Reasons

I have written a little more of the part of the book concerned with the power balance in the lyrics. Basically, it is hardly ever with the narrator, who perceives himself to be at the beck and call of lovers, rivals and political and military opponents.

I've also started modifying the dissertation to produce a suitable article for submitting to a journal.

But today ....... Apart from having to carry all the washing up upstairs to deal with it in the bathroom. And carrying drinking water downstairs all the time. We have always had an open dustbin in the kitchen. Sounds dreadful but it means it has large capacity and its totally hands free. And we empty it often, so no smells from the rubbish and no smells from the lid or other parts of the closed bin. But TSH thought (note past tense) that we should have a smart stainless steel bin to match the new kitchen. I said then that I wanted no part in the inevitable cleaning out when bits ended up in the bin or on its lid. It worked for the first week. But today I discovered that most of the rubbish was in the bin rather than the bin bag. So I had to scoop it out into the bag - wearing rubber gloves, of course. And in the process, the bin came apart and we had breadcrumbs and worse on the dining room floor. So I carried the bin upstairs to wash it under the shower but en route it came apart further so there was a trail of crumbs everywhere. And there were bits of ham trimmings in the bath. TSH hoovered the bits. And we are having a new open bin. From Ikea.

After the fitter left for the day, TSH continued his sterling task of trying to paint the new ceiling before the kitchen is finished. When he started this a few days ago, he was working by torchlight because there were no ceiling lights. But now there are ceiling lights so it boded well. Meanwhile, I said I would prepare dinner in the dining room using the microwave as an oven. Never really done this before. And then lights went off and TSH (and me too) was plunged into darkness. This happened a few times until I realised that the circuit in the dining room wasn't adequate for a cooker. So the food all had to be done in microwave mode, which was not what was intended.

Did Shakespeare and Wordsworth have these issues? I have a 'room  of my own' but no kitchen and sometimes no electricity. Come to think of it, they didn't have electricity either. I'm in the footsteps of the great!!!

I'm back

I didn't manage 5,000 words but I got up to 4,500 so not bad for a holiday!!

I haven't been here for a while because I have not been able to progress the book at all. When we returned from the Amazon cruise, it was straight into 'prepare for Christmas' and our visitors and then 'clear up after Christmas'. And then it was time to make final preparations for the new kitchen installation. Right now, we have no kitchen. There's a microwave and a kettle in the dining room and we wash up in the bathroom. Its tough but we'll get used to it.

I'm hoping this is not just some kind of displacement activity to stop me making the effort. I think not because I'm still really interested and I have done a lot of work already. And I'm determined not to 'fill my day' like old retired women are supposed to. I was a student and now I'm a writer and I will finish this book. Restarted today - keeps my mind off the kitchen without a ceiling.