On Being a Spoilt, Grateful, Cavewoman...

An artist's impression 

of me waiting for the 

kettle. If I looked 

like Justin Timberlake.

Here are three Monday morning facts for you...

1. My boiling tap broke recently. 

2. I had to use a kettle. 

3. It was hell. 

Yes, I have a boiling tap because I'm a wanker, and yes, it was out of action whilst a part was procured and a plumbing expert sought. But blimey, the wait was frustrating. Not waiting for the tap to be mended. No, I'm talking about the wait for the kettle to boil every time I wanted a cup of tea. I joked about living like a cavewoman, but I meant it. Ten years of having instant boiling water, and I'd forgotten the realities of tea-making with a kettle. Bad times.

The whole incident was a good reminder that A) I'm a spoilt cow, whose problems are meaningless in the great scheme of things, and B) how quickly we forget the way things were. By the time you read this, I'll be in the midst of a mini break by the sea. Remember when we couldn't leave our homes? Our local areas? Remember the tier system? How marvellous to be somewhere else for a few days. How marvellous to be free to travel, to experience, and to feel. Life was on pause for so long that even now, we must remember, and live every second to the fullest. 

Or TL;DR: my boiling tap is fixed and I'll never take it for granted again.

The desk of (messy) dreams

Writing News

I've now got a second draft of Leeza McAuliffe Book 2. (Not it's real title!) It has less obvious waffle, tighter sentences, and a clearer outlook in terms of description. There's still much to do. For the next few drafts, I'm going to focus on each character's narrative journey. No one can be stagnant, even if they're a tiny character. They've got to develop somehow. That's my next challenge to keep me busy.

Helena Bonham Carter and 
Augustus Prew play Noele Gordon
and Tony Richards who play
Meg Mortimer and Adam Chance.
Got it? Photo from here.

Culture

Forget waiting for a kettle, you want to see how frustratingly slow the ITVX stream is on my TV. My internet speed is weak at best, and so I watched Nolly (ITVX) with intermittent pauses and several resets. However, Russell T Davies is a writer I'll persevere for. Like my eventual ITVX connection, I held on and kept going, and it was worth it. Nolly was fab. Anyone that remembers Crossroads will love it, and even if it's before your time, it's still a fascinating look at the inner workings of eighties TV. 

Food and Drink

I've bought myself a veg chopper. Yes, I know. I'm all boiling taps and veg choppers, when kettles and knives were good enough for my forebears. If you want your pieces of veg to be the same cubic area as each other, it's a worthy purchase. So far, it has cubed cucumber, peppers, and red onions perfectly.

Out and About

It's official. The Eurovision key has been handed from Torino to Liverpool, and we're less than 100 days away from the 2023 contest. I had a jaunt into town last Tuesday. I wanted to get the vibes around St. George's Hall* where the semi-final draw was taking place. I can't lie, there was a definite buzz. The banners, the logo, the motto - it all made me tingle. I realise not everyone loves Eurovision, but my home town has definitely embraced the honour. More than I thought it would, to be honest. Fair play, Liverpool. It's going to be a fab few months.

I hope your boiling taps work, your kettles don't keep you waiting too long, and your veg is chopped to your liking. Or that whatever you're doing, wherever you are, things are mostly good enough.

Have a lovely week, folks.

*St. George's Hall was where my Sixth Form leavers do took place. It was where I attended my first political protest (against Tr**p's Muslim travel ban) and it's where myself and hundreds of others gathered after the Hillsborough inquests returned ninety-six verdicts of unlawful killing. The fact that Rylan and AJ were there last week, blows my mind. In a really good way.