Sick day and the inner child

Not a great title for any novel, but there you go. Still feeling rough today, so am having a day's sick leave. Which means drinking my way through the European Lucozade lake, keeping Mr Kleenex in business single-handedly, reading a non-literary page-turner (of which more later) and watching my new DVD of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". How I love a Hollywood musical. It's not as good as "Calamity Jane" of course, but then nothing ever is. Ah times were simpler then ... And goodness what small waists they all had. I'm green with envy and regretting the demise of the corset.

I'll see how well I am tomorrow, but I'm hoping this bout of swooning doesn't mean the rest of the year will follow suit. However, on the other hand, I am making good inroads on my heartfelt New Year wish never to have to do a Monday at work again. Suspect I won't be able to keep that up for long though.

And I've been thinking - on and off - about my counselling "inner child" homework. Kunu was keen that I try to think what sort of things my childhood self enjoyed doing. You've have thought the question was simple, but in fact I'm really struggling with it. It's hard to connect with who I once was. In fact I have a strong feeling that every ten years or so I slough off the former me like old skin from a snake and reinvent myself as something else entirely. Maybe this accounts for the trouble I have with my family? - they tend to relate to the old me (or one of them) and I have no idea what they're talking about. As a result, as I'm trying to do my homework, events from childhood skip in and out of my head like snatches of an old film I don't remember seeing, and it's difficult to grasp anything useful from the reel. All I can say at the moment is that I think the childhood me liked (a) being left alone (b) making up stories with her toy horses, (c) reading, and (d) school holidays (at least in the ghastly primary school years). Not much to go on, but I suppose it's better than nothing. Ho hum.

I've decided to conserve energy for getting well today, and do no writing. But, as I reached 90,000 words in "The Gifting" yesterday evening, the guilt factor is low - hurrah! And, by default, it means that I am carrying out my resolution of not pushing myself quite so much, ho ho. I think that the next bout of writing I'll be doing - perhaps starting it later in the week, depending on how I feel - will be related to Sue Haywood's (http://www.teafriendsandchocolate.com/sue/) proposed "Pink Champagne and Apple Juice" project, and to do with biographies for characters from that novel. It will be quite a fun project, I think, and also nice to have a break from fantasy for a while (or at least fantasy writing!).

And, as promised earlier, a note on the reading I've been doing today: having started Katy Gardner's "Hidden" yesterday, I've finished it today. Nice, readable stuff. Strongly placed in the "woman in jeopardy" genre, but I loved both the ending twists, which were first-class and which I didn't see coming. Good stuff. If you want a nice, exciting read and you like that genre, I can recommend it.

Today's nice things:

1. Reading
2. Watching my DVD
3. Thinking about inner children.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk

Resolutions and revolts

A rather disturbed night last night. God knows why, but Lord H and I were both wide awake at 5am and then slumped again at 8. And not even a neighbourhood party to use as an excuse. Maybe it was the lack of night-time Horlicks? Hmm, I feel an advert coming on ... But at least I had time to think up some sensible resolutions while I was staring at the ceiling.

Which include (a) watching the News more so I at least know something of what's going on in the world, thus lessening the possibilities of looking like a complete dork too often (Iraq? We're at war? ... Still? - no, really, that's just an example. Honest ...); (b) not pushing myself to do stuff too much and relaxing more; (c) doing more of what I enjoy and less of what I feel I have to do. After all, Lord H is the expert at (b) and (c), so I should be able to follow his example fairly easily. So, there you have it. Let's hope that by the end of 2007, I'm a completely informed layabout. Hmm, will there be a test?...

Oh, and Lord H found a news item on the Internet today which said that the French were revolting (please, no jokes ...) because they didn't want to have 2007, as they all thought 2006 had been okay and wanted to hang onto it for longer. Apparently, they held a march to protest the onward movement of time last night, shouting "No to 2007!" (or Non a 2007, more realistically?). I gather the enthusiasm wasn't quenched when 2007 actually turned up, as they then all started shouting "No to 2008!" Marvellous stuff - there's something so quirkily British about it that (a) I wish we'd thought of it first; and (b) it's good to know that the French are finally learning something from us. Vive la similarite, eh? Though this does beg a deeper question of: if we don't like a year, can we bypass it and go onto the next without trawling through a whole twelve months? Sounds good to me, and no doubt our Nanny Government will pass a law about it at some stage. We live in hope.

So, today, I've watched meaningless jolly tv, which has cheered me up, had a nap, which has livened me up and tonight will be opening a bottle of good champagne to toast the New Year again - which will no doubt tank me up. It's good to have a plan.

Today's nice things:

1. Thinking of some low-key resolutions
2. Laughing at the French (sorry - but it is an unsung British activity, and they know we love them really - like a maiden aunt who doesn't fit in but who is family after all ... damn it)
3. Champagne.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk