To my absolute surprise, it appears I'm a morning person.
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| Me as a youth |
This was not the case when I was a youth. Whether it was childhood, Uni, or my early working years, when that alarm sounded, I'd be pissed off. I'd lie there for as long as humanely possibly before eventually dragging myself/getting dragged out of bed and embracing the day.
I'm not sure when, but at some point, that changed. Look, I love a lie in. Come the weekend, that's exactly what I'll be doing. But when it comes to the week, I've discovered something interesting. I have zero appetite for working after lunch. I'm over being productive once the afternoon hits. If I'm at my desk for nine, I can be driven and organised. But once the initial spurt of mental energy is spent, and lunch is a-calling, I'm done.
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| Yep, this is where I'm at right now |
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| I get it, Sly! |
After two lovely empty-headed weeks, I'm editing once again. This time, with guidance. Hurrah! The woman who edits my books has got back to me. It's SO good to have someone else read the whole thing. Until this point, it can feel unreal. My head might be filled with characters and plots, but if no one else knows about them, they're just weird figments of my imagination. Now, however, they belong to someone else. It's a strange situation to share your imaginary friends with people, but I love it.*
A couple of cinema releases for you this week. I Swear is utterly brilliant. Telling the true story of John Davidson, it shows the challenges and realities of living with Tourette's Syndrome. Whilst I wouldn't describe it as an out and out comedy - although some scenes are undoubtedly played for laughs - it's a thoroughly engaging, sometimes heartbreaking, but ultimately hopeful tale of another person's life. Watching how several adults in young John's life couldn't see beyond the tics and bad words, did more to educate me about the need for empathy than any SEND training course could have done. It's an essential watch. The fact it's entertaining is just a bonus.
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| Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen |
In more true story action, I watched Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere on Friday night. The film focuses on a short period of time in the eighties, and delves into Springsteen's state of mind as he was on the cusp of mega-stardom. It was engrossing, thoughtful, and happily not full of big hit performance set pieces that could distract from the narrative. Also, Jeremy Allen White NAILS it. Properly good.
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| Gravy season is well underway |
There's a line in Midnight Chicken by Ella Rusbridger, that I think is the truest thing ever written. She writes, 'Someone I knew once told me that you always cook for the number of people in the family you grew up in.'
I don't know about you, but I've found this to be true, time and time again. My final years living at home were in a family of nine. That's why I over-cater (but never under-deliver!) with almost every meal I make. Indeed, it can be the ONLY explanation for the Sunday roast I knocked up last week. Cooking for two is such a challenge. The photo shows my plate - half of the quantity I cooked - which is ridiculous. Also, the green beans had gone off so there was supposed to be more. It won't surprise you to know I didn't finish, saved the leftovers, and spent the afternoon dozing in a food-coma. It was fit though.
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| Zoom in to see my triumph |
Out and About
More insights I've learnt this week. Turns out, I'm NOT shit at darts. Who knew? For a family 50th birthday, I spent a couple of hours throwing some arrows (ALL the lingo!) and hitting the board more times than not. I've no clue about strategy, and the numbers around the board mean nothing to me, but by the end I was at the top of the leader board. Can you believe!?! Whilst it's definitely a fluke, I'm just glad to have reached a new sporting high. It's been a long time since the 1989 Rainhill Inter-Schools Netball Comeptiton winners' medal.
How marvellous! I've finally got the end of the post. It's taken longer than usual, I've lost concentration every few minutes, and I need to lie down after a gargantuan effort. But it's done! Woohoooo!
Have a lovely week, folks.
*Full disclosure: My writing friends that I meet with, also know my characters. But they hear 1500 words every two weeks in a drip drip drip effect. That means I'm willing the weeks away so I can get to the end of the book with them. At this rate, it'll be well after publication.
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