Saturday:
We don't know our older neighbours on one side very well and at first thought they were a bit grumpy, but they seem nice now. We haven't spoken to them much but the husband suggested a couple of times (when he saw me home with the kids on school holidays) that we were welcome to use his swimming pool if we wanted. I really didn't feel like we knew them well enough, it was too awkward, although of course I thanked him and said we might. But then he asked us to feed his dog while the humans were away this weekend, and that made it seem fair for us to use the pool and also not having them there helped! We went over this afternoon, played with Casper, and had a swim in the pool - with Casper! He shed a lot of hair, both in the pool and out of it, poor thing looked so hot. He is an elderly golden Labrador.
I fed him in the evening, and as I'd been warned he inhaled his dinner in about 12 seconds. And looked around for more. It was the right amount of food for him, but I did feel a bit sorry for him that someone so motivated by food (as all Labradors are) only got to eat for 12 seconds a day. He should learn to savour it!
I've been thinking seriously about the "what am I going to do with my life" question, and one option I'm considering is becoming a librarian. There is a one year course that I can do either in the city (might be tricky to fit within school hours, especially with all the travelling) or online. And even while studying (especially online) I could look for work, my previous qualifications and work experience (not in libraries) might help. I want to work part time. I love books, there would be some desk work but not all day, quiet and indoors, contact with people but I wouldn't have to sell anything. The TAFE course has an information session on Wednesday that I plan to go to, and I'll also go talk to my local librarians.
As with any job or study, it will affect the time I have to write (particularly with my RSI that restricts daily computer use) but I can't stay home forever. I need to think about the direction to take my writing too... do I work on the sequel to my existing book that hasn't yet found a publisher (need to spend time there) or start on a new idea that is percolating?
Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label novel. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Career
Tuesday:
I received another rejection email about my book, from the second literary agent. It was a thoughtful email suggesting the book needed a bit more work and a look from a professional editor. I had considered that already but since I'm an editor myself and I had some experienced readers look at it, I skipped that step. Fresh eyes are valuable and I am reconsidering that decision. My brain will be lying fallow the next couple of weeks then I'll have to decide whether to have the book professionally edited, keep trying to find an agent, or send it directly to publishers.
Another thing I am reconsidering is the full-time-ness of my writing. I haven't done any paid work for a couple of years now. Partly to work on my book, partly because I knew we'd be moving to another state soon (which we did at the end of last year), a large part due to my RSI. I have chronic pain in my shoulders, arms and hands which was caused by and still exacerbated by typing. I can only use the computer for two or three hours a day, spread out with breaks, before the pain gets bad. (Hand writing is worse, and I've tried voice-activated software but found it clumsy and slow.) A couple of years ago I tried going back to work part-time five hours a day and it was too much, I was in a lot of pain after a month and left after six weeks. I can write at my own pace at home. Freelance editing was also flexible, but if I spend my three hours a day editing then I can't write at all. And I like to spend a bit of that time on this blog and playing computer game World of Warcraft too. I'd love to spend more time on all these things, but can't. I often write these blog posts in instalments over the day.
So if did look for part time work, and still want to be able to write novels, I can't do anything involving a computer. Problematic, because otherwise I am ideally suited to deskwork! I love deskwork. After ten years at Centrelink (government department dealing with Pensions and Unemployment Benefits) I want to avoid dealing with angry customers, I'm too shy to teach, not sure what I would do. I considered landscape gardening for a while, and did some study there. I also dabbled in training as a nutritionist. Most jobs that involve brains also require frequent use of a computer, these days (not all, but most). And probably several years of training, which would also involve lots of typing and writing during study. I have always liked the idea of being a librarian. But yeah, study and deskwork again. Hmm. Requires more thought. When my brain gets back from vacation.
A workman wandered in this morning and took away some of the temporary wooden scaffolding around the pool that they used to shape the concrete. Then he wandered away again.
I took Jasmine to the doctor this morning, she's been complaining of breathlessness for a while now. The doctor couldn't find anything but gave her a Ventolin to try for a while to see if it helps. She had eczema as a baby which is linked to asthma, and both Tim and my mother had asthma so she is at risk. We'll see if the Ventolin puffer helps.
I received another rejection email about my book, from the second literary agent. It was a thoughtful email suggesting the book needed a bit more work and a look from a professional editor. I had considered that already but since I'm an editor myself and I had some experienced readers look at it, I skipped that step. Fresh eyes are valuable and I am reconsidering that decision. My brain will be lying fallow the next couple of weeks then I'll have to decide whether to have the book professionally edited, keep trying to find an agent, or send it directly to publishers.
Another thing I am reconsidering is the full-time-ness of my writing. I haven't done any paid work for a couple of years now. Partly to work on my book, partly because I knew we'd be moving to another state soon (which we did at the end of last year), a large part due to my RSI. I have chronic pain in my shoulders, arms and hands which was caused by and still exacerbated by typing. I can only use the computer for two or three hours a day, spread out with breaks, before the pain gets bad. (Hand writing is worse, and I've tried voice-activated software but found it clumsy and slow.) A couple of years ago I tried going back to work part-time five hours a day and it was too much, I was in a lot of pain after a month and left after six weeks. I can write at my own pace at home. Freelance editing was also flexible, but if I spend my three hours a day editing then I can't write at all. And I like to spend a bit of that time on this blog and playing computer game World of Warcraft too. I'd love to spend more time on all these things, but can't. I often write these blog posts in instalments over the day.
So if did look for part time work, and still want to be able to write novels, I can't do anything involving a computer. Problematic, because otherwise I am ideally suited to deskwork! I love deskwork. After ten years at Centrelink (government department dealing with Pensions and Unemployment Benefits) I want to avoid dealing with angry customers, I'm too shy to teach, not sure what I would do. I considered landscape gardening for a while, and did some study there. I also dabbled in training as a nutritionist. Most jobs that involve brains also require frequent use of a computer, these days (not all, but most). And probably several years of training, which would also involve lots of typing and writing during study. I have always liked the idea of being a librarian. But yeah, study and deskwork again. Hmm. Requires more thought. When my brain gets back from vacation.
A workman wandered in this morning and took away some of the temporary wooden scaffolding around the pool that they used to shape the concrete. Then he wandered away again.
I took Jasmine to the doctor this morning, she's been complaining of breathlessness for a while now. The doctor couldn't find anything but gave her a Ventolin to try for a while to see if it helps. She had eczema as a baby which is linked to asthma, and both Tim and my mother had asthma so she is at risk. We'll see if the Ventolin puffer helps.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
50 pages
Monday:
Most exciting news first... the literary agent I sent my synopsis to last week has asked to see the first 50 pages! So a) she is looking for that specific kind of fiction b) she thought my story sounded interesting and c) she found my writing style acceptable. Yay! I sent the first 50 pages to her this afternoon, it will probably be several weeks before I hear from her again. And Christmas might make that even longer... arg the stress!
What else happened. On Saturday Jasmine went to a pool party and got quite sunburned, as she often does, despite sunscreen. We will definitely need some kind of shade-cloth to protect part of our pool area. The pool guy hadn't finished on Friday, maybe he went home a bit early because it was so hot. He was back again all day Saturday to finish, and has now taken all his tools away. The pool now has these plastic bits holding the steel cables in place ready for the concrete pour.
I had to learn to French braid Jasmine's hair because it is the signature style for her dance school. And I glued false eyelashes on her! Here she is with little Emma and aunty Ping after the show. Ping is a couple of weeks away from having baby number two, I think she found the long day very tiring.
Today, aside from the excitement of getting asked for a partial manuscript, I spent the time dealing with tradesmen. Andrew came back and put the posts for our pergola back on (the concrete for the pool is being poured on Thursday but they don't need much room for that as they use a big hose from the truck to the backyard) and an electrician was here for nearly five hours fixing all the lighting problems we've had for months. I should be able to read in the evening again, somewhere other than in the bath! It was the only place with really good light. Craig installed two new lights and fixed five others in various rooms so it was a big job.
Oh and lastly Monday is my weigh-in day, I was up 0.3 kg which I expected after a rather dodgy week, and eating out twice yesterday. Also I've been losing a decent amount every second week then maintaining or a little gain the other weeks. It's fine. If I weighed fortnightly I would only see the downward trend. I just like knowing day by day, and the fluctuations don't bother me.
PS Brandon you haven't posted for a while, are you ok?
Most exciting news first... the literary agent I sent my synopsis to last week has asked to see the first 50 pages! So a) she is looking for that specific kind of fiction b) she thought my story sounded interesting and c) she found my writing style acceptable. Yay! I sent the first 50 pages to her this afternoon, it will probably be several weeks before I hear from her again. And Christmas might make that even longer... arg the stress!
What else happened. On Saturday Jasmine went to a pool party and got quite sunburned, as she often does, despite sunscreen. We will definitely need some kind of shade-cloth to protect part of our pool area. The pool guy hadn't finished on Friday, maybe he went home a bit early because it was so hot. He was back again all day Saturday to finish, and has now taken all his tools away. The pool now has these plastic bits holding the steel cables in place ready for the concrete pour.
We spent the whole day Sunday watching dance performances. Jasmine and my niece Emma both go to the same dance school; Emma's concert was in the morning - leaning towards the little kids (Emma is three) but also with some older groups; Jasmine's was in the afternoon. Jas and Emma both performed well. The whole day was very professionally organised, most of the dancing was polished and the changeovers between dance acts swift. Very enjoyable day. The littlest kids were funny, in every group there was at least one little girl who just stood staring wide-eyed at the audience and didn't dance or move. One boy cried and was taken off, one girl started screaming the moment the lights came on stage. She sat there and screamed and screamed until she was carried away. The little kids had their teachers with them on stage dancing with them. Emma kicked off a shoe while dancing but calmly sat and put it back on then continued dancing. Jasmine does tap, modern/contemporary and jazz funk and was great. She is considering resuming ballet next year as well.
The dance school has a 15 year tradition that they get some of the dads of children in the troupe (the professional kids not ones in the "fun" groups) to dance at the end of the concert. It was hilariously entertaining. This year for the first time they danced with their daughters. There was a medley with different dads coming on with their children (only one son that I noticed, the rest girls) and doing disco, hip hop and a really moving sort of waltz. For that they played a song I haven't heard about dancing with Cinderella and daughters growing up, and it finishes with a line about Cinderella kissing you at midnight then she's gone (i.e. all grown up). I got so teary! If Jasmine joins the troupe I can totally see Tim enjoying being part of that dad's dance.
Between the two shows we had lunch and had to hang around because Jasmine had to be there early to get ready (actually we could have gone home for a while but I was enjoying being out). We sat at the little café then lay on the grass in the park next to the theatre, reading and playing with iPads. It was really lovely. I took this photo looking up at the tree I was lying under.
I had to learn to French braid Jasmine's hair because it is the signature style for her dance school. And I glued false eyelashes on her! Here she is with little Emma and aunty Ping after the show. Ping is a couple of weeks away from having baby number two, I think she found the long day very tiring.
Oh and lastly Monday is my weigh-in day, I was up 0.3 kg which I expected after a rather dodgy week, and eating out twice yesterday. Also I've been losing a decent amount every second week then maintaining or a little gain the other weeks. It's fine. If I weighed fortnightly I would only see the downward trend. I just like knowing day by day, and the fluctuations don't bother me.
PS Brandon you haven't posted for a while, are you ok?
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Sending my baby into the world
Wednesday:
I took a step forward with my novel today, I sent the synopsis to my first choice of literary agent. Now I wait. Agents typically take around 15% of your literary earnings. They are picky about who they take on as clients, they only get paid if you make money. For that commission they try to find you a publisher and negotiate contracts for you. It is not necessary to have an agent, you can try to find a publisher on your own, but I felt that publishers are more likely to look at something that comes through a reputable agent. If I don't manage to get an agent I can then approach publishers myself, but you can't really do it the other way around. If publishers rejected my book first then I'd never be able to interest an agent because they'd have no where left to send it. Third stage, if I can't find an agent or publisher, is to either decide my book is rubbish or self-publish (or both lol) but it is very difficult to market a book yourself and get heard of and in bookstores. Getting picked up by a big name publisher would be much better!
I need to get on with writing book two, which is barely started.
A man was here all day putting wooden boards around the top of the pool. Whatever.
I took a step forward with my novel today, I sent the synopsis to my first choice of literary agent. Now I wait. Agents typically take around 15% of your literary earnings. They are picky about who they take on as clients, they only get paid if you make money. For that commission they try to find you a publisher and negotiate contracts for you. It is not necessary to have an agent, you can try to find a publisher on your own, but I felt that publishers are more likely to look at something that comes through a reputable agent. If I don't manage to get an agent I can then approach publishers myself, but you can't really do it the other way around. If publishers rejected my book first then I'd never be able to interest an agent because they'd have no where left to send it. Third stage, if I can't find an agent or publisher, is to either decide my book is rubbish or self-publish (or both lol) but it is very difficult to market a book yourself and get heard of and in bookstores. Getting picked up by a big name publisher would be much better!
I need to get on with writing book two, which is barely started.
A man was here all day putting wooden boards around the top of the pool. Whatever.
Friday, September 23, 2016
End of term
Friday:
Today was the last day of school term for the kids (three out of four terms), we head into two weeks holiday. Tim doesn't have any time off so it will be the three of us finding things to do. If we get some nice spring weather we'll definitely head over to the beach a few times.
I completed my goal of finishing this round of editing by the end of term, scribbling on the hard copy print out which Tim had also made suggestions on, and I'm part way through typing up the changes. I can finish that with the kids home, no problem. The thinking part is done. I hesitate to say my novel is completely finished because I keep thinking of new things. This is version nine of the manuscript and there have been some pretty big changes since the first draft!
It's so nice to have Tim back home. And now it's the weekend!
Today was the last day of school term for the kids (three out of four terms), we head into two weeks holiday. Tim doesn't have any time off so it will be the three of us finding things to do. If we get some nice spring weather we'll definitely head over to the beach a few times.
I completed my goal of finishing this round of editing by the end of term, scribbling on the hard copy print out which Tim had also made suggestions on, and I'm part way through typing up the changes. I can finish that with the kids home, no problem. The thinking part is done. I hesitate to say my novel is completely finished because I keep thinking of new things. This is version nine of the manuscript and there have been some pretty big changes since the first draft!
It's so nice to have Tim back home. And now it's the weekend!
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Another Tuesday
Tuesday:
I meant to get out to the park, I really did. But the weather turned a bit gloomy in the afternoon so I knuckled down and worked at home in my comfy armchair and got some really good editing done. My goal is to get that finished by the end of this week, which coincides with the kids' end of school term. I'm scribbling changes on a hard copy print-out, so I'll still need to type them up, but that is easier than the thinking creative work I've been doing. It's nearly done, and polished, and a reasonable approximation of as good as it's going to get! It's been a long process, even not counting 40 years of practice. Over a year of writing, then a long break due to life happening, then about a year of rewriting and editing and polishing.
Then the scary bit, looking for a publisher.
I spent some time this morning dealing with issues about our planned swimming pool. It's those damn trees. The council decided one big tree right in the middle of the backyard has to stay, there is also a protected zone around it so that is most of the backyard blocked. They sent a suggested revised plan with the pool squashed down one side. The rest of the yard would remain wild scrub, I guess; full of lizards (nice) and spiders (not nice), under the tree constantly dropping leaves and branches (Australian gum trees like to drop branches with no warning, and although they are evergreen (ever-grey more like) they drop leaves all year round), not great for a pool. Or a pretty garden or lawn or seating around a bird bath. We had to get a big gum tree lopped at our old place in Canberra because it dropped a big branch on our neighbour's roof and broke some tiles. It is not a particularly nice tree either, it's not the one I thought we were going to have to keep. So I've been in conversation with our pool people, I told them about the bushfire protection rule which seems to allow us to remove the tree anyway because it is close to the house and we are in a bushfire-prone area. They haven't confirmed yet. It's a bit of a worry, but I guess we'll work with whatever we have, even if it ends up being a little plunge-pool in one corner. That would be sad though. I feel like we have a completely unusable back yard at the moment. None of us have been out there for ten months except to plan the pool! The kids need a backyard they can play in.
I meant to get out to the park, I really did. But the weather turned a bit gloomy in the afternoon so I knuckled down and worked at home in my comfy armchair and got some really good editing done. My goal is to get that finished by the end of this week, which coincides with the kids' end of school term. I'm scribbling changes on a hard copy print-out, so I'll still need to type them up, but that is easier than the thinking creative work I've been doing. It's nearly done, and polished, and a reasonable approximation of as good as it's going to get! It's been a long process, even not counting 40 years of practice. Over a year of writing, then a long break due to life happening, then about a year of rewriting and editing and polishing.
Then the scary bit, looking for a publisher.
I spent some time this morning dealing with issues about our planned swimming pool. It's those damn trees. The council decided one big tree right in the middle of the backyard has to stay, there is also a protected zone around it so that is most of the backyard blocked. They sent a suggested revised plan with the pool squashed down one side. The rest of the yard would remain wild scrub, I guess; full of lizards (nice) and spiders (not nice), under the tree constantly dropping leaves and branches (Australian gum trees like to drop branches with no warning, and although they are evergreen (ever-grey more like) they drop leaves all year round), not great for a pool. Or a pretty garden or lawn or seating around a bird bath. We had to get a big gum tree lopped at our old place in Canberra because it dropped a big branch on our neighbour's roof and broke some tiles. It is not a particularly nice tree either, it's not the one I thought we were going to have to keep. So I've been in conversation with our pool people, I told them about the bushfire protection rule which seems to allow us to remove the tree anyway because it is close to the house and we are in a bushfire-prone area. They haven't confirmed yet. It's a bit of a worry, but I guess we'll work with whatever we have, even if it ends up being a little plunge-pool in one corner. That would be sad though. I feel like we have a completely unusable back yard at the moment. None of us have been out there for ten months except to plan the pool! The kids need a backyard they can play in.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Quizmaster
Wednesday:
Dreary rain today. I had planned to explore the area around the nearby river in a deep picturesque gorge, looking for somewhere to sit and write/think in the winter sun. But not today (or tomorrow, apparently). I find being at home quite distracting, I do my best thinking either walking or in the bath/shower, or else sitting somewhere with a lovely view.
Some writers like to do detailed outlines of the whole story before beginning, others (like Stephen King) start with a scenario (what would happen if vampires turned up in a small town?) and start writing and see what happens. Plotter vs Pantster (ie by the seat of your pants, I think); Architect vs Gardener. I am somewhere in between. A gardener who has a plan but then lets the plants grow out of control. My eventual story isn't much like the original outline! But I need some kind of sketch before I begin. I like to know how it will end, then I can work towards that with a few major plot points.
Not quite so much eating today, but no exercise either.
They are calling for contestants for a quiz show I like, The Chase. At home, I answer as well as most contestants, say a bit more than two thirds of questions correct. You don't have to answer a certain number correct in a row with no mistakes, it's ok to pass on a couple. A little bit of me is tempted. My mother went on a game show, Sale of the Century, when I was a teenager. She knew most of the answers but it's a show where you have to have quick reflexes to press the buzzer and she was bad at that side of it, she didn't win. I was in the audience and I remember every ad break they came out and put more lipstick on her and as they walked away she would wipe it off! Anyway there are two reasons I won't be auditioning for The Chase. One is that I was hate to be on TV at this size, I could never watch it without cringing. But more importantly I freeze under that sort of pressure! Give me a written exam and I'm fine, but put me up the front with people watching and even without the TV cameras I probably wouldn't be able to answer a single question. I'd be like a rabbit in the headlights. Total brainfreeze. I can still dream though. Yeah, I'd go on, answer every question correctly, win lots of money, they'd ask me to stay on and be a quizmaster...
So here is a question, if you were going to be a star on some kind of reality competition show, and your talent was enhanced a bit so you'd win, which would you choose? Singing? Dancing? Bachelor/ette? Quiz? Next Top Model? Masterchef? Home Renovation? What would you like to be best at? I'd find it very hard to choose! But maybe singing.
Dreary rain today. I had planned to explore the area around the nearby river in a deep picturesque gorge, looking for somewhere to sit and write/think in the winter sun. But not today (or tomorrow, apparently). I find being at home quite distracting, I do my best thinking either walking or in the bath/shower, or else sitting somewhere with a lovely view.
Some writers like to do detailed outlines of the whole story before beginning, others (like Stephen King) start with a scenario (what would happen if vampires turned up in a small town?) and start writing and see what happens. Plotter vs Pantster (ie by the seat of your pants, I think); Architect vs Gardener. I am somewhere in between. A gardener who has a plan but then lets the plants grow out of control. My eventual story isn't much like the original outline! But I need some kind of sketch before I begin. I like to know how it will end, then I can work towards that with a few major plot points.
Not quite so much eating today, but no exercise either.
They are calling for contestants for a quiz show I like, The Chase. At home, I answer as well as most contestants, say a bit more than two thirds of questions correct. You don't have to answer a certain number correct in a row with no mistakes, it's ok to pass on a couple. A little bit of me is tempted. My mother went on a game show, Sale of the Century, when I was a teenager. She knew most of the answers but it's a show where you have to have quick reflexes to press the buzzer and she was bad at that side of it, she didn't win. I was in the audience and I remember every ad break they came out and put more lipstick on her and as they walked away she would wipe it off! Anyway there are two reasons I won't be auditioning for The Chase. One is that I was hate to be on TV at this size, I could never watch it without cringing. But more importantly I freeze under that sort of pressure! Give me a written exam and I'm fine, but put me up the front with people watching and even without the TV cameras I probably wouldn't be able to answer a single question. I'd be like a rabbit in the headlights. Total brainfreeze. I can still dream though. Yeah, I'd go on, answer every question correctly, win lots of money, they'd ask me to stay on and be a quizmaster...
So here is a question, if you were going to be a star on some kind of reality competition show, and your talent was enhanced a bit so you'd win, which would you choose? Singing? Dancing? Bachelor/ette? Quiz? Next Top Model? Masterchef? Home Renovation? What would you like to be best at? I'd find it very hard to choose! But maybe singing.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Writing
Tuesday:
I feel so much better today. I woke early with pelvic pain as usual, but even then could tell I'd slept well and shaken off the cold or whatever I had. My head was much clearer and I did some really good editing work on my novel all day - I actually got to the end having made the major changes I needed to make. Now I just need to read through it again and probably make minor changes, before giving it to Tim and Jasmine to read. Jasmine has been so keen to read it for ages. I am itching to print it out but I do need to go through it one more time. No doubt after more people have read it and pointed out the stuff I've missed, I'll need to make more changes! I did some major hatchet work this time so I'm a bit worried it's like Frankenstein's monster now and doesn't fit together properly. I'm too close to see. I need fresh eyes.
I didn't go to my book club meeting. I missed last month by accident, today was a last-minute on purpose decision. I'd only read a quarter of the book because I hated it. It was "The Dressmaker" which was made into a movie recently. I looked up some reviews online to see if anyone agreed with me and at least 3/4 of reviewers did! The writing style is choppy and the narrative jumps from character to character in a very confusing way, I couldn't remember who half the people were because there were so many. I looked up the plot and it seemed ok so maybe they managed to make a good movie out of it. I thought about going to the meeting anyway but decided against it. Cold drizzly day and I was busy writing my own book!
Also the shopping centre is a bit of a danger zone for me at the moment. Best I stay away from aisles of junk food as many days of the week as I can.
I feel so much better today. I woke early with pelvic pain as usual, but even then could tell I'd slept well and shaken off the cold or whatever I had. My head was much clearer and I did some really good editing work on my novel all day - I actually got to the end having made the major changes I needed to make. Now I just need to read through it again and probably make minor changes, before giving it to Tim and Jasmine to read. Jasmine has been so keen to read it for ages. I am itching to print it out but I do need to go through it one more time. No doubt after more people have read it and pointed out the stuff I've missed, I'll need to make more changes! I did some major hatchet work this time so I'm a bit worried it's like Frankenstein's monster now and doesn't fit together properly. I'm too close to see. I need fresh eyes.
I didn't go to my book club meeting. I missed last month by accident, today was a last-minute on purpose decision. I'd only read a quarter of the book because I hated it. It was "The Dressmaker" which was made into a movie recently. I looked up some reviews online to see if anyone agreed with me and at least 3/4 of reviewers did! The writing style is choppy and the narrative jumps from character to character in a very confusing way, I couldn't remember who half the people were because there were so many. I looked up the plot and it seemed ok so maybe they managed to make a good movie out of it. I thought about going to the meeting anyway but decided against it. Cold drizzly day and I was busy writing my own book!
Also the shopping centre is a bit of a danger zone for me at the moment. Best I stay away from aisles of junk food as many days of the week as I can.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Rubbish
Thursday:
Today I wonder why I even bother trying to write. My book is rubbish, my writing is rubbish... even if I ever get it finished, no publisher will ever take it. Arg and bleurg.
Today I wonder why I even bother trying to write. My book is rubbish, my writing is rubbish... even if I ever get it finished, no publisher will ever take it. Arg and bleurg.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Speed cut
Wednesday:
Today I got past a tricky spot in my writing. I'd made so many changes to earlier chapters and characters that one scene no longer made any sense as I'd originally written it, but I wasn't sure how to make it work. It's taken a whole week of thinking and staring at the screen and pondering. But I think I've got it now. All done. Except someone who was supposed to die in that scene now doesn't, and I'm not sure what is going to happen to him!
Not much else today. I took Aiden for a haircut after school, told the hairdresser how I wanted it to look, Jasmine and I settled with our electronic devices in the waiting area, a couple of minutes later it was done. Jasmine says she checked the time and it was literally two minutes. I have never seen such a quick haircut, but it looks good! She used clippers at the back, as usual, (number 4, not very short) but trimmed around the front and top with scissors so it's not like she just had to buzz all over. Maybe just very experienced hairdresser? They are the same place that saved Jasmine's hair when it was a tangled mess, I am very impressed with them so far.
Today I got past a tricky spot in my writing. I'd made so many changes to earlier chapters and characters that one scene no longer made any sense as I'd originally written it, but I wasn't sure how to make it work. It's taken a whole week of thinking and staring at the screen and pondering. But I think I've got it now. All done. Except someone who was supposed to die in that scene now doesn't, and I'm not sure what is going to happen to him!
Not much else today. I took Aiden for a haircut after school, told the hairdresser how I wanted it to look, Jasmine and I settled with our electronic devices in the waiting area, a couple of minutes later it was done. Jasmine says she checked the time and it was literally two minutes. I have never seen such a quick haircut, but it looks good! She used clippers at the back, as usual, (number 4, not very short) but trimmed around the front and top with scissors so it's not like she just had to buzz all over. Maybe just very experienced hairdresser? They are the same place that saved Jasmine's hair when it was a tangled mess, I am very impressed with them so far.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Sauerkraut
Tuesday:
I walked Aiden up to his school today because he had a few extra things to carry, he rode his bike in circles around me while I carried the extra bag. Then I walked home again VERY fast, because as usual I desperately needed to pee. Is my bladder especially tiny or is this normal? At least I got a brisk walk in.
Yesterday I had a perfect food day with around 7 serves of vegetables plus one fruit, but I still didn't make my fibre goal (22.5 grams, by far the closest I've come to the recommended 25-30 grams, most days I'm around 15). Is it possible to hit fibre goals without eating lots of starchy foods? This morning I added a fibre supplement to my water, but had to laugh when I recorded it: it added 1.5 grams of fibre. The raspberries on my yoghurt added 7.6! I think I'll stick to real food. Maybe more fruit.
I had a useful writing session, I've finished rewriting the opening to my novel (the first draft, at least) and I'm up to where that merges with what I had already written. Now I just have to go through the whole thing and make all the changes I've planned. "Just." Ha. Lots of work to do. Guitar was also good today. I really feel like I'm making progress.
Breakfast was yoghurt with fresh raspberries, a grating of dark chocolate, and a cup of tea.
By mid-morning I was starving! I delayed until rather early lunch, then served myself chicken, cheese, cucumber and sauerkraut. And a cup of tea. I've been wanting to try kimchi (Korean picked vegetables) for a while but couldn't find any, so thought I'd try sauerkraut which is Polish pickled cabbage. Actually according to the jar, the ingredients are just cabbage and salt. Hmm? Anyway I had a taste and it was ok, very low calorie, and a vegetable, so I served myself out a big helping. I only ate a few mouthfuls of this! Maybe it's supposed to be eaten with something, as a condiment? On meat maybe? I have no idea. Anyway, it didn't seem to be something you eat big forkfuls of by itself.
Apologies to all the Poles who are recoiling in horror at my treatment of sauerkraut, it is not a big ethnic group in Australia so I haven't come across this food before.
By early afternoon I was starving again! So hungry. Yet yesterday I got through the day comfortably with only three meals. I thought about that this afternoon. Of course hunger can vary due to many things, but one thing I realised is that yesterday I had big helpings of filling vegetables at every meal. Not today. I will attend to this in future.
I tried to stave off the hunger pangs with a pear.
Still hungry. Had some cheese and cashews. Finally not ravenous! But I would have been better with lots of low calorie vegetables with my meals.
I didn't make that mistake with dinner. I had a pork steak with mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce (not too much sauce) with asparagus, broccoli, tomato, cucumber and carrot. Very full after dinner.
I walked Aiden up to his school today because he had a few extra things to carry, he rode his bike in circles around me while I carried the extra bag. Then I walked home again VERY fast, because as usual I desperately needed to pee. Is my bladder especially tiny or is this normal? At least I got a brisk walk in.
Yesterday I had a perfect food day with around 7 serves of vegetables plus one fruit, but I still didn't make my fibre goal (22.5 grams, by far the closest I've come to the recommended 25-30 grams, most days I'm around 15). Is it possible to hit fibre goals without eating lots of starchy foods? This morning I added a fibre supplement to my water, but had to laugh when I recorded it: it added 1.5 grams of fibre. The raspberries on my yoghurt added 7.6! I think I'll stick to real food. Maybe more fruit.
I had a useful writing session, I've finished rewriting the opening to my novel (the first draft, at least) and I'm up to where that merges with what I had already written. Now I just have to go through the whole thing and make all the changes I've planned. "Just." Ha. Lots of work to do. Guitar was also good today. I really feel like I'm making progress.
Breakfast was yoghurt with fresh raspberries, a grating of dark chocolate, and a cup of tea.
By mid-morning I was starving! I delayed until rather early lunch, then served myself chicken, cheese, cucumber and sauerkraut. And a cup of tea. I've been wanting to try kimchi (Korean picked vegetables) for a while but couldn't find any, so thought I'd try sauerkraut which is Polish pickled cabbage. Actually according to the jar, the ingredients are just cabbage and salt. Hmm? Anyway I had a taste and it was ok, very low calorie, and a vegetable, so I served myself out a big helping. I only ate a few mouthfuls of this! Maybe it's supposed to be eaten with something, as a condiment? On meat maybe? I have no idea. Anyway, it didn't seem to be something you eat big forkfuls of by itself.
Apologies to all the Poles who are recoiling in horror at my treatment of sauerkraut, it is not a big ethnic group in Australia so I haven't come across this food before.
By early afternoon I was starving again! So hungry. Yet yesterday I got through the day comfortably with only three meals. I thought about that this afternoon. Of course hunger can vary due to many things, but one thing I realised is that yesterday I had big helpings of filling vegetables at every meal. Not today. I will attend to this in future.
I tried to stave off the hunger pangs with a pear.
I didn't make that mistake with dinner. I had a pork steak with mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce (not too much sauce) with asparagus, broccoli, tomato, cucumber and carrot. Very full after dinner.
Monday, December 14, 2015
The next 20 years
Tuesday:
The end of the year seems a good time to think about this stuff, particularly as we are settled in a new place and expecting to be here for many years - something we've had uncertainty about for the past several years now.
So, what am I going to do with myself for the next 20 years? I am 45 now, so I still have a good 20 years before "retirement" from whatever I'm doing (and I don't intend to just nail myself into a coffin after that, but I might feel less guilty about not working). Obviously being a good wife and mother are and will always be important, but I have plenty of hours in the day to do something that gives me a sense of accomplishment and maybe earns a bit of money.
I have a couple of barriers to full time work, firstly I only intend to work during school hours, and secondly I have quite serious RSI issues that mean I can only do desk work for around three hours a day. I have tried five hours a day part-time computer work and the pain was coming back in a major way. With plenty of breaks and stretches I can comfortably do about three hours a day at a desk, plus I suppose other work not at a desk - but all the kinds of work I like are at a desk. For a while, when I had to leave my full time job due to the RSI pain 15 years ago, I thought about other types of work away from a desk and I even started a landscaping course. I was quite fun but working outside in all weather isn't really me. You many have noticed I like my home comforts! I am smart and shy, being alone at a desk suits me.
Playing computer games (and iPhone) of course also counts towards time I can spend at a desk, I have to be very careful. This weekend when we played quite a lot I could feel the burning and stiffness start in my shoulders and right hand.
Work I have done successfully since then, apart from raising two children, is writing and editing. As I said, five hours a day part time was too much, and I think it would be very hard to find an employer who would hire someone for less hours than that, so that leaves my freelance editing business. I managed to get enough work to fill my limited hours, and it was quite interesting work I think I was good at, but it didn't pay very well and often at the end of the month I would wonder if it was worth doing. I think I would have to charge quite a bit more to make it worthwhile financially, and that is tricky because the clients I want - fiction authors - often don't have a lot of money to spend on editing. Only the boring government work pays well, and that requires more hours than I can give.
What I really want to do, what I've always wanted to do my whole life, is be an author. Over the past couple of years I did finally write the first draft of an entire novel, which I am very proud of. But it still needs a lot of work before offering it to a publisher and in 2015 I barely looked at it. A lot has gone on this year in my life and I've used that as an excuse. Can I justify being an "author" at home and not earning any money if I'm not actually writing? Obviously I need to get writing again! How long do I give myself to do this before I put it to one side and find other work? 2016 to make significant progress, get it polished and offered to publishers?
I think that is the answer for now. In 2016 I will write and polish and really try to make a go of being an author. A couple of hours a day at home or in a café or library.
The end of the year seems a good time to think about this stuff, particularly as we are settled in a new place and expecting to be here for many years - something we've had uncertainty about for the past several years now.
So, what am I going to do with myself for the next 20 years? I am 45 now, so I still have a good 20 years before "retirement" from whatever I'm doing (and I don't intend to just nail myself into a coffin after that, but I might feel less guilty about not working). Obviously being a good wife and mother are and will always be important, but I have plenty of hours in the day to do something that gives me a sense of accomplishment and maybe earns a bit of money.
I have a couple of barriers to full time work, firstly I only intend to work during school hours, and secondly I have quite serious RSI issues that mean I can only do desk work for around three hours a day. I have tried five hours a day part-time computer work and the pain was coming back in a major way. With plenty of breaks and stretches I can comfortably do about three hours a day at a desk, plus I suppose other work not at a desk - but all the kinds of work I like are at a desk. For a while, when I had to leave my full time job due to the RSI pain 15 years ago, I thought about other types of work away from a desk and I even started a landscaping course. I was quite fun but working outside in all weather isn't really me. You many have noticed I like my home comforts! I am smart and shy, being alone at a desk suits me.
Playing computer games (and iPhone) of course also counts towards time I can spend at a desk, I have to be very careful. This weekend when we played quite a lot I could feel the burning and stiffness start in my shoulders and right hand.
Work I have done successfully since then, apart from raising two children, is writing and editing. As I said, five hours a day part time was too much, and I think it would be very hard to find an employer who would hire someone for less hours than that, so that leaves my freelance editing business. I managed to get enough work to fill my limited hours, and it was quite interesting work I think I was good at, but it didn't pay very well and often at the end of the month I would wonder if it was worth doing. I think I would have to charge quite a bit more to make it worthwhile financially, and that is tricky because the clients I want - fiction authors - often don't have a lot of money to spend on editing. Only the boring government work pays well, and that requires more hours than I can give.
What I really want to do, what I've always wanted to do my whole life, is be an author. Over the past couple of years I did finally write the first draft of an entire novel, which I am very proud of. But it still needs a lot of work before offering it to a publisher and in 2015 I barely looked at it. A lot has gone on this year in my life and I've used that as an excuse. Can I justify being an "author" at home and not earning any money if I'm not actually writing? Obviously I need to get writing again! How long do I give myself to do this before I put it to one side and find other work? 2016 to make significant progress, get it polished and offered to publishers?
I think that is the answer for now. In 2016 I will write and polish and really try to make a go of being an author. A couple of hours a day at home or in a café or library.
Friday, July 31, 2015
The hills of exhaustion
Friday:
Another bad night. I'm not sure what to do about it. I spend enough hours in bed, I (usually) wear my CPAP, I've been walking during the day, I (usually) take my Vitamin D and B12 each day. Oh well, I'll keep going to bed each night and hope something changes.
I was exhausted and headachy this morning and decided to get out into the fresh air - I guess that is good progress, choosing a walk to try to feel better! - so I went to the Arboretum. I wandered around among the winter-bare trees and climbed the steep hill to the "wide brown land" sculpture (it's a phrase from a famous poem about Australia).
I was feeling a lot better at this point. Bit of fresh air and exercise did help.
As I started back down towards the café I was suddenly bombarded with inspiration for work on my novel. I had to wait until I got down the hill and grabbed my manuscript from the car, then sat in the café and scribbled frantically for half an hour. By the end of that time I had my ideas down on paper, but I also had my headache and exhaustion back.
I dragged myself to the shops and had lunch and bought groceries then came home. I made some bad food choices today. Too tired to make the effort to struggle. And guess whether eating unhealthy foods made me feel better or less headachy? But when I am so tired it is just so difficult to make good choices.
The tradesman came on time and spent the whole day here installing the new ceiling in the rumpus room. I don't know why I got all hopeful about it getting finished, it still needs to be sanded and painted. Next week some time. Sigh. So we can't put anything in there yet. It's supposed to rain on the weekend, that will be the real test of the repairs.
Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Great.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Terrible.
Mental health: Ok.
Another bad night. I'm not sure what to do about it. I spend enough hours in bed, I (usually) wear my CPAP, I've been walking during the day, I (usually) take my Vitamin D and B12 each day. Oh well, I'll keep going to bed each night and hope something changes.
I was exhausted and headachy this morning and decided to get out into the fresh air - I guess that is good progress, choosing a walk to try to feel better! - so I went to the Arboretum. I wandered around among the winter-bare trees and climbed the steep hill to the "wide brown land" sculpture (it's a phrase from a famous poem about Australia).
As I started back down towards the café I was suddenly bombarded with inspiration for work on my novel. I had to wait until I got down the hill and grabbed my manuscript from the car, then sat in the café and scribbled frantically for half an hour. By the end of that time I had my ideas down on paper, but I also had my headache and exhaustion back.
I dragged myself to the shops and had lunch and bought groceries then came home. I made some bad food choices today. Too tired to make the effort to struggle. And guess whether eating unhealthy foods made me feel better or less headachy? But when I am so tired it is just so difficult to make good choices.
The tradesman came on time and spent the whole day here installing the new ceiling in the rumpus room. I don't know why I got all hopeful about it getting finished, it still needs to be sanded and painted. Next week some time. Sigh. So we can't put anything in there yet. It's supposed to rain on the weekend, that will be the real test of the repairs.
Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Great.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Terrible.
Mental health: Ok.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Character arc
Thursday:
I had a letter to mail today and it wasn't actually raining (though still rather damp and dreary) so I walked to the post office to mail it. There is a post box much closer than that, but walking for 30 minutes allowed me to buy myself a treat (twisties - cheese flavoured snack food). I haven't finished that motivation book yet, for some reason I'm having trouble getting motivated enough to read it (I've been reading old favourites instead, like Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse, which I always do when I am sick, sad, tired or stressed), but I have got up to one piece of advice which is to tie exercise to something you enjoy. A friend of mine only allows herself to watch a certain favourite show when she is on the treadmill, so that gets her to the gym. I'm not sure treating yourself with junk food is what they meant, but it got me out of the house!
That is three times in the past four days that I have walked, which is a good streak for me.
Other than that, I worked on my novel a bit, which I have also done several times this week. As you will remember, I was given a critique on my early draft by my writing group back in February. It took a little while to recover from hearing that it wasn't perfect, and then my dad got sick and died, and basically I wasn't ready to work on editing it for a while. But I am now. The group gave me lots of nice feedback, but a major criticism was that my main character didn't have any real wants or needs (this is a big flaw!). Things happen to her, like being enslaved and attacked by dragons and so on, but the group asked me "what does she want?" "To go home," I replied. "No she doesn't," they said. "She hardly ever even thinks about home, and she doesn't have anything compelling to make her want to go back. Sure, she doesn't want to get eaten by dragons, no-one does, but that does not give her a great character arc." etc.
For a movie example of how important this is, Bruce Willis in Die Hard doesn't just want to stay alive and maybe rescue a few random people, he desperately want to save his estranged wife whom he still loves. Even a motivation like "saving the entire world" isn't enough, it has to be personal to the protagonist. What matters most to them, what would they go through anything for? Frodo is going to Mount Doom to save the world, but Sam is going to protect Frodo.
This is something that requires a lot of thought and reworking. Part of my heroine's character arc is that she goes from being quite passive to taking control of her life, and that is fine. But she still needs a strong motivation - which may change during the course of her story as she finds out that what she wants maybe isn't what she really needs. Getting buffeted from dramatic event to dramatic event gives her a story-line, but doesn't make her a compelling character who you want to succeed.
So my current work on my novel is more thinking than writing. I get to the end of a session only having written a few notes, but hopefully with more things worked out. Actually most of my ideas arrive when I'm walking, driving, showering, or about to go to sleep. Not so much when I'm sitting with pen and paper!
The tiler came back today and stood on the roof with the garden hose, with me inside waiting for water to come through. Hopefully we have found the problem now, he is coming back tomorrow or early next week to fix it. It supposed to rain tomorrow which would mean it's too dangerous to be up on the roof.
Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Terrible.
Mental health: Ok.
I was extremely restless last night, and while asleep had vivid annoying dreams. An intruder who sat around in the house and wouldn't leave even when I prodded him with a little knife. Getting to the start of a 5k race and paying my fee then they wouldn't let me run because I was two minutes late. Stuff like that. Frustrating.
I learned something while watching the Tour de France bike race, I heard the word "bobo" and saw the translation of "small injury" come up on the screen. It's not a term I use but I've heard it a lot and assumed it was a childish thing. But no, it's French!
I had a letter to mail today and it wasn't actually raining (though still rather damp and dreary) so I walked to the post office to mail it. There is a post box much closer than that, but walking for 30 minutes allowed me to buy myself a treat (twisties - cheese flavoured snack food). I haven't finished that motivation book yet, for some reason I'm having trouble getting motivated enough to read it (I've been reading old favourites instead, like Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse, which I always do when I am sick, sad, tired or stressed), but I have got up to one piece of advice which is to tie exercise to something you enjoy. A friend of mine only allows herself to watch a certain favourite show when she is on the treadmill, so that gets her to the gym. I'm not sure treating yourself with junk food is what they meant, but it got me out of the house!
That is three times in the past four days that I have walked, which is a good streak for me.
Other than that, I worked on my novel a bit, which I have also done several times this week. As you will remember, I was given a critique on my early draft by my writing group back in February. It took a little while to recover from hearing that it wasn't perfect, and then my dad got sick and died, and basically I wasn't ready to work on editing it for a while. But I am now. The group gave me lots of nice feedback, but a major criticism was that my main character didn't have any real wants or needs (this is a big flaw!). Things happen to her, like being enslaved and attacked by dragons and so on, but the group asked me "what does she want?" "To go home," I replied. "No she doesn't," they said. "She hardly ever even thinks about home, and she doesn't have anything compelling to make her want to go back. Sure, she doesn't want to get eaten by dragons, no-one does, but that does not give her a great character arc." etc.
For a movie example of how important this is, Bruce Willis in Die Hard doesn't just want to stay alive and maybe rescue a few random people, he desperately want to save his estranged wife whom he still loves. Even a motivation like "saving the entire world" isn't enough, it has to be personal to the protagonist. What matters most to them, what would they go through anything for? Frodo is going to Mount Doom to save the world, but Sam is going to protect Frodo.
This is something that requires a lot of thought and reworking. Part of my heroine's character arc is that she goes from being quite passive to taking control of her life, and that is fine. But she still needs a strong motivation - which may change during the course of her story as she finds out that what she wants maybe isn't what she really needs. Getting buffeted from dramatic event to dramatic event gives her a story-line, but doesn't make her a compelling character who you want to succeed.
So my current work on my novel is more thinking than writing. I get to the end of a session only having written a few notes, but hopefully with more things worked out. Actually most of my ideas arrive when I'm walking, driving, showering, or about to go to sleep. Not so much when I'm sitting with pen and paper!
The tiler came back today and stood on the roof with the garden hose, with me inside waiting for water to come through. Hopefully we have found the problem now, he is coming back tomorrow or early next week to fix it. It supposed to rain tomorrow which would mean it's too dangerous to be up on the roof.
Report card:
Diet: Poor.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Ok.
Sleep: Terrible.
Mental health: Ok.
I was extremely restless last night, and while asleep had vivid annoying dreams. An intruder who sat around in the house and wouldn't leave even when I prodded him with a little knife. Getting to the start of a 5k race and paying my fee then they wouldn't let me run because I was two minutes late. Stuff like that. Frustrating.
I learned something while watching the Tour de France bike race, I heard the word "bobo" and saw the translation of "small injury" come up on the screen. It's not a term I use but I've heard it a lot and assumed it was a childish thing. But no, it's French!
Monday, July 20, 2015
Out and about
Monday:
I had lots of plans for the day, although life got in the way a bit first. Tim had a problem with his bike so I drove him to work, which wasn't a problem, but then I decided to change my plans because I was over that side of the lake now. I went to the Art Gallery so I could work on editing my novel in the café there. After some trouble getting into the car park, I realised that in fact the place didn't open for another hour! So I ended up going with my original plan and headed over to the café at the Arboretum.
There is such a beautiful view from the windows. I first sat for an hour with my pot of tea and looked out the window and played games on my iPhone. This was definitely not wasted time, I was more relaxed and happy than I had been for a couple of weeks since I got sick, and I really enjoyed it. Still a sore throat today, but otherwise much better.
I then did some work on my manuscript, not a lot but it was a good start considering I haven't even looked at it since dad got sick.
It was a lovely mild winter's day, the only unpleasant bit was this entrance to the café, the approach is always frigid like the Ice King's morning breath. I think it forms a wind tunnel or something, and it's already on top of a mountain!
After my editing session, I went out for a walk among the trees. Some of them had woolly jumpers on, I think as an art installation rather than to keep them warm.
I took it pretty easy, but the whole area is on a steep hillside so there was a fair bit of up and down. I walked for about half an hour and enjoyed it! Such a lovely location.
I had lunch at the food court of the shopping centre and chose a Taiwanese chicken stir fry with a side of vegetables instead of rice. I ate half the chicken and all my broccoli. Then did the grocery shopping and came home.
I didn't blog yesterday, I didn't do much. I did eat some cake, and mentioned to Tim that I hadn't eaten any bread at lunchtime (we had steak sandwiches, I ate mine without the bread) as if that made it ok and he nearly wet himself laughing. I guess I didn't exactly mean cake was a good choice, or a better option than bread, I was just pointing out that I didn't have both.
We spent some time looking at houses for sale in Sydney. I printed out a floor plan that I thought was ideal for us (ie not just the right number of rooms, but things like having the kids' bedrooms near ours instead of right up the other end of the house or on a different floor), and then we found a house with almost that exact floor plan that had just been listed, in the area we want, probably in our price range (I rang the agent) although it's hard to be sure because it is going to auction and it's very competitive in Sydney at the moment. I really need to stop falling in love with houses I've only seen on the internet. But at least I have all the pleasure of loving them, while it lasts. We have a month to get there and see it before the auction, maybe they will take an offer before then? Can't next weekend, we have all of Tim's family visiting us. Anyway, we haven't got a definite yes from his work yet.
I have a lot of fun planning a move, and thinking about where the furniture will go and everything. And I'm not crushed if something (like Norfolk Island) doesn't end up happening. But while we are still in the planning stage, I do have some anxiety about someone else buying the house I want before I can grab it!
My other annoyance is that the tiling guy still hasn't come back, even though when I called last week they said by the end of that week. I need to get the ceiling fixed! And it's going to rain again this week, too.
I haven't posted photos of the new curtains yet. This is what the old ones looked like:
I haven't been able to get a photo that shows the true colours of the new ones, but the lounge and kitchen are a greyish blue:
Close-up pattern (yes that is the same as the previous picture!):
The study and games room are "string" colour, which I would call pale gold:
With the same pattern:
Sorry, that was the best I could do. They look quite elegant in real life.
Report card:
Diet: Mostly good.
Exercise: Good!
Water: Good, I'll get there by tonight.
Sleep: I thought I was very restless but I didn't feel tired today so I could be wrong. Wasn't wearing my fitbit for thrashing-around stats.
Mental health: Good.
I had lots of plans for the day, although life got in the way a bit first. Tim had a problem with his bike so I drove him to work, which wasn't a problem, but then I decided to change my plans because I was over that side of the lake now. I went to the Art Gallery so I could work on editing my novel in the café there. After some trouble getting into the car park, I realised that in fact the place didn't open for another hour! So I ended up going with my original plan and headed over to the café at the Arboretum.
There is such a beautiful view from the windows. I first sat for an hour with my pot of tea and looked out the window and played games on my iPhone. This was definitely not wasted time, I was more relaxed and happy than I had been for a couple of weeks since I got sick, and I really enjoyed it. Still a sore throat today, but otherwise much better.
It was a lovely mild winter's day, the only unpleasant bit was this entrance to the café, the approach is always frigid like the Ice King's morning breath. I think it forms a wind tunnel or something, and it's already on top of a mountain!
After my editing session, I went out for a walk among the trees. Some of them had woolly jumpers on, I think as an art installation rather than to keep them warm.
I took it pretty easy, but the whole area is on a steep hillside so there was a fair bit of up and down. I walked for about half an hour and enjoyed it! Such a lovely location.
I had lunch at the food court of the shopping centre and chose a Taiwanese chicken stir fry with a side of vegetables instead of rice. I ate half the chicken and all my broccoli. Then did the grocery shopping and came home.
I didn't blog yesterday, I didn't do much. I did eat some cake, and mentioned to Tim that I hadn't eaten any bread at lunchtime (we had steak sandwiches, I ate mine without the bread) as if that made it ok and he nearly wet himself laughing. I guess I didn't exactly mean cake was a good choice, or a better option than bread, I was just pointing out that I didn't have both.
We spent some time looking at houses for sale in Sydney. I printed out a floor plan that I thought was ideal for us (ie not just the right number of rooms, but things like having the kids' bedrooms near ours instead of right up the other end of the house or on a different floor), and then we found a house with almost that exact floor plan that had just been listed, in the area we want, probably in our price range (I rang the agent) although it's hard to be sure because it is going to auction and it's very competitive in Sydney at the moment. I really need to stop falling in love with houses I've only seen on the internet. But at least I have all the pleasure of loving them, while it lasts. We have a month to get there and see it before the auction, maybe they will take an offer before then? Can't next weekend, we have all of Tim's family visiting us. Anyway, we haven't got a definite yes from his work yet.
I have a lot of fun planning a move, and thinking about where the furniture will go and everything. And I'm not crushed if something (like Norfolk Island) doesn't end up happening. But while we are still in the planning stage, I do have some anxiety about someone else buying the house I want before I can grab it!
My other annoyance is that the tiling guy still hasn't come back, even though when I called last week they said by the end of that week. I need to get the ceiling fixed! And it's going to rain again this week, too.
I haven't posted photos of the new curtains yet. This is what the old ones looked like:
I haven't been able to get a photo that shows the true colours of the new ones, but the lounge and kitchen are a greyish blue:
Close-up pattern (yes that is the same as the previous picture!):
The study and games room are "string" colour, which I would call pale gold:
With the same pattern:
Sorry, that was the best I could do. They look quite elegant in real life.
Report card:
Diet: Mostly good.
Exercise: Good!
Water: Good, I'll get there by tonight.
Sleep: I thought I was very restless but I didn't feel tired today so I could be wrong. Wasn't wearing my fitbit for thrashing-around stats.
Mental health: Good.
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Just dance
Wednesday:
We spent most of today waiting around for the curtain guy, who was more than three hours later than I expected (to be fair, they only gave me an approximate time). Ceiling to floor blue in the kitchen and lounge, "string" (cream/gold) in the study and dining room, same subtle pattern like falling rain on all. Quite elegant. Also white blinds in Jasmine's room. I can't think of much else we did other than some housework. By the time the guy had enstalled everything it was too late to go out. Luckily the kids play very well together and entertain themselves, but we're a quarter of the way through their holidays and we haven't done anything yet! Definitely tomorrow.
In the evening I had my monthly writers' group. I didn't feel like going out but made myself. I haven't written anything for months but it's good to still be part of the community.
Report card:
Diet: Mostly good.
Exercise: Poor, none again.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Ok. Awesome dream including singing and dancing with a big group on stage (it was actually a routine from the Xbox game Just Dance) and the crowd going wild! I woke up happy, and thought of it often throughout the day, and even looked up the song to watch the routine! It wasn't just the performing and applause, it was being part of a group all having fun together.
Mental health: Good.
We spent most of today waiting around for the curtain guy, who was more than three hours later than I expected (to be fair, they only gave me an approximate time). Ceiling to floor blue in the kitchen and lounge, "string" (cream/gold) in the study and dining room, same subtle pattern like falling rain on all. Quite elegant. Also white blinds in Jasmine's room. I can't think of much else we did other than some housework. By the time the guy had enstalled everything it was too late to go out. Luckily the kids play very well together and entertain themselves, but we're a quarter of the way through their holidays and we haven't done anything yet! Definitely tomorrow.
In the evening I had my monthly writers' group. I didn't feel like going out but made myself. I haven't written anything for months but it's good to still be part of the community.
Report card:
Diet: Mostly good.
Exercise: Poor, none again.
Water: Good.
Sleep: Ok. Awesome dream including singing and dancing with a big group on stage (it was actually a routine from the Xbox game Just Dance) and the crowd going wild! I woke up happy, and thought of it often throughout the day, and even looked up the song to watch the routine! It wasn't just the performing and applause, it was being part of a group all having fun together.
Mental health: Good.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Housework workout
Thursday:
I read an article in New Scientist today (from Australian issue no3010) about a big predictor of obesity being the mother's activity level during pregnancy.
"When pregnant women are physically active, the increased energy demands redirect nutrients to her muscles and away from her fetus. This competition between the mother's muscles and the developing fetus's fat cells produces leaner, healthier babies. Their genes and food intake are irrelevant to the process.
This competition doesn't happen in inactive mothers. Without having to struggle for energy and nutrients, the fat cells in the fetus increase in both size and number..." (p32)
So it was all our mother's fault! But seriously, it says a lot about the importance of staying active and healthy during pregnancy. Giving up smoking and alcohol, and controlling gestational diabetes, are not enough any more. They now say that the health of the father's sperm (related to his age and health) are very important too.
I lay awake a long time last night thinking about all the changes that need to be made to my novel. I was buzzing with excitement and ideas. A little bit embarrassed about the all the (now obvious and glaring) faults in the version the critique group read. But eager to get started. When I finally got to sleep I did get some good dreamtime.
But this morning I couldn't work on my novel. In a "just in case" move, yesterday I arranged for a real estate agent to come to the house today to give us a valuation so that we would have an idea of how much money we had to spend on a new house. So I spent a solid three hours cleaning the house so that it was to a semi-decent level, enough that I could let someone in to see it. I didn't even attempt to clean the kids' rooms except for making the beds. But I did a lot of other stuff, I was literally dripping sweat and got a workout worthy of a trip to the gym. I am not much of a housekeeper, I like a clean house but it just isn't my top priority. But I could let the agent in at lunchtime and have the house merely looking like I hadn't had much time to tidy up, rather than its usual state of looking like a bomb went off during a tornado in a rubbish tip. He gave an estimate similar to what I had been expecting, and some advice about replacing the carpet and repainting and whether to auction etc.
We have decided to look at "the castle" in person. And I have lined up an interview with the loan officer at my bank to talk about the loan we'd need if we bought a house before selling this one. Just in case. We have 100% equity here now so I think that would be ok. And Tim is looking for a way to make the work thing happen.
I don't have my heart totally set on this house I haven't even seen "in the flesh" as it were, but if we do all love it, we're as ready as we can be to outbid the competition. And we do all like the look of it, and we're all keen to move to that city and that area. So you never know.
I was really tired in the afternoon after all that housework and had an energy slump and turned to food. My afternoon snack turned into a 500 calorie meal! Including three chocolate biscuits, leftover from what I took to the critique supper last night (and resisted then!). I had a light lunch and small dinner so I am still ok for calories but I don't like that out of control element. Yet again it was due to tiredness rather than hunger. I think there was a lack of mental focus too, I'm so distracted by having my novel critiqued and the thought of moving house in a hurry that I'm finding it hard to think about healthy living, and I'm not yet in autopilot on the food and exercise. I have to concentrate to make it happen!
Report card:
Diet: Ok. Good for most of the day except mid-afternoon.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Good. Finally!
Sleep: Good, once I eventually got to sleep.
Mental health: A bit overstimulated.
I read an article in New Scientist today (from Australian issue no3010) about a big predictor of obesity being the mother's activity level during pregnancy.
"When pregnant women are physically active, the increased energy demands redirect nutrients to her muscles and away from her fetus. This competition between the mother's muscles and the developing fetus's fat cells produces leaner, healthier babies. Their genes and food intake are irrelevant to the process.
This competition doesn't happen in inactive mothers. Without having to struggle for energy and nutrients, the fat cells in the fetus increase in both size and number..." (p32)
So it was all our mother's fault! But seriously, it says a lot about the importance of staying active and healthy during pregnancy. Giving up smoking and alcohol, and controlling gestational diabetes, are not enough any more. They now say that the health of the father's sperm (related to his age and health) are very important too.
I lay awake a long time last night thinking about all the changes that need to be made to my novel. I was buzzing with excitement and ideas. A little bit embarrassed about the all the (now obvious and glaring) faults in the version the critique group read. But eager to get started. When I finally got to sleep I did get some good dreamtime.
But this morning I couldn't work on my novel. In a "just in case" move, yesterday I arranged for a real estate agent to come to the house today to give us a valuation so that we would have an idea of how much money we had to spend on a new house. So I spent a solid three hours cleaning the house so that it was to a semi-decent level, enough that I could let someone in to see it. I didn't even attempt to clean the kids' rooms except for making the beds. But I did a lot of other stuff, I was literally dripping sweat and got a workout worthy of a trip to the gym. I am not much of a housekeeper, I like a clean house but it just isn't my top priority. But I could let the agent in at lunchtime and have the house merely looking like I hadn't had much time to tidy up, rather than its usual state of looking like a bomb went off during a tornado in a rubbish tip. He gave an estimate similar to what I had been expecting, and some advice about replacing the carpet and repainting and whether to auction etc.
We have decided to look at "the castle" in person. And I have lined up an interview with the loan officer at my bank to talk about the loan we'd need if we bought a house before selling this one. Just in case. We have 100% equity here now so I think that would be ok. And Tim is looking for a way to make the work thing happen.
I don't have my heart totally set on this house I haven't even seen "in the flesh" as it were, but if we do all love it, we're as ready as we can be to outbid the competition. And we do all like the look of it, and we're all keen to move to that city and that area. So you never know.
I was really tired in the afternoon after all that housework and had an energy slump and turned to food. My afternoon snack turned into a 500 calorie meal! Including three chocolate biscuits, leftover from what I took to the critique supper last night (and resisted then!). I had a light lunch and small dinner so I am still ok for calories but I don't like that out of control element. Yet again it was due to tiredness rather than hunger. I think there was a lack of mental focus too, I'm so distracted by having my novel critiqued and the thought of moving house in a hurry that I'm finding it hard to think about healthy living, and I'm not yet in autopilot on the food and exercise. I have to concentrate to make it happen!
Report card:
Diet: Ok. Good for most of the day except mid-afternoon.
Exercise: Good.
Water: Good. Finally!
Sleep: Good, once I eventually got to sleep.
Mental health: A bit overstimulated.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Novel critique
Wednesday:
I had a really good sleep last night, I'm getting used to the CPAP again.
After doing some office work, I went to the gym. Listened to Queen and hiked through 54 minutes of the USA (started in Yosemite but I think I teleported all over the place. Sierra Nevada? California? Are those all in different areas?). I didn't sprint but I felt pretty good. Solid sweaty workout.
Then almost immediately afterwards, walking down the stairs, I started to feel really trembly, shaky in the legs, and weird. This happens occasionally. I don't seem to have good control of my blood sugar levels sometimes, and this dates from well before I became pre-diabetic. Strenuous exercise and/or poor food management can bring on a little episode. At least I think it's caused by low blood sugar. Maybe it's low blood pressure. Or something else entirely? But eating seems to help.
Anyway I didn't have any food with me, I should take a banana to the gym just in case. I bought a packet of Doritos for quick carbs. Chocolate can be good too except the high fat means it takes longer to absorb. Fruit is better, if available, for an instant sugar hit. Came home and had a proper balanced lunch. Still feel pretty wobbly and sick for an hour after finishing my workout. I didn't even have a shower for a couple of hours, I didn't trust myself to stand up for so long on a potentially slippery floor. But eventually I was ok.
Then after taking Jasmine to dance class it was time for my novel critique group! I'd been through a similar process a couple of times for short stories but this was my novel, my magnum opus, my baby! It went well. The group said some very nice things but also pointed out plenty of areas that needed work. They were mostly in agreement with each other, which was helpful, and I nearly always agreed with them too. They were either things that had worried me all along or else things I accepted as soon as they were pointed out. So useful to have input from people a bit less emotionally involved than I am.
There were a couple of times I felt the reader had missed my point, or where different readers had different opinions, but overall it was great. I never felt personally attacked or got defensive, and I am now fizzing with ideas of things to work on. My writing guild has a lot of experience and many published and awarded authors, one of my readers is moderately famous (Russell Kirkpatrick, who has his own Wikipedia page). You'd normally have to pay a lot of money to get this kind of advice, all I have to do is read and critique their work in exchange.
Only problem there is little chance it will be ready in a month, which is when I am going to a social event full of people in the publishing industry. I was hoping to be able to have it polished and ready just in case someone said, "oh sure, email it to me" and I could bypass the swampy mire of the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts. Well, you never know.
Report card:
Diet: Ok. I'm giving myself an ok despite the Doritos and a handful of hot chips (and no vegetables) with dinner. I ate healthy the rest of the day, including only a couple of grapes for supper at the critique even though the table was covered in yummy things.
Exercise: Great. Session at the gym and a total of 9,650 steps.
Water: Terrible. Worst day for ages. 4 glasses. Just got too stressed and busy in the afternoon and evening.
Sleep: Great. Lovely sleep.
Mental health: Great. Nervous and excited all day, but not distressed.
I had a really good sleep last night, I'm getting used to the CPAP again.
After doing some office work, I went to the gym. Listened to Queen and hiked through 54 minutes of the USA (started in Yosemite but I think I teleported all over the place. Sierra Nevada? California? Are those all in different areas?). I didn't sprint but I felt pretty good. Solid sweaty workout.
Then almost immediately afterwards, walking down the stairs, I started to feel really trembly, shaky in the legs, and weird. This happens occasionally. I don't seem to have good control of my blood sugar levels sometimes, and this dates from well before I became pre-diabetic. Strenuous exercise and/or poor food management can bring on a little episode. At least I think it's caused by low blood sugar. Maybe it's low blood pressure. Or something else entirely? But eating seems to help.
Anyway I didn't have any food with me, I should take a banana to the gym just in case. I bought a packet of Doritos for quick carbs. Chocolate can be good too except the high fat means it takes longer to absorb. Fruit is better, if available, for an instant sugar hit. Came home and had a proper balanced lunch. Still feel pretty wobbly and sick for an hour after finishing my workout. I didn't even have a shower for a couple of hours, I didn't trust myself to stand up for so long on a potentially slippery floor. But eventually I was ok.
Then after taking Jasmine to dance class it was time for my novel critique group! I'd been through a similar process a couple of times for short stories but this was my novel, my magnum opus, my baby! It went well. The group said some very nice things but also pointed out plenty of areas that needed work. They were mostly in agreement with each other, which was helpful, and I nearly always agreed with them too. They were either things that had worried me all along or else things I accepted as soon as they were pointed out. So useful to have input from people a bit less emotionally involved than I am.
There were a couple of times I felt the reader had missed my point, or where different readers had different opinions, but overall it was great. I never felt personally attacked or got defensive, and I am now fizzing with ideas of things to work on. My writing guild has a lot of experience and many published and awarded authors, one of my readers is moderately famous (Russell Kirkpatrick, who has his own Wikipedia page). You'd normally have to pay a lot of money to get this kind of advice, all I have to do is read and critique their work in exchange.
Only problem there is little chance it will be ready in a month, which is when I am going to a social event full of people in the publishing industry. I was hoping to be able to have it polished and ready just in case someone said, "oh sure, email it to me" and I could bypass the swampy mire of the "slush pile" of unsolicited manuscripts. Well, you never know.
Report card:
Diet: Ok. I'm giving myself an ok despite the Doritos and a handful of hot chips (and no vegetables) with dinner. I ate healthy the rest of the day, including only a couple of grapes for supper at the critique even though the table was covered in yummy things.
Exercise: Great. Session at the gym and a total of 9,650 steps.
Water: Terrible. Worst day for ages. 4 glasses. Just got too stressed and busy in the afternoon and evening.
Sleep: Great. Lovely sleep.
Mental health: Great. Nervous and excited all day, but not distressed.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Lovely feedback
Sunday:
I posted my novel for my writing group on Friday, and today someone emailed me. He hadn't planned doing critiques this year because he didn't have a book of his own to submit (it's a quid pro quo system) but liked the title of mine so decided to read it. And finished it in two sessions! He said he really liked it and particularly liked the magic system. So lovely to get that positive feedback, and in only two days when I thought I would have to wait a month. He is going to send me more detailed feedback so there will probably be suggestions of things to work on, but that is an awesome start that made my day.
I did half an hour of Fantasia exercise, and mostly ate well (three chocolates though). I've been emailing back and forth with other judges and we've finalised short lists and the winners for our two categories of the Aurealis Awards. I also bustled around a bit getting some of the housework done. 5,000 steps. I feel ready for the week ahead. I have some ideas percolating for book two, and I'm thinking about rejoining the gym now that time pressures have been lifted.
Report card:
Diet: Good, I think. I haven't actually finished tracking what I ate, but I think did ok. More chocolate than I planned.
Exercise: Good. Moved my body.
Water: Ok. Only 8 glasses today.
Sleep. Ok. Got through the day without a nap.
Mental health: Mixed. I started the day feeling ok, then after exercise felt quite down, but after receiving praise for my book I felt really great! Finishing the day happy.
I posted my novel for my writing group on Friday, and today someone emailed me. He hadn't planned doing critiques this year because he didn't have a book of his own to submit (it's a quid pro quo system) but liked the title of mine so decided to read it. And finished it in two sessions! He said he really liked it and particularly liked the magic system. So lovely to get that positive feedback, and in only two days when I thought I would have to wait a month. He is going to send me more detailed feedback so there will probably be suggestions of things to work on, but that is an awesome start that made my day.
I did half an hour of Fantasia exercise, and mostly ate well (three chocolates though). I've been emailing back and forth with other judges and we've finalised short lists and the winners for our two categories of the Aurealis Awards. I also bustled around a bit getting some of the housework done. 5,000 steps. I feel ready for the week ahead. I have some ideas percolating for book two, and I'm thinking about rejoining the gym now that time pressures have been lifted.
Report card:
Diet: Good, I think. I haven't actually finished tracking what I ate, but I think did ok. More chocolate than I planned.
Exercise: Good. Moved my body.
Water: Ok. Only 8 glasses today.
Sleep. Ok. Got through the day without a nap.
Mental health: Mixed. I started the day feeling ok, then after exercise felt quite down, but after receiving praise for my book I felt really great! Finishing the day happy.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Progress
Tuesday:
I left my fitbit on last night and listened to my sleep meditation. I had read something that argued that wearable sleep trackers were not very accurate because they only went by movement - if you lay still it would assume you are asleep (I don't know if that is really how they do it, I was wondering if they take your very relaxed heart rate into account). So I wasn't that surprised when in the morning the fitbit informed me I had slept very well, going to sleep in 11 minutes and then resting peacefully through the night except for getting up twice to go to the bathroom. Ha! Not true, I thought, because my sleep meditation goes for about 25 minutes (not 11) and I am sure I heard the whole thing. I distinctly remember all the muscle clenching and relaxing exercises and then visualizing being in a gently swaying hammock and then ... and then ... I did not hear the rest. I had been so sure I took a long time to get to sleep. But I definitely didn't hear the last half of the meditation. I did hear it all through the first night so I know what is said. I felt really alert today so maybe I did get a good night's sleep! As I have said before, I am just a terrible judge of how well I slept, if I compare my memory of it to how I feel the next day.
I did a whole hour of exercise this morning, Fantasia again. My arm was only a tiny bit sore, it was fine. I did a classical track (Dvorak) for a change, then Bohemian Rhapsody a few times (still only four stars) then I earned the song Radioactive so I tried that out a couple of times. I am really enjoying it at the moment. I have lost my resistance to exercise, for the moment anyway, I am not getting complacent about it. In fact the only thing I don't like is that, alone in the house, after my shower I can't put on a normal bra by myself due to my shoulder injuries. And an overweight middle-aged (in the prime of life!) woman needs a proper bra! Those pretend-bra crop-top things just aren't the same. But, here is the great news, today I found that I can almost reach high enough behind my back! My left shoulder has been very slow to return to normal (three years? More?) after healing after a tear, no doubt because I don't do any physio for it, but finally it is almost there. I wonder if all this waving my arms around for Fantasia is helping loosen it up?
I had a healthy lunch and then got a very good session of editing in. I am down to the little details that suddenly occur to me during the day, like my main character compares something to a castle rampart and then I realised she's never seen a castle so maybe it would be better for her to compare it to something else. Or adding in a few lines for a minor character to show her character more fully.
Later in the afternoon I did my other meditation app which was very restful. I am feeling calm and happy. Well, most of the time. Everything is going pretty well at the moment. Of course it is very hard to judge how much of this calm comes from semi- regular meditation. I also have a little distance now from my mother's death, and I have time to myself during the day while the kids are at school. It all contributes, I imagine, to peace of mind.
I had plenty of calories left at the end of the day so I got to have a bit more of that fabulous raspberry chocolate! Yummy.
My Fitbit says I did 4850 steps today, not bad considering I didn't leave the house! I assume it counted my conducting Fantasia as steps, but I also moved around the house a fair bit during the day. Tomorrow I'll get a walk in and try to get to 10000.
Report card:
Diet: Great. Within my limits and mostly healthy, depending on how you rate dark chocolate.
Exercise: Great. I'm gradually increasing time and intensity.
Water: Good. It's getting late with still two glasses to go, but I've had ten glasses.
Sleep: Improving.
Mental health: Great.
I've been reading the autobiography of John Cleese (British comedian of Monty Python fame, weird sketch comedy) and he talks about how on the rare occasion he did a "perfect" live performance he felt really depressed for the next few days because he knew he would never/hardly ever achieve that level again. Perfection leaves you nowhere to go. So let's be happy with progress.
I left my fitbit on last night and listened to my sleep meditation. I had read something that argued that wearable sleep trackers were not very accurate because they only went by movement - if you lay still it would assume you are asleep (I don't know if that is really how they do it, I was wondering if they take your very relaxed heart rate into account). So I wasn't that surprised when in the morning the fitbit informed me I had slept very well, going to sleep in 11 minutes and then resting peacefully through the night except for getting up twice to go to the bathroom. Ha! Not true, I thought, because my sleep meditation goes for about 25 minutes (not 11) and I am sure I heard the whole thing. I distinctly remember all the muscle clenching and relaxing exercises and then visualizing being in a gently swaying hammock and then ... and then ... I did not hear the rest. I had been so sure I took a long time to get to sleep. But I definitely didn't hear the last half of the meditation. I did hear it all through the first night so I know what is said. I felt really alert today so maybe I did get a good night's sleep! As I have said before, I am just a terrible judge of how well I slept, if I compare my memory of it to how I feel the next day.
I did a whole hour of exercise this morning, Fantasia again. My arm was only a tiny bit sore, it was fine. I did a classical track (Dvorak) for a change, then Bohemian Rhapsody a few times (still only four stars) then I earned the song Radioactive so I tried that out a couple of times. I am really enjoying it at the moment. I have lost my resistance to exercise, for the moment anyway, I am not getting complacent about it. In fact the only thing I don't like is that, alone in the house, after my shower I can't put on a normal bra by myself due to my shoulder injuries. And an overweight middle-aged (in the prime of life!) woman needs a proper bra! Those pretend-bra crop-top things just aren't the same. But, here is the great news, today I found that I can almost reach high enough behind my back! My left shoulder has been very slow to return to normal (three years? More?) after healing after a tear, no doubt because I don't do any physio for it, but finally it is almost there. I wonder if all this waving my arms around for Fantasia is helping loosen it up?
I had a healthy lunch and then got a very good session of editing in. I am down to the little details that suddenly occur to me during the day, like my main character compares something to a castle rampart and then I realised she's never seen a castle so maybe it would be better for her to compare it to something else. Or adding in a few lines for a minor character to show her character more fully.
Later in the afternoon I did my other meditation app which was very restful. I am feeling calm and happy. Well, most of the time. Everything is going pretty well at the moment. Of course it is very hard to judge how much of this calm comes from semi- regular meditation. I also have a little distance now from my mother's death, and I have time to myself during the day while the kids are at school. It all contributes, I imagine, to peace of mind.
I had plenty of calories left at the end of the day so I got to have a bit more of that fabulous raspberry chocolate! Yummy.
My Fitbit says I did 4850 steps today, not bad considering I didn't leave the house! I assume it counted my conducting Fantasia as steps, but I also moved around the house a fair bit during the day. Tomorrow I'll get a walk in and try to get to 10000.
Report card:
Diet: Great. Within my limits and mostly healthy, depending on how you rate dark chocolate.
Exercise: Great. I'm gradually increasing time and intensity.
Water: Good. It's getting late with still two glasses to go, but I've had ten glasses.
Sleep: Improving.
Mental health: Great.
I've been reading the autobiography of John Cleese (British comedian of Monty Python fame, weird sketch comedy) and he talks about how on the rare occasion he did a "perfect" live performance he felt really depressed for the next few days because he knew he would never/hardly ever achieve that level again. Perfection leaves you nowhere to go. So let's be happy with progress.
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