Appropriate

I guess, given my feelings for my MIL, it was only natural that today, her birthday, would be a crappy, frustrating, stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off kind of day.

Don't worry, I don't intend to go into the details (way too tedious, even for this blog), but yeah, crappy day, really.

Words, words, words

I haven't started the 17,000 words I have to translate for next Thursday, but only because other, more "urgent" work keeps coming in. I've also just done a quotation for the translation of a really technical economics text and am kind of hoping it gets refused, just because it's so technical...

As for my "novel", well, I'm well over 45,000 words and actually have days to spare, which is great given how much else I have to do. I'm so proud of this achievement, even if it isn't actually finished yet. I'm hoping to hit 50,000 this weekend, and the end of the story at about 60,000. After that, who knows? I reckon I'll take a break in December then come back to it in January. We'll see.

I also have to start working on making something for the school's Christmas Fair. I'm not sure yet what to make - last year I made really cute tree decorations, but almost no one bought them (my sweet daughters did, though, bless them!), so I'll have to try and find something else. I wish I had more time - this is just the kind of activity I love!

Oh yes - I bought L's much-desired Lego Christmas present: it's a soldiers' fort with attacking pirates and a crocodile and a monkey and a little boat and yes, I know she's a girl, but she loves pirates and I'm sure she'll be thrilled. I'm excited as hell myself!

And Tom, well, Tom's being Tom - lying on the sofa, waiting for me to go and give him a cuddle. And once I've finished my remaining 800 words for today for NaNoWriMo, that's exactly what I intend to do!

(This) woman's best friend

I went to bed late last night (hardly a scoop, I know) and was up horribly early this morning. I had to teach 6 hours of classes in the course of the day, then come home, check e-mail, make a couple of phone calls, that kind of stuff and then head back out at 4.45 to pick up the girls from school. Then it was a seemingly endless game of "Mille bornes" (for once, we all played together and, after a very slow start I managed to come in second, after C. Yeah!), supervising C's homework, preparing the girls' stuff for tomorrow, dinner, story, bedtime routine, bla, bla, bla.

Halfway through dinner, D went out to a conference so, once the girls were in bed, I was on my own. I had work to do (still do, as a matter of fact) but was sooooo tired that I lay down on the sofa and slept for over an hour and a half.

The sleep was much needed, and much appreciated. But what I appreciated even more was when my beautiful cat, Tom, came and curled up next to me, his large, furry body filling me with warmth. He feels so nice, so soft and cuddly; he smells so warm and furry (yes, furry is a smell, and a damn nice one at that), he's so unbelievably affectionate, sensitive, intelligent (OK, and greedy too, but we all need at least one failing, right?). I can't imagine life without him...

Seriously, people: is there anything on earth better than a cat? Or, more specifically, better than my cat?!

Miscellany

My word, Zorro was exciting stuff this evening! The suspense is fever-pitch, but there won't be another episode till next Saturday... Sergeant Garcia even killed a man, saving the life of Don Alfredo... Don Diego and his family (and all their friends) are in trouble, serious trouble, and the "Aigle" is obviously willing to fight to the death... The girls were on the edge of their seats!

Pretty frustrating day, apart from that. Tried to get all sorts of things done, but didn't actually finish anything. And I still haven't started my Christmas cards. And it's 12.30 am and I have to be up in 6 hours. And I only found time to write 630 words of my "novel" today (but it's OK, I'm well ahead of schedule, I'm over 42,000 words already). But still. Gah.

But - I did see a pretty cool Lego set (the soldiers' fort in the pirate theme) which I think would be great for L for Christmas... I'll have to get D to have a look and then I'll go ahead and order it. Amazingly, it's about 10 € cheaper (plus there's free delivery) to order it from Amazon UK and get it sent to my father's house than to buy it on Amazon FR and get it sent here. I'll maybe try and see how much it is in a toyshop, but I suspect it'll be more...

I love Christmas shopping!

Z

It has been said (by D and many others) that I have "dodgy tastes" in music, films, books, etc.

When it comes to music, I would prefer "eclectic" - I like classical, some jazz (not fusion though, drives me batshit), rock, pop, new wave, others 80s stuff, disco, indie... plus loads of others. Some of my favourites (and I'm proud to admit to all of these, nah!) incluse Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Neil Diamond, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cesaria Evora, Patty Smith, Adam and the Ants, and oh, I could go on forever - this is just CDs I've been listening to recently.

For films, I happily admit to loving musicals, from Gene Kelly and Bing Crosby (not so much Fred Astaire, but yeah, I'll watch them all the same) type stuff, to Howard Keel type things, right up to modern ones like (of course) Hairspray and Mamma Mia! The only "modern" musical I've hated, really hated, was "Dancer in the Dark", but that had a lot to do with my loathing of Björk and the ridiculous casting of Catherine Deneuve and the horribleness of the story.

For books, I like novels. Modern novels - funny ones, like Carl Hiaasen and Jasper Fforde, serious ones like Jodi Piccoult, detective ones like Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell, and "chick lit" stuff like the Shopaholic series.

But now, a new addition to my (very, very short) TV show list is one that is unanimously appreciated in this house: the 1950s Disney version of Zorro with the delectable Guy Williams. D loves it, and C and L are obsessed with Zorro - they're totally absorbed in the storylines, biting the nails at the "suspense" moments, fearful that Zorro will get caught (they're little girls, they haven't clicked yet that Zorro never gets caught!). They sing the theme song, they dream of Zorro and everything has to stop every Saturday and Sunday at 8.10 pm - missing an episode is unthinkable! I was pretty indifferent at the beginning, but now, I'm as hooked as they are! Guy Williams is perfect as both Zorro and Don Diego de la Vega, Sergeant Garcia is hilarious and Bernardo is both hilarious and very sharp... Yeah, it's a fantastic series! It's just a shame that so few episodes were made (we're up to episode 35 out of 39... I fear that weekends will soon no longer be quite the same!).

I stand by my "dodgy" tastes!

And oh, if you've never seen any other Zorro than Antonio Banderas, I heartily recommend you get your hands on the Guy Williams version!

Z

Crick

I have a crick in my neck and I find it hard to believe it comes from "sleeping funny" because this week I don't have the impression that I've slept enough to "sleep funny". But my horribly rational self admits it's a possibility. As, of course, is the fact that I've typed so many goddamn words this week.

Oh, those words! Blog words (20 days done! Only 10 to go for the NaBloPoMo challenge!), professional words, authory words. A week of words in a month of words that is far from over. Sure, for my "novel", I'm at almost 39,000 words, so there are "only" 11,000 to go, but for work, I have a shitload to do (not to mention correcting the words of my students - I'm woefully behind with that). And this weekend is going to be tough - we have friends coming for lunch tomorrow and have done exactly nothing about it (no housework, no shopping, no meal planning), so that's my morning covered, plus the afternoon I guess.

Lord help me.

We leave on holiday in exactly one month and I CAN'T WAIT!

Logorrhoea (or however you spell it)

This is going to be known as the month of words, I think...



For my "novel", I've almost reached 37,000 words, which is more than 5,200 ahead of schedule. I'm kind of sure where I'm going, but not totally, and I'm really starting to believe I'm going to finish... Only 13,300 to go (minimum - I'm actually aiming for a little longer now).



Except...



People keep sending me other people's words to translate. I'm not complaining, because we really, really need the money, but still, I'm in overload - I have 5,750 for Sunday night, then 17,000 for 3 December, plus another client will be sending me about 10,000 or so on Monday for "as soon as possible". Gaaaaahhhhhh



The month of words, indeed.