End of the Week Already

I can’t believe it’s Friday already! I’ve been quite lucky in that I found another couple of jobs, mainly Proofreading, the only problem is it doesn’t leave much time for writing (although if I’m honest my writing has gone the way of the Dodo since June last year and it doesn’t look to be returning anytime soon.) I would be the first to say I want to write, but I sit down either in front of a blank computer screen; or a blank piece of paper and I feel like I have nothing to say. The most writing – original writing has been a very short poem based on J. M. W. Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire – of course the full title is: The Fighting Temeraire Tugged To Her Last Berth To Be Broken Up but if you say to most people The Fighting Temeraire by Turner, they’ll know what you mean. Turner called it his ‘darling’ and although in many respects Turner is paying his respects to this old warship, he is also looking forward to a new age. One of the ways that this is done is because the tug that is pulling the ‘Phantom Ship’ is picked out in bright glorious colour while the Temeraire herself is a pale ghost of the ship she once was. Turner also shows us the setting sun and the rising crescent moon to show that the age of sail is declining, while the age of steam is approaching. But I have to admit that all this is speculation and really doesn’t matter.

Percy is driving both Edwin and nuts. This is because we have discovered he has a nasty habit of trying to sneak Dotty’s food (which he can’t have as he is on the special UTI Diet.) The next money I get paid into my account I will have to use to see if I can find some of the flavours than fish/chicken as he doesn’t seem overly keen on them. Thankfully I don’t seem to be the only person who has problems in enticing cats to eat their special diets. He’s already made himself ill by eating her food and now we have to put her dish under a mug on top of a small side plate to make sure he doesn’t get to her food. They both love the UTI Biscuits – and of course we are looking after another cat (who belongs to someone downstairs) and feeding her as well! I get the feeling that one day someone is going to come to visit and the not going to be able to get into the flat because it’ll be filled floor-to-ceiling with felines!

On the plus side, I have mentioned in previous blogs that although I have made a significant amount of money on People Per Hour, I can only withdraw a certain amount because I have to provide documentation. The problem is that the documentation they ask for I don’t have. For example they want scanned copies of my passport and mine is about five and half years out of date. I finally got around to actually contacting them and saying could I use anything else – my Blue Badge for example and they agree that I could send JPEG files in and they would get back to me. I can also send Adobe Acrobat files (PDF) of my credit card statements to confirm my address. I’m hoping that they allow this as I have nothing else with which to confirm identity – and it is unlikely that my disability is going to get better on its own – in fact it’s never going to get better and chances are it’s probably going to get worse. Some days, like today I don’t mind it too much but there are times when it gets very wearying. The realisation that things aren’t going to get better. Thank goodness I have my Kindle Fire and all the apps for various channels (although I still wish that I had an app for CBS because it would be really good sometimes to be able to watch mindless programs like Walker Texas Ranger or Diagnosis Murder, I mean I’m amazed that Dr Sloan keeps his job! Most physicians I know of work really long hours and certainly don’t have time to be solving mysteries; they’re too busy taking care of their patients! But one has to admit that it is Mindless Drivel and does not reflect real life – which is a shame as when I was growing up I always wanted to be a writer like Jessica Fletcher (Murder She Wrote) not because I thought I could solve mysteries, but because she seemed to live such a wealthy lifestyle and yes, I wanted that. So it was a bit of a shock to realise that authors in general are very, very poor and not living the high life that Jessica Fletcher seemed to be. But then in recent years I have also looked at programs I adored when I was growing up, such as Star Trek – both Original Series and Next Generation and I’ve started to wonder, ‘What does Captain Kirk do when the Enterprise is not attacked by a group of mindless, brain-hungry space aliens?’ I mean what if it’s a boring eight hour shift and absolutely nothing happens?’ From that perspective, space travel sounds really, really, really, boring – and I have to admit that it simply can’t be like that – or may be that the attitude was supposed to take, that space travel can be boring (although I hope not.)

I am also getting used to a new pair of headphones. My Plantronics Set basically fell apart, the microphone breaking off and I’m trying to conserve funds – mainly for Percy’s special food, but also for Dotty who has suddenly turned finicky and refuses most of the commercial brands – these are the days when I wish we did own Louis (although it really should be Louise as she too is female) because Louis will eat anything. It’s partly due to her being a feral cat, but Liquorice was like that too – the only cat I know who ever ate sardines in tomato sauce! So, life trundles on here as it usually does, I don’t pretend that my get up and go will return anytime soon, it will be nice if a bolt of inspiration would hit – I’ve thought of having a medicinal glass of wine to get the ‘juices’ flowing, but I always remembered the episode of Colin’s Sandwich where Mel Smith decides to take some libation to give him some inspiration for his short story and ends up writing something like three paragraphs of complete drivel. That’s about all my news for now – I am hoping that I might be able to get an appointment with a hairdresser in the next 2-3 weeks and get my hair cut. It’s almost down to my waist! Well perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly long enough to either plait or put up in a bun – neither of which anybody ever taught me to do which is a little sad really, as now would be a really good time to know how to do it. The weekend beckons, and maybe I can get some writing done. Any writing – even Fan Fiction. Will try to write this Blog on a weekly basis although as Robbie Burns wrote, ‘The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a gley.’