I have been on Dreamwidth for a while and cross-posting, so any friends on here who are moving over there, please look for me (Themis1). I will probably discontinue this account in due course.

Weekly(ish) update:  We started the week on Sunday with a visit to the annual Christmas fair at Nature in Art - picked up a few small presents and had a walk around the photography exhibition.  NiA is a local treasure - a lovely old building dedicated to displaying art.  There is an exhibition space frequently used for textile exhibitions, and a full programme of lessons for adults and children.   Sculpture is displayed in the gardens, and there are some lovely old trees.  Sadly one of the pines (it may well be, by the size, a Redwood) appears to have died :-(

The week whizzed past.  Four out of five days had Sean, our painter, working in the new workshop area in the barn - this is going to be a sewing area.  I measured it this morning and it's 14' x 23'.  It's going to be a lovely space we can hold small workshops in, should we want to.  We also picked more apples, we have now got most of the ones we can reach but as usual there are still lots up there.  We're hoping the reduction that's going to be done to the tree at the end of this week will solve some of that problem, but when you have a tree that's several hundred years old, it's going to be BIG.  Note to self: must remember to tell the guys to preserve our mistletoe.  We rather like the fact we have mistletoe in our apple tree :-)  Nanowrimo started this week, and so did my scifi romance; despite several very busy days I have so far managed to keep to target.  Day two was a little annoying, as I hit my word count and posted only to realise it was gone midnight so it counted as day three, not day two - spoiled my perfect record of posting every day!  Never mind :-)

Penny had an embroiderers' guild trustees meeting in Hoddesdon on Thursday so left early and returned late - a long, long drive for her.  Friday it was my turn to do the shopping with Lynn.

Saturday Penny and I headed down to Oxford for Queer Company 2, an event for writers of m/m (mostly) erotic fiction.  I don't write in this genre (although Penny won a stiffy some years ago for a Quantum Leap story) but there are always writing tips to be picked up whatever your genre.  The event is run by an old friend of mine and it's always nice to offer her support.  This year's event was enlived by an afternoon talk from Farah Mendlesohn, who I have corresponded with on LJ and Facebook for some years but hadn't previously met.  It was lovely to finally meet her.

I don't know what's going on in Oxford - well, I do, but I hadn't realised before we got there: they seem to have completely demolished the main shopping mall, and are rebuilding it, resulting in street closures and bus re-routings that nearly had Penny and I stranded on the wrong side of town before I realised we would have to walk to Debenhams to get the bus back to Peartree park and ride.  Also, the area around the castle, much touted when it was opened as THE place to be of an evening, seemed strangely deserted and rather run down.  Some of the lights weren't working, and there didn't seem to be half the restaurants and bars there used to be - despite the rest of Oxford being as busy as ever on a Saturday evening.

Sunday - I may as well cover it since I'm not writing this until Monday! - I headed up to the Blue Ginger gallery, where Hannah Willow was running a silver workshop.  I went to a workshop with her earlier in the year but didn't manage to finish my piece, so she kindly invited me up for free to sit and do the beading.  Piece now finished, hooray!   I have now been to Blue GInger so frequently that the proprieter, 
 

Update LJ: Sun - Nature in Art, a bit queasy; Mon - unexpected painter, picking apples; Tues - start Nano, usual GC, home alone, NAYJ paperwork; Wed - no painter; Thurs - Penny away; Fri - Shopping; Sat -

 

 Or other celebrated festival.  We actually celebrate yule, but that doesn't stop us celebrating Christmas too.  There will be much good food and good cheer, and presents to open later.  And Jennifer would like it to be known she doesn't like my Christmas jumper, it's prickly.  Molly is still asleep on Lynn's bed as usual.  Chasing the wrapping paper?  Not for my cats!

 I did promise to update more often, and have failed - part of the reason for that (I'm good at excuses) is that I spent all of November doing Nanowri, and actually managed to finish a close-on-60,000 novel.  A whole novel.  Including the ending!  (I'm pretty good at getting within a chapter of finishing and ... not).  So on the whole I was pretty chuffed with myself.  I like the world I came up with, and the characters worked well, and there are possibilities for sequels too, all of which pleased me enormously.  I'm not convinced it's very exciting, mind you!  The current plan is to do an edit, probably in February, and then think about maybe recruiting some betas.  Maybe.  If I still like it when I re-read it (as much as one ever likes one's own writing).  At any rate, I enjoyed the process and the looming deadline I did actually find helpful, so I'll probably do it again next year (maybe I'll write the first sequel!).

Builder has just arrived on the doorstep, so I'll get back to you <g>

 I keep thinking I should post something on here, but I'm not convinced there's anybody reading when I do.

So if you see this, please let me know, so I can decide whether it's worth doing a blog post.

I was thinking of working my way through my TV obsessions over the years :-)

Originally posted by stillsostrange at Help Us/LJ Support Planned Parenthood

Happy holidays to one and all - I promise I will do a proper update at some point in the near future!

Over a month since I last posted, again ...

Today had to take myself to the John Radcliffe eye hospital, after weird blotches and lines appeared in the vision of my right eye. Turned out I had a torn retina and I had to have laser surgery to repair it. Most of the day was spent hanging around, very bored, with slightly blurred vision from the eye drops (which didn't seem to have the dire effects on me that other people have told me they get from them) for half an hour of discomfort whilst the doctor fired lasers at the back of my eyeball. And then they let me go home, on the bus. Hm.

Hopefully it is fixed, although odd blotches are still meandering around in my vision ...

Failure to update each day doesn't mean I haven't done anything (other than post)! Since I last posted, Wednesday I did 327 words, Thurday 236, Friday 387 (before going out to an office leaving do) and today 1016, bringing the running total so far to 12,305 or 25% done. Which I'm rather afraid indicates I'm going to go way over the word total, since I've barely begun to reduce the stack of research notes! Oh well, better too many than too few, I know my professor will edit heavily.

Also, potted up several house plants, including one that was so pot-bound I actually had to cut the pot off it - I'm a bad houseplant mum!

My cold is now at the I've-coughed-so-much-my-ribs-ache stage, but I've rested some today and hope to put in a full day on the thesis tomorrow with a higher word count at the end.

840 words yesterday, 1793 today, for a grand total of 4,150 (8%!). Also, much prepping for methodology section, which I'm going to tackle next - and a sudden insight into how to lay out the section on police attitudes to young people. (Whisper) I think this may actually, finally be coming together ...