Pink power

Pink rocked the house last night. I've seen her before and would see her again. In fact I'd pay a lot to see her in a smaller setting doing more acoustic/bluesy stuff because she really does have a blow the roof off voice.

She's very popular here in Australia and I think it's because she's got that "let's not get too serious about ourselves", self deprecating irreverent sense of humour that Aussies like. Personally I like her because she's talented, she's fearless, she's sexy and she does things whatever the hell way she wants to do them.

Once again she did some jawdropping aerial acrobatics during the concert (and sang beautifully while upside down or spinning around and no, she wasn't miming).



She always reminds me to just go for it.

In other news, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book won an Audie for Audiobook of the Year, so woot! to Neil. I've heard him read at a signing, I have the audiobook and have watched the free videos of him reading online and I can only say well deserved. He has a lovely voice, he reads well and from what I've seen is a model of how to do "best selling author" with grace and charm at signings. Plus he has beautiful old cats. Hopefully I'll get to do signings one day and hopefully I can channel him.

And in also other news, I present my first very wonky granny square lol. Though actually I added another round after this one. I'm actually learning to crochet to try amigurumi like my vampire which I think are mostly single crochet but it can't hurt to learn a classic. You never know when you might get the urge to make an afghan after all. And it's shaping up to be a cold winter here.



And now, given I'm kind of tired after the late night (though the cold seems to have retreated a little again), it's back to the couch for another relaxing day of tv, naps, crochet and knitting (I am my grandmother when sick apparently : ) ). Maybe the girls will kick up some story stuff if I wake up a bit more, they seemed quite taken with Pink's creepy carnival/fun house stage set. Then there's the first of the four last (why oh why oh why, sob sob sob) David Tennant Doctor Who's on tonight.

Resting

I've got one of those bugs that won't quite go away. Had it for over a month now. Just a cold-ish type thing. Bit of a sore throat, bit of a cough, snuffly. Makes me feel average for a couple of days then disappears. It came back Thursday and I was wrecked yesterday and did very little. Bit better today but I can still feel it lurking despite the drugs and vitamins.

So I'm prescribing a lot of couch time (apart from the Pink concert tonight because I've forked out good money already and Pink rocks) for the rest of the weekend because I cannot be sick on Monday (three presentations to give at work). I doubt there'll be much writing progress to report unless I get inspired with the netbook. Brain function is more at the knitting, staring at the TV, sleeping level.

In brief

Progress - Lily

New pages - Two
Intriguing things - No intrigue
Annoyances - brain iz still tired
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Soundtrack
Location - The desk. Word.
Taking care of Mel - Soon to be couch time.
Muse food - Trying to learn to crochet again. Maybe not a good idea when brain iz tired but it's a start.

Words words words

Which implies more than there actually was.

I'm settling for two pages tonight. Enough to kick my word count up to the next number and still give me some time to veg on the couch a bit.

Progress - Lily

New pages - Two
Intriguing things - When in doubt, skip ahead to the love scene
Annoyances - brain iz tired
Linear/non-linear - Non
Music - Soundtrack
Location - The desk. Word.
Taking care of Mel - Soon to be couch time.
Muse food - Debating the relative merits of Sam and Dean or Derek and Meredith as muse food tonight.


Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

On a more positive note, my gloves are comfy to type in!

Filling the well

I don't get to do a lot of non-writing related travel due to time and budget constraints. But this weekend I zoomed off to Adelaide (the capital of South Australia for the non-Aussies) to visit my brother and sister in law and the furry niece dog.

It was a nicely laid back weekend of pottering around and doing a few touristy things. Adelaide is a pretty little city and quite laid back (though home to some excellent doughnuts and, of course, Haighs chocolate - I love the dark peppermint frogs best).

Big brother was somewhat under the weather with a nasty cold so Melissa and I (yes, two Mel Scotts, it's confusing...and that's before you add in Mum being Merilyn lol) left him at home and did the girly browse and shop thing. We did the city on Friday and Saturday headed out to Woodside and Lobethal.

I know a lot of writers like to do various crafty things. I've traditionally preferred sewing and embroidery to knitting (and never really learned how to crochet) but Melissa is a knitting savant and these days also makes beeeeyootiful hand painted yarns (specialising in eco friendly fibres), so there were a few fabric and fibre related shops visited. I may have come home with some more quilting fabrics.

I did come home with this little dude:



He's an amigurumi (amigurumi apparently being a japanese crochet craze) from this book, and he and his creepy cute friends were so cute I think I need to learn to crochet properly and make some.

On Sunday Melissa has a stall at the Fisherman's Wharf market in Port Adelaide (so SA knitters are in luck), so I hung out with her there. And the wools and silks and everything looked so pretty all piled up (really, I think the thing that I really love about fabric and yarn is the colour aspect of it) that I decided to dust off my very rusty knitting needle skills and make some fingerless gloves (Melissa made up the pattern on the spot!). I even managed to finish them in a few hours. Which is about right when it comes to my patience for knitting and project. Apart from quilting I like things that I can complete reasonably fast. I think it's because novels take so damned long to write that the girls like things they can finish when it comes to other creative outlets). I even got some extra wool to make a scarf over the next few weeks.

Anyway, here are some pics of Melissa's gorgeous yarns to whet the appetite of any fibre addicts out there. Her website is www.strandedinoz.com.

Banana silk and recycled sari silk



Hemp and wool



All sorts of wool (sheep and alpaca, sadly I didn't get a pic of the perfectly camel brown baby camel wool!)





(my scarf wool is from the blues on the top of the pile above)



So pretty! You just want to stroke them and possibly eat them. I'd have baskets full piled up just as decoration.

This is what I did with some lovely soft merino she'd dyed in gorgeous deep ocean shades (she's under instruction to do more in this colourway).



I'm hoping all this gorgeousness and play will result in some brilliant words tonight after four days off. Of course, feeding the well may be offset by being slightly wrecked after day job but we'll see. I guess I'll report back later!