The bit in the middle

It’s that bit in the middle, in between Christmas and New Year. I hope you had a great Christmas. We’re still eating leftovers and even food that wasn’t even opened. Is there a name for that as well?

We had a quiet time. We went to see the daughter and granddaughter on Thursday, to take them all their presents. We went to see my mom on Christmas Eve, but they would only let the poet in as he’s the designated visitor at the moment while they isolate following 4 Covid cases. Then we collected his mom on Christmas morning.

Son #2 and his fiancée dropped in to see us on Christmas Day, and son #1 and his girlfriend popped by to exchange gifts.

The weather has been cold and wet. A band of snow that moved across the country on Christmas Day night completely missed us, so we have yet to see any of the white stuff.

The dog enjoyed all of the extra attention, but the cat went to the vets yesterday after she nose-dived after being perfectly normal the night before. We think it’s old lady syndrome, but we had to be certain.

I had to make another phone call to the emergency vets today, though. Not only did they over-charge us by £37, but they also helped themselves to a ‘voluntary’ donation. It was only a pound, and if they’d asked I would have said yes. But as they didn’t, I asked for it back.

The cat has had something to eat and drink today, but she’s very lethargic and sleepy, and a bit off her food. So we’re keeping a close eye on her.

I’m actually officially still on holiday. I worked so hard over the past year, even when I had Covid, and on more weekends than I usually care to. So I made sure I cleared the decks so that I could have the full holiday period off.

Saying that, I do have some work to do for one of my ghostwriting clients. I’m not sure I’m going to meet the deadline, but he did know I was having time off over Christmas. I’ll see how it goes.

I also have a shiny new laptop computer to play with. I’m using it as a docking computer because, quite frankly, it’s a far better spec than the pile of pap I was using as a desktop before. The old one has gone to the desk in the dining room, so it’s a proper home computer now.

I have a new monitor too, a new keyboard and a new mouse. The monitor has a speaker, so the other speakers have gone back into the poet’s studio.

My old keyboard was actually really good, as far as being substantial and sturdy. It’s a gaming keyboard and it’s backlit, which is great, especially as I like it to get quite dark in my office. But the black paint was wearing off the most common keys and the letters were becoming unreadable.

Which brings me on to one of my new year’s resolutions. I have my old typing book in my bookcase, and I’m going to go back to the beginning and practice my touch-typing. I’ve got really lazy over the years, and losing the letters on the keyboard showed me how much I’m relying on reading the keyboard at the moment.

Another thing I’d like to do is finally learn shorthand. I have a Teeline course book and CD, which I’ve had for ages. The exercises off the CD were on my MP3 player too, but they’ve vanished, so I have to work out how to get them on there again. (No CD/DVD player in the laptop or my desktop, but the poet has one in one of his.)

Anyway, all of that is next week and next year… right now, in this bit in the middle, apart from setting up the new computer, I’m also transferring my publishing schedule for the year to Excel spreadsheet, and I want to come up with a proper blog schedule as well as a writing schedule.

So I’m still busy, even though I’m on holiday.

How’s your bit in the middle going?