And there’s reason #1 right off the bat. Half-term finished here in Shetland – officially on Monday but then the teachers had 2 days of “In Service Training”, the bane of every parent who thought they’d sorted out their childcare, so they actually went back on Wednesday. Homework started for some, others will pick that up again Monday. So things are sort of back to normal. Making packed lunches, kicking the kids out to get the school bus, not having to wonder “what am I going to do with them today?”. Perfect. Of course, it also means their out-of-school activities have started off again – swimming, karate, fencing, violin lessons, etc. etc. – and their social life outdoes mine once again. Hey-ho, some you win.
Winter is coming.
I know it’s got warm again – heading for the warmest October on record if the radio is to be believed – but the leaves are off the trees, the grass doesn’t look like it needs mowing again and the birds are all hanging around the feeders with expectant looks. I love winter here on the rock. Crisp, bright days. The ever-present promise of the aurora at night. The stars! (Well, the stars when you get away from everyone leaving their outside light on). And you get skies like this:
Winter up here is wonderful. Sure, you get some truly awful days where the wind’s unremittingly from the north, it’s grey and sleeting. But that’s when you break out the whisky and crank up the central heating.
Interesting Times at Work
It’s a Chinese curse, or so I’m lead to believe: “May you live in interesting times”. And times at work are rather interesting. It’ll take a while to work out just how interesting, there’s some negotiations to be done. But yeah, it’s interesting. And that’s always more fun.
November Coming Up
2 of my sons have their birthdays in November – and we’ve got them some fantastic presents. Well, we think they’re fantastic. I’ll report back their verdict when I have it!
NaNoWriMo. Scary, crazy, insane, fun. 50,000 words in 1 month? Sure, it’s possible. 2000 words a day for 25 days, have a few days off! I’ve got the germ of an idea. Today’s my final planning day before settling down to write on Tuesday…
Guitar Hero
I am not musical. I managed Grade 3 piano a long, long time ago. But I like to rock. Guitar Hero lets me pretend. It’s my go-to game. Not interested in the FPS, the last Tomb Raider games put me off them. Uncharted looks like it’ll be interesting (Christmas? Hint?).
Now. Follow the Linky and find other Reasons to be Cheerful today!
4 responses to “Reasons to be Cheerful – the kids are back at school!”
I love the bit about Winter and it sounds lovely up there. I also like the bit about starting a novel, all the best with that one and may have a go too. I have 2 sons with November birthdays too, coincidence or what?
NaNoWriMo is well worth a try – even if you don’t make it, the very act of sitting down to write for 30 days straight is good discipline. I’m going to be using 750words.com to store the project in this year as there are (virtual) badges, rewards, etc. for working in there.
Winter sounds great in theory, (although that may just be the whisky bit!) but I think it would kill me – I do like the idea of central heating and carpets though, haven’t seen them in years since leaving the UK!
Yeah, I don’t recall seeing them in Cyprus when we were out there. I think winter would be an interesting thing for you to visit for a day or two, remind yourself how it works!