I am so happy to tell you that yesterday we got the keys to our office! We moved all of the boxes out of our house and also managed to get desks up the narrow staircase and around several tight bends into the room that will become our new second home. And I tell you, it felt Good! Seeing them there, by the window at the front of the pink building, with space around them and knowing that this was the way forward -- it was wonderful. At one point I looked out the window, saw someone I knew, shouted down at him, he came up and we had a natter. Oh the joy! When we've got a kettle I can make people a cup of tea! Stuck at the back of the house here we see no one. From my new spot I can see right into the Co-op and the pub -- I'm sure I'll have a few tales to tell!
Even better though was coming home and seeing the walls of the hall (boy do we need to paint them -- the boxes did a good job of covering up the scribbles and grime), and seeing a large space in the room that was the office, wow! Already it feels like Salt's gone and we've got a home again.
Today we're moving the computers out, which will be particularly significant and will mean that Salt really is no longer here. Hopefully also we'll be able to shift things into the room Salt's vacated -- we're setting it up as a space for the children who, over the years, have been squeezed into increasingly smaller spaces.
We need to get as much done today as possible as tomorrow I'm off on my trip to Botswana, which is so wonderful. I'll be leaving Chris with a new regime to sort out and the children, and unfortunately, no internet connection at work, which will be rather problematic. The phone lines go in on Monday, but we've to wait another week for the broadband.
It feels so right. Off to have a hearty breakfast -- gotta gather my strength!
I'm feeling really rough today, thanks to drama last night that MADE ME drink a lot of wine. I burnt the palm of my hand on boiling hot macaroni cheese -- let me tell you, it was AGONY! It stuck to my skin and burnt all my fingers and down the side. I stuck it under the cold tap and kept packs of frozen veg wrapped around it all evening, but the pain never eased off - it felt like I had my hand permanently stuck in a fire.
I took paracetamol and ibuprofen, which helped a bit, and then I discovered that wine on top of them made all the difference. So I ended up drinking 3/4 of a bottle in bed and felt much better. Until this morning -- my hand's not so bad but my head hurts! Oh there's just no winning!
I'd spent most of the week recovering from our weekend trip to Italy with the internationally-renowned Wilbraham Warriors. What a fantastic time we had. Our little team, as readers of this here blog will know, went through a whole season without winning a game. Scores of 15- 0 were not uncommon. Then they go to Italy and win the tournament! We came home with the trophy and winners' medals -- how amazing is that!!
We were so well looked after by our Italian hosts -- their English was as good as our Italian, but after a few drinks, we all made perfect sense! The children all got on and we had enough personal time to go to Lake Como and Milan, both of which are beautiful. The weather was mixed -- going from scorching hot to bucketing down within seconds. But mostly the game went on, and I tell you, I was pleased to be given my own medal as us parents deserved one too -- talk about devotion over and above the call of duty! Though possibly it was for our wonderful singing of 'She'll be Coming Round the Mountain' towards the end of the 250 litres of beer?
Next year we're going to be hosting team Caronno, which'll be great fun. We can wow them with our traditional dishes (fish and chips, pork pie) and amaze them with our local landscape - or lack of it! At least we've got Cambridge nearby - that just might save us from being a complete let-down!
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This morning we went to see our new office. We hadn't seen it since March and since it looks like we're definitely going to be moving in, we thought we'd better have a quick look -- just to check that we hadn't seem it through rose-tinted specs, and to suss out where our stuff could go etc..
Thankfully, we still consider it to be perfect! Everything's been painted and new carpets have been laid. There's enough room for us to have an army working with us, and loads of space for boxes of books!
Here, exclusively for my MS peeps, is a photo taken inside the pink builiding -- it shows the stairs and the front door, with a bit of carpet thrown in:
Happy days, I can't wait to get the house back and to be able to go to work, and then come home again. Still not trying to get too excited, but it's getting increasingly more difficult. I'll keep you posted.
Meanwhile, wishing you all some sunshine over the weekend.
I've actually had it for quite a while, but have never used it. But now I feel like I want a blog that I can properly link to and have tags. I love myspace though and this isn't good bye, it's just I'm worried I'm missing out on stuff out there.
I'll tell you something else I'm missing out on - global warming. It's completely escaped Great Wilbraham, unless we're suffering the effects of the polar ice cap thawing. It's not stopped raining for almost a week -- though why this surprised me I don't know; it is, after all, half-term and there was a Bank Holiday on Monday.
There's been so much happening at Salt over the past few weeks that it's been hard to know what to tell you. But today I'm going to give it a go. So, here goes!
Well, for starters, we've had 8 books longlisted in the international Frank O'Connor Prize, which is more than any other publisher, making us, as Salt author Elizabeth Baines pointed out, the world's biggest short story publisher! This is all wonderful news and our authors have been interviewed and profiled and there's so much to say about them that we've set up a special Frank O'Connor blog:
and even if joining the Salt Fan Club is the only thing you do on Facebook, it'll be worth making the effort to sign-up. You'll be in wonderful company and will get to know about all sorts: new books, offers, events . . .
We've had recent success in the print media, and a couple of things I'd like to bring to your attention are reviews of our short story anthology '68: New Stories from Children of the Revolution, edited by Nicholas Royle. Read reviews in The Times and Time Out, where it was Book of the Week. Also, I was interviewed recently in the Glasgow Herald (I was very pleased about this as I am from that fine city) about my views on the short story world: check out my ramblings here.
And I am very pleased, nay, thrilled to bits, to tell you that it looks pretty darn likely that the office move is ON! Keep your fingers crossed for us - I'll keep you posted.
Phew! There's more, but I'll let you digest that lot for now. Do remember to keep watching the Frank O'Connor blog and, go on, sign up to the Fan Club -- you can be excused, it's not really defecting!
I've seen them around and wanted one for ages -- for the dogless of you out there, Bionic Ball Launchers are ball-grabbing sticks that let you pick up slimy muddy tennis balls and throw them really far for a dog to run after and bring back. And as a bonus, the ball goes in the right direction (unlike when I throw it - there's never any way of knowing where it's going to end up, but you can be pretty sure it's not where it was intended!). Last night I took the dog out and exhausted her while only walking about half the normal distance.
While I was out buying this (and a lovely girly collar for her), doggy helped herself to an entire box of chocolates. I was rather cross but then remembered the dog I had when I was growing up who used to run around the dining table barking her head off at full volume and steal the food off your plate at every opportunity. She also ate an entire birthday cake minutes before it was to be presented with candles to a dozen singing children at my 8th birthday party, stole a huge chunk of cheese from a neighbouring caravan one holiday, and a gigantically long string of sausages from some a Sunday School party who were about to have a beach barbeque, miles away from any shops -- we had nothing to give them to make up for it!
She was called Molly and was a Cocker Spaniel - she was well known in the village I grew up in as every morning she'd escape from the house and do a tour of all the bins within a half-mile radius. She really was BAD! Rhona, our lab, is positively angelic compared to her. Here is a photo taken last week out on the fields:
The moral of the story is: eat your chocolates fast and if you see a spaniel, hide your sausages!
It's rather strange here at the moment. Our children are growing up and I feel I'm missing it and when I see it, I don't quite get it.
To be specific, Son 1, (Callum, 11) is now almost the same height as me and has got a girlfriend. The thing is, it seems that I was the last person to find out about her (Kirsty, daughter, told me and made a point of letting me know that EVERYONE knows).
When I mentioned to Callum that I'd heard on the grapevine about his news, he was mortified! When I asked when if I would ever meet her, he said no way, never! When I said why not, he said cos I'd embarrass him! I promised not to get his baby photos out, but this did nothing to appease him.
So, there you go. I guess this is the start of my children leading their own lives (something we would always encourage), but, I don't know, it's feels strange and kinda sad.
Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long Hairy Beasties ...
Category: Art and Photography
It's been an difficult week at Salt as we find ourself having to work through various issues that aren't quite resolved yet, but two things have come out of it -- the good thing: hopefully we can get rid of the boxes of books from the house and have someone send out orders for us (this is a very time-consuming job), but the bad news is that for a variety of reasons it's highly unlikely that we'll be moving Salt out into offices. How I wanted that to happen! Perhaps it still will, but I'm not betting on it.
Thankfully there is more to life than work and I've got a few interesting things to tell you about. First of all, Butt Lane, where I take the dog for a walk every day, has got some visitors - the welcome return of the rare and endangered Small Eggar Moth (some of you might remember I spotted this last summer and it's great to see it come back), and the arrival of travellers who have parked themselves at the top of Rabbit Corpse Hill, causing great drama in the village.
We've had children grabbing stuff from the shop and legging it down the road, someone getting their bike pinched, but having it turned up the next day after she spoke to the new arrivals. Their way of life is so different - I can see the attraction of it and how difficult it must be to conform to conventional living when you're free to come and go and have no roots anywhere, no ties or bonds other than to your own family. One fellow dog walker said that he went up to their caravans and someone came out and said, 'Want any paving doing?' 'Er, no thanks,' he replied as one of the small boys held his hand as he went to stroke the dog asking, 'Is he friendly?' I don't know, there's something comforting about this scene. But already the lanes are filling up with rubbish - I guess they don't carry wheelie bins around with them.
Meanwhile, I'm on week 3 of my photography course which has been looking at how cameras capture light: shutter speed, aperture size, ISO etc.. Very interesting and far more complex than I could have imagined, but like everything else, it's down to knowing the theory, having the tools and then lots of giving it a go, trial and error. Each week we have an assignment and this week's seemed impossible: ghost hunting. Yesterday evening Kirsty and I stood in the middle of the village with the camera on almost full-manual mode (oh yes, I hope you're impressed) looking for ghosts - an impossible task, do I hear you say? Well, yes, unless you have faith in your camera.
Because, I tell you, if you know how to set it up, it's amazing what it can see. Brace yourself for what follows:
We caught a rare glimpse of the Wilbraham Phantom, not many people have seen her though her reputation has travelled down generations:
AND, is it a ghost hearse or some other spooky mode of transport, a UFO, or something more sinister? Check this out:
Don't say he doesn't all happen in Great Wilbraham!
Currently
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In Rainbows
By
Radiohead
Release date: 2008-01-01
. . . you have a tractor parked outside your neighbour's house!
Yesterday I popped into Cambridge to see the lovely people in Heffer's bookshop, and did something I'd never had the nerve to do before -- take a photo of a complete stranger without asking permission. Okay, so I picked someone who looked nice and kind and was doing a job in the public arena, thereby reducing the risk of being shouted at or chased, but, hey, I still did it!
Here he is:
Sadly, I didn't have time to go on a punt with him -- next time I'll skip the bookshop!
I am totally knackered! Just as well it's Friday tomorrow (though where's the week gone to?) as I don't think I could last more than another day until veg-out time.
What's been happening? Well, mainly it's Toddler. He's 'going through a phase', ie not sleeping. I happen to be the only one in the house who hears him wail and bawl so it's me who gets up with him every night, singing nursery rhymes or reciting 'In the Night Garden' ('Oh no! It's the Ninky Nonk!' -- if you've not come across it, you must seek it out). It's as well we're programmed to love the little blighters.
It's left me feeling spaced-out during a week of great excitement. For a start, I"M A (joint with Ria) WINNER! Oh yes, I won a prize!! MS peep Dorraine ran a competition asking people to describe their most embarrassing experience. I'll let you read my Winning Entry for yourself on Dorraine's blog. And please don't ever talk to me about what happened all those years ago - I'm still in recovery! Though I must say, I'm glad I didn't have to go through any of the experiences others described. Anyway, I am delighted to have won a copy of Dorraine's book, Jack Rabbit Moon and I'll be sure to tell you all about it -- thanks Drain!
Another piece of exciting news is that a date has been set for the Botswana Writers' Awards -- Salt was involved with judging the poetry section, and we've been working with Books Botswana to pull together books by the winning authors, all of whom are new writers. It's been a really interesting process and I'm so excited about going over there and meeting the writers and the good people at Books Botswana. It's the last week in June, so not long!
Before then, Callum (son 1) and I are off to Italy for the Wilbraham Warriors' tournament. After their last match, some of the dads had a game and, I tell you, what an unhealthy, unfit bunch they are! One of them broke his ankle (Callum had some involvement with this - I think it happened during a tackly, gulp) and another pulled a leg muscle. Lots of puffing and panting and, er, wobbling. It didn't go unoticed, thankfully, and they have now decided to do something about it and, as a group, get more active and shape up (I rather think the prospect of playing against the Italian dads has something to do with this -- now they are fit!).
My husband, I am pleased to say, has found himself on the dads' team and has been TOLD to turn up on Saturday morning for a game with the Saffron Walden dads. This is very good news, as long as he's not next in the queue for an injury. Which, I'm afraid to say, is quite likely, knowing him. Think falling off bike and breaking ribs, breaking collar bone during rounders, and you've got a fair idea of his agility skills!
Good luck to them, I say. We all should get out and do more -- other than toddler who needs to learn how to lie low!
Post Blog Note: About 5 minutes after posting this blog, Callum came home from football practice with a suspected broken wrist!
How I am loving this weekend -- I'm being very lazy and (wait for it ---) it's sunny! How amazing is that! The two big children are out and about with friends, giving me a bit of room to indulge myself in my new obsession - looking at photographs.
I've started my digital photography course and have spent every non-working moment looking at pics taken by fellow students on the course website - it's great fun, I really enjoy it, and a complete change from my day-to-day work as there is almost no reading involved (there is some where we're told various things like camera and photography theory and how to do it, but most of it is just looking and thinking).
On Saturday it was the last match of the season for the Wilbraham Warriors - the under-11 football team that Callum's the goalie for. And I'm afraid it was yet another defeat -- they didn't manage to win any of their games. But they stuck with it and got better and better as the months went by. So though did the other teams! Here's a picture I took at the start of the game - it shows the coach leaving the referee checking the players' studs and one of the team doing at handstand behind his back:
On Saturday night we had some friends over for food - the first time I've ever cooked meat for a sort of "event". Spag bol, mince, stew - no bother; poshish nosh - hmm. The starter was fine (vegie recipe, damn, I swore I'd never eat that sort of stuff again); the main course was roast pheasant, "Gypsy style" that I got off the internet. I think possibly the warning signs were there. Think Christmas dinner, but with extra-lumpy bread sauce containing apple and bacon. It looked pretty bad as most of it was light brown in colour, but I must say, it did taste okay in an unseasonal kindofaway. It was rather unexpected - I just haven't cooked enough meat to imagine how things will turn out -- I guess I'll just have to do it lots more, now that I can - great!
We're still chomping at the bit, desperate to move Salt out into its own offices -- it's all taking ages. The landlord's company was off-shore and her solicitor had to do cumbersome, time-consuming money laundering checks on it. Now she's moved it to the UK, so hopefully things can start moving (and I think I mean start - as far as I know, nothing's happened yet). Very frustrating, but it will happen and it'll be worth it, so I'm just trying to be patient and philosophical about it (grrr!).
Well, I think I might rouse myself and take the dog out while it's still beautiful. Have great days, everyone and Happy Bank Holiday to you all.
Last week was very busy at Salt, but thankfully busy with all the things that I most love: editing, typsetting and, best of all, reading submissions. It's been a while since I've been able to do this.
It's a very strange thing and I have no idea if it's something that all folk who read manuscripts suffer from, or if it's a personal affliction. It's a bit like the reader's equivalent of writer's block, I guess.
For the last couple of months I have not been able to read any submissions. Every now and again I'll make myself sit down and look through the growing pile, but it's just been words, words, words. I've not been able to actually read and evaluate them in any way whatsoever. On really bad days I've not even been able to identify the obviously bad/excellent. But last week I started to read them and the strange instinctive mode switched on - the one I seem to rely on (yes, it's that scientific). Good news indeed for me and the folk who've submitted and are waiting patiently to hear back from me.
And, very exciting indeed, next week I start my digital photography short course with the Open University -- I booked this around January and can't wait! Today I went on one those workshops at our brand new Apple Store in Cambridge (yup, we've finally made it into this century) on iLife and then I made a movie all by myself - how pleased I am: sound affects, voice overs, titles and all that malarky!
Each week for the next ten weeks I've got some sort of assignment to do -- I can't think what they could be, but anything that makes you go out and take photos gets my vote. Often if I'm feeling out of sorts with the world, I'll take my camera out with me on my usual dog walk and photograph things that I'd normally stride right past. Here's one I took the other day - I got myself a little cheap camera from the oft-mentioned Wal-Mart which I've just discovered has got a whizzy 'stitch 3 photos together' function (the pic's a bit wonky - my arms were being blown around by the wind) :
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And here's another one for you - I tell you, it's amazing what you discover on your camera - I wonder just who took this video. Hmm, tricky, eh!
**This blog is written with apologies to vegetarians for any offence caused. Do not read on if you feel this could be you.**
I went to America and came home with a new husband. Okay, he looks the same and is indeed the same person, but something happened to him out there that has changed my life -- for the better -- so much so, in fact, that it's just like I've got a new updated model!
And guess what I can thank for this transformation: cheese and Wal-Mart.
Let me explain!
For the past 26 years, my hubby Chris has been a committed vegetarian. Very strict: eggs and dairy, fine; fish and any animal by-products such as gelatin: big no. I am a meat-eater and have always respected his ways, even when the children came along resulting in me having to think of several meal combinations every day that would suit the tastes of the children, each of whom is fussy in a different way, and Chris. I am not fussy at all and eat whatever's left, though rarely getting what I wanted in the first place.
Day to day we got by, but life tended to be rather problematic and there were parts of the globe that I knew I would never be able to visit with Chris as my travelling partner; there are also many lovely restaurants that it's not been worthwhile visiting because of their lack of vegetarian options.
Our trip to America seemed safe though - and for a few days everything was normal: me on my American Eat Fest, the children eating all the usual stuff and Chris eating omelette and pizza, the latter from Wal-Mart.
Now, Wal-mart doesn't do things by halves, and when you buy a pizza from there you can chose sizes L, XL, XXL, and my dear husband would polish it off, regardless of how many Xs were in front of the L. They are big in circumference plus big on topping, piled high with vegetables and heaps of cheese.
And it is to these pizzas I will be eternally grateful.
After a few days of them, Chris sickened himself and one day we were at an Italian restaurant and low and behold, what does he order but chicken and gorgonzola pasta. And he loved it. The next day he had a burger - and loved it! I tried not to get my hopes up that perhaps my life was about to change fundamentally and convinced myself that this was a holiday blip, but no, he kept on eating: steaks, chicken ... you name it, if it was there, he ate it.
And then we came home and --- he's still eating meat! Today for the first time ever, we all sat down and ate the same Sunday dinner of roast duck. It was lovely! One lot of cooking and cleaning up to do, one set of dirty dishes, and we all ate at the same time! I can't tell you how happy I am about this!
So now we've got great plans to go back to all the restaurants that I've liked for the meat but Chris has had a disappointing mushroom stroganoff, and also to invite loads of people round for dinner, which will be a million times easier now I have zillions of delicious meat recipes to choose from. It's a whole new chapter!
And I tell you this, I'm never eating another vegetarian meal ever again if I can help it!
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