| 9:48 am - Jadis: July 2004 - June 2012 |
Yesterday I said goodbye to my beloved Jadis. We drove to the vets and she stayed silent the whole way. I think on some level she knew that we were trying to help her. My beautiful wee cat went to sleep in my arms at 11 o'clock in the morning, and will not wake again. She was held and stroked and loved right up to the end, and did not suffer. It was the right time for her to go, but just because it was right did not mean it was easy. She was the most affectionate, loving, adorable cat I have known. A small bundle of fluff and purrs, always willing to tart at anyone who came near her. She slept on my pillow or under the duvet beside me, given half a chance. She materialised on laps as if by magic, and would stay curled up and snoozing for hours on end. If I was ill, she would always be there, on my bed beside me, just staying there for comfort and cuddles. For a dippy wee thing, she was surprisingly bright. She was with me for not even eight years. It would have been her eighth birthday in a few days. She joined me when I was living in Stowmarket with Caro, and formed part of the Unholy Trinity with Cassidy and Ember (one of Caro's cats). She quickly gained the nickname 'Rat', due to her pointy wee face, and the name stayed even though she grew into a beautiful girl. We mocked her for the size of her ass regularly. She was the most playful of cats, right up until her last few days. She played fetch with feathersticks and toy mice, destroyed tissues, and could leap in the air as if she had wings. She loved the Christmas tree and all the dangling enticements that it carried; we still find baubles hiding around the place, months after the event. She gave me a litter of four gorgeous kittens; Ash, Veyron, Mortimer and Mordred. She was an over-protective mum, always washing and carrying them around, trying to secret them away some place where I couldn't find them. But once they could walk, she handed them over to me and washed her paws of the lot! She was not afraid of anything, and used to cheerfully bomb into our neighbour's garden and terrorise their cats, despite being half their size. She took on the local tom, and I saw her once considering a dog. But despite her territorial nature, she was daft as a brush when it came to her humans. She would lie on her back with her paws in the air to have her belly rubbed, and was the cat who would happily be carted around by all the neighbourhood children, both here and in Bagshot. She never complained, never hissed, never gave me cause for concern. She had a voice - oh! she had a voice - wailing and meowing and constantly chatty. The house feels so quiet without her. She was loved by many, and will be missed without question. There is a Jadis-shaped hole in my life, and it will take some time for the sadness to ease. RIP Jadis. Sleep well, little one. Dream of tuna, of laps and cuddles, of lazing in the sunshine, of enticing Christmas baubles, and of boxes beyond counting. Know that you were loved, and will be missed beyond words.  (6 comments | comment on this) |
| Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 |
| 12:24 pm - Mobile Phones in Writing |
| Time for another writing-related pondering over lunchtime, following on from a chat I was having yesterday evening at writing group. The introduction of technologies into society clearly changes the boundaries of the world we live in. I recently re-read Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence, and found myself wondering what younger readers would make of it. I am - fortunately - old enough to have grown up in a time when if you arranged to be somewhere at a certain time, you were there, because you had no other way of letting your friends or family know that you wouldn't be. If something happened to me, I wouldn't have been able to rely on a mobile phone to be able to contact my parents. Whether a younger readership would be able to comprehend not having that immediacy...I don't know. Rising numbers of youngsters have mobile phones these days, and communicate online. Try to imagine having never known anything else, and ask yourself if it would as easy to put yourself in the shoes of a child growing up in the 1970s, or 1870s, or in a pre-technology fantasy world. As a writer, I loathe mobile phones. They immediately get in the way of stories - where's the urgency if you can just call someone up as soon as you find out who the bad guy is to let them know that actually, Cheerful Uncle Jamie is the serial killer and they should run away now? See what I mean? Jim Butcher covers this very neatly in The Dresden Files. Harry Dresden, one somewhat snarksome reluctantly heroic protagonist, is unable to use modern technologies due to his wizarding capabilities. Newer cars, mobile phones, computers...they all go PHUT when he's around. But that's been done already. Jim Butcher has neatly covered that ground, more's the pity. In City of Shadows, I got around the problem by various characters either not having mobiles (JP, the Old Man, all the assorted spirits and so forth), or breaking them or running out of battery (Fiona). It felt a bit of a cop-out in places. My current WIP (the un-named fantasy with the not!Vikings), is deliberately set in a pre-electronic technology period. So, how do you use technology in your writing? Does it increase or remove tension for you? (4 comments | comment on this) |
| Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 |
| 10:55 pm - In which I take the man on a weekend away... |
...but firstly I will worry about my poor wee Rat. I came home from the Peak District on Sunday to find that she'd been out scrapping (as usual), and returned with a very nasty looking cut on the side of her head, just below her right ear. Cue call to vets on Monday morning, and shooting off for an appointment at 8:50 Monday morning. One shot of long-lasting antibiotics later, and she's still looking and acting under the weather. She's not even wanting to go out, just sitting around the house and looking sorry for herself. We're going back tomorrow, and I'm hoping the vet can do something more for her. They didn't clean it out, and it's looking very unpleasant now - she keeps scratching at it, and leaving bits of bloody fur around the place. :-( * * * * * Took Derek to the Peak District at the weekend, as part of his birthday present. I booked us into a hotel on the Saturday night, so we had a good two days up there. Friday night saw us at  hungry_pixel's, for dinner and cards - lots of fun was had by all, and it was lovely to see Caro again. Then Saturday morning, in a scattering of snow, we headed on up to the Peaks. It was absolutely stunning: The snow that fell on Friday evening gave everything this sparkling white blanket, that glittered in the bright wintry sunshine all weekend. We couldn't have asked for better weather - although it was bitterly cold. Saturday we went to Wingfield Manor, where we did a casual bit of trespassing (as it was closed), but were foiled by a properly locked door that prevented further access to the rest of the ruins. Damn. **( Wingfield ManorCollapse )**Headed on from there to the Blue John Caverns, which were utterly amazing: **( The only thing these photos lack is scale - the place was huge!Collapse )**Came back to the hotel, had an exceedingly tasty dinner (goats cheese and butternut squash lasagne - nom!), and a lovely romantic evening in. Sunday we went to Sutton Scarsdale, which was incredible. One of the most beautiful ruined houses I've ever been around, and totally free to the public. Loved it! ( Sutton ScarsdaleCollapse ) (1 comment | comment on this) |
| Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 |
| 8:44 am - Hint Fiction |
| (This is left unlocked for a reason, so apologies to those who didn't opt in on the writing filter...please just skip past!)Does the concept of hinting at a story in just 25 words appeal to you? (I tell you what, it's a damn quick way of getting a first draft or ten finished pretty quickly!) W.W. Norton will pay 25−yes,that′s25 - yes, that's 25−yes,that′s1.00 per word! - for 100 - 150 stories of hint fiction for an anthology to be published late 2010. Interested? Check out the link below:http://www.robertswartwood.com/?page_id=8 (4 comments | comment on this) |
| Monday, June 1st, 2009 |
| 7:56 pm - Doing the Good Thing |
Calling all fans of the Post-A story! You gotta love a good bit of Post-A writing, and when I saw this earlier on LJ, I thought I'd share it, as there's at least a couple of folks out there who read this journal and might be interested. :-)From jennifer_brozek, co-editor of Grants Pass:Like all good authors and editors, I want to get the word out for my upcoming anthology GRANTS PASS. As such, I am having a contest to help this. If you spread the word about the GRANTS PASS anthology and its pre-order link between the dates of May 29, 2009 and June 6, 2009 and then link your post to THIS contest journal entry (http://jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com/50584.html), your name will be tossed into the hat for a prize. This prize includes stuff from Grants Pass city, a letter from Kayley Allard and other neat stuff. Please note that if you win this prize you will need to email me your postal address.The GRANTS PASS anthology is available for pre-order from Morrigan Books. The apocalypse has arrived. Humanity was decimated by bio-terrorism; three engineered plagues were let loose on the world. Barely anyone has survived. Just a year before the collapse, Grants Pass, Oregon, USA, was publicly labeled as a place of sanctuary in a whimsical online, “what if” post. Now, it has become one of the last known refuges, and the hope, of mankind. Would you go to Grants Pass based on the words of someone you’ve never met? (3 comments | comment on this) |
| Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 |
| 9:18 pm - Wake Up, Freak Out, Then Get A Grip |
| Something shaunus4 linked to on his LJ, and I think we could all benefit from watching it. It'll only take eleven minutes out of your life. Seriously guys, it's worth it. You may be the busiest person in the world, but everyone should be able to find eleven measly minutes - this is incredibly important, and the more people don't bother, the more danger we could be in. Okay, so the human race is fundamentally flawed, and we are a plague on this planet (I really don't try to kid myself we're anything but that), but the least we could do is not bring the whole damn lot burning with us. Apart from the cockroaches. Don't forget them...http://www.vimeo.com/1709110In more positive news, I'm pleased to see that Sainsbury's are stopping having free bags at their tills. They're still there if you ask for them, but overall I think this will make people stop and use fewer, and reuse their old ones. Tesco do awesome hessian (?) bags for £1. They're huge and really strong, and most excellent. (5 comments | comment on this) |
| Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 |
| 8:21 am - Gaiman party and Basing house ruins |
| Internet access has been limited - sorry for lack of emails and comments. Internet at home fell over at the weekend, not that it was particularly reliable to begin with! And I've actually been working at work, so...! Normal service will return asap. So, as some of you may have gathered, I had a party this weekend. It wasn't to celebrate anything (although I may have to see about doing something similar - possibly involving less garden - in October for my birthday), other than the fact that Neil Gaiman is an awesome author. And an excuse to drink nice wine and hang out with cool people. :-) **( A few of the best picturesCollapse )**If anybody wants higher res copies of any of the pictures, or non-Photoshopped copies (I may have played a little...), just ask! :-) And then on the Sunday there was a trip to Basing House ruins. This was most excellent, if a little hot, and I managed to take some decent pictures. ( a few of the pics from Basing House and the walk by the river LoddonCollapse ) (17 comments | comment on this) |
| Monday, July 7th, 2008 |
| 8:40 pm - Race For Life |
| The lovely supertinks and I will be 'running' the Race For Life this coming Sunday (the 13th). A couple of you have already sponsored us (you are AWESOME - thank you!), if there's anyone else who can manage to throw a fiver in aid of a good cause, the link is here. Seriously, every little does help, and this is a cause that means a lot to me as cancer is pretty much a given for me as it runs (and has killed) on both sides of my family. Thank you again to those people who've already sponsored us, and thanks in advance to anyone else who does so :-) (2 comments | comment on this) |
| Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 |
| 6:50 pm - Race For Life |
| So, Tink and I are doing the Race For Life on the 13th July this year. Me being me, and with my hips being as wonky as they are, we'll be walking it - but that doesn't mean it's not going to be a challenge! Our fundraising page is here, sob stories and all. ;-) Please feel free to pass this on - 'tis for a good cause, dontcha know! (12 comments | comment on this) |
| Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 |
| 1:06 pm - Insert rant here... |
| When one hires professional cleaners, recommended by one's estate agents, one does not expect to come into the house and find the following:**( List of damage and incompetanceCollapse )**So this morning was taken up with a trip to Vickery's at 9am, to inform them of the damages done to Arthur Close (which - I hasten to add, was all repainted, all damaged carpets replaced, and pretty much ready to go apart from the pro cleaning certificate), where I politely ranted at them for twenty minutes. Then off to Nationwide to cancel the cheque (I'm damned if I'm paying them £160 for the priviledge of wrecking my house!!). I am so tired and emotional now - I've spent all weekend - literally - laying carpet and painting walls. I am knackered, and skint, and I wanted to just hand over keys to a nice, clean, tidy house, and get my deposit back. At this rate it's looking like it might end up in the small claims court, and I'm not sure I have the energy for that. I am writing the cleaning company's name here, and leaving this post unlocked in case anyone searches for them on Google. WARNING: Avoid April Fresh cleaners, Farnborough. (9 comments | comment on this) |
| Monday, November 19th, 2007 |
| 9:35 am - Speechless (and that's not in a good way) |
Last night I watched Bulgaria's Forgotten Children on BBC2. I'm going to attempt to voice some opinions here, so forgive me if I get a) wordy, b) emotional, and c) offend anyone. Apart from the Bulgarian government, but we'll get onto them. I had no idea this programme was on, and I came downstairs after popping up to get something after The Long way Down and saw this shocking image of an emaciated child lying in a cot. "Aaah, more news" thinks I, and settles down to watch. Not news, as it turns out, but a documentary set in Mogilino Children's Home, a 'care' home for disabled children in Bulgaria. A little background here for those who don't know about these things. When Romania wanted to join the EU, one of the stipulations for them joining was that they sorted out their shockingly awful orphanages and care facilities for disabled people. So they dutifully did that, and while they're not wonderful, they've improved. Bulgaria recently joined the EU, yet there were no similar requirements put on them. Mogilino is a delapidated building with crumbling brickwork and flaking paint, filled with dormitories of disabled children. Some are bedridden and unable to walk, some are mobile and referred to as the 'walkers'. Children of all ages and disabilities are lumped together, and the staff perform the bare minimum - they wash the children, change their clothes, and feed them. The food isn't even adequate - most of the children are malnourished and skeletal, they look like the victims of a famine, not residents of a care home. As a result, their bones are brittle and break easily. Children who could walk perfectly well when they entered the home are now lying in cots unable to move. The staff - well, most of them deserve to be tried for crimes against humanity. How - and why! - they could work in a childrens home and apparently be completely heartless is beyond me. One of the girls had a broken leg and she was screaming as the woman was changing her clothes. She simply got told "it'll be okay" until she was changed, and then taken to the nurse who wiped her feet (!!!!!). Until the broken leg was pointed out by the documentary presenter, the staff just didn't notice. I could keep going. The nineteen year old girl, Didi, mildly autistic, who could read and write, who enjoyed studying maths and languages, whose mother decided she no longer wanted her, who was put in with girls who could barely communicate, let alone talk. By the end of the programme (covering a five month period), she was sitting alone, rocking. The little eight year old boy, Stoyen, who was blind, and would only move if someone held his hand. When they let go, he simply stopped walking and stood, stock still, on legs that were so thin they looked as if they'd snap in a light breeze. And the staff, who performed their duties, but never spoke to the children. Never gave them hugs or any form of affection. You'd have to have a heart of stone to be able to ignore these children. To work there, and watch them dying - and to say there is nothing wrong! - is beyond my comprehension. You'd expect the Bulgarian government to be horrified, to apologise, and to rectify this situation. No. They wrote back to the people who made the documentary and said everything was fine. That was possibly the worst thing, along with the fact that international aid agencies have been refused access. Oh, and the adults. The man who said, "Everybody wants babies. Nobody wants to take us because we're grown up. I just want a mother, I don't want to be grown up any more." My heart is breaking, and there's nothing I can do. Today my faith in humanity is non-existant.EDIT: I forgot to mention the physical abuse some of the children recieved at the hands of one of the carers. When it was pointed out to the director of the home, she said (and I not-quite-paraphrase), "We knew he had a violent background. Now you've found out, we'll fire him." Oh. My. God. That this is considered a civilised country...!!EDIT the 2nd: http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/mogilino-social-care-home-for-disabled-children-to-be-closed-after-bbc-documentary-aired/id_25967/catid_66 has some more information, and I think it would be a good place to start. I want to help these children and others like them!The BBC also has more information here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/bulgarias-children.shtmlAnd here: http://www.tbact.org/root.aspx?pointerid=3773acbb514248069099b93f4140d1d1 is directly related to this, and has information on how to help.current mood:  sad (9 comments | comment on this) |
| Thursday, June 14th, 2007 |
| 12:29 pm - *is in the verge of a nervous breakdown* |
| FAO Kathy and Ed in particular:You do realise that:a) I am not a professional photographerb) I do not have a whole heap of lighting equipment suitable for shooting indoorsc) while I can take good pictures of people, they are NOT of professional quality (this is mostly a lighting issue)d) I do not have a lot of experience of portrait photographyI am now worried about what you expect, and whether I can actually take the sorts of pictures you want. I am happy to do it, I just want you to be aware that the sorts of pictures I can take with the equipment that I have will not be to the standard of a professional wedding photographer. And I do have ideas, and I can usually pose people fairly well. I just don't want you to be disappointed or expect more than I am able to do. Cos that would make me feel awful. Caro has told me that you want the photos taken inside - this will be slightly harder to get the lighting right. Is there anywhere outside the place where you're having the reception that could work as a background to some photos? I know you don't want formal pictures at the reception, but if the setting is better it might be worth taking a while to do photos there rather than all of them inside the church? How light is it inside the church? I will try and get up to Boston early on the Saturday, so that I can have a look around the church, but if there is anything you'd particularly like by way of photos, do let me know. *worries* I don't want to add more stress to you at this busy time, but equally I wanted to let you know what I can and can't do. The more I read up on wedding photography, the more it says "for the love of God, don't do it unless you have heaps of experience!", which isn't doing wonders for my confidence. On the other hand, some of the pictures I took at a friends' wedding last year, just snapshots, they prefered to the ones taken by their photographer. So all is not lost. :-) But if you could think of anywhere outdoors that would be very useful.FAO madcatlady, rhube, and supertinks: I will probably want to try and take photos of you guys on Thursday next week, so that I can get some more practise of taking good photos of people. Is this okay with you guys? It would be useful to have some more practise in advance... (13 comments | comment on this) |
| Thursday, July 22nd, 2004 |
| 10:47 am - So....event... |
...I have so much shit that needs doing now. List of things what I need to do today:Wash hair/have bathPack for event (making sure to include book that belongs to someone else, cards, wine, birthday presents for someone, money, food, change of clothes, ritual script, art stuff...wah wah wah...)Learn ritual script (mostly done...just need to learn when I'm saying the lines now...!)Tidy houseIn other news....finished watched second series of QaF with madcatlady recently...reaffirmed crush on Stuart and Vince actors (Aiden Gillen and Craig Kelly). Saw Donnie Darko last night, got rather confused but thought it was a good film. Think I need to watch it again, or at least *think* about it when my brain hasn't gone to sleep. :)And just to prove that my brain *hasn't* died completely...I've been doing a lot of thinking related to the book I'm currently reading...( Men come and go, but earth abides ECCLESIASTES, 1, 4Collapse ) current mood:  contemplative (2 comments | comment on this) |