Stupid Sky

Again, not much has been happening. The tennis and athletics are being watched, and lots of “Why aren’t they showing the Tim Henman/Andy Murray (delete where applicable) matches? I’m sure people are more interested in them than other matches,” has been said. The reply to which; “That’s Sky’s fault. They can make money from it as they have the rights to the matches.” I know it’s true, but none-the-less… Harrumph!

But, yay! At least Tim Henman proved me wrong. I was utterly convinced he would be out in the first round as his record against Dmitry Tursunov has not been brilliant. But lo and behold, Tim gave all us none-believes the bird and won the match. Woohoo, go Tiger! I don’t hold out much hope for him against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga though. That young’un is fearless in his tennis.

The perils of Ebay and the loving of Lobo comics have cost me £16. It has been 13 years since I spent that amount of money on Lobo comics all in one go. Ah well, it’s nice to splurge out on something you don’t need once in a while. I usually spend money on things Principessa doesn’t need.

Coffee shop muse

It’s been a quiet few days, really. Spent some time with my friend Kayte, twas nice. We took Principessa to the bookshop, and Auntie Lindsay came along too. After browsing the books, we trundled up in the lift to Starbucks. Principessa gets very upset if we don’t go for a drink. After all, looking at books is thirsty work!

Well, we found a table, ordered out stuff, got ourselves settled, and then I spent the whole time watching a bloke at another table. No, I wasn’t perving! All I can say is JK Rowling and creative writing courses have a lot to answer for! There he was, his drinks (three of them, in varying colours) all lined up alongside his laptop. He was trying to be inconspicuous but he was so obvious as he looked around, his gaze lingering on a person here, a person there. I was so tempted to roll over to him and ask him what he was writing about. Maybe I should have. Well, more power to him. I know I couldn’t concentrate doing something like that in Starbucks, the music is just slightly too loud.

Principessa is doing a lot of drawing and scribbling lately. She was sat at her table yesterday with her Uncle Gaz perched on the second seat (that looked crazy!) having scribbling races. Then, as she always does, she starts asking for specific pictures to be drawn. Yesterday it was volcanoes. So, Uncle Gaz draws a volcano, telling Principessa what he is drawing.

“And that is your pyroclastic flow,” says Uncle Gaz. “Can you say ‘pyroclastic flow’?”

“Pirate-clastic flow,” says Principessa.

Genius!

I have fallen foul of the perils of Ebay. Okay, so I bought some clothes for Principessa, but I also found myself browsing and bidding on a load of Lobo comics. I loves the Lobo comics! I couldn’t help myself. They were there, and the titles needed replacing in my collection as the originals had been pinched. So yay, but oh so naughty!

Transformers. Robots in Disguise.

All I can say is, wow! I went to see Transformers last night with Laura, Jules and Gaz. I was knocked out of my chair. It was fantastic. The animation was amazing. I think I could sit there for hours watching the film over and notice new things each time. I am really glad it was a good film. Too many of the films I have been to see over the last few months have disappointed me. (With the exception of Harry Potter 5, though the ending did seem a bit rushed. It was better than the book, I thought.)

I also saw a trailer for Stardust. That, too, looks fantastic. I will have to go and see it at some point. I’ve not read the book, so hopefully I will be happy with the film. I was so looking forward to Eragon a few months ago after reading the book, but was sorely disappointed. I think Laura got sick with me at that film I was shaking my head and tutting so much throughout it. I was so angry that a book I had thoroughly enjoyed reading had been carved up so much that the only things the book and the film had in common were the names of the characters and the dragon. Not good. It was as if the producers had read the book and said, “This is a great story. Here you are (the screenwriters), make it into a film.” The screenwriters then took the book, ripped a handful of pages out of the book and said, “This’ll do. We don’t need the heart of the story. What do we need consistency of story for?” Idiots.

Ah well, enough of my ranting.

Will you please turn down the decibels!

You know, sometimes I wish for a power cut. Sounds mad, but it’s the only way to get some silence here.

Nearly every second of the day is constantly bombarded by noise. The TV, the radio, the computer. Principessa noise is okay, but I, over the last few years, have developed sensitivity to noise. All I really want to do is go somewhere that is not here, and not a city, and listen to birdsong and nature. Something that is not manmade. It is time to clear my head of the constant noise conflict clamouring for attention every day. To tell the truth, most of the time it drives me crazy.

On the subject of birdsong though, we had taken Principessa to the park the other day. As it was quite a way from the main road there was not much car noise to be heard. Unfortunately, there was no birdsong to be heard either. Where have all the birds gone? I can’t remember the last time I saw a sparrow. There was a murmuration of starlings about two weeks ago, but I don’t remember seeing many birds since then. Even winter doesn’t bring the regular visitors; great tits, blue tits, robins. It really is quite depressing. Bill Oddie would not be a happy chappie.

Back to silence now. I have just been having a surf (online, that is!) and happened to visit Bruce Campbell’s site. I started having a read through some of his ‘blogs’ and found his take on the whole silence thing: 'Stop, look, and listen'. You know, I knew there was a reason I liked him! Keep it up, Bruce, you’re only giving me a greater reason to appreciate you!

Potato Olympics and super sized bugs.

I took Principessa to the bookshop again today. I'm so made up that the bookshop is her favourite place. But, with the bookshop comes the coffee shop, and that means smoothie and fudge brownie. The drink and cake happens after a good long look at the books, taking them to the reading table and thumbing through them. That's another thing I am really happy about. Principessa loves her books. I've lost count of the number of books she has stored in her little head now.

She has just finished competing in the Potato Olympics. This morning, she stole a potato from the kitchen and this afternoon has been finding as many new sports as she can with it. I'm just glad she didn't think of playing tennis with it. She first practiced her potato bowling, shouting "Nasty split," when her duplo block skittles didn't all fall down. She has just given up practicing potato shot put, after she nearly knocked me out with the potato! Funny little thing.

On the super sized bug front... I was quite happily watching TV with my dad last night when I heard this scuttling noise. Looking around, I saw nothing, so thought no more about it. About five minutes later I caught a glimpse of this thing scurrying towards me. ARGH! Focussing all of my attention on it, I saw this horrible, huge beetle heading straight for me. Now, I'm usually a bit eurgh with normal little black beetles, I am so not a bug person, but this thing was massive. I've only ever seen beetles that big in the zoo, where they are behind glass and not so scary. You can imagine, therefore, my horror at the sight of this thing coming to get me. Luckily for me, it didn't have another horrible little bug riding on it's back with a skull and crossbones bandana tied around it's head and wielding a pitchfork! God knows where the thing went to after Dad sent it packing away from me. The last I saw of the thing, it was running towards the chimney.

Want that one!

I hate having those “I want it NOW” moments. I’ve had to buy some new notebooks so that I can do some writing, because I don’t really like sitting at the computer and typing. In fact, typing is my least favourite part of writing. I suppose it’s something to do with why I don’t like e-books. I really love books and reading, the texture of the paper under my fingers, the smell of the pages, and just the general feeling of substance in my hands. It’s almost like it’s an achievement when you get to the end of a book and you close the final page. You don’t get that with an e-book. No smell, no substance, no feeling of achievement. Just the whirring of the fan and the clicking of the arrow key as you scroll. And I hate scrolling.

The same goes for writing. When you write you can feel the paper under your hand, and then pen in your fingers. There is the satisfying scratching of the pen on the paper as it carves out the words you manipulate it to shape. There is the smell of the ink. All the intrinsic components that, without them, makes writing soulless. That is how writing on a computer makes me feel.

Okay, so you can spell check on the computer in a flash, and when you write you have to thumb through a dictionary. But thumbing through the dictionary can be a journey of discovery itself. You stumble across words that are magical and fantastical all at the same time. Then there is the word you want to use. The dictionary provides distraction as you search for your original word and this can spark other ideas just on the scanning of a word you were not originally interested in. Fantastic.

But now, back to the ‘I want it NOW’ thing. I was looking at notebooks online yesterday and found a site selling digital notebooks. Curiosity piqued, I looked further into this wonderful and alien conception. Well, I want one. The pads are simply pads of paper; though special, magic paper. The magical digital pen partners the magical paper pad. The pen films your handwriting as you scribble on the pad. With the special software the computer reads your handwriting and transfers it into a Word document. Abracadabra! No more losing the all-absorbing enchantment of writing.

Incy Wincy Spider gets flushed again.

It is once again too raining. If rain really were cats and dogs, then it would have been a lions and Newfoundlands downpour this morning.

I am currently being tortured by children’s programs. Go Diego, Go is on at the minute and he is saving Baby River Dolphin. Principessa is not taking much notice of the television; she has a little table set up with her pens, pencils and paper on. She can be so organised when she wants to be.

She had a bad night last night. She fell out of her bed for the first time since setting it up last week. That led to an hour of crying. First, she wanted me, then she wanted Nanny, then she wanted Grandand, then she wanted her pink potty, then her blue potty, then the white toilet. She finally settled down after she had her first ever wee on the toilet. She was very happy with herself about that. We then had to go and lie in bed and watch cartoons. I just wanted to go to sleep!

There was a horrible eight-legged harbinger of tiny fear in the bedroom last night. Oh, I hate them. Grandand tried to catch it, but the little bugger jumped off the wall. EEEEEEEKKKKKK! It appeared later on, and me, being stupid, was afraid to go to sleep. I didn’t want it’s filthy, little, sticky legs crawling over me. Nope Sir, I don’t like it, thank you.

It's too raining...

And it is. It is very raining. This does not make Principessa a happy girl.

"Mummy, I want to go to the seaside."

"We can't go to the seaside today, babe."

"Why Mummy? Is it too raining?"

So this is why Principessa is going to be a horror today. Despite the fact that she has two new Charlie and Lola books, which she has decided are not as good as the first three Charlie and Lola books she owned, the seaside is the only place she wants to be. But then, she has never been to the seaside, as I have never been abroad, so I can understand the attraction of wanting to see somewhere I have not seen before. Hopefully the weather will get better and we can take her to the seaside.

What must it be like to be in her head?

Principessa had another funny day yesterday. It must be fun to live in the mind of a child, and oh, how I wish I were in that state of mind.

Principessa was playing in her Nan’s' room. Nan has a large circular magnet living on her walker. Principessa was trying to remove it from its place, but the magnet was too strong for her. She goes to her Nan and says, "Nanny, the money button is very too stuck." Don't ask me where she came up with the idea that a magnet is a money button, but it sounds wonderful, doesn't it?

A little bit later, Nan shows Principessa how the magnet sticks to a metal coaster. "Oooohhh," she says, "a helicopter!" I wonder what she would see in inkblot pictures.

Nan then shows Principessa how the magnet sticks to the coaster when a tissue is put between them. "Aaaaahhhh," she says, "it's a Binky-bonk!" No, I don't know either.

In my world, which is not that different to Principessa's world, as I too live in my imagination lately, I started writing down the plans for another story? I might, one day, sit down and finish one of these damn stories. I have to put ideas down when I have them, otherwise, like spaghetti in a colander, they will slip from my memory.

A day in the life of....

Principessa.

She had a good one yesterday. I had been sorting out my room and her cot, so that the cot magically transformed into a bed. With this, she was very happy. It was the in-between of cot and bed that brought the giggles.

Grandand and Uncle Gareth were sorting out the cot. The sides were taken off and leaned up against wall and wardrobe until they could be moved somewhere else. Principessa decided that the cot sides would now be her ladders and ran around shouting "My la-dah, my la-dah!" She then commenced climbing up the cot side leaning against the wardrobe. She got to the top and climbed into the top shelf compartment, turned herself round, sat down and began shouting "Help me, I'n stuck!" (Yes, really. It is "I'n", not "I'm".) To give you the picture, she is bent over double with her head sticking out of the wardrobe over her feet. Uncle Gareth then films her on his phone and moves the camera closer to her until she can take it from him. The camera is pointing to her pyjama trousers and she says, "Ohhhh, Niamh trousers," and then giggles, as if it is something really amazing. Funny little girl. We then proceed to freeing her from her self-imposed wardrobe prison.

It gets to bedtime, then past it, then to 10pm. I go upstairs to attempt putting her to sleep. Firstly, I try putting up some star lights so that the room is not dark. If only it was that easy. No, the lights only encourage her to try to climb up shelves to try to catch them. So the lights are switched off. Next, we try tucking Principessa into bed. So she is lying in her bed, and I climb into my bed. I sing her favourite bedtime songs - the A, B, C's and Sweet Child O' Mine. Yay, it seems to be working. I turn over and try to go to sleep, only to have my bed invaded. So, she lies next to me.

I say, "Are you going to be a big girl like Lola one day and sleep in your own bed?"

She cuddles into me and says, "I'm not Lola." (Lola is a character from her favourite books at the mo, the 'Charlie and Lola' series.) She then goes to sleep.

So, that is Principessa for you. (Oh, another funny incident. She was being naughty in the bathroom a few days ago and I tell her to get out. She doesn't, naturally, and shouts back to me, "I need discipline!")

Well, I'm off now to put a story plan into action. I'm just hoping it will be an A-Team moment and I can finish by saying "I love it when a plan comes together."

ARGHHHHH!!! Stupid internet. Or rather, stupid cable. I've been attempting to get on the internet over the last three days, but there has been a problem with the connection. Dunno what it was, but yay, it's fixed and I can get back to normality!

Not much has been happening, really, over the last few days. I've been doing a little bit of writing, but even that has been sorely hampered by Microsoft Works word processor. I thought I was going hell for leather with the writing, though there was a little niggle there that I hadn't done as much as Works word count was saying I had done. Well, the word counter suddenly decided to start counting characters instead of words. How piddled off was I, when I discovered this? Very, I can tell you. I've now installed Office 2000. At least that seems to be working properly.

Anyways, here is a post that I did want to put up two days ago. Thank God it's still relevant!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Okay, I read this over the weekend of its release and didn't say anything about it even though I was very excited. I just wanted to read it to see how it finished. I was happy and disappointed at the same time, though I couldn't work out what niggled at me. I thought the ending was a little weak, but couldn't put my finger on what was missing. Then yesterday I was reading a blog by the author ------ and suddenly all became clear. From the end of the last battle and the epilogue of the story there were 19 years missing (okay, I knew this as the last chapter is titled 'Nineteen Years Later'). What I mean to say, is there is nothing indicating what happened to the characters (except the relationships that happened between them) after the battle. After all that had gone on in the previous books, all the angst after the OWLS about what kind of wizarding career each would go into, after the fight to bring equality to the wizarding world; nothing.

So, I was thinking on that this morning, as I sat in the only place I am able to think (I'll leave it to your imagination where that is)....

I have two favourite series of books, and strangely enough both the main characters are called Harry. One as you know is Potter, the other is Keogh, the main character in Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. As I sat and pondered on this fact, it came into my mind that many people are hoping that J.K.R. will write further Harry Potter books. This led me to thinking about Harry Keogh. Well, there was a gap in the Harry Keogh timeline between Necroscope 3 and 4, allowing Mr Lumley to write two further volumes of the Necroscope series subtitled 'The Lost Years'. Maybe (hope upon hope), this is what J.K.R. will do with Harry Potter. By leaving the gap and tantalising us with no mention of what happens (apart from marriages and kids), she has left the story unfinished to be reopened at a later date when she feels ready to re-enter the world of Harry Potter.

Well, it has made me feel a bit happier to think of it this way. After all, hasn't Stephen Donaldson re-entered 'The Land' of Thomas Covenant after a sabbatical of 25 years?

I have decided it is time. 'To do what?' you may ask. Well, I'll tell you. I've decided it is time to start taking my writing more seriously. Principessa will be going to nursery next month, giving me a coupla hours free time a day.So I suppose it's the perfect time to start knuckling down and write some stuff. Lately I have found that the musing fairies are back with me, and ideas are starting to make themselves known again. This is muchos good news.

I have been looking into self publication. It is due to this that the idea of being serious about writing has finally imprinted itself into my head. I've found a good place to get my stories/ poems published, and it has additional services providing editing and proof reading. The bad news; it's a little expensive. So I will have to start saving up to get things done. At least I have the time to save, I haven't really moved for months with my writing! I think I have about 30,000 on one of my stories and about 11,000 on another.

Anyhoos, time to bugger off and make some lunch for Principessa. Otherwise I might end up losing an ear as she gnaws at me for food!