Tag Archives: muttering

Wednesday Once Again

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I had another acceptance for a tanka last night. I’m currently running at four acceptances and three rejections for last month. Two editors have yet to reply – I’m hoping for one acceptance and expecting one rejection from those. The rejection will be annoying as it will be coming from an editor who, at one time, had taken eleven pieces from 12 I sent him, then started turning everything down – he’s rejected everything I have sent recently and now stands at 11 from 16. I can’t work out if I’m going wrong somewhere or if he has changed his requirements.

I also have three competition entries in. I don’t generally enter competitions because my results have not been good over the years and entry fees can be expensive. However, this year I thought I’d enter more as a way of sending more work out. I expect all three entries will disappear without trace.

Julia had a special session at woodturning yesterday where someone demonstrated various finishing techniques. It left her a bit lost as there was a lot to take in. Today she is doing a specialist class – the U3A is coming down to see the group and run a session in the workshop.  If I were a good husband I would be able to tell you all about it. I’m not, but I can say I think it is for making pens. I know that making pens came into it somewhere.

It’s not that I don’t listen, or that I’m not interested, it’s just that my hearing isn’t as good as it once was, and I find it increasingly difficult to retain everything. There’s probably a research project in there somewhere – the role of declining hearing in marital disharmony. Or, considering that you need clear speech as well as good hearing to communicate properly – the role of muttering. It cuts both ways and everybody seems to mutter these days instead of enunciating clearly.

I will stop here, as I have a feeling that I may be turning into my father . . .

 

 

A Commotion in the Driveway

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I think Julia just arrived home. Either that or there is a massive urban fox wrestling with the wheelie bin in the driveway. I do hope it’s Julia, as I’m not sure I can cope with a massive fox.

I suppose that’s why the British are slowly declining. It isn’t the soft living caused by central heating or the constant drip of criticism by academics blaming us for an Evil Empire, it’s the lack of challenging wildlife. We’d have to up our game if there was a chance of a snake or a bear in the driveway. When Tim found the beehives on the farm had been raided by a woodpecker over winter, that was as bad as beekeeping in England got. It’s a lot less fraught than beekeeping in America.

It’s also less of a problem running a cafe in UK than in Canada. We have a few health regulations, but there’s a lot more to think about in other places. I’ve just been reading about how to run a restaurant in Whistler BC. There are parts of their staff training that I never had to do on the farm. You don’t , for instance, have to worry about blocking the exit route of a mouse, which was the biggest thing I had a problem with.

It was Julia. She just came in and muttered. Now she has disappeared to do something mysterious in the house, which will probably involve moving something of mine so I can’t find it. I’m not sure which is worse, the muttering or the random moving of things that were perfectly fine where I put them.

My sort of bear