Thursday 21 August 2025: Editing all day

I had to get up early yesterday because the campervan had to go in to have some work done to get it through its MOT. I drove to the lock-up then followed the poet in the van to the garage and I waited outside for him to come out again. We knew it was going in for the whole day at least. Not only did it need its brakes doing, to pass the MOT. It was also in to have the door seals replaced at the front of the van, as the passenger side was flooding in every time it rained.

When we got back to the house, the poet ordered his repeat prescription over the phone (because we can’t order it over the counter…) and he went to see the blood nurse. It was time for his annual check. He had good results for everything she could see there and then, but the blood test results wouldn’t be back until Friday.

I had a late dirty cuppa, over which I caught up with blogs, emails, social media and the current writing workshop. I fed and watered the birds, put several washloads through (not all at once!), put a load through the tumble dryer, and hung the rest up indoors, as it’d been drizzling here for 3 days. I emptied the dishwasher, and I put clean, dry washing away.

Throughout the day we took it in turns to wear headphones. He had a Teams meeting first, during which I wore the headphones, so I could concentrate on my work. First job was writing up and posting yesterday’s blog post, which I’d forgotten to do the day before. Then I was back on the editing job.

The mechanic rang up to say the brakes needed some extra work, which is fine. We’d sooner be safe than have money in the bank! And we’d budgeted for this, so all was well. But it wasn’t ready yet, as the brakes had taken longer than he’d expected.

There was a lot of distracting bird life in the garden, but no sign yet of the two collared doves. Lots of other collared doves, just not the sick ones. A wood pigeon was funny as it tried to balance on a slender branch while it picked and ate elderberries. The sparrows and blackbirds were busy among the brambles, helping themselves to lots of blackberries that are about to go over.

At 4:45pm, we got the call to say the van was ready. So off we pootled again to go and collect it. We took it back to the compound and then went back to the house to swap the cars around again. (Tandem drive.) But instead of parking his car on the drive behind mine, we went for a drive down to Nottinghamshire and picked up a takeaway for tea on our way back.

I was shattered by bedtime. Two early starts on the trot just don’t cut it for me.

Today I’d like to finish that editing job so I don’t have it hanging over my head for another weekend. I do still have tomorrow, but that’s currently reserved for novella pre-writing for Novella #10 of the great novella challenge, which I should be writing next week. I don’t even know yet which one I’m writing…

Today’s image has nothing to do with editing, but that’s what I put in the search box. However, it was such a lovely picture, I decided to keep it.