one foot in front of the other

Current work: outlines, articles and tinkering with stuff
Listening to: Radiohead
Reading: Liz Fielding, Wedded in a Whirlwind (loved this – apart from the fact that I have a soft spot for archaeologists, Nick was a great character, and Manda… oh, my heart broke for her. For both of them, really. Have the tissues ready. And it’s a great read)

Saturday, nipped into town to pick up some things for son, and while I was there I stopped off in Border’s. I’m doing a talk on 29 October at 6pm (tickets are available from Borders in Chapelfield, Norwich) and I wanted to check a couple of details. Turned out that the organiser is none other than the lovely woman who organised the launch party for my very first M&B, A Baby of Her Own, at Ottakar’s back in November 2002. That’s great. (I was also very pleased to hear that my nonfic is doing well at Border’s.) Dropped in to see Dad in the afternoon, as I’d missed Wednesday due to his hospital appointment and was feeling awful about neglecting him (even though I sent him a postcard from London - last week was another where I only had one 'free' day).

Bit the bullet and stepped on the scales this morning. Given this summer’s hassles, I’ve avoided the scales: there have been more than enough pressures on me lately without the added one of weight management. For the last couple of months it’s been hard enough to put one foot in front of the other; writing has been a struggle because it’s been difficult to get time and headspace. I’ve been chain-eating chocolate and doing no exercise, so I was expecting to discover that I’d put on at least half a stone. Was very relieved (albeit surprised) that I’d managed to stay pretty much as I was. Hopefully if I can go cold turkey on chocolate and do some more exercise, I might be able to make some progress on that front.

This might not be the week to do it, though. (Oh, for a quiet life. A couple of nights’ sleep where I don’t wake up worrying at 2am about various things would help – Madam woke on Saturday night with a bad dream and was going to come in and see us for a cuddle, until she noticed the light on downstairs. ‘Mummy, why are you up at this time of night?’ Because I’m fidgety and it isn’t fair to Daddy to keep him awake... She got her cuddle and reassurance, but it was a while until I managed to get back to sleep.)

More damp meter readings due today, and there are some sticky patches due later this week (related to this summer so I’m not blogging about it). I do however have some bright spots – am taking Dad out to lunch on Wednesday, and I’m meeting friends on Friday for lunch – so will focus on them.

Plan for today: take out the reindeer and finish my outline; sort out the rest of my location pics for the nonfic; write three articles; sort my car tax.

Oh, and I’m keeping the competition open for a couple more days – realised I posted it Friday, after saying that I wasn’t going to update the blog until Monday. And, with global time differences, that’s unfair: so I’ll draw it Wednesday evening (UK time).