February 15, 2006

Ill Again

Hmm..

Ill again. Actually that should read "ill again x 2" since I am dealing with two different
illnesses.

The first is a flare up of the same problem I had back in August last year whilst the second
is just a plain old fashioned cold/sore throat. You know, when you get a scratchy throat and
anything you eat or drink pains it except alcohol which helps - but only in the short term
and just makes it worse.

My doctor tells me it might be stress related, which actually makes a lot of sense. I have
been very stressed with family related stuff so it stands to reason I'd get ill.
It's still sucky though.

I'm still writing up Chapter Two of Pioneers and I am making some headway. I still have a
lot of writing to do though, because even though there's less to tell in terms of events,
there's much more to say about characters and description. I think I'm settling into writing
chunky chapters.

And finally, there's this!

This makes me want to weep with joy. I'm hoping that it will come out soon and when it does,
I'll buy a copy for myself AND for ElshaUK so she can come join me online - assuming of course that its something she likes (but its Stargate! Of course she'll like it! :])

Which reminds me, I'd be remiss in not mentioning that it's our 8th anniversary. 8 years ago
we met for the first time!

February 10, 2006

Normal Service Resuming

Ok, so you got me.

I haven't been updating my blog for awhile as lots of events have been going on.

Firstly, I took an impromptu holiday as I was getting fairly stressed out at work. 6 months without any kind of break will take its toll on you, and on me it was working flat out with no consideration of what was good for me.

ElshaUK also joined me in the week long holiday as she's been getting stressed out with her new job - Manager of Accounts (or Cash Office to us normal people). She gets paid loads more money and she finally becomes what she's always dreamt of being - a manager. It might not sound like much to some but being a manager in Retail means you get to have authority. Customers, when demanding to see the manager, get told "Well you're looking at her".

My father has also been using up my spare time. Mmm, "using" is the wrong word, I suppose but there it is. I've been running to and fro for him and even through my week long holiday I was going over there to see how he was and doing some shopping for him.

I've decided, with some prompting from ElshaUK, to take more of a stand against his "I want this or that" and have politely suggested that instead of my buying something for him and then returning it when he doesn't like the colour or the quality or something - why doesn't he mail order it?

Of course, the answer is he wants attention. And he was getting it, until I put my foot down and corralled my other brothers into helping out.

So far so good.

Then I returned to work and got inundated with queries and support projects, which ultimately resulted in 2 issues being resolved today:

1) Our retail stores got updated computers, which took me the better part of 5 hours to sort out.2) I managed to resolve the whole burdensome issue of how to convert a Quicktime .Mov file so that it can be played on a standalone DVD player.

I'm so pleased with myself that I'm going to play Wow now and let nothing disturb me :)

Oh, and I've finally finished with Pioneers; at least the first chapter. It's probably the longest piece of fiction I've written and I'm not entirely happy with it. I try and write short pieces that I'm immensely proud of but long pieces... I don't write these. I excel at the sprint rather than the marathon. Still, it's done, I've checked, edited, moved and cut, often times savagely, but it's time to post it.
Go check it out HERE.