Speculation, Fact and Fiction

It's been a productive weekend here in the Cotswolds. Lawns back and front mown - junior son. House hoovered upstairs and down - senior son. Kitchen cleaned - husband. Bathrooms cleaned - self.

Junior son went off on a Scouts trip to Greenwich and the planetarium there and came home full of interesting facts about dark matter and gravity and stuff. Husband and senior indulged in their preferred computer games by way of recovering from their contribution to the housework.

And I wrote a chapter and a bit of the second Lescari book. Which I really didn't intend to do, honestly. But I thought, I'm only five hundred words or so short of that chapter I was working on, on Friday. When I woke up stupidly early on Saturday, at 6 am, one of the reasons I was instantly wide awake was thinking of something to do with the on-going scene. So hey, I'll just take an hour or so to wrap that up. Hmmm. Somehow I ended up at the end of the following chapter...

This isn't actually an ideal path to go down. When you work from home it's all too easy to get sucked into not taking proper breaks.

So I did make sure I took Sunday off. Well, for values of 'off-duty' that encompass reading Kate Elliott's Shadow Gate. Not a hardship. My review will be forthcoming in Strange Horizons in due course.

Ah well, next weekend really will see me taking some time off coz we're off to Stratford upon Avon to see the RSC's current Merchant of Venice, meeting up with best pals and godson.

So I'd better get some work done in the meantime.

Well, the oldest one we possessed is. It just went phut. The thing is, while I can't recall exactly how long we had it, it was certainly with us in the old house, so that means it was at least seven years old.

No, we're not the kind of mad people who move house taking all the light-bulbs/loo paper/whatever isn't nailed down with us. It was in the standard lamp. Which is why I know it's the first one we ever had.

Thinking about it, that standard lamp is the most frequently and consistently used source of illumination in the house. It's the default lighting when we're watching telly or I'm reading of an evening. Once the sons are in bed, it'll usually be the only light on in the house.

So, a long-life bulb that performed exactly as advertised.