I've escaped! I left all my responsibilities behind and bunked off to visit a friend on El Hierro for a few days. So on Sunday I took the ferry out (just 12.50€ for a foot passenger) and I'm flying back late on Thursday afternoon. The ferry is almost as fast as the flight, because the ferry is direct, and the flight goes via Tenerife North.
As usual, getting away and seeing my friend has done wonders for my productivity. I've written the first draft of a story about a musician for a competition, and outlined another story about a comet. And I've also zipped around this little island getting material for my blog about it.
(Yes I know it's a bit daft to have a blog about an island you don't live on. So I'm a bit daft. Is anybody surprised?)
I've seen the little museum in Valverde (the capital) and found a couple of viewpoints and a chapel I hadn't seen
before, and I finally got to the visitors' centre for the archaeological site at Julan, only to find that if you want to see the ruins themselves, it's a four hour walk (90 minutes down, 150 minutes back up). I'm not really fit enough anyway, but it's an incentive to get fitter and come back. And I love the scenery here. If there's one thing better than looking at it from a car, it's walking though it.
Of course it's going far too fast. But I hope to fit in some work on my e-book before I go home.
However did I survive without a laptop?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Monday, October 04, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Travel writing
The travel writing gig took a little longer than expected, but the site is now up at http://www.lapalma.co.uk/ I don't own the site: I just did all the "Insider Expert" bits.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Well, our son's room is painted.
He decided to go for blue, and we chose paint that's supposed to cover with one coat. Luckily, the ceiling was already white, so we just had to point over the pink walls.
We put most of the furniture in the guest room, and the bookshelf on the landing, and got stuck in, all of us. This was the first time our son had painted walls, so his bit was a rather blotchy, but we'd expected that. the really nice surprise was that he did a lot more painting and a lot less moaning than we'd expected.
So we let the first coat dry, and painted over the blotchy bits. And that's when we realised that the white ceiling wasn't white. It was very pale pink, which looked like white as long as it was next to pink walls. Not now that it was next to blue ones.
So I dashed out and bought some white paint, while my husband took out the light fitting. We just managed to get all the painting done on Saturday.
Of course that meant that on Sunday we had to move the furniture back.
This wasn't simple. You see, the idea was to swap over the old furniture with the stuff from the guest room, so that there'd be more space for our son. But the original furniture in the guest room was now buried under our son's old furniture.
It took ages, but we did it, and our son will sleep in there again tonight (he spent last night on the couch.) That just leaves the light fitting, the curtain rail, and the curtains to do.
He decided to go for blue, and we chose paint that's supposed to cover with one coat. Luckily, the ceiling was already white, so we just had to point over the pink walls.
We put most of the furniture in the guest room, and the bookshelf on the landing, and got stuck in, all of us. This was the first time our son had painted walls, so his bit was a rather blotchy, but we'd expected that. the really nice surprise was that he did a lot more painting and a lot less moaning than we'd expected.
So we let the first coat dry, and painted over the blotchy bits. And that's when we realised that the white ceiling wasn't white. It was very pale pink, which looked like white as long as it was next to pink walls. Not now that it was next to blue ones.
So I dashed out and bought some white paint, while my husband took out the light fitting. We just managed to get all the painting done on Saturday.
Of course that meant that on Sunday we had to move the furniture back.
This wasn't simple. You see, the idea was to swap over the old furniture with the stuff from the guest room, so that there'd be more space for our son. But the original furniture in the guest room was now buried under our son's old furniture.
It took ages, but we did it, and our son will sleep in there again tonight (he spent last night on the couch.) That just leaves the light fitting, the curtain rail, and the curtains to do.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Decorating
We're giving our son's bedroom a makeover. It's had the same furniture, light-fitting, walls and curtains since we moved in. Since he was six at the time, and is now fourteen, obviously his tastes have changed since then. He doesn't want a clown light-fitting any more!
So in the past week, we've worked our way through his bookshelf, and given away two carrier bags of books he's grown out of (and made a couple of kids happy in the process). Tomorrow we move the furniture out and paint the walls.
So in the past week, we've worked our way through his bookshelf, and given away two carrier bags of books he's grown out of (and made a couple of kids happy in the process). Tomorrow we move the furniture out and paint the walls.
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