I was too tired physically to move any files around today. But mentally I had more energy than I've had of late so I - metapnhorically - got a lot done.
firstly, I phoned the number on the leaflet about the jewellery making course and there's an application form in the post. Go me! It took me a couple of attempts to get through because the number rang endlessly twice, but it was third-time lucky as I finally got through and asked for information. A very kind-sounding lady on the line told me more about the course, and it all sounds perfect. Doing the whole course in a week will tire me out but will be preferable to committing to doing a session every week for 10 weeks later in the year.
Apparently we are taught all the tools, all about different metals and create at least one piece of jewelley by the end of the week. I already know exactly what I shall make. The design has been in my head for almost 7 years no with no way of putting it into practice. And luckily it is *not* being taught by Jean Daniel, which would have been the one thorn in the side of my plan.
Jean Daniel - not his real name - was a 3D tutor at college who was very nasty to everyone. Really horrid. He looked like the villain Jean Daniel from Bugs so we named him accordingly. He used to wander around menacingly with a giant pair of bolt cutters in his hand, he would think nothing of pushing people out the way and he yelled and screamed at even the mature students - I'm talking about people up to the age of 70 here. He actually reduced one pensioner to tears. He also had wandering hands which was pretty nasty. But thankfully the course is being taught by a local jewellery designer and not by Jean Daniel.
Result!
I've already cleared the time off with my boss and I'm doing an extra day the week before and one the week after to make up for taking time off. The only thing stopping me now is potentially waiting all week for bloody Royal mail to get off their backsides and delivering the form!
And after that? Well, I worked for hours on my Jaye Griffiths website. I built it last year but at the same time I was made redundant and couldn't afford to buy web space (Jaye is too special for pop-ups to smother her beauty.) However, a month or so ago I finally got around to investing and now I am putting the finishing touches to the site and hoping to get it online by the end of the week. Y had instructions to kick me up the arse if I didn't work on it by tomorrow :)
He also has instructions to administer a boot up the bum if I don't write any of my old books before our call tomorrow night. I'm feeling keen to get back into my old sequence of books now and this time I shall be decidedly selfish and increase the number of sex-scenes for my writing pleasure. I'm thinking of turning my NaNoWriMo book from last year into one of my series of books, actually. I did vaguely have an end-of-the-world book but nothing half so grim. It was book 41. It also had the first touch of lesbianism within it. The first of many :)
Did it really take me that long?
I came out through one of my own characters in a way. I invented a character called Susannah with the sole purpose of her exploring my sexuality for me. In a way it was a major test to see how H would react. She used to read all my books as I wrote them, and I can still hear her reaction to Susannah's first kiss with a beautiful woman:-
- "Yugh!"
Tonight I revisited the day I tried to tell H my big secret. You see, J, H and I used to play hangman a lot. We'd be really daft and write whatever the phrases of the moment were. A single set of gallows could go on for pages. We'd write anything and everything that came to mind. We swapped a hell of a lot of secrets that way. It was easier filling in a letter at a time on the blocks than it was saying the words. I guess a good portion of my life is trapped inside those hangman books. Rather than completing each game on a scrap of paper and throw it away, we kept ours in smart notebooks and they have been kept in mint condition. That means I have 5 years of precise memories and special moments all bound up to view whenever I need to.
I rediscovered a lot in those hangman books tonight. It was more of a stroll through memory motorway than memory lane. It felt good though and made me smile. H should be home for summer pretty soon so I'll get to see her and giggle to her, "Hey, do you remember the day when we wrote *this* in the book and *that* in the book?"
Methinks the old feelings of Bugs obsession are creeping back :) Good - it''s been far too long since the feeling of obsession bit. Wrapping yourself up in the programme of choice feels like keeping a wonderful secret from the rest of the world. Everyone who's ever had a fandom will know how that feels. I did some pretty extreme things for Bugs. How many hours was it that I walked for just to catch a glimpse of the studios that some of Bugs was filmed in? I can't recall now. Was it 2 or 3? Either way, I can still feel how much my feet ached, but I can also still feel the elation when I caught a glimpse of the Carnival Films sign in the window and of the studios themselves in an episode a few months down the line.
The trouble is, there is a grand total of one person that I still know these days who watched it. Poor thing - looks like she's about to get bombarded by evil texts from me about Jan Harvey and Steven Houghton and such...
I have rambled far too much tonight, I'm sure :) Something far less nostalgic tomorrow, I promise!
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