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Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. Welcome to the new year! I am just about over a migraine which hit me hard on Christmas Day, which is very nice. (Being over it is nice, to be quite clear about it: I’d rather not have had it, obviously.)
  2. Love Plus One is out on Monday! (See cover design at the bottom of this page.)
  3. Splendid Son and I went to watch Charlton Athletic on Monday (one of the few times I get out of the house, so it’s always a Big Thing for me) – and we won 4:1. The best win we’ve ever experienced for our team when we’ve been there, so it was brilliant (albeit freezing cold!)
  4. I submitted my latest article to Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine – I was writing about governesses and the situation women found themselves in that led to them taking such jobs.
  5.  I’ve also been hanging around in writers’ chat rooms since the new year, which means that I’ve actually managed to get a bit of writing done. Misery loves company… or at any rate, it’s really good to have a bit of support when you’re writing. As my  sister described it, it’s like a virtual writers’ retreat 🙂
  6.  My uncle is currently staying with my parents and I saw him today, which was splendid. He’s a writer, and was my inspiration to become one myself. Long live family!LovePlusOne-4 (1).jpg

Satisfied… Sunday… Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

Um, oops – a day late this week 🙂 I was out at the football yesterday, with the added bonus of the coach having a flat battery, so our drive home was somewhat delayed.

  1. On the other hand – I was at the football yesterday! Considering how little I get out, this is extremely exciting. Plus my team (Charlton Athletic) actually won, so hurrah!
  2. In more writerly news, I finished an article this week and submitted it, which is pleasing, given the time I’ve had recently.
  3. And Love Plus One has gone through the proof-reading stage, so we’re nearly at the final moments with that, which is terribly thrilling!
  4. My friends and family are being so wonderful about supporting me. I honestly don’t know how I’d manage without them. Guys, I am so grateful to you all. (For those who don’t know – when I say “I don’t get out much” what I mean is, I’m literally bed bound for 90% of the time at the moment, so yes. Support is [a] needed but [b] so very appreciated.)
  5. Oh, I had a school parents’ meeting this week to talk about Splendid Son with his teacher. This was possibly the most enjoyable thing ever, as it was basically ten minutes of his teacher telling me how wonderful my child was in every possible way. Honestly, I don’t think there is any greater pleasure in life for a parent than that! (It even made up for the OTHER flat battery of the week, when my car refused to start and get us home from the school…)
  6. I have started my Christmas shopping, which is always pleasing. I love buying presents!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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Well, it’s been A Bit Of A Week, but there have been some fabulous things this week, too.

 

  1. I had visitors last weekend – one of my closest friends came to stay with her family. We’ve been good friends for over a decade, ever since our children – about a month different in age – were babies. However, thanks to the fact that she lives on the other side of the world, we’d never actually met in person before. It was simply amazing to get to spend time with her finally.
  2. Splendid Son has managed to pass an exam which means that his choice of secondary school (the school he will attend from age 11-18) is much improved. I have a great objection to the system of deciding whether children are academic achievers or not at the age of 10-11, but given that it exists in my area, I’m delighted that Splendid Son was so successful.
  3. My article about Plot Holes In Harry Potter has been translated into Italian. By Cosmo magazine, no less! I’m famous!
  4. Third, and I hope final, edits on Love Plus One complete. We should be on for the publication of the novel now…
  5. Thank goodness for our National Health Service. I’m grateful to live in Britain sometimes, and when I ended up in Accident and Emergency on Sunday evening and they dealt with me fast and well… that was one of those occasions. Thank you to all the people I saw.
  6. I’m hoping to write more articles about Harry Potter (one on trivia coming up at some point… watch this space…) which is exciting. Out of a matter of interest, what would anyone like to read about? Tell me! I’ll see if I can pitch it 🙂

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. I’m in the process of writing another article about Harry Potter, which is making me exceptionally cheerful. I could spend all my time thinking about the world of Harry Potter. Hmm, actually…
  2. Getting really excited about going to Amsterdam on Monday. I’ve never been – and it’s very flat, so it should be reasonably wheelchair friendly, which is always A Thing.
  3. Because life is made up of little triumphs, I feel I should celebrate the fact that Splendid Son’s wellies still fit him. He hasn’t worn them for ages but needs them for his own school holiday next week. I thought we’d have to go on an emergency welly-boot expedition, which given my energy levels was not something I was wildly enthused by – but we don’t! Hurrah!
  4. Our microwave finally gave up the ghost this week, about a year after my sister told me that it was the most appalling thing she’d ever seen (or words to that effect). I successfully bought and installed (plugged in!) a new one, and feel thoroughly accomplished.
  5. Umm… wow, this is a difficult week for this! The weather has been slightly cooler, which means that spending hours and hours tucked up in bed with my two cats has been rather lovely. I tried to take a picture of them cuddling – my ginger boy had one of his legs tucked around my spotty girl – but they wanted to know what the hell I was doing, and moved at the vital moment!
  6. I’m exploring going to Greece at Easter, which is apparently an outrageous plan, but we seem (slowly) to be getting somewhere with finding options. Holidays are good.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1.  I had a really lovely time with my friends last weekend. It was so lovely to see them.

2. I’ve got the first draft of my article on Black Georgians written. (To put this into context, I don’t mean the country close to Russia, nor the State of America, but the Georgian Period in Britain.) It stems out of a lot of the research I did for The Sisterhood, so it was good to put the newly found knowledge to good use!

3. Splendid Son passed his tenor horn exam (Grade 2), which is really pleasing. He’s been practising hard, so it’s good to know it paid off.

4. I’m still managing to sell knitting, though I’m behind on a commissioned piece at the moment. (Christmas preparation has gone into mass production and I’m somewhat stressed about it all.)

5. Exciting Christmassy parcels and cards are arriving, which is lovely! I feel very popular (and also very guilty for failing at cards this year. I failed at cards last year, too…).

6. I went out in the evening with Lovely Partner on Thursday! This was the first time I’ve been out with him and not Splendid Son from home (we went out together when we were on holiday in Bath for a couple of days) for over a year, I think! We met some of the excellent people he fences with (swords, not gardens) and I managed sociability without making too much of an idiot of myself, I think. (Social gatherings are not my best thing.)

Satisfied Saturday Six

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  1. We’ve had a lovely holiday – another, less crowded, week in Cornwall when many schools had started back.
  2. My copy of this edition of Jane Austen’s Regency World was awaiting me when we got home last night – it has an article I wrote about alternative medicines in the Regency. Trust me, you should be grateful you live now!
  3. I have got my cats home – apparently, they caused a lot of fuss and bother during their time away, which is rather embarrassing. However, I did miss them and I’m glad to have them back with me.
  4. I had a lovely time last Sunday, not only with my boys but with my sister and assorted family. We got to spend time with fab family members, and actually also went to a gorgeous village I’d not visited before (in living memory) but which I’ll certainly be visiting again.
  5. I got most of my *whisper it* Christmas shopping done whilst I was away, too. I love present buying, so it was fun for that reason; it will also be useful as I have to help Child with all of his presents, which can be stressful unless I have plenty of time.
  6. None of the fishes managed to die whilst we were away. There are een a few more little babies, so I may have issues in the other direction in the not too distant future by having too many fish for the size of the tank. But at the moment, I am delighted that we seem to be able to keep fish alive, as long as Lovely Partner is responsible for everything!

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

  1. I got a request from an ME group  to allow them to translate my blog post, Five Things People With CFS/ME Would Be Happy Never to Hear Again (And What We’d Like You to Say) into Dutch. Needless to say, I’m delighted for them to do so!

2. I haven’t written as much of The Sisterhood (my new novel) this week as I’d like – ill health (having ME – see above if you don’t know much about it!) has been dogging me more than usual. However, I am getting really inspired and I keep having inspirations about different bits and how the story fits together.

(I don’t write in a linear fashion, which has both up sides and down. The ‘up’ is always having a bit of the story to get on with – if I can’t find inspiration for one scene, I just write a different one. The ‘down’ is the complication of trying to fit all the bits together in the correct order, since I don’t always know where a certain scene will go; or, if I’m not entirely organised, accidentally writing the same scene twice. NOT that I’d ever really do that, obviously…)

3. Child and I are going to Wales for the week to visit thoroughly excellent people. In fact, we’re probably in transit as you read this, as I wrote it last night and scheduled it to post today 🙂

4. Child has been on a football training course this week, and really enjoyed it. He did one at the end of May and has cheerfully been telling me that he can see the difference between then and now.

5. I am thanking my lucky stars, however, that we still have him – and a house. I bought, a short while ago, an electric fan. I find it very hard to sleep in hot weather, which is hugely problematic to my health. It only cost about £10… but now I know why. When my son was sleeping in our bedroom on his own with the fan on, at some point during the early evening, the fan jammed. When I went to go to bed myself (and throw Child into his own room), there was a strong smell of burning and when I tried to stop it, part of it fell on the floor. As it was very hot, I had a small fear that it was going to set the carpet alight. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending – the fan did not cause any havoc and disaster above terrifying me out of several years of life and a revolting smell in our room.

6. Having dyed my hair black after it was blue and green, I have noticed that it is beginning to go very dark blue, with equally dark purple and green bits. I look like a Goth Mermaid. I’m not sure I actually want to look like a Goth Mermaid, but it’s quite interesting to see it change colour every time I wash it.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1. This Thursday, I got to meet a very old friend whom I had never met in person before. We’ve been friends for over 15 years online, but as she lives in Alaska and I in the UK, trying to meet up has not been realistically. By chance, however, she was around locally just for one day – and I got to go and actually meet up! Fabulous.

2. I have finished the first draft of my article on toilet habits in the Regency Period. Not something I’d ever researched before, but it was strangely fascinating. And once again reminded me that I’m glad to live in a world of flushing toilets.

3. The sekrit project I mentioned last week is going from strength to strength and should hopefully be officially launched this week. Look out for a Huff Post story about it, as well as me going on about it all over Facebook and Twitter…

4. I ordered various things online recently, and they have been drifting through the post. Even when it’s something like a feather duster, or a maths book, it’s somehow still quite exciting to get parcels through the door! (And yes, I had ordered both of those things. Welcome to my world!)

5. Having damaged my back rather nastily a week ago, it’s feeling much better now. I had a few days of swearing and taking painkillers in large doses, and it has slowly been recovering so that now it’s not too bad as long as I don’t make any sudden twisty motions. (Or knit. Annoyingly, there is apparently a ‘knitting’ muscle in one’s back.)

6. I’ve been trying to lose weight for a while, and it’s finally beginning to pay off. I noticed in a recent photograph of myself that I didn’t look quite so enormous. As I’m unable to exercise, it’s really quite a challenge, so I’m quite proud of having managed to lose a bit.

Satisfied Saturday Six

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The SSS celebrates six things that have gone well, or at least okay, in the past week. It is the creation of Terry Egan, who is all things wonderful.

1.  Article on the Regency written and submitted – for a sneak peek, click here.

2. A couple of people I’ve proof-read for are happy to give me a reference if anyone contacts them, which may  be very useful.

3. I’m so delighted for the USA that the judgement on equal marriage has gone through. I know there are plenty of other battles to fight, both here, there and elsewhere, but a step in the right direction is worth celebrating.

4. This being so, perhaps I should also celebrate the fact that my son’s school are finally beginning to acknowledge that it’s inappropriate to park their minibus in the disabled parking spot. A new teacher demanded I move from it (I am a blue badge holder, for the record!) so that they could park the bus there, but after a somewhat heated debate, I did get an apology.

5. And talking of my son, he’s taking part in a football tournament today, about which he is very excited. Some very kind friends have also volunteered to take him and bring him home, which means that when I’ve finished writing this, I’m off for a sleep!

6. I’m beginning to get plans for the summer holidays sorted. There will hopefully be a lot of things going on, including seeing lovely friends and family and spending time in my favourite place, Cornwall.

Friday Fiction (Article Snippet)

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Again, this  is my most current article for Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine. I’m writing about ‘Cranks, Quacks and Miracles’ – alternative health treatments in the Regency.

Jane Austen shows a number of hypochondriacs in her stories (Mr Woodhouse in Emma, with his gruel and his soft-boiled eggs, and Mary Musgrove in Persuasion with her tendency towards ill health whenever she felt herself neglected come to mind) but it is in her unfinished novel Sanditon that she particularly concentrates on medicine – looking at both conventional and experimental (to put it mildly!) treatments. Indeed, Jane Austen specifically uses the phrase “quack medicine” in describing the Parker sisters, saying that they had “an unfortunate turn for medicine, especially quack medicine”. Mr Parker, their brother, is first introduced to the heroine, Charlotte Heywood, when he sustains a carriage accident, trying to find a doctor for the village of Sanditon. (As an aside, I was fascinated when I first read the book that he had seen a notice in the ‘Kentish Gazette’ – a local newspaper I grew up reading, and which is still in print.) His sisters’ alleged poor health had encouraged him to look for the doctor, though it turns out, when Diana Parker writes to her brother, that she has for the moment eschewed conventional medicine, saying:

“[P]ray never run into peril again in looking for an apothecary on our account… We have entirely done with the whole medical tribe. We have consulted physician after physician in vain, till we are quite convinced that they can do nothing for us and that we must trust to our own knowledge of our own wretched constitutions for any relief.”

Of course, this is a decision not dissimilar to ones made by many people today, who find themselves dissatisfied with the results of conventional medicine – though perhaps, given the limits of medical knowledge in the Regency, Miss Parker had more reason for her suspicions!