heat, gelati and VERY proud Mummy moment

Current work: last readthrough of Modern Heat, then Medical
Listening to: Corelli (am a bit of a stress puppy today)
Reading: Louise Allen, The Notorious Mr Hurst - part of her wonderful Those Scandalous Ravenhursts series. Eden was a wonderful hero (I really loved his hair) and Maude was a great heroine: she knew exactly what she wanted. Great background, too, on theatres and gaslight – Louise always delivers a rollicking good story in a properly researched background, and I’m not just saying that because she’s a mate of mine.

Hospital was fairly stuffy on Friday but we were done by lunchtime in the end, and I got to the bottom of what happened. (Not happy about it, but not blogging more about the situation out of respect for his privacy.) The important thing is that Dad seems to be recovering well. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Managed to get a bit of work done in the afternoon, though the combo of lack of sleep and intense stickiness (we didn’t get the promised storms to clear the air) slowed my productivity. DH was a star and did the school run for me, which helped a bit.

Then daughter bounced in and handed me her school report. Was very pleased with son’s report, the week before; he’s worked hard and he’s had a good year, made new friends, progressed well and his organisation is improving. He shines at maths, science and IT. But Madam’s report was absolutely outstanding. I knew she was good all round academically, but her results were even better than I expected.

The bit that put a lump in my throat was in her English report. ‘Where she really shines is fiction. Her vocabulary choices are exciting, her sentence structure is varied and she has wonderful imagination and humour.’ I’m immensely proud of her. Not just for her academic abilities, but because she’s a nice kid, too – she’s kind, thoughtful and caring (as is her brother, in his teenager-in-training way).

And I guess that’s more notebooks I’ll be buying for her: though at the moment she appears to have annexed my laptop. (And she has discovered Spider. Which she says is good for thinking. Hmm, wonder where she heard that? I spy an author in the early stages…)

Weekend was spent working, though I admit I skived off to watch the last set of the Wimbledon men’s singles. What a nail-biter: and some fantastic playing. Could barely believe the number of aces I saw. It was great to watch history in the making – congrats to Federer – but I was particularly impressed by Roddick’s speech. He seems like a really nice guy and I could’ve hugged him. They both played well and worked so hard; such a shame that only one person can win because they both deserved it. I really hope Roddick wins next year.

Am very relieved I’ve finally finished the revisions (and a bit scared that half of the book is now completely new stuff. Hope my ed likes it). Last readthrough this morning, then it's going to be head down for the next two and a bit weeks, too, to sort the medical romance – if I don’t catch up with things I’ll be mega stressed about going on holiday. (Hmm. Maybe that’s the one positive thing about not going to the RNA conference this coming weekend. I am in deep, deep deadline doo-doo and just couldn't afford the time, not to mention the 7-hour drive each way and the need of a couple of days to recover my energy afterwards.) Am in need of gelati (see my post over at the RNA blog for details) to cool me down and cheer me up.

Plan for today: work this morning, then heading swiftly into the city for an interview with Lesley Dolphin on BBC Radio Suffolk at around 2.10 (103.9 and 104.6 FM). And at some point between 9am and 6pm (UK time) I’ll be dropping in to Nina Harrington’s virtual launch party – and also Sharon Archer's debut medical launch party at Love is the Best Medicine - see you there!