It’s nice to have so many images that I’m proud of. Those that didn’t make it can be found on my Flickr Photostream

1. Palace Green
The weekend of the Durham regatta my sister and I ventured into Durham with my nieces. After buying ice creams we ventured to Palace Green to sit down and give the girls a chance to play, while I played with my camera. This was one of the results and my favourite photograph of the year.

2.Bride & Bridesmaid
Lucy is my oldest friend, we met for the first time within my first few days of being born, so her wedding was always going to be a very special day. Especially as she met her husband through me. I’ve got some great pictures from the day but I just love this one of Lucy and her head bridesmaid, Anna, in conversation. You can see my other photos from the day in my Flickr Wedding Set.

3. Funny Face
On the day of my nieces First Holy Communion I took a LOT of photos. Comments were made about the camera being surgically attached to my face. But I got some fantastic ‘in the moment’ shots that I wouldn’t have got otherwise.

4. 24 Hour CCTV
For Catherine’s 8th Birthday we went to Beamish Wild and it was another day of fantastic photo taking opportunities and quite a few happy accidents.

5. Snow in Durham
Since the summer I’ve not been out and about much with my camera but the snow last week gave me a chance to dust of the Nikon and get back out there. I don’t know what it is about this one, but I really enjoy looking at it.

Flickr is another thing in the realm of “social networking” that it took me a while to get to grips with (see my post RSS… WTF!) but now I love it for showing off the best of my photography. I find that with my Nikon D40 I’m now taking hundreds of photos but getting some fantastic results, sometimes completely by accident! For example at Lucy & Dave’s Wedding I took approximately 400 photos, 96 made it to Facebook, but only the best 10 made it to Flickr.

I work on the principle that Flickr is for showing off the best of the best. People only like looking at lots of photos if they are in them, they are from an event they were at, or they show friends making idiots of themselves. In all other cases people don’t want to sort through piles of boring photos. Digital photography means we can take many more photos at a much lower cost, however it doesn’t change the fact that looking at someone elses holiday shots is as boring as it ever was.

A friend who also subscribes to this principle on his website is Graeme Watson (who I also have to thank for being my teacher in DSLR photography, getting me to a level of understanding to be able to take the pictures you see below.)

Anyway, sit back, enjoy and if you’d like to see more please do mosey on over to my Flickr Photostream.

Before I gave up I did manage to get a few shots (more of which you can see on my page on Flickr)

I also got to step on the hallowed turf at the centre of the cloisters. Is it wrong to be in the holiest of places getting excited at standing where Harry Potter (well Daniel Radcliffe) et al have stood in the past?

At least my injury has given me the time to finally set up a Flickr account (surely a must for all photographers?). Also in my usual positive, optimistic manner it has made me count my blessings that for a majority of time I am fit, healthy and able to do what I want. I can’t wait until I can change a DVD again without it feeling like a comedy sketch!

Everything seemed fairly normal until after lunch when I traipsed around the library with the photographer trying to find students to take photos of in a library setting. The only weirdness in that is that you usually don’t spend a Monday being a prop in photos (to think I may feature in Durham University prospectus – enough to scare any potential student off!)

Settling back down to get work done there was a bright flash and a loud bang. No rain, and bizarrely still blue skies outside. But the computers died. Some restarted. Some had warning messages. One rebooted and returned with the green screen of death. And one lone computer kept showing the library screensavers… rather like the headless chicken that’s body hasn’t realised its head had disappeared.

It was all very eerie and I was sure that we were trapped in an alternate universe. I was expecting (and still am hoping a little) that David Tennant would come striding into the Library as the rain started falling upwards and the Judoon began milling about scanning the staff and students. (For those non-Doctor Who fans this is a reference to Season 3 Episode 1 ‘Smith & Jones’)

Whilst in the middle of my overactive imagination heading off to the Tardis I was sidetracked by Krista who was trying to find a new owner for a gorgeous pair of sparkly silver shoes.

In true Cinderella style others had tried them on and they’d been too big or too small. Krista is a size 6 and they had been too big for her. Despite being a 5.5 I couldn’t resist trying them on (as any true shoe lover will understand) but as I slipped them on, like Cinderella before me, they fit perfectly.

With many hours of Monday left having already had a Doctor Who and a Disney moment who knows what will happen next… is it too much to hope that I will find myself snapped up for my first publishing deal?!

From a personal point of view I don’t understand why people feel the need to tell me I’m wasting my time or telling people too much about my life. Why do people care so much about how I spend my time? They do not have to use Twitter. In fact very few people I connect with on Twitter are people I already know in real life. I have Facebook for that kind of connection. Even if they are on Twitter they don’t have to follow me or interact with me.

My Twittering began thanks to Chris Moyles (@CHRISDJMOYLES) of Radio 1 fame and Phillip Schofield (@Schofe) back in February. At first I didn’t get it. I really struggled to understand how to use this Twitter thing and why I should bother. But then I went and injured myself, followed shortly by a few weeks of being pretty ill, with all that time on my hands I finally tried to understand what it was all about.

And finally I got it. I found a way to use it that suits me. And I’ve gained so many benefits from it.

Firstly the Twitter Book Club (TBC) developed. Justine (@JuzzyB) and Collette (@Collette87) were getting to grip with Twitter at the same time as I was. We discovered a mutual love of wine and books and for the past few months have been reading books and discussing them online whilst drinking wine. We’re now planning a TBC meet up later in the year and despite our variance in age and geographic location have built a friendship that may not have happened otherwise.

There’s my love of Liverpool FC. Being new to Durham and having no one to go and watch matches with was pretty rubbish during our most exciting season in 19 years. But with Twitter I could listen on 5 Live whilst chattering away to fellow LFC supporters (@LiverpoolFan74 and many more!) I also had an interesting discussion with Stan Collymore (@StanCollymore) about women’s management roles in Premiership football. Sadly (but understandably) he got frustrated with the abuse towards his account set up purely for the reason of discussing football, but I hope he gives it another go next season.

Not only has Twitter enhanced my virtual life, but also my real life. I write this blog and for the first time ever I actually have people heading to helenthornber.com to read it. And bugging me if my writing lapses. With the ambition and desire to eventually make a career out of writing an audience is essential, and is something I now have.

My photography has taken off thanks to Graeme Watson (@GraemeWatson) both on and offline. And I have discovered other local photographers such as Steve (@steveapple)
I have met real life people in this new city I live in. Charlie (@snowandsunshine) and James (@_elj) are just two of the people that I have met via Twitter.

In fact, since moving to Durham, you could say that Twitter has enabled me to do the things I’ve always wanted to do and I’ve let lapse. I moved to Durham to make the most of life outside of work and now I’m reading, writing, photographing and football supporting. I’m doing the things that I missed out on in London because I was too busy. Twitter hasn’t been a waste of time at all, but a way of connecting with people locally and world wide, finding information and developing interests I’ve been neglecting!

p.s. If you want to find me http://twitter.com/helenthornber

It’s just been one of those weeks where everything comes to a head. There’s been a couple of annoying situations at work (that’s the edited description of it). That bad feeling grew into snowball of crap, which along the way decided to unearth horrible feelings associated with my last job. By Wednesday feeling rubbish was really gaining momentum and I was exhausted. I finished my day by buying summer clothes as my current ones refuse to fit. So added to all of this I got back into a grump about the medication I’ve been on for the past eight months, which has caused me to put on about 20lbs. And now I’m coming off that medication, the side effect of horrendous tiredness was compounding all this low feeling and shoving me towards the edge.

By the time I got home from work yesterday evening all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. I’d had enough of the week.

So I phoned my sister who offered me wise words… “However tired you are you can do what you need to do. If you don’t need to do it, then don’t do it. But if it HAS to be done then you can do it. And once you’ve done it you will feel better for it.”

And despite the part of my brain that wanted to give up, curl up in a ball, wallow in the rubbish feeling and cry my eyes out I picked myself up and got on with it.

She was right. I could do it. I did some of the cleaning I needed to do. I made cakes I’d promised to make. And by the time my friend turned up to teach me how to use my new lens for my SLR, I was feeling in an altogether better mood.

So I am happier (and have been twittering about smiling to help keep the happy energy in focus) and heading back towards being my usual positive self!

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes. ~William James