Tuesday, May 17, 2005

BB turnaround

I was going to vote against Geneva in tonight's main eviction, but I have changed my mind. Angela, who up until last night I thought was alright, has shown extreme bad sportsmanship and a huge mean streak. She will now be gaining one vote each Lee, the kids (one vote together) and myself. She's made my choice a little easier, after all, I actually liked all three nominees and considered Angela to be one of the smart ones, but now my opinion of her has lowered some what and I'm going to nominate her quite happily.

I've been watching BB and reading the website and am so pleased that Constance and Nelson have gone. What a pair of mouth-breathers (thanks Lee for such a great word).

Quote from Nelson: "Where's my goodies? I want goodies. I want prizes."

Haha. No prizes for you...ou.

These people make Glenn look good.

Having said that. I feel for poor Glenn. He's not a bad bloke. I'm not a fan, but I don't really have anything against him. Then he has to choose one person to be unnominated. He chose Michelle (who wouldn't???) thereby incurring the wrath of Angela after her nomination.

Just so you know...

...my life's not totally dependant upon Big Brother. Today I finished a story. I don't want to talk about it or mention the total due to wanting to send it to CSFG anthology The Outcast (a blind submission) but I can say that it's a story revolving around a 'what if' situation I started thinking about ten year's ago. I wrote 1500 words today to give the story a total word count of 5500 words. This total is 500 words above the limit. I've managed to delete nearly 200 words, but there's still aways to go.

There he goes, there he goes, there he goes...

Connor can certainly get some miles up. Tonight we put him on the floor. So far he's managed to roll over to Lee's feet and then all the way over to the cabinet. He's now watching BB.

Have a great week

Monday, May 16, 2005

Come back Toto, all is forgiven

Woke up in a tight grip with Lee this morning. No, not due to any pre-waking grope, but because of the mighty crashing and flashing of a major storm.

According to the weather report, our sleepy little suburb was rocked by a tornedo which saw trees uprooted and fences strewn clear into Maddington. Scary stuff. Lee knows I'm not good with thunder at the best of times, and this morning was certainly not the best of times. I was terrified. I wouldn't let him leave the house without me and insisted he take me when he dropped Erin off at child-care. We saw a lot of damage along the way. The people across the road seemed the worst hit, which was quite ironic considering what happened not long ago.

2 weeks ago they decided that the biggest tree in their front yard had to go. They roped it, cut it and let it fall. Directly onto their fence. It smashed it to pieces. They spent the weekend fixing said fence until, by Monday, it was good as new. They cleaned up their mess and no-one was any the wiser.

Enter this morning's tornado.

Battboy and I waited for the winds to abate then ventured out to drop Erin off at 'school'. There, directly across the way, was a repeat of the previous fortnight's carnage. But, much much worse. Two trees were lying across their lawn, without a skerrick of fence to be seen. Parts of their roof was also gone.

There was a great deal of damage in our neighbourhood, but amazingly, apart from four bits of washing ripped from the line and dumped on the ground, we came out of it unscathed.

After the storm

Lee went into the city for an interview. I insisted on Connor and I accompanying him. Yes, nature scares me. We had a coffee at Gloria Jean's (one of my favourite places on earth) then Lee set off for his interview and I walked to the Alexander library with the baby and my laptop. I managed to write a bit more on a story that I'm thoroughly in to, plus start on Kaaren Warren's anthology. I picked two of her stories at random and began to read. God, it's good. Parts were somewhat clunky (one line of The Fresh Young Widow featured not one but two 'dreaded ly' words) but the stories themselves were gripping and well presented. I'm not going to do a full review, but if you like emotion-driven SF then go for it.

Okay, it's late and it's time for bed. Take care and stay away from ruby slippers.

PS Battboy and I voted for Nelson to go tonight cos we're sure Constance will go in the next round. As much as I like Geneva, she's getting my vote tomorrow night because I like Tim and Angela more. They're the only two intelligent people in the house.

PPS I want Logan to win.

PPPS Ju, I miscounted. I gained some proper information and worked it out. It's only 8 days.

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Quick word count

1503 words written this evening. I'm so in the mood to write at the moment. I'm loving it. The words are coming quickly and the ideas are there for me. Next I'm working on a piece for Shane Jaraiya Cummings' new anthology.

Party at Perky's

Went out to Perky's birthday party with Casi last night. We had a nice time and met some new people (Grace and Graeme) who I clicked really well with. The food was fantastic and plentiful. Lee didn't come and I missed him awfully. Naturally, Mynxii, Calli, Kylie and I spent ages talking about Big Brother.

More on BB

Yesterday, Calli and I went out for coffee at Carousel. We discussed BB. I noticed that every table around us was listening. I mentioned Hot Dogs and my opinion of him and immediately one of the women at the table opposite leaned over to her companion and asked "What do you think of Hot Dogs?"

I'm soooooo influential :)

So down

Lee's been really depressed lately and I've been worried about him. The clouds seem to have cleared today and there's been a return to his old vibrant self. I've been depressed before (spent two years on medication as a result) and so tried to be the loving supportive wife. It hasn't always been easy and yesterday I snapped a little. My friends were there for me and didn't tell me off for not remaining positive for Lee's sake. All I can say is "Thank you" for letting me talk through the problem. You were all brilliant when it all became too much for me to cope with. I feel much better today and so does Lee.

Dr Who

Watched episodes 4 to 7 today and they were fantastic! The Dalek episode was both scary and tender and I loved it. The sexual chemistry between Rose and the Doctor is HOT and you just have to love their interaction.

Soccer tomorrow

We're playing Kinross. We've just found out where that is. Early start tomorrow.

Friday, May 13, 2005

Let the abuse begin

Yes, it's that time of the year again. Big Brother is back on our screens and fourteen/fifteen people have basically announced "Abuse me. Call me names. Tell me how much you hate me."
And hate them I do. Apart from a few notable exceptions I find them to be supercilious, nasty, vain and on the whole quite boring.

Let's begin with Michelle. "Waaaaah. It's my birthday. I'm 25. I want a party. Waaaaaah. I'm gonna chuck a wobbly because I'm not doing anything for my special day." Hello, reality check. YOU'RE ON TELEVISION YOU MINDLESS BINT.

Next, Constance. Had her sized up from the first moment. Can't stand her. Trashy. Likes to go around telling people "I'm loud, I'm crazy." Having a personality is like writing a good story. Show, don't tell.

Nelson and Glenn. Ocker guys who'd be the first through the door at the Inseminator's Ball. LOSERS!!!!!!!! Marriage to these two slobs can be summed up in four words: "Where's my dinner bitch?" You just know Glenn's got a healer named Blue at home.

Tim. One of my exceptions. Intelligent, witty. I like him. His personal motto is "Whatever you do, never reduce your complex belief systems into a simple motto." Better than Redneck Nelson's "Relax". Like Duh.

Gianna. If I can quote Madonna (and I think I can) "Strike a pose, there's nothing to it." Loves the camera and will likely gain many nominations due to it. Another bint.

Logan (David and Greg). Another of my exceptions. Cute, fun, sweet. I love them and hope they don't get busted.

Christie. Who? Her name came up on the site when I did a search just now. Can't even remember what she looks like.

Geneva. Ummm. Hmmmm. I have to make a small confession here. Come closer cos I need to whisper it. I like her. Lee doesn't.

Michael. Not at all interesting. Sees himself as a peacemaker. Let them have their bitch fight, I say.

Dean. Lee hates him. Frankly I don't notice him one way or the other.

Hot Dogs. Mostly harmless. Again, fairly unnoticeable.

Kate. On her side only because Nelson is so dead against her. And why? Because she reminds him of his ex. Come on!!!!!

Angela. The only woman I really like for herself. Intelligent, brash. I think she's cool.

At this stage I don't really cares who wins. Okay, if pushed I'd say either one of Tim, Angela or the Logans (although tonight's Logan kissed Michelle. Eugghh.)

Here's Lee's list.

"They're all crap. Especially Dean. He's the crappest. Kill the lot of them. Put them out of my misery." (There was also some stuff about testicles and things being ripped out of eye sockets, but I think we all get the gist.)


In other news.

"The Memory of Breathing" has received a good review from Locus magazine and Rich Horton has put it on his Recommended Reading List for the month. This has really inspired me to keep going and today I wrote over 1700 words. I'm a happy camper.

If I keep this up I might actually be a professional writer by the time I'm 60.

Monday, May 09, 2005

On being a mum

I love being a mother. I love my children. All five of them enrich my life and help make it all the more interesting.

This morning I was woken by my Triffitt children with prezzies (the Battbaby was in bed with us having a cuddle and Erin was at her grandparents). They each gave me something personal and sweet, plus I had two presents that they had bought as a group. Prezzie time over, we moved on to the soccer where I spent time yelling myself hoarse.

Lunch was at Chatters, one of my favourite restaurants before we took the kids home to their father's.

A lovely day. The children were kind, considerate, sweet and well mannered. They were fabulous. Which was why I burst into tears at lunch and have barely stopped since.

This is my second mother's day. It has also been the worst. I couldn't bare the thought that it would end and they would be returned to Jon. It was just so unfair. I know I'm a great parent. I love my children and they know it. I do everything with their best interests at heart. I've never abused them or made them feel less than secure. So why do they prefer him to me? I just don't get it at all.

Okay, change the subject

We just arrived home from our day out to find an email from the wonderful Dave Luckett (husband of Sally Beasley, author extraordinaire and the other half of the duo that gave me away at the wedding) telling me to check out the Tangent site.

A review. A positive review. An absolutely brilliant and glowing review about my story "The Memory of Breathing".

Thank you to Dave for loving the story enough to recommend it to his wife, thank you to Sally for being such a brilliant editor and for placing it in ASIM 17 and of course, a big thank you to my beloved husband for always believing in me and for encouraging me every step of the way.

Last night

Last night was one of the best experiences of my life. We had Martin Livings (one of my favourite authors) and his partner Dr Izzy and Shane Jaraiya Cummings (another author-pal of ours) and his partner Angela Challis (editor of Shadowed Realms) over for dinner. The evening was fabulous. The food was good, the wine bottled and the company both lively and intelligent. Apologies to poor Dr Iz for the copious shop talk, but it was one of the rare occasions when Lee and I found ourselves mixing with other writers. We had a brilliant time.

One of the highlights for me was meeting Angela properly. There are times in your life when you meet someone and you just click from the get-go. Angela and I connected on about a dozen different levels and never shut up all night.

Everyone left about 12:30 and we were fast asleep about 5 minutes later. Naturally it was one of the few nights where Connor slept through until 4:30, and we were awake for most of it.

Soccer

3-2. In our favour. That's all I'm saying.

Okay, we're out of here. Big Brother starts again tonight, so we're off to begin our evening.

Take care and enjoy your week.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Can't keep a good girl down

Due to popular demand I've decided to start posting again. I'll do a full post soon, but we have people coming for dinner tonight so I have to get cleaning etc.

I'm feeling rather happy today. I had a better night sleep thanks to my beloved and a sleep in this morning. We've just come home from breakfast at The Crepe Cafe AND I had my favourite coffee from Gloria Jean's. I really want to get a job with them. I love them.

Take care and have a lovely weekend.

PS Thanks to everybody who said "I miss your blog. When are you going to start posting again?" I dedicate this site to you.