Tuesday 24 June 2025: Cooler 

Thank goodness the temperatures had dropped again by Monday morning. We’d had a few showers too, so the garden was looking greener in places. It’s far nicer working in a cooler environment.

I started the day with yesterday’s blog post, which I should have done last week. Once that was out of the way, I started today’s. Every week I start with such good intentions, but by Friday, it seems, all of my intentions have gone down the pan. 

DuckDuckGo started to let ads through on Facebook, so I reported it and went back to Firefox, which wouldn’t let me in to FB at all. So I reported that to them, but as soon as I hit ‘send’, the FB page bounced up. I don’t know what’s going on, but something is. Maybe it’s just me.

I downloaded a new fitness planner/weightloss tracker via Google Sheets and spent some time first changing everything to British format and then inputting my starting figures. My legs and ankles are getting weaker and I never seem to have enough energy to do anything in the garden, so I’m starting by trying to get fit, and I’m starting with as many beginner exercises as I can.

I was being very good and doing my floor and chair exercises every weekday but, as with most things, it dropped off. So I’ve started again with just the floor exercises for now, to strengthen my core, and by trying to drink enough water. We’re supposed to drink 8 glasses a day, but I’m starting with 5. Just like I’m starting my exercise reps at 5 and working up to 30. Although I don’t think I could manage 30 glasses of water! (Unless they’re very, very small glasses…)

Foodwise, we’re still doing 16/8, but we’ve both got a bit lax with the evening snacking. We both have to get that back on track again. But I’m still refusing to pour any more cash into the slimming industry. Saying that, I was really surprised to see Slimming World Magazine finally land on Readly. They have some delicious recipes. The poet has done really well. He’s lost about a stone and a half (21lb). The half a stone I lost went back on again after my operation in March, and the subsequent taking it easy doing nothing bit afterwards. But I’ve lost 4lb again, so more than halfway there…then it’s just another 48lb to go… 

I’ve been trying to eat a portion of fruit with every meal, including a banana with (midday) breakfast, even if there’s dried fruit in the breakfast. On Sunday, we didn’t have bananas with our breakfast, so instead of doing a meringue nest with Greek yoghurt and berries, I made us a banana split with Greek yoghurt and berries. 

Another workbook I downloaded was a small business book-keeping pack, so I went through the same routine again and looked at that. I have to do my tax return for 2024/2025 and I thought this might be worth a go. Once I had the basics sorted, I made a blank copy so I can use it again next year without having to go in and delete everything. 

I’m leaving the new spreadsheets on my Google Drive so I can also access them from the tablet or my phone. I can use them all on LibreOffice or in Excel if I want to, but I have to first go in and fix everything that only works in Google Sheets. I don’t mind Google Sheets as it’s a different organisation to Microsoft and LibreOffice. Plus, it keeps my memory refreshed for when I get client work on there too. (Some places use it as a database for different contractors to just go and grab the file and work on it.)

The reason I was updating my media CV on Friday is because I spotted a call for freelancers from a book publisher I’ve been following for ages. I sent them a quick pitch, along with links to my Reedsy and Upwork profiles and my book reviews, asking them to let me know if they were still looking as the ad I’d spotted was 3 weeks old. I’m delighted to say they responded on Monday to say that yes, they were still looking, and yes, they’d love to add me to their list. So I did a final quick polish on the ol’ CV and sent it back to them by return. 

Then I got embroiled in finances. I promise myself every year that I’ll put time aside once a week to keep my finances updated, and then tax return time comes around and I spend a good day or two solidly working on that. But with several months still to go before tax return time, I thought I’d have a quick look at that new spreadsheet package I’d downloaded, to make sure I know how it all works.

Well, it didn’t take me long to see how it works, or to spot one big flaw…

In the UK, our tax year starts on 6 April and ends on 5 April, and for ease I made my own year coincide with that, and have done since 1985. But the spreadsheet only automates in full months. Which means I have the end of last year in this year’s, and nowhere to put the first bit of this year’s. I could fudge it, and I probably will, by losing those first 5 days at the end of March for the previous year and by carrying them over to March at the other end. 

I got it working, though, and tried out a few figures. And once I was happy with it, I went to collect my bank statements…

And what a mistake that was, with the number of different bank accounts and apps I have now. We have to declare interest on savings, and my savings, though not massive, are all over the place in order to make them work harder. Interest is one of my 8 streams of income now, so it’s a working category.

I got them all downloaded, though, and sorted. But it all took the rest of the day, and I hadn’t done a stroke of work. 

Today has to be better. Much better.

The magic bakery

A few years ago I stumbled across a book called The Magic Bakery by Dean Wesley Smith. Originally written in 2017, this book turned on a lightbulb inside my head and enabled me to see copyright in a whole different glow. 

One of the first things I did, after reading this book, was start my own magic bakery. And in one 12-month period, I published around 56 books: short stories; collections; novellas; novels; and non-fiction books. Fifty-six of ‘em. I’ve added to them since, but those books now provide me with a steady trickle of income. Passive income.

Well, the magic bakery is back, but this time Smith is updating it, chapter by chapter, first on his website, then in a class, and then in a new and updated book. Here’s chapter nine. 

I’ll carry on linking to the chapters, as they appear, so that you guys have some understanding of what I’m banging on about when I persist in talking about my magic bakery. And I’ll repeat this bit of blurb every time for first-time readers. 

For those of you who’d rather read them as Smith posts them himself, rather than when I get around to it, you can go straight to his website here