A Life Update?

[lathany]

Last week included three twins-free days. I had been really looking forward to them and was not disappointed. Perhaps it was because the last break had been totally filled with things (two hours after the twins left for Cambridge we joined a convoy down to BaCon, returned for a full-day Hen "Night" and then had a short, bleary-eyed morning before they returned), perhaps it was because I always feel this way just before unloading them on grandparents. Whatever the reason, I wanted a nice, long rest.

I dropped the duo in Cambridge on the Wednesday and came home to a Mexican meal at the nearby cinema complex (ie. walking distance, I was sick of cars after the trip to my parents). We were going to watch a film afterwards, but nothing appealed to us. A creature of habit, I went for chicken burrito (with sour cream, beans and rice) and profiteroles (filled with Tia Maria-flavoured cream). Both of which were yummy.

Thursday was spent lazying around, typing Patchwork stuff, chatting to secretrebel on the phone (the very patient secretrebel was giving me publishing tips among other things) and raising divine beasts (Jade Cocoon 2 which I reviewed back in January). The evening included Broken Sword : The Sleeping Dragon which clearly has pretensions (beyond being a point-and-click adventure game) in a Tomb Raider meets Metal Gear Solid sort of way. However, it still has some wonderful dialogue :

"He killed my Snooky."
"He did?"

Friday took bateleur and I to Kingston for our first shopping trip in ages. Purchases included a new bag, a top (green-grey, 3/4 sleeve, in the Monsoon sale) for me, a set of clothes for each of the twins (again, mostly from the Monsoon and Next sales), a 99 Flake (yes, I should get out more) and some dolmas from a market stall. Shopping in the sales is a very mixed blessing. We got some nice stuff, but - hermit that I am - I didn't like the crowds.

Saturday was a bit of looking through The Writer's Handbook 2004 for potential publishers and agents and a lot of lazing about (ie. divine beast raising, web-browsing, Broken Swording, etc.) and then a meal at Swans, our local Chinese. Of particular mention was the lamb with plum sauce wrapped in lettuce course (which replaces duck on one of their set menus); nice, but messy. So all-in-all, much food, drink and divine beast raising.

Best of all, my parents brought the twins back declaring that they had enjoyed the days thoroughly and began talking about the next time (which will, hopefully, be a full week in the autumn).

Since the twins have returned I have been gearing myself up to move from talking about sending book three (working title is currently "Third"!) to publishers and agents to actually sending it to publishers and agents. I still have some way to go, but I'm hoping to get it done within the next couple of weeks. After all, I may never get this book published, but sending it out stops that from being a certainty.



Twins News :
Bea can do plurals. "One. Hand. Two. Hands."
Ryan has been in a good mood ever since he returned from Cambridge.
Bea demands "BEANS!" (Smarties) every twenty minutes.
Ryan has moved into drawing in colour whilst Bea is still doing the "one crayon per page" thing.

And finally? The temperature's going back to the early twenties. My kind of English summer.