Birthdays and stuff

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Kai

Normally, I do my ‘birthday’ update on or around my birthday – but I’m a couple of days late this year. And with good (ish) reason.
On the 8th of this year I graduated officially. And so began a week of visits and catching up with friends and family. Unfortunately, so also began a week of random exhaustion and a horrible rash that’s over most of the front of my neck and up one shoulder.

The rash
The rash itself isn’t actually too bad now, other than it itches like mad. I’m itchy in various places to be fair, but it’s all mostly associated with one side of my body. I spent Monday rearranging my conservatory, and sorting out the house – Tuesday – I graduated – Wednesday and a docs visit saw me picking up meds, but little else. I started needing about 200% more sleep. Thursday, mom came back from Egypt, and visited. Friday, Keith arrived, and Saturday….

Well, Saturday was supposed to be my book launch, my big birthday *bash* and my graduation celebration. It ended up being coffee in the morning with my nanoees, napping most of the rest of the day, before landing in the out of hours service at 5:30. Which lead to ‘you have meningeal symptoms (stiff neck, headache, bright lights bothering me, nausea, no temperature though), go to the ER’, which led to ‘the heck no’ conversation that comes up whenever I land in the Gloucester hospital. I eventually talked my other half into letting me go home for my birthday party – which, in the end was food, chatter and watching some cartoons. And then I slept. I did much of the same on Sunday.
And yesterday.
As of 11am this morning I’m still randomly needing to nap for an hour or two after only being up for a few hours, I’m stiff, I’m tired, but I’m still working.

Not quite the way I wanted to celebrate my 33rd birthday, but it let me have a think about several things, and, as Glass Block was signed up with a press, I’ve got space now till February to pursue something fun. So I am.

Task lists, 750 words, and routines

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Kai

I’ve got a very specific routine to my writing day now – one that I thought people might be interested in.
I’ve mentioned in the past that music is really important to me – and up until last week, my morning started with my portable alarm clock (aka my phone) which I would listen to until I went down stairs, then music would go back on at exactly 8am, when the youngest went outside to wait for her taxi.

But the last week, at 8am, I’ve taken the chance to come upstairs with a cup of tea, and I’ve crucially left music off.
So, I write my task list and contemplate my day in silence. It’s nice because the bedroom/office I’m in is in full sunlight most of the morning, and into the afternoon when I finish up working for the day (if I’m not coming back to work later) so I’m getting plenty of light where I sit, and there is a tree near the window, so even now, as the weather is turning chilly (and man, it’s chilly this morning compared to the last week), I’ve got birdsong.

From there, I social network. Twitter and Facebook need constant feeding, and I think I put in 750 words there on their own. I’m still trying to find my stride with G+.

And after that, I start work proper. Usually about 8:45, but today, as Steve Jobs died (don’t come to this blog for breaking news, I’m always waaaaay behind the curve), I’m not starting until nearly 10am. With a full docket and email to troubleshoot as it’s randomly stripping attachments, I’m still melancholy. I guess it puts life into perspective when someone that achieved so much goes – not even because he was ‘young’ by today’s standards. Steve Jobs would have been missed whether we were talking about him dying today or in 20,30, 40 years time. That kind of impact will never be lost, even to history. And that’s some legacy to leave.

What I do know is that while I’ve been a PC person most of my life (due to expense rather than preference), my first ever laptop was a Mac. from my adopted brother – I bought it from him and wrote on it for nearly a year, until we moved south and it died. In that time, I even replaced the screen. I wouldn’t DARE try that on my PC

Of bright lights and disappointments…

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Kai

We are, to all intents and purposes, one month after ‘the Watershed‘

And there’s a couple of things that have changed since then – some for the better, some in a different way and with no impact. One for the worse.

As the last post explained, I finally graduated. What the last post barely touches on is why it’s taken so long to get to that point. And, y’know, I wish I could point at everything I’ve been up to recently and say ‘see, good reason’, but the truth is, the reason, though, probably, a valid one, isn’t a ‘good’ one by any stretch of the imagination. Focusing on the positive though – I graduated. I’m delighted that I graduated. I’m trying to decide if I want to go to the ceremony where our degrees are officially conferred – right now it’s looking at least an option.

Other improvements include taking on better paying work, in some cases. I *love* copywriting – but what I don’t love is the fact that I’m basically at the mercy of clients. Most are darlings – but some leave a lot to be desired. And when I’m having to be draconian about billing practices, I know something has gone wrong. And that’s the problem – there’s no give in my billing. And for those that know why, don’t even say it in public – it’s not necessary. I’ve taken steps to remedy that, in the form of http://indieunbound.com I’m now officially and formally an editor as well as a copywriter, using my experience as a writer and graduate to support indie writers in creating a product that works for them – and the market. It’s good, and in the last few days, I’ve already managed to book clients till our holiday in October, which is just stellar.

Other than that, I’m working on finishing up my websites and setting up regular spots for blogging, fixing my timetable to balance stuff (though, I’m slowly coming to the realisation I can either have a quiet life OR work really hard – there’s no doubling up and earning both) and slowly resolving everything that needs to be resolved.

The negative? other than a couple of outlines, I’m still not writing. And that sucks. But I think I have a solution to that too – one, that if I can keep up with the editing client bookings, will give me the best of all worlds and allow me to be the last piece of the puzzle that is me. I have to find my way back to fiction writing, or there’s no point in freelancing the way I do. I could, instead use my degree on something else, and let go of the idea of being an author – and to be honest, that all or nothing decision makes me more worried than any other choice I could ever make.

I guess the last thing I need to talk about is ‘what’s next’? I already miss university desperately – I’ve never felt more at ease in an establishment in my life, and I want to go back to that at some point. So, realistically, some of the money I make editing and writing is going back into ‘me’, and in turn, making me a better writer and editor, via my MA plans. Ideally, I’d like to do linguistics of some kind, rather than a wholly creative project, but ultimately, I guess I’ll need to see what is available to me, and how long it’ll take me to save for it. For now, all of my energy is going into clearing up the last of the server costs I was left with, sorting out new hosting for that secondary account, and building a buffer of savings for my family. Editing and copywriting together are a good combination, especially if I can keep streamlining my time and using it to the best effect.

Now though? Work beacons. Laters

Not so random acts of teh awesomes

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Kai

(Sidenote, yes, I love lolcats – my favorite is TS Elliot’s ‘the Wasteland, rendered into Lol)

So, PrincessPink has returned to school, successfully, and I just as successfully woke up this morning and sorted everyone, myself included, out. Which was good. She’s not happy about some of the new routines in the morning, but I’m sure if we keep going, eventually, she’ll get there.
Today, I’ve got lots of ‘signing off’ to do – an edit to blitz. Content to write for my day job, and about six hours worth of crime tv to catch up on (that may have to wait until tomorrow when *he* returns to school). Plus, a badge to sew on a school blazer. Plus. Blogs. My blogs. Other blogs. Just, blogs

For now though, the first act of awesome? Grabbing a cup of tea, and then getting the bus to deal with school uniform

Kai’s weekly todo

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Kai

One of the things I’m working on, other than writing and releasing books, is making my life a bit easier. I work 30 hours a week as a copywriter, and on the surface, given I also care for two kids and the house full-time, that might seem like I’ve got a good work/life balance.

But I don’t. I’m still struggling with basic scheduling, and fitting everything in. I’m still underestimating how long errands take, and I’m still struggling to disengage effectively from places like Facebook. I guess it really drove the topic home when my boss posted on the AppleCopywriting blog about removing distractions.
So, weekly todo’s are the way forward. With time set aside for all of the work that I’m expecting, it should help

For now, I’m using ‘Workflowy’ to manage the vague stuff, that isn’t dated. And I’m not sure what I’m going to use for actual deadlines, possibly toodledo. There has to be an easier way, but for now, it’s a bit difficult to see my way out of the forest for all the tasks that are stacking up around me like brittle wood.

Kai’s ‘day in the life’

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Kai

I’ve thought about this a lot in the last three or four weeks – and every time I go to write it, I realise it’s difficult to pin down my ‘average’ day. But Chris Brogan outlined his day, so I thought I’d give it a try

There are a couple of commonalities, but it’s been difficult to tie everything into each other lately. But I thought I’d give it a try.

My ‘job’.

I am a full-time writer. So I copywrite, and if I’m not copywriting, I do other content for my blogs, or write fiction. I’ve been off fiction for a while, but I’m working on most of it with a vengeance again.

The morning:

7am – if he doesn’t wake me up at 6:30, I wake up mostly naturally sometime between 7 and 7:30. My first thing I do, and I hate, is check my email for messages overnight from my clients/the team I sub-contract with. It means my morning might be started on a good note or not, depending on edits and stuff that have come in overnight.
I tend *not* to check in on Facebook unless I really need to. I get the kids ready for school – and if I’m not feeling sick, I grab brekfast. I’m trying to teach myself to do that more often, because I think my body confuses nausea with hunger first thing and it has a knock on effect.

8:30am – Kids are normally out the door by now – so I do email, and blogging and anything else I feel like. Right now, in the morning I’m doing fiction writing and writing until lunch. Today, and for the last six days, I’ve been working on my dissertation. Next week, the kids go on holiday and I’ll be working on my novel for its final work through before handing in.
I do Facebook quite a lot during the morning, between writing, in snatches.
If I’m blocked, I blog.

Lunch

Lucky to stop for lunch – working from home means that I can do it whenever, but I normally forget.

Afternoon

In the afternoon, I’m a great copywriter. I don’t know why the difference exists between morning and afternoon, but it is. I write until around 4pm, when the kids get home.

Evening

In the evening, I’m on Facebook, I’m interacting with friends, I’m doing my best impression of a meerkat and listening to the world, with my head stuck above my ‘burrow’. I collapse into bed around 11pm, after a hot bath, one last check on Facebook, and either games on my iPad, or one last bout of writing. If I can’t sleep, I knit.

And Tuesday nights, I game with friends – we’re currently roleplaying through a 40K Rouge Trader game, where I’m the Captain.

Intermingled with all of this, I keep an eye on several self-publishing support groups on Facebook, and put the finishing touches on a lot of the things that I’m setting up for launch post dissertation (this Thursday to hand it in!)

Today’s tasks

2 Blog posts for my client’s equality blogs
4 blog posts to get my blogs ahead – including bi-polarbears
4k of my dissertation (2k writing and 2k editing)
Press release for DarknessPD.
Set-up for new community site for self publishers.
Chapter edits on two books for clients

And anything else that comes up

My ‘takeaway’

One of the big things I’ve learned from Chris over the last years is there’s always a ‘take away’ – an underlying message that comes from what I know now versus what I knew the last time I did this. The last time I did this I was signed off with a mental health disorder – and had just quit Uni for the year, and going back into the classes later in the year to try again.
I’ve come *a long way* since my last ‘day in the life’ post. Seriously. Things have changed so much – I own two limited companies in the UK and our last year’s turnover was great.

The takeaway? I’ve come a long way – and I’ve got a lot to be proud of but there is no such thing as a regular day in the life of a fiction/copywriter.

Not for me anyway.

How about you?

Overcoming…the fear

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

So, there’s a post up that’s caused a bit of back channel fuss on my blog called ‘the Fear‘. If you haven’t read it already, and want the cliff notes, it’s about what happened to me in school as a child. Contextually, it’s about bullying – it’s about self-image and why nothing that people can or could say will change my opinion of myself.

There’s a but coming.

‘The Fear‘ Was meant to be an off the cuff post that turned into this massive angsty dump onto my blog, so to balance it off, here’s some other information.
There’s no way we can tag what I went through as the reason I’m bipolar. There’s also little doubt in my mind that I wasn’t particularly resilient in the first place – I was prone to depression and immaturity as it stood, without adding in what went on. I don’t know if that fact would have remained consistent throughout school if somehow everything had been nipped in the bud, but what I do know is that I have a very… interesting perspective on why people behave the way they do. One day, soon, I’ll go back and find all of my older posts and republish the important ones here. One of the posts dealt with bullying, and how my perspective to things might have differed.

What I did want to say was though I say ‘I’m ugly’ or ‘I’m plain’ – it’s kinda like saying, ‘I can’t cook’, or ‘I’m rubbish at painting’. I know what I’m good at and while there’s a whole other element of accepting that, at least it sits easier on me.
But take my word for it when I say that I’m ok with this. It’s not important to my choice of job (writer), so it’s one of those things that I’ve learned to live with. And ultimately, I’m marrying a gorgeous guy who I adore and who thinks I’m perfect. I can disagree with that, but having that and my family who believe that I can do anything I put my mind to has done a lot to give me at least a base to work from now. In the coming weeks and months, I’m going to be talking mental health *a lot* – after Glass Block, I promised I’d do the second draft of Pictures, so it’s on my mind a lot, I guess.

Part of the server sync up project:

Chicken Balmoral – instructions and recipe

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Kai

I thought it would be nice, as an introduction to what I sometimes get up to, instead of talking about the washing pile of doom from the outset, that I’d share a traditional dish from my home land. I’m Scottish

Shopping list

1 Chicken breast per person
1 Haggis per three people (for generous portions) – based on using Halls Haggis – check how big or small your haggis portion is.
400g potatoes per 3 people
400g Turnip/swede per 3 people (For my US readers – I think they’re called Rutabagers)
400g Carrots – cut into thick strips per 3 people.

(for the sauce)
2 tblspoon Whiskey
2 tblspoon Dijon or Wholegrain mustard
100ml Double cream or Creme Fraiche
1/2 a lemon (juice and rinds)
5 tblspoon milk (any type)

It should be noted that these portions are huge to ensure that people who really like the constituent parts can get more, and those that don’t can balance out with what they do like. You can adjust portion sizes accordingly, but this is basically what we use for two adults and two children who enthusiastically look for seconds.

Chicken Balmoral. DSC 3614 150x150 Chicken Balmoral instructions and recipe

Chicken Balmoral is basically a chicken breast butterfly cut, and stuffed with Haggis. We’ve found it easier to cook the chicken breast and haggis seperately, and then use the haggis as a bed for the chicken. It’s as simple as preparing and arranging the constituent ingredients. I recommend cooking the chicken in a stock, topped with a chicken oxo cube, as it makes it especially succulent. Haggis takes upwards of an hour to cook – so cover your chicken in tinfoil until 10 minutes before you’re going to take it out.

The Veg

Cook the potatoes and swede/turnip until soft and mashable. Cook carrots until soft and warm, based on your needs. Mash potatoes and swedes (you can mix them, it’s called‘Clapshot’) and dish up the carrots. I recommend that you use the stock from the chicken to cook the carrots in, they taste amazing.

Whiskey Sauce (makes lots!)

2 tblspoon Whiskey
2 tblspoon Dijon or Wholegrain mustard

100ml Double cream or Creme Fraiche
1/2 a lemon (juice and rinds)
5 tblspoon milk (any type)

To make the Whiskey sauce – mix all ingredients in a pan and reduce to desired thickness. As the cream cooks, the volume may increase slightly, but it doesn’t curdle if you cook it off and then add the Whiskey. Add the lemon rinds at the end, and possibly sugar or salt to taste. You can use single malt or blended Whiskey.

Putting it all together.

Place the haggis on the plate and flatten – place the chicken breast on top. Serve up the mashed potatoes, carrots and swedes. Drizzle Whiskey sauce in generous spoonfuls over the top of th DSC 3625 150x150 Chicken Balmoral instructions and recipe e haggis and chicken.

Hand to guests.

A word about Haggis

If anyone questions why you’re eating haggis, feel free to remind them that it’s difficult to identify what’s in most sausages sold commercially. Traditional haggis is made up of the bits of a sheep that would otherwise go to waste – modern haggis may still contain some of the ingredients that are ‘traditional’. Mainly barley and oats at a guess. It’s very tasty, has a slightly spicy taste and is very worthwhile. It’s also incredibly filling.

Friday free for all – life after gall bladder surgery

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Kai

It’s been close to ten years since I had my gall bladder removed (this September) and just lately, I’ve found that all the niggly little problems I’ve had with my digestive system are worse than usual. I don’t know if I picked up a stomach bug on top of everything else in the last few weeks, but one of the big changes I’m trying to make, alongside the whole ‘flylady’ thing is to fix my diet once and for all.

Here’s the science part

One of the biggies that I’ve never really managed to take on board is that my diet had to change – and for a while it did – I’ve already mentioned that I’m really unhappy with the weight I’ve gained – I suspect mostly from my love of coca-cola (which is now, once and for all, being relegated to a once weekly treat) and the fact that I love sweet tea and will drink about 8-10 cups a day (big mugs too). So if I cut that out, I can probably start losing some of the weight right?
Well, that’s the complicated bit – because I have no gall bladder, my body doesn’t cope with fat at all – so I also need to introduce ‘better’ foods – whole grain where possible, like bread and rice and pasta. But it’s even more complex, for reasons I can’t explain.

-Gallbladder = Celiac?

One of the things I was told after having my gall bladder out was that I’d have different food sensitivities – never thought I’d miss it, but honestly, I wish I could eat food like normal and not need to worry about this stuff. Without straying too far into TMI, if I’m not careful, I start to become listless and have problems with everything I eat. I have to head back to about the most simple diet I can – chicken soup, or freshly made soups from veggies (my favorite is carrots and coriander or sweet potato and chorizo). I have to cut pasta out for a while too – in fact anything made of processed wheat (bread, noodles…the works). When it’s *really* bad, I can’t even cope with milk, which, unfortunately is where I am right now. I’ve hit that really listless, really sensitive sense of smell, not exactly nausea, but uncomfortable pressure at the top of my throat kind of feeling that basically makes me feel like food is the worst enemy in the world.
The problem is though, I’ve only started having *these* problems since moving south – I’m not sure it’s the water so much as the water *content* if that makes sense. If I switch to bottled water for a week or two, I cope slightly better – so I’m wondering whether the ‘hard’ water down here.
For now, all I know is that I need to make some adjustments.

So what can we do?

I’m thinking about introducing the changes a bit at a time – in part because it’s difficult to adjust to changing fibre content overnight (I would guess anyway), but in part because it’s going to take a bit of adjusting our food buying habits too. I’m already pretty good with meat and make sure I buy lean stuff as often as possible, so hopefully this will also help. We’ve been doing quite well with introducing more veggies and stuff – but I’ve decided, for a bit more accountability, I’m going to start sharing recipes - menus for the week and other notes. I’m not great with cooking or planning, it has to be said, so I’d love feedback or ideas.
It’s not going to be *here* though, mostly. As I’m doing the whole ‘put my life in order, sort out my writing life, get on with blogging’ project, I’m going to do most of the family stuff over at MountWashingmanjaro – where I’m going to talk Flylady and de-cluttering, menus, frugal living and more.

Insanity is contagious, Mk x

Funding my writing habit since 2004

Category Archives: diet and lifestyle