*sings* "My name is Talulah..."

squeaky is a bad blogger. *shame*
i haven't blogged for far, far too long, i know.  but honestly, there hasn't been much going on.  there appears to be something growing out of the silt which is, at present, about 11,000 words long.  it's coming very, very slowly.  and i keep hitting walls with "OK, smartass, what happens next, then?" scrawled all over them in dripping red paint.
but it's coming.  the working title is utterly crap, and there's already a lot that needs poking, but i still have a connection with it, and ideas for what happens later (without any idea of how i'm going to get from here to there), but it's coming.... :)

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and now, since the end appears to be in sight, the sad and terrible story of Isobel, our poor, abused camper.

Isobel has been with us for about four years.  and we love her.  she has given us much joy (and occasional frustration - like the first time her sliding door fell off, but never mind that), and has been astonishingly reliable.  she's carried hubby to work every day, and he and i all over the country to watch ravens, and wolves (the latter only in a safari park, sadly), and long, long walks in deserted woodlands, and so many other places.  she has been a true and faithful friend.  but she was getting rusty.  so we decided to give her a new set of clothes (i.e. a new paint job), and get a few things repaired and spruced up.
we took her to a local place, which shall remain nameless (insert copious and acidic swearing here), as they were VW refurbishment specialists, and the work they showed us looked pretty good.  they quoted us a price we could afford for replacing panels, getting rid of the rust, taking her back to the bare metal and respraying, and we saved hard for several months.
she was to be purple on the outside, and we were going to redo her insides in green.
she went in at the beginning of november, and was supposed to be in there for four weeks.
six weeks later (we didn't mind waiting, these things take time, after all), we finally got her back.  it was two days before christmas, and the spanking new purple paint was a fantastic christmas present.  we were thrilled!  yay! :D

five weeks later, it all went tits up.

rust started showing through the new paint.  not just a little patch, either -  all over the bloody place!  we were horrified!

we took her back and showed the guy who runs the garage, and he gave every appearance of also being horrified at the shoddy work.  apparently, the reason it had taken six weeks was that "Dave The Paint" (the sprayer who does all of their paintwork for them) had been having one or two personal problems when he did Isobel's work.  really?  no shit!
well anyway, we were very understanding - people do have problems, after all - and garage bloke said he'd get it sorted, at no extra cost to us.  too bloody right!
so off she went again.  i will leave out the description of the shitty fucking deathtrap car he loaned us, or what a nightmare we had getting temporary insurance for it, or any of the myriad other things that happened, each one sinking our spirits lower and lower.
we missed out on our first week's leave this year, and the second. 
THREE MONTHS after we took her in for the second time, the work still had not even been started.  apparrently, DTP was very angry that we had dared to complain about his dreadful, shoddy work.  go figure - we're so ungrateful.  *shrug*
we finally demanded that garage guy return Isobel, and the money we'd paid him.  the cheeky bastad tried to give us 900 quid less, saying work had been done on the body of the van.  hubby, on the verge of tears of anger, frustration and sorrow, pointed out that she was now in a worse state than when she went in.  her door locks no longer worked, the speaker cables had been carelessly cut when they removed the doors, all the interior window trims had disappeared, and the rust was even worse, with paint flaking off all over the bloody place.
he returned Isobel and, a couple of weeks later, we finally got all of the money back, but were now faced with the question: "What now?"  find somewhere else that would charge us even more and be just as likely to rip us off?
Why bother now?
i can't adequately convey the trauma of this whole story here.  she was our pride and joy, and those scumbags had fucking RUINED her.  she no longer had that spirit of joy that made us relax as soon as we sat in her.  she was, to us, a flat, dead thing.  a moving cavern of metal, and nothing more.
we decided the time had come.
we were ready. 
"we shall buy a bay window". 
one of the ones you see all over the roads of Cornwall in the summer.  a proper VW bus.  not a splitty (the really old ones with the split windscreen), since they're really, really expensive.  but we worked out that we could just about afford a bay window, with a pop top.
so we started searching the interwebz.
there's a place we found down in Oxfordshire.   they buy and sell and do up campers, and they do really, really good work, on site (bonus!).  but they were a little out of our price range.  so we started trawling through the classified ads on vwcampercrazy.com.
we saw a few we liked, and even went to look at one (which was pink! XD), but there was one ad that really caught our eye.  however, we couldn't get hold of the guy, and the ad was a couple of weeks old.  we thought it might already have gone, since the good ones tend to go really quickly, but a week later, the guy finally got back to us.  it was still for sale, and he was happy to keep it for us until we could get to see her.
yesterday, we drove all the way down to essex (three hours!), just to see it, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be a wasted 360 mile round trip.

it wasn't.

we've found her!  we've found our new baby!

***HAPPYDANCE***

her name is Talulah, and she's GORGEOUS!!!

look-->

her bodywork is immaculate, without a speck of rust anywhere (apart from a teeny tiny patch on the passanger footwell - easily sorted), and her interior is fantastically well designed, hand built, and, again, immaculate.  i should probably mention that the paint job and interior were both done by the lovely guy that's selling her to us, and quite obviously with a great deal of love.

she is a dream!

now we will be on tenterhooks for two weeks until we can pick her up.

WE CAN'T WAIT!!!

and poor, abused Isobel?  she's going to a new home, where she will be loved and appreciated.  she's going to go and live with The Most Wonderful Woman In The World and her lovely chap.  this makes us happy, too.

*smile*

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spring, new life and shooting stuff

good afternoon, dear reader.

wait...afternoon?...surely that can't be right?...isn't it tuesday?...

well, yes it is.  but i'm on holiday, so ner.

weeellll...i say holiday, but really it's just leave.  can't really go on holiday, since poor Isobel is STILL in the paint shop! *grumblegrumblegrumble*. 

oh, look - never mind that now - i'm in a bit of a fragile mood today (yup - hormones strike again - expect a four AM post any day now...), and very likely to get cross or burst into tears at the drop of a mouse, so i will stick to the happy stuff, shall i?  my keyboard is, after all, not waterproof.

soooo...happy stuff.

well, spring is here.  definitely, this time.  thank the gods.  the wind is still chilly, but the flowers are coming out, there's a haze of acid green over half of the deciduous trees, the rest are budding, and some even have blossom on them. *sighs with relief*  sad bugger that i am, i was playing "Spring I-Spy" from the car on Sunday - vegetation (particularly of the flowering kind) only.  here's some of what i saw:

blackthorn blossom
cherry blossom
broom in bloom
daffodils
big, fat magnolia buds
heather
tulips
budding and blooming willow trees (of various kinds)
acid green hawthorn leaves
gorse
flowering currant
laurel buds
almond blossom
dandelions
and, most excitingly for me - daisies. my favourite flower.  i don't know what it is about these tiny, perfect little things, but i absolutely adore them.  they gladden my heart every day.  the common Day's Eye is a tiny little personification of bliss for me.  each and every one of them, no matter where they are.  i can't even make daisy chains, any more - haven't been able to for years, in fact.  i just can't bear to see them wither.  in fact i have, for about seven or eight years, worn a tiny little silver daisy on a hoop in my ear.  it's kind of a part of me....

anyway - the reason i was playing Spring I-Spy in the car is because it was a beaitifully dry, sunny day, and we were off to visit my shiny new step-grandson.

yup, you heard right, dear reader. i am a grandma.  at thirty-three years old.  sheesh!  thanks, guys - way to go! *headsmack*

i should, perhaps, explain.  hubby is 11 years older than me, and his eldest son is 20.  which, whilst it seems a ridiculously young and stupid age to me to have children...well...look - this is another of those things i'm not going to get into.  rant-avoidance techniques activated.

but...oh, he's soooo sweet! look!...

This is Finley.

look, i know - all right?  i tried to get them to spell it properly, but they wouldn't have it.... *eyeroll*

aaanyway - here we have three generations:

Stepson, Hubby, and Stepgrandson.

actually, to give him credit, stepson does seem utterly in love with the little 'un (as well as slightly zombified by lack of sleep - cue evil laughter and cries of "Revenge, at last!!!" from his parents...  hee hee hee!).  his girlfriend was just too tired to do or say anything much.  she seemed to be coping ok, though...

and that was most of Sunday taken care of.

exciting, huh?  wait till we get to Monday!!! (actually, you'll have to...)

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teamaking intermission

-

actually, not a great deal happened on monday.  well - not outwardly, anyway.

inwardly, i appear to have a novel growing...  now how the bloody hell did that happen?!  i asked for a short story, goddamnit!!!  *sigh*  actually, i'm not complaining.  not really.  i know i said not long ago that i was going to write short stories for a bit, and that was how this one started off, actually.  but then it grew.  and grew.  and then it grew a bit more.  it seems to be generic romantic fantasy-flavoured, but i don't really care.  i like that stuff!  and i'm not ashamed to admit it! *stands tall and proud*  at the moment, in my head, it tastes a bit like one of my very favourite books, called "Spirit Fox".  it's by...noooo...not Neil Gaiman, (for a change!) two ladies.  one of whos name i can't remember.  the other is Mickey Zucker Reichert.  and i confess i only remember that lady's name because it's soooo...well...interesting.  but i love this book.  it's generic, yes.  but it's a perfectly shining gem of a book, too - the story is beautifully told, and the romance is romantic without making me want to cringe/throw up (allllways a bonus!)

of course, mine won't be nearly up to that standard, but at least i have a high water mark to aim for.  i'm beginning to think ouroburos was a fluke...

and, once i've got this one out of my system, maybe i can go for comedy? or horror?  or both?  yeah!!!

...ahem...sorry...quite excited... *blush*

and so to today.

today, we did archery, for the first time since...um...probably early october (gets a bit cold after that to be standing around twanging stuff).  we were supposed to do climbing, but since i spent the first hour or so of today sobbing my eyes out for no good reason other than i was sad and hormonal and tired, hubby suggested we go shoot some arrows, or take a walk in the woods.  between us, we couldn't make our minds up, so we decided to combine the two and shoot some arrows in the woods.  a splendid idea, as it turned out.  it's beautiful in Shining Cliff Woods.  peaceful, spacious, and just lovely.  and there's a little lake in the middle beside which we got handfasted.

our surroundings looked like this:

today we were up on the top of the shining cliffs themselves (and they really do sparkle in the sunlight, by the way - it's just magical to see), since it's nice and flat, and not too many people go up there.  the arrows are real, and can really kill.  i know, because not only did i kill the target, i killed a tree - at least twice - and a rock.  i'm not kidding - i took a chunk out of a rock with an arrow! 0.o

when hubby and i shoot arrows, we make it a competition.  otherwise, what's the point? (other than the incredibly satisfying sound of a well-shot arrow going "thwap" or "thud" as it hits the butt, that is...)

so, the rules are:

1 point per ring, starting at 1 for the outer white ring, and 10 for the last gold ring, 15 for the bullseye.

six arrows per person per turn.

flip a coin for the choice of first or second to shoot on the first round, winner goes first thereafter.

first one to five wins the round

best of three rounds wins the match.

and, in pictures:

Robin Hubby 

hubby searching for the first of today's lost arrows.  we lost four in the end, but managed to retrieve two, so not tooo bad... :oS

 

Robina In Da (campervan) Hoody

the scores were:

5 -0 to me

5 - 3 to me

2 - 5 to hubby.

i won!!! *triumphant happydance* this has only happened once before.  but best of all, my shooting was better and more consistent than when we started last summer.

here is my winning score:

check out the two together! *pride*

needless to say, i felt a little better after that.

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whatever works for you

there's been quite a few retweets of this link on the all-conquering twitter just recently.  it's an entertaining read, not least because a lot of the writers seem to contradict each other, or there are exceptions cited for each rule, or other discrepancies.  now, maybe i didn't read it carefully enough, but it seemed to me that there were few agreements on what you definitely should or should not do to produce good writing, whether novel, short story or shopping list.  and it seemed to confirm something i've always felt about creative endeavour in general.  everyone is different, everyone creates what they do from, ultimately, the inside of their own head.  and the inside of every single person's head is sooo different, there's no way anyone can write hard-and-fast rules that everyone should follow.  or maybe that's just the way i write?  i'll always look at this sort of thing, if only because, somewhere in there, ther may just be a shining nugget of truth in there, amongst the other stuff (which i won't call dross, 'coz it ain't - just doesn't work for me. "You tell me your truth, and i'll tell you mine"...).  seriously, you can take advice until the cows come home, but then you have to filter it through what works for you.  try it, of course, but don't be disappointed or surprised if it doesn't.  stay open.  to incomings and outgiongs both.  be prepared to let stuff go if it doesn't work for you.  always stay open.
anyway - stating the obvious as usual.  sorry

the much-abused isobel is still with the garage.  no idea what stage she's at, as she'll be done when she's done, and there's NO WAY ON EARTH that we're going to do anything that could be perceived as putting any kind of pressure on to those that are fixing the hash they made the first time.  such as phoning for an update. 
*deep breath* *lets it out sowly* 
patience, Squeaky, all will be well.

been utterly shattered again this week.  the internal alarm clock is still WAY out, (gaah!).  also, i've been doing this STUPID thing at work which i just haven't got the energy to rant about and, anyway, why bother?  it is a feature of my workplace that some overpaid wanker will be drafted in to "improve the business" (n.b. it's not a business, ok? - that's just crappy management speak), and will reccommend the removal of a working system and replacement of said sysstem by something that...well...doesn't. 

oops - rant-avoidance fail.  oh well, at least it was only a little one, eh? *grin*

mind you, i've had a very restful day today.  no mad typing marathons, and managed to stay in bed and doze until a proper, proper saturday morning time (i.e. 10:30-ish - not managed that for weeks).  then, we went out and spent quite a lot of money (retail therapy - yeah!)
to begin with, we bought a new shower,as the one we have is probably 25 - 30 years old, and it's given its all.    it is knackered, bolloxed, and utterly, utterly kaput.  it is an ex-shower.  it's never been exactly red-hot in cold weather, but this winter? 
ok, i'm a wuss.  i admit it.  i love my Lushy showers, but i absolutely draw the line at lukewarm showers in winter.  when it's cold outside, i want heat!  i want steam, dammit!  i want the bathroom to be so full of steam that i can't see the door by the time i've finished! 
so - guess what hubby's doing tomorrow? 
and guess what i'm doing as soon as he's finished? 
oh, gods, i'm sooo looking forward to a properly hot shower.  i don't think i've had one since the autumn.
oh, YES!!!  damn me, those lovely Lushy things are gonna get some hammer, i can tell you! ^_^

ahem.  sorry.

anyway - the other drain on the wallet was a new toy for hubby. 
he loves his PS2.  he loved his PS as well.  but, of course, there's a new one out these days.  now, he's quite prepared to wait until his PS2 kicks the bucket before he upgrades, but, well... 
see, there's this game that my stepchildren brought round when they came to stay for a couple of days last christmas.  now, The Tribe are - or can be - EXTREMELY argumentative, and drive us completely insane with alarming frequency.  especially when they are all three together, with us, in our teeny weeny living room.  everyone gets under everyone else's feet, and on everyone else's nerves.  i don't mind admitting it, i was dreading the christmas visit. 
but the game. 
the game saved us. 
i have never, i mean NEVER, had such fun for such a sustained length of time with all three of 'em.  in fourteen years.  i swear (frequently, actually, but that's not what i meant), there wasn't a cross word spoken, like, all weekend. 
it was like i'd wandered into somebody else's family.
this game was that Beatles Rock Band thingy.  there were all the instruments and what have you, and all these songs that are like a part of the fabric of the family (since we are both big fans, we've played them all of the kids' lives - they know them almost as well as we do).  and everyone played the instruments, and a jolly good time was had by all.
now, everyone wanted to play the drums (i won't say everyone wanted to be Ringo, because, let's face it - hes a bit of an arse, innit?).  but everyone (wait for it...) TOOK TURNS!!!
*faints*
seriously - this just doesn't happen amongst The Tribe (despite the fact that they are 16, 18 and 20). 
ever since, hubby has, every now and again, been pretending to play the drums, and (i know the look in his eye) thought wistfully of the day his PS2 finally cacks it and he gets to - with a clear conscience - go spend lots of money on a shiny new console and game.
*sigh* 
i've been trying to persuade him that he really doesn't need to wait if he waaannnttssssss it, preciousssssss.  and boy, does he want it!  so, that was what else we spent lots of money on today.  and that's just fine by me.

and now he's repeatedly draping my newly darned self-knitted socks (ah'm sooooo proud of mah old skool skillz!) over my head so i can't see the screen.  excuse me whilst i go and explain, pointedly, why he should stop....

why does it feel like i've been away for ages?...

...because it really does.

business first:

I tried to blog on thursday morning, but did it from my phone, cocked it up, and blogger ate the post.
this is probably a good thing, actually. i had insomnia on wed night, and i was in the foulest mood you could possibly imagine. no - worse than that, honestly. i was ready to up sticks and move to Mongolia or something. i'd REALLY had enough.
Thursday was A Bad Day.
however, through the intervention of The World's Most Wonderful Woman (what i did to deserve my best friend, i shall never know!), with tea and sympathy, i suddenly felt reborn, energised and fresh as a daisy. This is a woman who has more common sense and wisdom than i could aquire in ten centenarian lifetimes. she is a transcendent, shining star.
friday had me bouncing off the walls with joy and sunshine, my emotional armour fully repaired and gleaming. *beams*
so saturday, i actually felt ready, for the first time in aaaages to go climbing. was a total whimp having been away from it for over three months, but it was still good. managed a couple of hours, and i even think i managed a Grade 5+ (though it may only have been a 5. ah, who cares? the actually getting to alter-rock and doing it was the important bit! anyway...)
(an aside - can anyone tell me how to add hyperlinks to this effing thing?! 0.o)

today, we made the list of faults with isobel, our poor misused camper van. she went in last november for a paint job and came out with, well, a travesty. she was supposed to have been stripped right down to the bare metal, welded, knackered panels replaced, and painted a black cherry purple. however... this Did Not Happen. boy, were we furious!
garage bloke was very embarrassed when we showed him, and told us to make a list of all that was wrong. and so, we did:

Front
Rust @bottom corner of driver’s side windscreen
Washer jets and wipers not removed – only taped around (old paint can be seen)
Bottom radiator grill fell off – not been screwed on properly / screws missing
End cap on passenger side of bumper not secured. Falls off when knocked
Overspray on headlights
Driver’s side – front
Rust coming through on wheel arch
Step rusty and not under sealed
Rust in L. corner door sill
Door handles not removed, only taped
Roof gully - silicone
Driver’s side – middle
Rusty all the way along the bottom
White can be seen around water fill cap
Driver’s side – back panel
Rust coming out both ends of slider gully
No rubber seal for slider gully cover
Back
Can see original paintwork around window seal
Overspray on to back window seal
Rust patches all along bottom edge of back door
White paint can be seen around lock
Rear door does not close easily or correctly
Passenger side rear
Sliding gully completely rotten
No rubber seal on sliding gully cover
Wheel arch not under sealed
End cap on passenger side of bumper not secured. Falls off when knocked
Sliding door
Bearings on door slider mechanism need replacement (this occasionally makes the door fall off)
Sliding window should be in driver’s side (middle)
Roof gully rusty all the way along
Rust all along the bottom of this part
Rust and old paint still present around the window aperture
Passenger side - front
Rust around door handle
Rust in R corner of door sill
Rust coming through on wheel arch
Step rusty and no underseal
General
Patchy paintwork and poor finish throughout – needs stripping back to bare metal and painying, as originally agreed.
Inside
Seals around all windows / sliding door missing
Door locks not connected to locking buttons

i think this will give them plenty to go at - don't you?...

now: pleasure ^_^

two main pleasures today (aside from the little ones like tea and cigarettes, and hubby unexpectedly presenting me with chocolate :)

pleasure #1 was read in a blog called "Moments of Genius"
...it appears i've been given a blogging award (already! :-O ), by the lovely, lovely Grace Onorato, who really is one of the sweetest people i've ever come across. it's a Sunshine Award, and is for

"...blog writers and commenters whose words bring joy to their readers and those whose blogs they comment on."

Grace, thankyou from the bottom of my warm fuzzied heart. you are a joy to know, my dear, and i am privileged beyond words. ^_^
XXX

now, there are instructions on her blog on what i need to do next, but i'm such a pathetic noob i can't follow them (sorry, honey), coz i cannot make the interwebz dance to my tune. ...YET... (more on that in a moment). however, here they are, along with her awardees (hope this works):

Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or within the post.
2. Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received the award by posting on their blogs.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

And the winners of my Sunshine Awards are (in no particular order):
1. William: William's Poetry Blog
2. Dorkvader: The Dork Side
3. Sqeaky: an earthbound misfit
4. Shelly: Shell's Musings
5. Lynda 'n Kara: She Wears Heels While Exercising
6. Kevin: 12k on Black
7. Badgerpendous: Badgerpendous Is
9. Sushi: Sushimustwrite
10. Journalwriter: Journalwriter
11. Bethany: Shooting Stars
12. Mackleen: Left-Handed People Cry Too

hmmm...ok, that *seems* to have worked...
...but i don't know HOW to follow any of the rules! i can't even cut and paste in the damn picture! :o(

but am still thrilled to receive the award, so thankyou once again, lovely Grace. :o)

pleasure #2 comes from the fact that i actually appear to be able to write a decent story.

i have sent (with much trepidation and general trembling) my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel to a good twitterfriend named Jens Khun. i've only known him a few weeks, but because i loved HIS book ("Gunboat Number 14 - check it out - i dare you not to adore the lovely Anna, and will fight you if you don't...), and he appeared to like a short story i had written a while ago (based on the book "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" by Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman - undoubtedly the two most loved-up people on the planet right now...), i sent him my novel "Minatour", to see if he liked it. and (judging by his tweets) he's genuinely enjoying it! this fills me with more warm fuzzies.

Today is A Very Happy Day. ^_^