Promotion!

Some chick at work is going to be squeezing out a puppy soon, so they've offered me, secretary extraordinaire, her job!

Its a big step up from dreary audio typing, and it'll pay more, so I'm pretty stoked and a little surprised that they even thought of me. I mean, I've only been in the job for three months and already they're handing out opportunities.

So whats the job?

Well, nothing very exciting... The title is Underwriting Technician. Its all to do with insurancy/lawyery stuff. Its all very dry and dull but at least I'll be moving to a desk that has a window view! Its also in a smaller room of four desks where it'll be warmer and less 'cattle shed'-like. As a bonus the other people who occupy that space are nice and were quite pleased when they heard it would be me taking over Becky's job. So, thats good. I'll be able to stop wearing my scarf and coat all day if its a warmer spot!!

I'm looking forward to finding out how much of a payrise its going to be. I mean, I'm already been well overpaid as a secretary.

Hehehee... lovely.

Apologies Not Given

Dear Diary

Sorry I have not written in a while...

***STOP!!!***

WTF???

I've noticed that other bloggers seem to think they need to apologise for not blogging every split second of every hour, day, week, fortnight, month, year, decade etc!!!!!!!!!!!! Why?? What is this all about? I dont understand.

Are other bloggers being paid to blog? If they are then I completely understand the apologies, and damn right they should apologise... but I know that I dont pay to read blogs, so I'm really not convinced that anyone in the blogosphere is being paid to write them.

Why apologise?

I need to get this straight in my head.

Firstly, this blog is mine. Its my space to just ramble on about any shite I want. Freedom of speech. etc.
Secondly, just because its publicly displayed on the internet doesn't mean that the blog owns me and that I owe it to 'the internet blogosphere' to write a certain amount of crap along certain themes on a regular basis.

I touched on this a few posts ago where I was fed up with the mind-forged manacles that I'd put myself in about swearing. I said 'F*** that' then and I say 'F*** that' now. I may blog twice an hour, or twice a month. I may even blog just once a year. The point is its my choice when I want to blog, what I want to blog about, and how succinct and 'pleasant to read' (or unpleasant!) my blog posts are.

I may have some readers out there. I may not. And I know not. I'll never know unless comments show up on blogs regularly enough to tell. But truth be told, the thought of having regular readers makes me quake in my boots. Its like an invisible cloak of responsibility being thrown over me, and I dont very much like it.

I'm not saying I dont want readers, or for my blog not to be public... Not at all.. I'm just saying that the thought that viewers tune in is an odd one that perplexes me. I dont in fact care if one person reads this, a thousand people read this, or no one reads this.

But then comes the next question.......... Why the counter?

Tune in next time for the delightfully hilarious story that follows such a question as the one above.
Until then, kiddies. Stay safe, eat your vegetables and only take drugs in large quantities while playing in the road. Not really.

Love you all.

Published By ME!

Chapter One of my Nano novel, Fleeting Life, is up and ready to be read.

It was a rush job, but I dont really care. I've got to get something organised to send in for this Writers & Artists Yearbook competition, so I quickly did a spell check, cut a huge chunk of waffle out of the opening paragraphs coz it was slowing it down, and its now ready to show to the Blogworld.

You can find it HERE (opens a new window)

I'm pretty disappointed in myself for not putting 100% of my energy into it. I've realised that I'm just a lazy shit when it comes to actually reading it. I put it off over and over again, but when I do actually get my eyeballs to stick to it for long enough I feel the editor in me start to lash out at the words, cutting, chopping, adding, tweaking & polishing.

So I figure the best thing to do is to just slap it up on my book blog site and be done with it. I've finished messing with Chapter Two and am just about ready to start messing with Chapter Three, but I'm not going to put them up until I've posted off my competition entry on Saturday or Monday.

Now all I need to do is get a one page synopsis written.

FUCK.

I hate writing synopses. It fucken shits me! I just get all muddled up in the details and cant cut it down. I'd better get started asap coz I haven't got long before I have to post it.

Third day of fasting today. I'm doing good and not feeling very hungry at all. I hope doing this doesn't slow my metabolism down. I'm having fresh apple/orange/carrot/ginger juice in the mornings and have been keeping my water intake up. I'm also trying to keep active and not let myself slump into an energyless heap.

I may have to abandon this fasting thing for Friday night though, coz there's one of Martin's colleagues' birthday parties on and I'll be expected to drink. Perhaps if I just have a glass of red I should be ok. It'll probably go to my head faster than usual so I could probably get away with it. But then there's all that luscious party food. Hmmm.. I'll have to think on it.

Fasting

I'm taking a few days off from food. Methinks I need to reset my big fat gut and my stupid sugar-loving brain and just let my body relax a bit. I've stuffed myself silly since my wedding in June and I've ballooned like all newlyweds have. Its disgusting! I cant stand it anymore.

I've got a treadmill at home which I try to use regularly. On Sunday I jogged on it for a while and paid for it on Monday. In fact, I'm still a bit sore today. Thats DEFINITELY a sign that I'm going downhill on the fitness scale. I just dont know where the time has gone, and I'd hate to think how much my gluttonous mouth has consumed in the last few months.

So, I'm limiting myself to a 'Bright Eyes' juice that I pick up on the way to work every morning. Its delicious.. its got apple, carrot, orange and ginger. Sometimes the ginger is a little strong, but its still drinkable. I'm also going to pick up some fruit from the supermarket and dust off my juicer so that in the evenings if I need something I can juice up some fruit and treat myself.

I'm going to see Rocky Balboa tonight at the cinema. Cant wait. I watched Rocky (the first one) again on Sunday, so I'm all Rockied up. I like good ol Sly Stallone, and I'm glad the movie has done so well. Its funny though, coz I really dont like boxing at all. I'm not easily grossed out or made to feel queasy but I just dont like watching two guys beating themselves up. A few years ago I was at a party and they put on the Lenox Lewis match (cant remember who he was boxing) and I just had to leave the room. I hated it.

Why the hell am I going to see Rocky??? Haha.. Oh well, at least I know its just a movie and not real.

Bugger.. I wont be able to have popcorn!

Damn.

I'm hungry.

Its All Ok! Dont Panic!

S'alright. My blogs ok. I realised it was an overstretched profanity (a couple of posts back) that made my menu bar to the right slip down to the bottom.

Its all fixed now, but I haven't put the mould pictures back up. I thought they were messing with the layout, but then I found the extra long 'Arrrrgh!' that I blurted out in the previous post was the real culprit. I just cant be bothered reposting the photos though.

In fact I cant be bothered doing anything.

I'm a lowly secretary, you see, and I work for four or five people. All of which are not in the office today. Except one, and she had a half day but rarely has any work for me to do anyway. So, I have lots of time and not much to do. My plan is to write a one-page synopsis for my Nano novel to enter the Writers and Artists Yearbook competition. Hopefully it'll be a smooth process, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I've got 9 days to get it done (well, less than that coz I have to allow for postage time) and also have to polish up the first 10,000 words.

*sigh*

I really want to enter this competition.. but I just feel so lazy. I dont want to do anything! I dont even want to get up and go to the loo. I'm such a lazy blob. I should get a catheter (spelling?) and food pipe inserted, as well as the tv remote glued to my hand, and my phone glued to the other.. or something. That'd be a nice life eh. Would never have to get up again. Haha.

Well, lunchbreak over. Back to work.. or as I like to call it 'sitting at my desk trying not to get caught playing solitaire!'

Lopsided

My stupid blog appears to be lopsided. My menu bar section (on the right) seems to have dropped right down below all my posts.

Hmmm... I'll have to look into this when I have more time.

Mouldy Mouldy Mould Mould

I've deleted the mould photos from this post because I think its messing with my blog layout!

So... Who, I ask, should have to put up with a house full of mould like the one I live in. The first photo, above, is my bed. It should be white. Its green.

The landlord and estate agent, (motherf***** in my opinion), think that its all our fault that the mould grows there. WTF???? HOW????

I'm soooo pissed off. I should just rip up the surveyors report, and all the letters from the estate agents, find a different house to live in and just forget the whole damn thing. I'm sure I've sprouted a dozen more gray hairs in the last few months because of this crap and will probably contract lung cancer or my brain will blow up in years to come from sleeping on a mould-infested bed for so long.

It sucks. It totally just sucks. I hate it. I hate it all.

Well, I must go to bed now, on my mouldy old f***ed up bed. If I dont ever blog again, its because the mould monsters have gotten me!

Quilling

So, I thought I'd do a google search for my blog 'Quilling Time' and I discovered that 'Quilling' is an actual artform and not just the cheeky use of the word 'Quill' (an instrument of writing) made to sound like 'kill'.

See, methinks I was all clever and interesting by making my blog title 'Quilling Time' (meaning 'Killing time with my writing!'), but now I feel all stupid and deflated that my bubble has burst.

Quilling is the art of rolling up strips of paper (not unlike the crap that paper shredders turn out) and then gluing it down onto paper to create cute swirls and stuff.

I remember now when I was 9 years old and living in England for a year with my parents. I was quite arty back then (I still am now, but Time hinders my progress) and my sister and I would often find new and interesting arty things to do. I remember at one point we got into quilling quite a lot and for the next year or so any Christmas/Birthday cards all featured some kind of picture made by quilling.

Its strange that that whole memory of quilling has been absent from my fried brain up until just now. What would have happened had I not googled 'Quilling Time'??? Would I ever have remembered my arty pasttimes of almost twenty years ago??

Holy sh*t. Twenty years ago...

Twenty years ago!!!

Wow man.. I remember thinking how old 10 years old must be! I'll be thirty in a year and a bit! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!

I must get on with the writing. I have to get my synopsis and query letter complete before 31st January and get all the other bits and bobs done on it. I want to start my Cloud People book by mid February and get it written by May.

NOTE: Anyone reading this blog who is actually looking for stuff on the art of Quilling, you're in the wrong place. This is a blog on my moronic pursuit of a writing career. Love, Kate.

The Turnover of Time & Mould

Is it really mid-January already? Where has the time gone.

I've done nothing on my book. NOTHING! I'm wasting time so much. I just cant seem to make myself sit down and do it. Of course it doesn't help matters that the computer is in the front room and Martin HATES the sound of the fan in it so is ALWAYS telling me to turn it off. F*cken sh*ts me to tears!!!

We're hoping to get out of our mould-infested piece of shit house as soon as possible and buy our own place. We'll have to buy a new bed though because ours has gone so mouldy that its green where once it was white. It makes me sick, literally and metaphorically. I wouldn't wish anyone a mouldy mattress to sleep on.

We complained to the estate agent & landlord about the dilapidation of the house due to all the mould (black clusters of filth, waist high up two corners of the room and behind the bed (and on the bed), on the windowsill half an inch thick, and all over the new curtains the landlord insisted on fitting saying that they would stop the mould forming). They sent a damp specialist over to have a look at it and the biased asshole concluded in his report that its our lifestyle that causes the mould as well as furniture being too close to the wall.

W*NKER!

When the prick came to survey the house the bed was ONE FOOT away from the wall and our two dressing table things were half a foot away from the wall. How on Earth can they be contributing to the mould. I'm so pissed off about his crap report that I can't even speak about it. Thank god I work with a bunch of lawyers. One of them is going to have a look at it and see what we can do.

When we moved into that house three years ago, if I'd have known then that I'd have to sleep on a mouldy bed, lose aa few pairs of shoes and bags and furniture and other items to mould and then have the landlord turn around and say 'tough luck, sweetheart' I would have punched them out right then and there and looked for a different house to live in.

I'll add some pics of the mould here when I get home (I'm at work at the mo), to go with this post.

Damn it. Now I'm all riled up and pissed off. I'm on my lunchbreak so I'm going to go for a walk and get some food to calm down.

I HATE MOULD!!!!!

My Work Space

Thought I'd put up a few pics of my lounge room. You can make out my lap top on the arm of the couch next to my darling husband Martin. The laptop is in front of the stereo, and they're both grey, so its hard to make out. Its a totally stupid place to keep the damn thing. We did have a small table on the other side of the room where we used to keep it but Martin didn't like it.

My sister is on the left playing the drum, and our friend Dan (who my sister copped hold of that night) is sitting on the couch next to Martin.

I'm taking the photo, but there's a pic below showing me playing a drum too.. Totally pissed out of my brains, of course!

El Linguistico!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Well fuck me. Aint that lucky I turned out to be the linguistical type. Otherwise it'd be kinda dumb of me to try to slog away at writing a book.

I've really gotta get out more!

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy. You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts. People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused. But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Well I didn't need a stupid blog thing to tell me the above. I'm always lost inside my own head. One day I'll memorise some kind of map so that when I'm hiking through the unknown of my mind then I'll be able to naviagate my way through all the perils without going nuts. Yip ya!

Wilder Thing!

Your Monster Profile

Mad Gargoyle You Feast On: Fingernails You Lurk Around In: Movie Theaters You Especially Like to Torment: Republicans

What's Your Monster Name?

Wild Thing!

You Are Animal

A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Kill! Kill!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Back to Black

I can feel a weariness seeping into me. Its like a fluid snake instilling itself into my blood and I'm not even fighting it as I slip deeper into my comfortable chair.

The monster that is taking over me is Laziness itself!

I've already pushed my alarm forward by 15 minutes and instead of hitting snooze a maximum of twice I hit it up to five times and only leave myself ten minutes to get ready before I have to leave for work. Its more than enough time to get ready if I'm not showering in the morning but it leaves no time for those special touches that give you that air of confidence as you strut around the Earth.

When I'm stumbling out of the house into the cold (damn I miss Australia's beautiful, if dry, climate!) I know I should walk faster and pay attention, but I feel like I'm walking as though I'm in a secure little sling or something and that someone is carrying me along and taking care of all those time-keeping responsibilities - like getting to the station on time.

I'm surprised that I haven't actually missed my train yet. Touchwood!

I've stopped turning the computer on in the morning to check my email and take my blog medicine. I realised then that it was the computer that sapped up my time in the morning. I'd still like to use my computer in the morning, but the beast stays my hand and whispers in my ear that it can be done later.

I've given myself a deadline for my Nano book to be expanded and polished and that time is ticking away. I should be rushing around like a mad woman getting it all done, but I'm just looking up at the clock watching the hands flick past. Its not as though I'm detached or anything, because I can still feel that touch of concern that I'm not in my right mind.

Perhaps, though, I am in my right mind. Perhaps I wasn't before... ?

I haven't been shying away from stuff, coz I've gone through my Nano manuscipt and written myself a plan of the chapters and where I can expand on them. I'm also doing filing and shredding at work without rolling my eyes and putting it off as though there is a snooze button attached.

My 31st January deadline to have my book, synopsis & query letter completed is looming closer and closer but I'm not flinching. I have these brief thoughts in my head saying 'Come on, ya dumbass, get working!' but they echo around my head and I just suck on them as though they're sweets with a flavour I've never tasted before. They're just a bunch of words wrapped up together and although I understand the meaning, its not meaningful to me. If I were drunk it would all make sense, and I could laugh at my laziness, but I'm not drunk... and I'm not really lazy because I am actually getting things done.

Perhaps its because I'm not putting a lot of pressure on myself. Besides, who am I disappointing but myself? I know I wont continue to keep letting myself down so what is there to worry about? I'm always going to look after myself, and although I know in the past I've put things off for so long that I've missed the boat and regretted it, I'm older now and not so stupid.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I'm just letting my head bleed, and my fingers run riot over the keyboard.

I bought the new Amy Winehouse album over the weekend. Love it. Also bought Lily Allen's album, Ray Lamontagne's and the Zutons. Saw 'Night at the Museum' at the cinema (absolutely fabulous film!!) and also watched 'The 40 Yr Old Virgin' (also another top film!) and finally got to see 'The Life of Brian (where on Earth have I been all this time!), so the weekend was one of new things and potential. I'm enjoying the music and am glad that I've found a soundtrack to 2007 that fits fairly well with me. Perhaps some clear answers will show themselves to me tomorrow. My horoscope did say I'd have loads of opportunities today but would be unable to reach out for them.

I think I should take it easy and reeeeelax a bit!

The Who Of The What?

I got this nifty little thing from Marie

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Honourable Lady Kathryn the Educated of Melbury Bubblewick Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title