I’m still trying to get used to this new editor in WordPress. It’s not such a shock any more, but it still makes me sit back a moment and get my bearings.
Friday
Monkey Dust had a gig on Friday night in Doncaster, so we didn’t have time to do any shopping before we went and it meant a late night. It’s the last one for a few weeks, though, so when we got back the guitars and the gig bags and cases went away. They don’t even have a rehearsal booked for a few weeks now either, so there was no need to leave the equipment either in the car or in the hallway.
Saturday
We had a late start on Saturday, so once I’d written a meal plan for this week and a shopping list, we were off out doing the shopping.
I do find a shopping list very useful and it does keep me to budget. If I didn’t have a list to keep me on track, I’d be buying every single shiny sparkly thing we saw. The meal plans work for us as well because the poet does most of the cooking and it’s easier for him to know what’s on the plan so he doesn’t have to think about it when he finishes work and we don’t have to dash out and buy any ingredients we don’t have.
This week I had a browse through the latest Slimming World magazine and selected two recipes he can have a go at customising. One is a pasta bake, the other is a risotto. The pasta bake is for three meals (six portions) and the risotto is for two meals (four portions), but we’ll see how big they both come out before deciding how many meals to carry them across.
He made a stew last week and served up six portions, so three meals, but I’m not a massive fan of stew. It was supposed to be a chicken casserole but we forgot to freeze the chicken and had to throw it away, and we had to use stewing steak from the freezer instead. The other two meals have been frozen but it’s more likely he’ll take them to work and cook them in the microwave than we’ll have them again. Stew’s okay, but I don’t like it a great deal.
We went to the pet shop first to get food for the garden birds. Then we went to The Range to replace an overnight oats jar I broke on the porcelain kitchen sink and a mug I also broke in the same way. (This is why I prefer a washing-up bowl.) We couldn’t get either, so improvised for the oats jar and bought two new ones for in the house (the one I broke is a travel jar with a spoon attached) but we didn’t bother replacing the mug. And then we went to the supermarket.
There was one ingredient we couldn’t get at the supermarket: dried mushrooms (for the risotto). So he improvised again and went to get some fresh field mushrooms from the greengrocery section.
Sunday
On Sunday we had a day in the garden. He hung out the first washload while I made us all breakfast and I put a few more washloads through, hanging them out throughout the day. He cut the lawns, front and back; he removed an ivy that had worked its way under the felt on a flat roof (over the office and the dining room); and he did some strimming.
I cleaned out the two garden bird drinkers and the bird bath and topped up all of the feeders, and I made an apple crumble for pudding over three days before bringing the washing back in. Then he made us a roast chicken dinner.
Monday
I was at my desk relatively early on Monday but the first few hours were spent catching up on emails and social media and sharing a few stories that interested me. I normally do this over breakfast, but with the finer weather, we’ve been having breakfast in the device-free conservatory. I put some more washing through and hung it out again throughout the day. The washing basket was empty by midday.
As I scrolled through social media I noticed that yesterday’s blog post had auto-posted with the wrong featured image. I thought it was just my cache at first but when I checked, no, it was me. I hadn’t changed the featured image. So I changed it, deleted the auto-posts and scheduled it to post again within a few minutes. Then I shared yesterday’s Substack post, which was the last of the pre-scheduled posts used to repopulate the newsletter there.
While I was on the internet, I did the gig list admin and I went and created a set of posters for the next Monkey Dust gig. We’re on holiday next week so I needed to do that this week. Gig list and Monkey Dust usually come under ‘client work’ in the afternoons, but as I was already there…
- I chose a new hat for the monkey, helped by the poet
- I created the three posters (for Instagram and Facebook and the regular poster)
- I created the event on Facebook
- I invited almost 200 people
- I shared the event and the FB poster
- I added the gig to Diane’s Gig List
By the time I’d done all of that, and hung out another washload, it was dinner time and time to hang out the third washload of the day.
We had dinner. I had a ham salad and the poet had a ham sandwich. And I hung out the fourth and final washload of the day. Then it was back to work for the afternoon, which should have been client time, but as I’d already spent several hours on client time I went to the top of my ‘my work’ list. I’d already ticked off ‘start Tuesday’s blog post’ and ‘Substack’, but I also ticked off those two jobs that should have been afternoon jobs. Already with four ticks I felt better.
Next on the list was ‘The Fool‘, which has been on my list every day this month so far, and it’s been crossed off every day this month too, apart from the date and scene title I wrote last Tuesday while I was sitting in the car waiting for the poet. I wrote up half a scene, adding just over 400 words. Then I added it to the short story planning spreadsheet and changed the title of the spreadsheet to ‘novel & story planner’.
I brainstormed the short story Paper Roses, which is for this week’s 12 Stories in 12 Months, and I rustled up an outline. I read through The Kite Festival, making a few edits. I needed to lose 95 words and I managed to cut 87, which would be enough I think. Then I put it to cool again before having another look today.
Then I hauled out Diary of a Pussycat, mostly to refresh my memory and to make sure all of the project spreadsheets are up to date and include both this and The Fool. I edited two pages of Diary of a Pussycat and I inadvertently added 75 words. I’ll be adding more as I flesh out the exercises at the end of each chapter.
Finally I turned to proper client work. The plan was to edit the extra two chapters the author sent before starting the electronic edit today. First I located the file and added the pages to the jelly (plastic wallet). Then an email came in from the client with proofreader’s corrections for an earlier book. She asked if I’d already received the author’s corrections, and I had, but I had to go through and find them so that I had the dates for the client. I saved the proofreader’s pdf and I compared it to the author’s pdf, and I decided that I’d use the author’s pdf as the basis of my own proofreading as that had quite a few extras added on. Then I emailed the client back to let her know what I was doing and when I might be able to do this proofreading job. (It will be after we get back off holiday now.)
And that was it. I had a longish working day, finishing at 6:45pm, and I did a bit of everything, even if it was only two pages or 75 words. Everything in my diary had a tick next to it rather than a line through it, and now I feel more able to address the rest of this week’s work to ensure I’ve done as much as I possibly can before we break up on Friday for our holiday. And I’m feeling a bit smug. Mondays, when they work, are always very good days.
Today will be pretty much more of the same but without hanging the washing out, as it’s all already done, without the gig list/band admin, and without Substack, as that’s up to date now.
Phew!
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It never ceases to amaze me how much you get done in a work day.
Thank you. I often feel as though I’ve actually achieved nothing, or not a lot. You’re the same, though. You get through so much in just one day, and your days are longer than my days.