Wednesday 31 May 2023: Lots of learning

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

So we were both back at work yesterday after our holiday. The alarm went off on time… and we both ignored it. For at least another hour. Ah well, it’s tiring going on holiday and we were busy when we got back too. We needed the rest.

The poet was working from home in the morning before going off on a three-day two-night trip. As he was going through his messages, he realised that he had to be back in Yorkshire fairly early on Thursday morning, so he had to arrange his trip and squeeze it into two days. He also found out that there was a leaving do at 7:30pm last night that he wanted to go to.

He was on his way south when the call came in that the 7:30pm leaving do was now at 5pm and he would have to go there straight after his Tuesday meetings. That meant his Tuesday afternoon was even more of a squeeze.

Meanwhile, back at home camp I was struggling with block editor in the old WordPress so that I could get the two newish blogs back up and running again. It took me far longer than I intended it to and it meant my own first day back was also a bit of a juggle. AND I had to cook my own tea!

I logged in to Twitter at 11:40am to see that I’d almost missed another writing hour, but I was able to jump in and join in before the session finished. I did this around the blog editing. I made myself a sandwich, instead of the salad I was supposed to have, and I ate it at my desk while I continued to struggle with block editing. I think I managed something at least, and it is a lot like the newsletter layout. I just wasn’t intending on spending the entire day learning how to do something I should be able to do in my sleep.

Once I’d finished with the blogs, including yesterday’s post, it was already 6pm gone. I still had a lot to do in order to set me on my new path of work. I was going to put a jacket potato in the oven with a pork chop and prepare some veg (erm… frozen peas and sweetcorn…), but it was too late by the time I realised. I’d made a rhubarb crumble the day before, so pudding was already sorted.

There was half a tin of baked beans in the fridge, so I had those on toast and put the chop in the freezer. I’d forgotten to make jelly , for my midday meals this week. So I quickly rustled up one of those while I waited for the bread to toast and the beans to warm through.

I know how to live!

While I ate my tea, I stayed in front of the computer and revised my first online workshop, 25 minutes of video content. Afterwards, I quickly brainstormed a short story that has a deadline of today (31 May), working title A Death in the Night. I adapted the story that came to me the week before our holiday and I outlined two versions: the dark and gritty version for the call for submissions; and the twee, gentle one for the weekly market.

I had a look at Killer Queen and made some notes about how to flesh it out a bit, make it a little longer to remove the confusion one of the readers on 12 Stories in 12 Months had flagged up. I transferred the new work plan I mentioned yesterday to a Trello card. And I did the diary for this week, updating it with everything I’d done already.

And then I called it a night.

It’s end of month day today, and that in itself means a lot of new month/old month work.


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