However, although my fingers aren't flying over the keyboard, my head is pretty taken up, sorting out the threads of a story that has been weaving itself in my mind for years now. I remember thinking through it as I lay in the bath at the old house (the one that we left in 2005) and, magpie-like, I've been collecting bits of information to go into it ever since and waiting for the right time to write it. Or at least, waiting until I couldn't put off writing it any longer. That's kind of how it feels at the moment, although I'm doing a pretty good job of putting it off by losing myself in endless absorbing research involving early photography, the Royal Flying Corps and Victorian asylums, amongst other things.
In other news, GCSEs have started and daughter #1 (who I swear was only setting off with her Little Mermaid rucksack for her first day at Nursery a couple of weeks ago) is in exam mode - alternating between exhilaration and despair and showing up my ignorance at every turn by firing questions about Titration Equations and Covalent Bonding at me, none of which I can understand, never mind answer. This makes a slight mockery of my selfless decision not to go to the RNA Summer Party tonight so I could be on hand to dispense wisdom and support, although I like to think that I really couldn't be spared from my Scrambled-Egg-Making post in the morning. A humble role, but vital.
Last night I did take the evening off thinking about the new book and having my ignorance exposed, and went to the cinema with my very naughty friend Liz to see Water for Elephants. It was utterly fabulous. Pure escapism (except for the part during the very, very quiet love scene when Liz said loudly 'What are they doing? I don't understand.') I fell wildly in love with Rosie the elephant, and with Robert Pattinson (predictably) who looks even better with a bit of colour in his cheeks. Christopher Waltz was also brilliant. Here's a trailer - go and see it!
7 comments:
That reminds me of the time when we were watching 9 1/2 weeks at school (not in lessons, in my boarding house). I said, very loudly, at one point, 'Don't they ever do it in bed?' Only to find that my housemistress had just walked in and was staring at the screen - and then me - in total shock.
I hope you hear positive news soon!
Exam madness here as well. I ended up marching my daughter to a vacant field and leaving her to scream as her frustration at getting history exam questions right was boiling over.
It does get worse. My eldest will be 21 in September. It was only yesterday that I took him for his 6 week check up and thought it would be forever before he was 5...
Nice to see you back among the living. Now if we could only coax you into joining Facebook! xx
That's a book I want to read ;)
xx Abby
Water for Elephants is marvellous. I watched it a couple of Saturdays ago when forcibly removed from the house for the duration of my daughter's 18th birthday party.
The days of pass the parcel and blowing out candles are gone. It was more a case of have we enough cupcakes and bacardi breezer!
I'd welcome a bit of exam fever at my house. Any tips on getting a daughter to quit making post-exam travel plans on Facebook and focus on her A levels gratefully received.
Cx
Ros, I don't think it was shock. I think your housemistress was actually thinking 'By heck, she's right! In the clocktower, in the wet cellar, on the table, on the floor of the kitchen... but never in bed. Would it be appropriate to award a housepoint for that incisive observation?' (I love 9 1/2 weeks. Wonder if it would stand up to a re-watch?)
Michelle, I love the field idea, only I think, having deposited daughter there I might be tempted to drive off again at speed!
I remember meeting a friend in the supermarket when my first baby was a week or so old, and the friend said that it would get easier after 12 weeks. I could have wept - 12 weeks seemed like a lifetime!
Marilyn - lovely to 'see' you too! Facebook, I fear, would just be another thing for me to neglect, so I think I'm safer staying clear...
Abby - ha! - just as well, as you're top of my list of People To Test It On. If it ever gets written, of course...
Catherine, if only I'd realised in the days when I moaned about being up at 2am putting layers on the pass-the-parcel that it would get worse. On the surface spending the duration of a party at the cinema with Robert Pattinson sounds like a distinct improvement on the Old Days, but it's the worry that goes with it that wrecks your head. Did you return to find your carpets liberally decorated with cupcakes and Bacardi Breezer? ((shudder))
Amazingly, there was no mess. They even sorted the recyclables - a task that I find a challenge at the best of times, never mind in a state of inebriation! I think they used the dog to hoover up the cupcake crumbs. Best not go there ... Robert Pattinson & Co were an excellent diversion.
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