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Posts Tagged ‘life’

Finally I can sit at my desk

Posted in A writer's life, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

With family visitors, the office needed to be gutted and my desk moved. I have only just now uncovered it. We had two drawers to assemble for our new bed and we had to deal with them before I could sit down and type. How wonderful it is!

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with way too much food and loads of presents. I was so full I feared I would burst. I received Tansy Rayner Roberts’ latest kickstarter because it was so shiny and I asked the Dweeb to get it for me. But he also was my kringle choice so he also got stuff on my wish list. A photo printer, papers, and a voucher to frame a print. Other goodies some lovely tawny port, some really beautiful embroidery items from Ms Li brought from China. A lovely fan and a lovely scarf, some redwood earrings from California, chocolate and more.

A picture of Kickstarter from Tansy Rayner Roberts.

Yesterday, is my day off. People eat leftovers generally and we did and I watched rom coms the whole day. T’was the Text before Christmas, and the commentary was: “would someone really chat to a stranger? ” and you had to suspend belief for this one, but I liked it, I wanted to watch While You Were Sleeping (an oldie). Prime wanted $19.00 for it and I figured I’d just go buy it but then I found it on Disney for free. The Holiday was another one I hadn’t seen before but really liked. I also watched Love Actually before bed.

Christmas presents and not all there yet.

This morning I was out of the house at 6.30am to walk around Lake Burley Griffrin with my younger daughter. A good five kilometres! I needed it and a bit more. Today like I said uncovering the desk and finding my computer after some furniture assembly.

Food

My writing plans before Christmas went out the window. I had to go to NZ in a hurry for my brother-in-law and sadly he passed away after suffering a lot. I had to leave my sister behind but she’s surrounded by her son, her daughter-in-law and grandkids and I’ll go see her soon when she returns to Aussie.

I ended up maxing my credit card and spending all my money. Something I have not done for a while. Luckily I get paid again next week and things are better now and the need for spending has ended. I did save for Christmas but a few unexpected things came up. We also go the dishwasher repaired twice so that was not a nice Christmas expense. We found the problem was these soap sheets we were using made too much suds. We weren’t using them right in any case but the technician said don’t use them and use a level teaspoon of powder. My iphone battery died too and needed replacing. NZ trip and hire car.

We are also dog sitting because my elder daughter and my youngest grandchild have relocated to Sydney and we are watching the dog for a bit until she gets him after New Year. The cat is not impressed as he’s confined to one part of the house and he usually owns the whole place. I had to encouraging to leave our bed last night because I couldn’t get my pretzel shape comfortable and it was too hot to have car fur against my leg.

That’s about it. I haven’t thought of a plan for the year yet. I do need to get more of Amber Rose drafted ASAP. I appear to be more worried about the Dweeb’s deadlines than my own. He got a nice lecture from me this morning. Lol.

The immediate family and visitors are all well and happy and that’s a lovely thing.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas if you celebrate and my best wishes for the New year.

A lovely tranquil view from me walk this morning around the lake.

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Change like a punch in the face

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Craft, tagged , , , , , on February 23, 2021| 2 Comments »

It is not possible to fight change. you have to roll with the punches. One minute you think you are heading this way and the next something alters, a new path arises and whammo, your future looks different.

I can’t really talk specifically about this change because while it affects me it’s not my news. We were going to refiniance and borrow heaps of $$$$ to renovate our house. We were almost there to signing when something changed and now we aren’t going through with it. I’m not upset or annoyed. We will be fine, but it does mean some short term stress to effect a positive change in our lives.

My partner is a writer. He gets paid and he has been writing while I’ve been slacking off doing this Phd gig. Although the Phd thing is getting closer, and closer to completion soon I’ll be wondering what I’m going to do with myself. Anyway, I think by the end of the year there will be lots more writing going on from both of us. That’s all the hint you are going to get. No I have not sold a novel…but I might finish one or two or maybe three.

I did something weird and extraordinary last night though. Instead of vegging in front of Netflix, I came upstairs and started revising a novel I last looked at in November 2019. I am 31 pages in. Yay me. I thought it might shock Matthew to know that while he was in his office diligently working on his revisions, I was in mine next door. It was thrilling and exciting. This is a paranormal romance I’m working on for my Dani Kristoff name and is the sequel to The Sorcerer’s Spell, featuring werewolves and sorcerers set in Canberra (mostly).Anyway, I was excited because I deleted words, trimmed and crafted sentences and otherwise behaved in a writierly fashion. Sigh.

It felt so good.

In other news, we had a craftanoon here on Sunday and I got out the tiered platter for some high tea shenanigans. Yes, there were scones, jam and cream. I finished my first ever embroidery kit after maybe seven years…cough. We had loads of fun. It is the second one I have hosted and it was relaxed and lovely. I have had to slow down on the crochet due to elbow issues. Today though I felt the call of the garden and attacked the forest that is the yard with the weed trimmer and now I’ve crawled up here to my office to do some real work. Cough.

We don’t have rampant covid here so we can almost lead a normal life and do things like socialise carefully. I am very grateful for that. I probably won’t get vaccinated until later in the year when it’s my turn. Australia is only now rolling out the vaccines. I’m so pleased that people I care about in the UK and the USA are getting vaccinated.

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Pandemic dreaming- looking on the bright side

Posted in Annoying advice, Pandemic, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 18, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Yes, I know. I should be all gloom and doom. Things are not as bad as they could be. I’m not going to say they are not as bad as they seem because that’s a different kettle of fish.

I’ve studied pandemic preparedness for my work as an auditor a while ago when bird flu was considered a threat. We got the Swine Flu instead. However, under those scenarios the ‘flu’ was going to be devastating and take a lot of people out thereby disrupting critical supplies such as food and rubbish removal and so on. However, this does not appear to be the case. This is not a widespread failure of everything we know. Food deliveries are still being made etc, food is still be produced and grown. This is not like Stephen King’s The Stand or the movie Contagion. Praise the universe for that small mercy.

The big impact here is on imported food and exported food and medicines. These disruptions to air travel etc have consequences there is no denying. However, I am convinced we will still have baked beans on the shelf. And as toilet paper is made in Australia no potential shortage. I’d like to see people not hoard that stuff. I have plenty of loo paper but I bought it one pack at a time and then found a great big packet from before Christmas in our laundry hidden under guff. As people aren’t going to be visiting in the time of social distancing and social isolation I think we are good–for a while.

We should be alert but not alarmed.

I will be delivering all my tutorials online from now and probably for the rest of the semester. I think this is doable but I’m sure going to miss my face to face classes. I have such a great group of students and I’ve been so impressed by them this year. I feel bad that their first year of university (most of them) is marred by this pandemic outbreak. In one course we have been discussing ‘adaptability’, which is not always easy.

I am also low level scared. It has been on my mind that I might die. But I’m not alarmed by that thought. I think this is because since Matthew’s dad died in December, life has been full of challenges. Bushfire smoke, bushfires and now the Covid-19 outbreak. These events have put a lot of pressure on me personally, although I did not lose my home, it did make me understand that I am not as resilient as I thought I was and that I’m mortal.

So where is the upside here? I think there’s a chance to slow down and connect with ourselves and those closest to us. There is a chance to catch up on books and movies. Social media, often called a bane, might be the only contact people have and for that I think we have to be grateful for technology. We live in a connected world–that helped the virus spread but it will also keep us together.

Today I am baking sourdough bread, an activity I find relaxing and centering. I’m also trying to work out how to put together a half lecture using different technology that is going to be delivered online. A bit of a learning curve.

Stay safe everyone.

 

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A laid back weekend

Posted in A writer's life, baking, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Last week it was Conflux 15 over three days of the long weekend. I’m due to write a post on that, but first I’m just in the relax weekend space. I have some sourdough in the making. I’m making three loaves instead of two as my second daughter wants a loaf regularly too. I currently make one for the house and one for the number one daughter. I think I have this sourdough bread baking in hand. Today though I threw in a bunch of other flour, some wholemeal and some spelt so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

It’s a lovely sunny day outside, though a bit nippy. I can see cloud shadows on the ranges out the window to my left. I find that view comforting and calming.

IMG_9298I’m a bit stressed. Not a lot stressed but just a bit. It’s the 13th of October 2019 and I’m wondering what is happening to time. September I had a schedule to work on my phd novel, which I stuck to, but October started out busy and you know it’s just slipped by.

I did a schedule for the rest of October and I feel sort of less stressed about it. I want to do NaNoWriMo in November but I do have an exegesis to get reacquainted with. I haven’t been at my uni desk for a long time. I’ll be back there next week.

I think the schedule helped me be less stressed because it positioned me in reality a bit. It’s not an overly hard schedule but sitting down and looking at the month let me know that I still have a couple of weeks to get things done. Or shall I say start to get things done. A little bit less of panic, hand waving, screaming mode.

The PhD is not overly stressful. I’m on intermission so how can it be? It’s one of those things I must really throw myself into next year (next year is fast approaching!). I’m not working and earning so that is probably an itch that contributes to this sense of unease. I think it is this sense that time is going too fast.

So today I’m kicking back and relaxing. I have no chance of slowing time, I know that, but I want to feel a minute pass, and feel my breath as it leaves my body. I’m looking at the view and I’m waiting for the sourdough to do it’s thing.

IMG_9077

Recent sourdough bread

I did have something else to say but it’s slipped through the sieve of my mind.

PS. The sourdough starter I dried before I went away revived nicely. I also froze some but can’t discover it in the chaos of the deep freezer.

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Frenetic activity

Posted in A writer's life, All the things, baking, Craft, Crazy shit, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on May 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Currently I am living with my partner and his father.

I am pretty much an on the go person, except when I’m not. Recently I have been on the go. Baking bread, trying to weave (both fixed heddle and four shaft), write, bake, teach, study…

I fear I probably need a sedative as I am interesting to watch apparently. Maybe I don’t know how to relax.

Meanwhile, I am finding it hard to focus on the PhD novel. This post is probably an example.

It is just that there is so much to do and life is so short and I know I’ll never get to do all the things…and it makes me anxious!

Maybe I should just take a pill or meditate on what is important and reasonable.

Here is a picture of my 100 per cent Rye bread, first time ever. It’s all gone too. So yummy.

IMG_4680 2

I’ll be posting about my new novella next.

 

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