I Didn't Save Money

Riverside Hermit - I know! I think it's been a thing for years, that books have been gutted for their illustrations and I think it's a shame. I don't want to do that with this book. The watercolours are fairly loose and sort of in a mat already, so perhaps it was meant to be gutted, but I think I would rather scan the pics and keep it whole. 

There are a few of those sort of 'bits of books' around on eBay. I got this as a present for DH a few years ago. It looks like it was removed from a book.

I may try and get a better pic some other time, but that would mean taking it down and putting it back up and at the moment I don't feel qualified. I love it, though, and I wrote a series of stories to go with it. I have no idea who the artist is, though, which is a shame. I think it's beautiful and it does seem to have such a story inside it. 

Today has been an odd sort of day. I dropped bear off and nipped into Morrisons to pick up a pack of Mint Club. I had a coupon from Morrisons for 10% off Mint Clubs. I picked up a pack as bear and DH are very partial to them and they were £1.44 so I saved 14p.

But Tesco have the same pack of Club at £1 Clubcard Price (of course I have a Tesco clubcard - Tesco is my happy place). So I didn't save any money, and in fact I potentially lost 30p. I'm losing my touch.

To be honest, my brain is currently like scrambled cheese. I took down the White Hart website a few weeks ago, after saving all the stories. Today I was looking for the document. A friend had very kindly given a good review of the first third that are the only stories in book form, and I went to send her the manuscript of the rest. I couldn't find it. I had been trying to sort out my desktop, which looks like a bad example, and I stashed the doc somewhere. It took me hours to find it, and by the time it turned up I was in a state of nervous collapse. I thought for a while that I had lost the lot - and there is a lot of story there. I checked when I found the doc, and there's around 200k words! 

I think I'm going to get some anthologies of my stuff out, just to keep them safe. 

Then, on the way to pick up bear, I was overtaken at a traffic light again. I'd been a distance away from the lights when they turned red so I ambled to a stop and tucked in to the lane when I got to the lights, as one lane was closed. Then, when the light went to amber, I let out my handbrake and automatically checked my mirror as I was pulling out. It was as well that I did. The Audi behind me overtook me before the light had even turned green. I normally set off from traffic lights like a bat out of hell, so if I hadn't checked my mirror I would have gone straight into him. That shook me up as well.

Bear has finally finished his exams. He's already got the results of one back, where he didn't do so well, but he's quite optimistic about the others. He did okay this week in a personal way. He didn't let the stress rule him and, with a bit of luck, it will stand him in good stead in the future. 

Tonight may involve a large drink and an early night.

Hugs and good health to all.