So here we are again

Song of the day: “Ocean” by Mike Perry feat Shy Martin. Lovely song. Gives me such a good feeling. Definitely not a bad one to have stuck in your head as an earworm.

Oh my, doesn’t time fly? It’s a been a full year since I gave up on my job at the Wellness and Spa, and where am I? Right back there for two months now. How weird life can work out sometimes, right? If it weren’t for the publishing contract I’d be worried about going “back” so to speak, but since I am now a part time employee, things are vastly different, thank gawd. I mean, in the past couple of months I overdid it a little. We were short staffed, colleagues needed a day off, etc, so I ended up doing four days a week, and even a fiver, which is understandable, but not smart. Y’all remember the state I was in after that year doing an average of 6 days a week, more than 7 hours a day. I couldn’t hack it, because my writing suffered from it. *sigh*

Besides, I’ve also noticed that if I work, more days, I care waaaaay too much for what should be nothing more than a job. It’s not my career,  and doing the job I’m paid for, to the best of my ability, is all I a owe to my employer, right? Right. That doesn’t change that there are moments of frustration, mind you, but what the heck. Gotta learn to let that go.

So. I have not a clue what did and didn’t tell y’all about the last time. I’ll just have to guess. Won’t I. Well, in regards to working out, this part time gig is a lot better than full time. What it boils down to these days is me working 3-4 days a week. Which means top sport for as far as I’m concerned. Those 3 mornings amount to four hours or running at a 110 percent. Scrubbing walls, floors and whatnot, basically hitting all the necessary muscle groups. Yay! That covered, the remaining 3-4 days a week I do a 1- 1.5 hour work-out of my Qigong, weightlifting, kickboxing and the occasional bodyweight exercise. Yeah!!!

The work-outs are really doing me good. Looks like they are just what I needed for my plantars fasciitis. I am barely bothered by that now, even on days when I work and have to walk a lot. Remember, back in the day, when I would complain all the time about how painful my feet were, like I was walking on glass, and no matter what I did, it wouldn’t get better. Well, it is. Such a relief that. Looks like I finally found a way to cure that little affliction. Yay!

Also, finally, had my appointment at the hospital for my varicose vein. Got my leg and veins examined, prodded at, but it turns out that the one still there, is not a new problem, but really just something they missed during my last procedure. Yay. In fact, my veins looked rather good (also an effect of the qigong, I’m pretty sure, considering several of the exercises have to do with improving circulation, which is vital) which was a relief to hear. Regretfully, because the leftover vein is not a medical issue, it is also not part of the insurance. *sobs* But, since it has no rush, other than for vanity purposes, I can just wait, save up some money, and then go to a clinic to have the odious thing removed, myself. Just requires patience, is all.

Did some wonderful experimenting with food of late. Made a couple of awesome cakes. One a chocolate nutty cake for my father’s birthday. He came over for dinner, and to see the new place recently. Was a working day for me, and for some reason I forgot to set my alarm, or I slept through it, and ended up doing a too long siesta, meaning I had to rush dinner. Worked out okay, though. The cake was just about done when he and stepmother arrived. Had a nice afternoon together, a short walk to see more of the area, and all in all, caught up on the past couple of months because we had all been so very busy.

Another cake involved lots of nuts, which was yummy. Also had a great bakmi, which thankfully lasted two day. Had a friend over for barbeque, which was fun, because the previous occupants of the house obviously used the corner of the yard as a biowaste dump, meaning we had a whole batch of home-grown potatoes. Yummy. Also experimented with a cauliflower, involving egg, hazelnuts, herbs and cheese, which worked out really well, for me anyway. Big brother is not a big fan of oven dishes, so I ended up living of the leftovers for three days in a row, which was a bit much. Grrr.

The edit: Oh. My. Gawd. ANOTHER round of changes was requested and I got 4 days for it…did four days…around work. So it was a week. Can’t do magic, and money has to come in, seriously. It’s not like I can just sit down at the computer for four days, all random-like. Jeez. I need to plan such writing sprees, make sure that work doesn’t intervene. And that is just me. For big brother it is even harder. He does full friggin’ days, and what little time is left beyond that…well, that’s why it took a week instead.

We had some arguments throughout, of course, which is never good. But with the time pressure, the proposed changes, it wasn’t all that odd that there were explosive moments of debate about what we could and couldn’t do, that there was frustration and whatnot for the duration. But, we didn’t kill each other, and the manuscript is back in the editor’s court, so…keep yer fingers crossed.

So, before the latest edit request came, I’ve steadily been working on “A Taste of Life”. Been rearranging the chapters, checking out how to fit it into a plot beat sheet, and how to put together a proper synopsis, see if I can shuffle around scenes, get some stuff out, put some new stuff in. See if I can make it work for the publisher so that maybe within the next year we can have another book out. That sure would be nice.

Visited Tenant. She appears to be cooping at the senior home. I do find it sad to see her…degrade is the word, I guess. I remember how she used to practise staying mobile, and active, only to now see her wither away in that blasted chair. I spent a couple of hours with her. We talked, went for a little walk around her home, and then I had to leave again. We did agree that she would come to visit us, which she did. And she really liked it. Actually held out until five in the evening, which was nice for her. She doesn’t get out all that much. And she loved seeing the new place, even though she couldn’t go upstairs, of course.

Other than that…well, not a lot of stuff happened. I know, the glamorous life of an author: working the part time day job, working on the books.  Not a single party to boast about. Hah

No matter, though. I’ll party my own way.

The revision/edit done and sent!!!!

Song of the day: “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran. Lovely song. It’s been tumbling through my mind frequently lately.

So, let’s make this a quickie. Been a long day, what with work and stuff…and with the past few days having been incredibly busy, catching up with friends (lived like a hermit for the past month or so, delving into that revision edit with an average of 8-10 hours a day behind the computer) which was very necessary. Luckily for me, stuff got cancelled by others during the whole work thing, some get-togethers I was forced to cancel myself, but on the overall timing was splendid. The manuscript actually got done in time…well, only five minutes, over the deadline we had set, so sorta on time anyway. Hah. Technically the edit was done exactly on the deadline, but the actually sending was five minutes late. *sigh*

It was pretty stressful, though: the hours, the weeks, and then that last night, big brother so worried that he woke me up two hours after I got to bed, so we could go through the last bits and pieces, six hours before the deadline. Aaaargh. Seriously, I had the idea that I’d just fallen asleep, and the next moment my door opens and big brother is saying, “we gotta get started, Sam. We only have six hours left. Get up.” Startled me straight up in bed, my head pounding, my stomach protesting (about three hours in I puked out my porridge…I know, TMI, TMI, but there you have it) and bleary-eyed on bad coffee while we read through the last few chapters, checked the key-words that we’d kept track of throughout the edit, (found one, despite all our efforts of taking them out) ran the whole thing through the spelling program, just to be sure, which took an hour!!! And every little thing we could think of before sending it off.

Felt really weird afterward, like deflated, or something, and just gazed blindly at the computer for a while, skimmed through Facebook and finally just gave up and went to bed, rather than risk feeling miserably tired for the majority of the day. Slept several hours and then went outside so we could work on fixing the Daihatsu. Yes! We did it! The little zit is fully functional again, all the broken parts we exchanged for new (2^nd hand ones, naturally)…although we still have to find a new hood, but that has no rush. Anyway, it works, it drives, and the garage who checked the poor thing over, declared it hale and healthy. Yay.

So, on the news part…there’s going to be some changes. Moving time is coming again…asap. Big brother had a rather good job offer, thankfully, so we’re planning on moving back south…at least a little bit, just as soon as we can manage it. Already looking, mind you, but such things take more time than I would want them to…but on the other hand, there is still a deadline for the book, and there will be at least two more edits before it can get the okay at the end of the month, so…I’m hoping that the actual move won’t be until next month. Seriously, can imagine me having to do the previous mentioned hours, while packing and loading most of our stuff, because big brother would be working full time at his new job. Aaaaaaarrrgggghhhh

As for the social business lately. We had some parties, b-days, from neighbors as well as friends, which was fun, if time consuming. Hah. Also visited friends with new babies, or babies underway. Five cases of that, just so you know, and just so you know, I’ve heard of two former colleagues who are having, and have a baby. Seriously, everyone seems to be procreating. I do hope it is not something in the water. Cute babies, though. I’ve been cooing over more babies the past few weeks than I did in the past twenty years. I kid you not. It sure is different, suddenly all the conversations are about babies and stuff about babies. Hah.

The car had a sudden problem the other day. We were preparing to bring away a load of old cartons, and the next thing you know the stupid thing just stopped functioning. Turn the ignition, but nothing happened, so I went straight to the garage, who offered to come back with me to see if he could get it started anyway. He could. Turns out the battery had completely died, so we had to replace it. Good thing that it was only that, because it seemed like it was a bigger problem. Was already seeing the disaster looming. Thankfully that wasn't the case.

Did quite some cooking, and baking. Have a divine chocolate cake, according to my volunteer tasters anyway. Personally I’m okay with them, but not the biggest fan…it being chocolate and everything. Also experimented with some dishes, which I think I’ll save for the cooking blog at a later time.

What else…well, not much else. Since the manuscript has been sent out I feel like I’ve been hit by a freight train and have been taking some naps, when the days allowed it, cleaning the house because it was a mess, doing laundry to catch up, and  doing my exercises approximately 5 days a week for more than an hour, if for no other reason than making up for the computer sitting time. If I hadn’t done that throughout the edit, I think I would have been a physical mess for sure.

The weather is finally improving. Everything is green again, which is a vast relief. The winter was incredibly long and I’ve had enough of it. Pity that now that the time to move has come, it’s a pity that it’s happening while everything has finally become pretty at last. I’ll keep you informed.

And that’s it for now. I’m leaving out stuff, of course, but I don’t want to get boring anyway. I’ll be back…as always. The question is just when. Hah.