We had a very late night on Tuesday, for some reason, which resulted in us both struggling to get up on Wednesday. We had to drag ourselves out of bed, though, as we had grand-doggy #2 staying with us and she needed (a) feeding, and (b) letting out. Not necessarily in that order.
I fed the birds, made us both a drink (dirty tea for me, clean coffee for him), and we took the dog for a very quick walk to go and collect my repeat prescription from the doctor’s. They’re literally 5 minutes away, so it wasn’t a massive chunk out of our day.
The only job I hadn’t properly finished on Tuesday was yesterday’s blog post. I’d written it, it just needed topping and tailing and an image sourced for it. So I did all of that and posted it. So I didn’t get into the same rut for the rest of the week, I started today’s blog post immediately and updated it as I went.
Next job was trimming this month’s submission for 12 stories in 12 months from just under 1,300 words to exactly 750 words. I saved the 1,300-version first and worked on the spare, then saved that for the 12 stories files and submitted it.
Someone was coming to look at the conservatory roof this afternoon, but they called up and asked if they could come yesterday instead. The poet was in the middle of making us a rainbow chicken rice salad. And Son #1 called to say they’d checked in at their hotel for their Oasis gig and to ask if the dog was okay.
The house started to smell of cumin seeds, because the poet had sprinkled that on the veggies he was roasting in the oven to go in the rice salad. I’m not a huge fan of herbs and spices, but I do like the smells. I love the smell of coffee, too, especially freshly ground coffee. But I don’t like the taste. And I love to smell swedes growing in a vegetable garden, but swedes have to be mashed with carrot or potato for me to eat them.
The men came to look at the conservatory roof and unblocked the channels in the polycarbonate roof that were causing rainwater to sit rather than drain out.
I checked in with my ‘new’ schedule and ticked a few things off. I tidied up my downloads folder, putting images and book cover files in their right directories as well as an invoice that somehow hadn’t been moved yet. I copied the Loyal to a Fault folder into the ‘stories in progress’ folder, leaving the original in the ’12 stories in 12 months folder’. I updated the 36-project spreadsheet with the latest word-counts and the new stories. Then I went in and finished writing The Ace of Pentacles.
That’s 3 short stories I’ve written since Sunday. A 3,200-word crime mystery on Sunday; a 750-word Mavis Braithwaite adventure on Tuesday; and 1,200 words of a 2,750-word series instalment on Wednesday.
Once I’d done all of that, it was dinner time.
The rainbow chicken rice salad thing is a keeper, but the poet will put his own twist on it. For a start, he’ll make a much smaller portion. Ol’ finnicky eater (moi) didn’t like the parsley or the cumin. I’m not over keen on courgette (zucchini), but as it had cooled down it was just like a soft slightly stronger tasting cucumber.
He forgot to put the baby plum tomatoes in at the end (I don’t like cooked tomato) instead of the red peppers, and we both prefer a sour cream and chive dressing rather than the garlic and mint one that came with the recipe. There was also way too much of the dressing for us. The poet would have made half the quantity. (And he already divided a 4-portion salad into 2.)
But the basmati rice, the sweet potato, the chicken, and half the cumin will stay. And so, apparently, will the courgette/zucchini…🤮
Right after dinner, we had to go out again on another errand and by the time we got back the only thing I had time to do was finish today’s blog post.
On the agenda today:
- Diane’s Gig List
- Revise The Ace of Pentacles
- Tomorrow’s blog post
- client edit
It sounds yummy. I love the smells of herbs and spices, too.
I thought you might appreciate it 🙂