My new Tivo box was delivered from Virgin in January - it's all still in the bloody box! The very idea of interrupting my wireless is anathema to me, but now I suppose it's time to get it done so that's what is planned for tomorrow. It looks simple. Ha. I've skimmed all the booklets...and how exciting does all the choices make life? Ah but, I don't watch telly...not the ordinary kind, but looking at the promised entertainment maybe I'll find something to attract my attention. All I want is access to my Netflix account on my lovely big telly - why else would I need to sit on my sofa when I have a very comfortable bed with a big telly at the bottom of it and an HDMI cable?
I may well be back on here tomorrow night ranting and raving if things don't go my way - and then again, if I can't get online then I won't. They told me that my set-up was ancient and slow, and they wanted me to have the best of the super-highway...and they're right; when the grandkids are here wireless is always going off because of the strain. So, wish me luck and intelligence tomorrow.
Friday, 29 May 2015
Monday, 25 May 2015
A MUST-READ BOOK
On
opening Catherine Czerkawska's historical novel, The Physic
Garden, I know immediately that I will have to plan ahead and
read it chapter by chapter because it is so beautifully written, with
each chapter encapsulating a thought, a question, a time. You want to
stop and think, relish what you've just read – also, life has to
revolve around work and shopping and cooking/consuming meals...there
will be no housework done until I have finished this book.
Half-way
through and I am still captivated by the interesting detail, the
characters and the hook – I want to know; what happened? I'm a city
girl and really interested in how the writer has stuffed every crack
in the floors with knowledge...things I want to know but have been
too lazy to find out for myself, so far. When I'm reading I'm
immediately immersed in these characters' lives, and it's so annoying
when real life interferes and I have to stop.
Oooh,
there's a fabulously disgusting passage 85% of the way through,
describing some of the poorest places in Glasgow:
'...I
found myself peering into rooms that never saw the light of day,
stinking bug-ridden rooms and passages...in a drab and deadly
succession, all leprous with damp, I thought that I had found myself
in some hellish labyrinth, an underground warren where only
troglodytes might live.'
...and,
several hours later, I have finished reading a wonderful tale. I
don't need to tell you what it's about – you can read that on the
book blurb. This is not a genre story; anyone, with particular likes
and dislikes would love it. It is set in the historical past but is
fiction, and such an imagination has conjured up a place and a time
that will leave you spellbound.
Thursday, 21 May 2015
A FANTASY LIFE
I'm
reading, mostly with my eyes shut – I do love audio books. So far
this year I've gone back and listened again to Lord of the Rings,
Harry Potter, The Dresden Files, The Walking Dead, and am now on
the fourth book in The Game of Thrones. It's hard to explain
why I keep returning to all these, but it's probably because there
are so many characters and stories to love...I must be a saga-gal! I
easily fall upon series, including TV versions, and often re-read
True Blood and watch the dramas re-envisioned where killed-off
characters live again. I love the differences.
My
reading taste changed because I wanted to write fantasy so began
reading lots of it...and then I found audio versions of Asimov's
Foundation series, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and
Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth and oh the feeling when the
right voice reads life into those characters is beyond
fascination...it's a drug, and I became addicted so now am obsessed
with listening to books, so much so that I hardly ever switch on the
TV. It goes on for me to watch one thing and off again. I can't watch
normal programmes, only drama. I don't live in the real world.
It
doesn't matter that I'm not in the real world and I'll be gone from
it soon enough I suppose, so why should I spend my last years trying
to interpret the reported news and politics? I enjoy every minute I
spend alone in my cave; I love the flashes of time with my many
grandchildren; and I refuse to become a Moaning Minnie like
the old woman I meet on a Monday morning at the bus stop on my way
into work – if that's how the world bends us then I'm opting out. I
can easily deal with the tension created on pages of text because I
can turn the page to find out who did what when and where and to
whom...and more than likely the why of it too...and yes, I believe in
fairies.
Have
I written my fantasy yet? No. Gestation is a bitch, but something is
creeping out now and after years of working with Tarot cards I'm
splashing some of it all over my pages. So there's a short story
almost finished that will appear in an anthology, and some kind of
magic has appeared in poems, some of which have been published. I
started working on world-building a few years ago so that is always
in the back of my mind when creating characters..and there are more
than a few novels lazing around waiting for my attention. I'm
drowning in fantasy...see the bubbles coming up?
Labels:
audio books,
catch-up,
fantasy,
habits,
media,
musings,
reading with your eyes shut,
writing
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
THE RETURN
I am thinking, of a revival, of the road ahead so I must bring this old head to bear on blogging again, turning my mornings into pages and communicating with the world. At present, I know nothing about what goes on outside of my hermitty circle/cycle/phase...is it a phase? Shall I really enter the wide world again? I won't be reading its newspapers or watching its crap TV - who needs that when you can live in fantasy with Netflix and listen to someone reading books to you on Audible?
Apparently I haven't set foot here in four years - eek! I often see Time flying around, and let me tell you, that butterfly can change its spots all right. I am officially old now - hit the number 60 last year, and as I'm Scottish, have a lovely wee free bus pass - but I'm still too young for the pension. Writing-wise, there's a lot of it going on and I have three Kindle projects slowly building: Poetic Forms, Reading Tarot, and Writing Prompts - so I'd better shore up the platform, hadn't I? I will need some fencing-in, a shepherd to pen me into a small timetable, then maybe, just maybe, I'll perform nicely, like a good writer.
Apparently I haven't set foot here in four years - eek! I often see Time flying around, and let me tell you, that butterfly can change its spots all right. I am officially old now - hit the number 60 last year, and as I'm Scottish, have a lovely wee free bus pass - but I'm still too young for the pension. Writing-wise, there's a lot of it going on and I have three Kindle projects slowly building: Poetic Forms, Reading Tarot, and Writing Prompts - so I'd better shore up the platform, hadn't I? I will need some fencing-in, a shepherd to pen me into a small timetable, then maybe, just maybe, I'll perform nicely, like a good writer.
Labels:
catch-up,
habits,
introductions,
life,
resolutions,
writing
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