When I was a student, I was expected to be in Uni for nine hours a week. OMG, the stress! Three of those hours were on Monday morning from 9am. The thing is, if I didn't feel immediately filled with energy at the sound of the alarm clock, I'd roll over and give the lecture a miss. And once I'd missed Monday? Well it made sense to give the rest of the week a swerve too. No point being half-assed. I'd wait for seven days and give it another go the following Monday. (That routine happened more times than I can remember and it's only down to my sheer street smarts that I got a 2:2.)
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| My University alarm clock. I will never find the words to adequately convey how loud this clanged. |
Fast forward to last week, and something similar happened. On Monday, I had to drop my partner at work in Chester. We were sharing a car while his was getting fixed, and if I didn't want to be housebound, I needed to give lifts. By the time I'd done the 1.5 hour round trip, my routine was out the window. No early morning walk, no breakfast by nine, and no being showered and dressed at my desk by 9.30am. The week had gone to pot on day one so I wrote the whole thing off. THIS week, I'm hoping things will be better. I've got up on time and I've done my Monday walk. That bodes well for the next seven days. Now, the rest is up to me.
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| The corner of Chapter 3's plan and my messy desk. |
What with my giving last week a swerve attitude, I didn't start Chapter 3. No matter. It wasn't a complete waste of a writing week. I went back into Chapters 1 and 2, and neatened up a couple of plot points. As I did, I noticed that I've been doing a lot of telling and not showing, instead of the opposite way round. That'll need to be ironed out in the edit. But for now? It's onwards and upwards with draft one. Hopefully.
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| Tori from Heartstopper and Solitaire |
I've started reading more of Alice Oseman's novels. The Heartstopper author and illustrator has written four novels featuring some of the same characters. When we talk about writers creating a world, it often means sci-fi or fantasy. I love it when the world that's created is realistic and relatable. I've started with Solitaire, which focuses on Tori. She's in 6th form, is irritated by much, and I like her a lot. I also rewatched Beetlejuice and The Truman Show, listened to this pod about The Truman Show, and watched Netflix's The Perfect Couple, which was a hoot. Oh, and now that Only Murders in the Building is back, I'm cosily entertained every Tuesday once more.
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| Not my actual pie but a damn good representation of it. |
It's not all Instagram recipes and fancy schmanzy ingredients. No sireee! On Sunday, after a particularly cold and blustery week, I was craving gravy. It's been months since I've eaten anything approaching a roast, and I still wasn't ready for the full meat, veg, and potato two ways. I was also NOT up for summery salad nonsense. There was only one option. Chips and pie! The chippy by mine sorted me out, and in no time at all I was picking out the pieces of steak* of a Hollands, and leaving the thick gravy to be dunked in at will. It was FIT.
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| St. George's Hall |
This is technically Culture but so be it. On Friday I was at St. George's Hall for a Backyard Cinema showing of Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet. It's a great film, natch. But the soundtrack? Oomph, the soundtrack! I mean, it's great on Spotify, but can you imagine a live gospel choir and band performing the songs throughout the evening? Can you? Can you? Because I can! It was marvellous. An invigorating and life-affirming experience for a Friday night in town. More of that sort of thing please.
Reading this back, it's not all bad. Considering I wrote the week off, I did get some stuff done. And hopefully this week will be all the more industrious because of it. Yes? No? Who's to say?
Have a lovely week, folks.
*Regular readers may remember I don't eat meat. I do, however, eat meat products. Just as long as they're not solid flesh. Gravy, it's transpired, is the perfect non-solid meat delivery system.
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