Good news, and not so good news

Cherie and I have been falling out again. Over the last couple of weeks. Hence no blog.

It makes me sad that it happened, but happy to make new beginnings.

And Maya and Nancy have had some bad times down in London.

That's the "not so good news".

Good news is I swam a mile in open water at Gaddings Dam.

Yay!

Life Drawing

Cherie and I have been drawing each other this evening. Cherie did an excellent action pose of me and  then a close up of my face.

I drew one of her lying down and, would you Adam and Eve it, it was really good!

I never would have expected that it would turn out that well. Not a patch on Cherie's work, but still. It was my first time.

Tooosday

Well it's a Tuesday. I've not really been feeling normal strong Ashley self recently. I've been a bit weedy. And I have no idea why.

I've not been blogging regularly for one. I have been chanting though, and it's helping. I just imagine what I would've been like if I hadn't been!

I've kept up writing my book. I've been picking up bits from all over the place and putting them in the computer to put into order sometime in the future. 

And I need to sort the writing group which seems a bit vague right now. I'll book the room tonight.

I've been doing well at swimming recently too. In fact I've found it great fun. I never expected that. Cherie wants to sign up for a run now. She's found a fun 5k one with obstacles! It sounds brilliant. I'll sign up for that too! Sounds like a larf.

Gaddings Dam

We did our first open water swimming practice today at Gaddings Dam. It was 9C. It felt very very cold. Feet and hands suffered.

I did quite well. A lot of endurance but not much speed. 

I also made a complete ass of myself by being very grumpy at Cherie for no reason. I can be such a dick sometimes.

Curry

Going out for a curry tonight with the guys to Shahi Qila. Dave and Bry and Andy will be there.

Writing Course - Week 4

The working week has started again, but it's a short one because of the bank holiday.

It was such a wonderful day and the rest of the week is just dull by comparison. We went for a wild swimming picnic on the bank of the Hodder, North of Cromwell's Bridge. It was a very warm day indeed.

The air was warm. The water was, well, not so much.

It was a real shame that Cherie had to work. I missed her.

It was the writing course last night. I'm still at it. I'm now the last.

I've started getting arrangements together for a creative writing group at the Civic called PenPals. It's going to be awesome.

Please, please come.

Bandy Legs and Flowing Fiction

It's been a slow day today. That's good.

In fact, it's been great. I managed to write loads. I got in the zone and it started to flow. I started writing in Costa Coffee again. Whilst there I ran into Stephen Murphy. He's interested in coming to my new writing group that starts in June. PenPals it's called.

The writing started off slowly. It was like trying to ride a rusty bicycle. The more I wrote, the easier it became. The wheels turned more easily as the rust rubbed off. By the end, I had written 3 scenes which form about a third of a chapter. What I'm really pleased about is that I ended with something that I'd known would be a challenge, dialog.

It's extremely difficult to portray a character's traits through their words in such a way as the dialog gives the impression of two or more intelligent independent beings each with their own points of view, perspective, preconceptions, motives and ideas. I wrote a scene which involved dialog and read it back time after time. I think I pulled it off. I even managed to get the flow of time to feel right as well as the reactions of the characters and the timing of the actual dialog.

I was quite impressed.

Not bad for a day recovering. Recovering from last nights debauchery at the Inn on the Wharf in Burnley watching Emmot and the Folkestra with the swimmers.

Whilst there, I ran into David Allen and Andy Cole.

How awesome is that! It was such a terrific night. As usual, the AWS bandy legged dance troupe served as model dancers to be copied by the other mad folk on the floor. Yes, that's right, we set the trend and the rest followed.

There were more bandy legs than you can shake a stick at.

A Vision

Cherie and I have started waking up early so we can get an hour of chanting in before work. So far, so good. We've been doing it since Monday.

Kerry invited us to chant today for Soka Gakkai day. We did.

But my head wasn't in it for some reason. I've been ridiculously tired recently and it's been a bit restricting. I've missed BookFace conversations. I've missed watching TV with Cherie, I've missed a lot of things.

Because I've been too tired. I've been going to bed early.

But this morning's chant was worse. I also felt really negative and small. Insignificant.

I need to sort that out.

But whilst chanting, I had a vision. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a religious visitation or some future prophecy. The world around me didn't change into some otherworldly experience.

No, this was to do with a story I'm writing. I had a vision of a place. A setting where part of the story unfolds. A very rich and vivid world filled with jaw dropping wonders. A dangerous but beautiful place thronging with colourful characters going about their daily business. A city where all things come together.

And that's where I went whilst chanting. I walked its streets. Looked up at its starry sky. Smelled the fragrant air full of exotic spices and engine oil. Peered through the windows of the banks, the inns and the auction houses teeming with customers. Listened to shouts of joy, cries of pain and whispers of conspiracy.

I can't wait to get it down on paper.

Hot Thursday

It's Thursday. The sun is seriously out.

I'm waiting for Cherie outside the doctor's surgery. In the car. Roof down.

And it's warm,

At times like these I realise how much I crave the sun.

Maybe I'm photosynthesising.