So, we had our weekend off. I didn’t have any work to do and the poet didn’t have any gigs. We didn’t have any visiting planned. We didn’t spend any time in the garden. And we felt refreshed.
Friday afternoon we headed out to get the dog’s latest medication, and while we were out we did the weekly shopping. Then we binge-watched a few things on the telly and we caught up with some old episodes of Bones, which we’ve only just discovered.
The plan was not to have to leave the house at all on Saturday or Sunday. But we decided we’d still go to the butcher’s on Saturday and we’d pick up a small item from across the road to the butcher that we can’t get from the supermarket. When we got back the poet watched football (soccer) on the telly, followed by American football (football) while I mugged up on a handful of online writing courses.
I started with a motivational Monday video, then watched an 11-part lecture on how to think like a science fiction writer, and then I started an old classic writing workshop on science fiction.
This historic workshop is a 6-week course with assignments, but as it’s a ‘classic’ workshop and not a ‘live’ workshop, we don’t get to turn the assignments in but we can still do them if we want to. As I’m not really ‘doing’ this workshop at the moment, rather I’m just using it as a prelude to the live class I’ll be joining in January, I’m choosing not to do the assignments at the moment. But I will do them in the future, for myself.
I had a rummage through older versions of the January class I’m joining to see if there are any recommended films to watch, and there were two: Men in Black and Galaxy Quest. (It was a sci-fi workshop with humour.) The poet does like to watch any recommended films with me, and as we’d only watched Men in Black a few weeks ago, we found Galaxy Quest.
The course leaders request that we don’t discuss the reading and watching lists, and after spending some of the weekend wondering why, I think it’s to get us reading books and watching films for fun and pleasure. So I won’t pass comment on the film, other than it’s one I’d never seen before.
On Sunday we popped out again, this time to replace all of the bird feeders on our bird table as the old ones are all very old and they let in the rain now, causing the food to go black and mouldy before the wildlife has had chance to eat it all. When we got back, the poet watched cricket on the telly and more American football while I carried on with my writing workshops.
We started to watch another series last night, Payback, and we caught up on Strictly Come Dancing (we think the right couple went home). As we only knew one person in I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here… we didn’t bother tuning in to that one this time.
On Saturday, I watched Week 1 of the sci-fi classic writing workshop and I started to watch Week 2. On Sunday, I finished watching Week 2 and started to watch Week 3. This morning, I finished watching Week 3, which leaves me at the halfway point.
Today I have regular short-story writing to do, I have The Secret of Whitehorse Farm to work on, and I have a book to edit. But the rest of the week is another busy one with far too many people in it for our liking:
- I have the asthma nurse to revisit on Wednesday
- I have a hair appointment on Friday
- we collect our eyes from the optician on Friday
- the dog is at the vet on Saturday morning for his monthly injection
- Monkey Dust have a gig in Doncaster
We’ve also been invited to a Northern Soul thing on Saturday, but we’ll have the shopping to do too and it’s already a busy day.
There’s a Northern Soul musical coming to a theatre in Doncaster in January, and the poet bought tickets for that. (I may have to finally learn how to do it.) It’s about now that we’ll also start planning our Christmas entertainment, as Monkey Dust stop gigging during the second week in December because it’s the drummer’s busiest period then, leading up to Christmas. (He’s the butcher.)
I just watched a large flock of long-tailed tits on the bird table. The new feeders must have done the trick.
Yeah, I’m pushing to get everything done early so I can actually enjoy the holiday season!
It will seem so alien to you! You might be at a loss what to do. I’ll keep everything crossed that it goes to plan.