Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Lookward forwards, looking upwards and looking back

My forthcoming op is finally sorted out and will take place next week. The ophthalmologist says she will get rid of my ‘coy look’. That’s because I instinctively turn my face slightly when looking at people, in order to get single vision. First I have to have an ECG, but I hope all will be well. Having made the decision to go ahead, I want to get it over with.


In the meantime, the Son&Heir visited with the girls last weekend. Looking back in my diary, I can’t find when we last saw them, but GD1 now towers over me. True, I was never very tall, but possibly I have shrunk. No doubt at all though she has grown – and must be somewhere 5ft 4” at eleven years old. Now, little sister, GD3, is rushing to catch up, and she now (at eight) is nearly as tall as I am. We all went to see a local amateur production of The King and I at the village hall, with an impressive performance from the lead soprano. The children who participated (from the local school, where my kids went, many moons ago) were also excellent, though some of the other adults fell a bit short.


I was once part of the dramatic society, and performed in two pantomimes and a review, where it was necessary to wear a frilly garter and a very short skirt. Not sure I could get away with it now. Fortunately, our writing performances don’t require such exhibitionism. Our next performance is to take place at the Guildford Institute on 25th March in the evening. Called ‘Music and the Muse’, we are linking pieces of music with passages in our books. I will be using Ravel’s Bolero to illustrate a seduction scene in A Bottle of Plonk, a piece of classical music which has links to the West Country and which will evoke the bombing of Plymouth during WW2, and two passages which relate to my heroine, Addie’s mother’s diary in Tainted Tree, both from the late fifties, early sixties, one from West Side Story.


Having received our press releases, we had a call from the Surrey Advertiser, yesterday, saying they would like to photograph the three of us – Jay Margrave, Irene Black and myself – for the paper, to appear this week, or next week. So we got together in the evening before Guildford Writers and the photographer came and arranged and re-arranged us and took several shots. I glimpsed the final shot on his camera's display. Once again, I noticed that I'm the incredible shrinking woman. But it’s good that we are once again making our presence felt in Surrey.


I was also gratified to receive a healthy payment from the ALCS, and once again recommend all writers to register for such payments. They at least make an effort to protect an author’s copyright in this day and age, when music and writing is regularly downloaded without such credit going to the author, and they reclaim cash for such things as photocopying abroad, about which we would have no knowledge without them. I foresee they may become more and more important in the future.


And to add to my comments in my last blog, about money, always have some ‘rainy day money’ in an easy to access account. Preferably, at least equivalent to three to six months’ salary. I noticed that the Money Box programme on Radio 4 is discussing whether or not people should consider putting money into ISAs, rather than pensions. Although I believe in pensions as a safety net, I long ago decided that paying large sums to a body who will eventually give you back pocket money is not as good an idea is investing the money to provide an income in later life, and still own the capital lump sum. Having made that decision several years ago, I’m glad to see they’re catching up with my philosophy.

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