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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. I’ve arranged to write another article for Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, which is exciting. I’m looking forward to researching the different branches of Christianity and the different treatment afforded to them.
  2. Very proud of Lovely Partner this week, who passed his written exams for becoming a fencing referee. (Both epee and foil.)
  3. Also proud of Splendid Son for doing a fantastic job sorting out his bedroom in epic fashion this Monday.
  4. I set myself a writing target for the month and I’ve already met it, which is quite pleasing. Not all that much is publishable, but keeping writing is always useful practice.
  5. I started knitting something again this week for the first time in a while. I’ve not had the energy, and I still struggle to do it for very long, but it’s nice to be doing it again.
  6. I’m not doing brilliantly healthwise at the moment, but my family are being so kind and helpful. I don’t know how I’d manage without them, and I appreciate them so much.

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 filed my tax return this week, which is a joy and a relief to have over and out of the way. I feel quite accomplished.
  2. I also spent a lovely time with a most excellent friend and her two small boys and new cat. Both cat and boys are  very friendly, and it was splendid.
  3. I started knitting a scarf again this week. It’s a while since I’ve knitted anything – I’ve somehow been out of the mood – so it feels good to get started again.
  4. The sun has been shining this week, which is lovely. I like sunny weather.
  5. I got some nice compliments on something I wrote, which is always welcome.
  6. >placeholder<

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 have friends staying, and it is marvellous! So far, I have drunk too much and tried to feed them things they don’t like/aren’t able to eat, but they seem to like me anyway 🙂

2. I finished and posted a couple of knitting commissions this week, and have another commission to fulfil. Hurrah!

3. And I am still writing like someone who is writing a lot of the time. I’m still not sure what amount is publishable, but I don’t think practising writing will ever be a bad thing to be doing.

4. I’ve also got involved with a Christmas-related community online, in which people say what they would like to have for Christmas, and if you can help, you do. I am writing a couple of flash fiction stories for that, too.

5. I went out for a meal with Splendid Son and my parents on Tuesday, which was excellent. It was to celebrate my mother’s birthday, as she’d been travelling on her actual birthday, which isn’t exactly the most exciting way to spend the day. And the food was very nice.

6. I have just generally felt quite cheerful this week. The house is in chaos and there are lots of things I should have done, or haven’t done, or (quite probably) forgotten about, but it’s not bothering me in the same way just now. It’s a good feeling!

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. Sowley, the shop which sells my scarves in Canterbury, turns out to have sold some more of them. I originally gave them four scarves, all of which have sold, and I’ve now given them three more. But it’s delightful that they’re selling – I’m so pleased!

2. On top of that, I’ve sold all the other scarves I had on offer at Friday Yarns – and am in the middle of making arm warmers/fingerless mittens as a commission. (I have also finished a commissioned rug and now just need to find brown paper or large postage bags so that I can post it.)

3. I’m still writing a lot. I am really enjoying myself with the writing at the moment: it is lovely. I think this is the first time I’ve been whole-heartedly enjoying it for a while. I needed to have deadlines and to get things submitted on time, but I am definitely liking the freedom to write whatever I feel like at the moment. And I am finally getting round to writing some things which may actually be publishable. I’ve got a half-written story about three men which I’m currently quite pleased with.

4. Splendid Son had his horn exam on Wednesday (grade 2). He was worried in advance, which isn’t like him but he came out of it saying that he thought he’d passed, so that’s good. Also, it means that I don’t have to hassle him to do horn practice every day! I promised him a week off after he’d done the exam 🙂

5. Ooh, I ordered some things from Breila Cards for Christmas, and they arrived this week. She is so talented!

6. I have realised that my body is really not working at the moment (not good) and scaled back a bit to cope with it (good) AND am nonetheless feeling quite cheerful (very 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.

Considering the attacks in Paris (which is closer to my home than many places in England, and any place in Scotland), it seems slightly insensitive to post an SSS. But in the theory that at bad times, recognising the good is important, I’m going ahead.

  1. After a few days of feeling “I never want to write again” after submitting The Sisterhood, my writing mojo is back. I’m avoiding anything long still, but poetry and flash fiction are singing through my brain, and I’ve been reminded that I do indeed write for the love of it. It got a bit lost in the epic battle to turn in a decently edited novel on time, so it’s nice to be feeling it again.

2. Lovely Partner and I are planning a couple of nights in Berlin sometime next year. I won accommodation there, so it’s just a case of getting there and finding food. It’s giving us something nice to look forward to – I’m not a winter person, so it’s good to be planning great things.

3. I had a medical appointment on Wednesday which went much better than anticipated, so that was a relief.

4. I am looking at getting business cards made up for Friday Yarns, which feels like a terribly grown up thing to be doing.

5. Next weekend, I have organised to go up and visit one of my sisters. Then, when I get back, my other sister will be staying locally, so I will get to spend time with her as well. This is very pleasing.

6. I efficiently managed to do much cooking of food earlier in the week, which is all portioned up in the freezer, so that is rather excellent.

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 WONDERFUL couple of days in Bath with Lovely Partner – it’s only the second time in ten years that we’ve been away alone together, so we were probably due it 🙂
  2. Also in Bath, I got to meet the most excellent Tim Bullamore, the editor of Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine, for which I’ve been writing semi-regularly for the past 7 years! Probably about time I met him, really!
  3. Rather improbably, on the back of being interviewed by Scope last week about erotica and disability, this week the November edition of Kent Life Magazine came out, with an interview with me in it, as a local writer with an interest in history (did I mention that I’m fascinated by the Regency Period and general Georgian Period? [I have to expand it as The Sisterhood, the current novel, is set before the Regency.] Oh, I did? Sorry – as you were…). You’ll have to take my word for it, I’m afraid (or, y’know, go and buy it) as there’s no online link to it! But still, it exists, honest!
  4. Today, Splendid Son (who is a little bit fed up of being designated ‘Splendid Daughter’ by everyone, based solely on the length of his hair… just saying…) and I used our Charlton Athletic Season Tickets for the second time and went up to London. Um, rather unsuccessfully, since we lost 3:0, but you know – excitement and all. And we saw Guy Luzon in his last game as manager… :-/
  5. My knitting is continuing apace: I knitted a scarf on the way to Bath, and have knitted about half of one today, to and from football (and a bit in half time. I think I come across as a reasonably harmless eccentric). So that’s good. I need to fringe a few next – I tie each fringe piece on by hand, incidentally. Let no one say I don’t take pains with what I make!
  6. Um… um… um… There are plenty of things I could write here about things in Bath – the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum (LP and I are a hilarious couple of people to go to something about fashion, but it’s at the Assembly Rooms [Regency alert] and they have a lot of Georgian exhibitions), walking by the river, going out for a meal… But I think I shall finish by saying that whilst we were in Bath, Splendid Son had a great couple of days on a school residential trip, so everyone was happy 🙂

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.

Sometimes it takes me a while, but I get there…

  1. Being invited by Scope to be part of their ‘End The Awkward’ campaign about sex and disability was really lovely. (For those who haven’t seen it, I was ‘N’ for NSFW.)

2. As you may have gathered from previous SSSs, I knit a lot as well as writing. This week I set up a Facebook page for my knitting, called Friday Yarns because I couldn’t resist the intersectional knitting/writing pun 🙂

Incidentally, I also have an authorly FB page which it would be splendid if more people liked 🙂 For both that and the Yarns, a ‘like’ is in no way an expectation that you will ever buy anything, it just makes me feel encouraged!

3. Well, the good news is that I’ve written lots more of The Sisterhood. The bad news is… I still haven’t finished it, though it’s now over 76,000 words. I’m still hoping to finish the first draft by the end of Tuesday, giving me time to revise it. But it’s definitely ‘hope’…

4. Ooh, I am meeting up with one of my editors next week. The  excellent Tim Bullamore (who has been kindly letting me write for Jane Austen’s Regency World for years without checking whether I’m actually a yeti or something) is around in Bath when Lovely Partner and I are going there to visit. It will be very exciting to meet him in person at last!

5. Splendid Son had a great day on a maths workshop earlier this week. They showed him how to make a dodecahedron out of sheets of A4 paper without using glue or cutting anything. (They probably did other things, but this was quite the most exciting!) We have tried it at home, and it’s officially A Thing. I’m really quite impressed 🙂

6. I made it to my choir for only the second time in the last 6 weeks. It was really lovely to be well enough to go, after several weeks of no voice on top of another week where I couldn’t make it for child-minding reasons. I don’t sing well, but I’m very enthusiastic!

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 goodly chunk of The Sisterhood written this week (yes, this is a reoccurring theme at the moment, but such is life). The end is still not yet nigh, but I’m quite pleased with the book nonetheless.

2. In other work-related news, albeit of a different type, Sowley of Canterbury have agreed to take some of my hand-knitted scarves. So if you’re in the market for beautiful fuzzy knitwear, I can only suggest you go there..!

3. And to plough a third vein of work (back to writing again, though), I’ve been talking with Scope about their ‘End The Awkward’ A-Z look at disability and sexuality for their ‘N’ (NSFW) section about erotica. Which is quite fun. ‘N’ isn’t out yet, but I believe it’s not too far away.

4. I had an excellent and unexpected trip to see my sister and nephew this week, which was splendid! Lots of talking and laughing and drinking  🙂

5. And talking about going away, Splendid Child is going on a school residential trip for a couple of nights soon, and Lovely Partner and I have just organised to go away by ourselves for a couple of days to Bath. I can hunt Jane Austen connections down to my heart’s content!

6. Last Sunday, Splendid Child and I took an exciting trip to London to watch Charlton Athletic football team. It was quite an adventure, including getting a bus to (close to) the ground, and then trying to find where we were going. SC did a splendid job pushing my wheelchair, and got bonus heroic points for that – and we discovered that our seats were right near the pitch (indeed, my wheelchair stopped a couple of balls that came flying off the pitch at various times) and practically next to the Home Team’s dugout! It looked like it was all going to end in disappointment for our team, as they were 2:0 down with 10 minutes to go, but incredibly, they managed to get something out of it and ended up with a last gasp equaliser for a 2:2 draw. Looking forward to the next game we can attend (24th October)…

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. Child’s toe is apparently NOT broken, and he seems much more himself again. Hurrah!

2. I had my photo taken for an article in Kent Life magazine where I’m being interviewed (along with three other local writers) by Rachael Hale, the History Magpie. It’s due to come out in just over a month, I think, which is quite exciting (though I do hate having my photo taken).

3. I discovered this week that the plarn mat I made is being really useful. I’ve got a couple of knitting commissions to finish, and then I shall go back to making those. I have another one half-done.

4. Someone’s emailed me about potentially getting me involved with a project they’re doing. I know this is all very vague, but I’ll let you know if there’s anything further to be said about it 🙂

5. I’m doing a bit of de-cluttering, and am selling off some of my yarn (because if I’m going to be making plarn mats most of the time, I won’t need so much) and books (because we have a slight crisis of bookshelf space). If you might be interested in the books, look here. I’ll do a proper yarn post at some point, too.

6. I’ve been spending some much needed time on my spiritual life and have created a lovely sacred space where I can just Be. It’s by no means finished but I feel happier for having it there.

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. Right now, I am profoundly grateful to the NHS (National Health Service). I am just back from hospital, where I took Splendid Son after he damaged his foot. In fact, he stubbed his toe, but this possibly doesn’t give quite the right amount of gravitas: by stubbing his toe, he has managed to break a bone in his big toe and get a wound which needs antibiotics and could mean he loses his toenail. Our excellent free-at-the-point-of-service health system has not only got his foot diagnosed and bandaged but has also provided antibiotics and painkillers and two follow up appointments. I don’t have words for how appreciative I am.

2. I am also thanking my lucky stars in regard to a car accident I had earlier this week (yes, it truly has been one of those weeks). My car lost power to steering and brakes, which as you can imagine is quite terrifying. However, I am grateful because it happened somewhere where there were no people to injure – which as it failed on the school run could easily not have been the case – and when I had slowed down to go round a big bend in the road. Damage: one flat tyre, and nothing (and more importantly, no one) else. AND I got to school only a couple of minutes late to pick up Splendid Son.

3. Aside from Dramatic Events, I have managed to get past the 50,000 word mark in The Sisterhood. It is coming along nicely, though I need to do some more research fairly urgently.

4. I bit the bullet and took out some of my knitted rugs to local shops to see if they were interested in stocking them. They weren’t, but one place said they’d take some of my scarves if I made them in a similar fashion and in darkish colours. I’ve also had some interest shown on Facebook in the rugs – you can take a look at them here.

5. Having won a £10 Amazon voucher last month, I ordered a couple of books which came this week. Very exciting. (They were, for those who are interested, Two Joans At The Abbey, by Elsie Oxenham; and End of Term by Antonia Forest. I have a particular interest in old girls’ school stories.)

6. Okay, I have to admit I’m struggling to find a #6. It has been a fairly full-on week, as you’ve probably gathered. Oh, the Rugby World Cup started yesterday with a win for England. That’s something to be cheerful about.