The north wind doth blow

Current work: Medical (dirty draft chapter 9)
Listening to: Bach
Reading: next on TBR pile

The east coast was promised snow, this weekend.

It duly arrived, and on Saturday morning the kids came up with a new twist on the ‘are we there, yet?’ torture. Standing by the front door, with wellies and gloves and scarves, coats ready to be put on and done up in two seconds flat: ‘Can we go out, yet?’

There wasn’t enough to make a snowman on Saturday, so Madam had to content herself with taking the snow off DH’s car (and then lobbing it at her brother, of course). Did tons of work on Saturday (had all been stuck in my head last week, behind the worry), then did some well-refilling by watching an excellent drama, Einstein and Eddington – beautifully acted by Andy Serkis and David Tennant in the title roles (and the rest of the cast were super, too). The bit where William went off to war was absolutely heartbreaking: the understatement there was superb, so all credit to the writers. (We knew what they both wanted to say, without them having to say it.) And the bit where the Germans were hounded out… Desperately sad, the more so because that kind of thing happened in real life. Have to admit to a quiet cheer when Eddington did the right thing and stood up for them against the bullies: and the quiet way he faced the people who called him a coward. Einstein was his polar opposite in many ways, but he also stood up for what was right. Quiet cheer for him, too, standing up against the industrialists. (And I loved the answer: “Thank you for the money. Goodbye.”)

The science behind the drama fascinated me, too – set a couple of lightbulbs going. (Yes, my poor editor. Astronomy, photography, and – although it wasn’t mentioned here – something I saw earlier this year in Derby: an orrery…)

Sunday, woke up to a world of white. (Yup, Kate trying to be arty - this is the snow on the back lawn, seen through the patio chair back. You can see why I liked the design: like Y-tracery in Early English church windows.)

Lovely to look at, lovely to play in. First job was the snowman. (Daughter moaned that son hadn't got the head right, but put his carrot nose in anyway.)

This is DH and the kids with our neighbour’s son; a quarter of an hour later, all the dads and the kids in the street were out and there was a MASSIVE snowball fight going on. (The mums, needless to say, were being sensible – inside with hot drinks. DH didn't stay out that long as I nagged a bit about him needing to be in the warm. But a little bit of fresh air - albeit cold - was good for him.)

Dog was sulking a bit at being stuck inside with me when everyone else was out, but he’s not allowed off the lead in the front garden – last time he trotted out, he spied Fang (our neighbour’s cat) and gave chase. (I should add that Fang lives up to his name, and was safely up a tree a couple of seconds later, doing the feline equivalent of thumbing his nose. Dog returned pronto, shame-faced.)

And the floor saga continues. After almost four months of dehumidifiers, the insurance company agrees that the floor is not going to dry. So this morning the carpenters are in to remove the units from the utility room, and then the floor will come up, and then it will be relaid with super-fast-drying concrete. So, fingers crossed, I might just have my house back to normal before Christmas. Excellent. (But it’s going to be a very disrupted week.)

Working in ‘dirty draft’ (i.e. note form, with dashes instead of proper punctuation and conversation written more like a drama script) is definitely helping this book to flow. Have written more in an hour and a half this morning than I wrote in two days, last week (fear really slows me down). For the first time this year, I’m working at what used to be my normal speed, and it feels wonderful. Might even make my deadline, at this rate...