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Travel card for Nottingham-London:
 

7 day travelcard =£208.30

1 month travelcard =£728.50

 
Sinks that plan, I think.

So what to report this time? I have been ill. Was somewhat miffed when I struggled back into my miserable job on Tuesday morning to find that no-one wished me there, they all thought I was going to give them the plague (it was in fact a case of small-scale, well covered up shingles) and one or two were actually quite hostile. One said she had assumed I would be off for the next two weeks. I was greatly miffed not only at being ostracized but also because I could easily have taken off the next couple of days and got away with it. I could have done all the ironing, plenty of reading, writing …

On the subject of writing NaNoWriMo has now begun and of course I am already behind schedule. Not quite got to 3000 words yet. It’s very difficult, mainly because it demands you write in a linear style, you just write a sentence, then the next one, then the next and so on. I on the other hand write like this for a while, realise I am racing through the story far too quickly in an attempt to get everything down before I forget it, and as a result realise I have revealed four major plot developments in the first 1000 words. Then I go back and flesh out what I’ve written with the more substantial stuff. I am trained in being concise with my writing. Perhaps I should now unlearn it…

Anyway, there are many good short story ideas I have. Most of them are already started. The problem with these, though, is that they are designed for the 2000-3000 word magazine competition type stories and can’t really stretch to 50,000 words.

The one I have chosen may well prove to be a disastrous choice but I’ve started now and am going to stick with it. Basically, for years I’ve been dreaming about this set of events and characters and intend to write a trilogy based on them. The simple premise is that it’s about Britain about 60 years into the future. England and Wales have been taken over by an all-powerful President who has enormous wealth, power and inflence and whose power is growing alarmingly. Scotland fought back and is, at the beginning of the story, about to declare itself independent. My story follows the politicians, the Princess who is heir to a now defunct throne, and various characters throughout both regimes, but it also follows seemingly ordinary people caught up in it who at first don’t seem crucial but are by the end. One strand of the first book is one character whose family are escaping the regime and it follows their journey as they are hidden all the way up the country to the Scottish border. I decided, for NaNoWriMo purposes, to write this strand of the story and to make it run as a decent novella in itself. I can then write the other bits and tie it all together.

So that’s what I’m doing. And so far it is absolute crap. Ah well.

I have other worries (on top of the 1665 words a day, the shingles, and the unmoveable layer of plaster dust that seems to be coating my living room) in that I soon have to move and I need to be sorting it out. This morning a nice man from a letting agency came round. He likes my house, says it’s in good condition and definitely lettable. However, although in everything he said he confirmed what I already expected just talking it through made me see it all in a different light. Basically, if I rent unfurnished I will just about get enough to cover the mortgage payments (and as I’m in a fixed-rate period I am only paying interest not capital so it’s not like I’d be chipping away at my mortgage) . If I rent furnished I’ll get a lot more but it will be eaten up by home and contents insurance and maintenance costs so in the end I will, again, just about have enough to cover the mortgage payments. That’s when the house is let. When it’s not, and he assures me there will always be such times, I will still have to pay the mortage with no income to cover it which, basically, I can’t afford to do.

So …he did say that my house is unlikely to sell for more in three years’ time than it is now. I am not likely to make a profit on it by holding on to it.  Right now it is in good condition as everything I’ve had done to it is new and shiny. In two or three years’ time, especially if I let it, it won’t be quite so smart and new anymore. It might be worth considering putting it on the market now. Things aren’t exactly bouyant but I could hopefully get enough for it to give me £5000-£6000 profit after mortgage.

I am seriously thinking about it. I know I really need to leave Nottingham by January but I love my house and am not yet ready to go. I still think letting the spare room and commuting between Nottingham and London would be a decent short-term solution. If the house was up for sale during that time it would mean that I was financially about the same as I am now and that my house was at least on the market.

Wow. I really could do it.

I have mortgage lenders and estate agents to talk to. And the people at Nottingham Station with regard to season tickets. But I can’t stop mulling it over. It would give me time, at least, and I do feel I need more of that. The thought of moving out of here by Christmas does rather upset me.

On another note, dad posted me Alan Bennett’s latest offering ‘The Uncommon Reader’ to cheer me up, knowing it to be an ‘Abi-type book’. How well he knows me! It is a brilliant book in so many ways and very quick to read. A review will follow soon. I am also reading G.K. Chesterton’s ‘The Man Who Was Thursday’ and this too is very good indeed. I appear to have hit a good seam of reading matter. If only I didn’t have everything else to worry about. I think 80% of the time all I really want is to be able to curl up in a comfy chair and alternate between reading, writing, and eating.

Am still poorly

Was hoping to be cheered up by Strictly Come Dancing but it was not to be. That show is mental. People dance. Some are good. Some are crap. The judges tell us how it is. Then the public vote and it all goes horribly wrong. The crap people get saved and good ones go out. Dear oh dear oh dear. I seriously think anyone who has phoned in to vote for Kate and Anton should be banned from participating in all general elections ever. 

Oh boy, I can’t believe I am getting so bothered about Strictly Come Dancing…

I just don’t like unfairness is all.

On another note. Andrew has talked me into this. I have to write 1667 words every day for a whole month. If I have a nervous breakdown it is his fault.

Am I going mad or is the music towards the end of ‘Elizabeth’ from Elgar’s enigma variations? The bit where Christopher Ecclestone gets his head chopped off… I have seen this film loads and loads of times and never noticed. Or I could just be imagining it? I am a bit dosed up today…

And what’s the music at the end when she’s the Virgin Queen? Sounds familiar but I can’t place it.

 Bad day today. Cold and dark outside + nice warm bed =not very good at getting up in the morning.

Upset by some negative feedback left on Amazon. Has knocked our rating right down. Is my fault because the person felt the description wasn’t accurate and I am the person in charge of the descriptions and grading. It’s actually very difficult to grade books a lot of the time. I play it safe, much safer than the other sellers out there who all seem to just say everything’s ‘very good’ and grade it as such even if it’s ex-library, got a creased spine, etc. I don’t take this risk, ever, because of an awareness that the kind of situation that has now arisen could really mess things up for us. Most sellers list thousands of books at any one time so if they get a few bad responses it doesn’t matter (they’re done as a percentage). For us one bad report knocks us down from a very appealing 100% to a barely acceptable 93%. I am now paranoid about all the others and feeling really bad at letting the side down. But to be honest I’m not really sure what I could have done. It was in pretty good condition but the pages were slightly browning as it’s a fairly old book. I think perhaps the problem with online selling is that people expect the books to be like they are in Waterstone’s and if it has a slight scratch on the cover or shows some sign of having sat on a shelf for twenty years people aren’t expecting it. However, the clue is in the description ‘second-hand’.

Also, I am having some work done on my house in a desperate attempt to get it up to scratch for when the guy from the letting agency comes round. The only time the guys could come to do it was this evening. They’re installing an electric fire I’ve bought and I have been overwhelmingly stupid and selfish in not considering the implications of having people drilling and banging at 5.45 pm just when the family next door will be eating tea and watching soaps. I also envisaged it taking about an hour at most when in fact they didn’t finish. At 8 I had to ask them to finish for the night. They will come back but can only do evenings. Oh dear.

The neighbours did bang on the wall once or twice, perhaps out of sheer frustration. I really am stupid sometimes. Note to self: think things through properly before saying ‘yes’.*

So self esteem quite low at present but am snuggling under a blanket in the chaos that is my living room to read some more of Baroness Orczy’s ‘The Scarlet Pimpernel’.

Things could be worse. At least I’m not fleeing the guillotine!

Yet.

*Actually, I think that advice could do with heeding at every point in my life. Saying ‘yes’ without thinking things through is becoming my trademark.