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Archive for the ‘In My Life’ CategoryThings Terry Ate: a scorpion lollyThursday, June 11th, 2009Things Terry Ate: a gigantic burgerFriday, June 5th, 2009
Terry is in training for our trip to Florida. He ate this tonight. Good job we’ve got that gym membership… Things I Did While the Internet Was DownThursday, June 4th, 20091. Worked on my novel. Remember my novel? Huh. Me neither, apparently. Wordcount when I started working on my novel this week: 13,175 words Wordcount as of rightthisveryminute: 11,752. (Although some of those don’t actually count because they say things like “Chapter One” and “Chapter 2″ and stuff. ) So. Obviously something went way the hell wrong there. I mean, I realise I’m no expert, but, you know, pretty sure the wordcount isn’t supposed to go down with each new writing session. The problem is… well, it’s me. I’m very… edit-y. And I know! I know editing-as-you-go is EXACTLY the thing They tell you not to do. I know that! I’ve read the same “How to Write a Novel” books They have. But I just can’t help myself. If I’m not happy with something at the start of the book, I can’t write any more until I’ve gone back and fixed it (trust me, I’ve tried. Can’t.). So that’s what I did, which is why I ended up a couple of thousand words down. I thought up some more words while I was in the shower this morning, though, so I will add them in soon and I will have even MORE words. Some of which I may even like! 2. Worried a lot about my upcoming flight to Florida Yes. Two weeks today, people. And I thought I was OK with it this time. I mean, OK, I’d woken up in a cold sweat a couple of times thinking, “OMG, I’m not going to Florida AT ALL, am I? I’m going to my fiery, or perhaps watery, death!” but I was mostly OK with it. “Planes are very safe,” I told myself. “They hardly ever crash!” And then this happened. And since then, it’s been pretty much all I can think about: we’re talking nightmares, freak-outs, the lot. I know it’s irrational, so no one needs to give me the whole “It’s the safest form of travel!” thing (Seriously, I don’t think I know ANY scaredy fliers who are actually ever comforted by that statistic anyway. Especially not right after a major air disaster.) but knowing it’s an irrational fear doesn’t make it any easier to stop myself worrying about it, so, yeah, fun times! Especially for Terry and my parents. (Also: there is almost always an air disaster right before I’m due to fly. Almost always. I’m starting to think I’m some kind of Harbinger of Doom to the air travel industry…) 3. Tried to do yoga You know what’s really boring? Yoga. Seriously. 4. Cleaned the house. My house was really clean while the internet was down. Now? Not so much. 5. Hit the “refresh” button on my browser repeatedly while muttering “Is it back yet? How about now? NOW? I wonder if it’s back yet?” It wasn’t much fun, but hey, it passed the time. 6. Half-heartedly weeded the garden. Like, really half-heartedly. In the sense of “I was wearing a skirt and nice shoes at the time, and I didn’t want to get them dirty”. Note to self: buy house with no garden. Or with live-in-gardener. Stupid garden. 7. Went to St. Andrews. It looked like this:
Rubin also got a haircut that day. He looks like this now:
Then, in the evening, the internet would come back up, and I’d have to try to cram a full days work into a few short hours. Which was just as much fun as it sounds, really. And that was my week of No Internet. Luckily for us, it seems be working again, and thank God for that, I say: I don’t think my novel would have survived another couple of days! Tags: fear of flying, the novel, writing
Posted in Entries With Photos, In My Life, The Novel | 22 Comments » NO. INTERNET. (From Virgin Media. Again.)Monday, June 1st, 2009I’ve had barely any internet access since Friday afternoon. I KNOW! How have I coped? Well, “badly” would probably be the most accurate answer to that. Especially given that, even as I write this, I know there’s a really good chance my internet connection will go down again soon. How do I know this? Because we’re having what counts as a “heatwave” for the UK. And every time – every SINGLE time – this happens, our broadband dies. It seriously never fails. Unlike, say, our internet connection, which has failed multiple times since Friday, meaning that I’ve now missed two days of work, and also that dress on eBay that I really wanted to bid on but missed because – hey! – NO INTERNET. (Oh, and the internet on my iPhone? Also not working. And I think there’s probably a really simple reason for that, but I don’t know what it is, because, guess what? NO INTERNET.) Virgin Media have booked us an engineer for tomorrow . This is to replace the one they had booked for today, but which they cancelled when we told them we thought the internet was working again. (It was at the time, but like I say, it’s intermittent. Sometimes it comes back just to taunt us, before dropping out again. Fun times, people, fun times.) When we called them back an hour later to say that, whoops, NO INTERNET, they were all, “Well, that’s OK, on account of how we didn’t ACTUALLY cancel the engineer call out anyway, we just SAID we did. But we didn’t. So he will come out on Monday and fix your internet!” And we were all, “Are you sure? No, are you absolutely sure, because we don’t think you are?” And they were all, “Phshaw, seriously, the engineer will be with you on Monday, we super-guarantee it with cherries on top!” So, yeah, the engineer didn’t show up. Because they had cancelled him. So then Terry got to speak to Virgin on the phone for an hour and a half. He got to speak to just about everyone who works there, with the exception of anyone who could actually help him. The upshot? NO INTERNET. For FOUR DAYS now. So. Obviously this experience has been a little bit like losing a limb. (It’s also been a LOT like losing money, on account of how I run an internet-based business, and for the last four days? NO INTERNET.) I’m now so far behind with work that it’s going to take a small miracle for me to catch up tonight, and I also feel a bit like I’m blogging against the clock, frantically trying to get stuff written before this brief window of internet access slams shut once more. Anyway, we’re hoping this will all be fixed again tomorrow, but if you never hear from me again, you’ll know why. A picture is worth a thousand blog postsWednesday, May 6th, 2009There hasn’t been much time for blogging this week. Well, there’s been time for BLOGGING, obviously, because, well, that’s pretty much all I’ve done. But I’ve done so much of it here, here and here that there just hasn’t been time to do any of it, er, here. Sorry. I’d say that all work and no play makes Amber a dull blogger but I guess you already knew that. So! Other than the almighty blogathon that has been my week so far, nothing has happened. I mean, AT ALL. I haven’t yet succumbed to swine flu, which has surprised me, really, because normally if there’s a flu going around, I will get it. Sometimes twice. I’m guessing Swine Flu is probably waiting until I go on holiday next month before it gets me, because, you know, no point in ruining an ordinary working week when you can ruin a much-anticipated holiday instead, is there? (Did I mention I’m going on holiday next month? I am going on holiday next month. Yes, I am going to Florida. I cannot. wait.) Anyway, where was I? I’m sure there was a point to this entry, but dammed if I know what it was. Look, here is a picture of my dog!
And we can only really guess at the ways in which this incident traumatised Ted, because here is what I found him wearing when I walked into the bedroom yesterday:
You see what I have to put up with? My Life in a ListThursday, April 9th, 2009Absolutely nothing has happened here since The Great Wall of Clothing was removed from my hallway, so this is one of those completely pointless list posts, which I’m pretty sure no one will read anyway, because you’ll all be off enjoying the Easter break. Speaking of which:
a) It’s the start of Spring. b) You get chocolate c) You don’t have to actually DO anything, unlike, say, Christmas, which involves many, many hours of shopping, and not the kind of shopping that’s fun, either, let me tell you. d) Did I mention the chocolate? Now that I’m completely self-employed, I managed to completely forget about Easter this year until yesterday, when I suddenly realised I don’t have to do any work tomorrow, and can have a long weekend. Yay!
Engraving SurpriseSaturday, April 4th, 2009After all of the complaining that went down in the comments section of my post about Terry’s results, I figured it was time to lighten the atmosphere a little with one of our regularly scheduled “surprise” posts. Sadly, there are only a couple of these left to go, but one day last week (or was it the week before? Seriously, they’ve all started to blend into one another…) I happened to look out of the office window to see this:
Yes, Terry had “engraved” our lawn. It was very cunning of him, and it has actually made us wonder if it would be possible to kill ALL the grass in our garden in this way? I mean, we’ve killed almost everything else in the garden (yes, that is a dead plant you can see in the pot behind the “engraving”), why not the grass? You think I’m joking, but that just means you haven’t read all of my entries about how much I hate and detest gardening yet. The other option is to simply do nothing and allow the garden to return to the wild. I’m considering that one, too. Three Go Down to the SeaMonday, March 30th, 2009After my fun walk through Bandit Country, Terry and I decided it would be better if, for my next trick walk, we went somewhere far, far away from the Banditos. Or far enough away that I’d find it harder to get into trouble, anyway. So we went to South Queensferry:  Forth Rail Bridge Rubin was determined not to look at the camera here because he was too busy crying like a baby, so desperate was he to begin his walk. He was crying like a baby in this one, too:
That’s the Edinburgh skyline you can see in the background: the big hill is Arthur’s Seat, and you can see Edinburgh Castle to the right of it if you look closely enough. We didn’t, of course, because Rubin was too busy struggling to get out of my arms and down onto that beach. Once he did, though, he was totally in his element:
Well, sort of:
Incoming waves are scary, apparently… We walked for about two and a half hours altogether (and Rubin was still tugging at his leash by the end of it), ending up at Dalmeny House:  Dalmeny House You can totally imagine arriving here in a horse-drawn carriage, in the 19th century, can’t you? You, a poor governess with nothing to your name but the clothes you stand up in, the house rising before you, home to the dashing Earl of Blahblahblah, and his mad wife, who is locked in the attic…. (It’s actually the home of the Earl of Rosebery, and I don’t think he keeps his wife in the attic, but you know what I mean…) Then we turned and came home, only it took us quite a long time because we’d walked so far. Still, it was worth it to be able to walk somewhere without being verbally abused for once, you know? And I think Spring may well be my favourite season now. If we lived somewhere else I’d have said it was summer, but the weather’s always so awful here in summer that it never fails to be a bone-crushing disappointment. You wait all year for it, only to realise that it’s going to be all rain, all the time, and actually, the weather was nicer in Spring. We DO sometimes get a sunny day or two in Spring, you see, and it’s that time of the year when the horrors of winter are over at last (oh please, oh please) but summer is yet to disappoint us, so the days stretch before you, all sunshiney and hopeful. Love it. So, a good day was had by all. And no one called me “ginger” even once – bonus!
Tags: beach, coast, scotland, Walks & Days Out
Posted in Entries With Photos, In My Life, Rubinman | 15 Comments » Crispy SurpriseWednesday, March 25th, 2009As well as jelly sweets, one of my other favourite food groups is the Crispy Cake: you know, just like your mother used to make? And, lo! The Crispy Surprise turned out to be:
Three crispy cakes, all covered in chocolate and made with Terry’s own fair hands! Mmmm, ambassador, with these crispy treats you’re really spoiling us! Wax SurpriseTuesday, March 24th, 2009On Sunday night Terry offered to run me a bath. Well, of course I agreed, but little did I know that Terry was about to spring the WAX SURPRISE – duh duh DUH!
Because I am stupid, it took me a few minutes (and, OK, then a few more…) to work out that the “wax” of the name came from the candles he had lit in the bathroom. But really, who cares about candles when there’s a big ol’ gift-wrapped box sitting right in front of them? Underneath the wrapping, Lush’s ‘You’re a Star’ gift box:
So-called because it contains products used by the “stars”, apparently. And now by me too, yipee! Inside the bath, though, an even more exciting surprise awaited:
DUCKS! Because, seriously, who doesn’t love ducks? |
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