Desire Avenue

A thread for just dropping by and saying hello, chatting about whatever you've been doing today, anything that's on your mind. We don't seem to chat much together anymore, and that makes the Baby Jesus cry.

So, I've been off work this week - a welcome break after three weeks working solidly every day, while my boss was away in Thailand with her missus. That left two of us to run the shop, so we didn't get a day off at all! I was pretty exhausted by the end of my shift on Sunday, and looking forward to this break from work.

Today I woke up around 10-ish, which is early for me on a week off (:D), and I've been sat at my table writing for most of the day, with the occasional break to make a pot of tea. Haven't eaten yet, but the cats have been fed, after repeatedly stalking me when I was in the kitchen making my tea. I can't believe they haven't worked out how to open the cat food themselves yet, I thought cats were supposed to be clever.

I would KILL for a cigarette. Ugh. I hate how I always run out of money in the last couple of days before I get paid, and have to go without ciggies. Seriously, I will be up at 6am tomorrow when my pay has gone into the bank, to get cigarettes as soon as the shop opens.

I'm quite pleased with what I've managed to get done on my story today, though there is no doubt in my mind that lack of nicotine affects my creativity. It does! I don't write nearly as fluently or well without cigs. Anyway, my current story is called 'Another Light' and it focuses on a character called Martha, a young woman who has the genetic condition XP (Xeroderma Pigmentosum). I first heard about this condition after watching the film 'The Others' - in that story, the two children have what's termed a 'severe allergy to light', which is how it would have been characterised at the time that story is set, in the mid-40s. XP wasn't pinned down with a name and a set of definable symptoms until the late 60s. It's a strange genetic quirk that is inherently dramatic in the sense of how it affects sufferers' interaction with the external world. The Others does a wonderfully atmospheric job of conveying how claustrophobic and contained its characters are because of the condition, so much so that I started reading up on it. Eventually I decided it might be interesting to try to write a story with a narrator who suffers from XP - the idea of focusing a whole story on an 'interior', physical and psychological, really appeals to me and is also well suited to the short story form that I love.

I'm a bit knackered after writing all day, so I'm going to make some dinner now and settle down with a bit of radio or an audio play for a while. Not in the mood for a film tonight, I wouldn't be able to concentrate.

How are you all? What have you been up to, this fine day?

what a long message

Do you publish your stories somewhere on the interweb ? Or do you keep them for yourself ?


I spent the last weekend in London, I missed the city so much ! London is one of my fave place in Europe... So sad it's so expensive ! As usual I visited the natural history museum, I can't be bored of it even after so many visits.
And I had sunny days so it was even more better. Unluckily I got a cold went I came back [censor]

The board is very quite these days, and many robots try to subscribe here to spam us with their stupid ads... But I keep an eye on this place and ban at least 1 or 2 a day.

well,today has been fairly quiet as tomorrow i'm travelling overseas for a few days holiday.
I'm going to the isle of wight.
Will i need a passport?

Good luck with your story Beth,it sounds interestinmg. 'The Others' is a favourite film of mine as you may remember.
London is a pig of a city to get into at weekends at the moment because of all the railway engineering works.
I was about five when I last went to the Natural history museum.....and thats a long time ago now.

Thank you Beth for a good idea! Like the sound of your story.
Well,Alex,you were in London,(the thing I love about the Natural History Museum is the blue whale-it's SO massive.I always used to think elephants were pretty big,but now...)-and the other day I passed through Lille on my way back from Brittany where I spent a week with the singing group I run,just hanging out and having a good time.(We also did a gig in a mediaeval village which was great).My family travelled the whole way there and back by train,so on the way we also passed through Rennes-I hoped to meet up with Elfy,and emailed him to say we were coming,but didn't get a reply...big pity.
We were really pleased to get back and reconnect with our doggy who spent his first ever week in kennels-he's SO pleased to be home; our cat is less pleased to see him,of course.
Back at home,I'm slowly gearing up to my roster of pupils-a few this week,then they all come back next week.Tomorrow another music theory lesson for Portishead's drummer! (he seems to really enjoy it,I find it all a bit ironic-and I'd happily listen to him telling anecdotes about people he's played with instead).
Today I dossed about inbetween visits to Doc (blood test-my 5th this year) and Dentist-I am making so many visits to the Docs at the moment,all because of hypertension/cholesterol,plus I'm also getting mystery abdomen pains-which could be any one of a hundred things including the C- word (no,not that one).Keep your fingers crossed...Inbetweentimes I answered a few routine email queries about instrument-making (I get a lot more now that I've 'retired'),made a new handle for our cooker (bamboo,natch),and planned my next series of music visits to local special schools (working towards the Festival I MD/co-ordinate every July) which also kick in next week.The Festival is suffering from the Credit crunch,may not get the anticipated 20k from Children in Need this year...which makes me a little more stressed.
This evening I'm starting a bit of research into Lullabies.My partner's sister works in children's publishing and she's asked me if I can sort out the printed music for a book they're doing of Lullabies around the World.Sounds great! Someone else has done the spadework on the rhymes etc,so I just have to find music,or more likely transcribe it from recordings,which is one thing I can do pretty well.
Lovely weather here too.I spent the first part of today walking the dog in beautiful sunshine,not a soul around in the woods near where we live.

alx5962 wrote:what a long message

It's our thread and we can ramble if we want to!

The idea is that we can come in here and talk about anything and everything we've been doing/thinking about. It can be a quick hello or a lengthy discourse. It's all good.

alx5962 wrote:Do you publish your stories somewhere on the interweb ? Or do you keep them for yourself ?

For myself -I don't think anyone else would be interested. I did submit one for the CQD book, but according to those who have a copy, you can't read it because the text is illegible. Probably just as well! I tend to write first-person narratives, with not much in the way of secondary characters/dialogue, so they'd be a bit boring for other people to read. It's the style I like writing in though, I can't imagine changing it to cater for other people. My purpose in writing stories is to communicate with myself, I think - the unconscious is a rich source of nutrition for creativity, so you find out a lot about what you think, how you feel, and what you've experienced in life. Things you'd forgotten about on a conscious level come back to you when you write.

alx5962 wrote:I spent the last weekend in London, I missed the city so much ! London is one of my fave place in Europe...

You were only 40 miles away Alex, we could've met up! I haven't been into London for a while. It IS indeed a very expensive city, we pay so much for everything in this country. Do you come over regularly, then? The Natural History Museum is fantastic.

Well, I have a lot of errands and running about to do today - it's payday (yay! I HAVE CIGARETTES!), so it's paying bills and getting the shopping done. By close of business today I will have no wages left. But there will be food in the house (I've been living off toast and soup for the past few days), and everything that needs to be paid will be paid, so .... I guess in the current economic climate, that's a lot to be grateful for.

It's absolutely gorgeous out there at the moment, lovely sunshine and a bit of warmth in the air. It's gonna be a fine Spring day.

sound world wrote:Thank you Beth for a good idea!

You're very welcome! If people go with it and join in, it could be a good way for us to get to know more about each other, as well as sparking a bit of conversation/activity on the board. It occurred to me last night that, outside of some general opinions on music/movies/Stina, I hardly know anything about people here whose names have been very familiar to me for years. We don't have much of a sense of each other as real people living our little lives in the real world. Strange.

sound world wrote: the other day I passed through Lille on my way back from Brittany where I spent a week with the singing group I run,just hanging out and having a good time.(We also did a gig in a mediaeval village which was great).My family travelled the whole way there and back by train,so on the way we also passed through Rennes-I hoped to meet up with Elfy,and emailed him to say we were coming,but didn't get a reply...big pity.

A week in Brittany hanging out and singing a bit sounds positively idyllic. *is jealous* I didn't realize Elfy lives in Rennes ... and Alex is in Lille, which you can get to on the Eurostar, I think? Paul is in Amsterdam, and Sara is not too far away from him, if I remember. We're within fairly easy reach of one another really, we should be taking advantage of that to meet up.

Elfy sounded a bit depressed last time he posted, didn't he. Said something about being unemployed?

sound world wrote:Tomorrow another music theory lesson for Portishead's drummer! (he seems to really enjoy it,I find it all a bit ironic-and I'd happily listen to him telling anecdotes about people he's played with instead).

How very cool!

sound world wrote:Today I dossed about inbetween visits to Doc (blood test-my 5th this year) and Dentist-I am making so many visits to the Docs at the moment,all because of hypertension/cholesterol,plus I'm also getting mystery abdomen pains

Dave, have you had a blood test for diabetes? I only ask because stomach pain, high cholesterol and high blood pressure are all symptoms my mother had before she was finally diagnosed. The stomach problems are to do with the disturbance in insulin levels in the pancreas or something, from what I remember. Might be worth getting a test done, if you haven't had one yet?

RobB wrote:well,today has been fairly quiet as tomorrow i'm travelling overseas for a few days holiday.
I'm going to the isle of wight.
Will i need a passport?

Give it a few years ....

Have you been there before? It's supposed to be gorgeous, actually. Some friends of mine have been going there on holiday for years and years, they wouldn't think of going anywhere else.

I doubt I'll be getting a holiday this year, my daughter is about to move into the house she and her boyfriend have just bought, so I'll be all on my lonesome in this place with no-one to share the rent/bills from this point. Yikes. I'm just hoping I can survive financially, never mind getting a holiday.

It's amazing how much trouble they had getting a mortgage .... the banks are being completely ridiculous about it, at the moment. I know it's their irresponsible lending that's caused this economic situation in the first place, but they seem to be tarring everyone with the same brush right now. Daughter and her bf had £40,000 cash to put towards a mortgage, are both in good jobs with highish earnings, but they still got turned down by half a dozen places before finally getting the go-ahead from a building society.

The upside is that they've managed to buy a beautiful 2-bedroom house in the best part of town for a mere £148,000. A year ago they'd have had to pay upwards of a quarter of a million for the same house.

RobB wrote:Good luck with your story Beth,it sounds interestinmg. 'The Others' is a favourite film of mine as you may remember.

Yep, one of the several films on both our favourites lists.

blue wrote: You were only 40 miles away Alex, we could've met up! I haven't been into London for a while. It IS indeed a very expensive city, we pay so much for everything in this country. Do you come over regularly, then?

I used to come once a year in the past, but then I couldn't afford the trip for some time.
These days are over so I plan at least one trip to London per year now. I never visited other UK cities, as I think I would be disappointed because it cannot be as great as London. But maybe I'm wrong ?

BTW, France is quite expensive too

great initiative beth!
greetz from italy, a long week of dolce far niente!

v

Does that translate as 'Sweet FA'? anyway,sounds nice,and good to hear from you,Veronique.

alex wrote: These days are over so I plan at least one trip to London per year now. I never visited other UK cities, as I think I would be disappointed because it cannot be as great as London. But maybe I'm wrong ?

Oh there's a lot more to the UK than London, Alex - yes it's a fantastic city, but there's a lot to see in this country if you're willing/can afford to travel round a bit. I have a feeling you'd love my local city, Oxford, for instance. It's only a 50-minute train ride from the west end of London, so maybe next time you're over we can arrange to meet up there? I adore Oxford, any excuse to spend the day there is very welcome! I could take you for a drink in The Randolph (v. posh old hotel in the centre of town), there's the Ashmolean Museum and some nice galleries etc. Great shopping too, and some good eateries. It's a small city so you can get everywhere on foot.

If you can manage it sometime you should try to get north of the border too, Edinburgh is a must. Very vibrant city with a good arts scene.

Alex wrote: France is expensive too.

It's so many years since I was there .... goodness, I was a child when I went to Paris. I've never forgotten it, though. I felt immediately at home there, I think it must have been my Hugenot blood calling from 400 years ago. I would *love* to go back someday.

vero wrote:great initiative beth!
greetz from italy, a long week of dolce far niente!

v

Aaahh, you jammy sod! Italy, Italy, Italy ..... can you put me in your suitcase next time you go? Good to hear from you. [akiss]

Oh, and if Stina happens to be reading this thread, um - you're a member here, so feel free to drop in and say hello too.

Sunday is my favourite day of the week. I call it 'Bone Idle Day'.

Blue : I visited the wikipedia page of your town and it seems nice so next time I plan to go to London I may visit you

Oxford, you mean, or my town? I don't live in Oxford, I'm about 20 miles away. It's easy for me to get to though, just a bus ride. I'd love to meet up there next time you're over, if you can spare a day!