Monday 22 January 2024: Proper weekend

On Friday I added an ebook shop to the website. It took all day to choose which one to use, try some out, remove them again, and then finally settle for one that works for me. There are only 3 ebooks on there at the moment, and they’re all only available as epub files, which are quite universal now, even for newer Kindle apps. But it’s a start, and it means I can sell direct now, and more books will be added.

Let me know if you’d like mobi files or pdfs too, and I’ll see what I can do and when I can do it. The payment form is encrypted, but it doesn’t come up as secure in the URL field on a desktop, although it does come up as secure on my mobile phone. That’s something else I’ll need to look into.

The weekend turned into what weekends are supposed to be: do diddle days where you do what you want to do when you want to do it. Or mostly.

It started on Friday when we had a takeaway for tea and goodies for pudding. Sausage and chips from the chip shop swilled down with fizzy pop (proper luxury these days, since we’ve been drinking cordial more) followed by cheap and cheerful cakes, chocolate and sweets.

We had a vet appointment at 11am on Saturday, but that was our only obligation. While I took Rufus in for his injection, the poet went to the pet shop to buy bird food. Then we drove round to the supermarket and he sat in the car with the dog while I had a leisurely stroll with a shopping trolley. On the way home, I sat in the car with the dog while he went to the butcher’s to get our meat for the week.

When we got back, we still had so much day ahead of us thanks to (a) getting up at a decent time to get to the vet in a decent time (it *was* the weekend), and (b) doing everything in one trip. He went into the garage to get the soldering iron to repair his silver chain clasp while I sat and read or played games.

I also bought us a magazine each, PRIVATE EYE for him, THE NEW STATESMAN for me, as well as the current PEOPLE’S FRIEND SPECIAL I have a short story in. (It’s number 254 if anyone’s interested.) Birmingham City FC won. They’ve had 3 games with the new manager, drawn one and won two. But we couldn’t find the highlights on the telly.

We tried a few films on telly. Two were rubbish and ended up as DNFs (Did Not Finish), while one proved such a hit we watched the next one as well. (FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC and PETALS ON THE WIND – disturbing films – I read the books a long time ago and loved them – but still good.) We’ll watch the next two in the series when we can.

Sunday started with a bit of a lazy lie-in but we decided to get up and go for a walk. We ended up at Thrybergh Reservoir (pronounced Thry – bruh to rhyme with sky – uh). The visitor centre was closed but the café was open and the lake was buzzing with people and birds. There were so many swans! Nice to see when so many are dying in Doncaster from bird flu.

The dog had a great time, running along on his wheels, shouting at the birds and other dogs. It was our first walk in a long time, though, as well as our first walk of the year and while it was bracing in the wind that was picking up ahead of Storm Isha, we didn’t stay for too long as we didn’t want to overdo it too soon. It’s local and close enough for us to go again and walk a bit further every time, if we want to.

When we got home, the poet sat and repaired the meat probe (kitchen thermometer), put the pork in for tea, and watched the Leeds game. Leeds won too, so very happy in our house at the weekend. He found the Birmingham City highlights, so we watched the goals. And I made a raspberry and coconut cake for pudding.

Once tea was over, we watched the last episode of VERA and called it a weekend.

I have a good, steady week ahead, during which I hope to write a good chunk of THE SECRET OF WHITEHORSE FARM. I have some editing work to turn around, which may wait until next week if I’m on a roll. And I’d like to have a draft of January’s submission for 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS done and cooling.

Monkey Dust are back in the rehearsal studio on Thursday, we’re going to the theatre on Friday to see DO I LOVE YOU?, and Monkey Dust have their first gig of the year on Saturday.

Onwards!