Story Blog

Codine's off for the moment, but if you haven't read 'Turning Stones' it's still up there - free read! http://www.codinebourbon.blogspot.com/.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

9th November 2010 (Tuesday)

Might not have been the most inspiring day all told but I'm pleased with it. Been battling with various backlogs for a VERY long time now and writing has been utterly off bounds. House has been a shambles, even the Littles's work had been neglected for quite a while because... well, it slipped, there was stuff to do, I was slack.

We're a bit more firmly in the saddle now. House is not great, but it's sort of under control. All the beds are in the right place, almost got the washing down to normal levels. Still have to take stuff to storage but that's a minor matter. Found the time (finally) to clean the Mr's car today – boy did it take some cleaning! Can't remember when we last did it, it was appalling after all the use it'd seen since and in particular the place where a Certain Miss tends to sit was reminiscent of a sty, but it's all sorted. Even swept out the garage.

Then in the afternoon, another unspectacular but satisfying bumble around – checked out what had been happening in the various writing communities, looked up competitions and which ones were new, which ones had closed, what results had come out. And here's the shock. As usual (of course) there were plenty where I wrote the usual 'not selected' on the 'Results' column of my competitions spreadsheet, but HEY found out that I had been selected as a runner-up for a short story... in September!! Stunned! I'm sure I'd looked there before but perhaps I missed it. In any case, there we are, at last have one more little splot to put onto my C.V. I know it's not much but slowly slowly, surely something's got to build up. Gives one heart to carry on at least. I wonder what percentage of items submitted get any result. I'll have to look it up sometime. Anyway, just to prove it you can click on http://www.cazart.co.uk/index.php?page=story&id=184 and see for yourself (don't worry, it's less than 500 words :)

Another marvel happened in the afternoon. Quite a while back (on a trip to the Sydney Aquarium, as it happens) I'd picked up a little cut-out set for the Littles: they have sheets of basic shapes which you cut out yourself, and then stick and match the appropriate ones on seperate bits of paper template to make various pictures. Thought at the time this would be just up her street because she's for EVER sitting at the table shredding up pointless bits of paper but I can never get her to cut and stick with any coherent sense – she seems to prefer to do it with her eyes closed, almost. Well, that little offering was seen through and rejected at once, at the time. No, no no. Absolutely not. Not going to cut them out properly, not going to listen to how to hold the scissors, not going to take advice on what angle to cut at, or what shape matches what, in fact, not going to have anything to do with it at all.

Guess what? Got it out again today and she went at it hammer and tongs. Eureka bells ringing. She even insisted 'I LIKE this!!', gave me a hug, and wanted to do another one, after she'd completed the first one really tolerably nicely and coloured it in to boot. Good things come to those who wait. And boy I've been waiting.

One final soupcon to finish off the day, I managed to cook a tolerably nice dinner. Pretty simple, just boiled carrots and beans (lightly dressed), some cooked spinach, some cous cous with a smidge of cheese in it, and some lightly poached Bassa with a good bit of lime juice and olive oil. Unfortunately didn't take a piccy but I've got to put it on the food blog because it was a jolly tasty combo.

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