Hey, it’s advent. Which as my daughter and I learned today in our home-school session, comes from the Latin adventus which means arrival. And the first day of advent saw the arrival of a new illness for me – sinusitus! Yeah! Now I have a aching face to add to my symptoms. Woo. Incidentally, if you’re planning a Christmas story set in Malta at Midnight Mass be sure to have a young boy aged between 7 and 10 doing the sermon – that’s another thing we learned today. And if your story is set in India, do note that Christmas is known as bada din (big day).

No, I’m not suddenly going to share home-school facts with you but I have decided in the mad days of Advent to pick up a little fact like that, or a face I see on the street, or a line from a song and use it as the start point of 5 – 10 mins maximum free writing. Just writing without editing for 10 mins max and seeing where it goes. Even I can fit 10 mins writing in a day and in what will soon become a more rushed and hectic advent, I know I will need those ten minutes too. Ten minutes of just me and my laptop – bliss.