Writing and Exercise

I've decided I must have a split personality.

I've also come to the conclusion that writing and exercise don't mix. Shame, because I love both. And I will do both, obviously not simultaneously. Let me explain.

I joined a new gym this week and it's brilliant! I'm fired up with enthusiasm for my exercise regime once more. It had been in the doldrums for a few months. This new place runs various types of exercise class, which is a novelty as the last gym I belonged to for 7 years hardly ran any, and then only boring old Pilates or similar. This week so far I've been to Legs, Bums and Tums and Cardio Tone. Sound quite tame, don't they? Believe me, they weren't. I made the mistake of running on the treadmill for 2 miles and rowing just over 1000m in 5 minutes before the Legs, Bums and Tums yesterday. Talk about hard on the legs. I don't think I've ever done so many squats and lunges as I did in that class! However, it was great fun. I felt quite cocky this morning, as I didn't ache.

Today I went along to Cardio Tone. The instructor warned me at the beginning that there was a fair bit of boxing and martial art type stuff involved. I wasn't fazed. After all, I'd been doing the Davina Cardio Box at home. It was brilliant! Such fun and the instructor was like one of the Gladiators. We all went for it to a stomping fast dance track. I've never packed so many punches in my life. I'm on a real high now after all the 'whooping' and martial art-type noises you make when you're going for it.

This brings me on to my first point. High impact exercise is at odds with the state I need to be in to write. I think I have to be in a kind of semi-comatose state to do the latter. Lost in a kind of dreamy other world, which lends itself well to slobbing around in pyjamas and eating naughty things like chocolate, biscuits and cake. Oh, and mustn't forget the odd glass of wine. Whereas aerobic exercise makes me crave high energy salads and copious amounts of water. Exercise makes me feel very much part of this fast-paced world we live in and to be 'out there'. The two activities just don't marry well at all. I'm perfectly comfortable in both 'states', but it's difficult being in both frames of mind on the same day.

I must keep working at implementing 'the new regime'. I have to write first thing and get that 'at least an hour's worth' done. It would be two hours worth, but my exercise classes tend to start at 10.30am. Such a dilemma!

Sorrow

That melancholic feeling is still with me today, although I do feel reasonably fired up with enthusiasm for The Yellow Room and my novel.

I've just written a (hopefully) moving passage in my novel. I've tried to depict a traumatic episode in one of the characters' childhoods. Not easy! I want tension; drama; a sense of sadness and innocence lost. I also want to avoid mawkishness and sentimentality. Very difficult. I was feeling upset as I was writing it, so maybe that's a good sign!

I'm devoting most of today to sorting out The Yellow Room admin. I have lots of rejection letters to write and very few, if any, acceptances. It's very difficult to know what to say when rejecting someone's story. It's their baby, after all. I just give my honest opinion as to what is wrong with it and why I don't want to publish it. However, I realise some writers get very discouraged by this and are almost put off writing. It's a worry that I might be crushing someone's confidence to that extent. However, the last thing I want to do is compromise the quality of the fiction in the magazine. It's not easy being an editor, you know!

Finally, I've just read a lovely tribute to Richard Wright, the Pink Floyd keyboard player who died yesterday http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/neil_mccormick/blog/2008/09/15/richard_wright_the_great_gig_in_the_sky. I was hoping to see the original band members in concert once more in my lifetime, hopefully with Roger Waters as well, but it is not to be.

The New Routine

I feel as if I'm getting back into a routine now the children are back at school. I really must do more blogging, though. I feel as if I haven't really anything interesting to say! My creative energy is currently being channelled into my novel writing, although I have dabbled with a couple of short stories in the past few days. It's a nice break from the novel, actually. I've also started writing the annual letters to those friends who have birthdays in the few days leading up to mine.

Today has been interesting and different. I got called a 'dizzy slag' by a horrid man who almost stepped off the pavement in front of me today, despite having seen me approach. I haven't felt right all day since! I was on my way to the hairdresser's for my six weekly trim and was looking forward to some pampering. This stupid man ruined it all. Why couldn't he have been more patient or crossed the road in a safer place? Even hairdresser, David's gay anecdotes didn't cheer me up. Then tonight I found out Richard Wright died today. He was the keyboard player and one of the founder members of Pink Floyd, one of my favourite bands. He was only 65. He died after a short struggle with cancer, it seems. I hadn't realised he composed the song, Great Gig In The Sky, which we played at my first husband's funeral.

I'm somewhat vexed that The Yellow Room still isn't at the printers. I was hoping it would be ready to send out to subscribers this month. Now it's looking less and less likely. I had issues with the design AC had come up with and he's gone quiet on me. He's busy working. I have also allowed myself to be overcome with submissions and have a pile of rejection letters to write. The prospect doesn't fill me with joy.

But it's no good, I just have to cheer up, because it's my birthday on Sunday! I'm looking forward to a Sunday roast meal out and cake! My diet will be forgotten for three days this week. I think the cake eating will have to begin on Friday.

Did I mention I'm going to look at a new gym tomorrow?

Kintyre

Our holiday apartment was situated on the top floor of this lovely old house with some spectacular views over the Atlantic and the islands of Jura, Gigha and Islay:

Kintyre was brilliant. The most relaxing holiday I've had in a long time. It was a real 'getting away from it all' holiday. Very few people around, very few cars. Lots of wildlife. And the weather was lovely. It rained once.

There were many highlights. Looking at the seals sitting on the reef from our window as we ate breakfast. Visiting the Linda McCartney Memorial Garden in Campbeltown (I'm a big Wings fan!) and bumping into one of the locals who told us exactly how to get to Paul McCartney's farm up in the hills at Gobagrennan. He wasn't there, but I still got very excited anyway!

The beaches on Kintyre are beautiful. So clean, so empty. Pale sand. We particularly loved Saddell Beach (where they filmed the video for Mull of Kintyre) and Dunaverty Beach. I spent many a happy hour sitting in the sun reading while the children played in the sand or the rockpools.

It all seems so long ago now.

Twycross Zoo and A Mountain of Ironing!

I've just got time for a quick post before we head off on holiday this afternoon. We're staying overnight tonight in Kendal (M6 on a Friday afternoon.. are we mad?), then travelling on to Muasdale in Kintyre tomorrow. I hope the weather stays fine. There's nothing worse than travelling in the rain.

Talking of rain.... we braved the weather and ventured forth to Twycross Zoo on Tuesday. It's a trip we make at least once a year and brings back fond memories for me, as I used to live about seven miles from there. Matthew was meeting a girl he'd met on the Internet via the home educated children's message board. He looked pale and nervous as we splashed our way down the A5 and A444. I'm pleased to say they got on like a house on fire. Could this be girlfriend Number 2? Her mother was also lovely. We left the 'lovebirds' to wander round on their own. Megan was busy drawing animals in her notebook, no doubt storing up information for when she's a qualified vet (yes, I know she's only 6, but you have start somewhere).

For the rest of the week I've been doing load after load of washing, telling everyone that if they wanted something washing for the holiday now was the time to add it to the load. Last night at 10pm my dear husband complained that his 'chilling out shorts' were getting a bit 'cheesy' and did I know where his spare ones were. Aargh!!

Thank goodness for Ipods. I'd never get through the ironing without it!

Finally, I have two more stories to proofread before emailing the first issue of The Yellow Room to the typesetter later this morning (better get cracking!). I can't see it being ready to mail out before October, however. These things take time, as Morrissey once sang.

Lazy Summer Days

Is it just me or does anyone else feel lazy and lethargic during July and August? Come September and I feel reinvigorated.

I haven't been doing a great deal. The children have taken over and I don't seem to have the energy for anything else (apart from a few long walks last week). I haven't been to the gym in nearly two weeks and feel very out of shape. My wine consumption has also increased from one glass per night to two. Can I blame the school holidays for my lethargy? I have been reading a lot, however, and have now purchased all eight of the Richard and Judy Summer Reads. It has been the only project I've felt capable of completing.

I still have a pile of The Yellow Room submissions to read. I'm still proofreading the first issue of the magazine, but hope to be able to send it off to Andy Cox for typesetting before I go on holiday on Friday. All I can do is apologise for my tardiness.

We're off to Kintyre on Friday for a week, with an overnight stay in Kendal to break up the journey. All I've heard all weekend from various friends and acquaintances has been, 'Be prepared for lots of rain. You don't get much sun up there. It'll be cold, you know. Take some jumpers.' Thanks! I hope to prove them all wrong and come back with a suntan! I'll be posting pictures here when I get back. Oh, and I won't be Paul McCartney spotting, as I've just discovered he's halfway through a month long road trip across Route 66 in the US. Damn!

Car-less

We've had a run of bad luck in the transport department in the past few days. It all began when Nige got 'stuck' in the centre of Coventry and found himself heading towards a bus lane kitted out with numerous cameras in a ploy to extract as much money as possible out of the unwitting motorist. He couldn't turn left or right and didn't want to reverse in case he ploughed into an oncoming, diesel-fume-belching bus. He came home ranting and is now waiting for a fine in the post. He swears he didn't see any warning signs (he was looking out especially) and sees it as entrapment. Call him paranoid. Or Jeremy Clarkson, whichever you prefer.

Yesterday I was ferrying children around to friend's houses, swimming lessons, the dreaded McDonald's (first time in over two years we've set foot in there!) etc, then sitting in the driver's seat once more to do another drop off and pickup, the car wouldn't start. After several attempts and knowing deep-down that I was wasting my time, I nipped in the house to call Nige for assistance. Fortunately (or not for him!) he'd just arrived home. He concluded within two minutes of fiddling that it was the fuel pump. How do men do that? I piled the children into my husband's car and continued the ferrying around in that (lucky he was home a bit earlier).
And how fortunate my car was on the drive at home when it decided not to start and not on the forecourt of McDonald's! How fortunate that it didn't wait another week or so, otherwise we'd have been stuck on the M6 on the way to Scotland. This is called positive thinking as opposed to my husband's mutterings which went along the lines of, 'These things usually come in threes,' and 'I worked those eight hours overtime last Saturday for nothing'.

So.. instead of going to the cinema today to see Kung Foo Panda, we're stuck at home. Megan has been very philosophical about it (must take after her mother!) and said, 'Never mind, Mummy, we can make the worm farm today instead!' I can't wait!