Lucky, Lucky Me...

I'm a very happy and a very lucky
woman actually, but the
sentiment is bang on.

Hey there! Been glued to the news? All Glastonbury-ed out? Can you believe we're hurtling into July so soon? If these seismic questions fail to move you, spare a thought for my current first world problem. (Hmm. First world problem? Developing world problem? They both feel wrong. How about privileged-not-important-in-the-slightest world problem? Yeah, that's more like it.)

Anyway, ten weeks after emptying the bedroom of its stuff and kipping in the spare room with boxes blocking the landing, the new bed was arriving today and I could move back in. Hurrah! Not having to apply makeup in crap light with a tiny mirror, and being surrounded by all my clothes instead of just a handful, was to be a joyous occasion. Then I checked the small print. Turns out the bed's coming on 26th July, not June. Sigh. Four more weeks of sub-optimal living. Once the initial disappointment subsided, I obviously gave my head a wobble. I've got a bed, and soon I'm getting a better bed. I have clothes and a roof over my head. To quote Baby's dad in Dirty Dancing, 'This is not a tragedy'. So that's my week. I thought something bad had happened and then I realised I was being a tit. Standard.

Writing News

It's been a week of more checks and double checks of the current manuscript. All the niggly little details. For eg, seasons don't need to be capitalised so I went through making sure they weren't. I've decided Leeza calls her school year, Y7 instead of Year 7 or Year Seven. That took time to make consistent. Then there's the whole issue of italics. Usually I'd italicise any word I want to stress, as well as the names of books or films. (Check out the Dirty Dancing example above.) But Leeza is writing a diary. Obviously, it'll be presented in a typed font, not handwriting, because that's how books are, but I need it to seem authentic. She wouldn't write in italics in her diary. Instead, I've got her capitalising important words. Or writing them in bold when she's being emphatic. Then there's the names of the books she's reading. I spent a chunk of last week scrolling through to find where I'd initially italicised them, and instead added  inverted commas. Not especially creative, but oh so necessary.

Culture

Three words. Pet. Shop. Boys. Oh yeeeeaaaah. On Friday night at the Liverpool arena I bopped away to some of the best pop ever written. Isn't live music great? Then I listened to this podcast, about PSB's album, Behaviour. All marvellous and happy-making. Then, like so many others last night, I watched Elton John at Glastonbury. What an absolute legend in our lifetime. Aren't we lucky to have all that music.

Almost exactly like my evening.

Food and Drink

On the 21st I celebrated the longest day of the year/Midsummer. How did I do that? Well, I dosed up on the antihistamines, BBQed salmon and prawns, and drank white wine outside. I realise this is in no way authentically Scandinavian, but it was lovely nonetheless. If my sinuses could have handled it, I'd have rocked a flower garland, no mess.

Out and About

I ended my week with a twenty-four hour stint of niece and neph-sitting in Yorkshire. In theory, the older kids get, the easier they are to supervise. I can confirm that whilst that's mostly true, I was expected to participate in more snooker games and enthuse over more spontaneous dance routines than when they were babies. Just saying.

Here's hoping your week has the exact amount of spontaneous dance routines you can handle. Only if you're lucky enough, that is. Until the next time.

Have a lovely week, folks