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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. 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. I had a very sociable Sunday last week, with Lovely Friend staying. We went out for a meal with her family, who are most splendid.

2. Ooh, Bella are potentially interested in the new novel. All I have to do now is write the remaining two thirds of it… Oh, and edit. And edit and edit and edit.

3. Goodness, I can’t believe it took me until point #3 to mention that Child – who is, of course, brilliant in every single way – chose to be brilliant at art and managed to be one of ten winners of a competition to have his artwork on a big banner in the local city centre.

4. A local friend of mine, whose son is one of Child’s best friends, very very kindly offered to take him to and from football practice today, and then hang on to him for a while as I had a choir rehearsal this morning. I thought I was going to have to make Child come to the rehearsal with me instead, which would not have been joyous for either of us, especially as Child informed me that the music we’re singing makes him want to cry. (I think it’s the music not my interpretation of it, as we’ve had the CDs on in the car and I haven’t been singing audibly along. Just in case you were wondering 😉 )

5. I accidentally managed to buy some books this week. A charity shop leapt out and forced me into its depths, refusing to let me out again until I’d bought five books. It’s terribly sad, but what choice did I have?

6. I’ve been working with a friend on a project for the last few days. Hopefully I will be able to tell you about it shortly 🙂 Anyway, I think it’s a Good Thing.

Wednesday Word of the Week

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Ruthless – having or showing no pity or compassion for others

Ruthless came to mind for two reasons this week. Firstly, I was thinking that it had been ever such a long time since I saw my old friend Ruth (‘old’ as in long-time, not as in age – she is, in fact, an entire day younger than I am!). Thus, I have been, in an entirely different sense, ‘Ruth-less’ 🙂

The other reason was because there was a meme going around on Facebook in which you were asked to name your five favourite characters. Now, I found this an extremely confusing meme – by ‘favourite’ did the meme mean ‘characters I like most’ or ‘characters I find most interesting’ or (given part of my writing background) ‘characters I like writing fanfic about’? It was all terribly difficult.

However, one character who leapt to mind was Nancy Blackett, from Swallows and Amazons. I adored her (and probably wanted to be her) in my childhood, and I am still very fond of her. Her actual first name – lest you wonder why I have wandered so far off the point – was Ruth, but she was always called Nancy (except by her Great-Aunt of terrifyingness). In the film of the novel, her sister (and ship mate) Peggy explains that she is known as Nancy because “Amazon pirates were ruthless”. I have never been able to find this line in the books (and I’ve read all of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series) so I have a feeling it was added in the film (all corrections on this point very welcomed! Preferably with chapter information so that I can go and look it up for myself).

Ruthless. A funny word (much like disgruntled) because you never hear of someone being ‘ruthful’ (or gruntled – apart from in PG Wodehouse novels). But a strangely pleasing one.

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.

Well. This has not been my best week ever. So it’s even more important than usual to focus on the positives.

1. I successfully(ish) managed to paint a small section of wall which had been a dreary concrete colour. It improves our kitchen immensely.

2. The election results, whilst not (at all) what I wanted, have given me a distinct idea of the sort of world I want to live in, and some ways of moving forward personally and with like-minded folk to try and move our country in that direction.

3. I’m also really appreciating the friends and family I have. They are most excellent people.

4. Child has been agitating to join a local football club, and I just heard this morning that he can start next Saturday, which will please him.

5. My cats are gorgeous and cuddly.

6. It is still mostly sunny and we are making the most of it, spending hours at the park.

Friday Fiction (Disability)

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So, I wrote my first piece for the Huffington Post blog today, so I think that really has to be today’s FF.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Hello, I’m Penelope Friday. I am a disabled mother: I’ve had a diagnosis of moderate to severe ME/CFS for 22 years, and a diagnosis of fibromyalgia for 1 day (yes, really. No thank you, in the nicest possible way, I don’t want to know what you advise for either of them). I have a very wonderful son of nine, but when he was a pre-schooler, I had a horrendous amount of trouble getting him to pre-school. I have been reminded of this recently because my car – fairly vital when you can barely walk – has unfortunately gone the way of all things mechanical. And I’m back to relying on… well, that little (or, in my case, big) bit of help from my friends.

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