Kevin Doesn't . . . really give you a choice; you almost have to dance

The move in to Si's approaches and DF (who is also moving in with us -- he moved a double bed into the lounge on Monday) has been telling everyone that 'It's like Friends'. DF's given himself the identity of Joey in this analogy, unsurprisingly. I guess I'm happy with being Chandler. It's the one I would have picked for myself, although I'm less of a funny guy and more of a 'piss-taking bastard' (as Wes so kindly points out).

I suppose it beats being Ross.

No work to report, as I'm still packing and tidying up the grotty bedsit.

There is a Waffle Emergency in the Subway

Last couple of nights were spent in pre-packing work. You know, that time where you go through all your stuff without actually putting any of it in to boxes, throwing away what you can and making piles and remaking piles and gathering all the piles together when you realise you haven't finished but you need your bed to sleep in.

The professional cleaner is booked for next week. Don't know how much I like the idea of a man who cleans residential properties for a living. I keep expecting Mr. Muscle to turn up at the grotty bedsit tomorrow, some skinny in vest and shorts, all thick-rimmed glasses and thicker hair. Whatever happens I must resist the impulse to ask the guy if he loves the jobs I hate.

Received a postcard from Matt and Caroline yesterday, from where they stayed on their honeymoon. It looked quite nice. They thanked me for being at the wedding and said it was the 'best day of their lives'.

I have another cousin. Yay! My uncle's girlfriend gave birth to a boy (Harrison) in the early hours of this morning. Happy dancin' for them.

I've just sent The Well out again. Cross fingers.

Stats update (seeing as I've been so lame in updating the look of this thing):
New Chapters -- 1;
New Stories -- 0;
Words -- 6650;
Stories in Circulation -- 1;
Rejections -- 3 (one half rejection due to illness);
Acceptances -- 0.

Started another couple of reviews this weekend, but the cottage was just too darned busy to get any writing down. I tried, but the visiting relatives and well-wishers (ricochets from saturday night's party} made it difficult. If one more person approaches where I sit staring at a pad of paper and asks what I'm doing, I swear I'm going to scream.

Still, I'm back now. Haven't been back to the grotty bedsit, as DF gave me a lift up from the Sticks this morning, but I'm sure it's where, and how, I left it. May get something done tonight, like typing up the reviews I started, but I have some packing stuff to start as well . . .

(Eight days to go)

. . . so we'll see how that goes.

Incidentally, the party on Saturday night went well. Amazingly, we managed to fit fifty people in the lounge/kitchen of the cottage, and at no point did it seem too crowded. Irritatingly, I was called Snip all night. Drunkenly, we polished off a disgusting amount of wine, but made hardly a dent in the food. Annoyingly, I was sleeping on the landing when I was woken my Angela downstairs beginning the post-party clean up, and unable to sleep through the clattering had to give her a hand (the rest of our guests woke mere minutes after we finished the job -- funny that).

Oh yeah, yesterday was my Dad's fiftieth birthday. Although I forgot to mention it here, I didn't forget to call him or send his card out. Big party back in Limbo this weekend when we see just how many people we can cram into our house. Last I heard we were expecting 45 people. Where they're all going to park is anyone's guess.

Nothing much done last night because I was looking for somewhere to live. The landlady I had called a few days back, who seems to own rooms in every other property in this town, took me round a few houses. None of them look too bad and all were fairly cheap. The landlady doesn't seem to mind me moving in at short notice, which could be useful (12 days and counting). I've also found out that Si has a room available. It's in the village I have sometimes referred to as the distant past, and I'm kind of reluctant to strand myself out there, but it could be alright. If I remember rightly it was a nice house. If he's in today I'll speak to him and see what he's asking.

Big Boots

In a misguided attempt to get my fitness back up to scratch, I've started running again (and, no, I'm not training for anything or anyone in particular). I can just about manage a mile, before spots start infiltrating my vision and I collapse in a shaking heap in the middle of the street. I'm not joking. That said, I can feel it getting easier and last night, for the first time since I started this, I actually felt good afterwards.

Yesterday I went to post the reviews I wrote over the weekend, and discovered that since I downloaded the stories one of them had been taken down, revised and reposted (and this was a challenge piece). I hate it when people do that. I'm not the fastest reviewer, so taking down stories whilst I'm reviewing them really winds me up (This subject is getting beaten to death on the ML at the moment, so I'll leave it at that). Anyway, so last night, I took a look at the new version of the story (and luckily there weren't too many changes), added some more comments, and then wrote a review of another piece.

Unusually productive for me, but I had made a point of keeping the television turned off. Am going to have to try and do this more often. No writing done, but you can't expect miracles.

Tonight, finding somewhere to live.

Bank holiday weekend came and went, although it wasn't quite the washout it could have been. Despite somehow getting drawn into Q3A again I did manage to get some reviews written, and even managed a bit more plotting (notice how plotting seems to be pretty much all I'm doing these days? My motivation sucks).

Went to the cinema on my own yesterday :( First time I've had to do that since I've been in Swin, but now that RE's gone away I've not anyone to go with. Watched X-Men 2. Pretty cool, imagine it would stand very well with the first film (although truth be told I can hardly remember what happened in it).

My lease is expiring, so there is only two weeks not until I can escape the Grotty Bedsit. Yay. I have no idea where I'm going to go, which is a little worrying, but wherever I end up, it won't be worse than where I am now.

Story Neglect

Sat in the grotty bedsit last night, and I realised that I haven't revised Tymmy since the last time I put it up at the workshop. Smacked myself on the back of the hand; that last submission was in Febuary, which means the story's been sat on my computer for at least two months waiting to be improved. I got so caught up in not actually getting anything done that I completely forgot about it.

Bad Kevin.

So, I had a read through the reviews I got for it. Didn't agree with all the points, but there are some places that definitely need reworking. Shall make a start on that, providing nothing else squeals for attention.

It gets worse though, my story neglect. I had a bit of a nose around my hard-drive last night and discovered that Curiosity has unused reviews from back in December. What have I been doing?