Hmmm. Slow day.

Song of the day: “Suddenly Monday” by Mel C...so strange, considering it’s Friday, but what the hey.

It was a rather chilly night, which is surprising, considering we’re in the middle of the friggin’ summer. Last night (and right now) I had to wear a blouse with long sleeves for crying out loud. But then, according to the news, there were some pretty bad rainstorms in Valencia. The chill in the air right now might be a result of that.

So it was relatively cool this morning when I got up and took the dogs to the house. There are some chores, letting out the main pack, etc. etc. before breakfast, and then it’s time for work.
Our insurance is official as of today, so everyone got an extra card to carry ‘round. A total nuisance, insurance, but necessary I suppose.

The edit went rather slow in this morning’s session. Not bad, just slow and rather exhausting for both of us. My head actually felt completely numb by the time six hours had passed, so we put the computers away and looked around for something constructive to do. First I need a reviving dip in the pool, though. Hah. Trin Trin decided to join me.

Here’s a pic of Trin Trin the Monster Boxer:




We’ve been thinking about organizing our working area for quite a bit now, so since we want to be busy, we decide to empty the lower section of the living-room closet and use it for the office supplies that have been lying about all over the place for years. Photo albums get carted off to the section under my old desk and neat organized stockpiles are placed together on the recently cleaned shelves. It actually takes several hours, but afterwards we feel reasonably content with the progress.

In the meantime, little brother and sister are making dinner: an Indian dish of mixed vegetable with rice on the side with the added treat of pakora bajis and samosas; though not bad (the last three were bought yesterday) the spiciness takes something from the taste. In fact, by the time I’ve eaten my share, I can’t taste anything anymore. Hah.

Big brother has headed up to grandpa’s place, where they spend about an hour fashioning a basked on the back of the moped. Grandpa as been getting frustrated about the lack of carrying space on the vehicle and when they’re done they are both pleased with the end result.

Afterwards we fix the fence beside my porch…the dogs have been going over it frequently, and that just won’t do. There are certain rules they have to hold to, and though they’re not much, staying away from grandpa’s and our tenant’s dogs is one that needs to be enforced at all costs.

Though we would have liked to go on a jog today, we also want to do another edit later tonight, and watch “The curious case of Benjamin Button” which was one of the DVDs we rented yesterday. The jog gets cancelled, which, in hindsight was a good thing, considering I rather enjoyed the movie.

Now this is the fourth time Pitt managed to make me cry, and still had me like the movie, darn it. I don’t know how he manages it, but there you have it. I enjoyed the movie, in particular the acting and the rather extraordinary idea behind the story…even though it was obvious from the start that nothing good was going to come to poor Benjamin (Pitt) in the end. Admittedly, I would have liked to see some other actress instead of Kate Blanchett…she isn’t bad, by any means; it’s just that she didn’t really make her character likable, if that makes any sense?

But, be that as it may, the special effects guys did a marvelous job of both old Pitt and the young one. There were some nifty tricks played for sure…even though I have to admit that the younger version was done better.

Once the movie is finished, big brother and I head up to my porch…it’s cold enough for us to both dress up in long sleeved shirts…while we emerge ourselves into another two hour edit. Almost three pages are done when yawning sets in. Time to get ready for bed…just as soon as I write and finish today’s Blog - oh wait, I just did. Hah

Some pics by request.

A view from the top of our mountain ridge.


But let's start off the blog with some nice sunsets, shot while out on a rock hauling trip.


Second one.


Song of the day: “So far so good” by Bryan Adams. Quite apropos in light of what happened today but we’ll get to that.

So, I’m totally not in the mood to write today, and since not all that much happened, I figure I might as well give a general outline and be done with it.

Rather than edit today, I worked on writing a new scene for “Commanding Morgan” in order to make the 100K for this type of novel. It’s a rather complicated scene, overlapping an old one so it is probably going to take a few days at least. Also a scene that is going to have to be moving, in an emotional sense, a scene of sadness and self-sacrifice, which is starting out well, I think.

The Land Rover got through the ITV (MOT), so that was a definite yay in the household. Hah. We had been so worried, especially since it is a second hand car, but we got through so now we officially have a road worthy car again. Phew. It took some time but there you have it.

Considering it was high time to go grocery shopping again we decided to get to it immediately, and spend four hours going from shop to shop until finally we’re back home. I was pretty delighted to drive in the Defender again. Oh my does that baby purr like a big commercial truck. It makes ya feel invincible, hah.

But enough about the day…after the groceries and dinner we only watched a movie “The Resistance” with Daniel Craig. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t wow either.

Let’s do a change in the routine again and do a little messing around with photographs.




So this is the gate that now closes of the small yard down by "the Wall". Looks remarkably straight, doesn't it?



Fortuyn is peeping up from the new stairs that lead down to the patio...this is at the top-back of the wall.



Old Bommel's trying out the new stairs...it all confused him a little since he can't see much anymore. Amri (brown one on the right) is looking at me funny, as if saying, "What the heck are you taking a picture of me for?" He's a grumpy old dog. Hah.



My backdrop when I'm editing on warm summer nights. Love the niche. So very cozy, especially with twenty dogs crowding around my feet.



Carla's favorite spot ever since this part of the wall got finished. Gives him a vantage point of dogs coming and going in the courtyard.



Gaucho (Afghan) checking out the new ride. Yeah!



The section of the wall built mostly by little brother. He did a grand job!



Nearby nature reserve. Isn't it gorgeous?...and upon closer examination, the surrounding area is a bloody mess. Darn it!



Our mountain from afar. We're somewhere in the middle of the left hand corner. Hah.



Knight II striking a rather impressive and handsome pose. He might be nuts sometimes but he is downright pretty...and knows it.

Nothing special, just a day.

Song of the day: “I’m in love” by Maria Mena still. I don’t know what the heck’s going on. I think this is the first time that I’ve got one single song going ‘round and ‘round in my head, even while I’m still half asleep.

Be that as it may, let’s get to the day:
It was strange. Around 7 AM, I woke up and it was ridiculous, ludicrous since it couldn’t have been less than 24 degrees around dawn, when my body decided to wake up completely chilled. I was almost chattering my teeth for crying out loud, and stumbled to my bathroom to grab my robe. I wrapped it around me, crawled back under my sheet and didn’t even mind when Knight II draped himself over me.

I wake right on the dot, of course: the alarm went off after all. Not much chance oversleeping with that annoying bleep going off beside my head. Hah.
The morning rituals done, I head down to the house, the dogs storming back and forth around me while the Monster Boxer pounces on the tube, doing her very best to tear it from my hands.

The day is remarkably fresh today; the sun is shining brightly, but the air doesn’t feel at all hot, just pleasantly warm. The thermometer actually doesn’t go above 35, which is nothing short of a miracle this time of year. I’m thrilled.

There are chores waiting, however, and though I’m really starving, I get to them before actually heading for the kitchen. Breakfast over; the day’s edit gets worked through and works out pretty well. We added a rather enjoyable scene, giving more depth to the villain in the story. Gawd, I actually burst out laughing…loudly.

But anyways, today we’re determined to get some physical work done as well, and head out five hours after commencing the edit to continue with the pillar. More rocks need to be hauled, and cement mixed to a manageable paste. Another sixth gets added before the rocks start floating again (I’ll post some pics as soon as it’s done) and we prudently embed a hook; it is a necessary thing, especially for Knight II, who tends to snap at dogs when they come rushing past.

Next…yes the day isn’t over yet, hah…we decide to take the moped to the carport, so we can see if we can repair the dratted thing. Here we were - last year - spending more than a week repairing the thing, and then it gets hit by the car several months ago, needing another one. Drat. Luckily, it doesn’t take all that long today, just a couple of hours, and since big brother does most of it, I have the opportunity to do some other maintenance chores as well.

I’ve got two lamps that broke down during the course of the last few months, that need to be fixed, and afterwards I put up frameworks for the jasmine vines so they’ll be able to climb up to the roof of both the carport and my cabin. Afterwards, pleased with the progress of the day, I have a quick dip to wash off the dust and then head inside to have a rather late dinner.

Another short edit follows, the dogs lounging around us in the courtyard, enjoying the cool evening that, for the first time in weeks, allows for actual relaxation.
After the edit I take the dogs up and settle on my porch for the night’s session…where I find that another miracle has happened: today’s Blog is under one page. Yay.

The cabin's clean at last!

Song of the day: “I’m in love” by Maria Mena again. No matter, great song and now I’ve read them I actually know the lyrics. Hah.

So let’s see if I can wrap the day up in a nice compact little package. It’ll be hard for me, but it is something I do need to teach myself. Hmmm.
There were the morning rituals, chores, breakfast and coffee, followed by a six hour edit that took us through a rather complicated fight scene. It took ages to do five pages, but still we managed to improve the first half of the chapter rather well, if I do say so myself.

The edit was followed by a slight deviation of the daily routine. Rather than do any building, I took the opportunity to do some cleaning in my cabin, along with the much-needed repairs. During the “week of edit hell” somehow we bounced to hard on my couch (we’ve always been interactive in our reading *snort*) when the scene got to be good. Hah.

I put in a new support beam under the one that broke; put in some new, solid screws and set the couch back to realize that it’s less shaky and noisy than it was when I bought it. Marvelous. Next, the floors and other flat surfaces (I was amazed I even had them. It’s been ages since I last saw them, hah) are scrubbed clean until the cabin is once again clean and comfortable. I really postponed it too long, though. It took over four hours in the end.

After a quick dip in the pool…I took Knight II in with me and he actually enjoyed it…to wash of the grime and then quickly hung a couple of batches of laundry. Then we headed inside to have dinner. Mom made it, and since it was baked potatoes with a salad, I was rather looking forward to it. I was just about to dig into it too when the phone rang. Our tenant’s caretaker was worried about her dog, which appeared to be hurting somewhere and refused to get up.

So I headed over to check the mutt out. She was her usual snappish self when I arrived though, causing relief to her owner while we took the dogs temperature, checked her gums, eyes and limbs. Nothing appeared wrong, just a slight limp that could have been caused by a variety of events that I do not even want to contemplate at this point.

Once in the house, I quickly devour my now cold meal and then head out to do another quick edit in the final hour of the day. Not the most auspicious edit we’ve had but another couple of pages gets added to the whole, so all’s fine.

Around midnight I head to my cabin…my clean and organized cabin for a change…feed the dogs and set up on my porch for the another few hours behind the computer.

Strange day; it had a bit of a surreal feel to it, really.