Functional neuroimaging

The human brain uses up about 20% of the calories we eat. Some kids of Functional neuroimaging scans light up areas of the brain with a higher metabolic rate, which shows which parts of the brain are currently in use.

This translating and poof-reading makes me tired, and I'm sure the
language areas are lighting up like Christmas trees, and metabolising like mad.

So translating twisted Spanish burns calories.

Therefore I can go and eat some chocolate.

Yup, that's logical.

It's getting mad around here again. There I was, doing yoga every morning, critiquing my friend's novel, writing fiction, and doing a bit of translating, a bit of housework and so on, feeling I was getting on with stuff rather well. Then the deadline for the translation job moved forward from September to June 8th.

Oops! So now it's full steam ahead on the translation, but it's a particularly tiring one. So I translate, then take a "break" and do housework, and translate again, and have another "break", and try to fit a bit of something else around that.

But at least I got to Los Sauces to see the procession on Monday evening. Even then, I had to miss yoga, and then I had to leave before the loa (a little concert, in honour of the Virgin), because I had an appointment in Santa Cruz.

And this afternoon I have to take my son to the dentist, then horse-riding (if we get out of the dentist's in time) and then yoga at 6 pm. Which means I'd better organise dinner before we got to the dentist.

How did I ever have time to work?

Power cuts.

Yesterday I saw a notice, announcing that parts of the village would have a power cut this morning, but I couldn't make out whether it included our house or not.

So this morning I made sure to have the computer turned off and the kettle boiled by half past eight. And the power stayed on.

So now I'm really enjoying living in a house with electricity.

Writing

Lately I've been writing slowly, but almost every day. Although it would help if the fiction writing was all on the same story. Sometimes I work on the second episode of Agent Hammer, sometimes I do a bit of a new story about El Hierro, and today I worked on the rewrite of "Hell Raiser". It went down pretty well at the critique group. Even better the critiques largely agree, so I know what to do.

The blog about El Hierro now has a total of 4 posts. For someone with no time, that's not too bad.

I learned how to put a poll on a blog, and added one to the blog about La Palma, asking people what they wanted to see more of. Now I knew fine well that most people wouldn't vote, but this blog gets an average of 120 visits per day, so I thought I'd get maybe 10 votes a day. I was completely underwhelmed by the response - one vote in the first 24 hours. Oh well. Perhaps there'll be more later.

I've been critiquing a friend's novel. It's longer than I expected, and therefore taking up more time than I expected, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

I really ought to send off some submissions. Nothing's going to sell just sitting on my hard drive.

The other thing I'm pleased about is that I've been doing a little yoga every morning. Just 10-15 minutes, but I've kept it up for 2 weeks and I can feel the difference.

A morning well spent.

My friends in Garafía saw a notice saying the Town Hall were accepting applications for grants to improve rural houses.

Boy were they interested! I phoned up for them, and it sounded like they might well qualify, so I asked for, and got, a list of documents they'd need. Then on Thursday I set off with Helen to the Town Hall.

It looks like they'll be eligible, so they have to get the application in by May 15th, they'll hear whether they qualify by September, and for how much (up to 50%). Then they have a year to do the work. When it's finished, they show the receipts to the Town Hall and get a cheque. So they might just get their indoor toilet a lot sooner. They might even get a bath, at long last.