Monday was a very busy day. We were back off our holiday and had a lot to get through, including sorting out the washing from our trip, doing some shopping, and feeding the birds.
I don’t know when the large capacity feeders ran out, but both large feeders, both long seed feeders, both short feeders and all the drinkers and the bath were completely empty. All that was left were 2 fat feeders, 1 short seed feeder, and the nijer feeder. So we spent our first few minutes topping everything up.
The birds didn’t return for a few hours, other than a resident blackbird, a blue tit, and a wood pigeon. But the bird telegraph must have started, because by the end of the day we were seeing most of our resident birds. The only birds notable by their absence were the finches. But even then we got a female chaffinch before the end of the day.
Another job that was done straight away was watering the garden pots. The 3 tubs of potatoes had all sprouted. The bulb lasagne pots were blooming. But the sweet peas were a bit wilted and there was no sign of any cucumber plants.
I had a look at the 6-week meal planner, deleted 2 meals, and swapped 2 around, then decided on which week we’d start with. Once that was done I was able to make a shopping list and off we went to do the shopping. We also got cash out and we went in search of a new memory book, as all of ours are full and we needed a new one for the NC500 trip.
We couldn’t find a book anywhere, and one place that used to sell photo albums just doesn’t anymore. They sell stamp albums, and everything philately. But nothing photography. Mind you, I remember when the stamp albums disappeared from the face of the earth, so perhaps everything comes back around eventually. I think he’s going to try and get one online, but we were disappointed we couldn’t get one.
We did come back with new shavers for us both, my first lady shaver in a long time and replacement trimmers for the poet. And Blistex lip relief cream was back on the shelves after another year-long break, due to manufacturing issues, so I bought a few of those too.
Monday was also the start of the week-long Meta boycott, so I had to go in and change the share settings on the blog posts to make sure Facebook isn’t on there for this week. It worked on Monday, but it had been put back on Tuesday. So I did sneak on and delete it before coming back and completely disconnecting it. I swear, I didn’t hang around. I just went straight to my writing page, moved the offending post, and came out again.
It’s funny, but I have had to find other things to do instead of mindlessly surf something I don’t even look at while I’m scrolling. I accidentally clicked on both the IG icon and the FB icon on the tablet, but I came out again before it had connected. So then I removed all the icons from my phone and tablet. Talk about habit!
Tuesday was only the 2nd day I hadn’t scheduled a post for while we were away, so the first thing I did was a very quick write-up of our holiday. This was after I’d put a washload through, hung 2 washloads out, emptied another washload from the tumble dryer and put it all away, and topped up the bird feeders. But I got up with the poet to make sure I didn’t waste the day in bed. Even with all the chores, I was still at my desk bang on time to start work.
I also shared a few pictures on BlueSky, I managed to read a daily newspaper, and I tidied up all of my Readly downloads on the tablet. All before my start time. So far, so good. Once at my desk, I caught up on some blog posts with replies. I did my first blog read&reply of the day. And I started today’s post.
By then it was time for my midday breakfast and a quick game on the desktop. Apart from blog posts, I didn’t manage any actual work before noon.
First job of the afternoon was the Gothic Writing Workshop from WMG Publishing. All the videos from Day 1 were up, plus the next assignment. I worked my way through the videos, then looked at the assignment…and decided perhaps I wouldn’t be giving that a go either. I could have used the outline for the first assignment, but she wants 8,000 to 12,000 words. And my short stories usually stop around the 5,000-word mark. I call 8,000 to 12,000 words a novelette.
I already have an 1,800-word story to write for 12 Stories in 12 Months, and I have my 15,000 to 30,000 story to write for the great novella challenge. I also have a massive history book to finish editing, more book reviews to write, and a month of blog posts to plan, with some to write and pre-schedule too.
Realistically, 8,000 to 12,000 words in under 2 days might be a bit too creative overload. Unless I get a mad burst of inspiration and can’t help myself. The most I’ve written in one day was 16,000 words, but I ghosted that through the night and was completely knackered by the time I’d finished. The most I’ve written in one day recently is just over 5,100 words, and that was last Wednesday for the great novella challenge, while we were on holiday.
So I could do it, but I don’t think it’s wise. Not while I still have a client edit to do too.
The next study along in October is time travel writing. I’d like to complete the assignments for that as they’ll turn into new stories for Toni and Bart, my sister and brother time-travelling duo. And I’ll file these gothic assignments, hopefully completing the first one for a call for submissions. The first one is already percolating anyway. I might consider writing the second one over fewer words.
When I’d done with the day’s lessons, I started to do some admin tidying up, which mostly consisted of checking emails and replying to important ones, but also consisted of a sidebar tidy up on here as well as updating my 36-project spreadsheet with May’s projects.
While we were away I had a lively email exchange with a potential new milkman. The first milk arrived yesterday morning and the 10 empties the other milkman couldn’t be bothered to collect were taken away. Lucky new milkman! There’s 10 bottles he won’t have to otherwise pay for. I sent him an email, thanking him for the service so far, and I completed the direct debit mandate he sent so I can start paying at the beginning of June.
This milk is from a farm shop not far from us at all. In fact, they’re at the end of the road our doctor’s head office is on, the one we go to when our local one can’t fit us in. They make their own ice cream and cheese too, and they source fruit and veg as locally as they can, plus they sell their own meat. I can see a visit to this farm shop in our future.
The second important email turned into 3, actually. I had a problem with Plottr while we were away in that if it wasn’t connected to the internet, then it didn’t work. Once I got a connection, I did do what I had to, but I also logged a call, to which they replied with several things for me to do. Plottr had somehow forgotten I’d cancelled the Pro (online version) in favour of the Lifetime (offline version), even though my account, when I looked at it, said the Pro was disabled and the Lifetime was active.
First I sent her a screenshot of what I see, with Pro disabled and Lifetime active. Then I told her I don’t have a dropbox account and I don’t have one, so I can’t save my Plottr projects there. Then I told her that although I could see the changes I made on both the desktop and the laptop (so the offline version was working), I can’t see a download option anyway that would enable me to save anything to dropbox. Now I await her reply again.
Finally, the client author I’m editing sent me an email while we were away, saying he’d have the requested amendments to me by the end of that week. That week was 2 weeks ago, but of course he may have received my out of office saying I was back yesterday. But I sent him an email anyway yesterday, thanking him for the changes he said he’d made and telling him I look forward to receiving the amended file.
When the poet got home from work, he went straight out into the garden to cut our 4 neglected lawns. He brought in the washing before he started, but I folded it. By the time he finished the lawns, it was gone 5pm and I’d run out of steam. It was a busy, bitty day. But I do feel I got a lot done.
That was a very productive day! Well done!
I’m so tired of the tech stuff constantly glitching.
Especially when we’re paying for it!