I'm at it again. I can only apologise. You thought my home-improvement woes were done and dusted with January's cess pit upgrade? Wrong! Turns out, living in the same place for sixteen years without really maintaining it, can be a recipe for... well not disaster. That's far too strong a term. More like, a recipe for lots of jobs needing attention at the same time. And once you begin on one thing, loads more issues crop up.
As I speak there's a pile of bricks outside my garage. They're from a wall that's been knocked down. Skips are pricy so they're going to the tip, one car boot at a time. Then the patio's getting redone. At the moment it's a trip hazard and only a matter of time before a family member sues. After that, there's the gravel to replace, and the new fancy-pants cess pit needs greenery to disguise it. The list goes on and proves the old adage: once you pop you just can't stop. I've resigned myself to the fact that 2025 is the year of home improvement shit. And that's OK. I'm lucky I have a home to fix. Remind me of that when I moan.
Writing News
The last thousand words still need to be written, but the first draft is practically done. So far, the word count is 66,845. It's slightly shorter than an adult novel would be, but for a YA novel, this is fine.
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| HOME. Image from here. |
Culture
Someone's killed the President! Uh-oh! Who could have done it? That's how Disney+'s Paradise opens. It's moves on - quite quickly - from that set up, but it's fun and tense nonetheless. In other TV news, Reacher is back on Amazon Prime. This series is based on the Lee Child book, Persuader, which I'll probably end up rereading. As for the show, I'm waiting until all the episodes have dropped before I go in. Elsewhere in Culture news, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I had a ticket for Before Sunrise on the big screen. Last week it happened. It was SOOO good to see it enlarged. But just as marvellous was my glass of wine in the bar at HOME beforehand. It was Valentine's Day and I'd brought my book to read. Before I walked in, I had the slight panic that I might stand out like a sore thumb, as couples around me romanced each other to bits. Not so! The bar at HOME is a welcoming space for people wanting a quiet drink with a book. I was not the only solo reader there. That fact alone would have made my night, but I also had the thrill of the film. Lucky, lucky me.
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| A beige bowl of brilliance. AKA crab and prawn ravioli, cod goujons, and tartare sauce. |
I've been craving lobster ravioli for weeks. I know, I know, it's such a bougie thing to say. Soz. But I'd had it in a restaurant a few weeks ago, and it's been on my mind ever since. Now, I'm not someone who's going to make my own pasta. Not these days. And the Asda didn't have anything even approaching what I wanted, so I had to go to Markises. There goes the food budget! The nearest I could get was crab and prawn, but it was enough to satiate me. Come Saturday night, I went off piste by baking the individual parcels until they were crispy and serving them with a garlicky tartare. They were lovely!
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| Bonding |
It was half term. Did you know? I did. Because all my siblings with kids were on holiday, and my usually quiet Costa was riddled with multi-generational patrons. Fair play. I can handle it for a week. But the best part was I got to catch up with two of my nephs. The littlest neph - still under a year old - has yet to learn of my brilliance. I did my best, over the course of Friday afternoon, to impart what he needs to know about me. Time will tell if I managed it.
Enjoy the rest of the month! Can you Adam and Eve it? March is almost upon us! The month of my birth, as well as the births of almost everyone I know. There'll be no money for lobster ravioli in March. It'll be spent on birthday presents, maintenance jobs, and nothing else. Until then...
...have a lovely week, folks.
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