Friday 19 July 2013

First draft written, work starts now

Well, I have finished my first draft, but it needs lots of work and some fleshing out.  This is not how I usually write but the story line this time was quite complicated, with three parallel stories so I was anxious to get to the end.  But it's not long enough and some of the chapters need expanding.  You know the sort of thing - they always say 'show don't tell'.  
This is quite hard work, and not nearly as much fun as the main story writing, so I plan to do it fairly slowly and will in any case be taking a break for most of August when we are in Edinburgh and then Bristol, visiting our family.
We saw a brilliant play last night, Solomon and Marion with Dame Janet Suzman, and Khayalethu Anthony.  It finishes its run in Cape Town this week, then like us goes to Edinburgh where it can be seen in the fringe.  Not sure what we will see in Edinburgh - we are joining my sister and brother-in-law and will be going to the tattoo, which should be amazing.  I have never been to Scotland, in spite of living in England for twelve years, but Colin spent part of his childhood in Aberdeen where his mother hailed from.  So I am quite excited! 
Then we go to Bristol to visit our daughter and son-in-law.  She is a veterinary student, a mature student who entered the field after years of being a dancer.  She's just going into her 4th year now, so in two years time she'll be a qualified vet.  
The heat wave in England continues so we are watching the weather carefully before deciding what to pack.  I had thought we would take our normal winter clothes, as Cape Town winter has in recent years been on a par with English summers but if this carries on I'll have to think again.
Right now it's cold and rainy in Cape Town with a maximum of 18 degrees C today, so not warm but not cold by northern hemisphere standards - equates to 64 degrees F, but quite cold enough for us, thank you. 

I am now wabbing - wab is a wonderful word which our daughter, the one in Singapore and her friends coined - wab is an acronym for work avoidance behaviour.   Back to my draft!

Till next time :)

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Hurt my ankle but now having fun!

    We live in a very small townhouse in a suburb of Cape Town.  Really little with two small bedrooms, one bathroom and a downstairs loo.  Plus a pocket handkerchief size garden.  Last September when we sold a flat we had in England I had this bright idea of putting in a tiny splash pool in our little sun trap of a garden.  It worked fantastically, despite the mess involved in the process.
    Now we have two tiny poodles and a small cat, all about the same size as each other, who play together with great gusto.  Two weeks ago, the night before my birthday, they were in fine form, the dogs chasing the cat and vice versa.  Then after some time, Colin, my husband, pointed to the cat who was sopping wet!  Obviously in all the excitement of the game she had landed in the pool! 
   A while later I went upstairs (after we had dried the cat off and she had joined the dogs to resume the game)  to fetch something, completely unaware that Miss Molly, our cat, had been upstairs. Nor realising that she had spilt water on the tiles upstairs I came a cropper in our doorway - one leg out in front, the other bent under me with the weight of my body on it.  Bad news - the first time in my life I have turned my ankle. I yelled for Colin who came and helped me down the stairs.
   He obligingly went to the chemist and bought me a crepe bandage which he applied, and some anti inflammatory tablets that I refused to take when I saw all the possible side effects.
  Next morning my ankle was swollen and painful, however a hot bath seemed to help, so I looked up various hot treatments, for ankles.  The one I liked is this one    http://drbenkim.com/articles-sprainedankle.html   I followed his advice and my ankle felt amazingly improved.   However ankles, as I am learning to my cost, can't be hurried.  Six days later I went to my aqua aerobics class which I love - I was very careful not to do anything which hurt.  Unfortunately the warm water lulled me into a sense of false security - it was great in the water but really quite sore afterwards.

  So I have cancelled my aqua, and my kundalini yoga, both of which I love, and am doing gentle ankle stretches in warm water as well as a few short walks with the dogs.  Meanwhile I am resting my foot  on a pillow while typing on my laptop sitting on my bed.  
   However there's a silver lining to every dark cloud and I find that I am getting on well with my book - it's fun to write  - I now have three interweaving stories.   I am now on track to finish the first draft before we leave for Scotland on 1st August.

Till next time  :)