Friday - Where does the time go?

On a really sad note, our weekly Creative Writing Group has decided to close after 30 years. I do understand, I do and I will seriously miss it. I did posit the question as to whether it could continue as a Virtual Group but this does not seem very likely. I shall miss it desperately as it was a chance for me to get out of the house, to see other people (give Edwin a break) and generally be around other people. I mean I have to admit that I'm like Reg Barclay out of Star Trek TNG, I get invited to a party and I end up talking to a pot plant, and I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting on one end of a sofa and two people have been 'necking' on the other end. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, I don't go out because I know it will be awful, I go out, it is awful, so I don't go out again. The logic being that if I'm going to be lonely and miserable I don't need to be humiliated in a room full of people, I can be lonely and miserable all on my own! Maybe when things start to open up things will get better and I might be able to find another group, although there are probably really long waiting lists for many of them. Plus the fact that since June last year, my writing really has gone off the rails and if I can't write something every week, there's no Writing Group that would want me (I don't think FanFiction counts.)

It's been a weird week again. I probably mentioned this person from a site called People Per Hour, and I want to stress that I have no problem with People Per Hour. They have always been consistently helpful and have worked with me to solve some of the problems that I have encountered with the site. The payments issue for one, they have allowed me to use my Blue Badge as identification as I don't have a valid passport and am unlikely to either have (or need) one in the immediate future. However, I ran into some problems with one client who appeared to prefer a computer algorithim to edit her Dissertation rather than a human being. In the end, so that I could get paid and close the case, I decided to raise the invoice for the $50 deposit which I did not like, but at least I got paid something. I may also get another grant from HMRC, although this time I had to send in all the files from income from the last 18 months, plus expenditure, plus miscellaneous payments related to the Proofreading work that I do, this is fine, although just a bit tedious and (naturally) it affects how much of a grant I will get, which is also fine, I'm not that bothered about them needing 'proof', I just find it, as I said, somewhat tedious.

So, what other news is there? Well not very much really. I have done some writing, although as I wrote in a previous post, none of it can be classed as valid writing because it's all Fan Fiction. On another note, I have come to the conclusion that the cats are toying with us, every day they give the impression that they dislike one another, they eat each other's food - which in Percy's case is not a good idea as he's on a specialist UTI diet. Now we did start Dotty on a Republic of Cats subscription, some of which she adores and which Percy (if given the choice) will also eat. The little sod has worked out how to push the saucer off Dotty's bowl to get at her food - Edwin now has to put a mug on it to stop him! But to get back to my subject. The Republic of Cats food is quite high in water which is good for Percy so it won't do him too much harm we don't think (crosses fingers, legs, toes...) but the other morning I came into the bedroom and found them both fast asleep on the 'bed' next to Edwin's side of the bed. Actually it's a box of books with a couple of cushions and an old pillow that we dumped there before taking it to the rubbish dump when we had the first lockdown - as you might imagine we now can't move the cushions or the pillow. And to think I spent a small fortune on a couple of these 'sleeping bag' cat beds. Would you like to know where they are now? In a box in the garage we use for storage. I opened them up, left them in strategic places and our cats wouldn't touch them. They prefer old duvets, old pillows, this 'bed' made of old cushions and flattened pillow. So I go into the bedroom and find them both on the same bed, fast asleep, bottom to bottom and I think, 'All this animosity is a sham! We've been had!' And it isn't as if we withold attention from one over the other. Just once, I would like a cat that comes and has fuss, has no health problems and sleeps where we put them! Oh, and can possibly be trained to walk on a lead. (Sorry about the quality of the photograph, I only got it because I was carrying my Kindle back into the bedroom!)

As I have often written, my weeks are very, very boring. And when someone suggested that I write a Daily Blog I nearly died laughing. A Daily Blog would look like this:

Husband twitches most of the night so finally get to sleep at 5:15 am (15 minutes before he gets up)

Finally half awake at 5:25 am to find bed empty - decide to go back to sleep.

Husband returns from first job at 08:30 am, Percy decides that now's the time to shoot across the bed and leap up onto the windowsill disturbing all the remote controls. I decide that I can't think, turn over and go back to sleep.

Husband wakes me up to ask if I'd like breakfast at 09:15 am. Percy and Dotty are wrestling in the hallway to the sounds of yowling and (some) hissing. Husband feeds them, yowling (and hissing) cease. I have breakfast, take my pills and go back to sleep.

Large black, feline lump runs across my unconscious body at 11:45 am and I jerk awake as Percy leaps on the windowsill again, this time knocking remotes, writing books, pens and bottle of ink (sealed) onto the carpet. Gives me remorseful look from behind curtain as if it's my fault.

Think about getting up and decide that maybe some hours in front of the laptop wouldn't go amiss and and least I'll feel marginally productive. 12:00 pm.

Watch television for a few hours, play computer games and then Edwin goes for his third job - 1:15 - 3:45 pm

Check Facebook. Reply to some people's comments. Ignore others' comments. Occasionally ask question from Facebook Writing Group - who give some useful and thought-provoking answers. 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm

Watch television, mostly BBC1 Pointless until 5:30 pm, when i watch The Simpsons until 6:00 pm when I flip to the Horror Channel to watch Star Trek TOS (depending on episode) if it's an episode I utterly loathe then I might flip to the Drama Channel to watch Waiting for God which leads onto Last of the Summer Wine which I find utterly hilarious. 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Friday nights, because Edwin does fourth job we have a quick meal: Ham, Egg and Chips. Or rather I have Egg and Chips and the cat (Percy) fights me for the ham!

(Of course this all depends on what's on the terrestrial channels, plus for some reason we don't get 2 channels we're supposed to, Forces TV and Sony Channel. We've tried but with no success.)

May watch Walker: Texas Ranger (or as I have dubbed it) Walker: Texas Interferer, also depends on episode. Also depends on whether there's something good on another channel. For example if there's a Bond film I like on ITV4 I’ll watch that. If I really like it I may even go and watch it in the bedroom on my Kindle Fire.

May do some more writing (either on my tablet with my new keyboard), or use one of my hand made notebooks.

I really can't write any more. I mean that has to be the most boring day ever. All right, I mean even an Anthropologist or Entomologist doesn't spent every day leaping though the jungles of Borneo, but at least an Entomologist can write something more entertainng like:

Today the Horribulus napoleonis finally emerged from it's burrow and proceeded to entrap the prey in the corner of the cage. I had realised that in order for the spider to seek out it's prey it needed to hear a heartbeat so had recorded the heartbeat of a mouse in order to give its hunting more authenticity. This seems to have worked as after injecting the venom I gradually spaced the beats farther and farther apart until eventually the mouse’s heartbeat appeared to cease. The spider seemed satisfied and after wrapping the mouse in yards of webbing, dragged it back to its burrow.

I mean doesn't that sound more exciting? Or perhaps I am a bloodthirsty creature after all.