And it's panning out just the way that I hoped and planned.

That's all for tonight. Too tired to say more.

Disgusted. Well, ok, not quite disgusted .... just regretful that since they splashed out over 1 million quid to do this production, the chances of an accurate adaptation of Wuthering Heights being filmed in the next decade is zilch. It should have been the BBC. The BBC are capable of seeing an awesome novel and going, "Hey, let's turn this into a TV drama' whereas ITV are only capable of saying, "Do you remember that song by Kate Bush? Let's try and do an adaptation based on that and accredit it to Emily Bronte." The fact they began the adapatation in the middle of the novel. and then they completely wiped out the character of Lockwood and disregarded Nelly Dean's immense role in the novel is unforgivable. Then they made Cathy and Heathcliff into lusty adults rather than ten-year-olds. They forget the magic and the awesomeness of being on the brink of adolescence and the powerful feelings that this can create and so they make the novel about young adults so they can include a bit of sex. No - wrong!

T'is a shame, since I work so hard to have my own novel accurate and meaningful. A novel that accuratly shows how people lived in a certain time period. Yet I begin to wonder if the British public are ready for 'history as it really was' rather than 'history of heaving corsets and sweating romps among the haybails'. I see Gregory has a new novel out and I'm tempted to buy it for Egypt for market research ... only why should I pay her even an aorta of my money to read such drivel. It's about time that women's literature was how it was in the Victorian Age - about real women, real values, and real life.

I went to a church in Ollerton today. It was very friendly and good in teaching but I don't know if it is right for me ... I can't put my finger on it, maybe I am just being fussy *sigh*

I was looking forward to the new Wuthering Heights adaptation until Dad told me it was ITV doing it rather than BBC and I checked it out on the website. The rather dipsy girl who plays Cathy says that they begin as the book does and that they were the first to do this ... she then goes on to talk about Linton and the younger Cathy and when they meet (halfway through the book), and neglects to mention Lockwood's visit to the Heights at the beginning of the novel, the apparition of Cathy at the window and Nelly Dean as the narrator. So, she clearly hasn't even thought to read the book if she doesn't know it's opening! She also said that Heathcliff and Cathy were lovers and confessed this was a deviation from the book.

I would very much love for somebody to take up the book and do an adaptation according to it. Cathy and Heathcliff were 12 or 13 at the climax of the novel, rather than in the early twenties like in most adaptation, and that clearly changes the nature of their relationship. It would also be good for an adaptation to show how Heathcliff wasn't actually a nice person - he hung his wife's litter of puppies and he physically abused her. He wasn't altogether the Romantic victim.

Such a shame. I should reserve judgement though and will probably watch all of it, just like a watching the effing Tudors, if to do nothing but correct it. As for the Tudors ... this new series is just as appalling as the previous ones but man is James Frain hawt!

I've finished 21 chapters of my novel now, which means it is over halfway completed. I'm ploughing on with it even though I muddled up the dates in the opening chapters and so need to make some significant changes. I've refrained from talking about it with people because the last two times I tried to write a novel, I searched far too much for approval from MNff friends. This time I'm going to finish it, edit it, hopefully find a Beta reader that is seperate from the MNff community, and then if people want to read it they can do. It's my story at the end of the day and I need to stop seeking gratification from others. I've never been known as a writer on MNff, despite all my efforts, and I can't see that changing with the new novel.

Needless to say this one is far lighter than past works and I haven't tried to fulfill any type of expectations with the characterisation. Setting is very patchy in places and I wish to go back and slow down my pace after it is complete. Otherwise, it is what it is.

It's just sod's law that the day I am in a good mood, my mum is in a foul mood. So guess what? I'm not in a good mood anymore. I'm sick of being made to feel like a bad person. I'm ready to give up on this arrangement of staying at home until I go travelling. All we do is fight. The problem is I would be jobless and homeless and when my mum keeps telling me to get out of her house and leave I don't think she realises that.

Novel is still going well. Written 20 chapters now and quite pleased with it.

Little else to say

Just taking a break from the loooong list of things my mother has me doing for the restaurant today. I've already added about 50 contacts to the mobile address book, looked up the phone numbers of Event Organisers, researched upcoming events by the Fed of Small Businesses and *tried* to find the upcoming events from the BMBC website  but it is down for maintenance. And I ran Musher to the garage because he had yet another little accident yesterday, but he's ok and only has more damage to his bodywork ... he's beginning to look like he had a fight with a Landrover and lost amazingly!

Oh, and I've been all authoritive and stuck-in-the-mud this morning in Ravenclaw Tower. We have some lovely new Sprouts and it's very exciting to have them on board and I don't really like shouting out dos and don'ts to them but then our forum is slightly stricter than most.

So now all I need to do is research local community services and have another look at that huge list of charity organisations to see which ones are worth spamming with promotional offers. Oh and try to get the email system set up.

I'm cooking tonight! Marinated pork with long grain rice, pineapple and prawns in a chilli sauce. It's going to be the toughest dish I've cooked yet. Hopefully Ben shall be able to come round and have some.

I fancy pancakes for lunch but not sure how to fill them.

Can't believe it's mid-August already.

Driving home has been an interesting experience. Firstly I was driving down a hill out of Barnsley, and I was chastising myself for going 40mph in a 30 zone. I then told myself that I was being stupid because nobody is around. The next minute a father and a young girl cycle across the road without a light on, and disappear. I was shocked, not only at the coincidence of this happening straight after such thoughts, but at the realisation that had I been twenty seconds sooner, the girl would have been hit. They had no lights, and no road awareness.

I carried on, still going a little above the speed limit. Turned into Darfield and there were bright white and blue lights flashing everywhere. Next thing I see is a can smashed into a gate and a lorry crashed into the curb also. The spooky thing is that when I asked my mum about the accident when we arrived home, she said she hadn't seen it despite driving the same route only five minutes later.

Now, I'm not suggesting I'm hallucinating, but I do think God was trying to prod me in a direction and remind me of the concequences of one of my biggest 'sins'. I came into Hickleton, I winding village on the main road with a 30mph limited. Usually I go around 40-45mph but this time I slowed down. When I changed the radio station, the DJ said, "Thank you!" very excitedly. Hmmm .... makes me wonder.

So I tried to drive safely the rest of the journey. I had this feeling that God was saying, "Don't you make me tell you for a third time tonight to slow down".

Anyhoo, I'm back home and fussing my beautiful Jessie. She's now looking more Saint Bernard-esque than ever - really, really beautiful! Need to get more photos to you.

Oh and I posted a new challenge in Ravenclaw Tower! Go - sign up now if you can 'cos it would be nice to have a few veterans as well as newbs. Sorry, Ritta, for not telling you in advance about it - just a flash of inspiration, so to speak, and I will try not to abandon this one.

Jessie is eating my skirt so better go and resume disiplining.

First and foremost:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RITTA!!!!!!!!

Love you loads, honey, and can't believe it's over a year since we were frolicking around England, causing mayham! I am going to try my uber hardest to 'pop over' before another year is out. *huggssss* *hugsss Ferwat tooooo!*

Secondly my Sorting at

sorting_eliteis still going on and apart from the occaisonal vote for Squib (boo!) and Hufflepuff (very unexpected: when I said that I *try* to be loyal and hardworking, this does not mean to say that I am not at heart a selfish and lazy person), my votes are overwhelmingly Ravenclaw! SQUEE! So I've been thinking lately about just how 'spoddy' I am (that's local dialect for geeky, by the way) and concluded that, with my heart longing to live in every other century than my own, my absolute love of Scrabble and my recent fangirling of 'Desperate Romantics' on the BBC not because of all the juicy sex but all the amazing art, just tells me that I am a Ravenclaw at heart. This means that, ultimatly, whilst I have to work for my mum and live a normal working life, I am a writer and want to be a professional writer at some point in the future. And seeing as I am now FOURTEEN chapters into a story I only began a fortnight ago, I'm at least making a feeble attempt to do this.

Oh, and seeing as everyone is doing this meme, thought I would do it too:

Lots of people know what their favourite artists sound like, but do they know what they look like?

1. Image search your top 10 favourite artists.
2. Post the pictures under a cut
3. Get your friends to guess who the artists are
4. Edit the photos with a caption identifying the artist & the friend who guessed their name.
( Gary might have a heyday identifying this lot (if he's around, that is ;-) ) ... ) 

 

Life is very stressful at the moment, what with having to juggle work with social life and God with the real world. I've become to realise just how unhappy Britain is as a nation at the moment and how it is putting a strain on a lot of people's lives. Last night I was at a friend's house and witnessed his parents arguing for hours and tonight I served two hen parties, neither of which spent much at all.

On the very plus side, I've started writing a new novel. It's currently working on impulse and excitement: set in the 17th Century, on the brink of civil war, it's in my comfort zone thematically so I really want to push my strength as a writer of characterisation. It's going well, I feel, though I am still very shaky after over a year of only writing for fun. The characters are coming easily, the plot has yet to reveal itself, and I keep glazing over historical facts with the mental note of 'I'll check that later' or 'I'm sure that's right'. One thing I need to do in the next chapter or two is make it clear exactly what point of time this story is set in. Exciting stuff!

Tomorrow I'm riding for most of the day. Taking Murph out on a 'mini adventure' so really hope the weather stays decent (too much to hope that it will remain completely dry when it has pissed it down for the entire week). Really looking forward to it but suspect I will be exhausted by the end. Need to get a good night's sleep for it and remember to take some snacks with me.

Jessie is fine. Very hyper-active and wishing to bite me all the time, but fine.

Going to bed now.

1. Yesterday I rode Murphey, Cheryl's other horse. He is a 17.3hh Chestnut WarmbloodXThoroughbred and an absolute gent. Looking forward to many more rides out on him, all being well. The downside of this is that Jacob is lame. Get well soon, Jake!

2. Just finished my marathon of six days of non-stop work + travelliing to Bristol for wedding. My existence will begin again tomorrow.

3. Jessie now weighs in at 13.5 KG and we're taking her for her first walk tomorrow in Rufford. Yippeee!

4. Ben is almost certainly going to be in Leeds next year, which means I can plan to move in with him. I'm considering applying for ASDA's retail grad scheme and using the restauran as my back-up plan (seeing as commuting from Leeds will be easier than commuting from North Notts).

5. I'm knackered and going to bed.

So today got better when I went to formal, drank wine, and pretended to be carefree.

Now I'm sat in my room listening to RHCP and back to my normal hateful self