We were up very early on Friday because I had a very early (to us!) review appointment at the hospital. We got there on time and by the time the poet had parked the car I was on my way out again. I was about to let him know where I was while he parked when I was whisked away. I must have been the first appointment of the day.
The surgeon tried to talk me into having my gall bladder removed because pancreatitis can kill and it could flare up at any moment, without warning. I did have one nocturnal flare-up about three weeks ago, but I’m still feeling a bit attached to all of my bits and the flare-up didn’t last very long at all. Probably less than a minute. So we’ve agreed on another 6-monthly review and if I’m still undecided, I may just agree to the op.
We were back at the house by just after 10am, so we had a quick breakfast before the poet went into the first of his Teams meetings for the day. I arrived at my desk at about 10:30am, which was a whole hour earlier than I thought I would. I did start to watch the first of my applied depth workshop videos, but despite us both wearing headphones, I could still hear him projecting his voice.
So I paused the workshop and got on with work that didn’t need a lot of concentration. I did the weekly backup first, and while that was running, I worked on this week’s diary.
The diary is looking good. I’m still working on my 8am start, but this week it will be walking the dog. I’ll have breakfast at 9am and start work at 10am. With a dinner break at 1pm and tea scheduled for 6pm, I have 7 work slots, and the dog might get another walk after tea. The poet’s away from Monday until Friday, so it’ll be just me and the dog.
If it works, there are 2 hours of client work in there every day this week, which I won’t always have. There’s also a slot allocated to short story work this week, as 12 STORIES IN 12 MONTHS is due on Wednesday. When I don’t have client work, and I don’t have 12 STORIES, that’s 3 hours extra time to spend on 2 books and maybe a short story after all. At the end of this week, the short story slot is allocated to admin instead.
With 3 ticks already under my belt by 12:30pm, I started on today’s blog post. I made us both a drink, put some washing away out of the tumble dryer, then started Week 1 of the workshop again. The new headphones were due to be delivered between 6:30pm and 8:30pm but the time kept fluctuating. So we nipped out to quickly visit the mother-in-law as we knew we wouldn’t have time at the weekend, and called it a dinner break.
I’d ordered new cushions for the poet’s headphones too and he worked out how to remove them before the delivery arrived. Then he realised he had to put them back together again. I was really hoping that mine, when they arrived, would do the job.
THE HAUNTED HOUSE HOTEL was next and I started by collecting setting and character details from THE FOOL, for continuity when describing the news room of the paper and the nemesis character. Then I made a start on Scene 2.
Saturday morning we were up early to do all the shopping in good time to be ready for the Monkey Dust gig. We had to leave early because it was a teatime gig and it takes them 2 hours at least to set up and sound check. Someone who was seeing them for the first time complained that the guitars were too quiet, but he didn’t know one of the guitars was cutting out and the venue has a limit on noise levels.
Needless to say, it didn’t set them up for a confident start. Also needless to say, security did later threaten to pull the plug if the band didn’t reduce the noise level, not realising the lead singer, who was in the middle of singing at the time, did the sound. It’s not my favourite venue anyway. But we were delighted when our next door neighbours turned up to see them.
Sunday we were up early again to go and collect the dog. And as we were already almost halfway there, we took him to Cleethorpes for a run along the beach path and a fish-and-chip dinner. We were back in time to watch the football (soccer), but disappointed, both with the result and with the performance. I know they won and everything, but Spain were definitely the best side on the night.
I’m not sure how everything will go this week. I don’t know how often the dog will want to go for a walk (he’s a spaniel), but it will be nice to have the company while the poet’s away.
Wish me luck!
Sounds like a good, all round weekend! I hope this week with the dog is a delight.
Thank you. I think we’re both getting used to each other.
Hope the nect 6 months go ok. I’m with you. I’ll keep all my bits as long as possible!
Thank you!