(no subject)
Oct. 15th, 2003 07:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essayelReasons for being cheerful -
Firstly, on Saturday Paul bought The Matrix - Reloaded and we watched it, with a couple of bottles of wine, that night. It's a spectacular film - though a couple of times I thought "Enough of the fighting, let's have some PLOT!" I got a couple of very silly ideas from it to use in The Mattress and I hope I might be able to actually get on with it now - writer's block is a horrible thing!
Secondly, we have a new 'talking clock'. I know it's very old fashioned and outmoded but I like the talking clock - it's very...British to think that one might use the telephone to find out the time rather than actually asking someone. When I was very small I used to ring the clock when I got lonely. Aaaawww! Well, I was only about 18 months old. I also rang the operators and eventually they had to ask my mum to move the phone to a higher shelf where I couldn't reach it - rotten spoilsports! In those days the clock was a very cut glass female. Later it was a rather jolly sounding man and now - joy - it's a little girl from Renfrewshire with the softest most gorgeous Scots accent you ever heard. In another forty years they might be ready for a Londoner!
Thirdly, I have finally finished reading Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb, ninth book in a nine book series. I read the last few chapters in floods of tears - silly old bat - because, while I knew it couldn't possibly end happily for everyone I never thought it would be that desperate and, dare I say, yicky. No spoilers in case there are any Hobb fans who have not yet got their paws on it but eeeewww and aaaargh and words to that effect. Another word of warning, though, besides lay in plenty of tissues, I suggest that you work out for a few weeks before starting the read because the book's about the size of a breezeblock!
Much easier to read is Dissipation and Despair by A J Hall (aka![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ajhalluk of whom I am even further in awe since being told that she was a Brain of Britain contender) which is easy peasy to download as an ebook if you go to www.shoesforindustry.com. This is a sequel to Lust Over Pendle. If you haven't read Lust Over Pendle (also available as an ebook and on FA etc) stop reading my drivel and go and do it NOW. OK so it's Draco/Neville, so what? It's gorgeous! Read LoP then settle down and read Dissipation and Despair, slowly and carefully - it beats Draco/Ginny into a very tiny little cocked hat. The only thing that I found lacking in DD is Chris Camillieri, the delectable paparazzi from LoP but that - I promise you - is all. I'm plucking up the courage and brushing up my vocabulary to write a proper review for DD. Fan girly squealing is definitely inappropriate however much one might want to do it.
I'm sticking this next bit behind a cut because I can't see it being of general interest. I'm just a bit nervous and twitchy and upset about some recent personal developments and need a forum where I can blow off a bit of steam about them.
The thing is - Mum rang me at work today and says she has been offered enough cash for her house to buy a bungalow about a street away from us. Now this is really good news. Mum is getting on a bit now and lives that little bit too far away for me to get over there quickly if she needs me. It's at least an hour, the way I drive, even taking the quickest route and, because I always need some time to hyperventilate after driving, going over for an evening a couple of times a week is not really practical. Having Mum just round the corner would be lovely for the kids, who don't see enough of her, and I hope she might be a bit happier and make some new friends in Abergavenny. Rather selfishly, I can't help feeling that I'll have less time to write (though I'm determined that it won't interfere with my betaing) because Mum will be needing quite a lot of company and my writing is something in which she can simply see no point whatsoever. Even drawing is difficult because she always suggests that I stop 'those silly cartoons and do some nice landscapes'. Oh well, I'll just have to be extra organised in the time I do have - yeah, and look at that Gloucester Old Spot doing loop the loops around the church tower!
So...on the whole I'm very happy at the prospect that Mum will soon be far more accessible and that I'll be able to see her more often. All we have to do is get her here. Moving house is stressful enough when you're young. When you're nearly 80 it's desperate! Which brings me to the gold plated 24 carat bugger factor that cropped up last week, which is that she has just been told that she may have 'a bowel problem'- not a nice thing to hear from that particular variety of doctor. As if this wasn't bad enough apparently her aorta is twice the size it should be and throbbing like a drum and the other doctor - the one who I suppose knows about aortas - is very very worried about it. Well, he's not the only one! Mum's spirits are swooping around like a yoyo, excited and happy at the thought of moving, scared stiff at the double whammy prospect of colonic cancer plus an aortal aneurism, though the latter would, I should think, pretty much cancel out the former.
And - you know - there's absolutely damn all I can do about it!!! Until she has been back to hospital for her varous tests all we can do is worry, and until she gets confirmation of the offer on her house and the acceptance of her offer on the bungalow - again, all I can do is worry about it! And if I'm worrying, think what she's doing! It's enough to make you swear like a Marine - and yes, Steph, I have done the cardboard box thing!!! What I really want is to get my birthday present and batter Mike and his mates with it - that would work off some frustration! As has this. Sometimes one just really needs to have a good moan!
Phew! That's better. Now to cheer myself up again I want to share one of my favourite limericks:
There were two ugly sisters from Fordham,
who went out for a walk 'til it bored 'em.
On the way back
A sex maniac
Jumped out from a bush and ignored 'em.
Firstly, on Saturday Paul bought The Matrix - Reloaded and we watched it, with a couple of bottles of wine, that night. It's a spectacular film - though a couple of times I thought "Enough of the fighting, let's have some PLOT!" I got a couple of very silly ideas from it to use in The Mattress and I hope I might be able to actually get on with it now - writer's block is a horrible thing!
Secondly, we have a new 'talking clock'. I know it's very old fashioned and outmoded but I like the talking clock - it's very...British to think that one might use the telephone to find out the time rather than actually asking someone. When I was very small I used to ring the clock when I got lonely. Aaaawww! Well, I was only about 18 months old. I also rang the operators and eventually they had to ask my mum to move the phone to a higher shelf where I couldn't reach it - rotten spoilsports! In those days the clock was a very cut glass female. Later it was a rather jolly sounding man and now - joy - it's a little girl from Renfrewshire with the softest most gorgeous Scots accent you ever heard. In another forty years they might be ready for a Londoner!
Thirdly, I have finally finished reading Fool's Fate by Robin Hobb, ninth book in a nine book series. I read the last few chapters in floods of tears - silly old bat - because, while I knew it couldn't possibly end happily for everyone I never thought it would be that desperate and, dare I say, yicky. No spoilers in case there are any Hobb fans who have not yet got their paws on it but eeeewww and aaaargh and words to that effect. Another word of warning, though, besides lay in plenty of tissues, I suggest that you work out for a few weeks before starting the read because the book's about the size of a breezeblock!
Much easier to read is Dissipation and Despair by A J Hall (aka
ajhalluk of whom I am even further in awe since being told that she was a Brain of Britain contender) which is easy peasy to download as an ebook if you go to www.shoesforindustry.com. This is a sequel to Lust Over Pendle. If you haven't read Lust Over Pendle (also available as an ebook and on FA etc) stop reading my drivel and go and do it NOW. OK so it's Draco/Neville, so what? It's gorgeous! Read LoP then settle down and read Dissipation and Despair, slowly and carefully - it beats Draco/Ginny into a very tiny little cocked hat. The only thing that I found lacking in DD is Chris Camillieri, the delectable paparazzi from LoP but that - I promise you - is all. I'm plucking up the courage and brushing up my vocabulary to write a proper review for DD. Fan girly squealing is definitely inappropriate however much one might want to do it.I'm sticking this next bit behind a cut because I can't see it being of general interest. I'm just a bit nervous and twitchy and upset about some recent personal developments and need a forum where I can blow off a bit of steam about them.
The thing is - Mum rang me at work today and says she has been offered enough cash for her house to buy a bungalow about a street away from us. Now this is really good news. Mum is getting on a bit now and lives that little bit too far away for me to get over there quickly if she needs me. It's at least an hour, the way I drive, even taking the quickest route and, because I always need some time to hyperventilate after driving, going over for an evening a couple of times a week is not really practical. Having Mum just round the corner would be lovely for the kids, who don't see enough of her, and I hope she might be a bit happier and make some new friends in Abergavenny. Rather selfishly, I can't help feeling that I'll have less time to write (though I'm determined that it won't interfere with my betaing) because Mum will be needing quite a lot of company and my writing is something in which she can simply see no point whatsoever. Even drawing is difficult because she always suggests that I stop 'those silly cartoons and do some nice landscapes'. Oh well, I'll just have to be extra organised in the time I do have - yeah, and look at that Gloucester Old Spot doing loop the loops around the church tower!
So...on the whole I'm very happy at the prospect that Mum will soon be far more accessible and that I'll be able to see her more often. All we have to do is get her here. Moving house is stressful enough when you're young. When you're nearly 80 it's desperate! Which brings me to the gold plated 24 carat bugger factor that cropped up last week, which is that she has just been told that she may have 'a bowel problem'- not a nice thing to hear from that particular variety of doctor. As if this wasn't bad enough apparently her aorta is twice the size it should be and throbbing like a drum and the other doctor - the one who I suppose knows about aortas - is very very worried about it. Well, he's not the only one! Mum's spirits are swooping around like a yoyo, excited and happy at the thought of moving, scared stiff at the double whammy prospect of colonic cancer plus an aortal aneurism, though the latter would, I should think, pretty much cancel out the former.
And - you know - there's absolutely damn all I can do about it!!! Until she has been back to hospital for her varous tests all we can do is worry, and until she gets confirmation of the offer on her house and the acceptance of her offer on the bungalow - again, all I can do is worry about it! And if I'm worrying, think what she's doing! It's enough to make you swear like a Marine - and yes, Steph, I have done the cardboard box thing!!! What I really want is to get my birthday present and batter Mike and his mates with it - that would work off some frustration! As has this. Sometimes one just really needs to have a good moan!
Phew! That's better. Now to cheer myself up again I want to share one of my favourite limericks:
There were two ugly sisters from Fordham,
who went out for a walk 'til it bored 'em.
On the way back
A sex maniac
Jumped out from a bush and ignored 'em.